Liebster Award goes to... me

I was given the Liebster Blog Award by Mina Lobo, writer of Some Dark Romantic.

I am SO appreciative of the different acknowledgment I have received from my fellow bloggers.  It really means a lot for a small-time blogger like me.

Here are the rules for the Liebster Blog Award.

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or fewer.
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

Here are the bloggers I am presenting the Liebster Blog Award.  (I try to mix it up with each award so that I am not picking on my same readers or the same blogs that I follow.)

Lisa - Diary of a Square Toothed Girl
Tim - Life of Riles
Rhapsody B - Rhapsody Phoenix
MOV - Word Cut
Gina - Does Anyone Care What I Write?

Today, I look back

Today, I'm thinking of elections.  There is a recall election in Wisconsin happening today.  There is a presidential election that will take place this year in November.

As I think of this election, I am also thinking back to things I wrote during the last election cycle.

Today, I am really grateful for all of my followers, for all of my commenters.  I love seeing that people actually read what I write.

Most of my posts, lately, are pretty light-hearted.  It wasn't always so.

Today, I remember a post that received some serious negative feedback from commenters.  I am remembering all of the research I put into some of my posts.

I would like to take a trip down memory lane with you today.  I know some people don't like clicking links or reading old posts, but I promise, these are some good ones from my old, more serious, often political days of blogging.

First up, Response To Some Readers.  This post was a response to some negative feedback I got after I wrote about how lack of insurance and lack of adequate healthcare could have led to an event my friend and I encountered.  Even after this response, I still got some negative comments from readers.  It got to the point where I couldn't even respond, but fortunately, KBO responded well for me. (In this post, I was still using the moniker, Stuck In My Head).  WARNING: It is very liberal in my thoughts, don't hate me if we don't share the same ideas about government... we can still get along and hopefully, you will still read my posts in the future that are not political!

I also have posts that I just enjoyed doing research for.  Perhaps my future could include some "serious" journalism.

In Considering Politics & Religion I wrote about different people's desire to make race an issue in the election of 2008.

After the current administration came into office, I still wrote about politics as it ties to education.  Obama - We Need More Than Education To Help Minorities was a post where I addressed the discrepancies in punishments and treatment of students in schools.  I talked about the need for better classroom management and for more organizations like College Summit to get involved in schools.

Not all the posts I reflect on today were tied to politics... well not really.

I did a lot of research for a post on Haiti after the earthquake of 2010 that led to some questionable donating organizations (Haiti Needs Help - Be Careful How You Give It).  I wrote about about the history of the nation and its long-standing debt and the fact that many donor organizations don't actually give money to places they say they give to.  (Seriously!! Look into the organizations you donate to!!)  If there are so many NGOs and groups giving money to Haiti, why does it still look almost the same as the day the quake happened?  Why are there still SO MANY people living in tents to this day?!?!

I've connected with other bloggers doing Bloggers Unite.  For World AIDS Day in 2008 where I supplied a lot of information about the disease and those it impacts.  For Refugees in 2008 since there was a serious discrepancy in the number of refugees allowed into certain nations.

And, finally, there is the post This Always Tickles Me.  Because Vitas Bumac always does just that!!  I love him and the way he sounds.  And I can't help but smile at the way he can hit his notes.

Worldless Wednesday: Opposing SOPA

SOPA: See more information from techdirt.com here, too.

Click to Contact Congress

Click to sign Google Petition

Thanks to Four Hens and a Rooster for this Wordless Wednesday idea to join in the protests.

No reason for AIDS to be spreading as it is

Another day for the world to briefly think about the disease that is ever increasing its scope in the world despite the fact that it is highly preventable.  World AIDS Day 2009.  It is sad that so many people continue to spread this disease; it is sad that so many in young age brackets are transmitting this disease without realizing what they are doing.  It is sad that many schools and parents do not feel it necessary to teach young people about safe sex practices, and then when they go ahead and have sex or perform oral sex or have anal sex (which are not considered sex in many minds) despite their promises not to or the special rings on their fingers, they are not in the know of the simple latex protection they can use to help prevent AIDS and many other STDs.

Some statistics for you...

Right now there are :

• 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide
• 31.3 million adults
• 15.7 million women
• 2.1 million children under 15

In 2008 alone -- new HIV cases:

• 2.7 million people
• 2.3 million adults
• 430,000 children under 15

In 2007 there were 2 million total HIV-related deaths.

You can get some ideas about what you can do (besides just wrapping it up and getting you and your partners tested) on this World AIDS Day site.  Respect and Protect.  I remember a line from Michael Franti's Spearhead: I know these things and these things I must know 'cause it's better to know than to not know!

If you are in the Saint Louis, Missouri area, you can learn more about the St. Louis Effort for AIDS.

Bloggers Unite for World AIDS Day 2008

1 December is the 21st World AIDS Day. I am joining a ton of other bloggers again to unite for a common, awesome cause. Bloggers Unite for World AIDS Day 2008. After you read my post, check out the other bloggers writing on this cause to inform people.

