Materialistic Generosity?

Racing hurriedly out my front door to my vehicle I swing open the door and take off down the street to pick up America's substitute for sleep, coffee. Arriving at the small Drive-Thru Starbucks it comes to my realization that everyone else had the same idea. Thanksgiving Day, I sit in the long Drive-Thru line composed of stress-filled, impatient, jet-lagged individuals, I can't help but fail to realize the irony in my jittery, high-strung, stressed out demeanor in route to yoga. Life happens fast, too fast to be anywhere but in the moment. We spend most of our lives not really living, not really being present. Our minds are in 1,000 different places simultaneously, many of us are never truly immersed in our surroundings, even as you read this, Are you truly consuming each word? Are you genuinely present right now? It takes an immense amount of inner strength to be in harmony with all that lays outside ourselves. Take a minute to feel the powerful connection of words, Each word is filled with emotion, perspective, and substance. Each word is manifested from a unique individual in an attempt to share a piece of themselves with you.
    As it remains easy to fall victim to the holiday hustle and bustle it is important to remember what really matters.It is the intangible whose value remains to be the deepest; the immeasurable warmth and beauty in those we surround ourselves with. Though I am far from tempted to partake in the circus about to occur at 12AM this evening, the incalculable presence of the newly transformed population of American Barbarians is undoubtedly expected. The holidays are not about standing in line for hours outside of Best Buy to purchase a fourth flat screen plasma TV, it's about what we can all share with those around us, sharing that cannot be attained by camping outside of the mall until the wee hours of the morning. Black Friday is no joke, I stand no higher than 5-feet tall and was literally injured by an overly ambitious middle-aged man who was under the false impression that I was eying his TV. It goes without saying that was the first and last time I embraced my curiosity of the Black Friday hype. Let all of us remember today's feelings of gratitude as we engage in tomorrow's increasingly perilous Black Friday shopping spree. So today it is important to remember what we are thankful for, and keep those feelings year-round.To carry that Gratitude with us always, and be truly appreciative of the beauty that surrounds us.

"As we express gratitude, we must never forget the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." 

-John F Kennedy

Retreating slowly with overwhelming feelings of defeat through the chilly crisp November air a frail and exhausted mother continues down a menacing volatile New York City block lugging her feeble son and vast array of infant paraphernalia to the abhorrent quarters of the Martinique hotel. Walking briskly by a group of homeless huddled around a trash can seeking solace from the piercing icy air, all the while being panhandled aggressively, approached by a persistent drug dealer, and given a threatening once over by an unkempt streetwalker the mother lets out a sigh of relief as she reaches the hallway of her hotel fumbling for her keys among her material and mental disarray. Keeping a watchful eye and tight grip over her belongings fearful of becoming victim to yet another routine robbery the door finally gives and she scrambles into the meagerly inadequate hotel room overcome with a stench of rodent urine permeating the miniature space. Utterly drained from a jam-packed day of being shuffled around to various offices filling out copious piles of paperwork in hopes that she could solidify a living space of livelihood and human dignity for her and her sickly newborn baby boy, she plopped down on the rigidly uncomfortable worn mattress. After barely a moment of duration the mother is perplexed by the docile quiver of her newborn son, feeling paralyzed by her sons cries she tends to his whimpers with the warmth of a mothers embrace. Though the baby's cries temporarily subdued the mother remains perturbed as her mind races in a desperate attempt to brainstorm a way to aid the pangs of hunger overtaking her son. A sentence no human being would wish upon even their worst of enemies remains routine to a mother named Holly a resident of the Martinique Hotel in New York City. A scene as demoralizing, futile, and grim as the latter should not be a banal exhibition of human suffering characteristic of the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. What does the tolerance of such reprehensible abject poverty pervading a nation of affluence convey about our society? What does our silence disclose about the shift in our nations philosophy, a nation previously created through principles of freedom and liberty? Is America's lack of compassion our dirty little secret? With a social problem evolving into such a widespread issue plaguing such a prosperous nation it leads citizens to become skeptical of a societal structure that perpetuates such a morose reality. 

This week Social Justice League's 4th Annual Tent City is ongoing at Bridgewater State University, they are accepting donations please stop by around Bridgewater's campus behind the Rondileau Campus Center to support a homelessness simulation in solidarity with the above described grave predicament. Read about the initiative with the following link!

http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/education/x600431537/Bridgewater-State-University-students-to-shed-light-on-plight-of-homeless

Wrong Target?

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Originally uploaded by dmr620

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/8113986/21506105



A group of concerned citizens looking to involve Americans in the political process, get to the core of what democracy should really be about. Action and involvement that should be sparked by its citizen's not by its corporate body. The act in this video with the best intentions of exposing Target's unjust involvement in the political process, but what are the participants really asking for? If everyone stopped shopping at Target what would then materialize? What about the just products that Target sells, what would become of those vendors? What would be the implications of cutting off all shopping at Target? Is the answer to attack companies individually? Or is it to reformulate injustice at its core? Address laws that are written and conducive to an unjust political, economic, and social climate? Have citizens resorted to their only power being to feed into the consumerism and materialism that has been the environment accepted and embraced by society? Why do I have to pay for my voice to hopefully be heard? Is my inherent right of freedom of expression and speech not enough to be loud and get people to listen? Evidently it isn't. But why is this? Should we accept this and try to exercise different ways to exhibit power, or can we try harder to attack injustice at it's core? We have the information, we have the inherent right written in our laws, but will anyone listen? Can we make them?

