1. |
Adolescence Interrupted
02:41
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"I don’t necessarily understand everything about young folks right now, but I think the feeling of being young will always be the same. Every generation has its ADOLESCENCE INTERRUPTED. It’s the painful transition from hope to cynicism. We learn about the world, we get angry, we feel adrift. The landscape changes, and so do the issues, but the feelings stay the same." [Bob Dylan]
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2. |
I Want To Be Heard
02:35
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We want other people to acknowledge our feelings. We want our suffering to be understood, our anxieties noticed and our sadness lent legitimacy. We don’t want others necessarily to agree with all our feelings, but what we do want is to be heard.
Sometimes you have to be silent, to be heard.
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3. |
This One's For You
02:36
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Listening to someone means getting out of our own head and trying to understand another person. Listening is about making sense of noises and going beyond to understand the meaning. When we don’t feel heard we tend to blame the other person and focus on what they are or are not doing. Instead, we need to focus on what we are or are not doing.
Sometimes you have to be silent, to be heard.
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4. |
LITERACY
04:23
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43 Million U.S. adults are “Functionally Illiterate.”
The ability to read and write is the single most important factor in determining a person's career success. For those who can read and write, the range of possible vocations is huge. For those who cannot, the options are extremely limited.
Poverty breeds illiteracy by forcing children to drop out of school to work, and these illiterate people are forced to stay on the lowest levels of the work force and thus remain in poverty.
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5. |
ROUGH EDGES
03:30
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When someone truly loves and supports you, they challenge you, stand beside you when you need them, and give you the space you need to roam free and grow as a person.
They might not be around all the time, but for the things that really matter, when you are sick or in the dark, they will be there at your side, without you even needing to ask.
Life is full of ROUGH EDGES, especially as we get older. Our loved ones help smooth out these rough edges. They see you in all your beauty and grace, as well as your darkness and faults.
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6. |
From Hope To Cynicism
02:32
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"I don’t necessarily understand everything about young folks right now, but I think the feeling of being young will always be the same. Every generation has its adolescence interrupted. It’s the painful transition FROM HOPE TO CYNICISM. We learn about the world, we get angry, we feel adrift. The landscape changes, and so do the issues, but the feelings stay the same." [Bob Dylan]
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7. |
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Spike Lee urged the audience and viewers of the 2019 Oscars to "do the right thing" in the upcoming 2020 presidential election:
"The word today is “irony.” The date, the 24th. The month, February, which happens to be Black History month. The year, 2019. The year, 1619. History. Her story. 1619 - 2019. 400 years.
Four hundred years. Our ancestors were stolen from Mother Africa and brought to Jamestown, Virginia, enslaved. Our ancestors worked the land from can’t see in the morning to can’t see at night. My grandmother lived to be 100 years young and was a Spelman College graduate even though her mother was a slave. She saved 50 years of Social Security checks to put me, her first grandchild (she called me Spikie-poo) through Morehouse College and NYU graduate school.
Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who have built this country into what it is today along with the genocide of its native people. We all connect with our ancestors. We will have love and wisdom regained and we will regain our humanity. It will be a powerful moment. The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize. Let’s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love and hate. Let’s do the right thing!"
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8. |
Our Demon Haunted World
03:01
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"I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or my grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantative content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance."
Carl Sagan, 1995
During the Obama years, the racist and bigoted elements of our society went underground like cockroaches, waiting for the appropriate demagogue to arrive. Enter, Donald Trump.
While we are furiously disputing whether he’s a racist or a patriot, he and his friends are quietly reaping the rewards of a tax cut that was a massive giveaway to billionaires. His administration is fast-tracking oil pipelines, opening up federal land to drilling and mining, boosting for-profit diploma mills that exploit the poor, and putting foxes in charge of every henhouse from the Consumer Product Safety Commission to the Environmental Protection Administration.
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9. |
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"High crimes and misdemeanors" is a phrase from Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution:
"The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
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10. |
Culture Of Cynicism
02:28
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To live with sincerity in our CULTURE OF CYNICISM is very difficult.
Cynicism is the belief that people are generally morally bankrupt and behave treacherously in order to maximize their self-interest. Cynics are pessimistic about the capacity of human beings to make correct ethical choices.
Sincere enthusiasm and hopeful optimism must be balanced by skepticism, critical thinking and a healthy dose of cynicism.
"If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. But every now and then, a new idea turns out to be valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress."
- Carl Sagan
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11. |
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Moments of silence are used in contemplation, reflection and in remembrance of loved ones that we have lost. However, remaining silent also can be highly unethical. We should be careful that our silence is not deceptive, allowing others to believe what we know for certain is not true.
We ought not remain silent when facing injustice and abuse but “speak truth to power.” We should not remain silent when witnessing wrongdoing. In those circumstances, silence is not morally acceptable; we have a duty to speak up.
As William Faulkner once said, “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world … would do this, it would change the earth.”
Greta Thunberg has become the face of climate-change activism. She is known for her blunt, matter-of-fact speaking manner in which she urges immediate action to address the climate crisis.
Greta speaks the truth. "Wake up and face facts. This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced and we need to treat it accordingly.”
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12. |
"Kinahora" (No Evil Eye)
03:02
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The evil eye is one of the world’s oldest and most widely held superstitions. It stems from the Greek theory that the eye can shoot rays that strike with deadly force.
"Kinahora" (No Evil Eye) is the word my parents and grandparents said when they thought that things were going well. It is a basic Jewish tradition to avoid tempting fate. Whenever there was good news, something to boast about or to be proud of, they would add the word, "kinahora", in effect saying, “Let NO EVIL EYE focus on such goodness.”
You may think of this as superstition, but I think of it as a simple antidote to hubris, to taking anything for granted, and to thinking that we have any power over the forces of nature or any other higher power.
Today it is not easy to resist envy and jealousy. Social media gives the impression that some people are enjoying such amazing lifestyles and material prosperity. The destructive power of envy and jealousy is real.
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13. |
THE TWILIGHT ZONE
02:50
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The Twilight Zone is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition. It lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. It is the dimension of imagination - not only of sight and sound but of mind.
In August of 1955, Emmett Till, an African-American boy from Chicago was abducted, beaten, and shot while visiting family in Mississippi. An all-white jury acquitted the two killers, both white, of all charges.
This miscarriage of justice proved a galvanizing point in the Civil Rights Movement. Rod Serling watched the events play out in the news. He believed firmly in the burgeoning medium’s power for social justice.
“The writer’s role is to be a menacer of the public’s conscience,” Serling said. “He must have a position, a point of view. He must see the arts as a vehicle of social criticism and he must focus the issues of his time.”
He felt compelled to write a teleplay around the racism that led to Till’s murder. But the censorship that followed by advertisers and networks, fearful of blowback from white, Southern audiences, forced Serling to rethink his approach. His response, ultimately, was “The Twilight Zone,” the iconic anthology series that spoke truth to the era’s social ills and tackled themes of prejudice, bigotry, nuclear fears and war.
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14. |
Profiles in Courage
06:09
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"The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.
In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow.
The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul."
- John F. Kennedy, "Profiles In Courage" 1956
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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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