PEASEREADTHIS

I would like to start by telling you all that I do not necessarily match my socks. And I do not intend to write a Ovidian Covidian monologue on hosiery standards….but matching socks is not a priority. I am not defiantly doing it. I just do it. It’s fun. Colorful. Different. Mostly no one sees your socks anyway. One is ALWAYS missing (in that impalpable elusive foot covering dimension). And, unless you are the personality type that actually ‘cuffs them’ together, those damn twins separate as if feuding. So here it goes. Some thoughts on conformity, whether or not you see the analogy. I just ask that, next time you don a pair, maybe give some second thought to how much you REALLY REALLY care that they duplicate. And maybe even question the ‘why’, that is, especially after considering below…

Speaking about conformity, did you know that almost 30% of Americans say they rarely, never or only sometimes wear a mask, according to a July poll by Gallup. And the rest of us wonder ‘WHY’? Even though I do not expect this piece to focus on MASKISM, I am compelled to discuss it. So let’s get this part over with. Did not intend to politicize ‘masking’ but geeze…. Everything else is. And when discussing our powerful need to ‘conform’ the damn mask controversy inserts itself! When someone tells another person to do something, it can often be threatening to one’s freedom or can be perceived as an act of aggression. The reaction that ensues is sometimes called psychological reactance. A mask mandate can be a trigger of that threat to one’s freedom and the severity if the REACTANCE can depend on how the order is worded.

If you say ‘Wash your hands please’ or ‘Prevent Forest Fires’ – those do not necessarily tread on one’s feet. However, if you say, ‘You must wear a mask’ or ‘No jeans to be worn in dining room’ there’s a sort of instinctual thing in ALL of us that triggers a response like, ‘Don’t tell me what to do.’ Same for masking. When required to wear masks indoors as well as outdoors, people don’t always follow the rules, as we all have noted. They have even taken pride in their decision not to wear them. The ramifications of being infected with COVID-19 are what researchers might label a realistic threat, something that can negatively affect one’s physical well-being. However, the guidelines for fighting COVID-19 can be viewed as a symbolic threat, which can feel like an assault on someones’s values, belief system or worldview.

Okay, so getting back to my mismatched socks quirk, I believe it is that social and cultural norms can become rules or expectations of behavior due to a shared belief within a cultural or social group. While most likely ‘silent’ norms offer social standards for appropriate and inappropriate behavior that ‘govern’ acceptability in interactions among people. These norms are incredibly influential over individual behavior in many different contexts. We therefore don’t expect people to behave randomly. We expect them to behave in certain ways in particular situations. Every situation encompasses its own unique set of expectations about the “proper” way to behave, and can vary from group to group.

There are norms defining appropriate behavior for every social group. For example, students, neighbors and patients in a hospital are all aware of the norms governing behavior. And as the individual moves from one group to another, their behavior changes accordingly. Conformity is typically motivated by a person’s identification with a specific group. In theory, to be truly accepted as a member, an individual must adopt the norms and rules that govern the group’s behavior. These actions may, at first, differ from their own personal values. In time, however, the individual’s underlying beliefs and attitudes may begin to shift as the opinions and behaviors of the group become ingrained and automatic.

Conformity bespeaks a wide-ranging experience in which people (intentionally or unintentionally) change their behavior or beliefs to fit in with a larger group. As opposed to this, groupthink refers to a specific kind of dysfunctionality in which a group of well-intentioned people make irrational decisions. Groupthink is often, but not always, spurred by a desire to conform.

Now norms provide order and it is difficult to see how human society could operate without social norms. We NEED them to guide and direct our behavior and to provide order and predictability; to make sense of and to understand each other’s actions. These are some of the reasons why most people, most of the time, conform to social norms. They are pervasive in our society. They tell us what and what not to do. They are socially shared, carry a sense of control and can influence and constrain behavior. ABNORMALITY appears when a behavior does not fit in what is considered socially acceptable.

Changing our behaviors to match the behaviors of the people around us is indigenous to us. One reason for this is because we care what people think of us. Another reason we conform to the norm is because others may have information we need. Counting on norms is an effective game plan about how we are supposed to act. However, this may lead to misperceptions about how the ‘typical’ person acts, contributing to obvious dilemmas. We often adopt the actions and attitudes of the people around us through observation. Styles of dress, music, and foods are conspicuous, however, views on politics, religion and lifestyles also resound attitudes of the people we interact with. Psychologists often assign this tendency to act and think like the people around us as ‘conformity’. Needless to say… wearing mismatched socks falls (ever so superficially) into that category. Yet I am proud to say, although some may think this decorum eccentric and perhaps non-conformist, I deem it rather original and a bit bohemian. So…

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The Social Norms Theory aims to understand the environment and interpersonal influences (such as peers) in order to change behavior, which can be more effective than a focus on the individual to change behavior. Peer influence, and the role it plays in individual decision-making around behaviors, is the primary focus of Social Norms Theory. It states that our behavior is influenced by misperceptions of how our peers think and act. Overestimations of problem behavior in our peers will cause us to increase our own problem behaviors; underestimations of problem behavior in our peers will discourage us from engaging in the problematic behavior. Accordingly, the theory states that correcting misperceptions of perceived norms will most likely result in a decrease in the problem behavior or an increase in the desired behavior.

Social norms are unshakeable and accurate rules of behavior that develop through interactions among members of a given group or society. Norms are outlines for how people should act in certain situations, as all groups have established norms that tell members what they should and should not do under certain circumstances. When accepted by the group, norms act as a means of influencing the behavior of the group with a minimal amount of external control.

And now for the fun part – as by conforming to group norms, idiosyncratic points can be earned, and if enough idiosyncrasy credits are earned, the person can, on occasion, breach norms (deviate in undesirable ways) without retribution from the group. Daresay I have inserted my persona here. I like to think myself so, anyway. I am often called ‘a crazy old lady’, which in the land o’ intellectuals, can be quite endearing. However…. Well, my ego refuses to elucidate! Individuals who breach norms but cannot provide an acceptable explanation for their violation are often evaluated negatively and may experience peer aggression and rebuke. That just how it goes…

Steering toward a more indicative application of conformity, I believe that the resistance that I see to wearing a mask isn’t ideological or political but more simply an issue of convenience, social norms and social pressure. If people felt like not wearing a mask would make them be rejected by their peers (or) would make them look bad, they would all wear masks. Do you agree? Too simplistic? I clearly don’t know… I see my community as following the lines of battle when it comes to opinions on masking.

Obviously, Masking has become a political behavior as well as a public health one. And as much as I want to deflect from this issue, I really cannot totally ignore the fact that because mask opinions can be tied up with identities, as well it does with social signaling a group membership. The decision on whether to wear a mask can signal both political affiliation and cultural opposition. For example, if people feel as if wearing a mask is a criticism of the president or wearing a mask is an endorsement of a Democratic position, then not wearing one can signal loyalty to the president. We all know this to be sad, but true. The second you say to somebody, ‘You have to wear a mask,’ they can hear ‘Hey, your group is wrong, and you need to accept defeat’. Ugh. ENOUGH

Most importantly, let us not forget that wearing a mask is about protecting the people around you. Not wearing one communicates disregard for the health of your neighbors, rather than invulnerability. Your mask protects the other person. The other person’s mask protects you. I don’t feel like people have internalized that logic. If you don’t wear a mask, you’re not saying, ‘I’m brave.’ You’re saying, ‘Who cares if you die?’

