Tag Archive for excuse

Silence

January 23, 2020 Comments Off on Silence

Again and again we hear people excuse their inaction in the face of cruelty and injustice with the declaration that one person can’t make any difference.  They acknowledge that people are suffering but believe that the problem doesn’t really affect them or their loved ones.  As today’s Thursday Thought quote shows, Martin Luther King, Jr., had a very different view.

  • He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
  • History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
  • In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
  • Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
  • Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

It’s time to speak up!

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Pass Me That Mound of Chocolate

October 28, 2019 2 comments

Today is (believe it or not) National Chocolate Day. I admit, as a chocoholic, I don’t need a reason to eat chocolate. But I have one.

A study in England showed that employees who were given chocolate or shown videos of stand-up comics were actually 12% more productive.  So, my excuse for scarfing up chocolate (while watching a comic or not)–and you can use it, too–is that you have a whole bunch of stuff to get done.

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Tight Jeans–Invitation to Rape?

April 25, 2018 Comments Off on Tight Jeans–Invitation to Rape?

Denim Day?!  How stupid is that!  Not at all when we look at how it started and what wearing denim today means.

18 years ago the Italian Supreme Court reversed a rapist’s conviction because his victim was wearing tight denim pants.  Therefore, (they guessed) she must have helped him remove them.  Therefore, ruled the court, because she had given implied consent, the sex was  consensual.  The women in Parliament wore denim the next day in support of the victim and protest at the decision.  Thus, Denim Day was born.

What does it mean?  Standing up for rape victims.  Saying that what a woman wears does NOT mean she’s asking to be raped.  That there needs to be changes in attitudes toward sexual assault.  As the Denim Day Campaign says, “There is no excuse and never an invitation to rape.”

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When a Promise Should be Broken

July 24, 2017 2 comments

I respect people who keep their promises.  But what if they haven’t done so yet and they know that the person they made the promise to has changed their mind?  Shouldn’t the Promiser give the Promisee the option of releasing them from the obligation?

I think so.  That’s why I feel that my governmental representatives should listen better to what people are currently saying, and when it’s obvious that those they represent are having second thoughts–ask us what we really want them to do.  We elected them to do what we think is right, and when we gain new experience, perspective, and information that changes our minds, we want them to do what we now believe is right. Whether it’s what we said when we voted for them or what we say now.  We don’t want them to  stick steadfastly to a promise we no longer wish them to keep, and we don’t want them to use “I ran on that promise” as an excuse not to make laws that are right and just. Thinking human beings change their minds when given new understanding; our representatives’ actions should reflect that.

We want them to hear us.  That’s what polls are for.  And Town Halls.  And office hours.  And letters, emails, and phone calls we send them.

But that’s not what’s happening in Washington.  If it were, more would be accomplished.

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Tight Denim and Rape

April 26, 2017 Comments Off on Tight Denim and Rape

Denim Day?!  How stupid is that!  Not at all when we look at how it started and what wearing denim today means.

18 years ago the Italian Supreme Court reversed a rapist’s conviction because his victim was wearing tight denim pants.  Therefore, (they guessed) she must have helped him remove them.  Therefore, ruled the court, because she had given implied consent, the sex was  consensual.  The women in Parliament wore denim the next day in support of the victim and protest at the decision.  Thus, Denim Day was born.

What does it mean?  Standing up for rape victims.  Saying that what a woman wears does NOT mean she’s asking to be raped.  That there needs to be changes in attitudes toward sexual assault.  As the Denim Day Campaign says, “There is no excuse and never an invitation to rape.”

 

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Why Bother Forgiving?

March 30, 2017 Comments Off on Why Bother Forgiving?

Today’s Thursday Thought puts a practical slant on the act of forgiving.

“Forgiveness doesn’t excuse their actions.  Forgiveness stops their actions  from destroying your heart.”  —  Doe Zantamata

 

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Thursday Thought on Friday

February 6, 2015 Comments Off on Thursday Thought on Friday

OK.  I’m human.  I get mixed up on my days.  Yesterday I thought was Wednesday, therefore, no Thursday Thought.  Please allow me to get back on track today, which my husband assures me actually is Friday.  Anyway, I think I’ve found an excuse:

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.” (George Bernard Shaw)

 

 

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So Much for Excuses…

October 2, 2014 Comments Off on So Much for Excuses…

Edmund Burke took away a favorite excuse people use not to get involved when he wrote today’s Thursday Thought quote:

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little,” 

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Jury Duty–Duck it?

September 9, 2014 Comments Off on Jury Duty–Duck it?

People keep telling me I’m crazy because I’m sticking by my phone this week, on-call for jury duty.  They joke about the excuses they’ve gotten away with  to get out of serving and point out that I actually  have several very valid reasons.  So why don’t I duck the duty?

I’m willing to sit through long, draw-out lawyers’ talks and questionable evidence because that’s what I’d want other rational people to do if I or one of my loved ones were on trial.  I fancy myself a caring, reasonable, thoughtful, logical person.  That’s who I’d want judging me or mine.  If everyone who has those characteristics were to duck jury duty, where does that leave our already-infirm judicial system and the accused people caught up in it?

To me, jury duty is my obligation, both to my society and to those on trial.

 

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