Time for Politicians to Learn Immigration Realities

Listening to the Republican contenders in the CNN debate the other night for ten minutes, I was amused by their naivete and sadly unrealistic attitudes toward immigration before I turned off the television in distaste.

Being from Canada, and having lived here in the U.S. since 1980, I have been interested, shall we say, in the issue for a long time. I don't vote because there hasn't been any reason to get citizenship except to be able to vote, and in return I would have to serve on jury duty. Avoiding jury duty always wins. I don't think about jury duty, I only feel it. It's visceral, and comes from that reptile part of the brain that determines the fight and flight response.

That e-verify system sounds to me like it's not going to fly with a lot of homeowners, I would bet! Just saying...

The idea that having an e-verify system to solve illegal immigration is absurd and exclusionary, at best...Here's why: all Americans would have to be distrustful of every other American. Everyone would have to keep checking a website to check whether someone else is here legally or not...That's a mighty large responsibility for the notoriously inaccurate internet to do...Since websites can't get house prices right, how is it expected to have the legal status of all citizens updated at all times?

Does the government really think that every time every homeowner, in this land of homeowners, has some desperately pressing need to fix, and has taken a few minutes off work, inconvenienced others maybe to get the work done...is that homeowner really going to stop every one of those service providers, every plumber, carpenter, electrician, Roto-rooter man, handyman or gardener, and so on, to require proof of citizenship to fix the job, and ask them to wait outside while they check their existence on  their computers on e-verify? If their computer doesn't work or they don't have one, they might not be allowed to hire a service provider because they can't check e-verify. After all, if a homeowner asks one service provider, it's only fair to ask every provider every time they enter the house, or else some service provider, at some point, is going to complain in court about being an unfairly treated citizen. 

The idea of self-deporting is absurd. No one is going to temporarily spontaneously and voluntarily remove themselves from this country unless they want to or have to.  If they want to, it won't be for some general desire on the part of The Government to  cleanse the country of illegals. The people who should self-deport are here illegally and don't have papers, and they won't self-deport because they are perhaps persecuted wherever they're from and are always caught in a network of life (and employment) here. Otherwise, they would have waited to come here legally, by the books. Common sense to me.

These political contenders seem to be dreamers  not worth following if they think a  single tall fence is going to keep out intruders from central America bound and determined, like burglars entering a locked house, to get into the sometimes unlocked country of America. The politicians obviously haven't taken the time to pay their tuition for a basic education on the most basic fundamental laws and principles of immigration, and the need for more efficient  form processing.

 If they don't know immigration --- how to open and shut the front, back, and every door into the country --- how can they possibly be trusted to understand other issues? 

Those contenders should know more about immigration, and they should care about the issue and that Department of the Government  (ICE). They should make a rudimentary effort to try to understand. Not only is it sad not to, it's not respectable. Candidates lose credibility when they don't bother to know fundamental legal basics relevant to affected segments of the population.

But then, they seem too obsessed with women's private 'health' issues to have clear  minds and policies about public deficit and immigration topics they should do something about. They're not really worth my time, respect, or trust if they mess around with inaccuracies, even if they are,  admittedly, upholding a useful and important rite of democracies in running for election.

It might be useful and surprising for all residents of America if true immigration requirements, laws, and facts find the light of day. Otherwise, it's just the blind leading the blind in everyday discussions, political, business, and personal.

We all know the maxim. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

'Chronicle' (2012/I), the Movie: Go See It!

'Chronicle' (2012/I) is an excellent movie for those of us bewildered by big budget movies whose themes seem remote from our quotidian cares and concerns. As perhaps the most original of movies I've seen lately, I would urge you to see it. Don't leave it to teenagers. I did attend with one, despite having been warned the hand-held camera scenes might make me dizzy. They did, and the beginning can be a bit slow-going for those of us who are past our teen years. Here's a minor spoiler alert, when 'Chronicle' finally revs into gear, the story unwinds faster and faster and faster into an extended Tolkien-style adventure. This is where the special effects surge into high gear. I didn't hear the audience laugh as much later in the movie as much as they did during the more comical early scenes when the boys first discovered their rare powers. It's all good fun, and worth watching.

When the main likable characters, two teenage cousins and a so-called friend - one of whom decides to film his life - find literally a hole-in-the-ground in the woods, and follow it, Alice-in-Wonderland style, down to a Harry-Potter-esque underground cave, the boys experience mysterious transformations. They are bestowed with unique, transcendent powers. To the delight of the audience, these powers grow and grow, first wowing each other, and separately, their school friends at a talent show. (My daughter, a senior of similar age to the boys, was just about to attend a talent show at her school, too, by coincidence, directly after seeing the movie. None of them, with the possible exception of a Korean pianist who had played at Carnegie Hall, have supernatural powers).

These three were all new actors to me, Dane DeHaan plays Andrew, the cameraman, Alex Russell plays Matt, his cousin, and Michael B. Jordan plays Steve, their friend. They can fly with glee through the air and enlarge their powers in new ways as the story develops. Admittedly, some scenes were gory, and showed mangled, mutilated bodies, on fire, and gutted.

My favorite scenes were the flying scenes, without doubt, involving a plethora of fancy technological feats of engineering rather than the school and party settings, which nevertheless redeemed the story with a semblance of reality. With a single romance between one of the actors and a camera-toting, beautiful, blonde blogger, the story checks back into the cameraman's sorry home-life with a cancer-stricken mother where he ultimately exacts revenge on his cruel, pathetic, unemployed fireman father. His strength made this mother's heart beat harder with sympathy, and say "yes!" for under-privileged, abused teenagers out there.

The boys' new powers take them to places they (and the audience) wouldn't have dreamed of, and thrill everyone to the unexpected heights, social and otherwise, they achieve. Spectacular in vision and optimism, the good times finally turn, of course. The special effects meshed in a tightly-edited hip, mash-up style made me wonder how much of it was real, and how much possibly computer-animated. Certainly, in 'Chronicle', more than in most movies, ideas were freely lifted from other movies and from literature and blended, with good intentions, into an entirely fresh, new concept. Bravo to everyone involved in making it. Sequels might explain and enlarge on how they obtained their special powers, with kudos to the debut of Josh Trank.

