I’m having a hard time reacting to the world today. I see the responses to tragedy that we’ve seen so many time. The same calls for action, the same optimism that “this time it will be different “. All I see in my mind is youtube.com/watch?v=7TCV3tlTl…

As I try to become a better writer, it is important that I recognize how important it is to read the writings of other people, and to appreciate the value that they give to me as I write. Some people amaze me by writing something interesting , informative, and entertaining every single day. Others demonstrate their mastery of language by writing poetry about everyday things and events. A few people offer keen insights on the issues of the day. I appreciate them all.

I hope that I am a better writer than when I started this blog many years ago. There have been periods when I didn’t write at all, and I wish now that I had. At times, this blog has served as a diary, as an outlet for my emotions over the cruelty and injustice of the world , and now it reflects my Journey to Kindness.

If someone ever took the time to read this blog from the very first post they would find a complicated and confused individual, but aren’t we all? I finally feel like my writing has a purpose, and that wouldn’t happen without reading and appreciating the writing of others.

Life can be lonely and cruel at times, but we’re never really alone. Someone has written about the same problem or crisis, and how they overcame it.

I love reading what others write. I hope that in the future, others will enjoy reading what I write as well.

Emotions are difficult to control. We respond to events everyday without realizing it. Most of us learn to control our emotions, but at times we experience sone event or trauma that overwhelm us.

Emotions can be good or bad. Try to keep the experience without letting it overwhelm you. Never try to suppress emotion, only Vulcans can do that.

I saw a post-game interview with Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr from last night after the game in Dallas. Kerr was visibly upset over the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas yesterday afternoon. He said one thing that really made me think.

“We don’t need any more moments of silence “ to remember those innocent children who died needlessly. Silence is our enemy. Silence indicates consent to the status quo, and that is unacceptable. We have elected representatives who openly refuse to address the problem of gun violence in this country because they are afraid of losing votes.

We have elected officials who value votes and their own careers over the lives of innocent children. This isn’t right; in fact it is totally wrong. “Moments of silence” won’t bring any victims back. “Moments of silence” won’t affect the next mass murderer. “ Moments of silence “ won’t comfort the families of the victims.

Silence is not an option. Our voices must be heard if the cycle of violence is to ever stop. There is no solution that is out of bounds, no sacred ground that we cannot cross to solve this problem.

The only sacred ground we should honor is the ground where the victims of our indifference are buried. If we cannot do something, then we lose any moral authority we might have claimed.

NO MORE MOMENTS OF SILENCE

Once again, life is interrupted by news of another mass shooing in America. 15 people, 14 of them CHILDREN, are dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

This is horrible, but what makes it an even greater tragedy is that this is just another school shooting in America. I weep for 14 innocent children who did nothing wrong.

The news is full of breathless, almost palpable, energy from the media. I swear that their reaction to these tragedies almost seems sexual to them. They know that they will have the nation’s attention for a few hours to throw out the same talking points to describe the problem without offering concrete solutions.

We can do better.

We have to do better.

We’ve all heard the old saying about Karma, and it is 100% accurate. One of the reasons I chose to embrace Kindness is because I have experienced karma firsthand based on being an unhappy person in the past.

Karma is a funny thing; such a simple idea to be good and do good, so that good will come back to you. Karma isn’t always instantaneous; it can take a long time to feel its effects. Please make no mistake; karma will have its way with us.

Therefore, it is best to practice Kindness so that positive karma will return to you. Being kind doesn’t cost anything; it rids us of toxic negativity. Kindness changes the way we see others; we become less judgmental toward people. Service brings happiness to us, and that reflects on those around us.

Karma is the equalizer. It balances out the good and the bad for each action. If we are kind, we get kindness in return. Life is not a 50-50 balance of good and evil unless we make it so. We can be overwhelmingly good if we choose.

5 things I’m grateful for today:

1. Even though I’m not feeling well, I’m alive.
2. We got everything done yesterday regarding the new apartment.
3. Hal The Cat continues to improve. He hasn’t thrown up in nearly a week.
4. We have more than enough food here to last several days.
5. I’m still focusing on Kindness.

