Tag: #ENOUGH

Drawing a meaningful line

On September 24, 2018

In Artdog Quote of the Week, Creative Life

The Artdog Quote of the Week

That old cliche “money can’t buy happiness” may be true, but deep down inside most people don’t believe it. I was talking with a friend recently, about a longtime childhood acquaintance of hers whom she’d once asked, “You’re comfortable. D’you ever plan to relax and enjoy it?”

Her childhood chum just laughed and shook her head. “Oh, no. I want ALL the money!”

ALL the money. How many of us would say something different, if we answered truthfully? “Enough” is a hard concept for many of us. Contentment is an elusive goal. There’s always a new “something more,” and that’s not always bad. There’d be no new breakthroughs without the goad of discontentment. But as with everything, there’s a balance to strike, or we slide over into unhealthy dysfunction.

Just as a pinch of salt adds flavor, a lot of salt adds high blood pressure, and too much salt can kill us, We have to stop somewhere. Where have you drawn your line?

IMAGE: Many thanks to AZ Quotes for this illustrated quote from Ray Dalio, who has enough money to know what he’s talking about.

Why we should respect student protests

By jansgephardt

On March 15, 2018

In Creative Life, Education, Equity and Equality Issues, Response to Disasters, Social Justice, USA Patriotism

There are always a few. Not content to let history teach a giant, life-altering civics lesson, there will be a few school administrators who won’t respect students’ First Amendment rights to join the groundswell movement of student protests against gun violence, because it’s “too disruptive.”

We owe it to these kids to respect their fear and their feelings NOW. No one wants to live with a target on her back. Seeking the chance to “LIVE in order to LEARN” is NOT an unreasonable request!

When I was a high school journalism teacher, I saw this impulse first-hand. The traditional impulse of many schools is to keep the kids quiet, out of the way, and docile. The Paradigm of Control runs crosswise to the First Amendment (also to critical thinking).

Even more than corporations, kids are people, my friend. They have rights, weirdly enough including the rights of free speech, to freely assemble, and to petition the government. In my research for yesterday’s post, I found a quote that seemed à propos of the #ENOUGH movement and students’ rights in general.

People tend to place children in some kind of sub-human category, maybe a little higher than pets (or maybe not). That’s always bothered me. Even when they’re too young to be completely autonomous, they always, ALWAYS deserve respect.

It may be more time-consuming to reason with the child (and–reality check–parents sometimes have to just decide), but in my experience it’s always worth listening, explaining, and respecting. In the household, in the classroom, and in life, it just always works out better to listen and to respect. (Remember, they’re the ones who’ll pick your nursing home).

I also stumbled across a fun website built on that very principle: Kid President (unfortunately suspended in 2016, it seems). But in the spirit of the student protests and the message of this post, here’s a word of wisdom from Kid President:

You’ve now been schooled. Go forth and respect!

IMAGES: Many thanks to to the Mankato Free Press, AP images, and Jim Mone, for the photo of the student protest in Mankato, MN, from which I cropped a detail for emphasis; to Gryphon House via Pinterest for the quote and image from Stacia Tauscher, and to Odyssey, Robby and Brad, for the Kid President quote/image.

#ENOUGH

By jansgephardt

On March 14, 2018

In Education, Equity and Equality Issues, Law Enforcement, Response to Disasters, USA Patriotism

A month ago today on February 14, 2018, one of the deadliest mass school shootings occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, USA. Along with a lot of my compatriots, I braced myself for the usual round of reactions, because this is very far from a situation without precedent in my homeland. My fellow Americans and I knew what always seems to come next.

People evacuate Stoneman Douglas High School in the wake of the shooting Feb. 14, 2018, in this Getty Images photo by Joe Raedle

The dismay, the grief, the outrage.

The thoughts and prayers.

The talk about “maybe this time–finally–things will be different.”

The calls for gun control (knowing nothing will probably happen).

The calls for better mental health care (unfunded, of course).

The arguments about good guys versus bad guys that have never yet seemed rooted in practical reality to me.

The legislative attempts that no one can get quite enough people behind, to pass.

The “must pass” bills that accrue amendments like barnacles. then sink under their weight.

The gradual subsidence into the previous status quo.

This 2013 cartoon by Jeffrey Koterba of the Omaha World-Herald is just as right-on in 2018–except as of Feburary the child is standing up to demand change.

Except this time something different happened. The surviving students of Stoneman Douglas High School didn’t wait for the adults to figure it out. They stood up and said, “#ENOUGH.” They walked out in protest. They went to the state capitol and demanded change.

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School decided to take direct action into their own hands.

They stood together. They stood strong. And pretty soon other kids stood with them. In spite of some administrators’ threats to punish them, students all over the country began to stand up and say “we’re tired of being targets while you adults argue!”

March 7, 2018 student protests at the Minnesota state capitol in Mankato–AP Photo by Jim Mone.

Pittsfield, MA students from Taconic High School march on Feb. 27, 2018 in solidarity with the students of Stoneman Douglas High School–photo by Gillian Jones, Berkshire Eagle via AP.

Today, on the one-month anniversary of the shooting, students from all over the country will walk out of class in solidarity with the Stoneman Douglas students–including students from our local Kansas City area schools–most with the (wise) blessing of their administrators. So far the legislative responses have been mixed, but as a former high school journalism teacher I am here to tell you that experiences like this don’t soon fade from a young person’s memory.

And even though some of the kids on these protest marches are currently too young to vote, I’m willing to bet they won’t forget this experience once they are old enough. If I were a sitting legislator, I’d be taking note of that.

IMAGES: Many thanks to NPR, Steve Inskeep, Getty Images, and Joe Raedle for the photo of students evacuating Stoneman Douglas High after the attack on Feb. 14; to Politic365 and Jeffrey Koterba of the Omaha World-Herald for the cartoon; to CNN for the photo of Stoneman Douglas students protesting; to the Mankato Free Press, AP images, and Jim Mone, for the photo of the student protest in Mankato, MN; to AL.com (Advance Local/Alabama Media Group), The Berkshire Eagle, AP Images, and Gillian Jones for the photo of Taconic High School students marching in Pittsfield, MA on Feb. 27, 2018 in solidarity with the Florida students;