- Fair is fair: Kindergarten and the American Dream | Alas, a blog • by Grace Annam
- reap what you sow. Hard work earns success. Rags to Riches. Horatio Alger. We cherish this belief so strongly that it has a Title in Capital Letters :
- The American Dream.
- To an extent, all of this is true. Work longer hours, or a better job, and holding all else equal, you’ll have more money at the end.
- To an extent, it’s not true. …
- It’s a lottery. Humans can’t control or compensate for everything, so to some extent it will always be a lottery. But there are plenty of ways in which we could make it LESS of a lottery, and we don’t do them…
- Don’t miss tonight’s ‘Town’ programme on BBC2! » Transition Culture
- Just a quick word to say you might enjoy this evening’s ‘Town’ programme on BBC2 at 9pm. …“A Saxon river town in South Devon, Totnes is one of the UK’s oldest towns. It has seen tough times through its long history, but adversity has taught it to innovate. Geographer and adventurer Nicholas Crane visits the home of one of the greatest social experiments of the 20th century, and uncovers the test bed for an ambitious new idea that aims to change our urban life forever”.
- Violence, interrupted / Waging Nonviolence – People-Powered News and Analysis
- …traditional heroism [is] fueled by the implacable absolutism of the Us vs. Them script…enforced by justified violence. Gandhi’s new heroism-subverting hero — whom he called a satyagrahi, a practitioner of Soulforce — bet her life on challenging and dissolving this ceaselessly reinvented and endlessly lethal dividing line.
- “The Interrupters,” a new documentary from director Steve James and producer Alex Kotlowitz, vividly dramatizes this gamble in the midst of a culture of extreme youth violence on Chicago’s South and West Sides…
- …it tracks over the course of a year a trio of “violence interrupters” …nonviolent first responders intervening in numerous disputes on the streets…
- From many angles the film makes the point that both violence and nonviolence hinge on a subtle dance between an individual’s journey, the abiding challenges of interpersonal relationships, and the larger narrative of the community’s story and history.
- “This is Getting Exciting”: Bill McKibben on the Eve of the Environmental Movement’s Biggest Civil Disobedience Action—Ever
- …the Saturday beginning of what looks like it will be the largest civil disobedience protest in the history of the American environmental movement.
- We’ve got 2,000 people signed up to come to Washington and get arrested outside the White House between August 20 and September 3, all in an effort to persuade President Obama not to grant a permit for a new pipeline from the tar sands of Canada.
- …so many of us will be wearing our Obama ’08 buttons when we get arrested: we want desperately to conjure up the surge of joy that came with that campaign….
- Religious fundamentalists imprison girls in the United States | Gender Across Borders • by Amy Littlefield
- …stories from women who survived brutal experiences at religious homes that have operated with impunity in states such as Missouri, Louisiana and Texas — apparently with the blessings of politicians…
- …schools that so clearly abuse young women — and, in other cases, young men. Joyce reports that officials in Missouri are prevented from “inspecting the homes or even keeping track of them.” Attempts to regulate the facilities are billed by the religious groups as “persecution.” …
- This is, by the way, an industry. The homes are not cheap. …
- What is happening at these homes is outright child abuse. At a recent raid at a home for boys in Alabama, authorities found leg irons, handcuffs, and guns.
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Thu, Aug 18th, 11am) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.