Mma Ramotswe feels her connection to her father, renowned for being a good and honorable man, and wonders, in Tears of the Giraffe, how people can be ‘just themselves’ rather than defined by kinship groups. I don’t think that anyone really is so. In some areas I am known by my grandfather (either or both) and in other places I am known by my mother. I may have had objections, particularly some time ago, but that remains how many people define me. Dad and I had some terrible differences but in the end I remain his daughter, and despite his flaws he was a good man. But without extensive family networks like Botswana seems to have, it can be lonely. And we are still not really free to define ourselves anyway. Context is so much part of what makes us who we are. Family shapes and nearly defines, certainly frames, how we see the world and what could be possible in the world. Family can even limit what we hope for the world. What hope for the world? A world where every person is free to travel anywhere, and where every person has a key to a very small flat -consisting of one room, well insulated, with a small kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, and a bed. For free, with absolute usage lifelong rights. Also free would be brown rice (or similar equivalent grain), green leafy vegetables, and dried beans. That is the bare minimum that a person needs to live, and that (along with free Public Library borrowing rights) should be totally free without question to every person at all times. Whether they work or not, deserving or not. No paperwork, no hassles. But for anything else a person should contribute to society. That is what I would like to see -[book:Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?|211888]
 Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
 ShiraDest
22 February, 12016 HE

2008-03-15 14:06:00 please record your old folks voices and stories I was just reminding someone (after I remembered to remind my family) to record her mother’s life on tape. She argued that her mom was a bit different from other people in her outlook on life and the world, which I emphasized is therefore even more important. If you know someone who has trouble coping with the world, with people or life, particularly because people seem not to be honest, then please record that person’s point of view. So many of us have trouble understanding work envinronments, social contexts, getting along with people due to the unwritten rules and games that people play just to cope with life. Our view needs to be heard as well as the ‘popular’ view. People who are written off as ‘unstable’ or ‘unable to cope’ frequently are so because they cannot discern truth from the ‘little white lies’ people tell daily to fit in or get along. That ability is critical, and lacking it can make life a living hell. This perspective above all needs recording so that posterity can make sense of those whose voices are not recorded in the daily morass of false feelings. So if you have a ‘dotty’ relative, especially an older one, please, take the time to get her (and it usually is a woman) point of view, especially if it is difficult.
 Read, Write, Run, Teach !
ShiraDest
16 February, 12016 HE

Looking back at this, I can see now how my constant work to make up for the sins of others only led me to act as a scapegoat, where had I stood up for myself and asserted what I knew to be true, (kind of like Neville Longbottom in the 1st Harry Potter book…), things would have changed, as they are starting to change now, as I learn to refuse to be a doormat…
2007-01-27 11:29:00: 
very very pissed off -flashbacks in the mentor training seminar this morning I heard about ‘fostering’ and how kids should not be used to do dishes and housework by their carers (like sleeping on the cot in the living room and being told to wash dishes after the  midnight snacks at 1am after I’d just gone to sleep from washing her dishes that night. It made me so f..ng angry. None of the teachers (I recall sitting in a chair next to mrs x’s desk and telling her how scared i was to go home, being held over the stairs threatened w/pitching me down them, no matter what i did or didn’t do every single day), no member of my family, and i begged godmother to do something, no one did a damned thing until i ran away, and then no one said a word after, just slinking away like fightened dogs. I had to leave the training because all I could feel was the shaking of my own body and the anger and heat and wanting to batter down a door somewhere, remembering how i actually thanked her years later for letting me live in her house when dad and i got evicted. Y who spent that time extorting money out of me, my mother, dad whenever he bothered to show up, and anyone else who would listen to her constant tales of woe and gossip. how to give back to a coimmunity that never wanted me, 
why 
how to give when all i want to do is die, tears seem useless, and even running is simply ignoring the rage that even now, nearly 20 years after i became an adult, allowed to decide my own fate and control my own life, that anger still seeems to control me. What happened is done, the past is gone, so why do the ghosts pursue me, demanding vengence and still exaccting their price of pain. What did i do, was i a murderer before i was born, a torturer in a previous lifetime, a mysoginist, cursed to be born a woman into a family so f*ed up that ritual abuse could be downgraded to ‘sex in the alleghanies’ and blamed on a child described as hard-headed and a ‘liability’ to a father with offspring spread around the continent. right, enough wallowing in self-pity. the anger is past -for the moment. How do i slay it and keep it from coming back?
 Well, I am less angry now, healthier physically, and emotionally, so my work is helping, it seems… Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
 ShiraDest 
19 February, 12016 HE

(originally posted back on 2007-01-10, and I still agree…) Dr. King’s Last Speech Why Dr. King was really assasinated : “The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold: We must create full employment, or we must create incomes. Now, our country can do this. John Kenneth Galbraith said that a guaranteed annual income could be done for about twenty billion dollars a year. And I say to you today, that if our nation can spend thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God’s children on their own two feet right here on earth.” … “I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about “Where do we go from here?” that we must honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. (Yes) There are forty million poor people here, and one day we must ask the question, “Why are there forty million poor people in America?” And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising a question about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. (Yes) And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life’s marketplace. (Yes) But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. (All right) Now, when I say questioning the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. (All right) These are the triple evils that are interrelated. … In other words, “Your whole structure (Yes) must be changed.” [applause] A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will “thingify” them and make them things. (Speak) And therefore, they will exploit them and poor people generally economically. (Yes) And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and it will have to use its military might to protect them. All of these problems are tied together.”
 Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
 ShiraDest
19 February, 12016 HE

