Technology’s Effect on our World

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’ve been busy working and writing this week and I’m making progress on my WIP. I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

But enough about that. Today, I’d like to talk about technology and it’s impact on our society. I had a class reunion this weekend and I got to see friends I haven’t seen in a long time. It was nice to catch up and walk down memory lane with them. Some of them, I’ve been able to connect with on social media and chat via messenger with them. It’s a great way to reestablish old connections.

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With social media it’s easy to stay connected and catch up via chats, but there’s nothing like face-to-face interaction. I worry about our future generations where most communication will take place via the computer. I’m worried because I feel they won’t have the ability to read facial cues when talking with their peers because they won’t have enough practice with real life communication.

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I’m also worried because I feel our young people don’t get enough physical activity. I see my kids and their friends spending so much time in front of a computer that they’re not getting enough exercise. Childhood obesity is on the rise and I feel the main reasons are the added sugars in our processed foods and the fact they’re not physically active.

So, even though technology has given us the ability to make connections over many thousands of miles, it has had a negative effect on our health, and it has also made our in real life connections more fragile because social media’s main goal is to keep us engaged.

They don’t want us to leave their site. So, they place items in our feeds to keep us there. Different articles on things we’ve liked. For example, if I like a random picture of an elephant, I’ll find more elephant pictures and articles showing up in my feed. There’s a documentary on this phenomenon called “The Social Dilemma.” If you haven’t seen it, you need to watch it. It’s on Netflix and it explains this whole process.

How about you? Do you feel technology has had a negative impact on our physical and mental health? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

When will the Catholic Church be held Accountable?

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Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. My beta readers have liked my story, so I’m finally ready for the next step in the process. I will keep you posted on my progress. I may start querying again. We shall see.

But enough about that. Today, I’d like to talk about something serious. I want to talk about the horrible news we received this week regarding the two hundred and fifteen dead children found at the Kamloops Indian Reservation school in Canada. This school was run by the Catholic Church until nineteen sixty-nine. This is the third time I’ve come across major abuse by the Catholic church.

The first time was the movie “Spotlight,” the second was the documentary “The Keepers,” and now this school. It’s heart-breaking what these victims went through. Abuse has long term effects. People learn to self-medicate to deal with the horrors of what happened to them when they were unable to protect themselves.

I’m angry. The Catholic church had so much power they were able to continue abusing students long after people in the community had grown suspicious. They were able to sweep their actions under the rug.  In “The Keepers,” it wasn’t until years after the abuse occurred that two women decided to investigate the death of one of their favorite teachers and uncovered it. This didn’t just involve the church it involved the police department as well.

Abuse like this leads to suicide and addiction. It makes me so sad to think of those innocent children and no one was there to protect them. I know we’re more aware of this kind of thing and it’s less likely to happen in today’s world, but the church still needs to be held accountable. After all, the only thing they did was absolve these priests of their sins and move them to another parish where they continued the abuse.

Not one priest went to jail. The church has paid out money, but not to all its victims and not enough. It’s like there’s two sets of laws in our country. One set for us the common man, and one set for the people in power. It’s just like when the bubble burst on the homing market in late two thousand and eight. Not one banker who wrote fraudulent loans went to jail.

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This isn’t right and it needs to change. The laws that apply to the common man also apply to the people in power. There’s no other way around it. I’m not sure how to change this. Corruption is always going to be there. There are people willing to take bribes and turn a blind eye when it’s in their best interest.

I’m not sure of the answer. How about you, any ideas on how we can change this? Leave a comment! I love to hear from you!

The Social Dilemma: A Documentary

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after watching a documentary over the weekend and I thought I should share it with all of you.

The documentary is titled “The Social Dilemma,” and it was eye-opening to say the least.  It explains what is happening behind the scenes when we “like” or click on a link on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

When I first became aware of social media, I thought these sites were collecting data about their users to sell to advertisers and this is happening I’m sure, but there’s another more sinister process going on here.

