More Wall?

If immigration reform were easy, it would have been settled years ago. I do not have the answer. Thank goodness I don't have to. One of the solutions Mr. Trump is promoting is a wall. It seems to me the place to start would be visiting much of the border, talking to lots of people, and doing lots of other research. If Mr. Trump has done this, he gives no sign of it. The New York Times published this intriguing picture below of the wall separating Nogales, Mexico and Nogales, Arizona and writes about the situation in that area.

CNN published a number of photos including the pictures below of this 1,934 mile long border..

An editorial in the Arizona Daily Star says, "We understand the emotional appeal of building a wall to solve difficult problems in the U.S. immigration system and national security — just build a wall to keep the bad people out, problem solved! — but we must deal in facts." While this piece is an editorial, it includes a lot of basic facts to help you make a decision as to the effectiveness of more wall.

Pain x Resistance = Suffering

A Conversation about Conversation

Insomnia struck this morning around two, and after a period of discomfort, I used my computer to listen to a rerun of On Being. There I met the poet and philosopher David Whyte. In the middle of the night, I thought, after listening to this, I may never be the same. Now, this afternoon, I think, maybe so, maybe not. He certainly has some intriguing ideas for me to think about. The poem above is a glance into it. Much more is available here at Krista Tippet's interview.

"Is America Possible?"

The beginning of Krista Tippet interviewing Vincent Harding...

Krista Tippett, host: Vincent Harding is the voice I want to hear this week. The conversation I had with him before his death at 82 in 2014 ever after changed the way I think about our democratic experiment. He was a leading figure in the Civil Rights Movement, and he was wise about how the Civil Rights vision might speak to 21st century realities. Just as importantly, Vincent Harding pursued this by way of patient yet passionate cross-cultural, cross-generational relationship. The Civil Rights Movement, he reminded us, was spiritually as well as politically vigorous; it aspired to a “beloved community,” not merely a tolerant integrated society. Vincent Harding posed and lived a question that is freshly in our midst again: “Is America possible?”

Dr. Vincent Harding: How do we work together? How do we talk together in ways that will open up our best capacities and our best gifts? My own feeling that I try to share again and again, Krista, is that when it comes to creating a multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious, democratic society, we are still a developing nation.

It's a question I've been asking myself lately.

"I can't be a pessimist because I'm alive..." James Baldwin

Really?

"Surreal is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year because it was looked up significantly more frequently by users in 2016 than it was in previous years, and because there were multiple occasions on which this word was the one clearly driving people to their dictionary."

"The most perfect state is the acceptance of now." Eckhart Tolle

Good to be Alive

This video was one I watched in my spinning class today--kind of fun and cheerful.