Community Chat

[velveteenb]

hihi --

wow. i have stayed away from all but one specific thread for a long time. this thread is an education and reminder of why i made that choice.

one of the things i don't understand is why some posters care more about arguing with others, having the last word, and being "right" than in trying to find a solution to a problem or even just expressing an opinion.

anyway.

i believe that every life is of equal value; the abusive father's life is worth no less than that of his daughter.

i believe in the concept of the seventh generation.

i believe that because we are human, we have the capacity for empathy. we also have the capacity for compassion fatigue.

i believe, simplistic as it sounds, in the golden rule.

i also believe in the existence of all sorts of things that i do not understand ... that because we are human, we seem to have the capacity for bias and discrimination and bullying, murder and genocide.

i was going to say "we have the capacity to choose". but do we? all of us? i don't think so. i don't think a starving orphan in a war torn country has the luxury of choices in her life. maybe that's what i would like to change most ... giving everyone enough safety/shelter/sustenance and love that they then have the time, energy and emotional strength to exercise their capacity to choose. i don't know.

i have often said that humans are not my favorite species. then again, being human is all i've got.

bunny. tdcr.

[biancardi]

On 3/30/2014 velveteenb said:

hihi --

wow. i have stayed away from all but one specific thread for a long time. this thread is an education and reminder of why i made that choice.

one of the things i don't understand is why some posters care more about arguing with others, having the last word, and being "right" than in trying to find a solution to a problem or even just expressing an opinion.

anyway.

i believe that every life is of equal value; the abusive father's life is worth no less than that of his daughter.

i believe in the concept of the seventh generation.

i believe that because we are human, we have the capacity for empathy. we also have the capacity for compassion fatigue.

i believe, simplistic as it sounds, in the golden rule.

i also believe in the existence of all sorts of things that i do not understand ... that because we are human, we seem to have the capacity for bias and discrimination and bullying, murder and genocide.

i was going to say "we have the capacity to choose". but do we? all of us? i don't think so. i don't think a starving orphan in a war torn country has the luxury of choices in her life. maybe that's what i would like to change most ... giving everyone enough safety/shelter/sustenance and love that they then have the time, energy and emotional strength to exercise their capacity to choose. i don't know.

i have often said that humans are not my favorite species. then again, being human is all i've got.

bunny. tdcr.

VB - very insightful and thoughtful post. I agree with your points.

[rarejan]

All life is precious. To separate those undesirables out and say their lives are not worth as much as someone else, is to assume you know more than the Being who created us all. We can judge a criminal's actions and say that he has made his life of less worth than an upstanding citizen...but the life created by God is of great value. Those who we deem to be unworthy and of lesser value were once precious, innocent babies whose lives we all valued. Their actions during the course of their lifetimes should be judged, not their life force, for who are we to know what the Being who created them has in store for them?

[Rununculus]

The news on TV and in traditional newspapers and magazines is, for the most part, controlled by large corporations who are hungry for eyeballs. I say this as one who worked in the media for years. The coverage has virtually nothing to do with the values each of us individually carries around in our hearts.

One of the values we can have is to support the United Nations to make it a stronger organization so when atrocities occur, the U.N. can step in with sanctions and/or humanitarian aid, and in some cases military intervention/peacekeepers. They have successfully aided in numerous nations in crisis/transition such as Burundi, Sierra Leone and Kosovo among others.

[velveteenb]

hihi --

apologies for my "holier than thou" pontificating earlier. i do believe every word i wrote, but could've said it differently.

hihi {{{ biancardi }}}! good to see you and thanks for your kind words despite my tone.

Noel and Rununculus - thank you both for calm and helpful posts. do you know about UNICEF's tap project? one must have a smart phone in order to participate, but i think it's an otherwise fabulous idea.

bunny. tdcr.

ps i have a small vase of rununculus across the room from me. beautiful, and a recent discovery.

[NoelSeven]

On 3/29/2014 Irshgrl31201 said:

There is no question we have work to do when it comes to infant mortality in the US. I would argue though that we do have factors that do contribute to our problem though. One is we share a border with a developing nation. There are few on that list who share this with us. We have people coming here from Mexico to have their children who have not had proper or any prenatal care at all. A lot of high infant mortality rates are located in the south. Between 2000-2009 immigrants contributed more to the growth of the suburban poor population than any other region of the US. In Washington DC 40% of the growth in the suburban poor was due to immigrants. Second, we have a large obesity rate and we also have the highest rate of unnecessary C-sections.

Also African Americans are twice as likely to die in their first year than whites are. There was a study done in NC that concluded that white women who did not finish high school had a lower infant mortality rate than black college graduates.

I am not arguing there isn't work to be done but we do have factors that make up that number that other countries don't experience to the extent we do.

Both Canada and the UK have a high rate of immigrants, many of whom are people of color, and many are poor.

It's us, we are not doing what should be done to better the outcome. We have not provided the pregnancy care needed for all pregnant women, and for sure, we are shooting ourselves in the foot by additionally taking away the only care some women have by way of Planned Parenthood.

We're not even providing the necessary medical care needed for our veterans, in fact their care has been cut, just as funding to PP has been cut.

The problem is this country and those who make the cuts and won't back medical care for all.

[velveteenb]

hihi --

i so agree.

today veterans have my attention. so many of them would be, in another context, children -- or at least "young people". our national public persona waves the flag, thanks them for their service, and lauds their bravery in "making the world safe for democracy".

and yet, the suicide rate among veterans is horrifically high. they have seen, and sometimes committed, atrocities of which we cannot conceive. many are homeless. many are what is now called "food insecure". their lives and often the lives of their families will never be normal again.

if we as a nation value our soldiers so highly, maybe we need to put down our flags, roll up our sleeves and help someone, for heavens' sake!

bunny. tdcr.

[terrier3]

On 3/30/2014 rarejan said:

All life is precious. To separate those undesirables out and say their lives are not worth as much as someone else, is to assume you know more than the Being who created us all. We can judge a criminal's actions and say that he has made his life of less worth than an upstanding citizen...but the life created by God is of great value. Those who we deem to be unworthy and of lesser value were once precious, innocent babies whose lives we all valued. Their actions during the course of their lifetimes should be judged, not their life force, for who are we to know what the Being who created them has in store for them?

After 9/11, the whole country seemed to be on a mission to root out and kill those who were behind this atrocity.

The stronger the war talk became though, the more I questioned it.

We lost about 3,000 souls - to date, we have retaliated by killing hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. At least 200,000 in Iraq alone - a country that wasn't even involved in any way with 9/11.

So now of course the families of those hundreds of thousands will want to retaliate against us...millions who have been affected personally by our weapons.

This doesn't even take into account our young men and women who either lost their lives, were disabled for life or just tragically changed by their experiences.

It never ends.

[esmeraldagooch]

Women in general are not worth as much in many countries. Also if you are a different belief than the majority of your country you can be killed, jailed or attacked with no recourse. Coptic Christians in Egypt are a prime example.

[terrier3]

On 3/30/2014 esmeraldagooch said:

Women in general are not worth as much in many countries. Also if you are a different belief than the majority of your country you can be killed, jailed or attacked with no recourse. Coptic Christians in Egypt are a prime example.

Carter just wrote a book on this.

Say what you will about him, he was the last leader to have no incursions on other countries during his 4 years in office.