It is Christmas Eve and I am having Christmas dinner tonight with friends. Tomorrow I will be seeing my mother so it is a relaxed Christmas for me. Tomorrow, the furbabes and I will have a chicken dinner before I leave.
Merry Christmas all!!!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:09 (average 5:08). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Huffington Post — Amid a spike in anti-Muslim assaults, vandalism and death threats around the country since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino and growing sentiment against the resettlement of Muslim refugees, congregations of all faiths have scrambled to think of ways to curb the violence and call for peace.
In Washington, D.C., on Sunday, the Washington National Cathedral played host to an interfaith pilgrimage of Christians, Jews and Muslims who walked with each other from congregation to congregation, calling for the faithful choose "unity over extremism." …
Along the way, they held signs quoting the Quran on unity and condemning extremism.
"O humankind, indeed we have created you male and female and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know each other," said one (Quran 49:13). "American Muslims condemn ISIS and terrorism," read another. …
“Embedded in all three Abrahamic faiths is the understanding that we are all pilgrims," added the Rev. Gina Gilland Campbell, the canon precentor at the National Cathedral. "A pilgrimage is a spiritual activity, done in community. It’s a journey toward something, and this pilgrimage brings us closer to God, and to each other.”
What so many people do not understand, or choose not to understand, is that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have a common point of intersection . . . Abraham or Ibrahim in Arabic. In Islam, Jesus is known as a minor prophet. In Judaism, Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah is not reconised. We all have more in common than we know, including our humanity. And that humanity includes Atheists, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus etc.
Mother Jones — In the early 1900s, Lewis Hine left his job as a schoolteacher to work as a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, investigating and documenting child labor in the United States. As a sociologist, Hine was an early believer in the power of photography to document work conditions and help bring about change. He traveled the country, going to fields, factories, and mines—sometimes working undercover—to take pictures of kids as young as four years old being put to work.
Shorpy Higginbotham was a greaser at Bessie Mine in Alabama, working for the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company. Hine said the boy told him that he was 14 years old, but Hine suspected the boy wasn't telling the truth. At work, Shorpy carried two heavy pails of grease and was often in danger of being run over by the coal cars.
Partly as a result of Hine's work (as well as that of Mary Harris Jones, whoMother Jones is named after), Congress passed the Keating-Owens Child Labor Act in 1916. It established child labor standards, including a a minimum age (14 years old for factories, and 16 years old for mines) and an eight-hour workday. It also barred kids under the age of 16 from working overnight. However, the Keating-Owens Act was later ruled unconstitutional, and lasting reform to federal child labor laws didn't come until the New Deal.
Things have changed in the US when it comes to child labour laws. But in other countries, child labour is still accepted, partly because families need the income. In some areas, children are treated as slaves. Click through this pictorial essay.
Think Progress — Last week, a cafeteria worker at an Idaho middle school was fired for giving a free lunch to a hungry 12-year-old student. On Wednesday, after significant backlash against the school, she was offered her job back.
The Idaho State Journal reported on Wednesday night that the worker, Darlene Bowden, would “have to think about” whether to re-accept the position.
A petition on Care2, Don't Fire a Kind Lunch Lady: Children Shouldn't Go Hungry!, keeps beating its target. The newest target is 90,000 signatures with 88,472 actual signature. I can appreciate the need to think about returning, but I hope the lunch lady does. People are watching this Republican school board.
My Universe —
… no wrapping required!
"I ain't no Rudolph!"
12 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 24/12/2015”
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Appropriate scope to go with Christmas and what it is supposed to mean. Thanks Lynn
YVW! The very idea of all faiths coming together gives me goosebumps of hope!
Merry Christmas, every one
It's past 5 PM, so my Christmas day is nearly over. It's been about as quiet and relaxed as you think yours is going to be.
HuPo: Isn't it marvelous that Da'esh's attempts to widen the divide between their favored Sunni branch of Islam and the hated Shiite branch (or in fact anything that isn't Sunni) by means of terrorism, with a little help from right wing extremists in other countries now seems to bring about the exact opposite? The ranting and raving of Republicans and their kindred spirits bring people together and unites them in the opposition to this hate mongering, irrespective of their own religion. They seek what all these religions share and that is love and mutual understanding.
MoJo: Child labor is stil prevalent in poor countries where parents have little choice but to take their children out of school and make them work as an adult, just to have some food on the table. Often the parents can't get work because they are "too expensive" while their children are hired for a few cents, because "they don't do an adult's job". Because of the lack of education, generation after generation is stuck in this cycle which can only be be broken from the top with laws which are enforced. Child labor across the world did get a lot of attention a decade ago, but the financial crisis soon ended that and children exploited as bad as before.
ThPr: These so-called Christians make me sick; they rather let a child go hungry and sack someone who didn't stick to the rules to let it go hungry than show some compassion. I can understand that Darlene Bowden has to think about returning, her job will never be the same and she'll always be under scrutiny. Let's hope the same is true for her employer.
My Universe: Cats don't care much about Christmas; who can blame them when they're stuck in attire like that.
Amen! Lona.
4:57 (average 5:09 when I did it) An owl in the snow, yes, but NOT a snowy owl!
HuffPo – Gratitude to the National Cathedral. Wonder if the MSM will notice.
MoJo – No doubt the Republicans want to bring it back. (Actually some have said so.) "Uppity kids" (thinking they have rights) is surely one of the big things wrong with the US in their opinion.
Think Progress – She said she was concerned that she would always feel the threat of being fired again for some kindness hanging over her head. I can hardly blame her.
Universe – This cat seems to be enjoying Christmas, even showing the spirit of giving and sharing in his own feline way. How can anyone doubt that CAT is where it's AT?
Love that puddy tat serenade!
Ham here. Have a great Christmas!
3:12
Amen!
Republicans want to do awayu with child labor laws.
Kudos to the Lunch Lady!
I have that puzzle by 3 whiskers!
Lunch lady rocks! One could think of her as a soldier against the Republican war against those…humans.
HP: Yes, we are all travelers. I recently read something claiming to be a definition of religion, seeing it as being a bridge to spitirtuality, that bemoaoned the fact that all to many people get stuck on the bridge. Sadly, those people seem to also get stuck on the idea that they are MORE equal than anyone else; "exceptional" might be the way they see themelves.
Merry once Pagan Saturnalia to all.
ah my just think what a super , fantastic world if we had no religion what so ever !! so much of the hate and abuse in this world would just vanish . how you are Lynn ? hope all is well and good . be well .
Doing well David. Thanks!
I don't have a problem with religion itself, but I do have a problem with what some people do with it. When people use religion, any religion incuding atheism. but specifically their own religion as a cudgel to beat others, then I have a real problem
Thanks everyone for checking in while you're all so busy!