Sunday, January 12, 2025

Sunday, January 12, 2025

January 12, 2025

What We Do Next.

Snow Queens [2013 original with AI enhancements]

G has developed an attitude that, as a parent, I find a bit disturbing but as a human, I find totally relatable. I was watching out the window yesterday as a group of men changed the tire on a car. The car was on the road, in the snow and slush. The jack, also on the snow, had raised the tire considerably higher than I would consider necessary. In my opinion, this warranted observation in the event that either the car or the jack slipped, endangering those changing the tire. I stood by, ready to call 911 should anything happen. I casually mentioned my concern to G, who responded with a callous-sounding “Not my problem.”

“Not my problem.” This wasn’t the first time I’d heard those words come from his mouth. What I’ve taken the statement to mean is something along the lines of, “Dad, I’m in the middle of a game. Don’t bother me if it’s not really important.” When he’s focused on something, he hates being distracted. I get it.

What I worry about is that attitude becoming a part of his worldview. There are already too many people who, upon hearing about the LA fires and the tragedies there, respond with, “Not my problem.” They had the same response when hurricanes ripped apart North Carolina last fall. Wars in Gaza and Ukraine? “Not my problem.” The world is going to hell. “Not my problem.”

‘Not my problem’ leads to an isolationist perspective that is dangerous. There has never been a time when it was safe to show no concern for anything or anyone outside yourself. If there is famine in one place, we must be concerned about feeding the people and solving the issue that led to the famine. Why? Because famine leads to disease and diseases spread quickly and easily outside the famine area. Why do we care if Russia invades Ukraine? Because if Russia succeeds in one place, it will quickly move on to another, such as Poland, and then another and another until it achieves world domination that benefits no one. Why do we care about Gaza? Because of the fact that should Israel get its way, an entire ancient and valuable people group could be completely and irrevocably destroyed.

Our entire civilization continues to exist because people care about the condition of other people. We have hospitals because people care. We have medicines and vaccines that work because people care. We have multiple modes of transportation because people care. When humans stop caring about anyone other than themselves, civilization collapses completely.

Does the attitude of one 16-year-old boy deeply engrossed in his video game put the world at risk? No, not at all. But the attitude of an entire nation that is only concerned with the wealth of 0.1% certainly does.

Monday begins the six-week celebration of humanity known as Maha Kumbh Mela. The Hindu sacred event draws over 400 million people to a sacred river. Hindus believe that taking a dip in the river secures their salvation, but all around the event, parties, and parades are celebrating the wonderfulness and spirituality of humanity. This is an amazing celebration of people who care about their souls, their neighbors, their country, and their beliefs. Mardi Gras, by comparison, doesn’t come close to the size and scope of Maha Kumbh Mela.

We need events that celebrate who we are. We need to be reminded on a regular basis that we do not struggle through this world alone. We need to remember that despite differences in our beliefs, where we live, and how we appear, we are still all one humanity, a fraternal gathering of both success and failure, an ecological system that supports growth and learning.

If a car falls on the person changing a tire, that’s my problem. If fire leaves over 100,000 people homeless, that’s my problem. If the price of coffee keeps going up, that’s really my problem. I don’t live in a bubble and neither do you. Exactly what we can do in any given situation might be limited, but we can always do something.

The Broadway musical, ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying‘ has a wonderful take on the whole topic and I think it’s an appropriate way to end this morning’s post. Me, I’ve got you, and you, you’ve got me.

Cancer Update / Current Issues / Health / Long Read / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Social Commentary

Thursday, January 02, 2025

January 2, 2025

The Senselessness Of Existing

So, this is how we’re going to start the new year? Are you dead sure this is what you want: hate, fear, fury, anger, depression, helplessness, and loss? Or is it a severe bout of stupidity, ignorance, brain rot, selfishness, emotional malignancy, miseducation, and deprivation? I’m done asking ‘why’ because that question is irrelevant–it doesn’t matter. There’s no point in questioning the motives behind actions fueled by an unconscionable lack of humanity. There is no reasoning behind the disregard for life. No one wants to play this game if you’re just going to overturn the board and fling the pieces around the room.

I woke around 3:30 this morning with the sensation of pain pushing its way through my head. Sure, I’ve had a severe headache for more than two months now, but this was a new, different direction in what feels like an assault at the atomic level. Whether it’s the cancer, the diabetes, the hypertension, or some yet unnamed malady makes no difference. Pain is a permanent part of my reality and the most critical thought I have today is in choosing how I am going to respond, not because it will ease my suffering, but because I have no right to let the pain in my body infringe on the happiness of anyone else.

When I inquired of Tipper this morning as to whether she has any immediate needs, she responded with a request for winter boots, something that will keep her feet dry, size 91/2. As soon as I finish here I will place the order for those boots. Can I afford them? Probably not, but that’s my problem, not hers. Taking care of her needs, of G’s needs, is not my ‘job,’ it is the obligation of conscience that comes with being a parent. I do not exist, none of us exist, to make myself/ourselves comfortable. We exist to participate in and perpetuate the harmony of humanity. When we fail in that task, as we do now, lives outside our own become fractured. What right have we to become the destroyer of someone else’s world?

Step back and look at where we are. An aspiring nurse, a football star, a single mother, and a father of 2 were among those killed in yesterday’s New Orleans attack. Firework mortars and gas canisters were stuffed inside a Tesla that exploded outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel. 10 people were wounded in a shooting outside a New York City nightclub. Montenegro mourns after gunman killed at least 12 people before shooting himself. All of this occurred within a single twenty-four-hour period. Willful destruction of people’s lives, something that no one has a right or obligation to commit. The shedding of tears, the cries of pain, and the agony of innocent lives lost is not only on the hands of those who pulled the triggers or detonated the bombs but on all who failed to teach compassion, understanding, cooperation, and the individual role in all of humanity.

