The following is from an email by evangelical Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an ultra-conservative ‘Christian’ hate group … Earlier this week, President Biden signed the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, which not only codifies same-sex marriage into federal law but also opens wide the door to endless litigation and persecution of […]
Not A Nice Man — Filosofa’s Word
Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?
This is a cool new feature that pops up in my dashboard where you can reply to the prompt that WP gives you.
I have recently given two different speeches formally. Both were in my Black American Studies class this past semester, and the first one was about the murder of Stephon Clark, and the second speech was with my group presentation final project named “Assassinations in the Civil Rights Movement”.
(I am still waiting for that grade, and it’s making me crazy.)
Both times, I got so nervous. I really had not stood in front of a class with a presentation with everyone listening to just me.
These speeches made me understand the pressure that teachers are presented with. It’s not easy to get up in front of a class and teach them something that they may or may not be interested in.
What about you? Do you like public speaking/performing? I feel like I could learn to do better. If you have any pointers for me, feel free to share.
In Community,
Amy
So, while I was away, my theme started asking me questions and giving me prompts when I start a post. That’s pretty awesome if you are trying to figure out what to write about.
LOL see how easily I am amused 🤣It feels awesome to be back!
I feel like I have been gone a year, but I think my last post was in August after my surgery. All has gone well with the surgery. I had my cast off within 11 days, and I do not have the nerve pain in my right arm anymore (except in my armpit, which is the torn labrum). Three days after that surgery, I started classes full-time, and I lost the time to spend with my blog and all of you.
Here are pictures of my hand and elbow:
My homework for my Introduction to Paralegalism was comparative to what I would be doing on the job, and an assignment with just 10 questions could turn out to be 7-10 pages depending on how layered the question was. I did well. It felt good at the end of the semester when my professor asked me for all the .docx files to use in future classes as an example of what she is looking for when students complete their homework.
This class also opened my eyes to the Pathway to Law Program, and I am currently working on my application for that. For the first time, it feels like law school is not far away.
My ETHN 001 class (Black American Studies) was so interesting, and I learned so much about my craft in that class. There was a needed discomfort in the course material, and I fell in love with my path even more with the addition of that class.
Legal Terminology was simple for me because I was familiar with all of the terms through case law research and past experiences with the legal system.
One of my elective classes was Sociology of Deviance, and that was a pretty cool class. It gave a different perspective on deviance on a variety of issues, like drug abuse, mental illness, privileged/underprivileged crimes, etc.
The last class was my Business Communications, which covered business plans, reports, letters, presentations, etc. I did complete that class with a 96%, and all grades are in for that one.
In other news, I did get to go watch my New Orleans Saints play the 49ers at Levi Stadium up in the San Jose area. It was fun, but I do prefer watching them at home and yelling at my television screen. 😂
As soon as my other four final grades post up, I will show you all the fruits of my labor. 😊
I just got done with finals! It really was one of my hardest semesters of college, and I apologize that I had to go radio silent.
I love being here more than anything, but I am easily distracted. In order to achieve the highest success in my classes, I had to be quiet for a little bit.
It paid off! My grades are sitting pretty, and I am waiting on grades for 3 finals, a final presentation, and 2 homework assignments before my final grade reveals itself. My face has been buried in my laptop learning new skills in my trade, and I definitely got more knowledge than I could have imagined or expected.
You guys get me for a month before my next set of classes takes me away again. I have all kinds of news to share, and I have missed blogging with all of you!
In community,
Amy!
My bestie and long distance sister shared this beautiful song with me after I mentioned it is one of my favorites by Al Green. I didn’t know that the Bee Gees wrote this song, and I love the Bee Gees also. One of these days I need to share my music with all of you. I have a pretty eclectic list of music that would appeal to everyone.
Thanks, dear Sis for sharing this song with me! I love ya!!!!
xoxo Amy
Sometimes, I actually remember when someone asks me to play a certain song, but most often things don’t stick around in my brain for very long! Luckily, I wrote this one down when my dear friend Amy asked me to play it! Unluckily, I forgot I had written it down and just came across my […]
♫ How Can You Mend A Broken Heart ♫ — Filosofa’s Word
Hi Friends! I have been in scramble mode while getting ready for my next semester to start and getting things in order at home with the upcoming surgery on my wrist and elbow on the 18th. With that planning and scrambling came a new book list from one of my classes, and so I will be adding them to my reading list on my home page that I have pinned up.
