Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, and The Two Whys…

This post begins the rough draft of the first Chapter of my current non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres: Making Society Suck Less in 60 Years.     The overall goal is now to explain why we need both equ. + justice, & why in 4 phases.  This chapter will transition to a chapter (2-5) for each phase, showing what Phases I-IV might look like as part of a possible roadmap for a fully inclusive society for all of us.  This vision is laid out in the hope that All HumanKind  will eventually have each person’s basic needs  met, without taking anything from anyone, and without violence, intimidation, nor coercion of any kind. 

Chapter I (part 0): why and why

This week I am very tired, and working on getting updating the chapter outlines from their initial 2019 form. 

 

Next week I will continue with the rough draft of the start of my first chapter.  Here is the semi-detailed chapter 1 outline. I tried to use this as the post featured image, but WP kept rejecting it, so I hope that the medical debt image was a decent tie-in of two of the #PublicDomainInfrastructure items.

Last week was the fifth (end of Introduction section Rough Draft…) installment of this series…

(Note to JYP: I’ve been using and expanding this high level chapter outline  until this post, as I’ve finally filled out the chapter 1 outline, realizing that I was trying to pack too much into chapter one! 

Thank you for your feedback: it has really been helping me! –

Shira)

Action Items:

1.) Search for two different sources related to FDR’s Four Freedoms speech, and compare it to Ike’s ‘Cross of Iron‘ speech (I wonder how many people were old enough to remember his touchstone reference to the 1896 Cross of Gold speech…),

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how your ideas could affect a society that might be built, in 50-100 years.

4.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking at LEAST for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button:

,

 

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plan Book)! 

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

   

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2020 CE =  12020 HE

(Day 1 … Day 5)

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free copies at: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, and The Four Freedoms

This post finishes the rough draft of the Introductory Chapter of my current non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres: Making Society Suck Less in 60 Years.     The overall goal has been to introduce one possible roadmap for a fully inclusive society for all of us, in the hope that All HumanKind  will eventually have each person’s basic needs  met.  This book lays out an idea, and a potential path for getting us there.

Introduction part III: The Four Fundamental Freedoms and “perpetual peaceful
revolution”

The “four essential human freedoms” that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt listed in his
famous inaugural (?) speech of 1941 are, as the president himself pointed out, a tangible distillation of those Human Rights as a list of freedoms that each both facilitate and require the equitable implementation of the three types of justice mentioned earlier. President Roosevelt put it thusly:

“The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the
world.
The third is freedom from want–which, translated into world terms, means economic
understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-
everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear–which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide
reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in
our own time and generation.
”

The president went on to say that “we have been engaged in change — in a perpetual peaceful revolution — a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions … The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.”

 That “Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.“

These words touched off   The ( https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2020/08/world-war-ii-the-double-v-campaign/, accessed 2 April, 2021, 15:35 PST …)  Double V Campaign of the modern civil rights era.

While these rights have yet to be fully realized for all Americans, much less all human beings
everywhere, they are, as Roosevelt stated, the start of what any just society must aspire to
guarantee to all of it’s citizens.

That peaceful revolution of which President Roosevelt spoke must make needed changes to the entire set of institutions with which we govern our society so that, as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out, “the edifice which produces beggars” is changed into one that produces truly equitable opportunities for all human beings around the world. Clearly, the rebuilding of such a massive edifice as our interconnected web of societal infrastructures, social, economic, physical, and governance-related, requires both time and fore-thought. The task of wrapping up even the most basic of essential human rights into a system capable of guaranteeing that each and every citizen is treated equitably in the light of each of the major types of justice is “a vast project.” Yet is is a project that must be taken on if the promise of those four essential freedoms that President Roosevelt spoke of and Dr. King dreamt of seeing are to be made a reality. It is a project which our founding documents, from the United States Declaration of Independence, to the Preamble to the US Constitution enshrine in law, that “we the people” “are created equal.”

It is equally clear that this is a project which cannot hope to be successful alone, even if
undertaken by an entire generation. The goal of building a just society must be one which is
undertaken and committed to by an alliance spanning multiple generations. From the Framers of the US Constitution, to President Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Noam Chomsky and John Rawls, together with Naomi Klein, members of Black Lives Matter, to the students from the many schools who have experienced mass shooting traumas, generation upon generation has added its voice to the calls for justice, freedom, and human rights for all citizens.

No one community is capable of welding together a system that will be just for all members of society, and no one generation is capable of finishing such a gargantuan task. It is thus incumbent upon all members of society to play a part in contributing to the vision of a just society, whether by putting forth an alternative potential vision of how such a society could function, or by sketching out what some piece of such a society could look like. Changing our societal edifice into one which not only no longer produces suffering, but even encourages the best in all of us, is not a task that even one generation could accomplish alone. We are all indeed in this together, and must do the work, all together. It can be done, if we will it. 

