“We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will
only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been
asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against
offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been
anything false about hope…”
— Jon Favreau via President Barack Obama
Just found out about this new site founded by Tammy Tibbetts, web editor at Hearst Digital Media and all-around world-rocker;-) Learn how she’s spearheading an effort to mentor young girls in developing nations at www.shesthefirst.org.
For more on Tammy Tibbetts, visit her twitter page.
Today is National Candy Corn Day!! My favorite fall treat gets its very own day;-)
I just had a very real moment. Reading my guide to CIEE—all 30 pages of it—I couldn’t help but get excited about living abroad for a year. Until I came across a small section with a header in bold. “A note to minority students…” Racism and discrimination are a very real factor anywhere I go in life. I’ve expertly quelled the consuming rage that most people find difficult to overcome for 23 years. So why am I now so afraid of facing the same possibilities that I wade through here abroad?
I thought about this for about 20 minutes, coming up with all kind of scenarios of how it could play out. Ordinarily in moments like these, I would pick up the phone to call my mom or my best friend, looking for solace and reaffirmation that I am not, in fact, crazy for having the desire to travel the world. But those outlets have been taken away from me, and I know that it’s no accident. I needed this moment, I needed to be alone, I needed to face myself in this very real way, so that I can begin to conquer this fear.
But then I made a decision. I will not let this obstacle, nor the next, ruin this experience for me. I’ve been abroad and lived in one of the most remote places in the world. If I could open hearts and change minds there, I can do it anywhere. I choose to be courageous in everything I do. The color of my skin will never change, nor would I ever want it to. But there is a very real revolution taking place inside me right now, and I’m ready to share it.
[video]
I <3 retro issues of groundbreaking magazines. -
How did Google Books know?
I just found this site via jaunted.com. It’s a discreet way for female wanderlusts to carry cash and important items while traveling. I bet they’ll see a boom in business since dvf just got purse-swiped in Madrid. You know what they say: “que será, será.” pero you dont have to leave it all to fate. Give pickpockets a run for their money, literally with the Racktrap.
Mark Twain
I feel like now would be an apt time to share some of what I have learned over the past year or so considering I just talked to my mother, and she almost convinced me that I haven’t learned anything at all.
I learned not to believe anything that is said in reference to someone’s character. Especially when that someone is me. The people who truly care about you will always show it rather than speak it.
I learned that my family will always find a way to make me feel two inches tall, even when I’m trying my hardest. I learned to stop making myself feel two inches tall, especially when I’m trying my hardest.
I learned that just because a person was twenty-three years old once upon a time does not make said person an expert in being twenty-three. I learned to be patient and to give myself time to achieve my goals.
I learned that time is something that I can never get back, thus I learned to appreciate even the most difficult days when I’d rather stay in bed and pull the covers over my head.
I learned never to stay in bed and pull the covers over my head.
I learned that no matter how hard you work, some people will always call you lazy, selfish or incompetent. And most importantly, I learned that I will never lose the urge to try to prove those people wrong.
P.S. I’m going to Chile! (That never gets old.)
Garry Wills
A widely circulated image from the Tea Party protests
The hysteria shown at town hall meetings this summer is simply the tip of an outpouring of organized hostility to government that is unparalleled in our history. We have had wildly emotional opposition movements in the past—red scares, nativist riots, anti-Catholic and anti-Semite outbreaks. And there are some parallels with past forms of extremism. People who think Obama is a Muslim are like anti-New Dealers who thought Roosevelt a Jew or John Birchers who thought Eisenhower a Communist…
Now, however, there is a deeply panicky combination of pathologies—racist, xenophobic, fundamentalist—screaming about death camps and euthanasia and baby-killers and 9/11 conspiracies (by the “truthers”). Every aspect of our present government is considered illegitimate. Some look at our leaders and recognize nothing of themselves in them. They see a black man as president and cannot even consider him a citizen, a Christian, a sane man—he must be a Muslim, a Nazi, a Hitler. They see a Latina on the Supreme Court. They see a woman as secretary of state. They see a black attorney general. This is not America.
*Read the whole story after the jump.