Fascists... Denying the Holocaust... Denying the Armenian Genocide... and the Holodomor...

Denying the Holocaust... Denying the Armenian Genocide... Denying the Ukrainian Holodomor and covering up the Chernobyl disaster...

Is to prolong them...

I am not in the mood to do anything these days... I am unable to free myself from the memories of my childhood and the stories of my parents... The horror that they went through and the atrocities that they witnessed... The Turkish soldiers opened a mothers womb with a bayonet... They burned Armenian children and women who took shelter in a church... They burned the church and the people in it... They beheaded intellectuals... and these beheadings were way before the Islamic-Fascist-jihadist... groups swarming the Middle East at present... They smashed the heads of intellectuals... with rocks...
The stories of my parents rush back to me and I cannot do much... other than the routine...

***

Armenian Genocide was commemorated even in Istambul, Turkey...

In Hydarpasha Train Station, Istanbul... Demonstrators, Kurds and Turks and Armenians... demanded; "Recognize, Apologize, Compensate..."

.......................................................

...And my student-friend, now a math teacher... just like me...

I hope you're doing well today... I was just reading your blog post for today before bed and I thought of a conversation I had with my Nene last Monday. I went over to spend some time with her, and while we were eating dinner we starting talking about what was going on in the world. She went on to the topic of what is happening to the Armenians now in the east and became very emotional. Her parents were also genocide survivors. She was very broken hearted and was asking why all these things happen to us, and why we keep waiting for God to help us when it's clear that the help isn't coming. I'm not a big fan of seeing my family upset, so that obviously upset me as well. I started talking though and my thoughts took me in another direction than disappointment and despair. I told her that I believe God loves the Armenians. He has as much faith in us as we have in him. That's why he doesn't feel that he needs to help us. He knows that whatever we go through, whatever we experience, we will be strong and not lose our faith. That's what he wants in the end. If we feel pain, if we die, in the grand scheme of things it is nothing. Life is just a drop in be ocean of eternity. Those of us who we think were not fortunate enough to survive, they're in paradise right now! They are where we want to be! In my heart, I don't mourn for my family who were all murdered anymore. I've moved beyond that. They are happy where they are, and they've left behind a legacy of courage in the face of death and faith at all costs. What I mourn for now, April 24 and every other day, is that there are people in this world capable of committing these horrors. It makes me sad that they will never experience the joy that those they have hurt experience for eternity. Slowly but surely, God is collecting the good people of the world, the faithful people. He is bringing them into his home. Your vision of a world one day at peace seems so impossible that this is my only alternative belief. All the light on the earth will be put out, eventually there will only be darkness left. This is how the world started in genesis right? Then the darkness will have no choice but to put itself out! THEN hopefully the world will get another chance. Another start. God told Noah that he would never send waters to wipe out the evil and punish humanity again...maybe this is his only option? That was a little bit of intense thinking before I go to bed now...  ha ha ha...

............................................................................

Aurora Award Ceremonies... George Clooney... and the Whole World... as a Stage...

In remembering the Armenian Genocide

***

 New York Times
April 25 2016

Orphanage Founder From Africa Wins Prize in Memory of Armenian Genocide
                                                                                           By RICK GLADSTONEAPRIL 24, 2016

The founder of an orphanage in Burundi who defied death threats and witnessed unspeakable violence as she saved thousands of children from ethnic slaughters in the 1990s is the winner of a new prize created in memory of the Armenian genocide a century ago.
The winner, Marguerite Barankitse, was one of four finalists considered for the prize, which was announced on Sunday at a ceremony in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
“No one can stop love,” Ms. Barankitse said in accepting the award from George Clooney, the activist actor, who was a co-chairman of the selection committee. “Not armies, not hate, not persecution, not famine, nothing.”
Vartan Gregorian, a prominent American philanthropist and scholar of Armenian descent, had helped lead deliberations over the choice of a winner since March, when the finalists were chosen from nearly 200 submissions.
Ms. Barankitse was born in Burundi, a central African nation where a tumultuous ethnic conflict pit her people, the Tutsis, against the Hutus.

... and George Clooney...