“Yes, we can.”

  

That is the rough draft of the third and final part of my introductory chapter. 

Last week was the fourth installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Search for two different sources related to The Double V.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how discrimination could affect a society that might be built, in 50-100 years.

4.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button:

, Vote, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.   Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

March, 2021 CE = March 12021 HE

(The previous lesson 53/67 , and the most recent lesson 54/67…)

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Free copies are available at https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtful Thursdays, still Separate and Unequal, and Adulting for all

This book should be read by every Adult, and our country must become more fully inclusive for all of us.  Gillon expains the importance of The Kerner Commission’s Report, which was apparently ignored, and then buried.

Following the Report’s recommendations, as Dr. King suggested, would have made, and still can make, a tremendous difference:

–

How sad that the contents and conclusions of this report are still relevant, and still ignored, today, 50 years after it was released in response to the riots in Newark and Detroit of the “long hot” summer of 1967. I found this book after seeing Dr. King’s response to the question, during the Memphis garbage workers’ strike, of what it would take to prevent or call off his Poor People’s March on Washington: the answer was to implement the recommendations in this report.

The report was commissioned to find out what caused the rioting, not how to prevent further riots. The clearest distinctions between those who actively participated in the rioting and their neighbors who did not, at least at the start of each riot, was the trigger of having witnessed or experienced police brutality. But what primed that trigger for action was the underlying anger, poverty, constant discrimination, and despair to which the Black community in particular was subjected over a very long period of time.

The report called for various measures to be taken which would have improved the lives not only of members of the Black community, but also everyone else in the nation. Measures like the elimination of sub-standard housing in inner-cities, building new schools, health centers, and community facilities, and introducing a guaranteed minimum income would help all citizens, not only those bereft of resources and hope when they were freed with only the clothing on their backs, unable to melt into White American society. From the disrespect by police, to the lack of garbage collection in inner-city neighborhoods, Black Americans were fed up with White America’s deliberate disregard for “the realities of life for many poor blacks” in the United States. This anger, combined with the criminalization of poverty (which was just beginning to kick off the era of Mass Incarceration), the lack of Black faces in [the media, police, highly paid professions and other areas of potential] power, led to a sense of hopelessness and fear that non-violent resistance would never break down a system which was inherently designed to break down the Black community. Ideas like the War on Drugs, brought back by Reagan after the Carter years, and Law and Order, parroted by both right and left, muddied the discourse around solving the problems that led to the riots, instead creating a cloud of convenient reasons to blame inner-city Black communities for their problems while ignoring the structural issues that had created and perpetuated the problems since the slavery era.

The conclusion drawn by the report, above all, was that the entire nation needed education and “a richer portrait of life in urban areas” and to hire many many more Black police officers.

I think that many of the issues of perspective mentioned in the book by the author in his analysis of the report and its time are now beginning to be looked at again, as the discussion around White Privilege becomes louder and more mainstream. That discussion is a necessary but insufficient part of the solution to our current problems, which go back to pre-existing problems pointed out by the report. Please read this book on the Commission report (and also see Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin), and then, write your reps!

Pages I found especially relevant included:

P. 6: 1966 result of creation of ghettos by the 1930s-50s urban renewal aka Negro Removal all across the USA
** P. 12: What a contrast: only 1/100 white people thought that blacks were poorly treated in the USA…
***Ribicoff P. 37: recos…
P. 100: “in the ghetto” last garbage collection (if at all), police disrespectful, school & housing dilapidated
P. 228 (and the answer to that boot-straps baloney:) discrimination and segregation prevented many blacks from following the same patterns which had been followed by immigrant groups, and limited blacks to all but the lowest … jobs

Let’s #EndPoverty & #EndMoneyBail by improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure 4:
1. #libraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare , and
4. good #publictransport

–

So, it turns out that most, if not all, of these problems are still with us, today.

We could change that.

Action Items:

1.) Read this book, preferably getting the first copy from your local public library,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how a calendar based on the Holocene Epoch might help, or hinder, inclusive thinking,

4.) Write a book, blog post or tweet that uses an alternate calendar, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. If you write a book, once published, please consider donating to your local public library.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GR button:

, Vote (pref. using RankedChoiceVoting), Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

January, 2021 CE = January 12021 HE

(The previous lesson 32/67 published since this post, and the most recent lesson 33/67…)

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

His legs were praying (as he walked for All of us…)

Walking: it really is not just about my carbon footprint…

—

Walking can get you places both physically, and emotionally, when you focus on working through a goal by walking, such as walking with other people united for empathy and making this world a safer place for all people:

–

A social consciousness infused with an ecumenical approach brought Heschel and King together again on 19 November 1963, when both men addressed the United Synagogue of America’s Golden Jubilee Convention in New York. King expressed his deep accord with Heschel’s cause—which was to stand against the Soviet Union’s treatment of its Jewish population—by restating his own view that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” King stated that he could not neglect the plight of his “brothers and sisters who happen to be Jews in Soviet Russia” (King, 15). In March 1965, Heschel responded to King’s call for religious leaders to join the Selma to Montgomery March for voting rights. The march was spiritually fulfilling for Heschel, and he recalled feeling like his “legs were praying” as he walked next to King (Heschel, “Theological Affinities,” 175). When King delivered his famous address against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church on 4 April 1967, Heschel followed him as a speaker and ended his own presentation saying, “I conclude with the words of Dr. King: ‘The great initiative of this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours’” (Heschel, 4 April 1967).