Yet, this diseases is still spreading, still killing, still being ignored by so many who don't want to simply get tested.

And contrary to some opinions, the crisis is not overblown. There are still people contracting this disease that could be prevented. That simple fact makes it still a crisis. There are other humanitarian issues as well, but HIV/AIDS is a worldwide one that still needs to be addressed along with the flu and malaria and the various causes of diarrhea.

Worldwide there are 33 million people living with HIV. Here are some more statistics from NAT:

• 30.8 million adults
• 15.5 million women
• 2.0 million children under the age of 15

And there are steadily more and more new cases of this disease being found (these are stats from 2007:

• 2.7 million total new cases
• 2.3 million adults
• 370,000 children under the age of 15

Because of so many great treatments and even a new ray of hope just last month of a man who appears to have been cured of AIDS.

HIV-related deaths in 2007:

• 2.0 million total deaths

According to Avert.org there have been 25 million people who have died of AIDS since 1981. There are 11.6 million AIDS orphans in Africa.

But this disease is mostly preventable. Be safe. Get tested.

One in 250 in the USA are carrying HIV, according to the CDC.

Young people under 25 account for 1/2 of all new HIV infections worldwide. That is insane. I know that there are a lot of other STDs going around in the young people I teach, but I'm not sure that they understand that this disease CAN affect them. I'm not sure that YOU know that it could affect you. I'm sure the students at St. Louis' Normandy High School thought they were immune to this disease, but they received a rude awakening earlier this fall.

President Bush has never gotten props from me, but he can get a slight tip of the mini-afro for his work on PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief - reauthorized just this past July). According to their site, this legislation is working in an effort

combat global HIV/AIDS [At $48 billion, it is] the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history. The new legislation will dramatically increase the financial commitment to this fight -- authorizing up to $48 billion to combat global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria... [It] will support treatment for at least 3 million people; prevention of 12 million new infections; and care for 12 million people, including 5 million orphans nad vulnerable children.

In developing and transitional countries, 9.7 million people are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs; of these, only 2.99 million (31%) are receiving the drugs.

Give money and support organizations working to find a cure as well as organizations working to help those who are living with this HIV/AIDS.

It's as though we all hear this information so much, that it seems irrelevant to us.

Get tested. Care about those who are infected. Give money to those that are working toward a cure.

It's that simple, yet that complicated.

Bloggers Unite for Refugees 10 Nov 08: A bit on Iraq displacement

Today is another of those occasions when Bloggers Unite for a cause -- this time about refugees.

Since the United States has been in Iraq for a long time and seems as though the occupation will never cease, I decided to touch on a bit of the refugee problems in that nation.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 4.7 million Iraqis have had to leave their homes. They go either to other nations or to other cities that are not threatened by war violence. According to Refugees International a lot of the people fleeing their homes are moving into neighborhoods that are more homogeneous making relations more divided based on the sects. Many of them move into homes of the opposite group who fled to another region or another nation.

Many of these families have been separated -- children from parents, spouses from their lovers. It's sad. It's horrifying. I can't imagine this happening to me or any one I know. Yet, it is happening to so many throughout the world.

Not only does this cause problems for the nation, so does the number of professionals leaving the nation or leaving the regions where they once lived. An older Time Magazine article wrote that "Iraq's doctors, once considered the best in the Arab world, no longer have access to advances in medical science because they have no books, no Internet connections and barely any money to attend international conferences." Now they all flee for better, safer jobs in other regions of the nation or other regions of the world. This leaves the hospitals searching for ways to lure doctors back to the region with higher salaries and better protection.

But who are they kidding? Why would you go back there when there are constantly bombings, whether by suicide bombers, U.S. military, or the hired help? Some people have returned to their homes in Iraq - this is used by the U.S. to show the success of its "surge" - but there have been no strategies developed to really alleviate the problems under the surface in this nation. Iraq needs help figuring out how to create and maintain peace, how to convince the displaced that it is safe to return, and how to settle economic and property disputes that will inevitably surface upon the return of the masses if they choose to go back home.

If Sweden can admit 80,000+ Iraqi refugees, then, surely, the United States can do more.

This is international. But there are refugees in every state of this United States, and all over the world. And they are not all Iraqi. There are problems occurring throughout the world in nations that are not publicized in the mainstream media that need assistance.

You can easily look up what people in your local area are doing to help the people who have come for safe-keeping in your city or state or nation.

Here are a few sites with more information:

• Refugees International
• The UN Refugee Agency
• Amnesty International
• Center for American Progress
• U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
• Eyes on Darfur
• List of Agencies (not sure if some still work, but it is a good place to start)
• International Rescue Committee

In St. Louis:

• International Institute
• Refugee and Immigrant Consortium of St. Louis
• Immigrant and Refugee Women's Program

More modern day slavery and racial hatred

I wrote an entry you can read here on modern day slavery for Bloggers Unite for Human Rights back in May. I also taught a mini-unit on it to my students first semester this year. They were incredibly shocked (as are most people in this country) that slavery still exists in the world, let alone in this nation.

