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  • Politics Is Like Hiring A Hitman
    by Scott Woods inPolitical on2020-08-13

    For me, politics is like hiring a hitman. I have values and things I care about. I care enough about them to at least bother voting for 5 minutes every year for one issue or another. And because I care at least that much, I vote for people who align with the ability to realize the things I care about.

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  • Punching Above Our Weight
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-07-24

    I believe our vote is the punctuation of our voice. Without that resounding exclamation mark, I believe our voices are just incoherent noise.

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  • BLACK PROGRESS AMIDST SOCIAL CHAOS
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-06-16

    Recent events have raised the profile of historical injustice and inequities here in the USA. The entire world has taken note of the fact that BLACK LIVES MATTER.   We invite all of our friends to engage in actions that result in the greatest movement for change in our history. It is imperative that we take advantage of this opportunity to affect a positive change by ACTING IN OUR SELF-INTERESTS.

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  • Living in a Black No-Man's Land
    by Roger Madison Jr. inOur Community on2019-10-28

    There are many narratives that define the Black experience in America in this 2nd decade of the 21st century. Our striving over the centuries of our sojourn in this nation is a tapestry of every human experience -- oppression, enslavement, forced assimilation, dehumanization, exclusion, segregation, isolation, struggle, perseverance, achievement, excellence, celebration, mourning, despair, progress, setbacks, lynching, assassination, genocide, terror, self-hatred, low esteem, pride,...

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  • Fighting Racism
    by Scott Woods inOur Community on2018-10-25

    I had a boss who was racist. Not an outright bigot, of course; her toolbox was more subtle than most. We bumped heads a lot over inconsequential things. She frequently couldn’t keep my name out her mouth. Lot of gaslighting. You know…2018 style. I tried a lot of ways to combat or navigate her issues. None of them worked, and that’s saying a lot because I’m really good at fighting racism. But at the end of the day – every day – she was my boss, I had to deal with her, and that was that. Finally I...

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Degrees Alone Won't Make You Happy

 In my life there have been two periods of abject misery.  Both occurred when I "should" have been on top of the world.  The first time I fell into a serious funk was when I was 22 years old and had just accomplished what I'd been groomed for since childhood.  I was a brand spanking new college graduate with a BA in print journalism--yet I was wretched. 

Here's the thing, I'd been so involved with passing the classes etc, that I didn't give too much thought as to what I'd use the degree for or much else for that matter.  The idea of preparing for life beyond college was lost on me as I centered my thoughts on one thing for 16 years-a formal education.

I landed a nice job as a science writer less than a month after graduating and I had a boyfriend, yet without classes, tests, grades and assignments to organize my life around, I felt completely lost.

The mistake that many parents make-and I write about this in my semi-autobiographical novel Again and Again-is to assume that if a child is doing well in school then every other area of his or her life is also on point.  We need to broaden our assessments of young people and balance the messages we're drilling into their heads about school. Yes getting a formal education is absolutely necessary, but there is oh so much more to life!  We need to tell children this. 

Degrees alone don't make people happy. Further happiness is not embodied in any one goal-ie the degree, the job, the money, the house, marriage, having children etc. Happiness is an art and a science. It's something you must learn on your own because unfortunately it's not taught in most schools or in most homes.  It's something you must seek for yourself. And since we have no village to turn to, it's an individualized process.

Two books I've found extremely helpful in my own quest are Martin Seligman's Authentic Happiness and Dan Baker's What Happy People Know.

 

Leah Mullen, Author of AGAIN AND AGAIN
Please visit my site http://www.leahmullen.com/ blog: http://mylifeisapageturner.blogspot.com/ life coaching column: http://www.bellaonline.com/site/lifecoaching Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/leah_mullen Do we read the same books? check out my shelf http://www.shelfari.com/leah_mullen Visit my profile on http://www.amazon.com/ to see my latest book reviews and guides including "Be a Self-Actualized Black Woman!"