“Years before anyone uttered the word genocide, there was Armenia.  Although the actual world was yet to be introduced, we were well aware of its characteristics,” Co-Chair of the Aurora Prize Selection Committee, Oscar-winning actor George Clooney said at the Aurora Award ceremony. “Cruelty has always been at the core, not self-defense, not simply war, but a deliberate destruction of an entire people. It happened to Armenians starting 101 years ago, and we’ve seen it repeat all over the world since – Germany, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda,” he added. “I’ve first seen it in the broken families, the broken hearts of the people of Darfur. I’ve seen what mankind is capable of at its worst. But I’ve also seen something else, something much stronger than hate. I’ve seen bravely, kindness and incredible acts of love. Today we celebrate the best examples of that. The simple truth is that all of us  are a result of someone’s act of kindness,” Mr. Clooney said. “Hitler once famously said “But who today remembers the Armenians? The answer is “The whole world.”

Aurora Prize Finalists...

“By recognizing Marguerite Barankitse’s courage, commitment and sacrifice, I am hopeful that she can also inspire each one of us to think about what we can do to stand up on behalf of those whose rights are abused and are in most need of our solidarity or support,” Clooney said.

... And Reddit's Ohanian...

The founder of American Reddit social network Alexis Ohanian posted a note about the Armenian Genocide in his Facebook page stating that fighting for recognition will not stop. “101 years later and we're still fighting for recognition of the #ArmenianGenocide. We won't stop. Today is my birthday, living proof that #TurkeyFailed, and we as a people keep thriving all over the world. Thanks to all of those who endured before us, “Armenpress” reports, Alexis Ohanian wrote recalling that a year ago the history of his family based on the stories told by his father and Grandfather was published in “Reddit”. John Ohanian, grandfather of Alexis Ohanian,  tells: "The families of my parents were orphaned when the Turkish government cleansed the Armenian population in central Turkey during the Armenian Genocide. My mother was one of the refugees that marched out - many died including her brother and sister - through Turkey to Aleppo, Syria. My father's parents were murdered, in his presence, when the Turks stormed his town. A soldier on horseback was about to kill him with a sword when his friend told him to stop, because he was too young, and as only child, my father was then taken to an orphanage in Turkey and left there.

***

Chernobyl, 30 years later...

Ukraine Marks 30th Anniversary of Chernobyl Disaster...

The world's worst-ever nuclear accident occurred on April 26, 1986, forever poisoning parts of Eastern Europe and rattling faith in atomic energy production. A botched test at the then-Soviet plant caused a meltdown, releasing deadly radioactive materials that killed 31 in the immediate aftermath, and an unknown number, estimated in the thousands, from resulting cancers.  Humans poisoning the world... Human greed and reckless chase for profit is causing misery to many and profit to just few... Maybe we will be more civilized soon... The West and the East and the South and the North... are ruining the world and raping Mother Earth...  Soviet Stalinists and Western Capitalists... alike... Maybe my Ukrainian students will take the lead and turn things around. Maybe we will have sharing and harmony and peace...

A sign warns of radiation... inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone...

Pripyat, the epicenter of the nuclear meltdown... disaster... is now a ghost town... 

School books and a mask... side by side...

A photo showing the city of Pripyat’s main square and the “Energetik” cultural center before the disaster is held in front of the site today. Pripyat is now a ghost town. The city lies in the inner exclusion zone around Chernobyl where persistently high levels of radiation have made the area uninhabitable for thousands of years to come.

A tree grows through the floor of an abandoned gymnasium ... 

Dolls and stuffed animals lie in the Zlataya Ribka (“Golden Little Fish”) abandoned kindergarten...

And an abandoned ferris wheel is overtaken by trees in the former Pripyat city center.

***

Maybe relying on humans for peace and harmony is a futile wait for Godot...

Maybe magic and prayers are the only answer...