I surmise, in closing, that we can all see conformity as a weakness by saying it can support bad behaviors, such as smoking, overeating or risky sexual activities. However, if you think of conformity as a powerful social mechanism through which we change our ideas about the world, it could be used positively, such as encouraging people to vote, to do volunteer work or to donate to charity. œ

Conformity is a complex behavior. It is a subgroup of cooperative behavior and can be seen as a huge benefit to humanity in many ways. However, the degree to which people conform can be affected by altering group size, group consensus, privacy and culture. The fact that humans are always sending signals to one another decides whether they publicly conform or diverge. Sociologists are often quoted as saying that we are all influenced by the people around us more than we realize. Of course, each person is unique, and ultimately each of us makes choices about how we will and will not act. But decades of research on conformity make it clear that we live in a social world and that—for better or worse—much of what we do is a reflection of the people we encounter. I guess somehow and somewhere I became a sock nonconformist. Mismatched socks are my way. It is good for me. Yes, the minutia in life of wearing two different socks makes me proud. Guilty as charged.

“If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.”

— Mary Douglas

Please keep in mind that this is just an introduction to the complex behavior that is conformity. It is a topic of book and college courses. Read On! PLEASEREADTHIS 🗽

Hunting is the practice of seeking, pursuing and capturing or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest useful animal products (meat, fur/hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, etc), for recreation/taxidermy (see trophy hunting), to remove predators dangerous to humans or domestic animals (e.g. wolf hunting), to eliminate pests and nuisance animals that damage crops/livestock/poultry or spread diseases (see varminting), for trade/tourism (see safari), or for ecological conservation against overpopulation and invasive species (see culling).

Again, Wiki rocks! Benignly and succinctly, it tells a story that only moderately upsets me. I eat meat. Humans need protein. And beans get tedious… so who am I to stigmatize those who partake in the ‘sport’ of hunting? Easy for me…I do not know any hunters nor have I ever engaged in conversing with a hunter, as a hunter’ is a disturbing concept. Yet I am compelled to discuss it now. It must be said. It’s getting late and now it is time. So….

I really never desired to know my more about ‘it’. Too upsetting. Might as well examine Marjorie, Scientology, Proctologists (jk). But it is my topic today, and although unpleasant in examining ‘hunters’, this ‘sport’ is quite legal and incorporates an inordinate amount of enthusiasts. It’s not that I am unaware of the complications of the overpopulation and housing for deer and bear populations. For I even subscribe to National Geographic and ‘used to’ belong to the Sierra Club (how pompous), however, I have not and cannot espouse to THE HUNT in controlling this dilemma. ‘There’s gotta be a better way’. And there is. But that is a wholly separate blog….

Tennis is a sport. Baseball is a sport. Archery is a sport. Hunting, to me, is most certainly NOT. A. SPORT. That is, hunting, OTHER THAN FOR MEAT (in providing protein to humans to be and remain healthy and/or for those unable to successfully replace it) is for too many a very popular sport. As for the other justifications, as listed above, it is cruel and barbaric. Other ‘sports’ apply as well. But do not get me started…for I am not only averse to ‘hunting’ as a poor excuse for a ‘hobby’… Enter BOXING! There isn’t, but should be, a stipulation to ‘Boxing’ as a sport. That is, the object of the skill of ‘the punch’ SHOULD be inanimate. Punching the torso and head of a human in inhuman. Purpose? To incapacitate and render unconscious. Get it? I need say no more here…’you may hate me baby…. bye, bye, bye’. (Sorry. Gotta LOVE those ‘Boys’). Ok… seriously…

Doesn’t the hunting community live under a cloud of shame? I am positive they appreciate this or at least are cognizant of ‘us’! They certainly do not hide it. They are adroit at characterizing it as ‘conservation’, ‘wildlife management’, ‘population control’, ‘crop protection’ and an ‘act’ as if it was something ‘required’ to do. But, in the end, hunters must delight in this diversion or they would not do it! Nope! No golfing for them. Why not? It’s outdoorsy, competitive, and requires skill! How about skiing? Talk about ‘a challenge’! The shame cloud comes from the vast majority of us who BELIEVE that hunting and killing animals for pleasure is just plain UNACCEPTABLE. OFFENSIVE. Then there’s that old bugaboo…FISHING! Well, not touching that one with a ten foot (fishing) pole…I can’t stand the species. The are squirmy, slimy, and fishy tasting. They are crusty, smelly and sharp-toothed. They kill people. Enough? So. Please! Fish all you want! Just don’t EVER serve me a fish meal. Call me a hypocrite now and get it OVER WITH!

Before I try to answer the question, ‘Why hunt?’…there’s a previous question that needs considering. SHOULD anyone hunt? Anthropologists are correct in contending that rituals produce anxiety and hesitation. The abundant tapestry of rituals surrounding the ‘hunt’ in hunting-gathering cultures suggests that even then, when hunting was a necessity, there was apprehension. If this anxiety was related to regard for the animals whose lives were taken or somehow make the hunter ‘prone to violence’ there is and always was a cloud of suspicion. Rituals, while varied from one culture to another, share certain features—fasting, refraining from intercourse, decorative body painting that served to vividly mark the transition from daily life to the hunt. It is clear that people hunt and fish for sustenance, which makes some kind of sense, but why do some people enjoy hunting and killing animals for fun? As it happens, there’s little direct research on why adults enjoy killing animals for “sport”. And, doing some research, I found several noteworthy articles, in fact, addressing a link between children hurting animals and violence in adulthood as recognized in the ‘hunter’ population. Look it up! Animal cruelty, along with bed-wetting past the age of five and fire-starting, are together known as the “homicidal triad”. This potential indication of violence in adulthood was first suggested by forensic psychiatrist John MacDonald in a 1963 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry. See! Ok…. so I am getting tangential…

Hunters insinuate that they hunt in order to see and feel nature directly as a participant, not simply a spectator. Hmmmm…then try ‘experiencing’ hunting as the fawn or the doe of the day! To be sure, hunters are spectators, but the fact that they are carrying a gun or a bow and arrow gives a different intent to a hunters’ observations. Whether or not, on a given expedition, a hunter kills a deer, a rabbit or a pheasant, going into the field, prepared to kill , changes—intensifies—everything. And, hunting large animals is an example of some people’s need to show dominance over others, as research shows that levels of hostility and a need for power and control are associated with poor attitudes towards animals, among men in particular. Not even mentioning the suffering and pain animals can feel when that bullet or arrow penetrates their body. For they DO feel pain. How HEARTBREAKING to watch a beautiful creature fade at the hands of someone for the purpose of pride? Competition? Monetary purposes? Power? It is morose. Unconscionable. And should be illegal.

It is tantamount for us to be reminded of the wilderness, the world, we SHARE with animals, as it is just as important to keep the WILD wild. The threat has always been to protect wildlife and their habitats that they rely upon to ban untenable profiteering. Habitat protection has turned out to be a difficult confrontation as society has been steadily encroaching upon the habitats of wildlife due to the carving out of subdivisions linked by highways that have brought humans and wild animals in close proximity. Thus causing the problems we all clearly see and thus some solving the problem in unethical and morally reprehensible ways to some of us….

Requiring licenses, imposing bag limits and closed seasons, and, after World War II, requiring hunter education courses for new hunters can be seen as helping to established norms of self-restraint in the hunting world. However, these measures did not end poaching or violations of game laws any more than laws against driving under the influence ended driving under the influence. But this is not enough and despite it all, there will be those like myself that will never understand the mind of a hunter.

Their reasoning that it brings you close to the wild to experience a special ‘connection’ to a wild animal? Go the a zoo. In order to eat the meat? Okay! IF that is truly the reason and it is for nutritive purposes… Hunting as a challenge? Go try and find a cup of hot coffee in the morning for under a buck? (no pun intended). Hunting supposedly takes great skill and patience. Ok, try potty training a two year old in a week. Good Luck! Camaraderie? Join a support group for you need to kill those stunning stags! Hunting as stress relief? Please! I will glad give you a neck massage to save a cashmere lop-eared bunny!

