Bana Alabed update

Bana Alabed tweeted this morning that they are still alive. Their house has been completely destroyed and they lost everything—but they didn't lose their lives. Keep praying!

Bana Alabed, November 29, 8:37 AM

Bana Alabed

Bana Alabed is a seven-year-old girl in Aleppo who, with the help of her mother, Fatemah, tweets regularly about their experience and circumstances there. With the latest surge of attacks, her situation has become dire. What follows are her most recent tweets so that you too can see the horror they are living in. Humanitarian aid is still not being allowed through, so there is no way we can help her in a concrete fashion. The best we can do right now is to pay attention, pray, and keep sharing her tweets so that more and more people can understand the reality of this war.

November 27, 8:22 AM

November 27, 8:44 AM

November 27, 3:15 PM

November 28, 3:09 AM

November 28, 8:13 AM

A Target on My Sleeve

There are so many things so wrong about "registering" Muslims in the US; Japanese Americans forced to live in internment camps here, Jews forced to wear yellow stars in Nazi Germany—are we supposed to believe these things are not the same?

My immediate thought was, "If Muslims are told to wear a star and crescent on their clothes, I'll wear one, too!"  Then I imagined myself actually going out in public with what amounts to a target on my sleeve and felt how truly frightening that would be.  How much courage will I find in myself when confronted with actual danger? Will it be enough?



(For further reading:  "Trump and a Muslim Registry" ~ Sabrina Saddiqui, The Guardian)

Thank you, Pope Francis

Catholic leader ready to help refugees settle in US despite Trump policy, (The Guardian, 18 November 2016)

All of the above

I challenged a customer today on his choice to vote for Trump (he brought it up). I have never been interested in engaging in political debate because it's just a waste of time and energy since none of us ever changes our mind. But I cannot let support of Trump go unchallenged. Neither of us changed our minds, of course, but we both had to put our beliefs out there on the table, put real words to them in the face of another who disagrees. One on one conversation, face to face. Not just a Facebook post.

Who we voted for in this election was not simply our opinion, or something to passively agree to disagree on. Trump has fomented misogyny, racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, fear, and hatred throughout his campaign. He and what he espouses must be confronted.

It's really hard for me to: (a) stand up to confrontation; (b) speak off the cuff; and (c) say that someone else is wrong. But I have to learn how to do all of the above now, and all at once!  I expect I'll get lots of practice in the next few years.

WARNING: Disturbing images

I have been following the photographer Aris Messinis on Twitter as he documents and assists in rescue missions to save the thousands of refugees drifting and drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.  The numbers of people crushed into small boats is staggering. Smugglers are making mountains of money promising people safe transport to Europe, then abandoning them as soon as they reach international waters.

Messinis bears witness to the horrors desperate people suffer trying to find safety. Let no one say they are just too lazy or cowardly to stand up for themselves at home, or that they are terrorists invading our homes. Only someone with no other choice would sacrifice the little money they have and risk their lives to climb into a dinghy with a hundred other people to cross the open sea in blind hope of a better life. Of a life, period.

"Stepping on Bodies to Survive"

Senescence

My computer is 5 years old, or about 85 in computer years. Two weeks ago it wouldn't boot all the way.  So I took it into the shop. They wiped the hard drive and reinstalled it, without losing any data—wizardry! I brought it home and booted it up and started doing some work, and it slogged and lagged and moped and sometimes completed a task before hanging up. So I called the shop and they said to bring it in for another spell. To avoid massive anxiety over data loss, I made sure it backed itself up completely before taking it in. Two days, or 34 in computer days, later it has finally finished backing up.  Now I can take it back to the wizards who will probably tell me it needs a whole new hard drive, none of this wiping it and sending it home foolishness. I will say yes, fine, fix it, and they will charge me money, and my computer will return to me a shining new version of its former weary self. I hope.


It's November, we're all running a little slow these days…