'Chronicle' is well worth watching for spectacular special effects, directed by Josh Trank, and for originality of concept, written by Max Landis.

Rated: PG-13. 

Runtime: 84 min.Released: February 3, 2012.

Budget: $12M.  Opening weekend gross: $22M.

Filming Locations: Cape Town, South Africa. Vancouver, BC.

Toothless Tigers: Abortion and Homosexuality

The noisy foes of homosexuality and abortion baffle me. I live here in the northeast corner of the United States. We all constantly make choices about healthcare, vacations, home lifestyle, transportation, friendships, careers, and so on, as we go about our daily lives.

Why is there so much public hysteria about these essentially private issues?

Why do foes of those who are in favor of such issues believe they will ultimately somehow, some way, sometime pay the price for someone else's decision in favor of abortion or homosexuality?

Let's take these issues apart...I hope they decompose into smithereens on the scrap heap of triviality.

First of all, I don't want to imply these issues aren't important to individuals, perhaps of life-and-death importance. These are central issues to people deciding whether they need to have a third marriage to the same person, or whether or not to have an abortion.

My point is that those people should be able to choose and decide for themselves, just as people with money should be able to choose how to spend it (let's hope for good reasons), or any of the multitude of other lifestyle choices people make.

One theory I've heard is that the foes of abortion and homosexuality are running scared. Now, of what could they be frightened?

1. Perhaps they do not appreciate how new methods can solve old dilemmas. Homosexuality and safe, hospital abortions available for all, are age-old exceptions to the mainstream that have not been accepted by law until recently.

2. On homosexuality: perhaps people who are against homosexuality are frightened to accept them socially, even one at a time. Perhaps they have an us-them mindset, as if they were from a democratic society, and the others were Communists, so they call them different, worse, perverts, as if they were social predators. Perhaps they're worried it might spread, and society would fall apart if everyone did it, and there wouldn't be any babies. If so, they need to make themselves less frightened somehow, maybe read up on it and meet homosexuals.

3.On abortion: perhaps people are against abortion if they worry there won't be enough children like they used to be, as good as they used to be, whatever that implies, to replace themselves, spread their seed, their race, ahead of them into the future. Perhaps they are worried the cost will come out of their pockets.

Perhaps the extremists whipping up mass hysteria should confront the central question of their own immortality and sexuality. We are all humans, and we all have finite lives. Accepting the choices of others would go a long way to promoting peace if these toothless tyrants promoting mass activism would only care to listen.

The Problem With Syria

                            
SYRIA

Syria, a country about the size of North Dakota, is presenting an interesting problem to other world leaders. Interesting outside the country, but brutal and life-threatening to its own citizens.

It made me, and probably many people, wonder why the United States, or any other country, hasn't done anything effective yet to stop the bloodshed.

 Here's the written transcript of the country's leader being interviewed by Barbara Walters, and he sounds very elite and well-educated. He totally denied any wrongdoing. An article I have just read compares him to Hitler and similar genocidal leaders of the past.

The real answer, according to a reliable source who will not allow himself to be named is, it's not because of his lineage, or his beautiful, computer scientist wife (an Englishwoman with a Syrian doctor father), but because the United States is looking at Egypt. They are seeing the chaos that ensued after  the end of President Mubarak's leadership. Egypt has descended into chaos despite so-called military leadership, and hasn't made a peaceful transition to democratic leadership. American leaders believe  having a despot ruling a country works better than having chaos. How can Egypt make a peaceful transition?

Back to Syria, it's a waste on almost every imaginable level to see a civil war raging from afar. I can only hope and wish the Syrian problem will soon be over. My heart goes out to innocent victims of Syrian violence and bloodshed.

Russia is pursuing diplomatic channels...the European Union might sanction...Turkey is watching and waiting.

Will America react with force if provoked?

Try Chill-Out Music

If you want to add something new to your life, try it.  Imagine sipping an effervescent drink  on that beach...Sounds like that. Search YouTube: "chill-out". They're set with lovely background videos. 

I like to use it for background music. It makes me feel good, and that's the aim of all music, isn't it?

Princeton Study Finds Uninformed Participants Tend To Side With Majority

Here's an interesting point taken from the Princeton Bulletin today:

• "A Princeton-based research team found that uninformed individuals — as in
those with no prior knowledge or strong feelings on a situation’s outcome — can
actually be vital to achieving a democratic consensus. These individuals tend to
side with and embolden the numerical majority and dilute the influence of powerful
minority factions who would otherwise dominate everyone else. This finding
— based on group decision-making experiments on fish, as well as mathematical
models and computer simulations — challenges the common notion that
an outspoken minority can manipulate uncommitted voters and can ultimately
provide insights into humans’ political behavior. The research team was led by
Iain Couzin, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology."

The uninformed tend to side with the majority, rather than being manipulated by an outspoken minority. I find this news very reassuring and forgiving, whether it reflects another era, or today's divisive rule from Washington.

Maybe We Should Be Grateful

These last few days I have been watching the Costa Concordia ship lying submerged in the Mediterranean Sea near Giglio Island with great interest. It has not completely sunk, and for that we should be grateful.

I'm not exonerating the captain from steering the ship onto rocks and leaving it as soon as possible to save his own life, thus creating a shocking vacuum of power when it was most needed.

Perhaps the fact that the ship landed where it did, and was almost completely evacuated in two hours, is little short of miraculous. If the ship had been in open water, it might very well have sunk quickly, bringing catastrophic loss of life. As it is now, Carnival Cruises and Costa Lines will have to carry most of the financial burden.