Tomorrow will be another full day, but I wanted to check in and let you guys know that I am thinking of you. School (even in the off-time) is taking a bunch of my time along with job interviews and now my surgery stepping in to take up some unplanned time. I will find out by the 17th what time my surgery arrival time will be for the 18th. I had to get blood taken last week, and this week I have been reorganizing my room before I have to rest my elbow and wrist. The doctor is fixing the carpal tunnel and cubital tunnel syndrome in my right (dominant) arm because the nerves are compressed. The tricky part is that I start classes on Monday with surgery on Thursday. I am happy for technology and talk to text options (haha!). I do hope that the first week will be more reading than typing. I am going to use my phone to record the lectures (if allowed). If it’s not hard for me then I worry usually, so it’s going according to plan I suppose. Hence the image used for this post. I want my path to lead somewhere. I am metaphorically raising my glass to the welcoming of the obstacle to make me stronger. Here Here!
Also, I would like to invite you all to leave me book recommendations as well. I am trying to get better about reading, building my professional and personal library, and expanding my knowledge of things that are relevant to the career and life I want to live. Even if your views do not align with mine, I would love to read the opposing sides to the stances that I take. It’s important to see the grass on both sides of the fence. That’s my view of opposing views anyway 😄 It makes for a good debate and great conversations.
In Community,
Amy
Every week, Fandango asks a question or collection of questions for us to answer provocatively. Usually I participate in this challenge on my other blog, but it felt like questions that could take our minds to another plane for a moment or two. Maybe you can consider your tv habits while reading mine and participate in Fandango’s challenge.
Here we go!
I could write a list of the shows I watch on another post to see if we all have any in common. I am a true crime nerd too, so I watch many of those shows like The First 48 and Cold Case Files, etc.
If you want to join in the fun and answer questions about your tv habits, be sure to pingback to Fandango’s questions.
In Community,
Amy
I recently signed up to receive CNN’s 5 Things, which is a newsletter that comes to your email with the top 5 things happening around the world.
This was the collection today:
1: January 6
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to return to Washington, DC, today for the first time since leaving office. He is set to make a speech at a policy summit for former aides and officials from his administration. Trump’s appearance comes in the wake of fresh evidence from the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot and new testimony released by the committee that revealed the then-President crossed out lines in a speech condemning lawbreakers. President Joe Biden also fired off his harshest criticism yet of his predecessor, saying law enforcement officers on January 6 were subject to a “medieval hell” for three hours while Trump watched the violence unfold.
2: Abortion
Indiana lawmakers reconvened on Monday to consider more restrictions on abortion, the first state to hold a special session with the goal of potentially curtailing abortion rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Indiana’s Senate Republicans, who have control of the state’s legislature, said they hope to have a final vote on the abortion ban by Friday. If passed, the bill would go into effect on September 1. Although many states nationwide are examining their laws after Roe v. Wade’s reversal, particular attention has been paid to Indiana after a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio crossed state lines to get an abortion. Separately, medical students at the University of Michigan are receiving attention on social media for walking out of their induction ceremony to protest a keynote speaker with anti-abortion views.
3: Covid-19
Since testing positive for Covid-19 last week, President Joe Biden said he is “feeling great” as his symptoms begin to wane. On Monday, Biden’s physician said his symptoms had “almost completely resolved” after five days with the illness. “So far, everything’s good,” Biden said, adding that he’s been participating in various tests every evening, checking “everything, from the temperature to the oxygen in my blood, to my pulse.” The White House has sought to underscore that Biden’s symptoms have been mild because he is vaccinated and boosted, and he began a course of the antiviral Paxlovid as soon as he tested positive. Separately, two key moderate senators — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — said they have tested positive for Covid-19.