The problem is that to truly understand why people hunt for pleasure requires a comprehensive and thorough psychological assessment of a large group of hunters using evaluative measures for a whole range of personality traits. Really would be a complicated process to try to figure out what people are feeling and what their true motivations are. So why hunt? We may never know why hunters are compelled to seek animal trophies for their walls and wonder about their emotional intentions and capacities. The reasons why people hunt remain many or better say unknown since different urges drive everyone. Humans have a diverse behavioral repertoire, refined over years of evolution along with concurrent shaping of culture. Before ballet and gymnastics, our ancestors performed all sorts of performances that became refined through evolution and entered into our present collective repertoire. Hunting is an indelible, fundamental part of our history and like stunning athleticism, miraculous inventions and spectacular scientific discoveries, hunting has its place in teaching us who we are. It is undeniable. So, I can appreciate HUNTING for its historical significance. But I will leave its significance in in the minds of anthropologists. Tennis anyone??? PLEASEREADTHIS🗽

Felt my blogging misled Needs a Clarification. My homage to Gerry. Needs a new connotation.

Of physician cognation. Who knew? A collation. Would end up to be… A cardiac ablation!

Now do not get me wrong… Those ‘Pacemakers’ still ‘rock’. But the analogy sucks now. It’s all poppycock!

To retain Sinus rhythm. As this ‘Ablation ‘will do. My rock n rock heart Wants to talk ELO!

For the heart is a pump. An electrical gland. Needs a Jeff Lynne transfusion An Electrical Band!

Enter Roy Wood and Lynne. Mixing Beatles with Bach. Add a cardiac analogy. And an Electro- physiology Doc

So ‘Rest in Peace’ Gerry. My Jeff Lynne is still kicking. THE BRITISH INVASION still ROCKS! So long as my ticker keeps ticking!

Keep your Electric Lights beaming! Like you did for the Fab Four. With your ‘Strange Magic’ magic. And brilliant musical score

Your Symphonic Pop choiring Ballads meant to conduce. Electricity to replace. My faulty atrium’s abuse

So Thank you!, Mr Lynne. And the Wilbury’s too. For traveling my way. To help my heart beat like new!

Betcha you don’t think I can propitiously link the British Invasion to my newly diagnosed Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation? Well, seriously, anyone even with minimal cleverness can couple two dissimilar concepts, even as ludicrous as above. Surely makes a ‘catchy’ blog title…you must agree! Well, just allow me a bit more poetic license today, as now I have a ‘heart condition’…or as my daughter most recently christened me as having ‘a weak heart’….

Gerry Marsden, the lead singer of Gerry and the Pacemakers, known for hits including You’ll Never Walk Alone and Ferry Cross the Mersey, has died at 78 after a short illness.

As further commented by Gerry’s sister: “It was a very short illness…He had a triple bypass, an aortic valve replacement and ironically he also had a pacemaker”. Really? No kidding? Who knew? Now I feel better (?!?!). So there you go. I could stop here. I made my ‘zany’ correlation (hope you appreciated that anachronism). I could stop … NAH!

WebMD: “Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is a type of irregular heartbeat…When your heartbeat returns to normal within 7 days, on its own or with treatment, it’s known as paroxysmal atrial fibrillation”. My most recent diagnosis. Treatment? For me? For reasons too boring, the damn Pacemaker! Say it! Terrible!!! Self explanatory medical term conjuring up images of old men, canes, walkers….sorry for the ageism, but it’s MY blog… why not a more complicated name for this diminutive heart helper? Like the words ‘stent’? Or ‘cardio converter’, ‘implantable defibrillator’ or ‘biventricular device’? Nooooo. I gotta get a Pacemaker? Images of implanting a Gerry Marsden bobble- headed doll into an area of my chest wall! Sorry, CANNOT overtly nor covertly ‘say’ the pacemaker word without envisioning those suited up, narrow-tied Merseybeatsters! Ah! Part of the British Invasion – as meaningful and relevant an historical era as the Pandemic will be to my children. Ok, so they were no BEATLES, but to me, during those early sixties, ALL those long-haired harmonizing good-looking perky guitar-playing fellas with those dreamy accents were MY LIFE! Speaking of which…

My Life. Ok. So I gotta get one of those ‘pacemakers’. Thinkin’ there must be some kind of ‘catalogue’. I wonder if I get to, at least, choose a ‘model’? (Like a pool? Kidney? Rectangular? L-shaped? Oval? Roman?) Hmmmm…. now, already having had (only a week ago) another metal cardiac monitoring machine shoved into a surgically carved pocket o’ flesh, I was wondering if there is enough room for this ‘new’ appliance? ( not even mentioning my already distorted left chest due to a partial mastectomy 6 years ago). So… ok. I must say, although the area is already misshapen and blemished, I think I should have ‘some’ say in appointing, at least, the jutting fleshy outline of this new apparatus I now will sport for the rest of my days… ( note how cleverly I am ignoring the whole ‘defective’ or ‘new/refurbished’ discussion). I miss Gerry…

O! Those delightful Pacemakers! Gerry, Freddie, Chad and Les. The Pacemakers became rivals ( or combatants) with The Beatles early on in their career. They often appeared at the same clubs in Germany and England. The two groups defined the “Liverpool Sound,” or “Merseybeat” as I like to call it… a brilliant fusion of rock and roll, doo wop, R&B and soul. Although competitors, Gerry & The Pacemakers signed with The Beatles’ manager, and in 1963, recorded their first single “How Do You Do It?”, a fetching tune which had great success abroad. Other songs like “Don’t let the sun catch you crying” and “Ferry cross the Mersey” followed, both reaching #1 on British charts. I, personally, preferred the Beatles more rhymey, bouncy, faster tunes like “LOVE ME DO’, which rocketed me to the moon and back with each terse verse. Although quite successful, they were a no contest listening band on my rose and lace embossed transistor radio – earphone tucked in under my sheets pretending Paul was gonna ring any minute…for my heart (when it was healthy) belonged solely to Paul. As If I were to cheat, MAYBE, it would at least be someone like Brian Jones… I always had my ‘cute’ standards…

Well, seems like George Burns had a wise and quite hilarious point:
“You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.”
As much as I would rather have quoted Conan, I gotta give some credit to my husband for appreciating and often citing that madcap vaudevillian couple’s nearly moronic humor…Gracie, the logic-challenged wife and her marital demure cohort. Gotta admit! George and Gracie had their moments…But this is not about them… it’s about…

That pesky pacemaker! Now, there are several reasons for one to need a pacemaker. And I cringe that even ONE of you might think I’m referring to one o’ the Liverpudlianlads. No…no. I’m talking artificial metal implants ‘sown’ into the upper torso. My problem: I have a cardiac arrhythmia/dysrhythmia, a problem with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. It means that the heart beats too quickly, too slowly, or with an irregular pattern. When the heart beats faster than normal, it is called tachycardia. When the heart beats too slowly, it is called bradycardia. The most common type of arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation, which causes an irregular and fast heart beat. This is my diagnosis. Now, due to my intolerance to effective beta-blocker medications, I have been advised that I get a PACEMAKER! I hate that word, as if I were dead and need to ‘make s deal’. “PACEMAKER” ever the automatic visual referral to an incapacitated misshapen elderly person, someone ‘way too old’ to hang out with. Well, despite the fact that ‘most’ pacemakers are meant for bradycardia (a slow heart rate), I need this gizmo due to tachycardia (a fast heart rate). I also have atrial fibrillation, which puts one as risk for a stroke. Yikes! Thinkin’ blood clot. I am a nurse. A Natural reaction. And… just another pill to worry about forgetting to take.