Alienating the Inalienable.

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Originally uploaded by dmr620

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/08/olson-wallace-fns/



The jurisdiction of individual states to exercise control over their local laws is important not only because of logistics but to uphold certain aspects of culture in each state. However there are basic laws that protect the fundamental liberties and freedom of all citizens alike regardless of what state. The laws of the constitution are constructed in such a way to protect these fundamental rights. If we cannot take advantage of the very structure of our legal system in a case where there is such an obvious discriminatory violation of human rights then why are they in place? Our constitution and laws protect the right for any citizen of the United States to freely exercise their right to marry. If we allow states to be able to decide whether or not gay marriage should or should not be allowed then this not only puts at risk the rights of gay individuals but the potential for risk of future groups being discriminated against. In our laws there are certain rights that have been constructed in a way to specify inalienable rights as a citizen and the right to marry included. Regardless of what state a gay citizen of the United States lives in they should be able to exercise the right to marry, Why should their right to live equal to any other citizen in a certain state be taken away simply because of their sexual orientation? Just like every citizen has the free right of speech they also have the right to marry, this is outlined in the constitution, just like states cannot individually take away the right to speech they should not be able to take away the right to marry.

Childhood Remix

   An oversimplification of the structure of United States society, oddly enough relatively accurate in retrospect. Ideas of the American Dream are glamorized in reality TV shows like American Idol and The Apprentice to give the illusion of America's favorite tale to tell of Rags to Riches. More often than not the class someone is born into allots them a selection of opportunities limited on one end and plentiful on the other. Rain may be an accurate character to choose for the bourgeois because they do impede the Spider's development but it is by nature, the bourgeois may more often than not be rich by luxury of inheritance and generational privilege and may know no other way except to flourish with the resources inherited. If only that waterspout was a ladder...

Newly Found Wealth

It is easy to see oneself as poor within the constraints of an ethnocentric existence. Fact is the United States isn't the only country in the world and despite the relative poverty that exists the material wealth of even the poorest in this country are unfathomable to many poor who reside just outside it's borders. This is a picture of the living situation of many who share this small living space on a Starbucks Coffee Farm in Nicaragua. As one of a group of students emerging from a loud tour bus filled with Ipods, Cell phones, laptops, and cameras the glares are intense and permeate throughout the humid Nicaraguan air, we were the first outside the community to experience life on this farm. When it becomes easy to complain about daily nuisances it is important to think of oneself as one piece of the global community and that one's ranking in the world is a lot higher than is often perceived.

  A website that really puts things into perspective is http://www.globalrichlist.com/ It allows a person to go to the website put in their annual income and it literally ranks how rich they are. Thinking with an annual income wavering well below 10,000 a year I'd come no where close to the top but was surprised to find out even despite a low relative income I still placed in the top 13.96% of the richest people in the world. The website then goes to describe what people spend their money on everyday, a DVD, a television, and what that amount of money can buy in other countries, in some cases that amount of money can literally buy livelihood. It is unnerving that an HD television can buy the livelihood and education of an entire community which can then be passed on for generations.

The future; implicitly immeasurable but explicitly, and monetarily dictated.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Landmines

The United States is currently deciding whether or not to sign onto the Mine Ban Treaty. The Polus Center for Social and Economic Development works with landmine victims in different countries to offer services they would otherwise not have access to. It also helps victims to reintegrate into a normal lifestyle in which they can generate an income. Deans Beans and The Polus Center decided to collaborate and come up with a comprehensive solution. They decided to start a cafe and it is currently the only fully accessible handicapped cafe in Nicaragua, called the Ben Linder Cafe. Ben Linder was an American Activist, he was killed by the Contras (CIA trained and funded) in the midst of building a hydroelectric dam which would bring water and electricity to a rural village in Nicaragua. The profits of this Cafe in Ben Linder's name go to a prosthetic limb clinic not to far away called Walking Unidos. Ben Linder was also the first cafe in Latin America to roast its own coffee, the picture on the left is a picture taken when I went to Nicragua and is roaster donated by Dean Cycon from Deans Beans. There are many problems with landmines since the US Contra war and there are still landmine victims in need of assistance. If the use of landmines was not permitted to begin with people would not still be suffering from a war that ended years ago. Landmines are expensive to find and get rid of, more often than not if a country does not have the resources or political will to do so they will not attempt to remove them. Encourage President Obama to sign onto the Mine Ban! http://actnow-phr.org/campaign/obama_landmine_action
Polus Center Website on Landmines: http://www.poluscenter.org/international.html
Article in Fresh Cup Magazine on Cafe: http://www.deansbeans.com/coffee/in_the_news/detail.html?newsid=22