Just one mom 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Did this mom have economic or political power? No. But she was the mom of the house. She had the power to make good choices in her own home, and what she could do, she did do. Those decisions probably seemed small then, but this woman changed her family's lives--and many others--with her choices. She was not powerless to change things.

Her son, Dr. Ben Carson, earned his place in history. After graduating from Yale University, he became a famous neurosurgeon and eventually the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He influenced and blessed a whole lot of lives.

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His mom was no doubt tempted to take it easy watching television in the evenings after a hard day's work. But she had the quiet courage to make a better choice, even though it was not convenient and good results were not guaranteed.

"[H]istory is never a given. It is shaped by the courage or cowardice of people who can always make a choice...

(cont'd tomorrow . . because Dr. Carson has ideas for the reform of education)

Just one mom 1

Can just one person change the world? Yes, history shows that an extraordinary person can. But how about one poor, single, black mom with a third-grade education, living in Detroit about 60 years ago?

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This mom supported her family by cleaning houses and was, by today's standard, "powerless." But she had power in her own home. Noticing that her rich clients tended to do a lot of reading, she turned off the tv for her boys and created a new reading habit for them.

One of them says he actually started to enjoy those books, then the new habit changed his life. High school teachers spent more time disciplining than teaching, so he created his own learning opportunity:

"I would go back after school, talk to my teachers, and say, “What were you planning on teaching?” They would always look forward to seeing me and knowing that they could share their lesson plan with somebody. I got a lot of extra tutoring. So, even though I was in an inner-city high school that wasn’t known for academics, I was able to get the kind of preparation that allowed me to get through Yale University."

from Bill Dembski's Substack

(cont'd tomorrow)

Not savage

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

When boys really did get marooned on an island, it was 1965 and the boys were somewhat older. Six teenagers ditched school one day, took someone's boat, and went to sea for a joyride. A storm left them drifting for eight days without food or water before they found the island.

An Australian fisherman discovered them surviving after 15 months. "There was no chaos or anarchy." As teams, they managed rainwater, chickens, a garden, disagreements, and even found a way to make music. 

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A different author who published this story is more optimistic than the author of The Lord of the Flies. He thinks people are basically good, and that this explains these boys' good results.

The boys were students from St. Andrew's, a Catholic boarding school. Maybe Ayaan Hirsi Ali (yesterday's post) would credit their Christian training for the good results that were so in contrast to the darkness of The Lord of the Flies.

from Mamamia

Savage

Lord of the Flies was published in London by a schoolteacher in 1954. A group of boys are marooned alone on an ocean island. Without protection or supervision, they organize themselves to survive but eventually descend into fear and savagery.

Darkness in the human heart is said to be the theme of the story, horrifying evil that's normally held back only by the imposition of civilization. He's not wrong (and the Bible agrees).

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While we can't deny that people of all ages are capable of evil, we don't live with horror every day. Why is that? 

This scenario of kids, lost and alone and marooned, actually happened in reality. How did that turn out? . . in tomorrow's post.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Ali flip 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Brought up Muslim in Africa, she was taught to hate unbelievers, particularly Jews, whom they cursed every day. She feared going to hell, because she adored forbidden things like movies and music. 

Atheism looked good to her (especially after the appalling 9-11 attack) because it offered "a simple, zero-cost escape from an unbearable life of self-denial and harassment of other people." 

Life in Europe and later as an American citizen created in her a love for Western Civilization, which she believes is threatened by aggressive Islamism, China and Russia, and woke ideology. 

She fears we could lose "everything," our whole Western way of life; and she identifies the reason we are losing to our enemies: it's that we have lost "faith in the Christian God." This she says in the first 6 minutes of this interview:

from "Why I am now a Christian

Ali flip 1

Another famous atheist has done the unexpected: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, respected intellectual with an amazing life story, converted to Christianity.

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In a public discussion event with Richard Dawkins last fall she said: 

"Like you, I did mock faith, in general, and probably Christianity in particular, but I don't do that anymore. ... I have come down to my knees to say that the people who always had faith have something that we who lost faith don’t have.”

“What you value in Christianity is something that really is absolutely necessary to pass on to the next generation,” she said. “And we have failed the next generation by taking [it] away from them . . and telling them it’s nonsense and false."

She, like Dawkins, admires the Western Civilization that Christianity built. But more than that, she found in Christianity the answer to her question, "what is the meaning and purpose of life?"

from Christian Post

(cont'd tomorrow)

Saudi worries

Saudi Arabia has a long Red Sea coastline that they want to put to good economic use. People like to vacation at seaside resorts. So that's why luxury resorts are an important part of the Vision 2030 Project known as Neom. 

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What if the war in Gaza escalates to the whole Middle East? Potential tourists will stay away altogether if there's a chance those resorts may become high-profile targets. 

What if security threats scare shipping lines into restricting delivery of materials and equipment to this hugely expensive building project? Billions of dollars' worth of construction investment can't pay off if construction can't be finished.

The enormous cost and effort behind the project make government officials nervous. Tensions, conflict, and outright war threaten the Vision; some citizens are sympathetic to the Palestinian side while the government tries to make friendly with both the U.S. and Israel. 

Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in a stable future and cannot afford current hostilities to engulf the Middle East. Maybe we'll see them try to bring peace to Israel and the Palestinians.

from MSN

Happy 5

(cont'd from this post)

Here's a great story from 2022 about a happy guy who made a good, out-of-the-box decision at his business:

Work 14-hr day

Would there be any appeal in working a super long 14-hour day? When the owner/operator of a Florida Chick-fil-A offered just such a consistent work schedule, over 400 people applied for the job. Oh, and they work only three of those long days per week. That's the appeal.

