Richard Norway
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Posts posted by Richard Norway
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Dk, many people want change, and in their world, things can happen quickly. But in the world of the US government, things happen slowly. I believe that our founding fathers planned it that way, so that we don't over-react and pass laws that will need to be looked at again, mistakes like prohibition and DADT.
I do believe that President Obama is on our side but that things are going slower than we would like, but as you pointed out, those things are moving forward.
REichard
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Links, I need Links! I need something to click on. I need a direction. oops. Pun intended. :)
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This is a truly interesting thread to me, as it hits so close to home. I'm a foster parent, as I'm sure most of you know, and the kids that are being placed with me now are troubled kids. David and I were "treatment" foster parents prior to our association with the New Mexico state agency. Because of our past experience, our state agency seems to think that we are better equipped to take their more difficult children.
Kids are kids and they learn to be "bad" because they were taught to be that way...period. They lacked the guidance and love from people that should have been their role models. How do kids learn anyway? They watch what's around them. BTW, most parents aren't bad parents. They're just teaching their kids what they had learned while growing up.
Cole, you got me on the topic of "bad and good" with your example of kids.
But, (and here I go again starting with a conjunction, which I'm sure I'll hear about from you all) genetics does have it's play here. Genetics is actually the wrong word, but there are conditions that a child goes through that make him/her process information differently than their peers. ADHD is one example. The brain of kids with ADHD work differently than other kids. The synapse connections that they have formed send information to different parts of the brain than in other kids. Social information can be sent to the limbic part of the brain which reacts in a "fight or flight" mode to defend that person.
There is still controversies within the psychology sector whether these connections were formed from "nurture" or "nature" Whatever the case, these kids have synapses connections that send information to places in the brain different than other kids, and to change that, or rebuild new connections, will take a long time by very patient people. I believe that these synapse connection are formed for nurture, the kid's environment.
But, it can be done!
Kids are born with a "clean slate," as they say. What turns kids into "bad seeds" is the people around them, the lack of or fulfillment of love, the model of how they should react, and everything around that child.
Richard
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...Glad to see someone is sticking up for what's right instead of only looking at the bottom line on there balance sheet.
OMG...OMG...I can't believe my eyes. Do you see what I just saw? Of all people, our IDOL.
Cole, Let me help you. I know you have a lot of editors, but...but...THIS?
Camy, can you talk to him, please? You're a grammar expert, and he might listen to you.
I don't think we need for Cole to be committed, but...but...this is so far out of line from his norm.
AwesomeDude friends, we need to help one of our own.
Richard
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I need new landscape bushes and flowers that died during our sub zero temperatures last February. I'm switching from Lowe's (the closest to me) to Home Depot. Join the ranks of the good guys Home Depot along with Ford and Disney.
R
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I seriously like the way this thread has progressed. It shows hope. Tomorrow is Harvey Milk's birthday and the day that my play is going to be presented. The decline in organized religion is indicative of the public's feelings. Today Gallup's poll showed that more Americans support gay marriage for the first time. This is the third poll to show that in the last month, but it is the most believed of all the polls. Harvey Milk's "hope" speech said that a political figure's basic responsibility was to give the people hope, that there is a better horizon. That's what's happening in the churches today. The people are telling their beliefs and not following outdated dogmas.
Tomorrow I am taking a stand for gay rights. The play that I'm producing is fought with gay rights activism. Las Cruces is an open city with the cowboy mentality of "you leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone." But what is going to be presenting in the play is going to shock their laissez fare attitude.
I was outside the theater today talking with the theater manager about table placement for the reception following the performance when an older woman and I think her grand daughter, came up to me and asked if tickets were available. I told them we didn't have tickets available at the theater right now, but a coffee house had them as well as the GLBTQ Community Center. The younger girl was reluctant to enter the gay and lesbian center to get their tickets, even though that it was closer, but the older woman said, Posh. let's go there." :)
Times are really changing and I am so excited to see it. I look back at what I went through in high school and my tour with the Navy following, and I now have "hope" for our country as being "truly" what is said on the Statue of Liberty."