–

I came across this link while preparing to log off for Friday afternoon, and just had to share it.

Shabbat Shalom!    ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of walking for progress that you can take right now:

1.) Consider reasons that you walk.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtful Thursdays, MLK inspiration, and mental self-health Care

Here is how a Martin Luther King -Rabbinical Commentary poster inspired a Novel

 

MLK3speechHillelCommentaryStudy

This speech, treated as a sacred text, inspired me to write my first practice Novel for NaNoWriMo, back in 2012.

The famous I have a Dream speech, ringed about with commentary as a sacred text, gave me both hope for cooperation, about which I wrote my earlier book, and hope for human progress, about which I wrote that first novel, in 2012. 

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different books by Dr. King.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how you like each of them.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

ShiraDest

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Thoughtful Thursdays and racism, mentioning Dr. King’s Basic Income, in passing, and a Town Hall Link

It’s quarter to 5 P.T., so please watch the long-scheduled Biden Town Hall, and then read this post (I’d love to hear your comments on both, please…)

—

This reference to the Basic or Citizen’s Income, as Dr. King called for it in 1968, is from his last book.

Here is where I am in wondering about some ideas I wrote up a while ago regarding community and safety:

–

Economic Democracy, which as Dr. King pointed out, is the only true means of both riot prevention and thus of lasting social stability, requires a high level of cooperation.
Preventing torture and senseless killings, such as that of Travon Williams and others, depends on the existence and maintenance of respect and trust within and between communities such that that can then cooperate effectively to prevent the dehumanization and hate crimes which ultimately result from lack of understanding and cooperative interaction between individuals and communities

–

So, it turns out that my reluctance to mention racism as an overt factor, possibly because I keep getting told that I don’t look Black enough, by non-Southern White people, to be Black, and that I’m too “high yellow” to be Black by fellow Black folks, yet called a Nigger (1981 VA) or told that “the races don’t mix” (1994 Baltimore), or that people wouldn’t want people like myself on their property (1995 Baltimore) by white southerners. So, not to bring up the Tragic Misunderstood Mullata (or Quadroon/Octaroon, in my case), I hate to say it but I have to say it: racism is involved here, in our dehumanizing of others, specifically of Black folks in the USA. People claim not to be racist or prejudiced, but say things like “los negros si son flojos” (Black people really are lazy), or that there is plenty of opportunity, they just don’t want to work: until I speak up and say, I am Black. Then I am often told to “contain myself,” or that I am simply imagining things.  Interesting how that works.  More on my continuing striving with community and not (intentionally, anyway) passing for White, next week, friends:

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) List four ways that you see racism affecting the world today.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

October, 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Thoughtful Thursdays and a silly idea on marriage and community as helping each other

—

Here is where I am in wondering about an idea I though up a while ago regarding community-based possible ways of helping singles find nice marriage partners (actually, I need to find that post on the Community Marriage Coop, but this is the why of it):

–

Marriage and community: another reason for the importance of same-sex marriage, or why society must  support all marriages.

Society exists to facilitate the maximization of potential of each member of society.
Couples give more to society if the community (society in miniature, molded to a group) support and encourage the couple to stay together and contribute as a stable couple to society. A synergistic relationship forms where the couple gives more to the community, and is in turn reinforced by the community, enabling them to be more effective both as a couple and as members of the community. Both members of the couple and the community are able to accomplish more through this mutually beneficial relationship.
Marriage, for all couples, strengthens communities and creates synergistic relationships which keep us safe.

–

I think I still agree with this: will find and post the explanation of the Community Marriage Cooperative if anyone shows interest in a comment on this post.

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different resources about same-sex marriage.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how you like each of the resources you found,  perhaps as an update on your GoodReads reading,

4.) Write a blog post or tweet that, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

October, 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

French Friday and Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last speech

I still agree with this:

–

“The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold: We must create full employment, or we must create incomes. Now, our country can do this. John Kenneth Galbraith said that a guaranteed annual income could be done for about twenty billion dollars a year. And I say to you today, that if our nation can spend thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God’s children on their own two feet right here on earth.”
…
“I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about “Where do we go from here?” that we must honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. (Yes) There are forty million poor people here, and one day we must ask the question, “Why are there forty million poor people in America?” And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising a question about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. (Yes) And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life’s marketplace. (Yes) But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. (All right)
Now, when I say questioning the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. (All right) These are the triple evils that are interrelated. … In other words, “Your whole structure (Yes) must be changed.” [applause] A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will “thingify” them and make them things. (Speak) And therefore, they will exploit them and poor people generally economically. (Yes) And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and it will have to use its military might to protect them. All of these problems are tied together.”

Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
19 February, 12016 HE

–

We need, more than ever, a Universal Basic Income.

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different sources for Dr. King’s speech cited above.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how you found each of the resources you found,

4.) Write a blog post or tweet that uses those sources, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

October, 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

French Friday becomes Ike on War, on Hoshanah Rabbah, 5781

I had a difference of opinion with a friend some years ago, when I cited Dr. King’s last book, arguing that reducing poverty will lesson anger which leads to events like the Watts riots, the 1968 riots, and many others. This friend, who never missed a meal involuntarily in his life, ignored all of my citations to say “poverty does not cause riots.” Well, I think Ike also disagreed, as if Dr. King’s work wasn’t enough.

It is the last Chol HaMoed day, but also a half-holiday, of Sukkot, as we leave off celebrating the new year of 5781. And I’m having Cream of Wheat!

Here is a post I wrote a while ago that I think bears repeating:

–

2006-05-31 12:20:00
A speech on the need for change, and yes, poverty does lead to terrorism (read Dr. Martin Luther King’s last speech)…
“With those kinds of numbers, it doesn´t take a nuclear scientist to figure out a smarter approach to improving our security situation. To quote President Eisenhower, speaking with far-sighted vision in 1953: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies… a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.””

Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
19 February, 12016 HE

 

–

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of justice that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different sources of Ike’s speech cited above:

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how you like each of the resources you found,  perhaps as an update on your GoodReads reading,

4.) Write a blog post or tweet that cites Dr. King or Eisenhower, tells a good story, or just makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

Sukkot, 5781

PrepTober, 2020, aka 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Tr Tuesdays is now “True compassion” Tuesdays, on legal & financial self-defense, from Dr. King’s words we all should have read back in 1968 (or at the age to ‘get it’…) during Sukkot/Tabernacles…

Predatory Landlords, Debt, and Repairing the World

Here is an unfortunately still relevant post on tenants being evicted via bogus service papers, in the District, now, despite MD’s 2016 update requiring more evidence to file against debtors, apparently:

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Dr. King said that,

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. ”

The question is how does such “restructuring” happen?

Following up on my earlier post regarding debt as a problem of financial self-defense, particularly in the case of apartment renters who are forced to live in a lemon or face Breach of Lease, Biblical Law may have something to say about the long term consequences of artificially pushing people into debt (talking about otherwise frugal folks who do not spend profligately).

I respectfully submit that we have had one possible tool in our hands for several thousand years, and it may need to be examined in the context of our present debt crisis -the release of debts, both short term and long term, at different times.  Below is a handout from one of several talks I gave on the relationship between debt and community building, this one from the book of Deuteronomy: DCBM20August_Reeh_Class.

AfterNote: while debts do “expire” at different times in each state and DC according to the type of debt, only two states actually “extinguish” expired debts, and only Maryland prohibits lawsuits being brought against debtors for already expired debts!              Lawmakers in every country need to act to prevent this sort of financial and emotional bullying (in the case of landlords, offering apartments which do not suit, and then reneging on promises to fix issues, while in other cases, offering credit knowing that those who accept are at a relative disadvantage).

In the USA, each state regulates how long one can be sued for a debt, but even then, if the debtor does not know to defend, or is unable for some reason to go to court even if h/she knows, oftentimes creditors sue illegally and win. Now this cannot happen in MD, but the original creditors are still free to harass up to and beyond the Statute of Limitation (‘expiration’) of the debt.

May we look to our collective good, as one Human Race, and to the potential of each and every Human Being.

Read, Write, Dream, Walk !
ShiraDest

my resume: JonesPolicyResumePublic
June 26th, 12017 HE

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So, it turns out that ‘gutter service,’ aka tossing the papers in the gutter and telling the court the person was served, still happens despite what I read about some jurisdictions raising the bar for filings, and that default judgements are still rendered on faulty bases.   This is where both knowledge of the laws around specific debt-related issues, by locality, and the transportation and health to get there are critical. 

More on my continuing striving with legal and financial self-defense education next week, friends:

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and legal/financial self-defense that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different resources to tell the SoL in your state for the 4 types of debt,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how you found and whether or why (or why not) you trust each of the resources you found,

4.) Write a blog post or tweet about it, or just, tell a good story, that makes a difference.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

September, 12020 HE

(The current lesson plan since this post, and the second most recent lesson plan…)