Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts

Monday, June 18, 2018

Families Torn Apart and Kids in Cages: Moral Outrage in the Comment Section

by Nomad


Today, the AP featured a story about the living conditions of the hundreds of immigrant children currently being warehoused in South Texas.
Nearly 2,000 children have been taken from their parents since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the policy, which directs Homeland Security officials to refer all cases of illegal entry into the United States for prosecution. Church groups and human rights advocates have sharply criticized the policy, calling it inhumane.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Progress, Reality and Cynicism: Lessons We Learned From Millennium Development Goals

by Nomad

Back in 2000, the UN brought world leaders together to draw up a plan to make the world a better place. This year, fifteen years later, that effort was analyzed and the results might surprise you.


When the Paris Climate Change Summit came to its conclusion recently, it was easy to be a little skeptical about the level of commitment of the nations that pledged to address climate change. 
Preventing global destruction is not going to be a piece of cake.  
In fact, it will require nothing less than a re-tooling of the world's economy and the energy industry. 
Who knows if it is possible given the time constraints? It's easy to be cynical and defeatist when it comes to tackling such a huge problem. 

Critics claim this is all merely window-dressing. Just a bunch of timid self-serving bureaucrats making useless paperwork that's not even legally binding. There's no way, critics say, to confront and punish violators. 

Of course, this view automatically assumes that global progress can only be achieved by force, by a threat of punishment or by intimidation. 
But, to turn the tables on those critics, where is the evidence that that has ever worked? Simply because something is difficult shouldn't mean we ignore our responsibility. 

President John Kennedy, during one of the darkest periods of the Cold War, once warned about allowing hopelessness and defeatist to overwhelm us. (In this case, world peace.)

Thinking something is impossible makes it that much harder to address in a rational manner. In 1963, he told the graduating class at the American University that we must stop thinking war is inevitable. Mankind is not doomed, and we must not yield to the idea that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. 
"We need not accept that view. Our problems are man-made — therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.
No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable — and we believe they can do it again."
Even though the dream of world peace has not implemented universally even today, Kennedy's hard-nosed optimism is not wrong. Peace, he once said, is not a warm and fuzzy dream. It is a process. We make things harder by thinking that overnight we can solve all of the problems in the world, just by wishing and praying. 
While that may be a proper point to begin, just wishing for a better world isn't going to be enough.
It calls for a practical approach.

One of the problems is defining what it means when we say "a better world." What does that mean? Much better for a limited few, or slightly better for the majority?
In 2000, the UN General Assembly drafters of the Millennium Declaration had their specific notions and were determined to see progress in fifteen years. In that declaration, the representatives of all of the member nations recognized that:
"...in addition to our separate responsibilities to our individual societies, we have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level. As leaders we have a duty therefore to all the world’s people, especially the most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs."

Monday, December 28, 2015

Idaho School Fires Cafeteria Worker for Giving Free Lunch to Hungry Student

by Nomad

A story from Pocatello Idaho about a middle school cafeteria worker and her act of compassion which led to her termination.

Thanks to a school district, the children in Irving Middle School in Pocatello, Idaho learned a valuable lesson about empathy and compassion.
The message was loud and clear: 
Don't do it or you will be punished.

When school cafeteria worker ,Dalene Bowden, gave a meal to a 12-year-old student who told her she didn't have money, she never expected to lose her job. After her supervisor saw what happened, Bowden was reported. He then told her that she was to be put on permanent leave.  

Soon after that, a letter arrived from the school district  which explained that Bowden had been terminated for "theft involving school district or another's property and inaccurate transactions when ordering, receiving and serving food."
No other transgressions were registered or warnings of prior misconduct were noted in the letter. If there had been a history of employee related problems, there should have been some kind of list provided.
Additionally, there was apparently no arbitration process in cases of termination. All decisions by the school district seemed to both final and unchallengable.

The single-page letter reads:
Consequently, because of the nature of your actions, the District will not be maintaining your employment in any capacity.
Bowden offered to compensate the school district for the $1.70 meal, but that offer was rejected. In reaction to the school district's decision, Bowden has been forced to contact a lawyer.

According to the school's website, Irving Middle School claims it is all about "kindness and community." 

Back in 2013, Principal Tonya Wilkes and the school's former principal Susan Pettit (who, in the capacity of human resource director, signed the termination letter) were all about "teaching students the importance of virtues and a sense of belonging and looking out for one another.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Leftovers: Hard Times for Syrian Refugee Children in Turkey

by Nomad

An unfortunate incident in an Istanbul fast food restaurant highlights the plight of refugee children in Turkey.


Last week, Turkish newspapers reported on an incident in Istanbul which you might not have heard about. It was pushed as one of those sign of the times stories.
According to one article, a young Syrian boy was assaulted by a manager at a branch of Burger King in an Istanbul neighborhood. Why?
The hungry child was seen eating french fries left over by a previous patron.
Eyewitnesses said the boy, who was apparently homeless, was eating french fries from discarded trays and collecting leftovers when the manager of a Burger King in Şirinevler on Istanbul's European side approached him and started slapping him before throwing him out.
Customers at the fast food restaurant were appalled by manager's reaction. They immediately recorded the details and used social media to publicize them. The photos showed the child with a bloody nose, sitting outside the establishment.