Poor Gerry… anyway…he Beatles had taken the country by storm in early 1963. After our favorite ‘moppetts’ stole The Ed Sullivan Show. Brian Epstein presented Gerry & The Pacemakers and on May 3, 1964 they took the stage to the screams of young girls in the audience red faced and teary eyed, screaming loudly to make their love known. And, just like The Beatles, they all wore identical suits. Gerry , in his trade peppy style, opened with the unfamiliar “I’m The One”, followed by “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying.” (Oh! No…no…no…). At the close of the evening’s show, Ed, to the audience’s delight, asked Gerry to come back on stage to take a bow. A week later on May 10, 1964, Gerry and The Pacemakers returned to The Ed Sullivan Show and opened with their 1963 hit “I Like It.” A lovely group, that Gerry and friends. May he rest. Gerry died in January 21st of this year. Not sure if it was connected to his pacemaker, some things are better left on in the Wikipedia World…

So I explored some articles concerning what it’s like ‘wearing’ this l’il magical life saver, and came upon Joan. I quote: “In 1991, when I was 34 years old, I got my first pacemaker. I had been diagnosed with SVT—supraventricular tachycardia, which causes little spurts of extremely rapid heart rate. I needed several surgeries: First I had a temporary pacemaker implanted, then a permanent one. Then the pacemaker generator failed, the leads needed to be changed, and the battery failed. Every complication that could possibly happen happened to me.” End of quote. End of my investigation. My appointment with the ‘Cardiac Electro-Physiological Surgeon’ is this morning. Best I surrender. That’s what Gerry did, God rest his soul. And please pray that his demise was not related to a pacemaker malfunction. Then I surely won’t be checking my weather app! Who cares if the sun catches me crying….PLEASEREADTHIS 🗽

O boy… there goes my non-reactive blogging session. Took 13 seconds for my Irish to ‘rise’. It’s starting. My ears ringing, burning. Upper torso igniting, eyes watering. Antihistamine reaction. Allergic to nonsensical absurdities. READ BELOW…

“Critical race theory is fast becoming America’s new institutional orthodoxy. Yet most Americans have never heard of it — and of those who have, many don’t understand it. This must change. We need to know what it is so we can know how to fight it.”…”In Philadelphia, an elementary school forced fifth-graders to celebrate “Black communism” and simulate a Black Power rally to free 1960s radical Angela Davis from prison, where she had once been held on charges of murder. And in Seattle, the school district told white teachers that they are guilty of “spirit murder” against black children and must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgment of [their] thieved inheritance….Critical race theory prescribes a revolutionary program that would overturn the principles of the Declaration and destroy the remaining structure of the Constitution.

Above excerpt from the NEW YORK POST, authored by Christopher Rufo. Well, he certainly is one ‘f—— up’ dude. Remind me to block him from my life. I happened to stumble upon this article early in my readings, drawn to it like watching Mr Chauvin kill George Floyd. A must see [if we are truth seekers]. The bad must accompany the good in reason. Judgment. Well to say I was appreciative of the concepts month ago is just untrue. Researching this topic I found it flourishing in media lately. But THIS??? This Mr Rufo, clearly a Trump devotee. A man blinded with a warped sense of racial equity. A man who does not know nor understand history. I see this now. I have done my homework. Some think Critical Race Theory (CRT) promotes division and denies the truth about America, about racism. Trump deemed it divisive, polemic, suspect. Here we go again… finding truth among the ruins of four years gone bad…

Let’s go to Wikipedia… “Critical race theory originated in the mid-1970s in the writings of several American legal scholars including Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, et al…It emerged as a movement by the 1980s, reworking theories of critical legal studies with more focus on race. Both critical race theory and critical legal studies are rooted in critical theory, which argues that social problems are influenced and created more by societal structures and cultural assumptions than by individual and psychological factors….Critical race theory is loosely unified by two common themes: first, that white supremacy (societal racism) exists …achieving racial emancipation and anti-subordination more broadly, are possible.”

Thanks, Wik! Get it? Well… some DEFINITELY do NOT! Critics of CRT contend that it focuses more on social systemization thus emphasizing narratives over evidence and reason, rejecting the concepts of justification and truth. However, Critical Race Theory (CRT) actually acknowledges systemic racism. I can hardly believe there is no one who denies this obvious fact. It is part of our American society and tests the doctrines allowing it to prosper. CRT is a practice, an avenue to wrestle with the history of White supremacy. That racism is an everyday reality for most people of color and that most of society using Critical Race Theory believe that racism is an everyday experience for most people of color. CRT is necessary as it best benefits White Elitists. They believe that American institutions are racist and that Americans are advantaged or persecuted because of their race. The theory was started as a way to examine how laws and systems promote inequality, it has since has expanded, however, as CRT applies not only to the law’s metamorphism, but also to its part in the founding of the rights and privileges that legal reform was set to destroy. CRT gained energy in legal studies out of a recognition that the law was not inclusive of people who are not white — especially when it came to sentencing and accessibility to plea deals.

Harvard magazine’s Khiara Bridges explains that CRT grew out of what its originators viewed as the failures of the civil-rights movement to dismantle white supremacy. Theorists use the framework to move beyond equality before the law, focusing instead on how the law itself is shaped by racist interests and assumptions. CRT can be seen as a framework that offers researchers, scholars, educators, and policy-makers a race-conscious access to understanding educational injustices and structural racism and to help solve these inequalities toward greater justice. Putting race at center, CRT scholars question policies and practices taken for granted in order to find the mechanisms that foster racist ideologies, structures, and institutions creating and maintaining racial inequality.

Ok. Now let’s talk practice…In the field of education, CRT is a helpful tool in the educational arena, as it can be used as a mechanism for investigating issues such as school funding, segregation, language policies, discipline and other ‘accountability’ policies. It can be used to efficiently examine ‘knowledge production’ included in curriculum. Education is one of the major fields CRT scholars can scrutinize and analyze, such as details of the education we see reproduced in schools. CRT provides education researchers and practitioners with strategic scrutiny to rethink and revise oppressive policies and practices for the objective of racial justice. For schools are diverse. At least most are. And becoming increasingly so. Recognizing ethnic and racial diversities is important and complex. Now more than ever. To that end, critical race theory has been a cathartic, metamorphic, conceptual, and theoretical composition. As we reflect on 20 years of CRT, it is essential to examine in what ways, if any, CRT is influencing school practice and policy. Given the disparate educational outcomes for students of color, researchers have to inquire about the influence of CRT on the lived experiences of students in schools.

*The idea of keeping classrooms free of “critical race theory” — an academic framework that, among other things, probes the ways in which government policies uphold systemic racism — has become a conservative rallying cry, while the meaning of it has become TWISTED! The repercussion comes as schools across the country are encouraging diversity and inclusion, bias training for staff and rethinking their curriculums through a racial equity framework. This while clusters of bills around our country are appearing, attempting to ban the teaching of such significant content. Some legislators say that CRT tries to make kids feel “bad,” supporting division. In Rhode Island a bill reassures the banning of teaching that the United States of America is fundamentally racist or sexist.

Do these not impersonate Trump’s 2020 memo to the Office of Budget Management to discontinue funding CRT training… calling it ‘propaganda’? CRT scholars contend that ‘true patriotism’ allows for national criticism so as to bring it closer to its post-Civil War ideals. However, Trump sermonized a false sense of ‘Patriotism’- one which makes room for American military personnel — who are comprised primarily of black and Latino volunteers as “losers” and “suckers.” A ‘Patriotism’ that allows for the deaths of close to 200,000 people in our country due to the Trump administration’s shameless disregarded for the science of the COVID 19 pandemic and the downplaying of crucial viral mitigation.