"Outside of belief in God, healing prayer might be the most ubiquitous religious practice that there is," Jeff Levin, professor of epidemiology and population health at Baylor University and the director of the study, said. "This might be one of the most prevalent forms of primary care medicine, and I don't say that lightly." When Americans experience health problems, they don't just rely on doctors and medications. A new study has found that most North Americans have turned to prayer to heal themselves and others. The study has found that about nine out of 10 Americans have relied on healing prayer at some point in their lives, with most of them praying for other people's health and well-being more than their own. The Study suggests that prayer may be one of the most widely used forms of medical treatment among Americans, rather than just a "fringe activity," Levin said. However, the study notes that most of those who use prayer for healing do so in conjunction with regular medical care.

***

The authorities in Geneva defend freedom of speech against the onslaught of Turkish president on European values...

Germany succumbed to Turkish pressures and charged a reporter and a TV comic for their ridicule of the Turkish president... But Geneva has remained firm in their defense of European values and freedom of speech...
I join with Europeans who are asking...

Turkey and Azerbaijan with their Islamist-fascist government to be kicked out of Europe instead of Europe succumbing to their fascist demands...
An Islamization of Europe and European heritage should stop!

Geneva, April 26, 2016 (AFP) - The authorities in Geneva have refused to withdraw a disturbing picture from an exhibit in which which demonstrators accuse the Turkish President , who was the prime minister at the time, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being responsible for the death of a teenager Berkin Elvan... who was killed when Turkish police opened fire on demonstrators in Istanbul... The demonstrators were protesting government action which authorized developers to build high-rise apartment buildings and thus destroy the park... and the green space... 

100 + 1 Years of Prostituting Human Values...

My parents are genocide survivors... They were deported and driven out of their ancestral homeland... and every April 24, Ross my chaplain friend, made a point of taking me out and he expressed his outrage... and every year he with the final glass of drink he insisted... "If I can do anything... just you let me know..." and he hugged me with tears in his eyes... I appreciated his gesture... He was for justice and for liberty... and for freedoms of all human beings...
"You always say, let them be... they are allowed... What you say to the Turks... and the genocide they committed against Armenians...?" 
He was furious at my question... "No one has the right to kill... murder and maim... and rape..."

*** 

100 + 1... years of denials... 100 + 1 years of Big Brothers keeping silent and colluding with the Turks and Islamist-fascists to plunder the Middle East and... the world...

100 + 1 years of Turkish denials of the genocide they perpetrated against Armenians... 

100 + 1 years... and again...

Today is April 24... Today is Remembrance and Demand for Justice and Peace... Today is the Day Armenians remember the Genocide perpetrated by Turks and Islamist-fascist-Jihadists... against the Armenians... because of their faith... because of their race... because of greed and profit...
The Big Brother Governments remained silent... They still remain silent... Turkey is the ally of the West and the U.S. in their plunder of the Middle East and the world...
I hate the wars... That's one of the points that Ross, my chaplain friend, absolutely agreed on... War is evil... it is inhuman and brings out the animal in us and demeans human beings... reduces them mere animals... without any human values...
The Big Brothers of the East and the West and the South and the North have no moral values... Greed and profit are their guiding "principles"... and if people are maimed and murdered... killed in their pursuit of profit... so be it... They are merely... or just collateral damage... just necessary to spread "civilization" and "democracy"...
Armenians know too well the price of greed and war... More than million and a half of Armenians were massacred and deported from their homes and their country... that is 50% of a nation... who had lived in peace in their homeland for centuries and contributed to world civilization... with the word only... 
Armenians were massacred and deported just because the Turks wanted to do away with a race that had the temerity to love books and accept Christianity as their national religion in 301 A.D.
Armenians were massacred... because the Turks and the Islamist-fascists wanted to loot and  take over the economic wealth of a nation... and the West... the Russians and the "civilized world" remained silent...
The Armenian Genocide is a wound that still bleeds... is an inconvenient truth... and is just collateral damage... in the "theater" of war...

***

A Sample of the U.S. Press 100 +1 years ago and the Turkish "war" against Armenians...

***

100 + 1 years of collusion and silence the "civilized world" is still at the mercy of the Turkish... Islamist-Jihadist regime... and Azerbaijan is the junior partner of the Turkish Jihadists...

It is unfortunate that Europe is prostituting its morality and human values of freedom and equality and fraternity...

