Monthly Archives: June 2022
Texas Republican Party Enshrines Anti-LGBTQ Hate in Extreme Right-Wing Party Platform – Mother Jones
Thousands of the Texas Republican party faithful voted yesterday on a state GOP platform that calls being gay an “abnormal lifestyle choice,” declares the 2020 presidential election results illegitimate, and urges the repeal of the Voting Rights Act.
The platform says that Texas students should be shown live ultrasounds as a way to deter against abortion and be taught that life begins at fertilization. At the same time, it demands that the state outlaw all sex and sexual health education—even abstinence-only sex ed. Meanwhile, it says that young people are the “most likely to need to defend themselves” and thus should have access to guns without waiting periods for “emergencies such as riots.”
And, doubling down on the anti-LGBTQ hate, the platform says the party “oppose[s] all efforts to validate transgender identity,” calling for bans on gender-affirming care for trans children and the passage of a “Don’t Say Gay” bill stronger than Florida’s.
Source: Texas Republican Party Enshrines Anti-LGBTQ Hate in Extreme Right-Wing Party Platform – Mother Jones
Zizi Possi
A paz invadiu o meu coração
De repente se encheu de paz
Como se o vento de um tufão
Arrancasse os meus pés do chão
Onde eu já não me enterro mais
A paz fez o mar da revolução
Invadir meu destino
A paz como aquela grande explosão
De uma bomba sobre o Japão
Fez nascer um Japão na paz
Eu pensei em mim
Eu pensei em ti
Eu chorei por nós
Que contradição
Só a guerra faz nosso amor em paz
Eu vim
Vim parar na beira do cais
Onde a estrada chegou ao fim
Onde o fim da tarde é lilás
Onde o mar arrebenta em mim
O lamento de tantos ” ais”
Eu pensei em mim
Eu pensei em ti
Eu chorei por nós
Que contradição
Só a guerra faz
Nosso amor em paz…”
Zizi Possi. A Paz
Composição: Gilberto Gil/ João Donato
Marii Freire Pereira
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Marii Freire Pereira
Vitamin D Revisited
Dr. Leslie Kernisan reprized an article on Vitamin D supplementation this weekend. The one finding worth noting is that simply spending time outdoors is no guarantee that you have a sufficient amount of this vitamin in your body. I’ll explain below:
Background:
- Source: Vitamin D occurs naturally and can be created and activated by the body through a three-step process starting with synthesis from exposure of skin to sunlight, and then two hydroxylation actions first in the liver and then in the kidneys. It can also be captured from dietary supplements.
- Known benefits of vitamin D: The body uses vitamin D for several purposes:
- Bone creation and to limit the risk of brittle, soft or deformed bones. The related disease conditions are rickets in children, osteomalacia in adults, and osteoporosis among older adults.
- Prevention of involuntary muscle spasms or cramps
- Maintenance of calcium and phosphate concentrations at the right levels…
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Opal Lee — Grandmother Of Juneteenth
I first discovered this amazing woman last year, and … well, no story of Juneteenth is complete without Ms. Opal Lee!
Look at this beautiful woman …
This is Opal Lee, age 94, and on this, the first time Juneteenth is being celebrated as an official U.S. holiday, I want to tell you a little bit about Ms. Lee who is known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth. While yesterday I wrote a bit about the negativity of some racists toward the new holiday, Juneteenth, today I want to put aside the negative and focus on the positive … and the voice of Ms. Opal Lee.
When Opal Lee was growing up in Texas, she would spend Juneteenth picnicking with her family, first in Marshall, where she was born, then in Sycamore Park in Fort Worth, near the home she moved into at age 10. Ms. Lee’s paternal grandmother was born into bondage…
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Opinion | Putting Babies Up for Adoption Isn’t an Alternative to Abortion – The New York Times
In the leaked Dobbs draft opinion, Justice Alito noted that many abortion opponents point to the fact “that states have increasingly adopted safe haven laws, which generally allow women to drop off babies anonymously, and that a woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home.” For these advocates, “just” having the baby is a perfectly viable option.
It may seem perfectly viable to someone who has never been pregnant or given birth. Perfectly viable to someone with no concept of the full range of women’s concerns and fears. Perfectly viable to someone who has never had to make these choices — and live with the consequences.
A Visit to Galveston, the Birthplace of Juneteenth – The Texas Observer
Evanston, Illinois Is the First City to Offer Reparations to Black Residents
Under the “Restorative Housing Program,” the first of the reparations initiatives, Evanston City Council has given an initial 16 qualifying Black households $25,000 for home repairs, down payments or mortgage payments. In order to qualify, residents must either have lived in — or be a direct descendant of a Black person who lived in — Evanston between 1919 to 1969 and suffered a form of discrimination related to housing because of city ordinances, policies or practices.
Source: Evanston, Illinois Is the First City to Offer Reparations to Black Residents
Is This What True Emancipation Looks Like?
How will we know when we have succeeded?
Well, when ‘freedom to’ comes, women will be free to make their own choices, wherever in this great union they happen to live. Their bodies will not be a matter of governmental rhetoric, nor of religious propaganda.
When ‘freedom to’ comes, we will all be free to vote in fair and just elections. No citizen’s voting rights will be threatened by gerrymandering, intimation, or suppression tactics.
When ‘freedom to’ comes, everyone will be free to love and marry whomever they please, because love will simply be love.
When ‘freedom to’ comes, each of us will be free to worship in any way we chose – or not worship at all – without facing vile attacks. Anti-Muslim hate speech and antisemitism will no longer exist. No-one will be shouting “Jews will not replace us.”
When ‘freedom to’ comes, parents will be free to send their children to school without worrying that they might be shot, because the Second Amendment will not count for more than students’ lives.
When ‘freedom to’ comes, every child will be free to realize their ambitions. Poverty will not be a barrier to achievement, and a poor White child in a rural area will matter just as much as a poor Black child in an urban area.
Together, we can complete the task begun on the very first Juneteenth, but dreaming won’t be enough. We need to awaken from our current nightmare and take action.
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