Recently the Biden Administration has demonstrated sections of the text of a ‘proposed ruling’ which established precedence for grants in Civics Education. This program which will incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives, citing and praising the New York Times landmark ‘1619 Project’. Biden’s new American history and civics ruling gives support as well for “Culturally Responsive Teaching,” the ‘catechism’ derived from Critical Race Theory that was recently imposed on teachers in Illinois.

Ok. So back and forth swings the pendulum of the consciousness of racism. You cannot escape its hold on our inner sense of equality and fairness. As a teacher and nurse I have grappled with the inner core of the topic regardless of the placement its application. Are we not discussing the fact we may be teaching young children to feel suffering and affliction simply because of the color of their skin? When you imply to youngsters that all is racist, that the world basically is ‘against’ you …does this not influence the minds of those in minority groups to think that the world is ‘too much’? ‘Too difficult to maneuver’? I truly do not know. This is an equivocal and necessarily debatable a subject as I can imagine. Yet this IS what I know. We need to teach our children is that EVERYONE has the resources for greatness and possibility. For strength and a sense of equality inside each and every one of us. And we NEED to guide, maintain and nourish those attributes to flourish in each and EVERY youngster, rather than teach them that outside circumstances can be overwhelming. Even Mr Rufo’s critical piece in the NEW YORK POST, does not deny CRT’s most primary snd crucial premise — “that American history includes slavery and other injustices, and that we should examine and learn from that history — is undeniable”. Yes, Mr Rufo! You got that part right! PLEASEREADTHIS 🗽

Donald Trump was impeached again in January 2021 by the House for his role in inciting the murderous mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6th. All House Democrats voted in favor, while ten Republicans dissented GOP ranks. Included among them was Liz Cheney, the third-highest ranking Republican in the House and the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress. It was in fact she who has captured the hearts of Anti-Trumpers with her condemnation of the president and supporting his removal from office. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” said the daughter of a man who greased the wheels of the illegal invasion of Iraq and garnered the philosophy that propelled the U.S. government to abandon any pretense of following the post World War II international accord regarding the prevention of war and inhumane tactics. She is the daughter of the man who, despite the fact that the U.S. had lived under an empirical nuclear threat for decades, his power persuaded the people that this terrorist threat was so much greater that torture. She is the daughter of the man who capitalized on the fear and anger among Americans after 9/11, and even more important, bargained the political insecurities of his opponents, The daughter of Dick Cheney, who manipulated an atmosphere of chaos to his ambitions of an imperial presidency, a permanent war base and an omni-powerful national security machine operating with privilege and liberty. Liz Cheney is the daughter of an unpopular Vice-President, one of the most adept bureaucratic players American politics has ever produced. His doctrine, not the Bush Doctrine, propelled government actions and guided national policy for Bush’s eight years in office. I tell you this as one must recognize the legacy of Liz Cheney. Divorcing her history from the cocoon of Cheneyism is like denying the royalty of Prince Harry. You can’t and you wouldn’t dare.

The manifestation of a major fracture and disturbance within the fault lines of the Republican Party morphing into a militant Trump sect versus a pro-corporate, neoconservative faction is evident. But the resurrection of the latter is nothing short of dangerous in itself. It would merely signal another form of right-wing violence, literally and metaphorically, against both Americans and all others. Herein lies the problem with this daughter. Now, firstly, I am a fierce, loyal and resolute Democrat. Both Liberal and Progressive. With interest and purposefulness I have studied the tenets of the GOP and reject many of the essential presumptions. Clearly, I do not understand the Republican Party, however I am intrigued by the purely outrageous chicaneries infiltrating the minds of some Republicans.

A former State Department official, Liz Cheney, who has served in the House since 2019, has previously battled with Mr Trump. Along with members of both parties, she denounced Trump’s military withdrawals, supported and modeled mask-wearing, social distancing and quarantines designed to mitigate COVID19. She opposed Republican efforts to overturn the election results. And there’s little doubt that Trump made Cheney a target for potentially extreme onslaughts. As Trump stated, “We got to get rid of the weak congresspeople, the ones that aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world.” However, let us not forget who Cheney really is! As for Cheney herself, she has called the Democratic party the party of anti-Semitism, infanticide and the party of socialism, hardly the words of a good -willed competitor with whom Democrats would be able to work on greater issues most cooperatively. Currently, the Cheney’s passions on matters of state may allineate in some ways with Democrats’, but the family has, in its long past in the arena of American power, wreaked tremendous havoc to human rights. The comparison to the TRUMP ERA cannot be overlooked. For I am not blinded nor gullible in realizing true history here nor basing judgement on actions which may be singular and exceptional. However, as she now fights for her political life, political observers say Cheney is not one to walk away from what she feels is right. For it is clear that Ms Cheney is an honorable and principled person, and like her beliefs or not, she will defend them wholly and steadfastly. It is this part of Liz Cheney I most admire.

In an essay in the Washington Post, Ms Cheney stated, “History is watching. Our children are watching,” and warned her colleagues of the long-term damage to party and country that will result from embracing Trump’s false rhetoric for political purposes. “We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be,” she wrote. For Liz Cheney was one of ten Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment. And, she has been facing backlash for her decision ever since.

Clearly, this outstanding dissidence with her party has not surprisingly led to calls for her to be removed from her party’s leadership. A call for a special conference meeting to vote for Cheney’s resignation began through a petition by members of the Freedom Caucus in January. “I’m not going anywhere,” Cheney told POLITICO. “This is a vote of conscience…our nation is facing an unprecedented, since the Civil War, constitutional crisis.”

Representative Cheney further expressed her opinions in an OP-ED piece in the Washington Post on May 6th defending her views surrounding the victory of President Biden. Facing the possibility of being ousted of her position in the House, she continues to voice her disapproval of her party’s conduct. Contentious debates concerning Republican principles have seethed among House leaders and across the GOP panorama and is expected to culminate next week with a vote to oust Ms Cheney from her position as the third-ranking House Republican.

The Republican Party’s maintaining Trump’s lies and falsehoods are at issue given his overwhelming support among GOP voters? Should not the GOP and its leaders directly face up to the damage MrTrump has wreaked?

According to Senator Lindsay Graham, Liz Cheney believes that Trump disqualified himself by his precarious conduct, however he admits that the GOP will never be able to stay together without Trump and his supporters. “There is no construct where the party can be successful without him.”House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy stated. Cheney assumed opposite roles of the divide, undermining the party’s efforts to put on a united front well before the January 6th riots. It may be apparent and many believe that at the heart of this implosion of negotiations is a fundamental misinterpretation of Cheney’s positions. Her dedication and fortitude in naming, blaming and shaming Mr Trump as well as her defiant rejection to succumb to McCarthy’s flirtatious petitions to move on and put on a united front to display unit has become the cornerstone to her political objectives, a seemingly indisputable objective she is unable to compromise nor compartmentalize. It appears Ms Cheney has shown her ability and enthusiasm to sacrifice her House leadership ambitions to this end, risking her re-election hopes, while chastising McCarthy for stating on previous occasions that Mr Trump ‘bears responsibility’ for the attack on the Capitol. Even if she is cast out of power in the House, she has made clear that she will not stop, promising to take her argument against Trump to the campaign trail in Wyoming, where he garnered 70 percent of the vote in 2020. She has told others that blocking Trump from leading the party is a fight she sees as just beginning, no matter how the upcoming vote goes.

“The Republican Party is at a turning point,” Cheney wrote Wednesday in a Washington Post OP-ED “and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.”