It is unfortunate that Europe and the U.S. are succumbing to Turkish pressure...

It is unfortunate that Europe and the U.S. 

are chasing greed and profit... and placing profit above human dignity... and freedoms...

Angela Merkel visits Turkey... to boost migrant-refugee deal... While Turkish academics and journalists are on trial for freedom of speech...

In Turkey: Free speech = Terrorism...

Four Turkish academics went on trial on Friday in Istanbul accused of spreading "terrorist propaganda". The academics were among more than 1,000 scholars who signed a petition denouncing Turkey's renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels. In the same court on Friday, the trial resumed of two prominent opposition journalists who face life in prison. The petition signed by the academics urged Turkey's government to halt its "deliberate massacres and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region". If convicted, the four face up to seven and a half years behind bars, according to Academics for Peace (BAK), the group behind the petition. In a separate courtroom, two journalists - Can Dundar and Erdem Gul of the leading opposition daily Cumhuriyet – are on trial accused of revealing state secrets, after a report that the Turkish government is shipping arms to the Islamists-Jihadists in Syria... Bartering oil for arms... in support of the Jihadists in Syria... Merkel, the German chancellor, and the West, including the U.S. and Canada are silent on Turkish atrocities against the Kurds... meanwhile the Kurds in Iraq and Syria are their staunchest supporters in the fight against the Islamist-Fascist-Jihadists... Merkel's visit to Turkey is supporting the Islamist-fascists and a slap in the face of European values... freedom of speech and democracy...

***

100 + 1 years of silence and human immorality 100 + 1  years of prostitution of human values and trampling of Christian values ...

Earth Day... The Mission of the West... The Islamists and Us...

Yesterday...
Earth Day... Just some questions... !!!
You may choose to ponder about today and on the weekend... and maybe decide to do something about... them...
Is the increase in suicide rate and abuse of Mother Earth... and Wars...Greed and chasing Profit... have indeed any correlation...?
Is the abuse of Mother Earth and the refugee-migration crisis Related...?

The Report just released on Suicide Rates... Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s. The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday.

... And then...

While walking I read a notice on the grass besides the side walk... "Government Property... No Trespassing..."  
Just a question... Since when the government(s) owns properties and people are the trespassers...? 
This is just Big brother... apparatchik... bureaucracy...which is called "government"... and
... There is truth in the "notice"... Governments have grown to be an independent adversarial entity... They no longer represent the public, but elite groups of rich and wealthy people. The governments are no longer for the people but they want to regulate people's movement... just as the sign instructs... "No Trespassing..."
They want the people to go to wars in order to defend the greed of the elite... and chase profit for the elite...
The government has metamorphosed to become the alien and Kafkaesque web which is both inhuman and foreign to the people they are supposed to represent...

***

This week a huge Explosion Rocked Kabul... Killing Dozens... They declared that the Islamist Al Kaedia-Talaban "Spring Offensive" is on... in Afghanistan...

An Afghani soldier guarding Kabul... against the West... or the Islamists...? NO ONE KNOWS...

Report on Afghanistan War... After 15 years, billions of dollars and thousands of American casualties, U.S. efforts to rebuild Afghanistan are in a perilous state, according to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. John F. Sopko's assessment has its doubters, but he paints a stark picture of security so shaky and roads so dangerous that inspector general staff take helicopters to the airport rather than drive. Contracting can be so shoddy, buildings crumble months after they're built. More than 700 schools have been closed because of the ongoing insurgency. Bribery, money laundering and other forms of corruption continue to sap revenues. And despite at least $7 billion in counternarcotics spending, opium production hit 3,300 tons in 2015 -- exactly the same level it was in 2000, according to Sopko.

The U.S. and "the Western Democracies..." gave arms and supported Islamists and Al Kaeda-Talaban against the Soviet Union... They argued that they are fighting the "Evil Empire" and it may have been so... 

The U.S. and "the Western Democarcies" armed the Islamist Jihadists to their teeth... and now... they are mired in an expensive conflict which has achieved ABSOLUTELY nothing...

Read again...the news bulletin which is printed above...