When Justin Lindsey opened his shop near Miami, Florida, last year, he chose this way of expressing how he wanted to manage it: "One of the things I really set out to do . . was what I called "leading with generosity." This new way of scheduling his workers was well-received.

One of his managers told him that she could never have graduated from University of Central Florida if she had had to work the normal choppy schedule. Another told him that she had visited New York City with the time she had available, not having to take any vacation time.

Overall, there's been improved worker retention, work-life balance, and career growth. 

"I'm so incredibly happy and grateful that Chick-fil-A has given me the opportunity to do this. Because the impact that I'm able to have on my team, honestly, I mean, it's incredible."

from Business Insider

Dawkins flip 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"Fundamentally decent," that's his description of Christianity as opposed to Islam. He feels at home in the Christian ethos, he loves hymns (what?!) and Christmas carols. He thinks Britain is a Christian country: "If we substituted any alternative religion, that would be truly dreadful!"

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He's come to the same point that historian and atheist Tom Holland did, who said, "It took me a long time to realize my morals are not Greek or Roman, but thoroughly, and proudly, Christian." 

Do I attack Richard Dawkins for doing something of a flip-flop? No. He learned there's goodness in Christianity, and that many of the good things he appreciates in his own culture come from that source.  It's good that he's acknowledging the truth he learned.

Dawkins flip 1

Something unexpected has happened in the world of atheism. Richard Dawkins, that relentless enemy of religion, calls himself a "cultural Christian." 😮

It's not that he believes in God now or believes that Jesus rose from the dead. But it appears that he despises the faith a little less than he used to. Let's hear his 4-minute explanation:

(cont'd tomorrow)

Hot Bread 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

No matter how good an idea may be, it may fold because of any number of problems. Somehow Hot Bread Kitchen has overcome the inevitable challenges to continue, and even to grow in its mission.

Starting out in the founder's kitchen, they celebrated a 15th anniversary last year, "creating economic opportunity through careers in food" and funded by $6 million in annual donations.

Through training and support, they claim they've put "1500 individuals on the path to economic mobility" whether as employees or entrepreneurs in the food industry. They like to call their members "Breadwinners." 

Hot Bread 2

 Re-post from 2017

Hot Bread Kitchen is both a bakery and an on-the-job baking school in New York City. They specialize in training immigrant and low-income women for a culinary career.

Helping people learn the skills to sustain themselves--and others as well--is an American value.

(cont'd tomorrow)

It should be

Higher education wasn't always corrupted to the degree that it is today. Universities and colleges earned a genuine, admirable reputation in the past by pursuing worthy goals. Cultural memories of that past keep prestigious schools going today, even though they are changed.

What should a college be? A long-time professor answers that question here:

• diverse opinions are discussed civilly, respectfully, rationally
• virtues like fairness, forgiveness, love, justice are the standard
• crime is not tolerated
• administrators maintain a stable, safe environment
• both administrators and faculty set a good example
• wisdom of the past is passed on to students 
• students are treated like adults, not like irresponsible children

from "What College Should Be: The Question Lurking Behind the Current Wave of Campus Unrest"

Flag upheld

Too many students have swallowed the anti-American Kool-Aid at their universities and colleges. But not all.  

Many current pro-Palestinian protests went so far as to take down the American flag and put up the Palestinian flag in its place. It's outrageous, and even the NYC mayor says it's unacceptable. 

Here is a picture of push-back against the law breaking and violence and hostility of the protestors. When the U.S. flag was brought down last week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, some fraternity brothers had the courage and conviction to stand against the mob and re-hoist it. 

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Well done, men.

Columbia profs

Columbia University in New York is another globally prestigious institution. Founded way back in the 1700's around the founding of America, its good reputation may rightly suffer because antisemitism is being revealed.

"Pro-Palestinian," antisemitic protests on American campuses began after the brutal Hamas attack on Israeli civilians last October and Israel's counterattack in Gaza. Three university presidents couldn't condemn genocide before congress. 

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But the protests at Columbia shouldn't be a complete surprise, according to this author and former Columbia student. One professor called Israel a “key actor” in “every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world.” Professors have "saturated them with an ideological hatred for the Jewish state and university administrators . . have tolerated it for too long. At least some of the student protestors are just acting on what they've been taught.

Antisemitism, left-wing indoctrination, admissions scandals, plagiarism, all are part of the ongoing discovery of wide-spread corruption in our universities. 

from MSN

DEI & Stanford 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Instead of openness to information and different opinions, rewards and punishments enforce the official left-wing ideology. Students and faculty will get the message that there is no "inclusion" for you if you don't see things their way. That's what DEI is for.

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Investigative journalist Christopher Rufo based his report on the observations of an  undergraduate and journalist on campus. 

"'I’ve observed as students are reported by their peers for constitutionally protected speech,' and professors are denounced and accused of discrimination by other students 'for the crime of not being PC enough in their research or in class,' she says. 'Who fits or doesn’t fit into the DEI caste system determines a student or professor’s summary judgement.'" 

A professor says, "a Trojan horse ideology, labeled DEI, has been introduced, promoted, and institutionalized . . [that] attacks three fundamental values of Western culture: equality before the law, freedom of expression, and due process."

At least 177 full-time DEI bureaucrats carry out their mission at Stanford.

from "DEI Conquers Stanford"