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What social media doing is working very hard to keep you engaged. That’s right. We are the product. Our thinking. Our opinions. It’s all being processed, and we’re being manipulated to stay engaged with social media by the items that show up in our newsfeed.

For example, let’s say I like elephants. So, I like or comment on a random post about elephants and this gets processed by Facebook and suddenly, I find all kinds of images of elephants showing up. It’s to keep me engaged. So, social media is stealing our time and taking it away from other things, like face to face interactions. We are the product folks. Let’s use social media wisely, and if you get a chance, check out the documentary. You’ll be glad you did.

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Thanks for stopping by and reading my post today, I appreciate it! How do you feel about social media? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Finding Perspective

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you, I’m back today after suffering a bit of a set-back last week. It wasn’t anything to do with my writing, just one of those things I wasn’t expecting to happen, happened and it left me feeling down. So, I took a day and stayed in my pajamas and worked on my writing as I tried to digest this new development. I also watched a movie.

Just Mercy. It was a good one for me to watch in my present state because it was about a man accused of a crime he didn’t commit. After receiving an unfair trial where the only real evidence was the false testimony of another convicted felon, (who was given a lighter sentence if he testified) the main character Walter McMillian or “Johnny D,” was sentenced to death.

 

He spent seven years on death row, waiting for his execution.

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The Equal Justice Initiative was formed, and they took on his case.

 

 

To make a long story short, they got the charges against him dismissed, the main witness in the case admitted he lied because he was coerced by the corrupt police department.

This was a good movie to watch in my present state because although I had been wronged, it was nothing compared to what Walter went through. What he must’ve had to deal with when he was on death row is beyond me. This movie put things into perspective for me. My little setback is just that. A setback. It’s not a life sentence, and I need to remember that.

So, if you get a chance to watch this movie, I highly recommend it. It’ll put things into perspective for you, too. Trust me.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. How about you? Is there anything out there that helps you find perspective? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you! 😊

 

“The Pharmacist,” more on the Opiate Epidemic

 

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’ve had a full week of working and writing and kids. It has been busy, but I was able to get quite a bit of writing done this weekend, so I’m feeling pretty good about that.

 

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Anyway, enough about that. Today I wanted to talk about a documentary I watched over the weekend, and it relates to what Mike Hamp is trying to raise awareness about. It is the opiate epidemic. The documentary is called “The Pharmacist.”

 

 

To check out the trailer for “The Pharmacist, click here.

It brings to light the prevailing problem of doctors who are writing prescriptions for the drug Oxycontin. These doctors are making a lot of money prescribing this highly addictive drug for people who need it to manage pain. The documentary reveals how  “pill mills”  have sprung up and shows how doctors keep writing prescriptions for this drug long after it is needed. Many have lost their medical licenses and some have even gone to prison.

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It’s an excellent example of what happens when there’s no one regulating the drug industry. Oxycontin is a great drug for managing pain, but it is highly addictive. There are many doctors who took advantage of people by prescribing this drug. When authorities started getting involved and they were no longer able to prescribe Oxycontin. People who were addicted turned to heroin.

It reminds me of the tobacco industry and how they made their cigarettes more addictive by adding nicotine. This documentary illustrates what happens when no one monitors an industry. The doctors created “pill mills” to make money at the expense of the public. The drug company manufactured the pills, but it was the doctors who ultimately wrote the prescriptions.

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This is the opiate epidemic that Mike Hamp is walking for. If you have a few spare moments, check out the documentary. It is very informative and shows what the public is up against.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. How do you feel about the opiate epidemic? Should drug companies be monitored? Or should it be the doctors? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

You Can Make a Difference

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’ve had a busy week at work, plus I’m dealing with back to school stuff with the kiddos so I’m feeling a little ragged this evening. This summer certainly went by fast. I didn’t get everything accomplished that I wanted to, but that’s okay. I had a lot of fun with my kiddos, and we made lots of memories. Making memories is an important goal, too. 🙂

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I hope your summer went well and you were able to recharge your batteries. Many memorable things happened this season, and one of them was the grand jury report detailing the sexual abuse of over a thousand victims by three hundred priests in Pennsylvania.