4: Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia is waging an “overt gas war” against Europe, after announcing it would further reduce gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline — a vital artery linking Russia’s vast gas reserves to Europe. European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson called the move a “politically motivated step” with “no technical reason” behind it. On the ground, Russian forces have made small advances in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine amid intense shelling along the front line. And in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner made a brief court appearance in Moscow today as her defense team presented evidence. Griner, who was arrested at a Russian airport in February for carrying cannabis oil in her luggage, will be cross-examined as part of her drug trial on Wednesday, her lawyers said.
5: Marriage equality
Democrats are reacting with immense scrutiny to Republicans’ opposition to codifying same-sex marriage, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg becoming the latest Democrat to chime in on the hot button issue. Buttigieg, who is gay, recently reacted to comments from Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who said it’s a “stupid waste of time” to vote on a bill that protects same-sex marriage. “If [Rubio’s] got time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to help safeguard marriages like mine.” While the Democrat-led House of Representatives last Tuesday voted to pass a bill that would enshrine protections for same-sex marriage into federal law, it still remains unclear whether the bill can pass the Senate. And in an interesting turn of events, Republican congressman Glenn Thompson attended his gay son’s wedding last week, three days after opposing the bill in the US House that would protect same-sex marriage.
CNN, Alexandra Meeks
That’s a lot of news to take in, but Alexandra Meeks did a great job of collecting the news to start my day and reflect upon. The first Thing she shares about Trump (Orange #45) made me nauseated. He does not belong anywhere in or near D.C. unless it is to be arrested by federal agents.
Did you ever think that the main news topics in 2022 would be about marriage equality, abortion for a 10-year-old, a madman inciting violence, a pandemic that is political, and a war overseas with another madman?
There are just so many biased decisions being made by the people we elect, and I feel a sense of urgency when I read these stories, as we all should feel this way. Our country is one that is unrecognizable, and I fear for my grandchild and my children who have to become adults into this detriment. We somehow managed to break the world back to the 1800s.
In Community,
Amy
Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the few posts that I shared and wrote this week so far. I am hoping to be more active and write up some good blog posts for you all to enjoy in the next few weeks. I’m due for a check-in with you all, so here we go.
I finished my Summer 2022 session with a 4.0 GPA in my Fed Gov and ConLaw classes.
My next semester starts on August 15, 2022 with five more classes.
Lastly, I got a little bit of a wrench thrown into my first few weeks of classes yesterday, but it is going to be okay. I have to have surgery on my right wrist and elbow on August 18. I don’t think it will impede my progress too much, but it’s definitely going to slow me down in typing and writing, since that is my dominant hand…
I do have a job interview with Dept. of Corrections on July 29, and I am hoping that I will be able to get free of being on disability soon if my body will cooperate LOL.
Have a great Tuesday everyone!
In Community,
Amy
This was a brilliant use of my prompt word “unwavering”, and I wanted to share it with all of my followers. It’s the tone of our country, and it is the awareness that we are all in need of to work on curing the ills of our past and present, along with making sure the future looks better than it does now.
In community,
Amy
By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris
E.M.’s RWP~ #227 Prompt Word: UNWAVERING
O say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave*
Or has the unwavering pursuit
of money and power stilled
Your Stars and Stripes
denying your loyal citizens
of their God-given rights
And the star-spangled banner
in triumph doth wave* across a nation decimated by unwavering belief
in a statute misconstrued
to cause chaos and pain
To bring glory to the Godless
leaving the rest to fight and beg
A people we constructed this nation
unwaveringly built on principle
and pride denied the Indigenous
their land and quelling their souls
Now our own bell does toll
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave*
*Excerpts from The Star Spangled Banner written by Francis Scott Key
There is no shelter in this storm of uncertainty.
My mind races and fills with conflict and affliction.
It’s like a struggle between being sober and having addiction.
I want to scream out and bring my voice out away from fiction.
Why can’t they understand the direness and the urgency?
I urge you to feel my conflict within and embrace the discomfort.
I pray that you will feel the struggle of the state we are in.
I regret not being loud enough or that I have failed to begin.
