The Truth Session

When I first decided to return to school, I hoped that I would be able to major in Spanish. I have always found it easier than many to pick up foreign languages, and in a global community, I thought what could be better than obtaining a major in a foreign language? Especially, one that might in a few years become as necessary to know as English.

My father who, please do not misunderstand is a great guy, urged me not to obtain this major. He pushed me to go for a degree, any degree, but Spanish. This man who had been pushing me for years to return to school, was now telling me not to get a degree in the subject I was good at.

As it happened, for a variety of reasons, I became a history major, which greatly pleased my dear old dad. Now, I find myself in the position of needing to drop a class and finding one to replace it with. I mentioned to my dad during our weekly chat, that I was thinking about Mandarin. His response both shocked and offended me. “oh, come on! Don’t waist your time with that. You should take a class that will really help you in life.” Being an easy going guy, and not in the mood for a fight with Uncle Jimbo, I let it slide. Hopefully, most of you can see why I was annoyed by what my dad said, but just in case some of you are a bit dense, I’ll explain.

Like it or not, the world has shrunk. If one country sneezes, a lot of other countries can catch a cold. We are for better or worse, in a global economy. If a country wants to compete, we Must be able to communicate. That means, learning the language of our neighbors, and of our competitors. A lot of schools here in California are at least toying with and some have already started insisting upon the teaching of Mandarin to children in early grade school.

China is just one of several rising powers, both militarily, and economically. To urge someone not to learn another language, is urging that person to be stupid. To urge a person not to learn a major world language, is urging that person to be a bloody retard.

I have argued before for a multilingual society, and the fact is, if America wants to compete in this new century, increasing the math and science scores of our students will help. However, if they can not speak the language of their international piers, regardless of their grades in all other subjects, they will almost certainly fall behind.

The old America is gone. White people now wash dishes, we do (menial) work, and this white boy would be thrilled to do it. That in English boys and girls is what they call a pay check. When you haven’t seen that many of them in recent years, believe me, there is nothing wrong with a pay check!

Can I get a job with a history degree? You bet I can! I can get a job teaching, or dusting old artifacts. Yes, I can get a job as an annalist, or more interesting positions, but in general, the major job for a history major is teaching. Companies Love history majors, and a history degree will really teach you how to logically interpret everything you see. But businesses want something else with it. With a language degree, if you are good, you can be on the way to writing your own ticket. You can teach, you can interpret, you can get a much wider variety of jobs with the state department, ETC. Yes, both go much better with a degree in something else, but both are Extremely valuable.

For my father to argue that I would be wasting my time learning any language, shows his ignorance. It is that ignorance that is holding America back. Not that the Chinese are better in science than we are, it’s that they can communicate with their competitors. We can and often do have the brightest people in the world. But with out the ability to communicate, or to interpret what your competitor is doing, America is and always will be just second best.

If you want to get ahead, if you can, Please, learn a language. Any language will do, but Spanish and Mandarin are damn good places to start. History? If you want to be middle class, that’s fine. But if you aspire to being among the upper-class, you had better learn more than the king’s English. My father will retire in another year or two, but if he was just ten years younger, if he didn’t have a language skill, he might very well be facing retirement just a year or two away, and one that how ever welcome on a cold morning, might not be all that welcome when the greedy tax man comes around with his hand out.

Prior to December 2009, I thought that Cola was a soft drink, usually produced by Pepsi, Coke, or any of the abundance of off brand knock off companies. I now know Cola is also a Cost of living adjustment.

A COLA is an automatic adjustment in benefits that occurs annually. The purpose of the COLA is to ensure that the purchasing power of Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits is not eroded by inflation. It is based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers from the third quarter of one year to the third quarter of the next. If there is no increase, there is no COLA. Social Security

As a recipient of Supplemental Security Income Benefits, I am pissed. I am a starving college student, making his way on a grant. I am doing my damndest to find a job now, so that I will not be on the dole for the rest of my life. I have to pay rent, buy food, and pay transportation to get to interviews. All of this from the minute allowance I receive for being blind in America.