Let’s be very clear: you do not have a need, the responsibility, or the right to ‘fix’ anyone but yourself. Making America, Canada, Mexico, China, or anywhere else ‘great’ is not accomplished by interfering with the rights of another person, especially their right to exist in the space where they are. If you want to make your country better, regardless of which one it is, you have to own the fact that you are part of the problem. What makes a country great is not a shared ideology but a full-body commitment to community, to caring, to helping, to learning, and to making the lives of others better than when you first met them. That goal is never achieved through violence, hate, fearmongering, belittling, bullying, or force of any kind. We have to give other people the space, the resources, and the support to be who they are, not who we want them to be.

I was outside with the dogs yesterday afternoon when Hamilton alerted on activity taking place several houses to our South. With Ham’s first bark, Belvedere came running at full speed. I looked to see what had them concerned. A man was screaming as he exited the house, “You just can’t let other people be happy, can you?” He repeated the question several times as he tossed his belongings in the car and left with his partner. The occupants of the house he left have a history of domestic violence. Police have been called multiple times over the years. When one person attempts to force their will on others, no matter how well-intentioned, they do damage, and create fear, loathing, and frustration for the other person.

Leaving a situation where one is being harmed is only a partial solution, though. When one leaves, they take with them the emotions heaped upon them. What are they supposed to do with that burden? Too many times it ends up being turned on someone else, someone who is not part of the problem, someone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Early this morning, two people arrived at the emergency room of a local hospital sporting fresh gunshot wounds. They had been shot while on the Interstate. Police do not yet know if the victims knew the shooter or had any other interaction with them. Maybe they didn’t signal when changing lanes. Maybe they cut off another vehicle. Why doesn’t matter. No one had the right to shoot them, to damage their lives in ways that would be manifested for the rest of their existence.

God didn’t create hell nor does any deity send one to such a place. We create hell ourselves every time we fail to care about the lives of other people. Hell is not a threat for after one dies; hell is here, now, in the absence of compassion, understanding, and failure to hold oneself responsible for the obligations of participating in humanity. Hell is the absence of reason and the embrace of chaos. Hell is the ascension of one’s self over others. Hell is the imposition of one’s will, ideology, or religion upon people who are fully capable of thinking and acting for themselves.

Jesus doesn’t save, but you can. Humanity has existed on this planet somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 years (depending on how one defines ‘human.’). Not once has Jesus deflected a bullet. Not once has Mohammed shielded anyone from a bomb. Not once has any deity stepped in to stop a war. If we want those things to happen, we have to do them ourselves, for each other. We are the force that makes a difference in this world. Whether that force is used for good or evil is an individual decision that we make every second of our lives. We determine who lives and who dies, who’s happy and who’s sad.

Take inventory of yourself today, pluses and minuses. Start with the list of things you’re doing well, the positives in your life, what you’re addressing to your own benefit, the things you’re learning, and the ways you’re helping others. Then, take an honest look at where you’re doing harm, whether it’s to yourself or someone else. Where are you willfully being ignorant? Where are you misplacing your trust? Who are you following that is misleading you? If that side of the list isn’t as long as the other, try again.

Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty, just jumped onto my desk. He likes having his chin scratched. It takes three seconds of my time to make his life better. It might take a little longer to find Tipper some good winter boots, but the effort is worth making her life better.

If the world we live in is a bad, scary, and dangerous place, it’s because we made it that way.

Do better.

PotD / science / Social Commentary

Belief Systems That Need Challenging

December 3, 2016

charles i. letbetter - belief systems need challenging

Belief systems are personal constructions and some are just wrong

Take a careful look at the two pictures at the top of this page. What do you think you are seeing? How do they make you feel? What do you think they communicate?

The two photographs are part of a set we shot for a now L.A.-based designer and local jewelry designer. It’s the accessories that likely get your attention in these photos. While the designer originally intended the cuffs and collars to be worn by the same person, she decided on set that it might be interesting to give each model an element, essentially linking them together. Her intention was to emphasize how we are all linked together, connected across numerous chains without realizing it. No one on set at the time objected, so we went with it.

However, once we first showed the photos back in 2012, opinions changed. While the designer’s point of view is still credible, once one superimposes their own belief system and personal history, they tend to see something different, something not very positive. Are we connected or are we enslaved? Sometimes the difference is difficult to distinguish. The set was dropped from any additional publication. This is the only place you are likely to ever see the photos.

Belief systems alter how we see the world. They influence everything from how we view art to how we view each other. Our opinions regarding what we eat, what we read, what is acceptable entertainment, and sometimes who should be allowed to even exist are all matters determined by our belief system.

A current theme running through social media is that we should neither judge nor shame people for what they believe. I disagree. We should not judge or shame people for who they are, but belief systems definitely need to be challenged, especially when those belief systems are based on inaccuracies and ignorance. Let me give you five good examples.

Science Denial

So, have you been paying attention to the weather lately? How ’bout those fires that consumed Gatlinburg, Tennessee and a large portion of the Smokey Mountains? Did you see that? What caused that? Long-term drought, ladies and gentlemen. Regardless of how the fire actually started, the fact that it spread is directly because the land was so incredibly dry that forests burned hotter and faster than was anticipated. Firefighters couldn’t move fast enough to get in front of the fire.

Or how about those tornadoes in Alabama and Tennessee this week? Folks in the South are having a rough time of it. Yet those, too, are the result of changes in global climate patterns. Taking a look at the current statement made by the U.S. Drought Monitor regarding Southern states sounds horrifying:

Severe drought impacts continued to mount in this region and included parched soils, record to near-record low stream flows, and drying stock ponds. Impacts from southern Alabama, as submitted to the Drought Impacts Reporter, include shrinking aquifers, dried-up stock ponds, failed crops, and stressed feed for stock. In Lowndes County, Alabama, ranchers have been feeding hay reserved for winter since early September, and, except in a few places, pastures were absolutely bare. Soybean growers statewide have reported that soybean pods were shattering. Soybean pod shattering occurs as a result of hot and windy conditions and low humidity combining to dry the pod walls until they become brittle and break. As of mid-November, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs’ Office of Water Resources had declared most of the state in emergency drought status.