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Simon, I was more than enchanted. I was totally wrapped up in the imagery, the words, the feelings behind this work. Simon...you've married flash fiction with poetry. Absolutely WONDERFUL. I intend on showing this piece to friends.
Richard
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I'm from Minnesota, and his speech brought tears to my eyes. I often wonder what has happen to the Hubert Humphrey state of Minnesota that would turn it's back on minorities.
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We find out who we are in many ways. One way is to look at our past, as Kapitano has done, and derive our conclusions about who we are from our past.
The other way is to look at the truth of what was taught to us and make our own decisions about what we were told and what we believe.
Wonderful piece Kapitano, truly. It's one of those pieces that make us think. I am so happy to see this.
Richard
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What is wrong with us as a people and a society. We're allowing the killing of our future, our hopes and our dreams for a better world.
Please watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah7_hLXLLaA
Richard
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Colin, I'm very proud to know you and others who think like you do, but as you grow, you will see that America is not a perfect place. Actually, no place on this planet is perfect and our fight for equality will probably never end. But...that is not to say that we give up. I (New Mexico GLBTQ Centers) was just given a grant of $ 22,500 from the city of Las Cruces for our youth program, but it wasn't a unanimous decision either. One of the people on the committee graded our application with a very low score, not because of what we wanted to do with the funds for gay youth, but BECAUSE we wanted to do something for GAY youth. Bigotry still exists in America and will be dealt with for generations to come.
Don't give up your idealism when you see bigotry out there. It's people like you that will cause change to happen.
Richard
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I look around me and I see my herb seeds growing into flowers. I look around me and I see young people growing into responsible people ready to take our places, but I also look around me and see the hate that exists, for one another. I am both inspired by what is to come but saddened by what we have.
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I haven't posted much lately because of other commitments, but this thread has struck a chord with me. It has to do with this huge split between our two major political parties. You've talked about irresponsible budget cuts and care of our fellow humans on this planet, and believe me, they are tied together.
DKSTORIES...we haven't turned our backs on our friends in Japan...yet. It was only one idiot's comments so far. Unfortunately, that idiot can sway sentiment. But I still believe our government, as well as the American people, will still step in to help. We won't turn our backs.
Cole, you've made a very good assessment of the damage that irresponsible budget cuts would cause this nation. And this goes directly to the widening gap between our two major parties. The addenda of the "cutter Republicans" is to cut wherever possible without too much public outcry (votes, you know). But it is ideological without the full study of what is going to be the impact on not just our financial bottom line, but also on the jobs lost (not just in the federal government) in the private sector...which seems to go against our struggle to overcome our recession. Budget cutting for only the bottom line "Balance Sheet result" is nothing but disastrous.
We have a responsibility as a nation to support our allies. No, for that matter, we have a responsibility to support every other human being on this planet. We may be the only ones in the cosmos (But I hope that there are more that we just haven't found yet.) and therefore we are "family."
Budget cutting without regard to the potential loss of life or way of living is not only irresponsible, it's insane. And that's what I am gathering from the proposals set forward to cut our Federal Budget.
Yes, we need to do it, to curb spending, but responsibly. I'd like to see justification for each budget cut. Not just in the bottom line, but the impact on all of us as a society. I want to see a study of not just the monetary status, but what will be the real impact on our economy, jobs, the loss of help to a forgotten (by the GOP) population (the poor and needy through no fault of their own). We as human beings have a responsibility to care for our human "family."
Unfortunately, I don't know of anyway that we can force those kinds of studies and disclosures, to make our legislatures do "do diligence."
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James, I must say that that was probably the most powerful piece of Flash Fiction that I have ever read. In 351 word you were able to develop such a conflict that you have us (at least me) wanting to know how it will turn out. That was just...just...one of the most intriguing pieces from you that I have read.
You did your job, as a writer...just...amazingly. My hat's off to you.
Richard
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This was shown to me and I find it VERY interesting as I want to improve my writing.
