Happy New Year 2014

I'll Be Missing You (Shenoa Kinshasa Thompson born Jan. 1st 1980; 1980-2013)

Shenoa loved this song by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans:

The Great Minimum Wage Hike of 2014 By Sara Niles

The Great Depression was the greatest economic disaster in America. It began with the crash of the stock market on ‘Black Tuesday’ in 1929, and by the early 1930’s, it was in full swing. The Grapes of Wrath, written by Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck, painted a fictional story of lives that were all too real for people who lived the tale that Steinbeck recreated through the Joad family’s desperate attempt to survive. The ‘grapes’ of prosperity, that is the work and prosperity the family hoped to find when they reached the grape orchards in California, became the ‘Grapes of Wrath’, by the time they reached their destination. Economic strife, hardship and the societal turmoil of a frustrated generation, paved the way for a New Day, when Eisenhower moved to enact ‘New Deal’ legislation that provided economic stability for the banks, and welfare programs for the poor, social security for the aged and sick, and a brand new minimum wage:Franklin D. Roosevelt's post depression Programs

The first minimum wage started out at a whopping $.25 an hour in 1938, was $1.60 per hour in 1968 (I remember those years), and finally, reached $5.15 an hour in 1997. The wage increases came in minute increments, while the runaway economy raced out of control; with inflation consuming the wages of families, to the point of totally eliminating what was once called ‘disposable income’. Every penny and dollar of the working poor was going to basic minimum, and often substandard survival.

Until now, when a substantial increase of the minimum wage is on our doorsteps.

The U.S. minimum wage due to be increased in 13 states on January 1^st. 2014:

CNN Money:Minimum Wage increases 2014

The U.S. minimum wage history:

U.S. Department of Labor: Minimum Wage history chart

How will this affect the economy? One can only wait to see.

Merry Christmas!

Maya Angelou' s Powerful Poem

Take Time Out
"When you see them 
on a freeway hitching rides"

Take Time Out by Maya-follow link

The Many Faces of Religion: excerpt from The Journey by Sara Niles

The Journey by Sara Niles Christmas edition 2013

The Journey is a narrative memoir of the life of Sara Niles and her children after having fled abuse. Niles includes the context of world events and social issues within the narrative of their lives from 1987-2011; the following is an excerpt that demonstrates the power and influence of religion in individual lives:

Excerpt

Chapter 8

The Many Faces of Religion

Throughout history, every nation and village system in the world, has used religious gatherings to form social circles and networks among neighbors. I grew up in the southern United States, deep in the Bible Belt where country churches were the bulwarks of the communities. It did not matter what the local issue of the day was, church was where the meetings took place and the people gathered.

It takes a wise person to be able to judge situations from all sides,  and to see them multi-dimensionally, and to be able to do this perpetually: in fact perhaps it takes special genius to do so. At that time in our lives, I did not possess the genius necessary to judge where the boundaries that limited my children’s freedoms should be. I lacked the balance needed to use religion wisely.  Religion was a vital and powerful force, which can be as useful as it can be dangerous, if not used in a balanced way. Karl Marx once said, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature… It is the opium of the people”, and though this famous saying has angered many a religious soul, it is a true statement nevertheless. Too much religion can indeed be like a drug of escape, for those who are trying to avoid the realities of a ‘dangerous’ world. Just as I found my way into religion as I perceived it at the time, I would find my way again. My children were simply my followers until they developed stronger wills of their own, and would then be free to chart their own paths in life.

SARA NILES: Books, Writing, and Social Issues: Children Dying from Abuse by Sara Niles

SARA NILES: Books, Writing, and Social Issues: Children Dying from Abuse by Sara Niles: Over Four Children a Day Die from Abuse In U.S. Hundreds of Thousands suffer from emotional abuse and neglect Books Written by former Chi...