“How many are My servants whose deeds have become veils between them and their own selves, and who have been kept back thereby from drawing nigh unto God, He Who causeth the winds to blow.” Bahá’u’lláh, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts This blog has 322 posts… I mention that because this blog will live as long as the Internet exists; and, the way things are looking, that will be for a very long time… I also mention the number of posts because I’ve worked very har... Read Full Story

This post contains an extremely potent video called “Did You Know?” Even if you’ve seen it, it certainly bears re-watching… Also, I’m going to change my usual format. I normally end a post with a Spiritual Quote. Today, I’ll begin with two quotes; to set up a context for the video… The first quote broadly considers the global situation the video addresses: “It has become clear that the powers of the institution of the nation-state, once the arb... Read Full Story

The Bahá’í Faith is dangerous, according to the government of Iran… The Faith was born in Iran in 1844… Tens of thousands of Bahá’ís have lost their lives because they won’t recant… According to a Bahá’í source: “Currently, there are at least 31 Baha’is in Iran’s prisons, including the seven people who comprised the leadership group known as the Friends in Iran. Those seven have now been in prison more than a year, awaiting trial.” D... Read Full Story

From Machines Like Us: “The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists has warned.” And, quoting the scientists they cite in the article, they add: “The major powers must be willing to enforce an agreement – but legitimacy will depend on acceptance by numerous and diverse countries, and non-governmental acto... Read Full Story

I normally wouldn’t put an advertisement video on this blog… My goal here is to bring social and cultural issues to light and attempt to raise them to the level of Principle… Too often we take the facts of a situation and try to find a resolution at the level of the facts themselves. This rarely works since facts alone won’t reveal reasons and values and goals that the facts are merely pointing to… Solutions happen when values are considered; especially if the so... Read Full Story

From the social media guide, Mashable : “Web video can be an especially effective way for charities to get the word out about their cause….the most creative videos tend to be the most memorable and leave a more lasting impression.” And, even though the world needs more organizations working toward social good, it’s becoming clear that there needs to be a stronger unifying force among these organizations—a wide and deep human wave of unified feeling—a stronger sens... Read Full Story

From The Hub: “In 2008, political violence erupted throughout Zimbabwe as a result of highly contested national elections. Between May and July alone, local organizations estimate that state-sanctioned groups abducted, raped, tortured, and beat over 2,000 women and girls due to their political affiliations.” From BNet: “More needs to be done to deal with an epidemic of rape in the world’s conflict zones and to help victimized women, Doctors Without Borders  said T... Read Full Story

Yep, all 314 posts from March 6, 2008 to August 30, 2009 and the book ended up being 789 pages! I produced the book for absolutely no cost… I started with BlogBooker which downloaded the blog into a PDF file… Then, I used Lulu to upload the PDF and convert it into a print-ready file, with color cover and all… Lulu lets you add whatever royalty you want to their basic costs to print the book when someone orders it—Print-On-Demand… Well… Since the book was 789 page... Read Full Story

Yes! magazine is good for a lot of reasons… One of the latest goodies on their site is a list of twelve things a really  educated person knows… From the site: “You won’t find ‘takes honors classes’, ‘gets good grades’, or ‘attends only Ivy League schools’ on John Taylor Gatto’s list of qualities of an educated person.” Do check out the full article but here are those points of real education: 1: Establish an individual set of va... Read Full Story

This post isn’t directly about the moral dangers our youth face, but a perusal of this Google search will deepen your understanding about that… ~~~ But, look at this couple: so youthfully together, so fresh with Life and promise! They could be dead in tragic moments from engaging in an activity that far too many do with no thought of danger—exuberance overcoming vigilance… While I was Twittering, I followed a link to a very well-produced yet grippingly graphic public servic... Read Full Story