"At some point while I was playing or preparing to play Monday Night
Football, the news broke about the Ferguson Decision. After trying to
figure out how I felt, I decided to write it down. Here are my thoughts:
I'M
ANGRY because the stories of injustice that have been passed down for
generations seem to be continuing before our very eyes.
Read more:
NFL's Benjamin Watson's Ferguson Post goes viral
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.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
ISIS, the New NAZI Threat?
ISIS vs. NAZI
ISIS: Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
NAZI: the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (English translation)
ISIS –the term evokes horrifying images and brings to mind ideology that brandishes hate like a sword, much like the acrimonious acronym, ISIS. Could it be ISIS is the new 'NAZI' threat?
I remember when another four letter acronym that originally was veiled under the disguise of hope, became instead, a symbol of pure hate: NAZI the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, formed originally to foster pride and hope for the German common people, yet became a hate mongering tool of power crazed Adolph Hitler during the 1930’s and 1940’s before the Allies toppled his regime. The Hitler led NAZI regime murdered millions of innocent men, women, and children in the most brutal and cruel fashion, much like the ISIS regime of today is doing in the ‘name of Islam’. ISIS has adopted the habit of brutally beheading innocent people and using the imagery on Youtube to both horrify most people, while mysteriously attracting others as their followers. The attraction of ISIS for the few who abandon home and family is much like the strange power of cultist religious group over its members, as they gradually become mindless and unquestioning, like brainwashed robots. Religions seldom hold violent belief systems that result in terror for the rest of the world, regardless of their tactics. ISIS followers are like religious converts willing to do anything in the name of its dark power, like beheading innocent people.
The beheading of American citizens that were simply trying to live life and do good for others, like the humanitarian, Peter Kassig, the third American to come to such a horrible fate, leaves the motives of ISIS crystal clear: they are hate mongers and terrorists. Why would anyone in their right mind want to join them after witnessing such atrocities? The only obvious answer is they are not in their right mind at all, but are lost. If being lost can cause one to be susceptible to the ISIS regime, then being lost is a dangerous place to be. Those so desperate to find a place in the world that any place at all will suffice, may find they have been seriously disillusioned. There can be no good outcome for ISIS just as there was not good ending for the NAZI party.
The NAZI party evolved into an evil killing machine that attracted power mongers, hate mongers and disenfranchised souls, seeking an identity at any cost, as members to the ‘new’ gang. The present day ISIS movement seems to have the same twisted power, the power to attract the confused, promising them a mission in life and an ‘identity’ as an ISIS member, as they hold destructive power over lives.
There is only one valid outcome: ISIS must be stopped for the good of mankind.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Hoarding: One of the Strangest of Human Behaviors
When I was growing up on a farm, hearing the term ‘Your room
looks like a pigsty’, brought to mind
the muddy slop that I knew our pigs loved to wallow in. I knew most animals
liked to keep their living areas clean, so the pig was different in its
propensity toward filth and slop. Humans are a step above animals so most take
great care to keep their surrounding clean and organized, and it is good not
only for practical reasons, but a clean environment is a reflection of a person’s
love and respect for self, family and others. Hoarders are of an entirely different
breed, some have a mysterious and compulsive need to surround themselves with
stuff, sometimes filthy, rotten stuff.
One of the most extreme cases was that of the Collyer
brothers, Homer and Langley, from the 1940’s, who hoarded up a four story
brownstone in Harlem, both sons of an opera singer and a doctor. The hoard was
developed after the death of the brother’s parents, as both discontinued normal
life as the hoarding took over. Both brothers were educated professionals when
the hoarding began, and both died buried deep within the tightly hoarded
building.
See Links New York Daily News: Collyer Brothers
Hoarding can be either ‘clean’ and organized or filthy and
disorganized, presenting extreme biohazard risks to the hoarder and those who
live with, or near them. Many hoarders
are intelligent people, and many have extensive resources, which further
confounds the mystery of why a person would hoard.
According to Mayo Clinic, there is no clear understanding of
why hoarders hoard, although there are signs and risk factors:
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Ferguson and Civil Disobedience: A Human Rights Issue
Sara Niles
Riots and acts of ‘Civil Disobedience’, even
peaceful protests are signs that something is wrong on a large scale. The history
of civil disobedience in the U.S. has, in each individual case resulted when a
sense of injustice lay smoldering in the minds of many until it erupted as a
visible sign of unrest; a few examples from the past include the 1965 Watts Riot,
which occurred hot on the heels of the Harlem riots a year before. In both
cases there was a prevailing mindset of racial discrimination and maltreatment
of Blacks, a sense of wrongness about things that festered untended by
political forces. There needed to be change but no change was coming, and there
was no sign of change in the near The earlier riots were clumsy attempts at
forcing change and were forerunners of the
national acts of civil disobedience that
were to come, as more and more people became acutely aware of injustice.
