dear world... postcards from life...

life's experiences, life's questions, life's wisdom, life's humor, life's ironies, life's pictures

[trekkerjay]

Worship is the central act of the people of God.

Rev. Dr. Steve Harper

[trekkerjay]

the donald... does he even have a clue??

"Trump supporters, protesters clash...Violence erupts..." Does this really surprise anyone? Trump refuses to accept any responsibility for these outcomes... Yet, he has set a tone in his speeches and debates and rallies that makes violence acceptable... and perhaps in some peoples' minds, maybe even patriotic... This is the sort of headline I expect to see when the story is about other countries... Other countries in which people struggle with having democratically elected leaders... I don't expect to see this here in the United States of America, where we have always enjoyed a peaceful election process, and a smooth transition from one President to the next... even if the candidate we voted for did not win... And Trump says he wants "to make America great again"??? His campaign has, in no way, elevated America's standing in the eyes of the rest of the world... He has not begun to "make America great"... He has instead given the people of other countries the right to look down their noses at us, and laugh at our presumption to judge other countries and their leadership... I'm just wondering if someone has told "the donald" that this is not a game that he can just walk away from when everything crashes down around him? It is not something he can walk away from and then start over, like he has been able to do after his bankruptcies in his business dealings...

[brynmawrspeccoll]

In honor of the first day of Women’s History Month and Super Tuesday, here are two suffrage cartoons from the Carrie Chapman Catt Collection. 

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt was an internationally recognized suffragist, feminist and political activist. The Carrie Chapman Catt Papers focus on the history of the women’s suffrage movement, with material pertaining both directly to her and to the movement as a whole. There is a wide range of material in the collection, including correspondence & memorabilia, cartoons, and photographs.

The collection contains approximately sixty editorial cartoons pertaining to suffrage which appeared in newspapers around the country from ca. 1912 to ca.1920.

To see more of the Catt Collection, click here.   

[staff]

In the chaos of election season, it’s easy to lose sight of how recently women—especially women of color—were denied the right to vote in America. The Nineteenth Amendment wasn’t ratified until 1920. After World War I, after the Ford Model T, and after 60-plus years of feminists like Carrie Chapman Catt agitating for change.

In a democracy, your vote is your voice. At a time when one half of the population was silenced by the other, Chapman Catt and the suffrage movement claimed their right to speak. But it would be another 45 years until the passage of the Voting Rights Act that women of color were effectively enfranchised. 

[trekkerjay]

Voting... Such an important privilege and responsibility that all Americans have... And it should never be taken for granted!! Do not forget or neglect to exercise this right... and VOTE!!

[trekkerjay]

twitter and tumblr...

I think tumblr is a lot like twitter... Except that on tumblr one is not limited to only 140 characters for saying all you want to say... Anyway... Good night world!!

[trekkerjay]

test...

test post... just a test post...that is all...

[trekkerjay]

blind, deaf and dumb...

Dear America,

I heard it again...some Republican Party person or individual who makes predictions about the Republican primaries and caucuses...who while being interviewed by one of the many pundits, said,  “Republicans are not voting for Trump...”     

HELLO??   

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??  

Republicans are NOT voting for Trump???

Then, if that is so, just how is it that he is winning primary after primary, and caucus after caucus, and piling up Republican delegates as he seeks to become the GOP’s nominee for President of the United States???  Somebody MUST be voting for him...and since these are Republican primaries and Republican caucuses that he is winning, it only makes sense that Republicans ARE voting for him...  

Not only are Republicans voting for him, the candidates that he is still running against have all said they would support him if he was the nominee... and some of the Republican Senators and Congressional Representatives have also said they would support him if he was to become their party’s nominee...

Apparently, some Republicans are both blind (deaf and dumb) to what is happening, AND more concerned with party politics, and the supposed good of the Republican Party, rather than being concerned with the good of the United States of America...

Patriotically yours,

A Concerned American Citizen

p.s.  Just in case you don’t realize it, Trump would be a disastrous President!!  Surely we Americans (and our allies across the globe) deserve better!!  

Oh...and by the way... If by some chance he does win the Presidential election in November, becoming President Trump...and he does indeed bring disaster upon the United States... the Republicans will not be able to blame President Obama...

[posidens-rockabilly-blue]

Guess what?

[trekkerjay]

What? 2 days and counting? Are you down to counting hours yet? LOL!! 8-)

[looksomewhereelse-deactivated20]

I was wearing this outfit today to a grocery store when I made a baby smile. I was wearing this outfit today when I threw my head back and laughed, when I sang in the car with my family, when I filled it with yummy food to keep it healthy.

I was wearing this outfit today to a grocery store when I overheard a woman telling her young daughter who was pointing and laughing that I would get what’s coming to me. I was wearing this outfit today when a woman told a man that it was the wrong kind of attention and that I was asking for someone to get me. I was wearing this outfit today when the same man stared at my body longingly and then agreed with the woman that I was asking for an attack.