How quickly people forget  these disasters. I went on a cruise, four of us in my family, around the Greek islands in March 2007, on the Louis Cruises Sea Diamond. One week after we disembarked, the very next cruise, the Sea Diamond, carrying about 1,537 passengers, hit rocks off the island of Santorini in the afternoon. We saw photos of crew members we had spoken to only days before. She sank overnight, fortunately after passengers were evacuated through rough waves, and only two passengers died.

Here is a good photo of the Sea Diamond:

Sea Diamond 

 Here is a photo of the Sea Diamond before she sank:

Sea Diamond, April 5, 2007

The point is, these incidents are disturbing, and yet neither involved loss of life, only loss of enormous, important ships. We could have been on it, but we weren't. For that we  count our blessings.

Here were three of us posing. We had a fabulous trip.

Dignify Your Students

According to this article, a public high school, somewhere in Texas, in a town called McKinney, has denied human and civil rights to students. School administrators have removed the doors from individual stalls in the bathrooms. Administrators assert that students cannot be seen sitting on toilets from the hallways, supposedly making the situation tolerable. 

They should have their awesome power removed.

To me this horrible situation sounds like a travesty of justice for students involved, and a breakdown of civil society. The administrators sound as if they are inhuman, incompetent, and just plain rude.

Shame on these administrators. How they injure the psyches of of the precious students who have been entrusted with their care.  If they are capable of such incivility, then I wonder how else their students are suffering. 

Students of all socio-economic backgrounds are supposed to be treated with respect and dignity. They are supposed to be inspired by example, not by clumsy, heavy-handed inhumanity.

Respect deserves respect. I feel the opposite for those administrators. I have called them and left two messages to protest because this subversion makes my blue blood boil.

Kneeling At The Sports Pedestal

Sports madness at The Ohio State University continues even after all these years, despite the "bowl ban"...How could it not?

In the wake of the Jerry Sandusky controversy at rival Pennsylvania State University, a news feature announced a new coach for the Buckeye Football Team, Urban Meyer. He was hired for a contract worth over $27 million for four years hard labor.

Okay, you might call it sour grapes. My husband used to be a mathematics professor at Ohio State, doing hard labor for peanuts, relatively, measured in the thousands of dollars, rather than millions. Yet no one in the entire world, not just America, could do the exact same academic discipline in mathematics as my husband could do because he invented it.

Back then, Columbus, Ohio, seemed football-crazy. All the traffic lights were green around the stadium after a game. Hotels filled, food sources benefited…Obviously, nothing has changed about the way the University rewards the sports program for tourism and entertainment reasons.

Which other country on the entire planet, at a major university funded primarily through taxes, had a group of people who agreed that a coach of a single sport deserved greater rewards of money and outside benefits than the most brilliant scholars at that same university and the President? The practice is widespread, I hear, and how crazy is that?

Imagine if this scenario were turned around. Supposing football became associated with the least prestige and monetary reward within the university? Suppose many of the players received life-threatening concussions from playing the sport? Woudn't decent citizens take pity on the players and, with a flash of decently good conscience, stop the program? I'm dreaming of utopia.

Ohioans and the parents of Ohio State University students keep cheering. They pay that much for a sports coach to the detriment, at the cost, of the primary university function -  the teaching and researching duet. They place him on an ivory pedestal. Professors aren't paid much, aren't on an ivory pedestal, because the sports program needs the money, or so the rumor goes.

What is the history of American football?

Modestly it expanded from a game history suggest was played between Harvard and McGill University in 1874, following an earlier 1859 game between Princeton and neighboring Rutgers University.

My point is that the sport of American football is new, unproven, and anti-academic. Paying astronomical rates to sports coaches at universities is also new, and completely newsworthy. Why have universities taken to rewarding sports at the expense of academic pursuits? It's crazy.

The idea that donors pay the universities on the strength of the football program and tickets sold can be discounted by searching Google for the endowments of private universities in general, which are far higher than those of public universities. Private universities do not focus on  popular football mega-events, not on the same scale.

I think universities are unbalanced when they reward sports more than the disciplines that they ethically, often with government funding, have the mandate to fulfill.

And exactly where are girls, women, females, children, and infants, in all this talk of football? Forgotten, irrelevant, useless, unnecessary???...

Music Relaxes More than Massage in Scientific Studies

Why not consider listening to music when you have an excess of tension and need to relax?

Many musicians have created "yawnfests"and they make wonderful lullabies. Some say they listen every evening, so this music, not surprisingly, has become popular for its therapeutic benefits.

One of them, called "Weightless" using biofeedback in laboratory studies, relieved tension by an astonishing sixty-five percent in women. That result alone makes it more effective and relaxing than a massage! Sustained tones, chimes, bring peace. The listener gets out of the way and relaxes at a deep level. Even better is to be able to listen in the bath, in bed, at the computer, wherever.

Apart from not listening while driving, how harmless can it be to listen to relaxing music with physiological effects on the brain? Better than another drink, I would assert.

Which music, of any era, do you find most relaxing---religious music, eastern, classical music, decades-old music?

If Helmets Aren't Enough To Protect Players, What's the Solution?

Dear National Hockey League Commissioner:

Picture of a canary bird and a coal miner

Why deny overwhelming scientific evidence that brain injuries in hockey players are caused by the sport? Why be so bold except to protect your future business?

More important: what is your solution?

                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, an important article in the New York Times concerns the tragic death of a 28-year-old hockey star. Scientific proof has made into fact some suspicions deeply-held by many, that sports stars are dying in record numbers from degenerative brain diseases. Doctors who analyzed and studied his brain tissues and brains of similar sports stars believe there is no longer any doubt whatsoever that many sports cause and worsen health issues that can lead to needless premature death. Such brain diseases are diagnosed posthumously.

The business of sports in general continues to expand. At the same time lingering health issues of living players are ignored and categorically denied by bosses because players get   injured and treat themselves in different ways. The sports business depends on denying  such problems, but morally, it's wrong.  It's obvious to see the problems that degenerative health issues would imply for the world of sports.