My heart and mind are unable to overlook any and all sin.
Empathy fills my bones from the sky down to the Earth’s dirt.
Divergence…
© Amy Harvey
When it comes to the uncertain times we are living in, we should all take a page out of Liz Cheney’s book on sacrifice. The time is now for all of us to take a stand on the world stage against the tyranny of the majority, and we need to fight harder than we have ever had to fight.
In an interview with CNN, Cheney said, “I’m fighting hard. No matter what happens on Aug. 16, I’m going to wake up on Aug. 17 and continue to fight hard to ensure Donald Trump is never anywhere close to the Oval Office ever again,” and she knows that it may cost her a seat in Congress. She knew that her Vice Chair position for the January 6th Committee would put her job in jeopardy, but she still did her duty under the oath she took to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.
“No matter what” is how every American should be centering their ideology regarding life in the U.S. because democracy depends on it, and it is looking scary for the 2024 election that a madman can rule the country again. We are quickly losing our constitutional rights with the radical SCOTUS decisions and state governments’ oppression of women and minorities. It’s nothing new for this country to stomp on the rights of citizens, but it feels like we keep digressing into barbaric times.
It is important to stand up for what you believe, even if it goes against what the majority wants, but it is not okay to strip away a person’s choices and freedoms because of biased viewpoints when you serve public office. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni, are too much in the spotlight when it comes to the state of our union. Precedents are being gutted. Rights are being decimated.
It’s not the time to sit back and shake your head if you disagree with the state of our democracy. As Americans, we have to vote, sign petitions, and use our voices to protect the rights of citizens of this country. (Note the word “citizens” rather than using demographic characteristics) We must stay informed and be involved in the political process. That is a right we have that other countries do not have. We have a democracy, and the government works for us, right?
My hope is to see things change in the aspects of participation, activism, and involvement in light of the evidence found during the January 6th Committee hearings. Upcoming hearings may have Ginni Thomas being subpoenaed, and they will present the evidence of her involvement with the insurrection. With the Thomas conundrum happening in the Supreme Court, I don’t think she will follow through with cooperating with the committee, but I hope I am wrong. We need to see that evidence, but I am sure she will hide behind Clarence’s coat tail and lawyer up.
The direst of all political circumstances needing to be put in the spotlight is the election of 2024. Donald Trump and his lies could find their way back to the White House if charges are not filed federally against him for all of the crimes he committed while sitting in the Oval Office for a 4-year stretch. There is not a sane imagination on this planet that could imagine another 4 years of living in this world that is run by and under the control of a man who is just as crazy as Vladimir Putin. We feel the war in Ukraine, and the personality and ideology of Trump are no different than Trump’s bestie, Putin.
Where do your opinions on these issues lie? Do you feel comfortable with the state of democracy in this country, or do you feel like we are failing ourselves like I do?
Today, happiness for me means that I am surrounded by people that love me, doing things that make life worthwhile, and never turning my back on people who need me. I am happy when I get five minutes to reflect on my day, and I feel accomplished when I can see progress. I smile at my favorite shows, and I sing to my favorite songs. I dance when no one is looking, and I act silly when everyone is looking.
I have to do these things. They make all the negative aspects of everyday life feel a little less detrimental. The people I allow around me make me smile and fill my heart with the joy that the world is missing.
If one thing could change the world, happiness can do it. Maybe if we spend one less day worrying or one less day bickering at our loved one, the world can change. I really believe that. I have to believe that.
Laughter is really the best medicine, so maybe we should laugh at the people that want us to be mad and at each others’ throats. One person at a time…I intend to change the world. Will you laugh with me, smile with me, and love with me? Will you turn anger into progress rather than digression? Will you turn hate for an enemy into awareness? Will you pay forward the good faith someone else has given to you?
In community, I stand with you and genuinely care for you. Now, if you turn your nose up when I write that I care about you, then I am talking to you. You are the one person. Instead of turning your nose up, smile. Instead of rolling your eyes, laugh. Instead of scrolling, read this again.
Now, in the words of Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t Worry…Be Happy!”
With Love,
Amy
The Voice of the Voiceless 