Sad News as our People and Nation struggle through race issues, a long and sad history. Wishes we can find a way to love each other with Respect being the principle that drives change.
Thursday
6/4
 |
| Tonight's Full Moon, Go to Google Images to read text. |
Oh, a hidden power is in my breast,
A power that none can fathom;
I call the tides from seas of rest,
They rise, they fall, at my behest;
And many a tardy fisher’s boat,
I’ve torn apart and set afloat,
From out their raging chasm.
For I’m an enchantress, old and grave;
Concealed I rule the weather;
Oft set I, the lover’s heart a blaze,
With hidden power of my fulgent rays,
Or seek I the souls of dying men,
And call the sea-tides from the fen,
And drift them out together.
I call the rain from the mountain’s peak,
And sound the mighty thunder;
When I wax and wane from week to week,
The heavens stir, while vain men seek,
To solve the myst’ries that I hold,
But a bounded portion I unfold,
So nations pass and wonder.
Yea, my hidden strength no man may know;
Nor myst’ries be expounded;
I’ll cause the tidal waves to flow,
And I shall wane, and larger grow,
Yet while man rack his shallow brain,
The secrets with me still remain,
He seeks in vain, confounded.
|
Priscilla Jane Thompson was born in 1871 in Rossmoyne, Ohio. A poet and lecturer, she taught at Sunday school at Zion Baptist Church and self-published two books of poetry, Ethiope Lays (1900) and Gleanings of Quiet Hours (1907). Her work inspired the Harlem Renaissance. She died on May 4, 1942.
This arrived in my Inbox on Monday and I thought it fitting.
SCIENCE
 |
| Check out the Lunar Eclipse in Asia above. |
When and where to watch the June 2020 lunar eclipse
The penumbral lunar eclipse will start at 11:15pm on June 5 and last until 2:34am on June 6, which is about three hours and 18 minutes. It will be visible from Eastern Africa, the Middle East, Southern Asia including India, and Australia. As per the data by NASA, the eclipse will be visible to people living in the Eastern coast of South America, Western Africa, and Europe at Moonrise and to people in Japan and New Zealand at Moonset.
Sad and Heavy News
I respect that George Floyd's brother said, “We are a Peaceful Family,” when I watched the News Monday evening. His call to action is to educate yourself and vote. This is wise in my opinion. He said "No one can feel the pain I am feeling, and I am not destroying my neighborhood, that these actions only hurt communities." I felt immediate respect and reverence for him in is family's greatest time of sorrow.
My partner watched the video of George Floyd asking to Breathe. I cannot.
The image would never leave my mind. I do not like Violence. I did my thesis on how Television, Movies, and Media affect children. The results are astonishing, and people who consume repeated violence become desensitized, until these images are commonplace for some, Video games have similar desensitizing results. Look into this. The results are appalling.
Yesterday a long time friend stopped by as I was cutting the grass, we said hello and had a brief conversation about National events. She and I have done Yoga for many years in different places, she in New York, and I on Cape Cod, the practice becomes a part of your being, and Breath Work, is a large part of this practice and becomes a way to Breathe through tough postures and times in life. We talked about how Breath is a common need for all, Universal and how George Floyd's request was ignored by many. Inexcusable, and horrifying that his simple request to Breath was not honored.
Often when I am doing a triathlon, (I am a regular person, not super fit, so these things can be hard for me,) I come back to a Mantra that resonates with my soul, repeating, Ra... Ma....Da... Sa... Ancient and for me palpable Sanskrit words... connecting my Soul to the Breath and Universe.
I am wishing for change and love to guide us as we continue to live through policy that is ineffective and stagnant as we educate and discuss to move forward from this point.
My partner watched the video of George Floyd asking to Breathe. I cannot.
The image would never leave my mind. I do not like Violence. I did my thesis on how Television, Movies, and Media affect children. The results are astonishing, and people who consume repeated violence become desensitized, until these images are commonplace for some, Video games have similar desensitizing results. Look into this. The results are appalling.
Yesterday a long time friend stopped by as I was cutting the grass, we said hello and had a brief conversation about National events. She and I have done Yoga for many years in different places, she in New York, and I on Cape Cod, the practice becomes a part of your being, and Breath Work, is a large part of this practice and becomes a way to Breathe through tough postures and times in life. We talked about how Breath is a common need for all, Universal and how George Floyd's request was ignored by many. Inexcusable, and horrifying that his simple request to Breath was not honored.
Often when I am doing a triathlon, (I am a regular person, not super fit, so these things can be hard for me,) I come back to a Mantra that resonates with my soul, repeating, Ra... Ma....Da... Sa... Ancient and for me palpable Sanskrit words... connecting my Soul to the Breath and Universe.
