My three opinions today

My opinions today:
*If I am ever the victim of a crime and am unable to speak for myself, I hope my family has the courage to forgive the perp on my behalf. That doesn’t mean letting the person free if they are dangerous, but at least seeing the perp as a victim himself/herself. No sane human being would choose to be a killer if they were wired the right way and/or born into ideal circumstances. And it *feels* sooooo much better to forgive than it does to demand “justice.”
*I can’t believe the copilot crashes the plane intentionally. The poor people on board. And that poor co-pilot (a victim of his own mind).
* I am grateful someone released the transcripts. I believe in freedom of information.

Drive By Shooting Kills A Teen

A 17 year-old was killed in a drive-by shooting today. Maybe because I was a teacher, maybe because I spent a few years in this neighborhood, or maybe because I have teen kids, I can’t stop thinking about how he woke up yesterday not knowing it was his last day, and that he was only 17. I am very sorry for him, and his friends and family.

I’m thinking how a white male was killed in a drive-by shooting a few years ago and it sparked community outrage/action, and a teen black man is killed in the same area and it creates news but does not create public outrage. I’m also thinking of the stat I read a few years ago, that the mortality rate for a young American man is higher in Oakland than the Afghanistan/Iraq war.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/CLEVELAND-HIGH-SCHOOL-DRIVE-BY-SHOOTING-VICTIM-IDENTIFIED-296510511.html?mobile=y&clmob=y&c=n

Like other foods, beers can contain harmful ingredients

Beers like food can contain harmful “ingredients.”. Beers that use ingredients best avoided include Miller, Budweiser, Guinness, etc… Something only has to be 95% organic to be listed as organic… The US is behind the rest of the world on GMO regulation…

My (Robert) commentary: It continues to be veeeery scary and disheartening that we allow our government to tolerate and encourage this, and that a government run by 100s of educated and individual human beings can allow this and sleep at night.

Note: This was originally a “reblog” – my first — and I hope I did this correctly without publishing belikewaterproduction’s work as my own, or adding my commentary in a way that I am attributing it to belikewaterproduction. All information in the first paragraph should be attributed to belikewaterproduction; the second paragraph of commentary is me).

Source: belikewaterproduction.com blog

Food Bank Usage Increases, food donations flat and dollar donations decline

Food Bank Usage has Increased to levels higher than Great Recession, food donations have remained flat and dollar donations actually declined over the past year. An increase in working poor with increasing living costs are attributed to this. Meanwhile, the CEO of Boeing saw a 24% pay increase to 29 million USD.

Source: The Seattle Times (3/14/15).

Harper Lee A Symbol That Ultimately We Have No Control

Harper Lee’s sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird is controversial – is she mentally capable of approving its publication?

I read To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time in 1984 and have read it a dozen times since. But I won’t read the pending sequel: if Harper Lee intended for it to be published she would have done so years ago, and every writer knows a work isn’t finished until the writer’s final edit/blessing. Like everything in the US, this smells to me like greed 😦

Lee’s situation is evidence that we can’t take anything to seriously in life – ultimately, time and death will remove every ounce of our control.

The New Nuclear Arms Era

A new Nuclear Arms era is underway. Currently, there are 9 countries with Nuclear Weapons, with Iran soon expected to be come the 10th. There are more than 10K nuclear missles between these, lead by US (4,800) and Russia (4,300) plus China (over 2k). 8 of the 9 are modernizing their nuclear arsenal. In some instances (UK) virtually no military budget except nuclear plus Special Ops. It’s scary because in the cold war there was no scenario where either power could wipe out the other, but countries like Pakistan (smaller powers) there is a hope you can wipe out their arsenal before they strike, thus raising the risk of geographical nuclear warfare.

SOURCE: NPR, 3/11/15, 9 AM approx.

Will — and How Will — History Remember ISIS?

Will they be the The Third Reich of the Middle East who rise to spectacular power over 10 years of xenophobic violence, or just another annoying little gnat that history will swat away when a super power decides it has had enough (e.g. Muammar Gaddafi)?