NEWTOWN CONNECTICUT

Another horrific tragedy in the USA unfolded at first light today.
In a very ordinary town lives came to an unexpected end at the hands of someone armed with weapons which belong, if they do, only on a battlefield.
Worse was the news that a number of small children suffered death beside their teachers.
The gentle epitaph came to mind…..
“If I am so quickly done for
What on earth was I begun for.”
People now will second guess a loving God, asking why he allows such terrible things. We forget too easily that as human beings we have free will. We can at our individual choice do good or do evil and face the consequences. In Newtown today the choice was someone’s to do evil and to suffer death and judgement.
Our part in this disaster is to pray for those who are grief stricken and for the whole community that they may draw close in love for one another.
For the US government it is yet another wakeup call for action to prevent this repeated agony.

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THEY WERE ALL ASYLUM OR REFUGE SEEKERS ONCE…….NOW LOOK AT THEM CONTRIBUTING TO THEIR ADOPTED COUNTRY’S ECONOMY WITH INDUSTRY
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Dalai Lama and the ‘F’ word!

Isn’t it paradoxical that the American media picked up on this and fed it excitedly to the world even though it quickly became obvious that the Dalai Lama never actually used it.
Anyone watching American movies and television programmes may be forgiven for thinking this word and developments of it are an essential additive to any of their spoken words and conversations. So why the shock horror?
A majority of movies are now mostly action where there is little if any script other than expletives one after the other, usually of the offensive mode.
It would have been more appropriate if they had shut the f*** up.

Fear the politicians of the future – Eureka Street

Fear the politicians of the future – Eureka Street.

A Big Problem for over half a million Australians

Zac Alstin in an article in EUREKA STREET.COM.AU on 17th Sept draws attention to the difficulties faced by people with a mental disability to deal with the increasing demand on us individually to cope with technology in the market place. This is just an excerpt from his very readable article.

“Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter exemplify the ways in which new technology continues to draw out and emphasise the life of the mind above all else. At the same time, convenient new tools like online banking and shopping carry a hidden burden of knowledge, memory, and comprehension borne entirely by the individual user. The cognitive demands of active social participation have never been so high.
We seem set on a trajectory of ever increasing reliance on individual autonomy, rationality, and self-awareness augmented by complex technologies. But if our culture glorifies the mental life of the autonomous, empowered individual, what does it offer those whose mental faculties are limited or impaired?
We are living in what ethicist Stephen G. Post has called a ‘hyper-cognitive’ society — a society which not only demands but idealises the mental life as the essence of personhood and individuality. Post has critiqued our present culture’s implicit affront to people suffering cognitive deficits such as dementia:
I associate hypercognitive values with the Enlightenment notion of salvation by reason alone and suggest that this imperils people with dementia. Very simplistically, ‘I think, therefore I am,’ implies that if I do not think, I am not. In essence, the values of rationality and productivity blind us to other ways of thinking about the meaning of our humanity.”

US ELECTION

Tags

current-events, politics

I MOSTLY ENJOY THE DAILY OUTPUT FROM EUREKA.COM. This is a Jesuit managed online magazine.
Today Jim McDermott S.J.who is currently studying screenwriting at UCLA has amusingly described the two Conventions probably using some of his newfound skills.
His article begins “The United States finished Act One of its quadrennial orgiastic political kabuki…..”
and goes on to make a further comment that Romney made lots of pitches to family and faith: All the laws and legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving hearts and arms of mothers and fathers.
‘Too many lines like that he says, will put you into a diabetic coma(even in the States)’
As a Jesuit He misses out by not saying that if this were universally sincerely meant and understood the statement would not be far from the truth.

The People Problem

Australia still can’t see the error of its ways. It signed up to an international agreement yet chooses not to comply with the terms of it.
This appeared in an article in Eureka in 2008. Four years on the comments remain ever more relevant
….All ideologies…. can neglect the view of the human world on which they are based and focus simply on implementing the consequences of their ideas. They can ally themselves with centres of power that distracts them from the vital conversation about human life.
When this happens the costs in human misery are great. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If we insist that conversation should turn to what is important, to what matters to human beings, theories can be nurtured and disciplined so they are not easily corrupted.

My Daughter’s Art..

The whole at katyaknight.yolasite.com

Music in the Family

My brother Philip who is a Celtic Bard in Cornwall UK has recently written music and lyrics and is the singer on a new album of Cornish (Celtic)songs which is produced by his son Paul who works in the music business.The whole may be found on http://youtu.be/EE5FkrCOj8Q

Another two of my nephews Jonathan and his brother Josh
are with a leading Toronto Canada band SOULSTACK

The Boy’s Dream

My grandson Jake has just opened his own Coffee and Tea House in Sydney in the underpass from Central station to the TAFE