Yogapedia explains Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung
Linguistically, this mantra contains several Sanskrit letters that, by themselves, are pure mantras. Each word in this mantra is also a letter, except the last word, which is a bija or seed mantra. Each word ties to a chakra, or energy center, on the spine. Thus, in addition to these sounds containing the vibratory qualities in our world, they also enliven the same energies on our own bodies, in almost a mirror effect.
The syllable sounds and the associated chakras are:
- Ra (sun) – root chakra
- Ma (moon) – sacral chakra
- Da (earth) – navel chakra
- Sa (impersonal infinity) – heart and throat chakras
- Say (totality of infinity) – third eye chakra
- So (personal sense of merger and identity) – crown chakra
- Hung (the infinite) – sends energy from the crown back to the root chakra
While the translation of this mantra is significant and interesting, the strength in Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung is in the vibratory qualities of the sounds themselves. The practitioner can focus on the sounds and how they make them feel, or they can imagine the energy rising up their spine to the top of their head. That is a personal preference. Since this is a relatively new mantra, the practitioner is more free to use it however they feel is best.
I am wishing for change and love to guide us as we continue to live through policy that is ineffective and stagnant as we educate and discuss to move forward from this point.
I find it hard to verbalize the complicated and defunct system that is US policy and government and human relations in a country where we all should have equal opportunity and representation and safety for our citizens.
I read an email from Best Buy executive Tuesday morning that summarized my feelings and elaborated on them. Here are the words. I feel this is a good look at this continuing issue. I included the email text below.
I was thinking, Tuesday night, while I watched the news coverage of the Boston and Brocton, MA. protests, What would Martin Luther King do and say? I was thinking back to when the coverage of the LA Riots happened, and I watched them many years ago, a very different Media Presentation on the Media outlets without cell phone coverage from each individual's own personal cell phone coverage, which happens today.
This NYTimes link from MLK Day, has many teaching resources which you may find relevant to teaching about George Floyd’s death and the long history of conflict without resolution.
...But on the 50th anniversary of his death, it is worth noting how his message and his priorities had evolved by the time he was shot on that balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis in 1968. Dr. King was confronting many challenges that remain with us today.
He was battling racism in the North then, not just in the South. He was pushing the government to address poverty, income inequality, structural racism and segregation in cities like Boston and Chicago. He was also calling for an end to a war that was draining the national treasury of funds needed to finance a progressive domestic agenda.
This may not be the Dr. King that many remember. Yet, his words resonate powerfully — and, perhaps, uncomfortably — today in a country that remains deeply divided on issues of race and class.
How do your students see his words resonating in their own lives and communities — and in our nation and around the world? Invite them to click through this rich collection, which links to both new and archival pieces, as they attempt to answer the question we pose above: What would Dr. King make of America today?
As they work, students might highlight quotes and ideas that pair especially well with other things they are reading, learning about, listening to or viewing. For instance, how do they speak to current works like Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” or Angie Thomas’s “The Hate U Give”? Why? As a culminating activity, a class might create a gallery of images and quotes that bridge Dr. King’s battles with those we are fighting today.
2. Protesting Injustice in Our World
Credit...
Illustration by Jon Han
Do you have to be disobedient if you want justice? How would your students answer?
How much do your students know about the civil rights movement? Test their knowledge with this 13-question quiz The Times published in 2019 in honor of Dr. King’s 90th birthday. Then consider: What did working to advance racial and social justice look like in the 1950s and 60s? What does it look like now?
In a 2015 Magazine article, “Teaching Martin Luther King Jr. in the Age of Freddie Gray,” Syreeta McFadden writes about discussing “Letter From Birmingham Jail” with her students at a community college in Manhattan:
… We returned to King’s letter, in which he draws a distinction between just and unjust laws. They didn’t know about this King, I found, the one who fought the law. In their view, the civil rights movement was embodied in King the Christlike leader, who stands for peace, love and brotherhood.
I told the students that King went to jail a lot for peace, love and brotherhood.
We talked about Baltimore, where the police had just killed Freddie Gray and street protests were swelling to an uprising. My students were skeptical of headlines and commentary that called for nonviolent protest. One of the students noted that the police were violent, too, and they were placing people in mortal danger just to protect some buildings from being damaged.
“A building is not more valuable than a person,” she said. Most of the others nodded in agreement. More began to speak. The rote discussion was becoming impassioned, cacophonous:
“But there’s a difference between rioting and peaceful protest. …”
“Are we saying property is more valuable than a human being?”
“That’s like saying to protest is unlawful. …”
“What does ‘peaceful’ even mean?”