Oh, but climate isn’t the only place we’re not too excited about science. NPR is reporting that “Americans Don’t Trust Scientists’ Take On Food Issues.” The article is based on a just-released paper from the Pew Research Center. Among the details are nauseating tidbits such as:

39 percent of the survey participants believe that genetically modified foods are worse for your health than non-GM food. However, there’s essentially no scientific evidence to support that belief — a conclusion confirmed most recently by a National Academy of Sciences report.

And this:

Americans believe that there’s no scientific consensus on GMOs. Just over 50 percent of respondents believe that “about half or fewer” of scientists agree that GM foods are safe to eat. Only 14 percent’s beliefs match the reality — that “almost all” scientists agree that GM foods are safe to eat.

Then this:

Americans feel that research findings are influenced in equal measure by the following factors: the best available scientific evidence; desire to help their industries; and desire to advance their careers. In the view of the public, all of those factors are more important to scientists than concern for the public interest.

A distrust of science is a particularly dangerous thing because it leaves us open to myth, conjecture, and the overwhelming amount of false news permeating the Internet. The American public displays a particularly high ignorance regarding even the basic matters of science, such as the term “theory” and the stratification of “hypothesis.” Without even a basic understanding of science and a complete dismissal of its findings, we are left open to consequences we won’t see coming. The fires and tornadoes are just a start. The planet has no problems eliminating humans in order to reclaim itself.

Those who deny science on any level need to be challenged every time they open their mouths. There is no acceptable level of ignorance. Science is not only predictive, it also has the ability to provide remedies if we’ll just pay attention. The future of the entire human race depends on using whatever means necessary, whether through shaming or complete public humiliation or academic discretization of those who encourage the denial of science. Allowing such ignorance to grow dooms us all.

Anti-intellectualism

I was deeply disturbed when I saw a news story out of Virginia yesterday. Accomack County Public Schools have, at least temporarily, pulled To Kill A Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn from its shelves after one mother complained about the use of racial slurs in the books. The mother told the school board that her biracial son, who is in high school, “struggled” with getting through a page containing a racial slur.

Even more disturbing, however, might be the quote in the news story from a different mother of a 10-year-old: “It’s not right to put that in a book, let alone read that to a child,” she said.

Apparently, some of the folks in Virginia have forgotten the very purpose of literature. But then, such sentiments are not unusual anywhere across the United States. The American Library Association’s ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country. Their most recent list from 2015 (because, in case you hadn’t noticed, 2016 isn’t over yet) includes the following books:

Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”)
I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
Reasons: inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”)
The Holy Bible
Reasons: religious viewpoint
Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
Reasons: violence and other (“graphic images”)
Habibi, by Craig Thompson
Reasons: nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
Reasons: religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence
Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
Reasons: homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”)

Find some of those titles surprising, do you? Would any of those books challenge your personal belief system? I really like what the ALA’s website has to say about banning books:

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice.

“A threat to freedom of speech and choice.” Those words should send a chill down your spine. Book challenging and banning is one of the most visible and most emotional methods of anti-intellectualism, but it certainly isn’t the only one. Even worse, the problem is growing.

We’ve been hearing about the “dumbing down of America” for years. The truth is that there has always been a certain amount of anti-intellectualism throughout the United States since its founding. Not all the founding fathers believed that everyone deserved an education, or needed to know how to read and write. What’s disturbing is how that this belief system has spread and might even be considered at least partially responsible for the surprising outcome of this year’s presidential election. Smart people scare those who are ignorant.

Psychology Today has taken on the topic of increasing anti-intellectualism rather frequently. In looking back over an article from 2015, by David Niose, I was struck by this particular paragraph:

In a country where a sitting congressman told a crowd that evolution and the Big Bang are “lies straight from the pit of hell,” where the chairman of a Senate environmental panel brought a snowball into the chamber as evidence that climate change is a hoax, where almost one in three citizens can’t name the vice president, it is beyond dispute that critical thinking has been abandoned as a cultural value. Our failure as a society to connect the dots, to see that such anti-intellectualism comes with a huge price, could eventually be our downfall.

I cannot disagree with Mr. Niose. The increase in our national inability to reason is terrifying. What makes it difficult to stop this line of thinking, however, is that it is impossible to reason with an unreasonable person. For those who are willfully ignorant, especially, there is no argument that can permeate that thick helmet of absolute wrongness. When that anti-intellectualism is even further entrenched by eccentric religious beliefs, it is even more dangerous and more difficult to fight.

Yet, fight we must. We cannot let gross and rampant anti-intellectualism go unchecked. I don’t care if it is a part of someone’s core belief system, it is still wrong. That’s correct, I have no problem stating that anti-intellectualism is wrong. We have to challenge those mindsets and use whatever methods are necessary to push it back into some form of social submission. Ignorance has no place in the public discourse.

Issac Asminov rather famously said:

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”

We have erroneously allowed anti-intellectualism to grow throughout American in the name of some manner of freedom to be stupid. No, you do not have a freedom to be stupid. Ignorance puts everyone in danger and is a threat to our way of life. I can think of no circumstance in which ignorance is to be tolerated. I can think of no circumstance in which ignorance should be protected. We should fight it at every juncture with all our might. While we certainly won’t see its end, we must see its diminishment.

