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President Trump is not forever. Our imperfect nation will survive long after Trump is gone. We will need to assess the post-storm damage and begin the recovery process.
For now, we must step outside of Trump's lies and think, read and speak critically. We cannot not treat every outburst as though it were politics, or a tantrum as though it were diplomacy, or a delusion as though it were aspiration.
There is a new sense of citizenship percolating throughout the country, as ordinary people crowd into town halls and airports and public squares to defend their own visions of America. Given this surge of energy, perhaps the most effective ideas will come from the bottom up rather than the top down, out of local movements rather than policy reports. The next big idea may be very old: one nation doing a better job of providing liberty and justice for all.
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2. |
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To promote reconciliation and cooperation between people.
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3. |
THE BOUNCE
02:43
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How will the GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS bid farewell to Oakland?
The fitting way for this to end would be with Steph Curry having a huge game in his final outing in Oakland. It would be a most poetic finish for the building and the fans. This is Golden State’s fifth straight trip to the NBA finals and coach Steve Kerr is looking for his fourth title.
GO WARRIORS!
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4. |
Dear Joe
03:41
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5. |
Music Saved Me
02:35
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Beethoven once said "Music can change the world."
My experience has been that music heals - it uplifts, it empowers, it strengthens and it encourages. It gives life. MUSIC SAVED ME.
My mother died twenty years ago and my life fell apart. Everything was in shambles. In the face of death, everything changed. Nothing was certain. The friendships that I relied on and the relationships that mattered most to me, were all gone.
Making music was the only avenue for me to feel something other than grief. Making music was essential for my health and sanity and it still is.
Music carried me through grief, death and agony. It brought light to my darkness. MUSIC SAVED ME.
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6. |
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
05:30
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"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
- Robert Frost (1916)
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7. |
Ode to PICASSO
03:40
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"I do not seek. I find. ” - Pablo Picasso
"Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction."
- Pablo Picasso
"Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not." - Pablo Picasso
"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." - Pablo Picasso
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8. |
Ode to the 1950s
03:06
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The 1950s - Not just poodle skirts and rock and roll.
“America at this moment,” said former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945, “stands at the summit of the world.” The United States was the world’s strongest military power. Its economy was booming, and the fruits of this prosperity–new cars, suburban houses and other consumer goods–were available to more people than ever before. However, the 1950s were also an era of great conflict. The nascent civil rights movement and the crusade against communism at home and abroad exposed the underlying divisions in American society.
Historians use the word “boom” to describe a lot of things about the 1950s: the booming economy, the booming suburbs and most of all the so-called “baby boom.” By the time the boom finally tapered off in 1964, there were almost 77 million “baby boomers.”
A growing group of Americans spoke out against inequality and injustice during the 1950s. The struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life. In 1954, in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, the Supreme Court declared that “separate educational facilities” for black children were “inherently unequal.”
In December 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat on a city bus to a white person. Her arrest sparked a 13-month boycott of the city’s buses by its black citizens, which only ended when the bus companies stopped discriminating against African American passengers. Acts of “nonviolent resistance” like the boycott helped shape the civil rights movement of the next decade.
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9. |
ODE TO SENIOR SOFTBALL
05:43
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There are more than 1.5 million active senior softball players in the US and that number is growing as baby boomers come into the market. Softball is the number one men's team sport in America.
I have been playing in the Hayward Senior Softball League for 6 years. Last week the League had a memorial picnic for the wife of one of our players. She had attended all of her husband's games and had been our best cheerleader. Players die, get sick, get injured - like life. I have met people from all walks of life that I would otherwise never have met. We share at least one thing - a love for this game that we have been playing since childhood. And we have fun!
I found out yesterday that our pitcher is 90 years old! I would have guessed 74. As you get older, and drop out of the workforce, you start to lose your connections with people. Softball is a great way to meet people and stay active. Our shortstop might have been a doctor, a policeman, a factory worker, a guitar player. We rarely talk about our past work lives. We are ten years old out on the field - with not a care in the world, except maybe "how many outs are there?"
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10. |
The Good Old Days
02:41
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11. |
Winter Piano
02:23
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12. |
7 Wonderful Years
02:54
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13. |
HOPE In A Hostile World
03:33
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Yesterday, my son Joseph was beaten up at a Cricket Wireless store in Detroit. In this time of escalating violence, trauma, and racial tension, we live in an ever-increasing hostile culture. We see rising tensions from race related violence, a volatile political climate, and global unrest. I wonder, “Where is the hope? Can it really get any better?”
How can we stay positive in such a hostile world?
Anne Frank, the young girl trapped in a hell on earth, still had the presence of mind to write these words: “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.”
I think we need to make an intentional effort to notice the good that’s around us.
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14. |
Winter Meditation
05:04
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WINTER is the season when the whole world seems to go to sleep.
We find a deeper stillness and a deeper sense of calm.
Something wondrous and new can emerge from the suffering we have endured this year.
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15. |
SPRING Is Here
02:44
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“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.”
― Bashō Matsuo c.1675
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16. |
Thanksgiving
02:25
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Steve Shapiro Oakland, California
Steve Shapiro has composed music for hundreds of radio and TV commercials, documentary films, infomercials and other TV programs. He was the music director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, which produced hundreds of award-winning educational films and recordings. He has a BA in Music from Brown University and an MA in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. ... more
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