I was not wearing this outfit when I was raped. I was wearing a size XXL hoodie and a pair of my mom’s sweatpants, much to the shock of the friend I told after, who asked what she’d been taught to ask: “What were you wearing?”. I feel so terrible for the little girl whose mother was teaching her at the grocery store that she deserved to be assaulted if she dressed comfortably for the weather, which was climbing above 80 degrees, or for an injury, which called for a brace and a boot that doesn’t allow room for long pants, or for her body, because it’s hers and she can put on it what she damn well pleases. I feel terrible for the man who will look me up and down as though I was a 5 for $20 steak deal he might purchase and will immediately after speak to a presumable stranger about the violent fate I deserved. I feel terrible for the woman with fabulous hair who feels she can express herself but refuses to let me do the same.

Summer is coming up. It’s hot outside. I have an injured ankle, and a tight boot and brace to wear on one leg. I will not dress uncomfortably to protect complete strangers who are so offended by an expanse of skin that they console themselves by predicting my next rape.

Stop perpetuating slut-shaming and thus perpetuating a culture of excused rape. Stop perpetuating slut-shaming and thus perpetuating a culture of insecurity, inherent shame, and body image distortion which can cause an innumerable amount of incredibly dark issues nearly impossible to overcome.

My body is mine, and I love it. It is the house I live in, with which I will someday create a family, with which I run and dance and hold the strong lungs I use to sing. I refuse to be ashamed of it for any reason, especially the reason being that this culture which glorifies sex and punishes those who have it, which encourages being sexy and then preaches that sexy girls ask for attack, has taught its people that my stomach is a sin.

Please think twice this summer before you choose to say anything at all to or about anyone who wears something they choose to wear. Please think twice before you say that a girl deserves to be raped for wearing shorts. Please try and catch yourself when you think things like that. Please be courteous and gentle and loving, and spend your effort tackling real problems. My stomach and legs are not a real problem.

[ilovecharts]

Things Moms Say…and Kids Ignore

[trekkerjay]

adventures with computers...

Sat down at the computer this morning to do just a couple things online... four hours later, I'm still sitting in front of the computer... oh well...

[pbsthisdayinhistory]

May 13, 1607: Colonists Arrive in Virginia to Found Jamestown

On this day in 1607, around 100 English colonists arrived at the James River in Virginia to found Jamestown. The settlers of the new colony were immediately besieged by attacks from Algonquian natives, rampant disease, and internal political strife. In their first winter, more than half of the colonists perished from famine and illness. Explore Secrets of the Dead's Jamestown interactive. 

Photo: 2008 photo of the remains of the 1639 Jamestown Church tower with 20th century reconstruction on the original foundations (Wikipedia).

[naturebox-blog-blog]

by Chung-Ah Rhee for NatureBox

Classic nachos doesn’t have to be served with meat. We added black beans, refried beans, corn and fresh avocado for a comforting but guilt-free dish!

Serves: 4

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

4-5 cups tortilla...

[pbsthisdayinhistory]

April 8, 2013: Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah)

Today, Americans commemorate the Holocaust and remember its victims.

Yom Hashoah is Israel’s official day to honor the Jewish Holocaust victims. In 1979, Congress established an annual eight-day remembrance period that begins on the Sunday before Yom Hashoah and ends the following Sunday.

This past weekend, Defiant Requiem, a film about Jewish prisoners at Terezin concentration camp, aired on PBS. In the spring of 1944, a handpicked group of Nazi officers were treated to an unusual performance by inmates in a concentration camp.

What appeared to be a soaring rendition of a choral masterpiece was intended as a subversive condemnation of the Nazis and a desperate message to the outside world. In the face of horrific living conditions, slave labor and the constant threat of deportation to Auschwitz, the Jewish inmates of Terezin concentration camp — artists, musicians, poets and writers — fought back with art and music.  

Learn more about the prisoners at the Terezin concentration camp.

Image: Graves of prisoners in Terezin during the World War II

[pbsthisdayinhistory]

September 12, 1959: Bonanza Premieres

On this day in 1959, the western television series Bonanza premiered on NBC. Bonanza was the first regularly scheduled television program presented in color. The show ran for 14 seasons and ranks as the second longest running western series in history.

In 2002, Bonanza was ranked No. 43 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Shows of All Time. Bonanza is especially remembered for addressing racism, a topic largely ignored on American television at the time.

From the early 1940s into the 1970s, during the Golden Age of Television, western series were produced for television with great success. Check out this Pioneers of Television list of well-known and well-loved western series.

[pbsthisdayinhistory]

The Man Who Knew For six years, John O’Neil was the FBI’s leading expert on Al Qaeda. He warned of its reach. He warned of its threat to the U.S. But to the people at FBI headquarters, O’Neill was too much of a maverick, and they stopped listening to him.

He left the FBI in the summer of 2001 and took a new job as head of security at the World Trade Center. Watch FRONTLINE’s “The Man Who Knew” and read more about the program, including updates since the program first aired in 2002.

[trekkerjay]

Laundry Time...

They sit in their rooms… or lie in their beds… or sit in a common room… or wander through the halls…

They laugh, they talk, they cry, they babble…

Some are recovering from a hospital stay and will be going back to their homes and families and independence…

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[trekkerjay]

http://wp.me/s2sDOB-184

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