Blog
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Cultures change slowly. I was born in 1945. When I was growing up in Washington, D.C., discrimination against African Americans, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Gays, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and Muslims was not the least bit unusual and was largely accepted. Southern politicians got elected based on who was the loudest and most viciously racist.
TOLERANCE
We’re living at a time when it seems that to believe in something means you have to do whatever you can to force everyone else to believe the same thing. A few people do it with actual physical violence. Many, many more do it with overheated rhetoric and accusation.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
Multimillionaire and Silicon Valley whiz kid Anthony Levandowski is obviously no dummy. So I can only conclude that he missed a few history classes. The man has started a religion! If he hadn’t missed those history classes he’d realize that starting a religion is the quickest way to get yourself strung up, hung up, shot at or at least laughed out of town.
TOLERANCE
In 1997, a computer defeated Garry Kasparov, the greatest chess champion that ever lived. Deep Blue was a $10-million-dollar I.B.M. supercomputer specifically designed to beat Kasparov at chess. Tens of millions watched the match from around the world, rooting for the man to defeat the machine. It was a disappointing day for humanity.
MEDIA & ETHICS
The data is fascinating and rather unnerving at the same time. In about an hour’s time, Mr. King created a fake news website, put together a fake news story by re-using a popular one he had seen, created a fake news page on Facebook, created a fake ad promoting the fake news from his fake page, targeted the ad to the groups most likely to salivate over it, specified his budget of about $50.00 and then clicked “place order.”
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
As a 7th grader, I visited the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. The quote in HUGE letters around the inner dome reads: “I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." When I read it, a chill ran down my spine.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The supposed purpose of FaithLeaks is to get anonymous tips of wrongdoing within churches and religions, “expose” them and educate people. But as past is prologue, expect old hatreds, prejudices and bias to flood out, carefully sourced to be untraceable, no one held responsible, the perfect forum to covertly smear the reputation and honor of legitimate religious organizations.
TOLERANCE
One day when I was a kid, my mom brought an apple pie home from the bakery. This was a rare occurrence in our sugar-rationed household and therefore a very big deal to me. I, personally, had an open-door policy on sugar.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The frustration level of those desperately trying to shove the Scientology “genie” back in the bottle seems to be at an all-time high. How horrifying is this time for those whose misdeeds and evil plans are being exposed at every turn.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Debates that pit science versus religion don’t usually end well. They can devolve into name-calling, sometimes on a national stage, the only winners being shoe salesmen who benefit from the windfall of heels overused, dug-in and worn-down by proponents on both sides.