The West and the U.S. went into Afghanistan in the style of the "White Men's Burden..." They went there to "educate" the people... modernize them... and above all in order to "usher in and "introduce democracy..." 

But they poured acid on school girls... Malala is well known in the West... When men rape women, the Afghani Islamists still stone the women as adulterer... (reminds e of Western society in Europe and North America... where they blame the victim, i.e. the women, for the committed crime...

The rapists are defended... rigorously... after all they are part of the Western patriarchal society... The comedian Bill Cosby is a good sample of Western Civilization and male rule and patriarchy... 
All over the globe... 
The insistence the of West that their way of life fits all societies is pure hypocrisy... and their insists to "export" their way of life to other parts of the world... to Syria and Afghanistan is just the extension of their greed and profit chasing...

The "White Men's Burden..." introduced colonialism to the world... before... and I am sure that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan... and the rest of the countries in Europe or the Middle East... is not for altruistic and humanitarian purposes... 

It is the modern version of colonialism...of greed and plunder and destruction and maiming...and the result is a huge wave of refugees and migration... 

        ***          

...And the sad news...

As many as 500 migrants may have died last Saturday when a large ship sank in the Mediterranean between Libya and Italy, the United Nations refugee agency announced Wednesday...                                                       The "altruistic and humanitarian" interventions of the West and China and Russia in the affairs of other countries... are producing deadly results and refugees and causing migration in an unprecedented way...  

Yesterday was Earth Day... and the Earth is for the people... But the greed of the Bog Brother governments and elite... are causing devastation all over... and raping both Mother Earth and the peoples of the world...

Ross was Against... "Apres moi le deluge"... theorem...

"Après moi le déluge" or "After me, the deluge" is attributed to the King King of France Louis the XVth...(15th... 1710-1774)... about fifteen years before the French Revolution which proclaimed "equality, fraternity and liberty..."

   

Louis the 15th and Madam Pompadour, his queen... Some say that the queen made the remarks... after all she has also said: "Let them have cake..." when the people were demonstrating for bread... because they were hungry and poor... She did not have the sense that when poor people do not have bread... they do not have cake too... She could not do the math... 

The king's phrase can be interpreted:                   

After me the deluge will come... asserting that after him France will go into disaster and chaos and destruction...

or,                                                               After me let the deluge come... even if the deluge takes all and disaster prevails... it makes no difference to me... the few centuries old equivalent of "Ask me if I care...!" or in youth parlance "I don't give a fuck..."

............................................

To dispute about the phrase is for "historians" and ivory tower "academics"... The dispute is not that consequential, but our attitudes are... to some degree, some of us more and some of us less, ALL of us live in the second sense... We witness a homeless... and pass by... We hear about natural disasters and we sleep over it and wait for the next one... We hear about wars and we say; "Aren't we luck that we have peace over here..." 

Some of us give alms... and attend church, mosque, temple, synagogue... services... and like the Prince in the Bible, we assume that we have done it... But the Bible says... give all away to the poor... and uphold human values... of sharing and humility... not greed and chasing profits... 

A bag of air from Kobe Bryant's last game reached $15,000 in eBay bidding... before it was pulled down... How much GREED is enough... Some pollute the air others sell it... I told my students often... that will come the time when we will have two bottles in each hand... one to gulp clean water,as we do now... and the other to sniff clear air, as we'll do soon... The future is already here... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!     Is our species... this stupid... and greedy... Next they will sell shit too... or maybe body parts... before they put the body six feet under...! Maybe we are funny... Maybe we are stupid... Maybe chasing profit and our greedy genes are also part of our stupidity...!

We are a funny-stupid species... Greed and chasing profits is in our blood to some degree... in some of us more and in some of us less... That's why Ross, my chaplain friend said; "Do not lecture to the students, just start a discussion... talk to them and come up with a collective vision..."
Well, apparently I have not done enough... I evidently have failed to inspire them... I have not given them wings big enough to soar... and I have not given vision for a more humane tomorrow...

Human Engineered Disasters in Nature...

... and Ross, the chaplain in my school, told me; Be patient Godot with come... Wait for Godot a bit longer..."