Racism

How many of you just scrolled quickly to get the above image off your screen? I wish I could know what was your motivation. Why are people offended by this picture? Is it the nudity, the fact that both models are female, or the most obvious element that one is black and the other isn’t? Chances are, for far too many Americans, it’s the latter.

Racism in America has, like anti-intellectualism, been a part of the American reality since its inception. The very first Europeans to set foot on think continent enjoyed slaughtering indigenous people so much that after each such event they would have a feast and call it Thanksgiving. That’s just how incredibly deep racism flows through the American culture. As a belief system, racism has frequently been a core issue, backed up by religion, reinforced through oppression. America’s racist history is shameful and something of which we’ve yet to repent.

What is most bothersome, however, is the degree to which those who are most ardently racists have taken the election of a new president as reason to glory in their racism and demonstrate such deplorable ideology in a public manner. NBC News made public research from the Southern Poverty Law Center this week showing over 900 incidents of hate, most of which have involved racism or sexuality, since the November election. Specifically, “900 separate incidents of bias and violence against immigrants, Latinos, African-Americans, women, LGBT people, Muslims and Jews in the ten days after Trump captured the White House.”

Can we possibly make this any worse? Yes, yes we can. Most of those incidents occurred in schools. Quoting now from the NBC News article:

In a related SPLC online survey of 10,000 teachers and school officials, eighty percent of the respondents reported a “negative impact on students’ mood and behavior following the election,” and eight in ten said they detected “heightened anxiety on the part of marginalized students, including immigrants, Muslims, African Americans and LGBT students.”

Bigotry takes a lot of forms, and every one of them is deplorable. However, the worst of them all is racism and the speed at which racist events have accelerated should make everyone of a more reasonable mind a bit nervous. Just in case you haven’t seen any of the nastiness that’s been caught on camera, here’s a sample from earlier this week:

The young black woman toward whom this particular rant was directed has received a tremendous amount of support after the incident, but the fact remains that the incident shouldn’t have happened at all! Nothing like this should ever happen.

Hold on, there’s more. This isn’t the only recent incident. Consider some of the following headlines that have cropped up recently:

Here’s the thing: we know that racism is a problem, yet we continue to tolerate it from people we know. How often have I heard someone excuse the racist behavior of another by saying, “Well, they have a right to their opinion.” No! Racism is not an opinion! Whether or not you want fries with that is an opinion. Which color you should paint your living room wall is an opinion. You do NOT get an opinion about the color of someone else’s skin!

There is no such thing as a racial supremacy in any direction because, guess what, race is just something we made up to divide ourselves. We have known at least since 1998 that, from a genetic standpoint, there is no such thing as race within the human species. The pigmentation of one’s skin is wholly irrelevant as to one’s humanity.

Furthermore, as genetic research continues, there is increasing evidence that a considerable number of people who think of themselves as white actually have at least one black ancestor in their family tree. So much for the concept of racial purity.

Anyone who has racism as part of their belief system needs to be confronted, shamed, and socially outcast at every opportunity. This increasing trend is not something we can tolerate a second longer. We must address racism aggressively before we end up in yet another pointless domestic war.

Sexuality

Why the hell did I choose this specific picture? Because I have a challenge for you: Guess the gender of the two persons standing with their back to the camera. My guess is you’ll look at body curves and general physiology and try to make a guess. One male, one female? Both male? Both female?

Here’s the answer: it doesn’t matter.

Discrimination based on gender and sexuality is a belief system that is more than 6,000 years old. We see it in all the Abrahamic religions and the societies built on those traditions. Therefore, the belief system is deeply entrenched not only in those religions but through the societies around them. No matter how deeply entrenched those beliefs may be, however, they need to be challenged. Women are not property. Homosexuality is not wrong. Gender is more than physiology.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation didn’t begin investigating crimes based on gender identity until 2013. When they did, they listed crimes against a person because of “sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity” as hate crimes. Hate itself, the FBI insists, is not a crime. How one behaves in response to that hate, however, can be. So, with the FBI on the case, incidents of sexual-based crimes has gone down, right?

Uhm, no.

2016 has seen some of the most alarming incidents of hate specifically against the LGBT community. Most notable was the shooting at an Orlando gay club that left 41 dead. However, as the New York Times reports, even before that event, people within the LGBT community were more likely to be the victims of hate crimes. As incredible as it may seem, LGBT people are twice as likely to be the victims of hate crimes than are black people. The number of incidents has risen so dramatically that hate against the LGBT community now outpaces hate against Jews, which has historically taken the top spot for hate crimes.

Oh, but it gets worse. Numerous sources have ran with the story this week that the president-elect has pledged to sign the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA). The bill was first introduced in 2015 but languished in the House of Representatives knowing that there was no way it could ever receive a presidential signature nor override a veto. However, given vice-president-elect Mike Pence’s history with anti-LGBT legislation here in Indiana, and given the president-elect’s campaign rhetoric, supporters of the legislation feel certain that they can now get the bill through Congress.

We simply cannot let this kind of thinking continue. More than just an anti-LGBT law, such legislation further codifies hate into the American system, hate that inevitably spreads from the LGBT community on to any other group that finds itself out of favor with ignorant society.

Here again, we are dealing with belief systems that are based almost wholly on a religion-facilitated ignorance. When one speaks up against the hate and bigotry and discrimination, one is quickly told that their Bible or Quran or the Talmud prohibits such relationships. Yet, there are plenty of well-studied religious scholars who disagree. The portion of scripture that spans all three of the major Abrahamic religions, placed in the Christian Bible as Genisis chapter 27, has been widely misinterpreted to be preaching against homosexuality. Many preachers stand and fume against the “sin of Sodom,” but analysis reveals that Sodom’s sin had absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality! Consider (from the linked article):

The classic instance of this is in Ezekiel 16:49-50 which castigates the people of Jerusalem:

“This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.”

