1. |
Weltschmerz
02:20
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Weltschmerz: World Pain
The depression you feel when the world as it is does not reflect what you think it should be.
Mass shootings, the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis . . .
It should not be.
Insurrection, teenage suicide, police brutality . . .
It should not be.
It should not be.
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2. |
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The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade today, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion. Millions of women are now less free than men, in the functioning of their own bodies and in the paths of their own lives.
This opinion is the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades and will transform the landscape of women’s reproductive health in America.
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3. |
Persevere
02:26
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These past few years have been full of difficulties, failures and opposition. To PERSEVERE is "to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition." It refers to our ability to pursue a goal or passion over time, and stick with it even when we encounter obstacles or setbacks.
Our ability to stick with our tasks, goals, and passions is vital. Persevering entails effort and practice. It involves our ability to learn from failure and try again when thrown off the horse until we get thrown off no more.
Confucius taught about patience, perseverance, discipline, and hard work. "It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
Perseverance furthers.
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4. |
JUSTICE FOR ALL
03:35
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This nation was founded with a commitment to secure liberty and justice for all. The current political divisiveness is a clear sign that we may be running out of time to turn the ideals upon which the nation was founded into tangible reality.
We must elect people to public office who will not sacrifice the common good of all for their own interests or special interests of their particular constituents.
These are the ideals upon which the American Democratic Republic was founded. We must find the courage to turn those ideals into reality before they are completely lost.
"The future of our country is at stake." - Barack Obama, 2022
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5. |
Gun Control
06:15
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A mass shooting on Tuesday killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. This comes less than a year after Texas legislators drastically expanded gun rights. Pledging to keep Texas a “bastion of freedom,” Gov. Greg Abbott in June signed seven laws, one of which allows people to legally carry handguns without licenses.
“Texas will always be the leader in defending the Second Amendment, which is why we built a barrier around gun rights this session,” Abbott said that day, flanked by representatives of the National Rifle Association.
Mass shootings have turned America's gun culture into a killing culture. Gun violence has not moved Congress to act. Perhaps Americans' love of guns is just too strong.
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6. |
Reply to Violence
04:35
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“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely,
more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
― Leonard Bernstein, November 1963
Maestro Bernstein spoke these words three days after the assassination of President Kennedy.
Reply to violence with art. Art never stopped a war. Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed - enriched and encouraged. Then they can act in a way that may affect the course of events by the way they vote, behave and the way they think.
Art can transport our experience beyond space and time.
Glory to Ukraine!
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7. |
CULTURE WARS
02:47
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I can recall a time when the world seemed to be coming closer together. The Cold War between capitalism and communism was over. Democracy was still growing. Economic interdependence was increasing among nations. The internet seemed to be ready for worldwide communication.
Not anymore. The opposition to Western liberalism, individualism and pluralism, is not just happening between nations, but within them. The resentment towards Western culture, politics, and economics from Putin is very similar to the resentment from the Trumpian right, the French right, the Italian right, the Hungarian right . . .
Globalization is over and the global CULTURE WARS have begun.
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8. |
The Suffering In Ukraine
02:34
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has abruptly transformed the world. Two million people have already fled. A new iron curtain is now descending across Russia as the economic war deepens, the military conflict escalates and civilian casualties rise.
In our divided nation, the invasion of Ukraine is proving a rare moment when Americans of differing political persuasions can find agreement. Democrats, Republicans and Independents have expressed dismay at the violence and support sanctions against Russia. Could such unity survive another term of Donald Trump?
This war tramples on international law and human rights. Millions of people fear for their lives under the indiscriminate shelling that has struck hospitals, schools and homes. Thousands have been cut off from basic facilities, and lack access to water, medication, food, electricity, sanitation and shelter. Hospital workers struggle to provide care, forced by frequent shelling to relocate their patients to bomb shelters or basements. Streams of refugees and displaced people desperately seek safety.
Ukraine — and the world — is in a perilous and unpredictable moment.
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9. |
DOOMSDAY CLOCK
02:29
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First there is a pandemic. Then a recession. Now, Russia invades Ukraine.
Will the U.S. send more troops abroad? Will the country be attacked? Will we see nuclear war?
According to the Doomsday Clock, "It is 100 seconds to midnight. We are all threatened. The moment is both perilous and unsustainable, and the time to act is now."
- Science and Security Board Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (founded by Albert Einstein in 1945)
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10. |
Insurrection
02:33
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The racist double standards that fester in the heart of our country was plain to see. A largely white Trump-supporting mob followed the president's exhortation to "stop the steal" of a fair and legal election and stormed the nation's capitol on Wednesday. The mob encountered little resistance.
The contrast to the police response to protests for racial justice and police accountability following the police killing of George Floyd, could not be more stark or telling.
This insurrection threatens the heart of America's democracy. Egged on by Trump's rhetoric, it represents a stunning show of force for the fringe movements and their followers.
The day before the attempted coup, record numbers of voters in Georgia sent their first Black man and their first Jewish one, to the US Senate. The Warnock/Ossoff victory is one of the biggest victories in recent history, yet violent white supremacists took center stage.
This is unlikely to be the last display of violence aimed at overturning our election.
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11. |
Democracy Is Messy
06:36
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine represents the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. Thousands of civilians and tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed and roughly 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced by the conflict.
Authoritarian regimes in China, Russia and elsewhere have gained power and freer countries have seen their democratic norms challenged and fractured. Only 20 percent of the world’s people now live in free countries.
January 6 should be a wake-up call about the fragility of American democracy.
"DEMOCRACY IS MESSY, and it's hard. It's never easy."
- Robert Kennedy, Jr.
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12. |
Melancholy America
05:34
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Melancholy is beyond sad. It visits you like a mist, a vapor, a fog. It is uninvited. Some people are born into royalty, wealth and prestige, others inherit a disposition for sadness. Should melancholy descend, you may as well welcome it.
America is obsessed with happiness. Happiness in America has become the overachiever’s ultimate trophy. America seems to have a deep cultural aversion to sadness.
This great nation that includes the pursuit of happiness so prominently in its founding principles seems to be one of the least happy places in the developed world.
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13. |
Middle East Peace
02:47
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It is hard to deny that Israel is an apartheid state. Palestinians living under Israeli rule, including those who hold Israeli passports, do not enjoy full citizenship rights. They do not have freedom of movement.
“The only way to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state and to give the Palestinians a state to which they are entitled is through the so-called two-state solution,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his confirmation hearing in January. He added, however: “I think realistically it’s hard to see near-term prospects for moving forward on that.”
They cannot pursue a peace deal when neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis appear ready for serious conversations.
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14. |
POLICE BRUTALITY
02:52
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Wisconsin police fired seven shots at point-blank range at an unarmed Black man as he was trying to enter a car where his three young sons were waiting. Jacob Blake, 29, was rushed to the hospital and is currently paralyzed from the waist down. The incident has sparked national protests against racist police brutality and the criminal-justice system at large.
Black and brown people should be able to sleep in their own beds at night, reach for their wallets, take a jog around the neighborhood, and simply get in the car to take their children home without having their lives stolen from them.
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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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