Category: Life On The Margins

All the other things about living life outside the main stream.

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Celebrating Our Disabilities and Our Personal Failures…

RJ Walters

I want to forewarn you that this post is going to include some ranting and will probably offend some people. I am sorry if that offends you but I need to speak my mind on this topic. People who don’t come here often probably don’t know that I am deaf.  I went deaf about thirty years ago from a congenital disease. Before you ask, no a cochlear implant is not a possibility for me.  When I started going deaf I was first exposed to the “Deaf” community (with a capital D”. To them being deaf is something to be celebrated! Most … Continue reading Celebrating Our Disabilities and Our Personal Failures…

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The New GOP…

RJ Walters

For those of you who haven’t visited here much I will state up front that while I am very much a social progressive but I am also a fiscal conservative. I too think as indicated in this editorial cartoon by Jack Ohman “where did the Republican party go?” They once were the party of small government and keeping expenses under control.  During those days I voted Republican about as often as I voted Democrat. But those days now seem to be a distant memory. The new GOP seems to be made up of screamers who want infinite military budgets so that can go … Continue reading The New GOP…

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Containers They Carry Their Brains Around In…

RJ Walters

  I must admit that I love Shonda Rhimes and her creative mind! Grey’s Anatomy is probably my all-time favorite show and since I have been around quite a while that is a lot of shows. She shows us the challenges of life that many of us have never faced.  I captured the quote above from a recent CNN broadcast talking about the Oscars. I have not watched that awards ceremony in many years but I do get glimpses of it and the meat parade that goes on as the actors enter the theatre are still very prevalent. It seems that those … Continue reading Containers They Carry Their Brains Around In…

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Empathy Is Imagining Yourself In Someone Else’s Shoes…

RJ Walters

Some of us seem to totally lack empathy for others. Sadly the lack of empathy seems to be almost a requirement for GOP candidates these days. I know Paul Ryan who is one of the heroes on the Republican party celebrates his common bonds with his hero Ayn Rand who made it very clear that to her empathy is a severe handicap in society rather than an asset.  Of course the lack of empathy is clearly shown by those who have voted more than fifty time to take affordable healthcare away from millions of our nation’s citizens. Some among us just … Continue reading Empathy Is Imagining Yourself In Someone Else’s Shoes…

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Our Most Deadly Trait…

RJ Walters

While being shown around, Uyanwah asked Hawking which human shortcoming he would most like to change, and which trait he’d enhance. Hawking chose aggression and warned that a nuclear war could end civilization and possibly the human race. We need to replace aggression with empathy, which “brings us together in a peaceful loving state,” he said. SOURCE: Stephen Hawking Warns That Aggression Could ‘Destroy Us All’. I want to admit up front that I am not much of a fan of Steven Hawking. Maybe it is his avowed atheism or maybe it is because most of what he says is really … Continue reading Our Most Deadly Trait…

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What Wealth Does To Your Soul – Part 2

RJ Walters

With this post I will conclude my discussion about what might make the wealthy among us seem so callous to others needs. The source for these posts came as a surprise to me. Here is some more quotes from that article. A UCLA neuroscientist named Keely Muscatell has published an interesting paper showing that wealth quiets the nerves in the brain associated with empathy: If you show rich people and poor people pictures of kids with cancer, the poor people’s brains exhibit a great deal more activity than the rich people’s. (An inability to empathize with others has just got … Continue reading What Wealth Does To Your Soul – Part 2

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Against Indifference….

RJ Walters

I’m not sure if religion is the opiate of the masses, but I’m convinced that indifference is the opiate of the privileged. We turn to it when overwhelmed by the discomfort we feel about our complicity in an oppressed person’s reality. To anesthetize ourselves against their reality, we willfully ingest this opiate and use it as a coping mechanism. After years of the westernized church ingesting unhealthy amounts of indifference, we now experience delusional thoughts which blame the victims of injustice for their suffering. We have contorted scripture to please our ears. Ignoring the words and life of Christ, disregarding the narrative of Israel, … Continue reading Against Indifference….

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I Can't Do It For Them….

RJ Walters

This is going to be an extremely soul-searching post for me. It has been a week since the GOP route in the mid-term elections and I have been thinking about my philosophical and political leanings. Two things seem now apparent to me that were not so just a few short months ago. The first epiphany  is that I am not so much a Democrat as I am anti-Republican. There is just too much weight amongst the current Republican party in favor of the elite and so little for the average guy and almost nothing for the guy down on his luck. In my … Continue reading I Can't Do It For Them….

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This Is Scott Walker’s Idea Of A Living Wage

RJ Walters

“There’s a lot of people out here in the working field doing what Governor Walker wants us to do: he says he wants us to be out here working,” said Branch, who identified herself as a supporter of Burke. “I was hoping that Mr. Walker would see [the complaints] and take account of these workers out here … he just needs to take a walk in my shoes.” SOURCE: This Is Scott Walker’s Idea Of A Living Wage. I know that Scott Walker’s fellow Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan simply adores all of Ayn Rand’s teaching and a primary part of … Continue reading This Is Scott Walker’s Idea Of A Living Wage

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Why the Rockefellers are betting on renewable energy

RJ Walters

The name Rockefeller is deeply synonymous with turning oil into gold. Familial patriarch John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in 1870 and bought up most of the oil refineries in the United States, eventually controlling over 90 percent of the American oil business. “Competition,” he said, “is a sin.” That empire, in inflation-adjusted terms, made him the richest man in history with a fortune estimated at $336 billion in 2010 dollars. The Standard Oil monopoly, meanwhile, was broken up and evolved into the global oil brands Exxon-Mobil, Amoco, and Chevron. But the times they are a-changin’, and you don’t need … Continue reading Why the Rockefellers are betting on renewable energy

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Wounded Souls….