Another, Isaiah chapter 1, also enumerates the sins of Jerusalem, whom he addresses directly as Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 10):

Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!

Verse 17 implies what those sins are, by stating what the people should be doing:

… learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

Not a word about homosexuality. As in Ezekiel, the sin is the abuse of the vulnerable.

Furthermore, not only did the alleged Christ or Prophet not address the matter, apologetics attempts to excuse that fact with, “you weren’t there so you don’t’ know for sure,” is as weak as some of the same apologeticisms’ denial of evolution.

Gender and sexual discrimination and hate as a belief system have to be confronted. Those clinging desperately to those beliefs need to have those beliefs condemned in very harsh terms because they are wrong and endanger the lives of others. There is no level of tolerance for such ignorance and hate. Shame on anyone who still holds to such antiquated beliefs.

Bullying

At this point, nearly 3,500 words into this missive, one might wonder exactly how bullying factors into the whole concept of challenging belief systems. The answer is that many beliefs, attitudes, and actions that we see demonstrated through society, regardless of their names, are nothing more than pure brutish bullying. Any attempt at intimidation in order to force the will of one onto the actions and behaviors of another is bullying, plain and simple. We see far too much of it, but perhaps it is difficult for you to recognize some issues as a matter of bullying. So, let me give you a few examples.

Abortion. Actually, this has very little to do with saving the life of a fetus and more to do with men, through their power in government, bullying women. Do men really care what women do with their bodies? No, not really. What men, in general with notable exceptions, care about is control. They like being bullies.

Unsurprisingly, we see this form of bullying in the results of this year’s presidential election. The president-elect has made it perfectly clear that he intends to use new legislation and judicial appointments in an attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. The president-elect’s choice for Health and Human Service secretary supports defunding Planned Parenthood, which would not reduce abortions but would significantly affect the healthcare of millions of women. Both are classic examples of bullying.

Or how about the president-elect’s threat to deport immigrants? Not only is the threat illogical and impractical, it is another case of bullying, using fear and intimidation against a specific group of people. While some are standing up and saying they will defy the president-elect’s orders, he has still been able to create an atmosphere of fear among the immigrant community at a time when the world needs us to be accepting more immigrants, not fewer.

That whole deal about a wall along the Mexican border? Bullying.

Wage discrimination? Bullying.

Threats against companies moving outside the US? More bullying.

In fact, there is a lot of what we see in this white-male dominated society that is nothing more than well-entrenched bullying. We’ve been doing it for so very long that we’ve come to expect it and think that it’s just the way things are done.

No, we refuse to accept that line of thinking. Bullying, no matter the form it takes or who is the target, is wrong. Forcing someone else to act upon your belief system rather than their own, is wrong. No matter how much power one thinks they have, resorting to intimidation factors and fear is always wrong. You do not have the right to be mean. You do not have the right to push others around.

What is most upsetting about these bullying tactics is that the bullies always think they’re in the right. The reason we’ve seen such a dramatic rise in the number of hate incidents across the US is because those who voted for the president-elect mistakenly believe that his election provides justification to their warped and improper belief systems. Since bullying is an underlying principle of their belief systems, they have joyously exercised that belief in some of the most frightening ways we’ve seen since the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.

Bullying is not just a crime against a given set of people, it is a crime against all humanity and it is not limited to those in the US. A young woman in Riyadh posted a picture to social media of her standing outside, in public, without her hijab. The response was calls for her execution.

The world has no choice but to confront such belief systems. We must take a stand against the bullying. We must fight against the implementation of legislation that codifies bullying. If there’s one thing of which I’m certain it is the fact that standing up to a bully almost always causes them to back down. Now is the time we need to make that stand.

Belief systems are not infallible. Even well-considered and carefully thought out belief systems need to be challenged in some form or fashion. Those elements that are necessary and true will hold. Those that are false and unjustified we have to change. Unfortunately, not everyone sees that. So, where we see belief systems that exercise hate, where we see belief systems that put others in danger, where we see belief systems that spread ignorance and lies, we must challenge them. We need not always be aggressive. We need not always be forceful. But we must always challenge.

To be silent is the greatest mistake one can ever make.

Current Issues / PotD

Hello, Human. Today You Get To Die

September 26, 2016

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. —Mark Twain

charles i. letbetter - hello, today you get to die

We rarely get to choose when we die. If your day was today, would you be ready?

Looking at the headlines this morning was a bit depressing. Golfing great Arnold Palmer died at age 87. Miami Marlin’s ace pitcher Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident. Mylan Hicks, currently a defensive back in the Canadian Football League and formerly of the San Francisco 49ers, was killed in a Calgary nightclub shooting. While I had no personal connection with any of them, I certainly respect their accomplishments and the impact their deaths have on their respective sports. We’ve mentioned multiple times that this is being a lousy year, but the past couple of weeks have been especially brutal it seems. Two friends have lost their fathers in the past two weeks. Other friends have lost childhood playmates way too early in their lives.

Death surrounds us all the time. We are subconsciously aware of that fact, but there are times when it seems to get too close for comfort. When we see so many die around us we start to feel uncomfortable. Dealing with the reality of our own mortality is not easy. No one really wants to die, especially not right now. Yet, there are so many ways in which death can sneak up and take us unexpectedly.

China lost control of a space station and it could crash into a US city. Imagine driving to work one morning and a chunk of space station falls out of the clear blue sky and you die. This is the reality in which we now live.

Mitigating The Risk

Before walking the dog each morning, I’m careful to check the weather. Regardless of what the forecast might have said the night before, weather has a nasty habit of changing. This morning, there were storms in the area. Lightning struck less than a mile away. So, we watched radar and timed our walk to minimize the risk of getting fried on the sidewalk. That wouldn’t be a good way to start the morning.