I say SHAME on all those who profit from blood sports -- "blood" being contact sports that injure the brains and bodies of players for life outside the game. Pure greed is easy to recognize.

My best wishes and condolences go to those families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for any sport.

Luckily, this is not my personal problem. In my family unit, we prefer not to watch blood sports.

Does Driving Encourage Premarital Sex?

In countries where women have been driving for generations, the answer is negative. We wonder where the science could be behind that idea? We in the western world believe just as premarital sex encourages more premarital sex, driving encourages more driving....They are two different activities.

Does the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sincerely want more drivers? Perhaps that is the real issue in such countries that do not encourage women to drive.  Everyone has to be persuaded with good reasons, which I give below because I believe Saudi Arabia should encourage women to drive.

Driving is a good skill to learn and can make girls safer if they have the option of not entering a car with drivers they do not feel comfortable with, and so they will not be kidnapped. 

Driving for women is an important human right and a good idea, and of course, they need to have the option of driving lessons.

If women drive, they can, among other activities:

1) help drive their families for food shopping

2) drive sick and old women who feel safer with a young girl

3) drive cars to schools

4) take pets to veterinarians and drive horse vans

5) go shopping for food and clothing by themselves

6) girls can safely go to movies with their girlfriends

7) some women prefer to drive enormous trucks and help the economy

They might be safer at night in their own car than in a bus, walking, or driving in someone else's car. They can use their own car if the other driver is not a safe driver or does not wish to drive, or they do not wish to enter a certain car. Of course, they have to learn how to drive, follow the legal rules of the road, and practice safe, defensive driving.

As a mother of two girls in New Jersey, both of mine have learned to drive, and have their own cars. They learned to drive first in classroom lessons, and then instructor-led outings in a car with dual brakes. Rules of the road here are so strict that girls and boys cannot drive until they are seventeen, and only fully when they are eighteen. Many teenagers delay driving a little longer...Students growing up in New York City itself often do not learn how to drive at all.

We want what we want, and life doesn't always give us what we want even if we deserve it.

On Kirtan Chanting

Those of us privileged to attend a yoga/writer's retreat  in Vermont recently as I did also learned Indian chanting  during our evenings, and benefited from sing-alongs led by a lovely, talented singer usually known simply as Yvette, or sometimes Yvette Om.

Yvette

I have been learning her chants by heart, aided by her CD "Into the Arms of Love" which I highly recommend. It is available at her website to order online, and makes the perfect gift for any yoga enthusiast, or buy it as background music, for meditation...She sings haunting Kirtan lyrics with the aid of her harmonium, other singers, and other musical instruments, such as the violin and sitar. 

Yvette

Please take a moment to buy it. You will soon find yourself adding quick chants throughout your busy days, and probably long, slow, chanting meditations,  as well.... Songs with titles like Sri Ganesha, Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha, Hey Ma Durga, Om Narayana, Om Namah Shivaya..Yvette's lovely lyrics will relax you when you allow her music to move you...

Bliss Out With Yoga

My incredibly gifted yoga instructor at a recent  retreat  in northern Vermont was a top American yogini, or should I say a guru, precious Lilavati, owner of "Temple of the Lotus" a yoga center near Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.

Lilavati

She has been learning yoga since the age of 15 and  has perfected her Ayurvedic practices ever since...She taught us yoga for hours each day. She now has lots of oils and nectars available at her website to use "as a protective sheath from Vatas dry chilling energy"  available to buy.

 

Lilavati

Best of all, for us, were her intensive training classes to yoga teachers around the country. I am hoping to use her special recipes to enhance my "strength, grounded~ness, health, and balance during the winter months." Be sure to contact her studio "Temple of the Lotus" where she teaches yoga, and talks about doshas and balance and  other such important yoga principles.

"Temple of the Lotus" Philadelphia's Ayurvedic Sanctuary is at 1527 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146 email: Lilavati@TempleoftheLotus.com 

Before I went to the writer/yoga retreat, I became convinced in my own mind I would fail at it. Lilavati assured me no one fails Yoga...If I can do a little yoga, anyone can!!!

Of course, I like yoga for the stress-reduction benefits, and "for positive effects on sleep anxiety, quality of life, and spiritual growth" W. Tranquility is, for anyone, a positive goal.  

Yoga also has a grand goal of freedom from illness, old age and death...As a physical, spiritual and mental discipline, however, yoga is a useful adjunct to our busy lives. I recommend it when you have the opportunity.

Lomography Brightens Emails With Eastern Philosophy

Recently, we ordered an Diana mini camera

Lomography.com

for my enthusiastic 18-year-old photographer's birthday. A whimsical automatic message immediately appeared in my Inbox from Lomography:

"We're seriously committed to making sure your Lomographic order arrives in the best possible condition. At the moment our holistic shipping experts are busy preparing your treasured cargo psychologically for the journey that lies ahead. After a bit of chanting and chakra balancing our packaging architects will set to work making your goods as comfortable as possible. Under the cover of darkness a no-messing security troop will escort your package to the post depot to ensure it departs without a sniff of trouble. It's at this point we release two pigeons of peace as a symbol of thanks for another successful shipment."

"chanting"..."chakra balancing"..."pigeons of peace"??? I have to say, I appreciated this message far more now than I would  have a month ago before my Ayurvedic weekend in northern Vermont...I am even learning Indian chanting now, not intending to outdo my teenager who is incidently learning Chinese...

Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Written by the immensely talented  and gorgeous Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks traces the history of the biotech and gene therapy industries in America and makes it exciting.

Hela cells were used in research studies at Johns Hopkins University, and named after  a so-called donor, Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old mother in Maryland. Her cells evidently expanded and divided at an unprecedented speed. They were reproduced  and sent around the world for use in medical experiments. Her cells were used as building blocks  that created new products and ultimately led to the the expansion of the multi-billion-dollar  international pharmaceutical industry.  At the same time, Henrietta's family, after her death, did not make a penny and are currently deeply in debt.

