“Listen to the wind; it talks. Listen to the silence; it speaks; listen to the heart; it knows”

~ Indigenous People’s Proverb

The Social Temperature of  Mass Shootings

By Julian Ezekiel Alejandro

From 1966 to 2019 1,196 people have been murdered in the fashion of mass shootings in the United States. One-hundred and sixty-five separate incidents to date. The El Paso, Texas massacre is presently acutely disturbing as we know details of a young mother who died along with her husband while shielding their infant son. The Dayton, Ohio massacre happened just one day after El Paso. Its shooter’s motives appear an almost random amalgam of  violent ideation, a massacre in want of a motive. The Las Vegas shooting was a chaotic hell on earth with no known motive. The only thing its 58 victims held in common was a love for country music. Sandy Hook’s victims were mainly children 7 and younger. Daniel Barden was one of them. He would have been 14 today. His parents started a foundation in his name to encourage others to small acts of kindness. Deliberate cultivation of peace and light in the face of violence and darkness. 

These random public massacres are as dark, and as horrifying, and as sad as our shared human existence can possibly get. Unless we make substantive efforts on all fronts related to mass shootings, we must bow our heads and accept this as the new norm. Or have we already? Can we still reasonably call ourselves a society if this is the accepted norm?  

Maxx Moses Art will touch the sky, in Russia

Moscow is presently hosting the largest festival of street art in the world, Urban Morphogenesis. And the San Diego based muralist, Maxx Moses, (aka Pose 2) is about to create art that touches the sky. From August 15 through 28th, Maxx will be amongst 60 of the best international artist which will transform 30 ordinary high-rise buildings into an open air museum of contemporary art.

The Minister of the Moscow region government on social communications Irina Plesea is implementing national projects that are based on social inclusion and increased self-actualization of young people. Thus the Urban Morphogenesis Street Art festival has been organized by the Foundation for the development of modern art with support from the Director of social communications of the Moscow region and the administration of Odintsovo.

Presently the Artist, Okuda from Barcelona, Spain has begun blessing the neighborhood with a brilliant mural and this is just the beginning

image russia

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HOW HATE REACHES A TIPPING POINT - MEXICANS ON THE MENU

BY JOE LOYA, EMS

You’d see this phenomenon in prison. A guy in H-Unit would get beat down real bad with a heavy weight belt and get sent to the hospital with eye damage and missing teeth. 

A couple weeks later a guy in I-Unit would get attacked by three prisoners with knives on the third floor but the victim’s boyfriend would run up there with a metal folding chair and turn the tide. One guy would get smacked in the head with a chair, lose his knife and get tossed off the third tier. The initial victim would pick up the dropped knife and start stabbing one of his attackers. In the melee, the second attacker would get throttled by that chair and also go to the hospital. The third knife wielding attacker would eventually get stabbed bad and learn hard the lesson how it ain’t no fun when the rabbits got the gun.

A week later the Spirit Of Chaos dialed up the mayhem and moved next door. A prisoner in J-Unit would be stabbed 32 times. After multiple surgeries he’d survive, lose a kidney, a finger, and 150 pounds. Barely dodged being killed.

Of course, you know where this story is going. Next door. The Dark Spirit drifted.

Milwaukee Tackles Its Legacy of Consumer Fraud

By Khalil Abdullah, Ethnic Media Services

(Milwaukee, WI) -- African Americans and Hispanics continue to be victimized by consumer scams at higher rates than white Americans but are more reluctant to report their experiences, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officials.

“African Americans are almost twice as likely to be victims of consumer fraud as whites,” said Todd Kossow, FTC’s Midwest Regional Director, noting that Hispanics also are victimized “at a significantly higher rate than whites.”

He listed debt-related scams that hold out the hope of avoiding foreclosure, paying down student loans, and credit card debt among the leading monetary enticements that lure poor, low-income, or otherwise financially marginal individuals to grasp at the false promises of solvency and freedom from creditors.

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