We know the potential for dying is out there. We all have those preventative actions we take to mitigate the risk that we might die on any given day. Eating veggies is one of those things we know pushes death out a little bit. Same goes for driving safely and crossing the street at the crosswalk with the light. Most people try to not do stupid things that have a high-risk factor for ending up dead. Even when doing something silly like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, we take the precaution of using a reasonably good parachute packed by someone we trust.

Yet, no matter how many precautions we might take, death sometimes has a way of finding us at the least expected and most inconvenient moments. Be sure, Jose Fernandez didn’t think the risks were too great when he got on that boat. None of us see all the risks. No matter what we do, sometimes death just shows up and says, “Hey, you’re coming with me now.” We don’t get any choice in the matter.

Being Ready To Die

If all the recent deaths around me have done anything, they have reminded me that I need to go ahead and get some kind of burial insurance. Sounds morbid, doesn’t it? Yet, all of my experience tells me it’s a smart move. My parents had burial insurance. They bought it when they were in their 30s. They were able to pre-pay for their funerals, including the caskets, so that when that time inevitably came for them my brother and I didn’t have to worry about the cost or wondering what they might have wanted. That act alone was one of the kindest things they ever did. When you have a parent die, the details of paying for and planning a funeral are not where you want to spend your time.

There’s something about actually making such a purchase, though, that feels uncomfortable, as though we’re tempting fate. In my mind, I know that my parents lived another 40 years after pre-paying for their arrangements. Yet, there’s this nagging feeling that if I take the same precaution it’s like thumbing my nose at death, taunting it to come and get me. The same applies to life insurance. Both make the lives of our families so much easier, especially if our death is unexpected. Still, there’s no getting around that icky feeling that if you make that purchase you’re tempting fate.

Being ready to die is as much an attitude as anything, though. We have to be comfortable with death, okay with the concept of no longer existing in this world. I no longer think that we need to know what happens next. If we were meant to know the universe would provide a reliable, believable way of telling us. It hasn’t. We’ve made up our own myths over the millions of years, but when we get down to it, we have to be okay with just going. Period. Let whatever comes next, if anything, take care of itself.

Remembering to Live

Like the Mark Twain quote at the top of this page, being satisfied with our life makes it easier to be okay with the inevitability of death. No one should obsess over their own death; it’s not only unhealthy, it prevents one from making the most of life. I’m not talking about being happy, mind you. Happiness is a temporal state and in that moment when some jackass cuts you off in traffic “happy” isn’t exactly the emotion one feels at the time. Rather, contentedness is more what I’m going for; that sense that my life isn’t perfect and I’m okay with that.

Are we content? I’m not, not really. There are still things I want to be doing, not bucket list things like winning a Pulitzer and such, but everyday things such as finding the next great supermodel and teaching my youngest son to drive and regaining some fluency in French and Italian. I have in my mind a level of activity that I’ve let slip. Having been there once, I know it can be achieved. I let go, though. I want that contentedness back.

What about you? If a chunk of that Chinese space station were to fall on you today (don’t worry, it won’t … yet) you’d certainly be disappointed that you didn’t have more warning, but would you be content with where your life is right now? What would it take to get you to that point in your life?

I fully expect to live long enough to be a pain in the ass to my grandchildren, assuming at least one of my sons gets around to providing some. I’m not expecting to die.

But then, not many people ever are. Perhaps we all need to do better prep work. Try to not die today, okay? I think our quota is full for the rest of the year.

Current Issues / Mythology / PotD

Peace Eludes Us For A Reason

June 27, 2016

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. —Mahatma Gandhi

charels i. letbetter - peace eludes us for a reason

Our desire for peace is stymied by the road blocks we forcefully push into the path.

Peace is possible. I have no problems with that concept. We can live in harmony with one another, be happy together, and live more fruitful lives. We’ve known this my entire life and we know exactly how to get there. So why does peace elude us? Why do we seem to careen from one conflict to the next?

For billions of people, the path to peace lies within their religion, their belief system, and that should work. With as many people who believe on some level, one might expect that peace would be inevitable. Unfortunately, in too many cases, it is the leaders of those religions who toss up roadblocks. When religious leaders spew hate, when pastors stand on pulpits (literally) and claim that their deity should strike dead all LGBT people, or support a bigoted, xenophobic, homophobic candidate for president, they put hate in the way of our path to peace.

Not that we need their help. We provide enough roadblocks on our own. Our continued quest for power and dominance over other people, or even our own lives, creates canyons that become impossible for us to cross. Our inability to give up our desire for things, our desire for external pleasures, our insistence on being the best at any and all costs, make finding peace impossible.

Some Get It Right

Not everyone is quite so removed from peace. There are a couple of people who stepped forward over the weekend and offered, once again, to illuminate the path to peace for us. Interestingly enough, both are the top religious figures within their extended belief systems. They differ on a great number of details, but they both know the way to find peace.

Pope Francis was aboard a flight to Rome from Armenia, talking with reporters, when he made a statement that shocked many but lit a candle of awareness for many more believers. He said:

I believe that the Church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons. The Church must say it is sorry for not having behaved as it should many times, many times — when I say ‘the Church,’ I mean we Christians because the Church is holy; we are the sinners. We Christians must say we are sorry.

The Catholic church has traditionally been slow to apologize for anything. What Pope Francis instructs believers to do, however, is cleansing. Making amends for wrongs of the past clears away many of the roadblocks that prevent us from moving forward. He sets an example for people to follow not only in asking forgiveness but effectually stating that actions the church has taken toward LGBT people, the poor, women, exploited children, and its stance on weapons are wrong.

Reaching Even Deeper

While the pope’s comments are welcome and refreshing to the ears, they alone are not enough to drive us toward peace. Apologies and asking forgiveness are a good start, but there are more personal issues with which we need to content.

