: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.
The definition of destruction:
: ruin.
I might be the only one using the term genocide to describe what’s going on in our country today.
History is shady too.
I was reading at the library information in an online video course on Art in American History.
One of the hosts got away with talking about how Mr. Toupee hung a portrait of Andrew Jackson on his wall at the White House.
The video host said that Jackson was the architect of the worst American genocide. During his term Native Americans were run off their tribal lands. Thousands were killed along the infamous Trail of Tears.
It tells you something that Mr. Toupee venerates Jackson.
At the library new books have been published praising Mr. Toupee and denouncing “Trump’s Enemies.” Other new books trumpet that the Donald is trashing American democracy.
Whose side of the story is the truth?
Stacey Abrams when interviewed said that we can’t expect any president we vote into office to be our savior.
We can though hold them accountable for doing the right thing once elected.
In two months we vote for the president.
People are being denied the right to vote.
If you are registered to vote I say walk into the polling site with your own two feet–or wheel yourself in if you use a wheelchair–and go vote.
Send in an absentee ballot before the deadline if you cannot show up in person.
One year I walked around the corner to the polling site and voted at 6:15 a.m.
If you haven’t been denied the right to vote–Just Do It–go out and vote.
Alicia Keys in her memoir recounts having a friend ask her at a table in a pizzeria: “Why are you here?”
That sparked her activism.
And you, why are you here?
I used to visit fortune tellers. I sat down in a chair across from one woman. I hadn’t said one word. I hadn’t opened my mouth.
Out of nowhere the psychic’s first words were: “You’re here to make a difference.”
I’ve stopped going to fortune tellers.
The question “Why are you here” is relevant for everyone today.
Studying numerology can help a person figure out why you’re here. Christine DeLorey wrote the book seen above. I have underlined sentences in each section.
I once tried to talk about numerology to another person. She got spooked. Only I recommend the book Life Cycles.
Christine DeLorey can create a Personal Numerology Profile PDF document for you for $95 dollars.
Some of you might think that’s going a little too far.
However I think that whatever can give a person comfort in the time of the pandemic shouldn’t be ruled out.
I also recommend reading Susan Miller’s AstrologyZone on the internet every month.
What I don’t advise is going to fortune tellers as a hobby. Though I had the good fortune to have real psychics give me accurate readings not all of them are reputable. And what they tell you can freak you out.
The New York Times reported on a woman who gave people fake predictions to string them along for thousands of dollars. When asked to predict when she’d be sprung free from jail for her crimes she couldn’t give anyone that date.
You can browse the Creative Numerology website for an introduction to the Christine DeLorey book.
The goal is self-improvement and self-actualization.
The goal isn’t to have someone tell you when you’re going to die. Or that for $40 she can remove a bad curse hanging over your head.
Living through the COVID-19 outbreak with the changed circumstances of our lives–the mask wearing and the social distancing–have you like I have wanted to exert control over the things you have control over?
When life is uncertain and it feels like things are out of control:
I say doing things that give you comfort shouldn’t be ruled out.
Drugs or drink–no not that. Anything else–why not?
Whatever makes a person happy shouldn’t be judged.
And in this time of illness–physical and political–now more than ever having joy is called for.
Who couldn’t use a little more freedom and happiness in their lives?
It might be that No One is Too Small to Make a Difference.
I say that corporations are too big not to make a difference. They must be held accountable for their role in global warming.
My life on the other hand is Not-so-Green.
I order food to be delivered that comes in plastic containers. This isn’t good. Not for the planet and not for me either. Since hot plastic leaches chemicals into food.
What is the solution?
I plan instead of ordering dinner to be delivered to have soup when I have no energy to cook.
I think it comes down to making trade-offs. You can excel in one Green area and come up short in another Green area.
My aim is to find a suitable plastic container I can take with me to the deli counter to have the staff use and reuse the same container.
Instead of buying food that comes in a new container each time.