It is possible to find balance between needs and wants. It isn’t an easy thing to do, because the scales sometimes shift based on what particular thing we are talking about. For example, a new car is generally a “want” because it implies that we already have a car. However, when something happens and our car isn’t functioning or available, a new car can easily become a “need”.

On a much smaller scale, the same thing applies. Needs and Wants are always present in our lives. They represent an exercise in perspective and discipline. All the years I was struggling financially, I wanted things but couldn’t justify them. Those things were “wants”. On the rare occasion when something broke and couldn’t be repaired, they reluctantly became “needs” and I found ways to acquire them.

The things I acquired during those years feel different to me. They weren’t “impulse buys”, because I couldn’t afford those. The things I did acquire felt more important to me because I knew the struggle I went through to get them. Ironically, as I come out of debt, I don’t think I “need” as many things as I did before.

How does all this relate to Kindness? It’s simple. If you’re constantly dealing with needs and wants, you won’t be happy. You’ll be self-centered and selfish. If those things are true, then you can’t really be kind to others because Kindness involves giving of yourself.

5 things I am grateful for today:

1. Hal The Cat is doing much better.
2. I feel Happy.
3. We have a warm and safe place for my partner and our cats.
4. I realize the difference between needs and wants.
5. Each day is a new adventure.

www.ted.com/talks/werner_reich_how_the_magic_of_kindness_helped_me_survive_the_holocaust

Repost from the Guardian

Opinion

Trump isn’t out there with a gun, but he’s enabled this war against black people

White supremacy is as American as apple pie, as the latest killings in Buffalo show. Biden needs to take a stand against neofascists

07:00 UTC Saturday, 21 May 2022

Last weekend, just as I finished a live performance in California of Four Questions, the Grammy award-winning jazz collaboration for which I provided spoken words, word reached me about the racist killing of 10 people as they shopped in Buffalo, New York. I try never to be surprised by evil and never paralysed by despair. Instead, my immediate reaction was “here we go again”, with the horror, the suffering and then the now familiar routine of rhetorical gestures and superficial posturing.

On Tuesday, Joe Biden described white supremacy as a poison, and he is right, but – as ever – he fails to understand the gravity of his failure to make racial justice a priority; to see this cowardly white supremacy as a threat to American democracy.

The simple truth is that you cannot see this latest neofascist attack in isolation. Think of the attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, when a white supremacist terrorist killed nine African Americans during their Bible study in 2015. Think of the attack on the American Asian community in Atlanta last year, when four people were murdered amid assertions from prosecutors that the attack was fuelled by race and gender hatred. Or the attack on Chicanos in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, when 22 people were killed in an allegedly hate-motived shooting; and the murder of 11 Jewish Americans at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh the same year by a man who said Jews “were committing a genocide to his people”.

White supremacy is as American as apple pie. It was constitutive of the founding of our nation, like a serpent wrapped around the legs of the table on which the Declaration of Independence and constitution were signed. What we saw in Buffalo at the weekend is another manifestation of it.

From what we know, the alleged shooter was a young and gullible man who got caught in the web of neofascist propaganda. But it is important to look beyond him – to look to those who have created this atmosphere of anger and hate.

After the death of George Floyd, there was a marvellous display of multiracial solidarity, not just here but around the world. But the US has been unable to fight against this neofascist challenge. The Trump forces have got stronger. They have become the public face of US neofascism, and their targets are black people and indigenous people and LGBTQ people.

Trump is not out there with a gun, but he is leading a campaign continuing what Malcolm X called a war against black and coloured people. He is doing it within the electoral political system. He is not killing folks. But he bears responsibility in terms of the context. Have no doubt, he is still the dominant figure.

The campaigning and reflection after the death of George Floyd should have made things better in the US. And, for a beautiful moment, it did. But that moment passed. The press is fickle, the pandemic started to kick in, and other issues such as Ukraine and inflation captured attention. Look at the polls and see how issues of race have fallen down the list of people’s priorities.

The impact of the George Floyd marches was blunted. Congress was unable to enact any meaningful legislation, including the George Floyd bill itself, which would have given us some mechanism with which to address police misconduct and brutality. The Democratic party was not even able to act decisively to uphold voting rights for black people. That is a colossal failure of the Biden administration, but then Biden bears a lot of responsibility when it comes to the position and arrogance of these white supremacists.