The well-written, entertaining story is about so much more than one family, and yet learning about the Lacks family grounds the book in reality and gives the story urgency. We see how real people's lives were impacted by permissions they did, or did not give, for their tissues to be used in scientific experiments. We learn about how people have given up ownership of  the raw materials, their cells, blood, and body parts, whether voluntarily or not, in  medical procedures around the world.  Read this book to learn useful knowledge about the industry and about the world of medicine.

Listen to Rebecca Skloot describe her book, and be sure to buy it. I stayed up late reading  it, and was sorry when it ended. Don't worry, you will be in good hands when you read her book. She would make a very desirable friend...

Rebecca Skloot

Is Mormonism a Cult?

Today, I am missing Sunday services at Washington National Cathedral. I like to listen to them for the quality of the service, the sermon, and the music. I will miss Cathedral Dean Lloyd's leadership.

Please give generously to Washington National Cathedral as they make repairs following the earthquake and subsequent hurricane.

Is Mormonism a cult?

Cult: a system of religious beliefs and rituals regarded as unorthodox.

The latest assertions of a Republican saying that Mormonism is a cult has me thinking. Even though I am not a Republican, and it matters not who said made this accusation, I am a Christian.

I also believe church and state are separate entities and should remain such. Wars have been fought over that division. At the same time, this is my platform to discuss my views on Mormonism, and you are most welcome to visit.

Mormonism has certain givens up front, aspects many mainstream Christians, including me, find very disturbing:

1. It's not inclusive and diverse...as this picture illustrates:

Mormon Tablernacle Choir and Orchestra

Even if a few diverse groups have joined recently, I remain skeptical. Assertions to that effect wouldn't cut it with me.

2. Why is it not ever going to be truly diverse?

Mormonism is elitist at heart and in principle, and only allows certain people to join because of their genetics and family history. It does not allow those who simply want to join if they change their beliefs. Newcomers would not be accepted into the inner sanctums with their children. 

3. Mormonism believes in Prophets alive until recently. That doesn't happen in Christian denominations. All our prophets died thousands of years ago...

4. Some of the initiation rites, the marriage bed pictured in online photos, if true, and marriage practices of taking multiple wives, if true, are still  rumored to be going on.  These practices are illegal, and can be unconstitutional and hurtful to under-age or female participants.

5. Certainly, Mormons might consider themselves different children of God by choice and aspiration, but how free are they in the eyes of the world if they aren't allowed in principle to do normal American activities inside America? What's so wrong with drinking coffee or tea from Starbucks,  for example, or drinking a bit of wine?

6. No other church gets involved in uniforms and undergarments for general participants. To me, that makes it suspect and leaves it outside the Christian umbrella. God is supposed to love us at all times.

6. Mormons look at The Book of Mormon as their primary authority. Christian churches, in stark contrast, use the Holy Bible as their primary authority.

I am not going to delve any more deeply into the religion and invite quibbles. Any one of the above reasons would be sufficiently major to make most individuals around the world eschew it and take it out of consideration if they wanted to make a change.

Ultimately, I do not think Mormons are free enough to be happy and flexible,  either, even if they are children of God (as we all are), because freedom to change and join religions is an important and useful value.

To conclude, even if the religion works for some, and Mormons feel cozy in their beliefs, nevertheless, in my final analysis, yes, ultimately Mormonism is a cult as well as a religion. What it is not is mainstream Christianity, and most American Christians I have spoken to believe it is not Christian. What do you believe...Is Mormonism a cult?

Again, please give generously to Washington National Cathedral.

American Healthcare Systems Needs Overhaul To Focus on Fair Access and Healthy Futures

The world will read this blog post, and probably correctly call their own health care system superior to the American model, despite any improvements that may have already been enacted here.

Doctors in America work in a system in which they routinely and unwisely lose interest in their patients and get away with it. Medical doctors in America refer their patients around other doctor's offices without caring about outcomes just because they don't have to, and get paid for it.

They do not automatically, and only rarely, request a follow up return visit. They just seek payment for referrals of patients to other doctors and forget who matters. I have had doctors at all levels do that, and it makes me angry at their irresponsibility. They don't get paid for caring. They get paid more for other so-called services, like ripping people apart in surgeries, whether or not they have had their medical education in the United States.

They are in it for the money, and they are not supposed to be and should care more for their patients. They do not know if patients have followed up on their ailments and they don't care if  patients don't follow the recommendations -- sometimes because patients can't afford to. If patients don't get treatment, doctors wouldn't know or care. I know because I have been treated that way, too, and I supposedly have good insurance that covers catastrophic incidents.

American medicine is a joke for most Americans, even me, a vacuous hollow of the good health care system the country could have if it ever got its act together. It is an extremely poor, inefficient system, as it has been for at least thirty years since I have lived, fortunately healthily, for the last thirty years in this country.

Here's a good example of a gross inefficiency of the medical system overall...Someone who has insurance in one state has to pay the bills for health services rendered in another state.

That's exactly what happened to a good, old friend of mine, my former cleaning lady, who lives in Florida and pays health insurance there. When she visited her daughter on holiday, she had emergency gall-bladder surgery in New Jersey. A couple of months later, she has been billed for more money than she makes in a year in Florida.

A little background: she was visiting her daughters in New Jersey  when she was admitted. They looked after her when she was discharged from the hospital. She lives alone in Florida, so it was actually better for her to have the operation in New Jersey and stay afterward with her daughter's family. She also knew and trusted some of the doctors who performed the operation because she used to work cleaning the hospital for thirty years and felt familiar with it. Another of her daughters works at the hospital...

Which brings us back to the paperwork and the expenses  she submitted from  her New Jersey hospital that are now being rejected by her Florida insurer. Does this make sense to charge her to pay more for a required procedure than she can  make in one year? In her sixties, she labors in a job requiring a lot of physical effort. She might have spent a few more expensive days in the hospital in Florida had she done the procedure in that state. She would certainly had a lot more personal trouble since she hadn't anyone to help her post-discharge. She is understandably disputing her bills.

