grace

… filling in the negative space with positively everything

America Has Lost One of Its Greatest Voices: Dr. Howard Zinn (1922 - 2010)

I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble.

- Howard Zinn

A true leader and inspiration for those who believe strongly enough in democracy to fight for it, Dr. Howard Zinn passed away today at the age of 87. Dr. Zinn wanted to be remembered for introducing a new way of thinking and “getting more people to realize that the power ultimately rests in people themselves and that they can use it.”

Howard Zinn not only taught people history, he showed them how to shape it. He walked the talk. May he now rest in peace.

Click these links to see Dr. Zinn’s project The People Speak (history) and celebrities participating in The People Speak.

Click here for Howard Zinn’s Democracy Now podcast list.

Click here for more video & audio links for Howard Zinn.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Permanent link to this post

Which Houston Mayoral Candidate REALLY Supports Equality?

This issue is really important to me, because I have family and friends in the LGBT community who are still treated as second-class citizens when it comes to equal civil rights.

There is a New York Times article going around on Twitter that Annise Parker may make history as “the first openly gay woman to be elected mayor of a major American metropolis.” In it, however, Parker says “I always told voters the truth…” then goes on to state she has “no current plan to offer [same-sex benefits] for a referendum.”

I’m shocked that Annise Parker, the “openly gay” candidate, does NOT support same-sex benefits. The NYTimes article reports:

In a televised debate on Oct. 25, for instance, she was asked if she would push for a referendum to give benefits to the same-sex partners of city workers. A similar measure was soundly defeated in the past.

Ms. Parker has lived with her partner for 19 years and has two adopted children, so she has a personal stake in the question, but she replied that, while she supported the idea, she had “no current plan to offer that for a referendum.”

“Personally it’s very important,” she said, “but, as mayor of Houston, do I want to engage resources in fighting that battle, or do I want to tackle the budget? Do I want to tackle drainage? Do I want to try to put more police officers on the street? It’s the difference between the personal and what this city needs.”

Read full post ...

TAO : The Art Of…

Wikipedia on Tao:

While the character itself translates as ‘way’, ‘path’, or ‘route’, or sometimes more loosely as ‘doctrine’ or ‘principle’, it is used philosophically to signify the fundamental or true nature of the world.In Taoism, Tao both precedes and encompasses the universe. As with other nondualistic philosophies, all the observable objects in the world [...] are considered to be manifestations of Tao, and can only operate within the boundaries of Tao. Tao is, by contrast, often referred to as ‘the nameless’, because neither it nor its principles can ever be adequately expressed in words. It is conceived, for example, with neither shape nor form, as simultaneously perfectly still and constantly moving, as both larger than the largest thing and smaller than the smallest, because the words that describe shape, movement, size, or other qualities always create dichotomies, and Tao is always a unity.

One of my favorite books is The Tao of Physics - it discusses how Eastern mysticism and quantum physics share basic tenets that are fundamental to life, the universe, and everything. Like how we exist amidst the dualities of order and chaos, and somehow attain balance. How we change, and are changed by, our universe through actions and reactions. And how we are all made from, and connected by, forces we can’t currently perceive.

This isn’t a post about metaphysics or physics, though. This is about “The Art Of…”- a series of posts I’m starting that happen to involve the same basic tenets as Tao & physics. But as addressed through Art.

Read full post ...
keep looking »

  • Art Not Ads!

  • Flickr

    SXSW 2009SXSW 2009SXSW 2009SXSW 2009SXSW 2009

  • tweets...

    Posting tweet...