Ms Cheney’s assaults on Trump has caused passionate and perhaps dangerous retaliatory effects. As recently as last week Trump has conferred in Florida to discourse about 2022 endorsements, even discussing Wyoming Republican rivals to run against this fierce adversary. Some political advisers have already begun calling officials in Wyoming, polling and conferring with potential candidates. Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, said getting rid of Cheney was “one of the highest priorities as far as primary endorsements go.” As for Ms Cheney, she continues to assert her belief that she will win reelection in Wyoming, where she has been censured by the state Republican Party for supporting Trump’s impeachment earlier this year. But her reelection may require a transformation in the Republican Party away from its current dependence on and adoration of Trump. A difficult if almost impossible situation for Cheney to overcome.

The last time Republicans gathered to rule her fate, in February, she demanded a formal vote as to whether she would remain in her leadership position. She is expected to repeat this response this week, in order to coerce her colleagues in confronting the Trump’s role in the deadly attack on the Capitol. “The choice is so clear,” said one Cheney ally. “Is it okay to be in leadership and tell the truth? That is what members are going to have to weigh in on.”

This is concerning…It is looking increasingly likely that Liz Cheney will be ousted from her role as House Republican conference chairwoman because of these criticisms. Some Republican lawmakers have argued Cheney’s comments have become a distraction from the party’s goal of taking back Congress in next year’s elections. Are her abilities to carry out the job as conference chair being jeopardized and are her loyalties becoming questionable?

Again, McCarthy is clearly moving toward stripping Rep.Cheney of her leadership post for her frequent criticism of former President. This extraordinary operation would be necessary to unify a party whose base still reveres the former president four months after he incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to McCarthy snd colleagues. With the GOP close to reclaiming control of the House next year, the UNUSUAL STEP suggests TO ME that Republicans would do almost anything to bolster the party, despite the TRUTH of the incitement for the horrific murderous events of January 6th 2021. The refusal to confront Trump’s ongoing lie that he won the 2020 election, a campaign that he actually lost by a wide margin.
Republicans supporting Cheney’s dismissal may dispute her becoming an ‘interference’, a ‘liability’, a ‘complication’. Their goal of ‘moving forward’ , so they imply, is to now concentrate wholly on policy in providing a concise and clear definition of what it means to be a Republican. So… this is the goal? And the means? I daresay ethics are challenged, violated. Are these not politics of personality rather than politics of people? Is the adoration of Trump truly an ambition of the Republican Party?

As for Liz Cheney’s future role in government… well… she is smart, experienced and a loyal to her convictions. However she doesn’t belong in this era of misplaced priorities and delusional thinking. Today’s political arena is theater. A ‘Protagonist’…an ‘Antagonist’. A production of fictional drama so divisive the audience welcomes this tragic pandemic. Seats are empty due to a political virus for which there is no vaccine. The cure is in one’s heart. And that is not as easily accessed. It supercedes science and implies morality – something certain leaders do not understand…Trump’s tragic flaw. And THIS is the tragedy… PLEASEREADTHIS 🗽

Greetings….from Asbury’s West Side Story

Greetings….from Asbury’s West Side Story

— Read on 63492.home.blog/2021/05/04/greetings-from-asburys-west-side-story/

In the eye opening book, “ Gentrification Down the Shore”, Molly Markus snd Mary Gatta engage in a plentiful examination of this infamous Jersey beach town, Asbury Park. These longtime residents of this beach-community demonstrate the racial inequality in the founding of Asbury Park reverberating a century later. They reveal an important and distinctive tale of gentrification through an intersectional lens to portray the significance of race, the role of the LGBTG populace, post- industrialism and the role and problems of its redevelopment. From Venice, California to Williamsburg to east coast beach towns like Asbury Park … ‘qualified’ districts are changing from funky, diverse communities to pricey upscale tourist zones of hipster cool. This book documents the almost tragic consequences of this sort of redevelopment, which bypasses longtime residents in favor of seasonal visitors and deprives them of access to nature, culture, and everyday civic life.

In response to this account, my takeaway of Asbury Park is a melange of commotion and confusion. Let’s start…

You have heard of this place…in context of summertime amusement, Rock ‘n Roll, the boardwalk and most recently, it’s ‘gentrification’. And this ‘remodel’ has been going on for years. Many years. But the Asbury Park of today does not mean any of that to me. Sure, trendy restaurants and pricey retail abound. Crime IS down and affordable housing dots the tapestry of the West side. The Asbury I knew and loved expired back in the 60’s and 70’s. As a kid on the boardwalk we were housed in old Victorians blocks from the boardwalk where a meal with crisp linen napkins and a predetermined dinner time was part of the nightly fee. And in the early ‘70’s seeing Bruce at The Stone Pony three nights in a row for a nominal fee. Then. I grew up. Matured. Retired Now. I work again..here. In Asbury Park. On the west side. MY ‘gentrification’. Retirement lost is luster. So I find myself on the West Side. Doesn’t matter what I do. It made sense. So here I am. But something doesn’t feel right. Before dawn I drive to work down a deserted Memorial Drive. It’s still dark at 6:15am. The trip smells like ‘something’. Reminds me of something. And it’s not flashbacks of Bruce, Coppertone nor boardwalk splinters. It’s Haiti! (A place where I spent some time over the past ten years…). The sunrise…the water. The fog. The smell. And the ‘other things’…the empty lots, the strewn garbage, dumpsters, the rebuilding that’s taking too long… please forgive me. A nonsensical analogy for most of you. But I spent many days in Haiti seeing GOOD…but more BAD. HERE? I see more GOOD, some BAD….but we are not in Haiti. Are we???

I used to come here. In grammar school. In high school. The 1960’s. Rides, boardwalk games, shops, candy and all the junk food you could possibly ingest! Convention Center concerts. Paul Revere and The Raiders. Tommy James and The Shondelles. The Temptations. Tom Jones. Crowded beaches, fringed beach umbrellas everywhere! Walking to the shoreline was a obstacle maze frying your feet! Cheap motels abound with affordable dinners beckoning your five buck limit! College came and decades (like five) passed. Now. Am back in Asbury. And it beckons me each morning to ‘dare’ to come again and figure it out. Stare at the abandoned stadium across the street populated with paper cups, wrappers and soiled broken masks instead of bystanders. I walk the neighborhood at lunch trying to feel at home. Too many parked police cars, too many Charter Schools, too many abandoned chained bicycles to posts. And, not enough people. Where are they? So I venture down to the East side after work for a twenty dollar Cosmo. Stroll down Cookman. Trying to ‘fit in’. Trying to ‘get it’. But I do not. Too much history. Too phony. Too pretentious, as the trip from my job on the West side was still my scenery. My postcard. My backdrop. How did I get ‘here’ so fast?

I try. But, the town makes no sense to me. Or very little. It perplexes me. It has been written about in many respected journals in glowing terms…. ‘BEST BEACHES’, ‘BEST SHORE TOWN’, ‘BEST RESTAURANTS’ – and I am stymied. YES! This famous Jersey Shore town is lined with sandy beaches and enchanting cottages and, as cited by Newsweek, “But there is more to the town than its Instagram-able beachside, as (Asbury Park) also boasts a vibrant art and music scene and an assortment of independent boutique shops.” I mean…there’s certainly no question that Asbury Park deserves a place on THE LIST. It is fair to question, if Newsweek has been to town recently, if they think of it as a in“small seaside community,” ; it is also fair to wonder why New Jersey, a state known by many primarily for its beaches and beach towns — has just one representative on the list. I find this bewildering…

Makris and Gatta bolstered my desire to make the connections I so needed to interpret the threads of the Asbury Park I now experience. It started to make some sense. East Side/West Side, an abbreviation. Their engagement in their ethnographic investigation of Asbury Park helped me greatly to better understand the network among jobs, seasonal gentrification and the experiences of longtime residents in this complicated and intricate town.