RJ Walters

Christians have a presumption against war as well as an obligation to help heal those who suffer its consequences. The above title and words come from a Sojourners Magazine article by Gregg Brekke in the April 2014 issue. I have made it clear on most of my blogs that I am pro-peace in almost all regards and of course that makes me anti-war. All the wars and conflicts that the U.S. has fought in  my lifetime have not had any long, or even medium term, consequences. If they had not been fought at all nothing much would have changed. The … Continue reading Wounded Souls….

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During Doctor Visits….

RJ Walters

That second set of ears belongs to Sharon Wolozin, who takes notes the old-fashioned way – with pen and paper – and then reads some of the main points aloud to confirm them with the doctor. If the patient forgets a question she told Wolozin she planned to ask, Wolozin will remind her. But she is not an advocate and has no medical training. “We don’t get between the doctor and the patient,” said Wolozin. Her role is only to create an accurate record of what happened at the appointment that she gives to Couturier, who can then share it … Continue reading During Doctor Visits….

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The Re-Unification of Korea….

RJ Walters

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Their backs stooped, dozens of elderly North and South Koreans separated for six decades reunited Thursday, weeping and embracing in a rush of words and emotion. The reunions come during a rare period of detente between the rival Koreas and are all the more poignant because the participants will part again in a few days, likely forever. SOURCE: Tearful Korean reunions begin; first since 2010 – Yahoo News. It greatly saddens me to see a country that was torn apart by violence and has remained so for over sixty years.  If only the kid despot … Continue reading The Re-Unification of Korea….

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Being A Social Justice Advocate…

RJ Walters

I often wonder why I turned out to be such a social justice advocate. Was I born that way or was it due to some early childhood experiences? I am certain that growing up in a single parent household at the lower end of the economic ladder was a significant part of it. But I don’t think that was the driving factor. Like so many have said before, we might have been poor but I really didn’t know it until later. Many of my early heroes in the literary sphere wrote about ordinary people struggling with daily life. John Steinbeck … Continue reading Being A Social Justice Advocate…

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As We Dreamed…

RJ Walters

This is installment three of my melancholy post for this week. Do any of us ever lead as full a life as we had dreamed? That is the topic of this post. The short answer to that question should be no. If we live up to our dreams then we probably weren’t dreaming large enough.  But this post is about the longer answer. I’m sure in my early childhood years I had some pretty wild dreams of what my life would be but I don’t remember much about those years. The ones I do remember were that my parents would … Continue reading As We Dreamed…

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Simple Guy vs. Simpleminded….

RJ Walters

I end many of my posts with the words “but I’m just a simple guy so what do I know?”  That is just my way of saying what Will Rogers said about all he know is what he reads in the newspaper. I don’t have some inside knowledge about anything I post about here.  One thing I want to make sure that you understand is that there is a world of difference between being a simple guy and being simpleminded. One of the biggest insults someone could call me is simpleminded. The dictionary says simpleminded is: lacking mental capacity and … Continue reading Simple Guy vs. Simpleminded….

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Policemen acquitted in beating death of homeless man

RJ Walters

Prosecutors had accused the two officers, who approached Thomas near a bus depot in July 2011 to question him about reports of vandalized cars, of turning a routine police encounter into an unnecessary and savage beating that cost the unarmed homeless man his life. Attorneys for Ramos and Cicinelli argued that Thomas was dangerous and that the officers responded according to their training. Defense lawyers also said Thomas suffered from a weakened heart brought on by drug abuse. “These peace officers were doing their jobs, operating as they were trained,” said John Barnett, who represented Ramos. “There was no malice … Continue reading Policemen acquitted in beating death of homeless man

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Reflections…

RJ Walters

There are some folks who would say they are Christian, but they are looking less and less like Jesus. And there are some folks who would never claim to be Christian, yet their hearts and their passions are slowly moving closer and closer to Jesus’ heart. It’s up to God to sort all that out. Being more like Jesus is what we are trying to do as Red Letter Christians; it’s where we’re coming from, and where we’re going. SOURCE:   Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said? (Claiborne, Shane;Campolo, Tony) Being a new year it is … Continue reading Reflections…

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Getting Shocked Out Of Your Comfort Zone.

RJ Walters

For this post I thought I would focus on a cultural topic. Let’s face it none of us are totally comfortable with change. Some of us see it as a nuisance, some as a threat, and fortunately many of us see it as an opportunity. Since we live in an ever-changing world how we face change often determines the root level of happiness in our lives.  When we get too comfortable with our current situations we leave ourselves open to complacency and that often leads to stagnation. When I went deaf over twenty-five years ago a lot of things changed … Continue reading Getting Shocked Out Of Your Comfort Zone.

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Wearing Me Down….

RJ Walters

I am getting worn down by all this dark political stuff around lately. It just never seems to end. I simply can’t fathom how almost half of us have so little empathy for those on the margins of our society. Why do they so fervently want to take food out of their mouths and block them from getting affordable healthcare? It seems that some will go to any extreme to make those things happen.  A few months ago when I was in a similar depressed mode I vowed to keep on going so I could, in a small way, prevent … Continue reading Wearing Me Down….

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GOP Is Not A Real Party…

RJ Walters

“The Republican Party is not really a party. It doesn’t stand for anything except re-electing itself,” Stockman, who directed the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, tells Newsmax. “The neocons are only oriented to an aggressive, imperialistic foreign policy of big defense establishment and suppression of our civil liberties. That’s bad. “The tax cons want to just cut taxes — any time, any day — regardless of the fiscal situation,” Stockman adds. “That has gone to an absurd length. The social cons, social policy people — the right-to-life issue and gay marriage and all of that — … Continue reading GOP Is Not A Real Party…