Category Archives: News

A Journalist Reacts to Charlie Hebdo

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Charlie HedboJournalistThe terrorist attack at Charlie Hebdo magazine office made a profound impression upon Ms. MMK. As a journalist, she feels a sense of camaraderie with others in the profession.  Here’s her reaction.

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I’m proud to be a journalist today.

It’s not like I write about chemical warfare in Syria or Boko Haram raids in Nigeria. Heck no. I was too scared to go into the Haunted House at Walt Disney World. There’s no way I’m putting my life in danger to expose tyranny.

But I respect the hell out of the people who do. People who don’t sit in their comfy houses and just watch brutality on their smartphones. People who seek horrors out, so they can tell the world how much evil exists.

Journalists aren’t drafted. They’re not forced to serve. They choose to be our ears and eyes. Some people are born with a burning desire to make things right. They forge ahead with blinders to find what’s wrong in this world, so they can warn others and let them know.

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How this Other Feels on Christmas Day

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An other who does not celebrate ChristmasI love Christmas lights.  Always have.

Kind of ironic, right?  After all, I’m Jewish and therefore, I don’t celebrate Christmas. Yet, it’s hard to avoid Christmas and all that goes with it. Between the advertisements, television shows, music, etc, Christmas is everywhere. However, for me, Christmas is just another day.

And that is why at this time of the year, I feel very much like a minority, an other, and an outsider. These days that fact does not bother me, but that was not always true.

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Good Reasons for You to be Happy

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Good to be happy!I’m not sure what I’m going to write about on my blog today. Any suggestions?
What are you going to write about?
I said I’m not sure. I want to write about you guys. What do you think?
I don’t know. Just write about something good.

This was a conversation I had with BR.

Pretty good suggestion by him, I’d say. After all, have you read the newspaper lately? Seriously.

Between riots and wars and mass murders, it’s damn depressing out there.  After catching up on the news, it’s hard not to be upset. In fact, you should be upset after reading the news. If you aren’t upset after watching the news, I’d be worried about you.

BR does not worry about the news. In fact, he barely follows it. His big interests are Minecraft, You Tube, and baseball. Yet, his suggestion to focus on something good is wise beyond his recognition.

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Don’t Judge! It’s Not So Simple.

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scaleYou never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.– spoken by Atticus Finch, written by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird 

Simple, isn’t it. Don’t judge. You don’t know a person because you don’t have his/her perspective. By the way, Scout was just seven years old when Atticus gave her this advice. So if a seven year old can understand these words, why can’t we as a society?

We All Judge

We all judge. All the time. Don’t shake your head no. You do it and so do you and so do you. We all do it.

Judgment was a theme I touched upon when I taught To Kill a Mockingbird to my high school students. Here is how I proved that we all judge all the time.

      It’s the first day of school. As you walk into each classroom for the first time, what’s the first thing you do? You look at the teacher. You look at your fellow classmates. You figure out where to sit. The whole time you are judging. And this is true any time you go somewhere the first time or a place that is out of your routine – public transportation, a store, etc.

Some students would disagree with me and maybe you do too. However, I stand by my statement. We are assessing the situation and location. Is it safe? Am I going to be comfortable here? Are there potential problems here? And what is the way to get the answer to these questions?  We study the people around us, and we judge them.

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