This is a personal journal kept by Deb Adler as a commentary on living, loving, growing. Major topics include Personal Musings, Self-Growth, Spirituality, Quantum Nuwati, LGBT Issues, Relationships, and Addictions Recovery.
Grandmother Parisha will be on conference call this evening at 9 pm EST to discuss recent developments regarding the earth changes prophesied for this time with particular attention to 2012.
Listen in at
646-519-5860, pin no. 2930
Please mute your phone once you are "in" out of courtesy for all the participants.
Recently, in response to one of my posts at www.msqueer.com about teen suicide and lgbtq teen suicides in this country and resources to help, I received a comment from someone who asked me to publicize a video competition that is coming to a conclusion soon, as well as the organization sponsoring it, The Jed Foundation.
Here are excerpts from the poster's comments: "I’m writing from The Jed Foundation....We are presenting The Jerry Greenspan Student Voice of Mental Health Award for college students who have had mental health issues like the one’s you write about on your site and wanted for you to help spread the word.
"The award is for a video on their experiences with mental health issues and how they are working to raise awareness and encourage their peers on the issue. The award includes a $2,000 scholarship, a trip to NYC to our annual gala in June 2009, recognition through our site and events and possibly appearing on MTVU. The info is on our site (link below).
We are interested... in having folks write about the importance of doing work like this and show casing, if you will, this award we are presenting.
NOTE: The Deadline for submitting a video to this project is FEBRUARY 13th! You can download an application from their site address shown here. Questions can be directed to studentaward@jedfoundation.org.
From their website, I share with you their Mission, as it appears on their About Us page:
Mission The Jed Foundation works nationally to reduce the rate of suicide and the prevalence of emotional distress among college and university students. To achieve this end, the organization collaborates with the public and leaders in higher education, mental health, and research to produce and advance initiatives that:
Decrease the stigma surrounding emotional disorders and increase help-seeking in the college student population
Increase understanding of the warning signs of suicide and the symptoms of emotional disorders among college students
Build awareness of the prevalence of suicide and emotional disorders among college students
Strengthen campus mental health services, policies, and programs
There, you will find a number of videos on "You Are Not Alone - Fight the Stigma" which feature student sharings as well as educational information from professionals dealing with the issues of student mental health.
I have contacted the Jed Foundation and suggested they network with The Trevor Project, since I did not see any specific references to the LGBTQ population. I hope they follow suit. (Update: I received word back from their Project Coordinator that they were indeed hoping to work together with the Trevor Foundation and appreciated the suggestion.)
Here's one of their videos:
[NOTE: ALL RIGHTS TO THIS VIDEO BELONG TO THE JED FOUNDATION.]
On this day, January 19, 2009, as we mark "Martin Luther King Day" around the nation while looking forward with great anticipation to the Inauguration of President-elect Barrack Obama as the 44th President tomorrow, January 20th, I wish to "re-publish" my articles in tribute to a man who, as one newscaster reminded us today, would be 80 years old if still living and able to witness the historic swearing in of the first Afro-American President of the United States. Dr. King was a personal hero to me. To this day his approach to winning freedom for an oppressed people and forging coalitions - rainbow bridges - continues to inspire me.
We are here to heal separation as the Human Family. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew that. He also understood the ways of the Peaceful Warrior. How I wish I could be able to see him standing there tomorrow in witness of this coming historic occassion, but then I know he will be there!
Yes, Monday was the day that Congress selected to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday. I remarked somewhere during the day to a friend of mine that I always used to take part in a memorial march on this day. It was almost a throw-away comment, because we were in the middle of preparing for the gifting of donated library materials to go to various centers in the community. My comment, if heard, I don’t really think was noted.
Perhaps we’ve grown past the day of marches…maybe they are part of the history to which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. now belongs…a history that I am also a part of for having been there and participated…
My “wonder years,” as they have been described by a popular bread commercial of the 60’s and 70’s, included the assassinations of a U.S. President, a Spiritual and Civil Rights Leader, and a former U.S. Attorney General and Presidential Candidate; the birth of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War conflict that ripped our nation apart, as if it needed any further help in that department. Marches and Sit-ins were the modus operandi of the day for standing up and speaking out and demonstrating solidarity. Today we have blogs and YouTube and other forms of electronic audio-visual communications to reach the global audience with our causes and concerns. Back then, we had megaphones, and placards painted with our messages of defiance and hope. We sang songs and chanted slogans in unison. Yes, when Ms. Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, it ushered in a whole new era – for all of us.
I was in junior high school when John Kennedy, our nation’s President, was shot. I remember being dismissed from school early after listening intently to the radio broadcast over the school’s public-address system from my math class room. When I got out to where our parents’ cars were already waiting, I remember getting in and the ominous ride home with my mother. I remember the fear I felt inside that we were without a leader and how vulnerable that might make us as a country. I asked her if the Communists were going to take over the country. “I don’t know,” she answered very quietly. “We have to get home.”