I have students working in the Silicon Valley... I have students working for humanity... I have many students, teachers and engineer..., and of course I am waiting for Godot... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... (still waiting...)

Ross and I attended two different stagings of Waiting for Godot... Both versions were great... and of course the play ended but the waiting time never halted... It became a joke between us... When one of us said; " I am still waiting for Godot...," we knew that there was an issue and which never will be solved... a conundrum that will never be cracked... Of course every one of them... human made... In school, and at education theaters... all issues are human made... and at times nature gives an assisting hand... 

Education persists... and the human puzzle continues... Wise people are studying... observing... categorizing... inventing new terminology for the old behaviours... since antiquity it is the same game... But no solution is in sight... The big fish still eats the smaller ones... and still power corrupts... and still we are Waiting for Godot... Ross somewhere over the rainbow... in the galaxies..., and I still stuck over here... Waiting for a change... I was hoping my students will make a difference..., Ross told me so..., But the Godot still dit not show up... The raping of the environment still goes on... and Brazil... the other rain-forests in Indonesia and around are not the only ones... I read that fracking is causing mini and not so mini quakes some cities in the U.S. and I read that "dirty oil" from the Alberta Tar Sands produces more toxins and causes environmental hazards... 
Ross told me that no one is supposed to lecture others... He said... "that's the problem... Lecturing...? Not good...! We have to talk with each other... we have to discuss with each other... We have to come to solutions together and share with each other..."Ross said... wait and eventually Godot will arrive... 
But,
Who knows... Maybe... Ross is correct... Maybe... Godot will come... But then, maybe there is no Godot... and humanity is destined to be greedy and chase profit... 
Maybe things are doomed to end... Maybe...
...................................................
I came by two words which were foreign to me... One is a British usage and not that familiar in North America and the other one is a new suggestion... 
Both caught my imagination and I wanted to share them with you
1. ...Bol·shie

 It is pronounced bōlSHē and is an adjective... It is more used in Britain... and the comparative adjective is bolshier...

Meaning: deliberately combative or uncooperative... Like some of my students who were full of themselves and wanted to prove that they are smart... to me...? Maybe... to their friends...? Definitely...

1. ... Some one had used this phrase... "Friends, foes or frenemies?"
 All of us know "friends"... and all of us know "foes"... 
What is new is the word frenemies... who is both friend and enemy... like the Turkish regime of president Erdogan to the West and to the U.S. 
The Turkish regime is both an ally of the U.S. and also a supporter of the Islamist-Jihadist group in Syria and Iraq... 
Frenemies is not neither friend nor enemy... but rather both friend and enemy at the same time... That is, an opportunistic charlatan like the Turkish-Azerbaijani regimes... and supporters of both the West and the Islamist-Jihadists...
A conundrum that spells... hypocrisy... 
Both Turkey and Azerbaijan are united in their quest for genocide of Armenians... and they cannot be both friend and enemy of the West.

Things That We Do... Kids Suing Obama and the Big Brothers...

I asked Ross, the chaplain in my last teaching post; “What if climate change will actually melt the ice cap... and the sea level rises...?”

Ross did not answer... because he was upset... whenever we talked about nature he was passionate and he drowned his grief with yet another glass of whatever he was drinking at the time... Ross did not answer... because he realized that we were powerless to do much... 

He did not answer but his fury was visible in his face... which became more red than before... and the blood vessels became visible on his forehead...

Ross was angry... He had his unique way of expressing his anger... He stop talking and he stirred the ice cubes in his glass and then ordered a new drink... he said the one that he had become to watery...

He stirred the ice cubes... and they melted... and the drink was indeed water... He said... “The melting ice drowned my drink, but the melting cap will drown much more... Florida will be under... The Pays Bas will be under...” He always liked to use some French... it reminded him of his Montreal background... and his sophistication... 

He was sad... He loved both Florida and Pays Bas... though he had not been there... I guess he had been there in the books that he had read... and he had a passion for both places... 

Humans are ruining the human habitat... and Ross did not know what he can do... what anyone can do... !!! He was not pessimistic but he did not know what to do... He was at a loss... The task was colossal and the adversary overwhelming... Ross was indeed overwhelmed and disoriented... 