Probably the best use of my time this weekend was watching and listening to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism during his visit t o Indianapolis. That over 6,400 people were in attendance speaks to how many people are struggling along a path toward ultimate peace and tranquility. The Dalai Lama’s words were often mixed with humor, but his instructions were strong.

“We are all brothers/sisters,” the Dalai Lama said frequently in an address focusing on compassion. He related compassion as the most human of emotions. “Now scientists even say, basic human nature is compassionate. The compassionate feeling toward your enemy, the trouble maker … only we human beings can do that.” He referred to the love a mother has for her child and a child for its mother, instructing that such love breeds compassion that is the source of peace for the world.

Getting There From Here

The Dalai Lama offered many ways we can remove the roadblocks holding us back from achieving peace, both personally and corporately. Among them, were:

Stop linking religion to violence and fanaticism. “There is no such thing as Muslim terrorist or Buddhist terrorist,” he said. “There is just terrorists. … Those who commit such acts of violence are insincere in their religion.”
Education of the current generation is key. Multiple times the Dalai Lama emphasized that compassion must be part of the curriculum and an emphasis in how we teach children if there is to be any hope of change. He said that it was “too late” to change the hearts and minds of older people, but that the education of children in how to be compassionate could bring a more peaceful world.
Everyone has the potential for love and compassion within them. The Dalai Lama spoke often of a “seed” of love within everyone that holds the potential for compassion and that we must first focus on growing that seed before attempting to take on the world.
Action, not prayers, changes the world. The Dalai Lama brushed off the concept that prayers and “releasing pigeons” had anything to do with world peace. Rather, he said, “We created this violence, so we can reduce this violence.”
Accept that we are all the same. Again, referring to the world’s population as brothers/sisters, he said, “Sometimes there is too much discrimination on color, on class — rich and poor. This actually (is a) man-made distinction.” He emphasized that we call come from one source. We are all the same.

Knowing Where To Start

Looking across what seems like a minefield of obstruction, one might feel overwhelmed by all that must happen before we can change the world. The starting place should be obvious: start with yourself. There is nothing we do, nothing we say, that is not an extension of who we are and how we feel about ourselves. We must change ourselves before we can change the things outside ourselves.

Maybe, just maybe, religion might work for some. The Dalai Lama said, “All religions carry the same message — love, compassion, things like that. That’s the basis of our harmony.” Understanding, of course, he is referring to the core tenets of religious belief, not the various bastardizations found in the majority of worship centers.

Others may find that path through meditation, yoga, deliberate focus, conscious awareness of the temporal nature of all things, finding happiness in being.

There is more than one way to get there, but each of those starts with you and I finding that seed of love within us, building that into an immense compassion, and then teaching that first to our children and then to others.

We can achieve the peace that eludes us but we cannot expect it to come from anyone other than ourselves.

Current Issues / PotD

Respect For Being Human

June 1, 2016

I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being. —Jackie Robinson

When it comes to listing one’s faults, those qualities that are the result of being human should never be among them

Humans are imperfect beings. One of the fears expressed in developing artificial intelligence is that as computers begin to realize just how inept and flawed we are they might consider us a blight on the planet that needs to be destroyed. There are days I tend to agree with the computers. We are selfish, mean, greedy, slothful, undependable, gluttonous, prideful, envious, disrespectful, racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, thoughtless, and absolutely despicable.

Even worse, we attempt to mask our failings with false justifications such as, “I’m just keeping it real,” or, “He’s just speaking his mind,” or, “I’m only telling you for your own good,” and, “I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.” Each of those statements is designed to cover for the fact that preceding and/or following statements are likely to be rude, insensitive, inaccurate, distasteful, inappropriate and downright mean. We have conned ourselves into believing that if we label the trash coming out of our mouths as “truth” then no one can argue against it.

Bullshit.

One of the things that make being human respectable is that we can change. Once our flaws and weaknesses are pointed out to us, we have the ability to correct our actions, to make amends, and we even have the ability to apologize. Just because we make a mistake once doesn’t mean we have to continue making that error. We can learn and improve. It’s called progress.

Unfortunately, we too often fail to utilize that benefit. Instead of improving ourselves and working on our own flaws, we would rather pick on other people, attacking aspects of their humanity over which they have no control, such as body size, shape, skin color, gender, sexuality, language, nationality, and other hereditary factors which come with the package of being a unique being. Too often, we see what we don’t like in ourselves and project that dislike onto other people, saying and doing things that are totally unacceptable and, in some cases, even illegal.

The 14th amendment of the Constitution reads in part:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The most important, and frequently litigated, phrase from that section is “equal protection.” What this amendment ultimately means is that no citizen is to be discriminated against for any reason. There are no exceptions made, no allowances for differences of opinion. All citizens of the United States are to be treated equally. Period. While the amendment was adopted in 1868, though, we are still having an extreme amount of difficulty understanding that there are no exceptions to being equal.

One of the challenges is that many of the discriminatory and anti-human attitudes and activities that still persist are encoded in both tradition and the regulations we have made for ourselves. We have told ourselves that appearance matters, that certain traits are acceptable while others are not, and that some aspects of one’s personal being should be accentuated while others should be downplayed, hidden, and even surgically altered. In short, we fail to have respect for the fact that we are human.

We often refer to incidents of body-shaming. There have been plenty of such problems hitting the media lately. One of the most recent comes from actress Kate Beckinsale claiming that she was body-shamed by director Michael Bay while filming the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor. Ms. Beckinsale states:

I think he was baffled by me because my boobs weren’t bigger than my head, and I wasn’t blonde.

If we have made any improvements over the past 15 years, it may be that men, at least those who are in public on a regular basis, have been conditioned to, at the very least, keep their mouths shut when it comes to making statements about a woman’s physical appearance. When one does step out of line, the Internet, especially Twitter, is very quick to respond and call attention to any inappropriate statements.