Now, as prices are starting to inflate, they are telling me that because past performance did not show an increase, I cannot afford to buy milk and eggs now. With all due respect congressional representatives and Mr. President, What the Fuck! I understand that history helps shape policy, but dammit, we are in a recession. If you can give people cash for their broke down pieces of junk cars, why can you not help the rest of the survivors muddle along.

Perhaps it is because we cannot afford cars, or find jobs with our limited skills. I do not see any job training seminars, what about that?

On the other hand, maybe it is because we are just plane leeches, and do not deserve a chance to get off a broken system and make a better system. Hmm, logic sirs, did this occur to you?

No. You are relying on a law written decades ago. You are forcing a constantly maturing, growing, flourishing melting pot of humanity to continue to exist on antiquated and outdated legislation. It is not our fault that there are not enough McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree jobs for everyone. It is not my fault that I had a medical condition that caused me to lose what little precious vision I had, and to strive for what crumbs I could find in this stinking cesspool called life.

It is just that cesspool that I, along with my fellow poor folks, have to climb out of. As a hard working person with a disability, I can honestly say I know what it is like to be oppressed. Thanks, Federal Government for making my life just that much harder.

It makes sense why this country is not called the united Commonwealths of America.

Let’s face it; health care in the United States is many things. It’s expensive, hard to come by, and easy to lose. Some people say that the coverage offered by the job is outstanding, while others wish their job paid them enough so that they could afford it for themselves. While it makes billions of dollars in revenue, the healthcare industry just does not take care of its clients.

Enter reform for the industry. We need a universally available health care system so that all people can get their annual checkups without fear that their no-pay co-pay insurance will just say that level of health is not oK and terminate without probate.
To address the Medicare Medicaid crowd: If I could clue you in on a secret, the country is broke! The Medicare and Medicaid spending is at least 4 percent of the U.S. GDP as of my last look at the federal budget and experts expect it to rise tremendously. I am not saying that we need to make a Medicaid like program the norm, just change the laws so that affordable alternatives are available in all states.

I truly believe that we can make an affordable alternative, put limits on programs, and enforce an accountability system so that people will not just slide under the radar and drain the system. We do not need more governmental regulation; we just need to use common sense.

We need a call to action for all people to get affordable alternatives. We all need to reinforce our right to choose in our own care. Do not let the politicians choose for you, contact them and let them know that health care is home care. In addition, the home people put them in office.

It is no secret that our country is divided, and has been so for some time. But, even a Chicken Little like me could have Never have imagined the lengths the far right would go to in this past week. When President Obama announced he was going to speak to ten nation’s school children, it should have been just another speech to spice up our evening news hour. Unfortunately, due to the actions of some people who very clearly never earned their graduation from elementary school, it became much more.

On radio talk shows, at the so called tea parties, and even on Capitol Hill, people reacted as if the end of the world had come. Many other presidents have spoken to the nations kids, including the first President Bush, and the Great Communicator Darth Vader himself, Ronald Wilson Reagan. Each urged the kids to stay in school, and study hard. But suddenly, The Neo-Cons have decided on a new strategy to appeal to the nation’s youth, (STAY HOME FROM SCHOOL!)

OK, to be perfectly honest, speaking as a former child, and as a current student, I see nothing wrong with giving Junior a day off. I go to school every day, and God knows, we could all use more days off!
But the reasons those on the right are giving is simply beyond ridiculous. For days, we listened to talk shows, politicians, and every uneducated hairy dickless Tom tell us that Obama was trying to indoctrinate our children in to his personal version of the Hitler Youth to get them to subvert their parents to becoming (god help us), Socialists.!

Yes, it is true at first the first draft of Obama’s speech did ask the kids to write in with suggestions, but SO WHAT?!

Other presidents have done this, and WHAT is so wrong with asking kids to take part in their country? Obama later took this out of the speech, and what a shock! The speech changed from his first draft. As students everywhere know, speeches and papers rarely stay the same as we work on them, writing several drafts in the process.

President Obama’s speech proved to be just what he promised it would be: another pep talk trying to convince the kids to study hard, and to stay in school and respect their teachers. The Right later admitted that there really was nothing wrong with those Marxist wishes of our president, and moved to put their (oops sorry) behind them.

