Truth by its very nature is controversial. And that’s probably because truth has always been subject to individual interpretation. Despite varying perceptions from individual to individual, one can always arrive at the objective truth through common-sense, logic, science, investigation, analysis, reason, technology, and a few other valid and time-tested means. So you see; the truth cannot be hidden all the time: that’s very difficult to accomplish.

Nowadays in the USA, it appears that the search for objective truths isn’t a pursuit of the most fanatical members of the present apology for a Republican political party. It’s ostensibly worse yet, if you are a card-carrying-member of the intellectually-challenged appendage of that entity: the Tea Party. That’s when insincerity, dishonesty, mendacity and the like, become the primary tactics for justifying attempts at political chicanery. That’s when common sense, humanity, moderation and reason flee to brutish beasts.  read more »

We always need to keep in mind, that there are different types of political activists out there; just as there are different levels of involvement and activities; and there is a co-relation. There are those whose activism has been driven by family heritage: generations of political involvement and community activism from close relatives. Then there are those whose activism has been driven by religion, or philosophy, or something ideological from within. Then there are those whose involvements come via the “academic” route: professionals, bureaucrats, technicians, students, teachers, professors, journalists, reporters and the like.

Furthermore, there are those who get involved because of issues and/or personal need(s). For example, some type of situation comes up within the school system in which their kids are being educated -and from there on in they are moved to be active participants in the political process: because of a newly found awareness.  read more »

This sounds like an excellent talk, and a topic too rarely discussed.

5th Annual NYU Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Week

Harriet Washington
Author
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
February 7, 2011
5:30 - 8:15pm
550 1st Avenue
Alumni Hall B

“Washington, a journalist and former ethics fellow at Harvard Medical School, tells some harrowing stories, and claims that throughout the 19th century, medical schools disproportionately used blacks in live surgical demonstrations. In more recent times, she writes, they have been disproportionately enrolled in risky, nonbeneficial research in gynecology, oncology, surgery, pediatrics, infectious disease and genetics. While the worst excesses are a thing of the past, blacks are still ‘at greater risks than whites of being conscripted into ... research without giving their consent.’ ”

-The New York Times

Sponsored by:
The Office of Diversity Affairs
The Black and Latino Student Association
The Master Scholars Program in Medical Humanism  read more »

So I was walking home from the train today. A rather disheveled looking person, who I immediately and rather unfairly (I thought) pegged as borderline crazy person was coming up the stairs. He was either talking into an earphone/mouthpiece phone which I couldn't see or talking rather coherently to himself. At first it seemed to be about an altercation that he characterized as "not clearly being any one person's fault." I walked on.

Somehow our paths were overlapping. I kept crossing paths with him and overhearing part of is rambling conversation with someone or with himself.

"All they want is the fall of Western Civilization. If it falls, that's okay with them. If not, well that's okay with them too."

Who is he talking about, I wonder. Teabaggers? Republicans? Those cross my mind given recent events both during the Bush administration and now. I'd think al-Qaeda except the last part of "if not..." doesn't seem to fit.

"All they want is to make as much money as they can."  read more »

I guess it was just too much for me to hope that the quality of black and Hispanic electeds will get better in a post-Obama USA. After all, there was really nothing to base that on. And after years of frustration with the quality emerging from New York, I guess I was just grasping at straws, in hope that we could elect people, who are not only intellectually developed to tackle real issues facing the polity, but also possessive of the moral character and courage to do the right thing when the right time comes.

Look, there are no perfect politicians. In fact there are no perfect human beings anywhere. If we were all perfect, we would have nothing to strive for; so hopefully we keep reaching for the good within, hoping that one day we get to become the best we can be. I know that I am not perfect, but I do strive to be a better human being every day of my adult life. I also try to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them: to me, this is basic; this is fundamental for trying to live a decent life.  read more »