Hopefully you will read this article from the New York Sun on Varsha Sabhnani, who was convicted with her husband in December on 12 counts including forced labor, conspiracy, and involuntary servitude.

Read the conditions and treatment they put their "housekeepers" through.

Then the next time someone says that slavery ended with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (which is bull shit anyway if that is what your history teacher taught you) you can let them know that it was technically ended with the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, but that it still goes on TO THIS DAY -- in the manner used by Sabhnani and in other manners that the government and business owners use to keep people of different races and socioeconomic classes down in this country.

Educate yourselves.

Oh, and in case you did not realize that there are still racist, white supremacist groups in this country as well, read up on this from Black America Web. Billy Roper, a 36-year-old who runs a group called White Revolution in Russellville, Arkansas, told The Washington Post. "Nothing has awakened normally complacent white Americans more than the prospect of America having an overtly non-white president."

The site also said that "The resurgence of hate groups comes as a new poll by The Washington Post-ABC News shows that nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice."

Where is the love? Why is there still, in 2008, so much ignorance about racial equality? Why do people still consider race to be such an issue? What is really going on in this nation?

Supporting equality through your purchases

I am still reading through different blogs people wrote for last week's Blogger's Unite for Human Rights day. You can see some of the links to sites here. I came across Jeff McCord's blog. He wrote about buying for equality -- supporting businesses that support equality. The Human Rights Campaign has a site set up where you can download a guide that lets you know which businesses support equality, which are taking steps toward supporting, and which blatantly do not support equality. It's color coordinated for ease of reading.

Check it out: Buying for Equality.

Bloggers Unite: Modern-day slavery

Today, bloggers across the world are taking action to write about human rights (Bloggers Unite May 15, 2008). At first when I agreed I was pretty pumped. And thought this would be really easy to do. Write about the different human rights abuses that take place on the daily.

But there in lies the difficulty. They take place so often, that I found it hard to even narrow down the choices so I would not be rambling on incessantly.

I'll focus on slavery today.

No, not chains, the middle passage, and welts on black men's backs.

Modern-day slavery. Yes. It still exists. In the United States of America. It did not end with the 13th Amendment in the mid 1800s. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction" (text of the US Constitution from 1865)

It still happens. It is camouflaged in different ways -- has been since it "ended". I have learned about the concept, taught about it to my students, and recently learned of John Bowe's book "Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy." Bowe defines a slave as " a person not free to leave their job, held in place by violence or the threat of violence, to be exploited by someone else." After the legal abolition of slavery there were Black Codes that would punish African Americans with forced labor when they committed even the smallest crimes (I suppose the amendment was likely written with this sort of thing in mind), Codes that would only allow them to buy land in rural areas (plantations), the idea of tenant farming. There are still indentured servants who come to this nation to help someone by working for them, and then are indebted indefinitely as they work to pay off the ticket over here, the food they are provided, the clothes they are given, etc. This is 2008.

According to the Human Rights Center, "forced labor is prevalent in five sectors of the U.S. economy: prostitution and sex services (46%), domestic service (27%), agriculture (10%), sweatshop/factory (5%), and restaurant and hotel work (4%)."

Most of these people do not go out asking for help when they suffer the horrid conditions they endure. They are afraid of the repercussions -- after all, many are illegal immigrants, and people who still have a semblance of pride, and they do not want to have to give up the little money they have earned. And, just like most of you, they are not super trusting of the police. Human trafficking is a federal crime, and a lot of the agents/officers involved need to be better trained in how to deal with the victims of these crimes.

Now, this slavery is not always a free-labor arrangement. Many of these modern-day enslaved people make some money. The operative word, though, is some. In many cases, they are not given enough money to survive on their own.

The Human Rights Center recommends that the government take the following action to help curb human trafficking and the forced labor of human beings:

• Start awareness campaigns about it actually existing here in the US
• Ensure better legal protection for agricultural, domestic, garment, and food service workers
• Correct migration policies that basically encourage business owners to use forced laborers
• Increase the training of officials involved in dealing with the criminals and victims involved
• Strengthen the protection and rehab programs for survivors of forced labor conditions

Most importantly, people need to make sure they are paying their workers a living wage. And if you don't have a posse working for you, make sure you do what you can to get your legislatures to ensure people earn a living wage.

A living wage.

Enough money to actually be able to get a place to stay, buy food for each member of the household, pay bills, have enough clothing to withstand the elements and feel comfortable about going out in public, and find some mode of transportation (public or individual).

Free the Slaves
Renewamerica
Vital Voices
Anti-Slavery

To report a suspect case of trafficking call 1.888.428.7581 (Department of Justice Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force complaint line)