I have a dream...

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"


"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."


"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood."


"This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."


"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."


"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King Jr.


Algunos romanticos e idealistas podrían decir ahora que Los Estados Unidos con su elección de Barack Obama como presidente en verdad han hecho honor o digamos, rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed...

Al menos hoy día y al margen de reales o imaginados tejes y manejes ocultos y siniestros, una mayoría de los norteamericanos han elegido como su representante máximo a uno de sus hijos no juzgándolo por el color de su piel sino por el contenido de su carácter.

Por otro lado...
"What about Oprah?"

¿Qué representa en realidad, (si acaso) para las minorías que unos cuantos alcancen cierto éxito en Los Estados Unidos?

To judge the openness of a society by examining the outcomes obtained by the elite is tautological in the extreme. It is to say, we know we live in a meritocracy because of the existence of superstars, and we have superstars because we live in a meritocracy--the ultimate in circular logic. Rather, to determine the larger social reality, we must examine the relative outcomes for the typical white person or family, compared to the typical person or family of color. Averages and medians tell us far more about the norm than the extremes at either end. To judge a nation by only looking at those at the top (or, for that matter, the bottom) is ignorance on stilts. Surely, conservatives would balk (and rightly so) if someone were to visit an Appalachian coal town, and then declare that what they'd seen had proven the U.S. to be a nation where opportunity was altogether lacking. Yet, they seem comfortable proclaiming opportunity to be as open as the top of Mt. St. Helen's after examining only those at the society's pinnacle.

A toast to impossible yet beautiful dreams...

The Affirmations of Humanism

A Statement of Principles:

• We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems.
• We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation.
• We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life.
• We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities.
• We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state.
• We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding.
• We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance.
• We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves.
• We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity.
• We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.
• We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest.
• We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence.
• We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity.
• We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences.
• We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion.
• We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences.
• We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos.
• We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking.
• We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others.
• We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality.
• We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=affirmations

The recent "rise" of Islam

About the homeless problem

My brother used to employ this bright, educated guy from South America who eventually ended up living on the streets of Los Angeles. He would still talk to him because this bright fellow would swing by occasionally to ask "for a cup of coffee". That’s how my brother found out that at least in Downtown LA, homeless people don’t worry too much about things that we think they normally would, food and shelter for instance. Besides a number of missions run in the area, there are several private, independent food drives going on all the time, this bright fellow always ate more than enough, I know, I saw him several times too. They give them clothes, they have toilets, showers and job training available, some of them even get a monthly cash allowance from the government.

Most of these men and women though have lost all hope for the future, a large percentage of them even suffer from a number of mental illnesses. You see, at least in some areas the problem is not so much there being enough money or who is willing to help or not, but a system that will always produce such excess, collateral damage you might call it. The price we have to pay to be able to sit comfortably at home discussing the issue online, sipping on a cool or warm drink, and feeling thankful that it was them and not us...