Where we’ve not made such an improvement, however, is how women mistreat other women, and men actually seem to encourage their bad behavior. Catfights on reality television, which are considered ratings gold, only perpetuate a culture of disrespect and even physical violence between women and men do nothing but stand on the sidelines cheering them on! How do we not see how absolutely repulsive and repugnant our behavior is? Disparaging another person for aspects of simply being human is wrong on every conceivable level.

Some of you have been following our story from last week regarding the woman we named Lenore and the nipple shaming she had received from her employer. We then updated that story yesterday upon discovering that a second employee, whom we’ll call Julia, had received an even more harsh reprimand because of her Philippino accent. Never mind the fact that Julia has worked hard on her English and probably speaks better than 70% of the Americans who walk through the business doors. Because someone had complained, the owner of the business considered the accent a problem.

After we made that update, the owner of the business called Lenore and proceeded to thoroughly shame every aspect of her physical appearance, from her face to her footwear. Lenore was left in tears, totally humiliated for simply being human.

Earlier this morning, we received a message from Julia announcing that she was quitting her job. Lenore has not yet given official notice but plans to do the same later this morning.

We need to get it through our thick heads that we are all human and we need to show respect for those aspects of our humanity that are inherent to our being. We need to stop fat-shaming people who have thyroid and other physical conditions that make it impossible for them to safely lose weight. We need to stop beauty-shaming women who refuse to damage their skin by wearing an overabundance of makeup. We need to stop making fun of people’s language accents; at least they are bilingual, something the people doing the shaming can seldom say. We need to stop drawing attention to people’s body parts; whether breasts are big or small is totally irrelevant, as is their nipple size.

Showing respect for human beings means taking a look at things such as dress codes and eliminating gender bias and unnecessary restrictions that do not have a direct correlation to the duties being performed. We need to move beyond the Disney-induced notion that the less attractive a person is the more evil and unacceptable they must be. Disparaging people simply for being human is not something a progressive society can allow to continue.

Unfortunately, in far too many cases, we seem to be moving in the opposite direction. We actually have a leading contender for the office of President who routinely shames and makes fun of other people. His comments about women and minorities have been absolutely deplorable and represent the absolute worst aspects of being human. There is no excuse. There is no way to justify such deplorable behavior on the part of anyone.

While you may have a right to say what you wish, you have a responsibility to know when to keep your fucking mouth shut. If what you are about to say shows disrespect and/or discrimination toward another person, shut the fuck up! The circumstances are irrelevant. The media is irrelevant. Even the actions of the other person are irrelevant. You have a responsibility to show respect to all people, regardless of physical appearance, gender, race, national origin, sexuality, mental acuity, emotional stability, medical ailment, or physical challenges. If you fail to live up to that responsibility in any way, shape, or form, then you are WRONG.

Humans can be absolutely horrible creatures and do well to fear the presence of a more objective and intelligent being that might consider our faults justification for our demise. The only thing that stands in our defense is that we have the ability to change and to move beyond our shortcomings.

We need to get busy and start changing. Show respect for being human. Learn when to keep your mouth shut and start supporting other people rather than looking for ways to tear them down.

Experimental / Published

The Digital Person

June 3, 2015

The following article and photos, both by charles, were originally published in EspritNu, Vol. 1 Issue 1. November 2014, pp. 15-17. Reprinted here with permission.

EspritNu Cover, 11/2014

The honorable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States John Roberts stated in his opinion for the unanimous court in Riley versus California that cell phones “are now such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy.” While most consider the Chief Justice’s statement one of humor, those watching the gradual but certain merge of human and digital worlds found the expression far more serious and perhaps even worrisome.

When Mr. Roberts speaks of “a pervasive and insistent part of daily life,” he is referencing the preponderance of personal and private information that is held in digital form for each individual. Even if one does not own a cell phone or has never set eye upon the Internet, there still exists a collection of digital information, a catalog or dossier if you will, of details such as birth records, land ownership, marriages, divorces, employment, credit and medical histories, education, and most anything else that might touch public record in any way, shape, or form. As that information is bought and sold, accessed by friend and foe alike, each touch adds to the digital image of who we are. The more one is involved in digital matters, the more comprehensive that picture becomes. For example, I am composing this article from my phone and will proofread from another device, then an editor will have a go at it from yet another device not even in the same city, all without exchanging any form of physical media at all. Everything is digital. Therefore, as this article becomes part of my personal catalog, it contributes to the digital definition of who I am.

Eventually, one comes to the question of whether the collection of digital personal data might create sufficient sentience as to replace this carbon-based structure by which I am currently identified? Might machine replace human?

Here, matters become interesting, controversial, and even a bit frightening. Concepts of various forms of artificial intelligence have existed in ancient mythologies almost as long as we’ve been telling stories. Some tales credit deity, others credit demons, but it’s not until the 20th century that Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) gives them the name that we’ve come to meet with uncertain anxiety. Robots existed in one of the first movies Metropolis, and H. G. Wells wove them into tales of science fiction that still stimulate our fears and fantasies.

For some, such as Google’s Ray Kurzweil, the inevitable amalgamation of digital with biological is wonderful as it opens doors to greater opportunities and discoveries. Others, such as Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, fear ultra-intelligent beings would find us carbon-based life forms slow, flawed, and useless. Philosopher Nick Bostrom makes a rather stimulating argument that we are already puppets of some universal “Matrix” device and that we’ve no concept of true reality. Plenty of scientists and philosophers disagree strongly with all these opinions.

Argue though we may, our lives unquestionably grow more digital with each passing day. There is no returning to a purely analog existence. Some slight digital component exists for every human on the planet. We may either embrace our digital persons or run from them, but we cannot hide; they already know where we live.