I never had seen him drink more than two glasses... That day he ordered more... and more... and again... 

After our downtown visits... we said bye at the subway... But that day I drove him home and made sure that he was in safely.

I never told this to anyone... This is a first and I am sure he will not mind... He might even be happy... Maybe today he is raising his glass again... wherever he may be... Somewhere over the rainbow... in eternity...

***

It is a difficult task to kick against spikes... It is difficult to convince people to be satisfied with whatever they need and not be greedy... Chasing millions after millions is obscene... against God's laws... against human decency... against humanity...

Ross was right... we are almost impotent... against human greed and unfettered profit chasing...

It was eight years ago... Obama got elected... I declared the day "holiday" for my classes... I did not teach any math... I asked the students to connect my laptop to project on big screen the inauguration... It was fun... lots of discussion and activity in the classroom... The admin knew better and they did not question my action... They knew that I have always delivered very well in my classes... So they kept quiet... and the people witnessed the making of history...

At this point in time... in the twilight of his presidency... am I disappointed... I may be... But like Ross, my chaplain friend, I know that swimming against the tide... kicking against the spikes of human greed and profit chasing is very difficult... and deep down I am convinced that he would have done more...if he could!

But almost at the end of the line...twenty-one young people (ages 8 to 19) are suing him, President Obama and the feds over making a mess of th planet for the future generations...It is indeed the climate version of the old story... David and Goliath... and in the old version we know that David won... But in this new version... I am not sure who will be the winner... After all, like Ross... we all realize that it is hard to kick the spikes...

A bunch of kids suing the big-bad feds...
Twenty-one young people from around the country filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration on Tuesday accusing the federal government of violating their rights by contributing to climate change through the promotion of fossil fuels.

The plaintiffs, who range in age from 8 to 19, filed their complaint in US District Court in Oregon. The complaint lists numerous defendants, including President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Defendants have for decades ignored their own plans for stopping the dangerous destabilization of our nation's climate system," the plaintiffs said in their complaint, which was filed with the help of the Oregon-based nonprofit Our Children's Trust. 

They claim... The "Defendants have known of the unusually dangerous risk of harm to human life, liberty, and property that would be caused by continued fossil fuel use and increase [carbon dioxide] emissions."

Kids cleaning the woods... After all, humans passed through the woods!!!

***

The Raping of the Amazon...of the World...

They call it Mother Nature... 

And Ross, my good chaplain friend... after a long... very long interlude... one morning he visited me in my classroom... my music was on... the Gregorian Chants were marvelous... he stood in front of my desk... with coffee and muffin for me and asked; "What will people do when they rape their mother...?"

I was startled...It was early in the morning... not even seven... and the question did not relate to anything... Why dangle an odd question like that in front of me...very early in the morning...? It did not make sense... He noticed my confusion... and smiled... It is the answer-question to our conversation that evening... few weeks ago... 

I remembered... when I drove him back to his home...

Non of us had any answer... and I was disoriented the whole day... I am not sure if the students noticed my lack of focus or not... maybe they did... most of them were smart kids... But then maybe they did not... After all, kids are just kids...!!!

But now they are suing the president and the fed agencies...     I hope they win... I am not sure they will win... The spikes are too sharp and they are too small...

But then... you never know... I have tried to convince my pupils that everything is POSSIBLE...

...And Ross, wherever he is now... beyond the horizon... with the new celestial galaxies... I am sure he will be proud of these kids... 

***

  

Meet some of the inhabitants of the rain-forest...

   

Golden Lion Tamarin                   Poison Dart Frog...                    Can grow 6-10 ins, but the tail grows             May be poisonous...some of them are...       to 12-15 ins... Sleep in tree holes...           some are not...   

 

 Anaconda                                      Jesus Lizard...                              May grow to 30 ft and 550 lbs...                        Cannot perform  miracles... but can           They eat 40 lbs of prey each day...                   run over water...    

    Peanut Head Bug                         Macaw                                        Mimics lizard's head to escape predators...   They are social and the beaks are strong can crack Survival of the fittest...           enough to crack nuts... (nut heads?)