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Ka Lae, Hawaii, and Other National Extremes
What’s our southernmost point? That’s a loaded question.
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What Is a Typical American?
Please know that we are not our politicians.
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Culture Shock Light
Having travelled to 22 countries, I have come to expect a certain amount of culture shock. In fact, I kind of look forward to it. It’s half the fun. I enjoy having my perspectives challenged, and it’s exciting to see how I’ll react to being thrust out of my comfort zone. As strange as this…
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How Lucky are We?
Can you imagine living in a country where you are in constant fear of having your door kicked in? How about living in a place where your neighbors can and will threaten your life and no one will protect you? Coming from my place of white privilege, I can’t even conceive of an existence in…
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Why I Could Never Be President
Whenever I see Donald Trump make a stupid, insane, divisive, ignorant and/or racist remark on camera, I tend to shout at the screen, “That psychopath should never be president!” It actually terrifies me that he’s even gotten this close. I don’t understand how it’s possible. It feels like there’s no more rationality left in the…
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Independence?
I’m feeling particularly patriotic today, because marriage equality was recently made the law of the land here in the United States. Every once in a while, for all its flaws, this country gets it right. That makes me feel good. So, one of my traditions on Independence Day is that I take some time to…
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It’s Official. We’ll Buy Anything.
I heard somewhere recently that the United States and New Zealand are the only countries that allow end consumers to be exposed to pharmaceutical Ads. This says a lot about our country’s level of greed, that we’re willing to exploit even our own pain and suffering to make a buck. That’s a depressing thought. Even…
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Why I Vote
I used to work with a woman who had never voted, had no intentions of ever doing so, and was quite proud of that fact. She hated this country and everything it stands for, and did not want to participate in it in any way. She dreamed of moving to the Australian outback, where she…
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Modern Day Slavery
I just found out that here in the US it’s National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. I bet if someone were to take a poll, the vast majority of Americans would think that Slavery went out with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865. Not so much. According to WGBH’s “Human Trafficking: Modern-Day Slavery in America”…
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Dennis Rodman. Sigh.
If you are the one person on the planet who has yet to see the video in which Dennis Rodman has a full blown meltdown during a CNN interview, you can watch it here. http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/01/07/dennis-rodman-meltdown-cnn-kim-jong-un/ Dennis, Dennis, Dennis. First of all, if you want the world to take you seriously, you might want to consider…