Read about the rest of the discussion that day, and think about the implications for your own classroom. How does teaching about Dr. King and the civil rights movement look different today, after recent movements like #takeaknee and #MeToo, and protests from the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter to the events in Charlottesville, Va.?
Art Protests the death of George Floyd.
A letter from Best Buy's CEO to their email contacts.
We are not doing enough.
Her look at this conflict and steps to better lives for Black Lives Matter below.
Best Buy is a Minnesota Company.
Her look at this conflict and steps to better lives for Black Lives Matter below.
Best Buy is a Minnesota Company.
.
We are, I believe, in one of the toughest times in our country's history, as we continue to battle a deadly pandemic and the resulting economic havoc while, once again, coming face-to-face with the long-term effects of racial injustice. Watching tens of thousands take to the streets to speak out against fear and inhumanity is, on one hand, inspiring for the commitment it represents and, on the other, heartbreaking for its profound need.
But what's next? What do we do to change the cycle in which black men or women, with tragic frequency, are harmed by those who are supposed to protect them? Or the gut-wrenching truth that to be a person of color in America is often to not feel fully safe, seen or heard?
For me, it starts with seeing the situation for what it is, acknowledging these experiences for what they are and, quite simply, apologizing for not doing enough. As important, it includes committing the company I lead down a path of systemic, permanent change in as many ways as we can find.
I don't have the answers, but I am no longer OK with not asking the question: If everything were on the table, what could Best Buy do? With that in mind, I am appointing a diverse group (by demography and level in the company) to challenge one another and, ultimately, our senior leadership team and Board of Directors, with substantive, enduring ways we can address the inequities and injustices to which all of us bear witness every day.
In many ways, we have engaged in these issues for years. We have long been focused on the opportunity gap and its companion, the digital divide. More than a decade ago we began building a national network of what we call Teen Tech Centers, places where teens from disinvested communities are exposed to and trained on a range of technology that, we now know, can make a critical difference in helping them find success in post-secondary education or the job market.
We are looking to create more than 100 of these centers, open year-round and typically hosting hundreds of young people who begin in middle school and leave when they graduate high school. We do not do this alone, of course, as our employees, vendor partners and dozens of nonprofits are actively engaged in bringing this mission to life.
Additionally, we have brought our resources to bear on the issue of remote learning. In our home state of Minnesota, we helped found a public-private effort to provide computers and internet access to hundreds of thousands of youth from disinvested communities who have neither. Without this technology, learning from home, should it be necessary this fall and winter, would be impossible, widening both the digital divide and opportunity gap.
This effort is reflective of our broader view that we must continue to be an important player in the communities we are a part of, especially those hardest hit. This includes continuing to serve the neighborhoods in which our stores were damaged.
As for those who rely on us the most — our employees — we continue to focus on their safety. Just as we did in response to the pandemic, we closed some stores around the country when we felt the risk was too high. Some remain closed, and any affected employee will be paid for their time. As always, no one is compelled to come back to work if they feel uncomfortable.
Neighborhoods across America have felt the heat of flames lit by those who would do only harm, and still others have felt the fear that comes from not knowing where that harm may go next. But those fires will be extinguished, and the damage will be repaired. What remains, however, are the indelible images of George Floyd and the many who came before him. It is in their name that we embrace the fight for equality and justice as a common cause, one we all fight — and solve — together.
Thank you,
Corie Barry
Chief Executive Officer, Best Buy
But what's next? What do we do to change the cycle in which black men or women, with tragic frequency, are harmed by those who are supposed to protect them? Or the gut-wrenching truth that to be a person of color in America is often to not feel fully safe, seen or heard?
For me, it starts with seeing the situation for what it is, acknowledging these experiences for what they are and, quite simply, apologizing for not doing enough. As important, it includes committing the company I lead down a path of systemic, permanent change in as many ways as we can find.
I don't have the answers, but I am no longer OK with not asking the question: If everything were on the table, what could Best Buy do? With that in mind, I am appointing a diverse group (by demography and level in the company) to challenge one another and, ultimately, our senior leadership team and Board of Directors, with substantive, enduring ways we can address the inequities and injustices to which all of us bear witness every day.
In many ways, we have engaged in these issues for years. We have long been focused on the opportunity gap and its companion, the digital divide. More than a decade ago we began building a national network of what we call Teen Tech Centers, places where teens from disinvested communities are exposed to and trained on a range of technology that, we now know, can make a critical difference in helping them find success in post-secondary education or the job market.
We are looking to create more than 100 of these centers, open year-round and typically hosting hundreds of young people who begin in middle school and leave when they graduate high school. We do not do this alone, of course, as our employees, vendor partners and dozens of nonprofits are actively engaged in bringing this mission to life.
