SARA NILES. Author and Social Media Influencer. Books, Essays, Social Awareness The lives we live determine our passions, and our passions impact the lives we live, in a dynamic, reciprocal pattern. My Life inspired me to write Memoirs: TORN From the Inside Out, The Journey, Out of the Maelstrom, Essays, Opinion Editorials, and social narratives that shed light during dark times.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
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 1st. 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.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Friday, December 20, 2013
Thursday, December 19, 2013
The Many Faces of Religion: excerpt from The Journey by Sara Niles
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.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
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...
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