In an even more extreme case, an article called "Stuck in Bed for 19 Months, at Hospital's Expense" in the New York Times today tracks a case in an extravagantly inefficient American health care system that lacks accountability for long-term patients without insurance. The profiled patient had previously made $400 in cash each week, and been abandoned by his wife and children who could not afford his care, although he ultimately returned home.

"For the $1.4 million in services that [the hospital] had provided, total reimbursement to the hospital from Medicaid was $114,000...

If he had been insured or immediately eligible for Medicaid or Medicare, he might have gone to a nursing home after a week or two, where the average daily cost in New York is about $350 — and where he might have had steady companionship. Or he might have received a home health aide in his apartment, which could have cost even less, depending on the required hours. 

For hospitals---that treat many illegal immigrants, the health care plan enacted last year does nothing to solve this liability...During debates about reform, lawmakers insisted that the plan’s benefits not extend to the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants...Nor is this likely to change."

Hospitals keep patients and can't efficiently care for them; they don't automatically transfer them to less expensive  locations. This inefficiency is another example that hospitals fail to address. Even if hospitals say they don't have the money, by not improving this practice they have, in fact, consciously condoned it. They  actually allow patients  like him to stay at a place that normally charged over USD$2,000 a day instead of  forcing them to transfer to another  less-expensive alternative at $350 a day.  Why are the 'powers that be' not ashamed of this administrative malpractice. Why are they not held accountable for their inefficiency?

Either expense will appear nonsensical and outrageous to my international audience.  Yet, America lacks the business and political will to improve health care. Meetings between hospital, long-term care facilities, and the government should have taken place to care for this patient instead of making me, a taxpayer, help pay for his excessive bill and their mistakes. Let's face it, many mistakes have been made that have not been corrected yet. There should be financial incentives to reward results in the best interests of the long-term health and longevity of the patient. Successful diagnoses  obviously need to be followed through with intelligent treatments. Treatments and results matter to patients. America has a system where doctors are better rewarded for referrals and invasive surgery than long-term results, and have the wherewithal to sway politicians with graft.

If you are an international visitor, or on business, in the United States, and happen to land in the hospital, these extremely high bills will have to be paid.

What about patients who are airlifted to safety only to have to pay more than they can afford? They have no choice but to pay, unless covered by the appropriate insurance.

Instead of being an intelligent, broadly inclusive health care system, the bureaucratic rules are unintelligible at times, disconnected, and open to inconsistency and misinterpretation on an individual level. 

It should have made taxpayers in America revolt by now. Oddly, that has not happened. Businesses could not change the health care system; the inefficient American health care system has led giant car companies to bankruptcy.

Sensible rules to reward follow ups and make records of results need to be formed by the government,  as the British and Canadian governments did after the Second World War, or else all that is left is inefficiency and chaos. The rich might or might not pay for high end treatments, but every taxpayer loses overall in the American health care system. And that's not being caring, charitable, or compassionate to patients. For this reason, the American government must rule where businesses do not for the greater good of all patients. I just hope I don't get sick; the risks of getting sick are too horrific and expensive for me to imagine.

Washington National Cathedral Recovers

Washington National Cathedral is surely, off-site, preparing for  upcoming September 11 anniversary ceremonies. The Cathedral is ensuring the safety of worshipers and visitors, on-site, as seen in this video. Please give generously to the Washington National Cathedral to help fund recovery efforts. Thank you.

Video and article courtesy The Huffington Post

The  National Cathedral will host President Barack Obama, in our thoughts every Sunday in worship services,  Secretary Leon Panetta, Rhythm and Blues singer Pattie LaBelle, country superstar Alan Jackson, and renowned mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, during services throughout the entire weekend, marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Titled "A Call To Compassion:Honor, Heal, Hope, the special weekend will host concerts to honor the fallen, help the nation heal, and renew our sense of unity and hope.

R & B Singer Patti LaBelle


Country Singer Alan Jackson

Mezzo-Soprano Denyce Graves

Washington National Cathedral's Jarring News

Here's a copy of a letter from the National Cathedral today. I hope they don't mind if I reprint it since it offers clues of the recent earthquake-related damages. From the pictures I am posting, the damage appears to have pushed pieces to lower sections of the roof rather than onto the ground. It makes me wonder whether it was planned that way, and proved a tremendously good idea if it was. Fortunately, the rose window pictured online in last Sunday's service, and indeed all 231 stained glass windows, were spared in whole.  

Interior of Washington National Cathedral 

Dear Friend,

The National Cathedral sustained significant damage yesterday in the biggest earthquake to hit the East Coast in more than 70 years. Fortunately, no one was injured and damage to the interior seems to be limited. Every assessment indicates that the Cathedral is structurally sound, but the exterior has suffered visible damage.

As a special friend of the Cathedral, we want you to be informed with the latest updates about this national treasure. To learn the latest information, visit www.nationalcathedral.org.

Here is what we know so far about damage to the building's exterior:

• Three of the four pinnacles on the central tower, at the highest point of the Cathedral, have broken off—luckily onto the roof, which is reinforced by concrete.
• Some of the flying buttresses also suffered major cracks, especially around the historic apse at the building's east end. The extent of that damage is still unknown.
• One large finial fell from the northwest tower onto the Cathedral lawn. Due to its size and weight, gravity has lodged it into the ground.
• A number of the Cathedral's beautiful exterior sculptures and carvings were damaged, particularly on the central tower.

An updated photo and video gallery showing details of the earthquake damage is now available for you online.

As we assess the damage and begin the hard work ahead, please visit our website for continual updates: www.nationalcathedral.org

Thanks to your help, our efforts to rebuild and restore the nation's Cathedral start today.

Interior of Washington National Cathedral

 Actual photographs of the damage can be seen on the Cathedral website here and here. Meanwhile, we'll just have to stay tuned. Dean Lloyd is magnificently handling the challenge, as always. Now if only he could stay... 
UPDATE: The Atlantic and The Washington Post have interesting reports.

