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Jul. 30th, 2020 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. I snagged this from rose_griffiths - I was a humanitarian ...and I regret it. I was prepared to be annoyed by it, and was pleasantly surprised and actually agreed with most of the speaker's points.
It's about how to empower people in need, and work with them, not go in and do something that makes you feel great, or gives you a great experience - without having any appreciation for their needs.
From my own experiences with volunteer work and various humanitarian causes over my lifetime - I wholeheartedly agree. Going in blind is always a bad idea, or going in with the best of intentions and views on how to fix a problem, without talking first to the community about it.
I remember in college going to Juarez, Mexico with Church Youth Group. We were taxed by the community to help build a community center, by putting a roof on the top of it, and a wall. We slept in their church, and worked alongside the members of the community. At one of our little meetings, various folks complained about not working on the roof more. Feeling important. And I remember stating that we weren't down there to feel important or to see the sites (not that there are any in Juarez, and we were basically staying in the slums). I found it an enriching and life-changing experience in that - various members of the community taught me how to make bricks out of mud and cement to build a wall. I spoke no Spanish, and they spoke little to no English - but we figured it out together. And I learned as much, if not more from them. I also swallowed my fear of heights and got up on a roof and hammered a nail. But it was what they needed. Another youth group came down, very wealthy, and toured, trying to get them to do dental work for free - but the members of the community were wary and to a large extent humiliated. It wasn't that they didn't need it - so much as to how it was offered.
While there were other times in my youth in which I tried to help, only to feel much like a clutzy yet well-meaning elephant. People don't want your charity - there's pride attached. But I always kind of knew this from my father - whose family had been dirt poor, and was often humiliated by Catholic Charities - with their food donations.
I remember when taking anthropology courses in college - and later law school, that it was important to ask questions and listen to the needs of the other person, before offering advice or swooping in. Anthropology actually addresses this better than sociology, which I've serious issues with. In anthropology - you are told that it is careless to go into a community and judge it based on your own. There is actually a really good science fiction novel that addresses these issues - "Maria Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God", addresses the problem of going into another culture and inflicting your own views and morality upon it. Something missionaries were prone to do, with great and often unknowing harm.
Anyhow, the video is interesting and says all this much better than I have.
2. How to make Chocolate Turtle Apple Popsicle Sticks
Although not really popsicles.
3. Behind closed doors during one of John Roberts' most surprising years on the Supreme Court
4. John Lewis's Last Article for New York Times - "Together We Can Rebuild the Soul of a Nation
Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.
Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.
You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.
Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.
When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.
I saw a small portion of the funeral at lunch time. My parents apparently were watching it as well - since mother commented on it and they'd seen Obama's eulogy, which mother said was more of a political speech, so too was the Rev. Smith's, which I did see. I had a tear in my eye during that one.
5. Making sense of the research regarding masks during COVID-19 - I get it. Now if only I could get EVERYONE to wear them whenever they go out in public. I do whenever I'm outside of my apartment, but so many other idiots do not. It's aggravating.
But what can you do? I glare at people. And since my eyes tend to disappear and aren't that visible to begin with, plus I have a mask on, this is not highly effective.
Here...have another flower..
Weird about photos on DW, I can see anything posted by apt-omn, selenak, yourlibrarian, fresne, but nothing by elsi. And there are two people that I know of that can't see mine.
rose_griffiths - I was a humanitarian ...and I regret it. I was prepared to be annoyed by it, and was pleasantly surprised and actually agreed with most of the speaker's points.It's about how to empower people in need, and work with them, not go in and do something that makes you feel great, or gives you a great experience - without having any appreciation for their needs.
From my own experiences with volunteer work and various humanitarian causes over my lifetime - I wholeheartedly agree. Going in blind is always a bad idea, or going in with the best of intentions and views on how to fix a problem, without talking first to the community about it.
I remember in college going to Juarez, Mexico with Church Youth Group. We were taxed by the community to help build a community center, by putting a roof on the top of it, and a wall. We slept in their church, and worked alongside the members of the community. At one of our little meetings, various folks complained about not working on the roof more. Feeling important. And I remember stating that we weren't down there to feel important or to see the sites (not that there are any in Juarez, and we were basically staying in the slums). I found it an enriching and life-changing experience in that - various members of the community taught me how to make bricks out of mud and cement to build a wall. I spoke no Spanish, and they spoke little to no English - but we figured it out together. And I learned as much, if not more from them. I also swallowed my fear of heights and got up on a roof and hammered a nail. But it was what they needed. Another youth group came down, very wealthy, and toured, trying to get them to do dental work for free - but the members of the community were wary and to a large extent humiliated. It wasn't that they didn't need it - so much as to how it was offered.
While there were other times in my youth in which I tried to help, only to feel much like a clutzy yet well-meaning elephant. People don't want your charity - there's pride attached. But I always kind of knew this from my father - whose family had been dirt poor, and was often humiliated by Catholic Charities - with their food donations.
I remember when taking anthropology courses in college - and later law school, that it was important to ask questions and listen to the needs of the other person, before offering advice or swooping in. Anthropology actually addresses this better than sociology, which I've serious issues with. In anthropology - you are told that it is careless to go into a community and judge it based on your own. There is actually a really good science fiction novel that addresses these issues - "Maria Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God", addresses the problem of going into another culture and inflicting your own views and morality upon it. Something missionaries were prone to do, with great and often unknowing harm.
Anyhow, the video is interesting and says all this much better than I have.
2. How to make Chocolate Turtle Apple Popsicle Sticks
Although not really popsicles.
3. Behind closed doors during one of John Roberts' most surprising years on the Supreme Court
4. John Lewis's Last Article for New York Times - "Together We Can Rebuild the Soul of a Nation
Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.
Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.
You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.
Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.
When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.
I saw a small portion of the funeral at lunch time. My parents apparently were watching it as well - since mother commented on it and they'd seen Obama's eulogy, which mother said was more of a political speech, so too was the Rev. Smith's, which I did see. I had a tear in my eye during that one.
5. Making sense of the research regarding masks during COVID-19 - I get it. Now if only I could get EVERYONE to wear them whenever they go out in public. I do whenever I'm outside of my apartment, but so many other idiots do not. It's aggravating.
But what can you do? I glare at people. And since my eyes tend to disappear and aren't that visible to begin with, plus I have a mask on, this is not highly effective.
Here...have another flower..
Weird about photos on DW, I can see anything posted by apt-omn, selenak, yourlibrarian, fresne, but nothing by elsi. And there are two people that I know of that can't see mine.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-01 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-01 12:59 pm (UTC)I can't post them from another site. Unlike LJ, DW doesn't permit direct posting or uploading from a computer, you have to copy the image location from another site, or photo hosting site. It's very annoying. I couldn't post pics on DW for years - because of this - then FB finally permitted cross posting of photos with a "Copy Image Location" Tag allowed in it's coding. It didn't until about 2019.