Will we all be the same color someday?

In the United states, I think we will all be the same color eventually.
This will be the proof that we have learned to live with our racial differences.
And conversely, if we have learned to live with our racial differences, it almost has to happen.
We already see it beginning. Getting there could take 100s of years.
But the world has spent 1000s of years not getting there.
At least in the United States, given our racial mixture, I think we have a good chance.
As for the rest of the world? Maybe just one step at a time.
This is why I posted the Bill of Rights, which I think is one of the greatest documents ever written. It originally was only applied to white males. But the words give us the freedom to apply it to all. While it has taken the United States over 200 years to get even part of the way (along a very bumpy road), at least we are getting better, not worse. We cannot heal the past pains. Nor can we eliminate the current pains. But at least, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel. Better a light that nobody in this generation will see, than no light at all. At least now, there is some light in the current tunnel.

The other key differences to be dealt with are the religious ones. I have tried not to go there with my blog. I am hoping that the concept of not killing people and treating every individual as a human being can become universal. History says that is not the case, given all our past (and current) religious wars. But again, I am hoping that, at least, in the United States, religion will not be a long-term dividing factor.

Similarly, I have avoided politics. Again, the concept of not killing people and treating every individual as a human being should be universal, regardless of whether you are a Democrat or Republican or Independent (or one of the other parties).

I may be naive. But nobody currently alive can prove it. Unless we invent a time machine pretty soon.

--Too Deep

Hope to the Rescue (per Jules Pfeiffer) !

A Puppy for Darfur, but Not for Congo?

Please see Nicholas Kristof's article at the following link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13dLmXsmZzvSoHkVQ9hCrlhwO3sHP3Ubi/view?usp=drive_link

Please see Sept 30 post re Congo at bottom of this blog.

Which is Worse #3? (#1 and #2 at bottom)

I have been haunted by Rwanda ever since it happened.
Yet I have done nothing.
Some people probably did not know that it had happened, and maybe, still do not know.
So which is worse?
Knowing, but not doing anything?
Or not knowing?

--Too Deep

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IqtGh1X_JMvpgA8UyNXfQVzmix9pPOu8/view?usp=drive_link

Samantha Power's article was written on the 10th anniversary.

 

From the article:

Then-Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.) described the relative silence in her district. "There are some groups terribly concerned about the gorillas," she said, noting that Colorado was home to a research group that studied Rwanda's imperiled gorilla population. "But — it sounds terrible — people just don't know what can be done about the people."

Bill of Rights

THE BILL OF RIGHTS
Amendments 1-10 of the Constitution

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The Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution;

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution, namely:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

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Semi-Random Thoughts

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
--Marcel Proust

Philosophy teaches us to speak with the appearance of truth on all things, and causes us to be admired by the less learned.
--Rene Descartes, "Discourse on Method"

No Ostrich

Animal Farm

I think George Orwell's "Animal Farm" is the number one book everybody should read.  It is a superb commentary on human nature, done in a very short and clever manner.

After reading the book, you will understand the "No Pig" symbol.

From Google:

"Animal Farm is in the public domain in the United States.  The original copyright has expired, and no renewals have been found at the U.S. Copyright Office."

Here is the full book (found on the Internet):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19AtiJGKYUkuv20ITHtTU_rrN02Dcr8fA/view?usp=drive_link

Human Nature?

There are forms of alienation that are relatively strange to statistically "normal" forms of alienation. The "normally" alienated person, by reason of the fact that he acts more or less like everyone else, is taken to be sane. Other forms of alienation that are out of step with the prevailing state of alienation are those that are labeled by the "normal" majority as bad or mad.
The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one's mind, is the condition of the normal man.
Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal.
Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.

--R.D. Laing
"The Politics of Experience"
1967

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_David_Laing

Which is Worse #2?

.....as to claim, for instance, with Buckle, that through civilization mankind becomes softer, and consequently less bloodthirsty, and less fitted for warfare. Logically it does not seem to follow from his arguments. But man is so fond of systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort the truth intentionally, he is ready to deny what he can see and hear to justify his logic. I take this example because it is the most glaring instance of it. Only look about you: blood is being spilled in streams, and in the merriest way, as though it were champagne. Take the whole of the nineteenth century in which Buckle lived. Take Napoleon both the Great and the present one. Take North America the eternal union. Take farcical Schleswig Holstein. And what is it that civilization softens in us? Civilization only produces a greater variety of sensations in man and absolutely nothing more. And through the development of this variety, man may even come to find enjoyment in bloodshed. After all, it has already happened to him. Have you noticed that the subtlest slaughterers have almost always been the most civilized gentlemen, to whom the various Attilas and Stenka Razins could never hold a candle, and if they are not so conspicuous as the Attilas and Stenka Razins it is precisely because they are so often met with, are so ordinary and have become so familiar to us. In any case if civilization has not made man more bloodthirsty, it has at least made him more abominably, more loathsomely bloodthirsty than before. Formerly, he saw justice in bloodshed and with his conscience at peace exterminated whomever he thought he should. And now while we consider bloodshed an abomination, we nevertheless engage in this abomination and even more than ever before. Which is worse? Decide for yourselves.

--Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Notes From Underground"
1864

Dostoevsky wrote this well before the 20th century!

http://www1.umn.edu/lol-russ/hpgary/Russ3421/lesson8.htm

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1277OBwVd4NKa07tFGBL1vjaJS0j0zXbg/view?usp=drive_link