Beware the Pure Spirit, Let the Flesh Instruct the Mind

The following was part of an exercise that was used in a facilitator training session for SafeZone.  I may be tweaking this until I get it right, but here is what I have for now.  This is taken from Writing to Change the World. I am from Mickey and Freda, Papaw Fitzpatrick and Virginia, Roger and Judy. From Central Appalachia and mid-plateau of southern West Virginia, from old mountains and creeks / rivers full of hellbenders, bluegill, catfish, and copperheads. From dirt roads paved with "red dawg" and sprinkled with waste oil to keep down dust.From campsite stories of haints, Mothman and "The Mad Butcher of Fayette County." From pots of brown beans, onions and butter, cornbread, venison, home grown maters, cucumbers and onions floating in vinegar, and poke salit. From fiercely self sufficient stock, extreme poverty, and Jesus only with ciggies and backey spitoons made from Folgers coffee cans. From large extended families, 2nd and 3rd cousins all account...

Dear Mr. President and Speaker of the House, With all due respect (as I do acknowledge the importance of the positions to which you now occupy) to blame the fiasco that we now know Trumpcare upon the Democrats in Congress is, well, just asinine. This is not playing the blame game, here is the truth. Your party was swept into power during the last election cycle and holds all the power needed to pass your beloved legislation. Both divisions of Congress AND the Office of the Presidency are squarely and securely in YOUR control. And yet you blame the Democrats for your failure to pass your holy grail legislation (to defeat the demonic ACA as though it were a destructive dragon pillaging and destroying America)? Pish posh! You knew that no Democratic legislator worth  their salt was going to join you in beginning the disastrous process of disenrollment  of millions upon millions of fellow Americans from their health coverage. You knew this, and you didn't mind as you also were...

Yesterday was the 7 year mark for The Affordable Care Act (ACA).  With the new administration, there has been a rabid push to "repeal and replace" the ACA. In reality, we know what this will mean for millions of Americans. Yesterday on the campus of ETSU, a group of concerned local citizens came together to hold a press conference and share how lives have been changed by the enactment and implementation of the ACA. They also shared what will be lost if the current GOP efforts are successful. They appealed to our state legislators to not go down the current dark  path, but to find other ways to protect and enhance the current policy so that the millions of Americans can continue to have affordable health care insurance and all that comes along with it. Here is one story that was shared. His story is unique, and also a story that many understand and can personally identify with. Lovingly shared for your consideration... I am self-employed. I am a cancer survivor and I ...

Found this on my laptop. During my last depressive episode years ago, I wrote this as part of my recovery. I put this out here as an example of what can happen, what did happen to me, and how I came back to the land of the living. I don't claim that this works for anyone. However, it is what worked for me. Prescription Where I Was Shortly after the death of Rumor and the loss of a meaningful job in HIV Services, my life changed rather dramatically and quickly. Understandably I was grieving the loss of my animal companion. Honestly, I was unprepared for what his death signaled for me in the form of consequences. Uncontrollable emotional outbursts, guilt, and sorrow at the loss of him. Downward spiral mentally, to mental confusion and an inability to concentrate or focus on anything school wise for any length of time. My own personal issues of control and my own views on what kind of student and researcher I SHOULD be only added to this black hole that I was circli...

An observation from this weekend.  I attended a funeral for a relative of mine who recently had passed away. She was a member of the Eastern Star (an order associated with Free Masonry). My aunt was a wonderful lady, generous and kind and full of good works to her family and community. My thoughts here are not in relation to her, or to the Order itself, it has more to do with the scriptural references that were used.  In association to the five pointed star that symbolizes their Order, they referenced several Biblical figures as exemplars to consider. Three of the five caught my attention as ladies from the Order spoke ·          Adah (daughter of Jephthah) ·          Ruth ·          Esther These heroines of the Bible, persevered seemingly because of their faith in G-D and their submission to men. Men wrote the words that eventually became cod...

We are absolutely right to condemn the suicide bomber’s targeting of innocent civilians and mourn his victims. But as we have seen, in war the state also targets such victims; during the 20 th century, the rate of civilian deaths rose sharply and now stands at 90 percent. In the West we solemnize the deaths of our regular troops carefully and recurrently honor the memory of the soldier who dies for his country. Yet the civilian deaths that we cause are rarely mentioned, and there has been no sustained outcry in the West against them. Suicide bombing shocks us to the core; but should it be more shocking than the deaths of thousands of children in their homelands every year because of land mines?  Or collateral damage in a drone strike?  “Dropping cluster bombs from the air is not only less repugnant: it is somehow deemed, by Western people at least, to be morally superior, says British psychologist Jacqueline Rose… The colonial West had created a two-tiered hierarchy that pri...

This was an article that was a requirement for my Ethics class in CJCR 5005. I enjoyed the class taught by Dr. Braswell and I have incorporated this article in my COBH 3330 course.  Feelings and Perceptions                 I was very glad to see Thich Nhat Hanh as the author of one of the selections in this course book.  I have had the pleasure of reading articles written by the author and had wondered if he would be included in the discussion of nonviolence.  The article included here is a goldmine.                He begins by discussing the challenge of perception. What we often see is not often add up to true perception. For example, we never see the sun as it truly is. We see the sun always through the past as it takes over 8 minutes for the sunlight to travel the immense distance from its surface to our planet....