Additionally, we have brought our resources to bear on the issue of remote learning. In our home state of Minnesota, we helped found a public-private effort to provide computers and internet access to hundreds of thousands of youth from disinvested communities who have neither. Without this technology, learning from home, should it be necessary this fall and winter, would be impossible, widening both the digital divide and opportunity gap.
This effort is reflective of our broader view that we must continue to be an important player in the communities we are a part of, especially those hardest hit. This includes continuing to serve the neighborhoods in which our stores were damaged.
As for those who rely on us the most — our employees — we continue to focus on their safety. Just as we did in response to the pandemic, we closed some stores around the country when we felt the risk was too high. Some remain closed, and any affected employee will be paid for their time. As always, no one is compelled to come back to work if they feel uncomfortable.
Neighborhoods across America have felt the heat of flames lit by those who would do only harm, and still others have felt the fear that comes from not knowing where that harm may go next. But those fires will be extinguished, and the damage will be repaired. What remains, however, are the indelible images of George Floyd and the many who came before him. It is in their name that we embrace the fight for equality and justice as a common cause, one we all fight — and solve — together.
Thank you,
Corie Barry
Chief Executive Officer, Best Buy
Barry has had a meteoric rise throughout her career. She started out as an auditor with the Big Four accounting firm Deloitte & Touche before joining Best Buy. Over the next 20 years, Barry held about 15 positions—successfully rising to the president of the Geek Squad Services division (the group that troubleshoots and fixes computer and related issues), chief financial officer and then CEO.
Barry is one of only a handful of women who lead Fortune 500 companies. She is married and has two children. At just 44-years old, she is one of the youngest CEOs of an S&P 500 company.
Barry once said in a CNBC interview, “My career path is anything but linear. I spent time in finance. I spent time actually living and working in the field in retail. I spent time running services. I started our strategic growth office. I’ve had the chance to run our technology teams.”
from Title 9 company.
Resources to help written after their CFO's Letter.
So, what does that look like for Title Nine:- Starting immediately, we are contributing $10,000 to bail-out funds that help black women activists.
- Starting immediately, we are contributing $10,000 each to two organizations that support reproductive justice in the black community: SisterSong and ARC-Southeast.
- Starting immediately, we are contributing $10,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative which fights to end the racial inequities in our criminal justice system.
- We have offered paid time off to any T9er who would like to participate in peaceful protests in their community.
Here at T9, we are 300-strong, but we are only one small company. It will be up to all of us to support in both time and money, to protest, and to vote.
We will be better. We must be.
Thank you for reading,
Missy
P. S. Below is a list of resources that T9ers have found to be helpful.
Donate:
Reclaim the Block
National Bail Out #FreeBlackMamas
The Movement for Black Lives
Campaign Zero
Black Visions Collective
Sign:
Justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and more
Stand with Black Lives Matter
Vote:
Register to vote
Request an absentee ballot
Learn:
1619 Podcast
NY Times Anti-Racist Reading List
Anti Racism Project
Anti Racism Resources
Beginnings of Solution based ideas and Wishes for Creative Family Solutions to go along with the teaching.
401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing.
Detroit Art Week
South Korea, Good news and how they prevented Corona Virus Spread.
Travel Company Helps a Nairobi, Kenya, Slum During Covid 19
As pandemic-related trip postponements have quieted the business on the safari side of things, closures and restrictions across Kenya have only intensified the work of Obara and her team in Nairobi’s second-largest slum. They often work seven-day weeks to continue their mission to improve the lives of impoverished and vulnerable women and children through education. But additional concerns—the prohibitive price tag of face masks, the closure of schools, and the worsening problem of hunger—have added new challenges.
AmericaShare has pivoted quickly to address them by leveraging its long-standing ties in the community and zeroing in on those who are neediest, according to Lorna Macleod, the New York City–based founder and director of AmericaShare and sister organization Huru International.
“Because of our longevity there, we know who the most vulnerable people are,” says Macleod. “Our social workers are known in the community, so if people are in dire straits they will reach out to the social workers and ask for help.”
Since the founding of AmericaShare more than 30 years ago, Micato guests have been able to engage with Micato’s community work as an add-on to their safaris; many visit the organization’s projects in Mukuru, and end up becoming philanthropists, creating lasting connections with the community there. And regardless of whether a guest visits Mukuru, Micato commits to sending one child to school, through high school graduation, for every safari booked.
Kids practice Kindness
Thanks for stopping by,
I try not to post anything controversial, however the teachable moment is now and people need to talk and respect each other as we live through these moments.
Best Regards, Eliza
I try not to post anything controversial, however the teachable moment is now and people need to talk and respect each other as we live through these moments.
Best Regards, Eliza
Comments
Post a Comment