The stories are starting to come out. There was the movie “Spotlight” that told the tale of the priests in Boston who abused children and got away with it. Then there was the documentary “The Keepers.”  This story started out as an investigation of the death of one of the Nuns who taught at  Baltimore’s Archbishop Keough  High School. Sister Cathy was murdered and the crime remains unsolved to this day.

Two of her former students (Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub) decided to investigate the murder, and they uncovered horrible abuse of students by the priests running the school. The school they attended. These women believe she was murdered because she found out about the abuse and threatened to take the information to the authorities.

They still don’t know who committed the crime, and it may never be solved because many of the people who know the truth have died. However, all is not lost.  Gemma and Abbie have started a movement across the country. More and more victims are finding the courage to speak out and the horrendous abuse is being exposed. It has also come to light that the Catholic Church moved these guilty priests to different parishes where they continued their victimization. The church did nothing to protect these innocent children.

It’s upsetting to think about especially since very few of the perpetrators of this abuse have gone to prison. That’s the part that upsets me. These abusers destroy lives and then get away with it because the statute of limitations has run out. That’s a total crock.

When is this country going to understand that we need to be protecting our children above everything else?

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I mean the church is supposed to be our moral compass and look what they are? A bunch of pedophiles who use their religion to hunt for prey. And what’s worse? Their superiors covered it up and allowed the perpetrators to go on abusing. This makes me sick.

However, there is a bright light in all of this. Times are changing and the support the victims are receiving from all over the world is amazing. The two women who’re investigating Sister Cathy’s death have formed a Facebook group where survivors and supporters can come together. There are literally thousands of members in this group. People from all over the world can discuss theories, share information, and support each other. It’s nothing short of phenomenal.

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And there’s a snowball effect happening. More and more victims are coming forward and more and more priests are being outed. I know the progress is slow and may not be enough for some people, but some progress is better than none. The efforts of these two women are bringing about reform so this type of victimization will never happen again. It could even topple the Catholic Church. And that wouldn’t be a bad thing. They’ve abused their power. They don’t deserve to have it any longer.

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So at the end of the day, when you’re feeling small and insignificant and you just don’t think what you do makes a difference, think of these two women and how their efforts have snowballed into something great. Then raise you’re weary head, take a deep breath, and strive forward. Carry on sweet warrior. The battle is long and hard, but it is worth the fight.

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Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. Share your thoughts, I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

My thoughts on “Dirty Money”

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a busy week. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me life is getting busier and busier, and there aren’t enough hours in the day. I’ve made progress on my writing as well. I’ve completed the edits on one of my manuscripts and I’m super excited about this story. It’s coming together and it has evolved into such an amazing story. It’s my best work yet!

 

 

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But enough about that, today I’d like to talk about a series I found on Netflix. It’ called “Dirty Money” and it was eye opening to say the least. There are six episodes and each one illustrates the level of corruption in our world and the corruption is global.

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The first one caught my attention. It’s the story about how Volkswagen lied to consumers by stating they had anti-pollution devices installed on the VW Bug, when in fact they did not. The devices were actually disabled after they were tested in the factory by management.  They got caught, but no one went to jail.

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Another documentary in this same series that caught my attention is the story on how the bank HSBC laundered money for the drug cartels. It goes on to illustrate how high ranking bank officials knew it was happening but did nothing to stop it.

This makes the war on drugs a huge joke.

I don’t want to say too much about the actual stories because I don’t want to ruin it for everyone, but when you watch the series you’ll find a common theme throughout. The unbridled greed of corporate leaders and the lengths they’ll go to get those billions of dollars.

In the series, you’ll find very few people actually went to prison after getting caught. Out of the six episodes, there are only two instances of jail time. That’s horrible.

The one about Scott Tucker who was actually sentenced to sixteen years in prison after his payday scheme was discovered, shows the delusional thinking of corporate leaders.  It’s staggering.

Just a heads up. The last episode is on Trump. 🙂

Below is the link to the trailer. You’ll want to watch this series. Trust me.