Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Videos of Biden looking lost are a viral political tactic: ‘low-level manipulation’ | Joe Biden | The Guardian

Source: Videos of Biden looking lost are a viral political tactic: ‘low-level manipulation’ | Joe Biden | The Guardian

To Be. Not to Be is Not an Option! | From Behind the Pen

Image Credit: Damir

It becomes so dreadfully wearisome trying to prove your otherness is really oneness, looking beyond the secular and reaching for the spiritual that dwells within humanity.

Too often many of us try to prove ourselves to others who don’t deserve any type of explanation about who we are. Folks try to tell us who they ‘think’ we should be. Others tell us whether we are worthy of receiving certain things based on our educational, social, racial, and financial credentials. Some try to dictate our happiness or non-happiness quotient because they said so.

I think about the movie “The Elephant Man,” a story based on the true account of John Merrick’s life as a sideshow freak in the nineteenth century. His rough exterior hides a refined soul and it is so heartbreaking when he says, “I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I… am… a… man!” as people mocked him so mercilessly. But he was more human than those who thought they were.

Today’s celebration of Juneteenth commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slaves weren’t considered to be full humans and were treated as such. Still, here are people who are human beings, God’s children, and not a piece of property.

When people look different, speak with a different dialect, or don credentials that need not be questioned because of the dedication and hard work they did to achieve such accolades, they still feel they have to try to over-explain themselves to be noticed as an asset and accepted into the club. But we have to accept the fact that we will not always be welcomed into exclusive clubs and we have to be okay that unacceptance is okay even though it is unacceptable. Just remember, freedom comes from within. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Source: To Be. Not to Be is Not an Option! | From Behind the Pen