I’m sure that the kids that staid home that day had a much more enjoyable time, and that many of those that did have to watch the speech were board. But those issues are all beside the point. It is my fervent hope, that this time; the Brain Washers on the Right have finally gone too far. To completely make something up, and in the process, refusing to allow their children to watch the head of their country give a speech aimed for once at them is easily the most un-American and most anti-family value thing I have ever seen in some 20 years of my political monitoring life.

Although I know my prayers will most likely not be answered, I still pray that all that attempted to frighten children with this completely made up monster in the closet, should be forced to undergo counseling. Every last one is someone who should have nothing to do with the influencing of a child.

Well she’s not the little old lady from Pasadena, but she does have an active life style. Meet Ivy. She’s 104 years old and arguably the oldest user of Twitter.
Encouraged by the staff of the nursing home she is residing at in England, Ivy has a Face book Account, Twitter stream, and has been digging the social networking scene for about a year now. Oddly, she’s got more followers then the average person, meaning multiple thousands, and all she does is tweet about breakfast, TV and her life as a centenarian. Would that we all could live such a cool Twitter-interesting life.
Today is IVY’s birthday. Happy birthday ma’am and we wish you much love from this side of the pond. And by the way, save us some cake please, because we love cake.

When most people think about accommodating people with disabilities in their business they get a scared feeling in their gut and their mind scrambles to search for that all-important date when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect. It doesnt have to be that way! When business owners open their eyes and start to realize that there are literally billions of dollars to be made in the accessible travel market, I believe we will start to remove the fear associated with the ADA.

There are currently more than 50 million people with disabilities in the United States and 180 million worldwide, representing the single largest untapped tourist market in the world. According to a recent Harris Poll conducted in conjunction with the Open Doors Organization and the Travel Industry Association of America, the 50 million people with disabilities in our country have a combined income of more than $175 billion. In 2002, these people took 32 million trips and spent more than $13.6 billion on travel ($4.2 billion on hotels, $3.3 billion on airfare, $2.7 billion on food and beverage, and $3.4 billion on retail, transportation, and other activities). This study suggested that these travelers would double their spending if some minor amenities were made available. Meet and greet programs at airports, preferred seating on airplanes, hotel rooms closer to amenities, and employees who go out of their way to accommodate guests with disabilities topped the list.

The current trends in adaptive travel show most of these travelers taking advantage of destinations that they know are already accessible such as cruise ships, Florida, and Las Vegas. The visitors bureaus and businesses at these destinations that have gone to great lengths to ensure their visitors that there will not be any accessibility issues during their stay. From personal experience and years of traveling in a wheelchair, I can guarantee that these locations have built and will continue to build strong relationships with travelers with disabilities. This group is a very loyal one, who will often return to the same city, hotel, or activity provider year after year if they have a good experience. If everyone were to catch on to this we would see growth in the tourism industry like we have never seen!

With this in mind, it is a wonder that more business owners have not taken steps to make their accommodations more accessible and even start marketing to these travelers. If the staggering numbers listed above arent proof enough, the U.S. Census Bureau recently stated that nearly 16.5% of all people with disabilities in the U.S. leave their home two days per week or less. That constitutes nearly 11 million people that are not traveling at all. Also keep in mind that there are millions of people in their golden years that are looking for accessible travel accommodations. Many of these people use canes or walkers, travel with oxygen tanks, or have other mobility impairments, and are not included in disability statistics.

With millions of people in need of accessible travel options, and with our Baby Boomers (almost 25% of our population) starting to reach retirement age as well now is the time to start thinking about improving marketing efforts to include people with disabilities and about better overall accessibility in general. By educating business owners on the benefits of marketing to people with disabilities and educating travel agents who are fighting a losing battle with the internet, we can begin to focus on this new target market.

If you want to take advantage of the rapidly growing adaptive travel market, get started now! I recommend hiring an expert to get your business rated and start removing barriers to access as soon as possible. Think about accessibility anytime youre planning a remodel or addition. These improvements will benefit everyone, not just people with disabilities. For those of you who have already taken steps to improve accessibility, start bragging about it.