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I just can't believe this. Five South Dakota lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require any adult 21 or older to buy a firearm ?sufficient to provide for their ordinary self-defense.?
http://www.argusleader.com/article/2011013...itizens-buy-gun
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For the past few years, David and I have been going to the Lincoln National Forest to cut our own tree. We buy a permit for $ 5.00 and we can cut any species up to 10 feet tall. I can still shudder at the $ 100 to $ 200 trees that we bought in southern California. Now, we have a sunken living room with a cathedral ceiling, so a 10 foot tree is needed in that tall space. We generally get a spruce variety as it's not so full and allows ease of hanging ornaments. The hard part is the leather gloves that I have wear to get the ornaments into and onto the tree. Then again there's the 100 pounds of needles that fall off of our 15 pound tree.
We had snow this year about a week before Christmas. Nathaniel could actually be seen skipping through the back yard with his arms flaying in the snow flurries. It flurried and didn't stray around, but heck, this is southern New Mexico. We usually get some snow every year and last year we had 6 inches on the ground one morning in January. The town couldn't cope and shut itself down for the day.
See, Canada even corrupts us this far south.
Richard
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I remember throwing a football around a few years ago one early summer evening, in daylight, at 11:30 PM.
Me too. Although I'm in southern New Mexico now, I was born in northern Minnesota (with family in Alberta, Calgary and throughout Saskatchewan) and still remember watching the northern lights in the evening...usually past 11:00 pm when it was starting to get dark enough. But, I'm so happy to be out of the cold that that country possesses. I still love to go home at Christmas to play in the 10' snow, but so happy to return to civilization.
Richard
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On the other hand we do seem to be getting an intuitive feel about our knowing that we don't know.
Des, I was at a seminar about 10 years ago attended by approximately 100 people, and the speaker was talking about what is knowable. He drew a large circle on the white board behind him and said it represented all that was knowable in the universe. Then he asked us to visualize how much of that 100% that we actually knew. My estimate was about 1/10th of 1%...and that's probably high. He then drew a small pie shape in the circle to represent an average of what each one of us estimated to be what we knew out of what was knowable. He drew his at 1/2 of 1% (liers). Then he asked if anyone knew anything about brain surgery. Of course no one raised their hand. He asked a couple more questions about other esoteric topics that everyone had heard of but knew nothing about. These represented things we knew that we didn't know anything about. We knew they existed though. He then asked us to estimate how much we didn't know compared to how much we did know. Most of the audience responded with a figure of 10. There was was probably 10 times more that they didn't know than they knew. He then put another pie mark on the circle next to the first one representing the 5% that they knew that they didn't know. (1/2% x 10 = 5%) He then labeled the first pie shape "K" for "know." He labeled the second pie shape "NDK" for "know that you don't know." He looked at us and asked...."What about the rest of this circle?" I had an epiphany at that moment. He labeled the large pie shape left "DKDK." He then said, "The rest of that circle represents all that you don't know that you don't know. 94.5% of what is knowable in the universe is stuff that you don't even realize, you don't know that you don't know.
It put me in my place.
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I just checked with Netflix and they didn't have it yet. You can save your order.
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Great writing Camy! Early on in reading this short, I had a feeling of deja vu. I had read this before, but not this particular story rather the way it was presented. Then it hit me. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf. Sharon all of a sudden became Elizabeth Taylor and I saw Richard Burton, the nemesis across from Elizabeth. They loved each other but still couldn't not let the barbs show.
Great stuff Camy, just great stuff.
A line from Katherine Hepburn comes to mind from The Lion In Winter. As she's again thrown onto the floor of her imprisoning tower, she looks up from the floor and says, (something to the effect) "All great families have their ups and downs."
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I so loved this story Bruin, very well thought out and well developed.
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Wonderful Cole!!
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I liked the interview video. Jonathan talked more about writing, writers and how he writes more than he did about his new book.
Thanks Des.
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Gary Johnson was a past governor of New Mexico, so even as a Republican, we know that he's not all bad. :)
Richard