Historically, Asbury Park was founded by a New York City businessman named James A. Bradley in 1871 on 500 acres of shoreline. He afforded it from a windfall profit he made from brush manufacturing. Later he became the city’s mayor. He named Asbury Park after Francis Asbury, a bishop who was a founder of the Methodist Episcopal Church after converting to the Methodist religion. Historical accounts of Bradley’s segregationist policies have made the community demand the removal of his statue in town and have called him the ‘Jim Crow of The North’. With many of the white tourists objecting to the large presence of African Americans that worked and vacationed in Asbury Park, this Mr. Bradley instituted social and racial boundaries in many public spaces by establishing bathing hours during which black people would be allowed access to the beaches then barring blacks from white establishments through the creation of colored facilities, eventually prohibiting all African Americans from the “beaches, bathing houses, and pavilions’”. Not only was Bradley met with resistance from the African American community, but his actions were noted by the press and used by Southern legislators to argue for segregation which later become law under Jim Crow in 1896. Clearly, Asbury Park’s history is embedded in racism. James A. Bradley’s actions put in place segregationist policies that are still affecting the town today. The economic disparity that exists between the West and East side of our city is a direct result of these racist policies and are conspicuously evident. As a witness each day to the clear manifestations of this disproportion, the need for local representatives to take a stand by correcting the wrongs of the past are crucial and urgent. This must be accomplished by moving forward devoted to an inclusive and reparative vision for the future. A more cohesive Asbury Park, and not a tale of East Side vs West Side.

An article in ‘NJ Advance Media’ (2019) explains how some years ago slick entrepreneurs and resourceful investors saw Asbury Park as a Mecca for redevelopment. It had HISTORY. An expansive beach and boardwalk barely an hour from the Holland Tunnel with vintage arcades speckled with shrines dedicated to Rock ‘n Roll icons. A liberal Shrine to the young. A museum for the old – a time capsule. Implode it’s staleness, dilapidation, segregation and narrow mindedness. So, officials adopted a Waterfront Redevelopment Plan in 2002 to architect this faded tourist town into a gentrified oasis. But after more than 20 years of new restaurants, new condos and increasingly crowded streets, beaches and boardwalks, community activists, environmentalists and others say the redevelopment plan is now forestalled! Stymied. Stonewalled? Huh? Well, that’s what I read! I mean… everyone looks happy?!?! ‘Everyone just loves it’, don’t they? Bring your pups and eat the largest baked pretzels since Octoberfest! Visit one of Asbury’s hometown breweries! Me? Well, the pretzels ARE tasty and I hate beer. Yet sitting on the boardwalk staring at the crowd and the sea is enough. The sand is the same as the 70’s. The waves are the same. But everything else? Didn’t it work? Or did it work too well? I do not know. It just doesn’t ‘feel’ right. Too much? Or too little? And…hmmm….I daresay most people don’t want to say what they are truly thinking…feeling. I know this. Just ask. It’s an enthusiastic ‘I gotta go there again soon’ retort which, to me, is hazy borderline. My contemplative and delicate spirit needs to know more…

Some of the very things that have helped drive Asbury Park’s resurgence have now been threatened by the rising property values, development and exclusivity that have followed: the city’s art and music scene — anchored by the Stone Pony and its reputation as a rock ‘n roll cradle for Bruce Springsteen and other acts; and its diversity of races, socioeconomic levels and sexual orientation. The thing is to ensure that the people who have been here for one or more generations have their role in experiencing this renaissance. Growing pains are natural, however enduring revitalization does not alienate and dismantle lives is a tricky business.

So many of the very things that has made Asbury Park’s resurgence have now been threatened by the rising property values, development and exclusivity that have followed. The diversity of races , ethnicities, socioeconomic levels and sexual orientation are seen as now jeopardized, imperiled. Is the quirky energy becoming less unique? Is all the restoration testing the idiosyncrasies of the rarity of such a town as Asbury Park?

According to Amy Quinn, Asbury’s deputy mayor, ‘what you’re seeing now is revitalization…also gentrification. In reference to the demographics of ten or so years ago, we’re constantly figuring out how to make sure the black, gay, artist and small business communities… can remain here.’

Jay Sugarman, chairman of ‘iStar’, the real estate investment firm, says his company, when asked about the toll of the gentrification issue on the underprivileged of the town, is generating new opportunities where few previously existed. He goes on to state that through the building of an economic base, this allows the community to have tax revenues…allowing Asbury to have the advantages and backing for all members. Mr. Sugarman adds ‘Not all of iStar’s properties are high-end’, pointing to Asbury Lanes, a vintage bowling alley that was reborn two years ago with a new concert stage and dinner theatre. That’s what he says…

Asbury Park School District is one of 31 SDA, or state-funded, New Jersey school districts. The District have an average math proficiency score of 7% (versus the New Jersey public school average of 42%), and reading proficiency score of 15% (versus the 55% statewide average). This district’s average testing ranking is 1/10, which is in the bottom 50% of public schools in New Jersey.Minority enrollment is 98% of the student body (majority Black), which is more than the New Jersey public school average of 56% (majority Hispanic).

But I do not live here. I am a visitor. Although I work here, who am I to judge , to criticize, to castigate, to blame…. however I see what I see. I feel what I feel. Yet I can appreciate and examine this town. And in point of fact, today, it is reasonable to say that Asbury Park is currently making strides to make the city affordable for all its population while preserving its charisma. Recently, the approval of a package of ordinances that together, and if enforced, would create one of the strongest affordable housing frameworks of any urban area in the state. Now, going forward, at least 20 percent of new homes created in most parts of Asbury Park must be affordable to working families. While the legislation included models for new housing construction along the beach and in the central business district, these new requirements will help restrain the rampant gentrification that has begun pricing out many longtime residents.

The new affordable housing ordinances will hopefully ensure that people from all socioeconomic groups and races will be able to benefit from the massive growth being seen in Asbury Park and represent a refocusing of the city’s policies away from wealthy vacationers and back toward the residents who live farther away from the beach but who remain the backbone of our community and the source of its vitality. This only changed because a diverse group of longtime residents banded together, forming the Asbury Park Affordable Housing Coalition to advocate for change and demand a seat at the table.

Mayor John Moor and the City Council listened to the community’s voices and worked with them to craft this legislation — though more needs to be done, especially passage of an ordinance providing rent security and stabilization. Asbury’s new affordable housing rules come at a pivotal time for our community. The new affordable homes produced thanks to this legislation will provide additional protections for low-income families that are experiencing extreme financial strain as the economic toll caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to mount — particularly because people of color are more likely to be working in the service-sector jobs that have been most impacted.

Today, I still have the vivid memories of people fleeing my hometown of Elizabeth and the beach town of Asbury during the riots of the the 70’s. Communities throwing what they could into the backs of pickup trucks and getting out while Levy’s and Steinbeck’s boarded up its windows against the looters. I also have just as vivid memories of the boardwalk in its vibrancy, watching the fireworks with a boyfriend I’d rather forget, eating salt water taffy and hot dogs, riding the tilt a whirl at Funsville and, of course, jumping the waves that seemed stories high! And, over the years as I have watched the attempts, successes and failures at bringing this beloved town back to life and I feel ashamed of my ambivalence. Two steps forward, one step back. But why deny these changes, these needs for this natural metamorphosis? Can’t I just let Asbury Park be the gem it is so deserving to be without criticizing it’s inner core? It’s a complicated town not pretending to be on Long Beach Island. It’s changes were not spiteful but in spite of what it is, was and will be. I must learn that Asbury Park is an unusual, eclectic mix of demographics. Like any city in America it has all the good, bad, beautiful and ugly pieces that make up a city. But this is a special city. It is remarkable and continual. And, tomorrow, on my way to work, I will look past what I saw yesterday. PLEASEREADTHIS🗽

“The past two years, something really went wrong… We have a problem Marshall…The words really hurt and they cut like a knife…,With no way to mend a bleeding heart…Now before God and everyone, I must apologize…’Cause at the time I thought it was the right thing to do…I’m tortured daily, Marshall, by people always asking me …Why you’re such an angry young man”

…Set The Record Straight by Debbie Mathers Briggs

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP), both a mental illness and a form of child abuse, seems to primarily affect women. Very rarely, if EVER, dads… they seem to always escape the ‘hard’ part of parenting (menstruation, pregnancy, fear of pregnant, despair over lack of pregnancy, hemorrhoids, birth control, child birth, lactation complications, postpartum depression)….right? But that’s NOT what this is about.