John Kennedy’s assassination stopped the world for 4 days, at least in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park, where I lived. The nation stayed glued to the TV, hanging on every update that Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley could bring of the initially sketchy details through the capture and then assassination of suspect Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, the President’s body lying in state in the Capital, and the seemingly endless funeral procession through the streets of Washington D.C. to the burial site at Arlington National Cemetery, where a little boy, John-John, said goodbye to his Father with a military salute that captured the hearts of people around the world in the now immortalized front page photograph.
It seems when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, not all of the country stopped in quite the same way. Not everyone was touched in the same way, I suppose, because there were those who celebrated his death. People fed by the ignorance of hatred and bigotry claimed victory. The rest of us held our breath for the future of humanity, wondering would there ever be a time when there was true equality and peace.
These were heady questions for a young high school girl in the mid-1960’s. But they were what occupied my mind in the days following the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.
Dr. King had become a hero to me. Even though I was not an Afro-American, I felt a personal identity with his vision. I was captivated by his eloquence, his passion, his courage, his leadership…his determination to win equality for all people through non-violent peaceful means.
Dr. King captured the heart of this idealistic young high school girl who personalized the racial strife in her country and hungered for a way to make a difference and be heard so that Afro-American people could know that not all White Americans hated those different from themselves. He provided a sure and steady power of example in those turbulent times. And Hope. He was a messenger for Faith and Hope.
So I found myself profoundly affected by the loss of this great leader, Dr. Martin Luther King. It was a loss I had to carry deeper inside myself than that of President Kennedy, because I did not find that it was shared by all of my friends – certainly not at the depth at which I felt it.
My respect and love for this man has grown through the years. I continue to be inspired by his vision and his powerful manner of delivery. May we dedicate our lives to unity and respect for all Beings, that all Humankind – black, white, red, yellow, straight, gay, young, old -- and all life on this planet, may know health, wealth and happiness and flourish. Above all, may we all know Dignity and Respect.
"Loving Your Enemies" from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I wanted to share some excerpts from one of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s speeches, which can be found in their entirety on the internet at http://www.mlkonline.net/speeches.htmlk, among other places.
There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.
...long before modern psychology came into being, the world’s greatest psychologist who walked around the hills of Galilee told us to love. He looked at men and said: "Love your enemies; don’t hate anybody." It’s not enough for us to hate your friends because—to to love your friends—because when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody. Hate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the best and the objective center of your life. So Jesus says love, because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated.
Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, "Love your enemies." Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
Please read about the impending appointment of Tom Vilsack to the Secretary of Agriculture position by President-elect Barrack Obama. Stop this now! Read the details at:
Well, we’re in the final stretch of the 2008 Presidential Elections. Yipee!
I saw a teaser on the front page of USA Today the other day echoing the sentiments of many Americans that ”this election needs to be over.”
Alas, the winner will be announced in just 7 days - or maybe 8, or maybe…if we have some kind of snafu like the past two presidential elections, we may have to wait for a convoluted congressional or judicial process to determine who is really going to take the helm of the United States for the next 4 - or 8? - years.
However it shakes out on the 4th of November, one thing is for certain: this election is a unique opportunity for voters to express their disgust with the political process. I am referring to the option of voting not for the Democratic or Republican candidiate, nor for any of the other independent candidates on the ballot, but for the rightful Democratic presidential candidate: Hillary Clinton.
Anyone planning to write-in Hillary Clinton for President must also write-in a Vice-Presidential candidate in order for the ballot to be valid.
My choice is former Secretary of State Collin Powell. Yes, I know he is a “Johnny-come-lately” to the Democratic Party but I prefer him to Obama in the VP seat with Hillary at the helm. I believe they would work very well together.
So that’s my vote, as it will appear on my absentee ballot, which hopefully will be counted. Watch for the returns from Ohio, specifically Noble County. If no report of my write-in is included with the official tallies, it got buried.
For years I have been advocating a revision of our country’s election process that would include a greater opportunity for people to cast their votes in presidential elections.
How absurd is it that we have allowed only one day - during the traditional “work week” - when too many employees cannot get the day off and may not be able to complete the voting process during an allotted lunch hour or break time?
Third word nations have held elections that span several days, including weekends, so as to allow for as many possible of the eligible citizenry to be able to cast their vote in elections. So if countries emulating the “demoncratic process” can show that sort of thoroughness in creating the greatest possible opportunity for all of the people to be able to make their voice heard - why not the country that is supposed to be the prototype for Democracy?
So I have been extremely pleased to see the following stattistics as reported by USA Today recently:
In person: • 34 states allow people to vote in person before Election Day. 31 don’t require an excuse; 3 states and the District of Columbia do. • 16 states do not allow early or in-person absentee voting. By mail: • 28 states allow no-excuse absentee voting by mail. • 22 states and the District of Columbia require an excuse to vote absentee by mail.
Source: Early Voting Information Center at Reed College
So we still have a ways to go, but we have come a long way to resolving the inequalities in our democratic process. Now, make sure that you take advantage of what is being offered. Get to the polls. Can’t get off work? Go this Saturday. Go online to find out where you can vote in your county during the “early voting” period. (September 30th through November 3rd).
Stumble It!