Change.org: A Change for the Better

Dear Reader,

There are many of us who don't or can't vote, for one reason or another, yet wouldn't mind giving politicians at all levels our opinions.

Now there is a super-easy way: Change.org, touting itself as "free online petition tools for social change." It's possible to log in to start a petition, and I'm relieved all the ones I have seen make a lot of sense. Somehow I got added to their mailing list, and it makes me feel extraordinarily empowered.

If you agree with them, you press a Sign bar, and add your name to some sort of cyberspace list, like voting for it. Feels good, actually, whether or not it goes anywhere. Sometimes, when I read, I notice the petition has gone somewhere, and is quoted as a source.

There are many attitudes that could be changed in the world, and Change.org is surprisingly focused on some of them I have thought about, and would like to see changed.

In fact, so far, over the last few months, I haven't neglected to sign in even once if requested, since their  suggestions appear so common-sensical.

Why not add your name to the Change.org mailing list, and you will see for yourself how many of their causes you believe in, and how good you feel when you press the Sign bar. It's easy to help online!

Love,
Shelley Seymour

All Hotels Should Sign EPCAT

EPCAT

"End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and

Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes"

I would urge all hotels to sign the EPCAT Agreement and be on the lookout for sex trafficking of any ages. Hilton and Wyndham hotels have signed it, and I would encourage all other hotels to agree. EPCAT is important public relations to help lift the "code of conduct" in hotels, and more substantially, as the written code hotel employees can refer to if necessary. In fact, they should be rewarded if they help. We want and need those who have been kidnapped to get out of it and live better lives.

While it isn't very surprising to hear that hotels should be involved, it only occurred to me  recently when I saw a man of sixty with a young Asian girl of ten in a hotel pool where I stayed overnight. I didn't stop and investigate. Ever since, I have felt guilty for not having taken an interest in her. I will always wonder if there is something I could have done, because I don't know if that child was being kidnapped. I certainly hope not, I simply don't know. 

When I think about it, I suppose sex kidnappings do use hotels, as expensive as they may be. I had always assumed evil kidnappers moved in vans directly into the houses of those involved in organizing it. Maybe it's not only done that way, as I have read. 

Next time, I would do something. I would ask that man what on earth he was doing with that young kid swimming in the pool. I am not saying he kidnapped her. I just wonder if he did. If so, I don't have the vocabulary to chastise him.

"The Help": Educational and Interesting

Recently, I read The Help by Kathryn Stockett reluctantly, worried it might not be sympathetic to African Americans. Turns out, I could not have been more mistaken. I enjoyed the book immensely, for its entertainment and pedagogical value. It's an important book and should have been easily published.

I have to say, the book made me feel and think about southern civil rights in ways that were new. The author's goal was to entertain, not to create any perception of a well-rounded agenda of further action that needs to be delivered to ignorant masses of white Americans. The author's audience is much larger, and more elusive, and points politely at  important issues, at least those of the time.

The author's major contribution is to voice the sentiments of  southerners in a way that is entertaining enough to be digested by mass populations not knowledgeable on the subject. I believe another book of the same caliber of entertainment on the subject has not been written since the original story of Gone with the Wind first published in 1936. It was an immense epic that idolized the old south and rich white people, and starred African-Americans only in secondary roles, with the exception of Scarlett O'Hara's Overseer.

The author claims much of it is fiction, despite the fact that a maid of the author's brother is suing her for using her in a story, which is rather a remarkable outcome, I would guess. Even if part of it is fiction, she must have gotten the material from somewhere, although I am not saying for a second the author lifted material from an actual person. I wouldn't know that. Maybe that's the trouble, I am confused about what's fact in the book, and what's fiction.

While I can in no way portray myself as an expert on the civil rights or factual content in The Help, anyone I have talked to about the book has taken away different historical references to chew on.

In an entertaining memoir I have just read, The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, references to a few injustices in the deep south were explained in a matter-of-fact way, and broadened my understanding of social injustices - one of my favorite topics on this blog, by the way. When I was about thirteen, I read Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" as I drove with my parents to a wedding on a three-day trip through northern Ontario, and the heat of that book warmed me for weeks, if not months.

I can't resist my opportunity to be supportive of an author against the unkind, hate-filled words of an opposing organization. I read a review of "The Help by Rebecca Wanzo in the Huffington Post which mentioned an organization with which I am unfamiliar, the Association of Black Historians. This Association has written an angry notice on its website directed to fans of The Help and in doing so, is amplifying racial overtones. Here are my reactions to their accusations, although I am only one person, and they are an entire organization.

The website notice by the Association is guilty of slews of oxymorons combining contradictory terms. It surprises me they should backlash against someone who has portrayed an era with sympathy for the workers, as Gone with the Wind did not, at least not as much. I just can't understand the unkindness of all those group members. Kathryn Stockett has depicted inequalities in ways they have not, at least as an organization, and it comes off as a rant of jealousy, bitterness, and is inaccurate, at best. It is a fiendishly topic to make interesting, isn't it?

Any foreigner in search of reliable information about the deep south wants to find it doled out in a palatable, entertaining way. I think the writers of that vituperative manifesto on the website have made several errors, which are rather obvious.

The stereotypical aspects of the novel elude me because I do not know any persons like the characters in the book. They may provide stereotypes to persons familiar with the content. I am just saying these roles are an introduction of fictional characters in a novel, no more, and no less. Certainly, they are not stereotypes to me.

The website, to make its point, states that The Help has sold "over three million copies, and heavy promotion of the movie will ensure its success at the box office." Numerous  books and movies have been flops despite huge budgets on top of "heavy promotion" so that's a clear oxymoron.

To say Kathryn Stockett's portrayal of representatives of "90 percent of working black women in the south" in the 1960s (a shockingly high number to me), is just a "disappointing resurrection of Mammy" is another oxymoron. I have not ever read such a well-rounded, sympathetically detailed description of the everyday life of  1960s African-American female (90% of them, after all, which is a point the author is making, too) in Mississippi. Not ever. That's a large number of the population with which many of us in the world, and even within the United States, are unfamiliar. 