Eminem. Eminem’s mother, Debbie Mathers, was accused of child abuse by social workers when Marshall and his brother, Nathan, were children. Eminem has rapped in the past about wanting to kill her, for this maltreatment. In his 2002 song “Cleaning Out My Closet,” Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, describes himself as a victim of Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy.

The disorder has since been renamed and is now classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as “factitious disorder imposed on self”. “Factitious disorder imposed on another” (FDIA) formerly Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP) is a mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (I prefer this nomenclature) is also a form of child exploitation. The caretaker of a child, most often a mother, either fabricates symptoms OR causes real symptoms to look like the child is ill or injured or in fact injures or makes the child ill to provide opportunities for rescue and/or care. Victims are often too young, impaired or vulnerable, preventing them from stopping the abuse or reporting it. Whether it is called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, pediatric symptom falsification, or simply child abuse, what remains as the central issue of importance is that a caregiver causes injury to a child that involves unnecessary and harmful or potentially harmful medical care.

Gypsy Rose. Dee Dee Blanchard had been lying about her daughter Gypsy Rose’s maladies ever since she was a baby. Gypsy’s young life was spent in and out of hospitals, confined to sick beds and deceiving everyone surrounding her. Dee Dee continually subjected Gypsy Rose to unnecessary surgeries, while surreptitiously administering daily unnecessary seizure medications. Concocting a fictional drama that her daughter couldn’t walk, required a wheelchair, suffered from leukemia, muscular dystrophy and mental retardation, Dee Dee Blanchard is a model of a diseased person afflicted with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP). In a distressing twist, Dee Dee was found murdered in her Missouri home at the hands of her own daughter. Gypsy confessed to police to having her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, who she met online, stab her mother to death. She is currently serving 10 years in prison and appears to be a healthy young woman entirely free from any physical illnesses. Having pled guilty to second-degree murder in 2016, she and is serving her sentence at a Correctional Center in Missouri, where she and Dee Dee were living when Dee Dee was murdered. In 2023, after she’s served about seven years of her sentence, she’ll be eligible for parole. Dimunitive and toothless, Gypsy Rose was her mother’s meal ticket. And when she did emerge from her wheelchair wielding a knife aiding in the destruction of her mother, was this murder self-defense from years of perverse abuse or simple premeditated murder? I daresay what I might adjudicate should my opinion be considered…

The reasons why MSP happens are not fully understood. In cases where the mother is responsible, it could be that she enjoys the attention of playing the role of a “caring mother”. A large number of mothers involved in this form of child abuse may also be suffering from borderline personality disorder, characterized by emotional instability, impulsivity and disturbed thinking. Some mothers involved may also have so-called “somatoform disorders”, where the person experiences multiple and recurrent physical symptoms. It has also been reported that a proportion of these mothers may also have Munchausen’s Syndrome themselves. Needless to say, MSP is an attention-seeking, sociopathic disorder as well as a personality disorder. It is difficult to delineate which mental disorder is dominant, however, the harm caused can be irreparable. When their victims in fact ARE treated by a healthcare provider, the individual often feels ‘fueled’ to sustain and prolong their damage. Since all the focus is now on the ‘distraught mother’, this garnering of sympathy and attention is similar to how a narcissist behaves when mistreating their victims. An adrenaline rush with future noxious sequellae. Some have unresolved psychological and behavioral problems, such as a history of self-harm, eating disorders, or drug/alcohol abuse. Some have experienced the death of another child. Let’s us not forget, however, that these behaviors, although a recognized ‘mental disorder’ is truly just as urgently a form of child abuse – a criminal act.

In reality, those with MSP appear to have a keen talent at projecting a pleasant and caring façade. Mothers with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy are acutely able to scam all people involved with the ‘healing’ of their child because they seem incredibly “normal”. And I think, actually, that is so much more hideous than the crouching villain of another saga. I just think that concept of a mother methodically torturing a child over decades—because they want attention is so terrifying and SO VERY DIFFICULT for people to comprehend that I think they try and find these other reasons where they can still have the mother be ultimately loving with the best of intentions. It is truly a sinister and insidious scenario…

As stated earlier, is is mothers that have been found to perpetrate most MSP cases as women are more likely to be the primary caregivers to their children, therefore having more opportunity to carry out the abuse undetected. Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy corrupts the concept of motherhood. It’s a ‘caricature’ of mothering, as they come across as being heroic, indefatigable devotees to their child. The victims are presented as weak, wobbly, debilitated and incompetent, because ‘mother knows best’! The chicanery and hypocrisy vivid in these double-dealing offenders.

You might ask what the complications of this disorder imposed on a child might look like? It can most certainly lead to serious short- and long-term complications, including multiple hospitalizations, the death of the victim, depression, maladaptive behaviors, personality disorders and even suicide. Although people WITH Munchausen syndrome may actively obtain treatment for the numerous disorders they create, they typically do not want to admit to and seek treatment for the actual syndrome. The main treatment goal for Munchausen syndrome is to modify the person’s behavior and lessen the misuse/overuse of medical resources. Treatment usually consists of cognitive behavioral therapy, however, generally, MSP is a very difficult disorder to treat and often requires years of therapy and support. Social services, law enforcement, children’s protective services, and physicians must function as a team to stop the behavior. Accused mothers need the support of these multidisciplinary teams but are often forced into contentious struggles with legal professionals and child protection services.

In the end, IF and WHEN MSP is suspected, the clinician must approach and discuss the concerns directly with the mother so that a realization of pathology can be established. Most likely child protective services and law enforce the will become involved. It is crucial to avoid needlessly enflaming fears so that an objective even-handed assessment can proceed in order to build a pathway to case management. Separation of mother and child should be considered only with evidence of probable danger, and in accordance to state laws. The motivations of the mother are not established by declaring the MSP diagnosis. Future risk is not established by stating the evil actions of the MSP mother. The MSP diagnosis may have interrupted abuse by parents and naive physicians, but its exploitation has unnecessarily torn many families apart. This persistent problem with the Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy label must be honestly and adequately addressed in court, the medical literature, and by all healthcare personnel.

It is very important to start treatment as early as possible. If the diagnosis becomes definite, psychiatric treatment should be started immediately. All other adults working with or involved with the child must be keenly aware and careful in noting any frequent illness, accident or injury. The child should stay in a different place during both the child’s treatment and the mother’s psychological treatment.

In the end…most mothers with this pathology show mistrustful and inconsistent parental behaviour and inefficient coping. Most also receive little or no support from their partners, if present. The high amount of personality disorders has been noted in caretakers. This might be the reason for the often reported failure of psychotherapeutic interventions in this population. This is especially tragic, as effective family therapy has proven to be an viable and successful method for intervention. This being said, it is just appalling and incomprehensible to me that anyone would induce such medical hardship onto themselves, using a child or other dependent as a vehicle for sympathy. Natural illnesses and injuries incurring upon a child is tragic enough without the manipulation of a child to garner commiseration. A truly shameful crime. PLEASEREADTHIS 🗽

Til it happens to you, you won’t know how it feels Source: LyricFind Not sure if it was ignited by AOC preposterously early this morning…mornings are…

Til it happens to you