The building mindset of racial injustice ignited a
human rights storm that set the stage for the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement,
with Martin Luther King emerging as its leader (http://www.detroits-great-rebellion.com/Birmingham.html).
Change was being forged as history was made. The major work of the civil right
movement took place in the 1960’s, but there is still work to be done when it
comes of justice and human rights.
The issue at stake in the 60’s was a matter of being
treated fairly, justly, and with respect, just as it is now in Ferguson, Missouri
as crowds continue to protest the slaying of Michal Brown, an unarmed Black
teenager, who was shot ‘at least six times’ according to autopsy reports, by a
White police officer lCNN:Missouri Teen
The Civil Disobedience in Fergusson Missouri is a
sign of a much bigger issue in the United States: a double standard between the
treatment of Whites and Blacks in the justice system. The fair exercise of
human rights applies equally to all races, and all economic divisions; because
justice should be a basic human right of all people.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
SARA NILES: Books, Writing, and Social Issues: Out of the Maelstrom by Sara Niles
SARA NILES: Books, Writing, and Social Issues: Out of the Maelstrom by Sara Niles: Narrative Memoir: Trauma Tragedy and Triumph 260 pages 71,152 words Out of the Maelstrom is a stand-alone narrative memo...
Out of the Maelstrom by Sara Niles
Narrative Memoir: Trauma
Tragedy and Triumph 260 pages 71,152 words
Out of the Maelstrom is a
stand-alone narrative memoir that can be read as part of The Torn From the
Inside Out trilogy, or separately. Out of the Maelstrom is narrated by Sara
Niles as a collection of short stories , philosophical insights and world views
that create a global view of human suffering and provide an inspirational
mirror that reflects the “power of the human spirit under fire”
Sara Niles survived extreme
abuse and fled with her five children in 1987; over a decade later, Sara became
a counselor and trainer for a domestic violence agency in a small town. It was
during the ten years Sara was employed as a domestic violence professional that
she was exposed to the worst of the worst , and the best of the best , those
who were defeated and hardened by life and those who were empowered by trauma
and tragedy and who not only survived, by triumphed.
Excerpts and Quotes
"When the storms of life
are worse than the storms of nature, those who survive rise out of the
maelstrom"
“The pages of my books are
the parchment upon which I wrote using the 'ink' of my life: the blood, sweat
and tears that represent the long struggle of the 'journey', the life trip that
began long ago with the hungry little girl who 'sat in the sand' waiting to be
saved by ‘an ancient old man’. The story
of child abuse, salvation, domestic violence and escape as told in Torn From
the Inside Out, continued with the endearing and heart wrenching story of the
children of Torn From the Inside Out in The Journey, as they struggled with the
issues of their own survival and redemption.
Out of the Maelstrom Out of the Maelstrom
contains stories about real people: stories of trauma and triumph, and extremes
of what life has to offer, from the kindness that defines the best of human
nature to the cruelty that defines the worst. Many of the stories contain
paradoxical dilemmas of social significance that have arisen out of our culture
and stand as a testament to the broken parts of society that affect the
marginalized and the forgotten members, the ones most in need of help. The
scope of Out of the Maelstrom broadly sweeps in the worldview as part of the
context of everyday human life, since no man exists on an island.
Excerpts from Chapter One
"He was dead, alright.
The sight of death is an ugly and fearsome thing, I thought, as I absorbed the
tragic sight in front of me. It was a man, 'The man', who was lying in the road
with blackish--red blood pooled around his head, and as he lay face down with
his feet in his own yard, while his head and shoulders were planted in the
street, he gave the appearance of a killed animal felled in its tracks by a
hunter."
"I applied to work for
this agency because I felt that I belonged there, because it was where my heart
was. I wanted to help people who had hurt like I hurt and felt trapped like I
had. I wanted to empower those who felt they were powerless and give courage to
the broken hearted. My comrades in this mission were all there with me, we all
wanted the same things for similar reasons and we would share a rich and grand
experience working together, an adventure that needed telling, a soulful potion
that needs sharing in the journey of this new life" "She said her
name was Evelyn, the name sounded soft
and genteel, but the lady was not"
"Oh...You will just have
to come see for yourself-I'd get over here if I were you -and hurry!" she
said with a little nervous laugh" (Sandy the Shelter Manager)
Table of Contents (samples)
Chapter 1.....Homicide in the
Street...11 Chapter 2.....A Place of Safety in a Time of Danger...Chapter
3.....A Special Brand of People ....Norman
Rockwell & The Lady From Harvard... Chapter ....Wolves-Within ...........Chapter
28.....A Visit: Back to My Past... Chapter 29.....
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