Craig Kennedy is a published adaptive travel author, accessibility consultant, and motivational speaker with almost ten years of adaptive travel experience and more than 15 years of tourism and service industry expertise. He specializes in resort business growth and customer attraction through better overall accessibility, education, and marketing, and works with businesses who wish to become leaders in accessible travel and accommodation.

Craig P. Kennedy, Steamboat Springs, Colorado,
CK Consulting: Setting Standards for Accessibility
www.CKConsultingonline.com.

* Please visit our Web site to take a FREE accessibility quiz to find out if you are on the right track.

Craig was born and raised in upstate New York in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains. He grew up an avid skier with a love for all kinds of outdoor activities such as rock climbing, water skiing, camping, and fishing, and traveled frequently with his family. After college, Craig moved to Colorado where a skiing accident in his second season left him paralyzed. He is still an avid skier, hitting the slopes more than eighty days per season, and spends the rest of his time bicycling, camping and traveling. Craig is currently working full time as a writer, motivational speaker, and accessibility consultant, and is very excited about seeing the world!

Author: Craig Kennedy
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Last week, two American citizens Laura Ling and Euna Lee returned home after being held in North Korea for several weeks. The two journalists were kidnapped when they were near the North Korean border. Northern Korea says they had illegally entered it’s country. Even if they did accidentally stray across the border, to be detained and sensed to several years hard labor, seems more than excessive.

If Two Mexicans out hiking accidentally crossed the border, and were caught by the border patrol, After being told they were in the US, they would be allowed to say sorry, and would return to their own country. Never minding the issue of illegal aliens, a problem which North Korea most assuredly does Not have.

The two women were returned former president Bill Clinton met with the Great Leader, Kim Jung Ill.

Since the return of our citizens, most have rejoiced, but some including former ambassador to the UN John Bolton, have regretted their release from North Korea. They claim for reasons beyond my comprehension, that having these two citizens freed, caused the USA terrible harm. There are currently some Americans being held in Iran after they accidentally streighed across the border while hiking in Iraq.

What if Bolton and others ask, if Iran demands to meet with a former president before their release. So friggin’ what?!

As tax paying citizens, we should all know that if we are abducted by a foreign power, that our government would do anything, Anything in its power to get us back. I’m sure that neither of Lee’s or Ling’s families feel any shame that one American politician met with a North Korean Politician.

If their parents feel disgrace by this, I label them the worst of parents. Wouldn’t you want your country to get your children back?

Bill Clinton met with Kim for over three hours. And during that time they did not simply watch old movies.

Clinton returned to the US, with a pretty good idea as to the health of little Kim. Something which has been wondered about for months. The two likely discussed a number of issues, and at the very least, after Clinton’s debriefing, we now have something of an idea as to not only Kim’s health, but his thoughts, desires, and the likely he will decide to play with one of his nuclear toys.
We all regret paying taxes, but I’m sure that the Lings and Lees, feel that the years of paying taxes have finally paid off.

The day after the rescue of Ling and Lee, I monitored Fox News, and saw not one minute of coverage on this story. For the news station that claims to represent (real America) not to devote any serious time to this great event, strikes me as truly sickening.

Did we suffer some disgrace? I think not, but if you like Bolton think we did, remember not only are two young women safely home, but we have gained valuable intelligent on Kim Jung Ill that we would not have had.

If president Clinton or even if President Obama himself needs to go to Iran to get our people back, I pray to God that they will not hesitate to do so. The president works for us, and this time, one of the retired employees of Lee and Ling, really came threw for his former bosses.

I’m not a business owner, but if I were, and I need some help from my employees, I would certainly Not want them to refuse to help, especially when they knew they would be well paid in Intel, the gratitude of millions, and lets be honest, knowing gould old Slick Willie, some Asian entertainment as well.

It looks like Obama wants to keep the American people safe. Those that don’t particularly like Obama,just couldn’t care less.

A dark day for America? National Disgrace?
WTF!