I don't believe there is a lot of nostalgia for the 1960s in Mississippi in the book. Certainly, the book highlights the wrongs with that way of life, surely, when "a black woman could only hope to clean the White House rather than reside in it." Excuse me, but weren't female bathrooms installed for Senators only recently? We're all in this together, we women. The Vatican in Rome, Italy, had the longest line to women's (not to the men's) bathrooms I have ever seen in all my days!

The note says the black maids in the book are portrayed as "asexual" (without giving examples, but I do not agree).  Aren't  most maids in the novel married? Also, "loyal"? I think Minny was one of the most independent and disloyal of all maids I have ever read about..

Also, the letter of the historians misspells "smart" to "smat" and complains about spelling "Lord" -- "Law" although the entire linguistic attention showed a reader the dialect of southern speech in highlights as other classic southern stories have, so that the sounds of the voices could not be ignored.

The letter also complains about the sexual harassment and abuse of all kinds in the homes of white employers. Considering I thought that had gone out of style with the Civil War, the sheer volume of abuse detailed in the book was news to me. I think the author did an excellent job, even if the detailed abuses were not as deep as these Black Historians would have liked. This is a fictional novel; it is not the work of a historian. The author can say what she likes. After all, isn't she taking the blame by being sued, and for bearing the generational brunt of black female historians like these women?

White supremacist organizations like the White Citizens Council, I had never heard of in my life.  Perhaps the author wrote what she knew about, firsthand, which wasn't the Ku Klux Klan. (These are groups that believe they are "protecting" those of European origin and are anti-immigration). That is the right of the fiction novelist....One of her themes had to do with the unsaid rules of society. Far from "stripping" black women's lives of historical accuracy "for the sake of entertainment" I think the novel reveals valuable new ways of looking at old problems. It shines a new light on the topic of deep south society in the early '60s, the mistakes and the changes that needed to happen to correct them, rather than stripping it of importance. I don't know of anyone who thinks those days were better than  today. One of the goals of the novel, I think, is to highlight the racism of genteel white society in the bad old days of the early 1960s.

If the movie makes light of real fears and turns them into moments of comic relief, then that is truly a travesty, I agree. If so, I sympathize. I am surprised about the choice of actresses in the movie. I would have cast roles differently after reading the book, specifically Hilly.

I would have preferred to see certain disturbing scenes of the book  edited out -  specifically, about the intruder (which was edited out of the movie), and even the cake, the point of which, as "insurance" Hilly would not go after the maids is questionable to me - and I think it would have made as strong an impact. As well as being entertaining, this novel and movie, triumph because of the importance of the topic.

 The Help doesn't promise anywhere within the text to be a well-rounded historically accurate depiction of the sociological implications of the 1960s in Mississippi. The amazing contribution is that it's better entertainment than many alternatives out there, in a socially sensitive area where few others have succeeded, and been as educational. The Association has suggested further books to read on it's website. I hope they are interesting, and I will write reviews if they are.

A Few Random Questions

Here are some ordinary, every day questions on varied topics....

• Why don't people generally say they are sorry if they've made a mistake? Are they busy and forgot, or are they afraid it is a sign of weakness?
  

• When people have good cell phone reception, how much better are their relationships than if they have poor reception, especially if they are not conscious of the importance of the quality of the phone lines?  

• Why are Afghans angry if their teenagers want to play together?

• Why does American society, as a whole, play dead to bigger crimes and make innocents pay the costs of justice - which may or may not happen?

• Why is the head of the Tea Party holding up the two sides of the debt debate from making a settlement if, as she said on CNN, she is neither Republican nor Democrat, or even elected? 

•  Why did Michele Bachmann say she will try to impeach the President when any agreement on the debt debate is a joint decision made by many people from both parties?

 

• Why can the 'buying pool' of my 'house for sale' in America only afford to rent not buy, time after time???

I don't think they have short answers.

What is Mental Illness?

Sometimes I worry about social values around the world, and how societies  and their citizens sometimes refuse to admit to the reality of mental illness.

The young man in Norway killed over seventy people, is estranged from his family, and is not, at least according to some news accounts, believed to be mentally ill.

Casey Anthony who danced for a month after her newborn completely disappeared was not accepted by a jury as a mentally ill killer.

If violent acts are not done by the mentally ill, then exactly who in this world fits the label "mentally ill"?

Here's a new story of an educated young Bangladeshi woman blinded, bitten, and mauled almost to death by her husband, and yet her husband is publicly allowed to turn the blame on her.

"With the community breaking its typical silence, a more nuanced universal story is emerging of a young wife struggling privately in a difficult marriage with a man who may have been suffering himself from a mental illness, family members say."

His family finally admits he "may have been" suffering from a mental illness, as if he may also not have been? Excuse me, but exactly who validates, defines and gives mental illness start and end dates? Who decides who is and who is not mentally ill?

If violent acts are not necessarily carried out by the mentally ill, then who perfectly fits the label "mentally ill"? Sounds like a world desperately uncertain of the definitions of mental illness.

We should be skeptical of a so-called division between violent acts and mental illness.  We should recognize the symptoms of mental illness: inability to cope, detachment from reality, excessive anger, withdrawal from friends and activities, and  possibly delusions, in extreme cases. To me, it's  a sign of healthy common sense to believe they must be linked. Isn't that why children can legally be protected from parents, wives from husbands returning from war duty or aggressive sports games?

Here are necessary humanitarian social values as promoted by the United Nations, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: 

gender-equality

non-violence

non-discrimination

impartiality

voluntary service

unity

universality

neutrality

education

maternal and child health

disease and poverty eradication

environmental sustainability 

and mine,

kindness

love

courage

compassion, and friendship

These are a few of the social values that win against mental illness, ignorance and anger.