Last year Biden said America was not a racist country, and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, backed him on that. But these are lies, and those lies have their effect. If we operate on that level, how can we ever address the vicious legacy of racism and white supremacy?

To the president and Democrats in power, I say: “Shame on you, you dropped the ball.” They must be vigilant and stop acting as if these murders are something they can address in a couple of weeks and then move on. Race is the most explosive issue in the history of this country: from war to civic strife to Buffalo.

The president can’t stop a rightwing gangster killing black people, but he can send a message. He can say: I am being consistent because one of my major priorities is to ensure black people have their rights. If, after all the demonstrations and the campaigns, racists pick up the message that politicians don’t really care about black people, we end up exactly where we are today.

Neofascists and the far right have momentum with their narrative of the great replacement, but someone – and ideally it would be Biden – needs to explain to them what is really going on: that in some places there is replacement in the name of fairness. That sometimes they are seeing visible black folk where they did not previously see them. The racists need to know that they are living in a changing society and we are concerned about them being treated fairly, just as they should be concerned about others being treated fairly. There is a fascist story about replacement and a progressive story about replacement. The neoliberal story cannot counter the fascist story, and we on the left have been unable to get our story out.

So how should black America respond? Since the shootings, I have spoken to so many people and appeared on so many radio stations. People are devastated. The answer is to be a love warrior of the highest sort, a justice warrior, to never give in and never give up. The anger is there, and I don’t aim to calm it down, but I want to rechannel it. Our organisation must be perennial. But counter-terror in the face of terror and counter-violence in the face of violence are not the moral and spiritual options that we need.

It is for us to respond with the same grace and dignity as the people who were killed in that store last weekend: they were very dignified people. Think of Ruth Whitfield. She was 86, a strong member of her community, and had just been visiting her husband in his nursing home. We have to be continuous with the best of our history.

Above all, remember Mamie Till, the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy abducted and lynched by Mississippi racists in 1955. She said: “I don’t have a minute to hate, I’ll pursue justice for the rest of my life.”

Cornel West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and Dietrich Bonhoeffer professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary (NYC)

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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Each day I try to focus on one thing that helps me practice Kindness. My life is full of things that clutter my thoughts for no good reason, they just exist to form a barrier between me and happiness. If I focus on one thing that is pleasant and makes me happy, then I chip away at those obstacles.

Today, I’m just happy to be here typing this blog post. It’s a warm late spring morning. I’m sitting on the patio watching the Hal, Jax, and Willow, our three cats, as they chase the sunlight reflecting off my watch face while I type. The only thing that disturbs perfect silence is the sound of birds chirping, and the noise of occasional traffic.

I am so lucky. Whatever else has happened to me through the years has led me to this place. No one goes through life without pain and disappointment, it is how we learn to deal with those things that define us. I’ve often told Hal (person), my partner of more than 22 years that I believe I would be dead if we hadn’t met. I honestly believe that he saved my life when I was in a bad place.

Hal (person) taught me to love again, and more importantly, to accept love. Most people are capable of giving love, but it takes trust to accept it from another person, especially as we grow older. I was 36 years old when I met Hal. I had basically given up on ever finding anyone until he came into my life.

Without those things happening in my life, I wouldn’t be sitting here on a warm spring morning watching the Hal, Jax, and Willow, our three cats, as they chase the sunlight reflecting off my watch face while I type. The only thing that disturbs perfect silence is the sound of birds chirping, and the noise of occasional traffic. And I wouldn’t have discovered Kindness. And I wouldn’t be sharing what I learned through this blog.

I’ve defined my life at this moment, and the emotional clutter has disappeared from my mind. Just a few minutes of focus on something simple really helps to achieve Kindness and Happiness.

5 things I’m grateful for today:

1. Sunshine reflecting off my watch face.
2. Cats chasing that reflection.
3. Being open and honest about my life.
4. The promise of a great day ahead.
5. The remembrance of things past to give me perspective.
   

Daily Focus