I prefer this as my own form of the Ten Utterances (especially since the Rabbis tell us that each person heard something slightly different…) I. I am what I am becoming. Thou shalt have no blind followers among thee. I am a jealous defender of the conscience, pusuing mercilessly unto the 10th generation of those who will not learn from history. Thou art the keeper of thine own conscience. Thou shalt follow the calling of thine heart. II. Thou shalt be of utmost honesty to thyself. III. Thou shalt be autonomous and guard zealously thine independence, for only as a free and thinking intelligence may thou be of service. IV. Thou shalt take charge of thine own learning for as long as thou drawest breath. V. Thou shalt feeed thy curiosity meticulously, neither too little nor too slowly, but faster is ok. VI. Thou shalt ever be vigilant to take the initiative in all thy dealings in the world. VII. Thou shalt ever be careful to honor all people’s expertise and experience, to ensure full and true equality and egalitarianism in all thy ways, ever honoring the wisdom of elders whilst deferring to and honoring the experiences and expertise of others. You are the keeper of your conscience. VIII. Maintain open-mindedness/reflection/questioning/exploring IX. Have respect for yourself and others. X. Guard your self-sacrifice, nobility, and sense of honor.

-Now I prefer not to deal with Commandments or even Mission Statements at all, but at the time it helped me…
 Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
 ShiraDest
 19 February, 12016 HE

 “Though violence is not lawful, when it is offered in self-defence or for the defence of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission. The latter befits neither man nor woman. Under violence, there are many stages and varieties of bravery. Every man must judge this for himself. No other person can or has the right. (H, 27-10-1946, pp369-70)”   “Exploitation of the poor can be extinguished not by effecting the destruction of a few millionaires, but by removing the ignorance of the poor and teaching them to non-co-operate with their exploiters. That will convert the exploiters also. I have even suggested that ultimately it will lead to both being equal partners. Capital as such is not evil; it is the wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed. (H, 28-7-1940, p. 219)” –and on trust… “Trust It is true that I have often been let down. Many have deceived me and many have been found wanting. But I do not repent of my association with them. For I know how to non-co-operate, as I know how to co-operate. The most practical, the most dignified way of going on in the world is to take people at their word, when you have no positive reason to the contrary. fr. pg. 101
 Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
 ShiraDest
19 February, 12016 HE

Contents: ev. of us $, context / obj. of locla cur. iss., barter, discount scrip, local curr. not pegged to usd, legal aspects of locl curr Forwd by Bob Swann Notes: most earlier lcl curr’s prohibited or no longer needed cites problm of colonial paper $ as reason Constitution banned all but Fed. issued/borrowed coin. (he hasn’t seen the point on the MD colony…) “societal theory of money” -cites Thorington v. Smith on current $ (upheld Confed. $ at time it was current in Confederacy…) cites US v. Van Auken, Hollister v. Mercantile Institution: validated pripvate notes iss. in 1874/6 :notes of limited circ. -congress has no motive to stop v. small curr.s 1830-1860 many private coins <- gold rush; 1873, 1909, 1948 Cong. proh. private coin. but not lcl paper curr. Says fractional paper currency 1867 to ALL that stoped state banks from issuing money; becames banks of deposit w/checking as $ (ref. 97:) Tax Reform Act of 1976 -10% ‘death tax’ repealed as obsolete 1900 Gold Sta. Act elim. silver; Gold Clause Cases; 1977 allowed US citizens to own/buy/sell gold and enforce gold clauses again. So contracts may now pay in USD, scrip, or alt. curr. Vermont ==best state for using scrip. most Southern states prohibit Fed. res. system prohibits alt. curr./lcl scrip transfer, but there are banks outside the System suggests possible creation of CHIPS (Clearing house interbank payment system) for alt. curr. MA banks can act as agents i.e. ‘Local Stable Currency Experiment’ ref. 156 see Blue Sky laws -see exempt securities and exempt transactions… courts divided on what is a security under Reves court factors, local scrip like Deli Dolars != security (defines security as used to raise $ for a business and the buyer expecting to make a profit…) Constant (for profit, floats ind. of USD) may -SEC scrutiny clearly not stocks short term notes exemptions in 49 states and DC non-profit exemptions in 47 states and DC taxing barter value :LETS and Ithaca Hrs taxable as barter, IRS form 1096/1099B/6045… Volunteer hours not contra. obl. to get matched service in return not taxable IRS: either tax the Deli Dollar owner for $9, or tax the buyer for $1 ‘interest’ when redeeming a Deli Dollar (bought $10 services for $9) if 1.enforceable 2 provable &. 3.unconditional -but, also not subject to reporting requ.==compliance headache for IRS concl: lcl cc may have ?’s under securities laws, but no problem exc. VA and Arkansas (yet another reason not to live in such racist states…) problem ==fractional money (small coins): quotes F. A. Hayek: need small change (ref. 281) Read, Write, Dream, Teach ! ShiraDest 19 February, 12016 HE