Happy Soul Food Friday!
This week:
Our heartfelt support goes out to everyone dealing with the confluence of climate emergency, compounded by a 100 year pandemic, exacerbated by the sobering economic realities, and now serious social unrest.
Let’s stand with our Black brothers and sisters as well as all historically marginalized communities in the United States.
It is up to us to amplify the voices and ideas that will lead us to a more equitable society.
This has got to change, but it will require every one of us to step up!
Spike Lee Releases Chilling Short Film About Police Brutality:
Spike Lee released a powerful new short film about police brutality in America following the death of George Floyd. Protests have been raging across the United States in recent days since Floyd, an unarmed black man, died after a white police officer in Minneapolis kneeled on his neck. Lee’s new film, 3 Brothers – Radio Raheem, Eric Garner And George Floyd, cuts together a scene from his 1989 film Do the Right Thing, featuring the death of Radio Raheem, with footage of Eric Garner’s death in 2014 and Floyd being arrested earlier this week.
It’s the Twenty-First Century. Why is Everything Still So God@#$%^& Racist? Why Racism Still Defines Our Lives and Poisons Our Societies — And Why It’s So Hard to Unravel with Umair Haque
Why is America still so racist? There are easy answers — it was a slave state, then a segregated state. Just until a few years before I was born, “interracial marriage” was illegal in the great state of Virginia where I grew up. What would it have made of my marriage to a nice white lady? Would it have put me in prison, or her — or both? The easy answer: America’s still so racist because within the living memory of a middle-aged person it was still the world’s biggest apartheid state and we forget that all too easily.
https://eand.co/its-the-twenty-first-century-why-is-everything-still-so-goddamned-racist-5ea49ed03ed5?source=email-825f64e43327-1591011453141-digest.reader——0-73——————8944463b_bd36_414e_8c33_88dbe1d4269b-1-9149dc26_79a9_4ed9_8bf8_731be3e39b31—-
I Cannot Remain Silent
Our fellow citizens are not the enemy, and must never become so by Mike Mullen, Seventeenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/american-cities-are-not-battlespaces/612553/
Do the Right Thing! How a City Once Consumed by Civil Unrest Has Kept Protests Peaceful:
Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, made no arrests and reported only minimal property damage during a weekend march.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/nyregion/newark-peaceful-protests-george-floyd.html
Shortening the Line:
Let me tell you the story of a Mughal emperor, Akbar, and his wise minister named Virbal. All the courtiers were jealous of Virbal because he was obviously the emperor’s favorite. They asked the emperor why: “What does Virbal have that we do not have?” The emperor promised to answer the question on some other day. One morning, as his courtiers arrived, the emperor posed a question to them. He drew a line on the board and asked them to “make the line shorter.” Easy! Everyone attempted to rush to the blackboard, and one of them managed to erase a part of the line.
The emperor said, “No, no. Shorten the line, but do not touch it!” Well, that was indeed a puzzle. Nobody could solve the problem. The emperor finally beckoned to Virbal to “come make my line shorter without touching it.” Virbal quietly got up, took a piece of chalk, and drew a parallel line:
_____________________ the emperor’s line
___________________________________________ Virbal’s line
“Your line is shorter, Your Majesty,” Virbal declared.
In the act there was no need to diminish the work of another, no need to compete. Virbal went deep within himself (this is meditation!) for the answer and devoted himself to the task at hand. Whoever is fully restrained, in possession of his senses and emotions, acts constructively and in all humility. Whoever learns from the wise will doubtless achieve “success without competing.”
–From Whole Hearted: Applied Spirituality for Everyday Life by Swami Veda
Growing Old:
As a respite from the madness and sadness, experience some sublime natural pictures and insightful thoughts on age & aging…
Our heartfelt support goes out to everyone dealing with the confluence of climate emergency, compounded by a 100 year pandemic, exacerbated by the sobering economic realities, and now serious social unrest and protest.
What’s next? Locusts?
Oh yeah, we have them devastating crops and communities in Africa…
Stay Resilient People!
Thanks this week go to Mehrad N, & Larry H for this week’s submissions, as well as to Social Justice & Equity Warriors everywhere.
Keep the faith and please pay it forward…
Love,
Neville
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NevilleB108
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nbillimoria
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change.
I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
–Angela Davis
Happy Soul Food Friday! 