This tactic was talked about in a book a woman wrote about achieving zero waste. If I remember right the book was titled The Zero Waste Home.
The goal as I see it is to consume less–less electricity less gas and oil less of anything that is wasteful.
My electric bill statement has skyrocketed in the time of the pandemic. Plus New York City has had a record number of heatwaves this summer.
The air conditioner has been going at all hours in my apartment. That’s not-so-green. Only I can’t be in direct heat for longer than 10 minutes. I’m at greater risk for heat stroke.
I will search on the Container Store website for a reusable plastic container.
I expect the deli counter staff to look at me screw-eyed when I ask them to use my plastic container not theirs.
The Trash is for Tossers woman allegedly reduced her yearly waste to only one mason jar of trash.
Greta Thunberg was only 16 when she published the book shown above. She is the face of climate change protesters. 6 Million individuals have joined her in school-striking for zero carbon emissions by 2030.
I don’t like to single people out this way. However I think what should be written about Thunberg is that she was diagnosed with Asperger’s.
In her own words in the book she writes that her disability isn’t a medical condition–it’s a gift.
She credits the Asperger’s as giving her the black-and-white thinking required to tackle the global warming issue.
In 1997 three years before I moved to my beloved Brooklyn I sold my last car to a mechanic for $400.
I didn’t want to incur the higher cost of auto insurance in Brooklyn. Nor did I want to spend an hour every day driving around looking for a parking spot. And I didn’t want to need to pay for costly car repairs.
In fact the prime reason I sold my car was that I didn’t want to be dependent on foreign oil.
In 1997 when I sold my car no one talked about global warming. I was in the vanguard in moving to a neighborhood where there were retail shops and food markets within walking distance.
I was a Visionary in giving up my car and deciding to walk everywhere.
Greta Thunberg nowhere in her book talks about the root cause of global warming:
How city planners prioritized building roads and highways so that people could travel by car when they had to get somewhere.
Not only that often the highways built in effect separated well-off neighborhoods from poor communities. Reinforcing inequality.
In New York City taking the bus and subway is a way to reduce your carbon footprint.
In the coming blog entry I want to talk with a twist about going Green.
I’m impressed with the Generation Z leaders who are out there striving to make a difference.
The postcard shown above I took off a ledge in a bookstore.
It’s a reminder to me and a warning to challenge the status quo.
Living through the pandemic [the outbreak hasn’t gone away] I find myself pulled away from conforming.
I resist conforming to societal rules and norms.
What changed?
In my Republican neighborhood most of the people walking down the street have open faces. They don’t cover their face with a mask or bandanna.
Seeing this brazen contempt for respecting the health of others got me thinking: Who should I want to or try to impress at this point in my life?
I go outside wearing a red or black bandanna like a gunslinger in the Old Wild West. I walk in the middle of the street to avoid the people who haven’t covered their faces.
Seeing open-faced yahoos put people’s health at risk–as if the COVID-19 outbreak is no real threat–was the catalyst for my resistance to accepting the status quo in society.
Over 100,000 people have died from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Wearing a mask is a sign of respect.
It eludes me what part of “I respect you and you respect me” the bare-faced folk don’t get.
I will end here by telling readers:
Resist living for self-interest and personal gain at the expense of others.
Resist following the trend of “everyone out for themselves.”
Alicia Keys in her July 2020 InStyle interview echoes what I’ve always thought.
In Keys own words:
“You know, we do a really good job of judging each other and assuming who people are when we don’t even know them. To me, the most important thing we can do right now is take a second to see and appreciate each other as we are.”
Two years ago I titled a blog entry See Who We Are. I wrote then: see who I am not who you think I am.
It’s a fact: Alicia Keys skipped two grades and won a full scholarship to Columbia University.
“See Who We Are” is the title of an X rock band song from three decades ago. I played this song on my radio show back then.
What’s on the surface really has no ability to predict the content of a person’s character.
In the next blog entry I’m going to talk about what I’ve learned living through four months of the pandemic.
Left of the Dial 