School Teaches Students Moral Cowardice

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School Teaches Students Moral Cowardice

School fires domestic violence survivor, calls her a “liability”

No one would fault administrators or parents for wanting to ensure that children are safe at school, but barring a domestic violence survivor from her job and taking away her family’s livelihood is hardly the solution, advocates say. “Firing all these women is not the answer. You have to deal with this and it’s really up to all of us,” YWCA San Diego CEO Heather Finlay told NBC, adding the school should have pursued protective measures that targeted the abuser — not Charlesworth.

I was appalled to read this article. In fact, when I saw the title, I thought it must be some kind of mistake or a joke. Unfortunately, the facts as reported are accurate. A women victimized by a stalking husband has been fired from her job.

What’s next? Will we eject any employee under threat for any reason since this may very well inconvenience a school?

I want you to think of the incredible possibilities. A stalker can automatically get a woman fired from her job. Now, that’s power. The school system can actually force women to stay with abusive husbands because they know they will lose their jobs.

And without a job, and often having support children, the woman is at the mercy of state services and the possible handout and support of Mr. Wonderful, the man she tried to leave.

Honor, courage, tradition – all demand we stand up to those who use violence to gaining their ends. This example empowers the wicked and damages the innocent.

Is there any business, any educational institution, any government facility, where a human being placed under threat is not a liability? Does that mean we should fire them for convenience sake? or out of fear? What kind of people are we?

James Pilant

 

 

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Discrimination Against Women Alive and Well in the Sciences

Science documents discrimination against women in science « Kay Steiger

This means men were deemed more qualified and competent in a science setting, even if women were making the judgement. Study participants also dramatically increased the recommended salary for men. The researchers concluded, “These results suggest that interventions addressing faculty gender bias might advance the goal of increasing the participation of women in science.”

The problem of increasing women in the sciences has been a long and highly contested one. Lots point to conflicts between family and work, but this study seems to say that there are still underlying biases based simply on perception of gender, regardless of whether that person has children.

Science documents discrimination against women in science « Kay Steiger

 

Discrimination against women should be gone by now.

Discrimination against women, even by other women in the sciences, continues. It is a very sad thing. It has been several hundred years of struggle for women to rise above the status of cattle. This is evidence that the struggle has years to go and its success is by no means guaranteed.

There is much that remains to be done. Let us carry the struggle forward with confidence in the inherent goodness of humanity and faith in the future.

James Pilant

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My privilege is showing. (via Vomits Her Mind)

I like fighters. There are people out there who are just not going to take the status quo. This is one of them.

I have complete confidence that many of you will be in disagreement with some or all of her stances and beliefs. But pause for a moment and think what our society would be like without motion, without change, without difference, and most of all think what the world would be like if everyone agreed not to be different.

James Pilant

What I am about to write is important to me, and I think it's very important to my blog for me to take note of my biases, my privileges, my experiences. I live with scientists, and have been posing the question to them recently: does your personal experience, your bias, your privileges, your experience, do these things factor into how you interpret or accept new data?" This is important to the field of science. And, turning it inwards, I note: th … Read More

via Vomits Her Mind

Turns of events (via Sujato’s Blog)

Religions other than Christian struggle with equality for women and other societal changes.

Read these two paragraphs from the larger article below –

What exactly is going on here? The governing principles of Wat Pa Pong remain as they have ever been: discrimination against women and submission to the authority of the Ajahns. Since the majority of devotees reject these principles, they have been kept secret as far as possible; however this is no longer possible. The only way to ensure survival is to gain absolute power over the considerable wealth and property invested in the monasteries.

We shouldn’t be surprised. The Ajahns have been telling us these things for years. Equality, democracy, rights: according to the clear, often repeated, and explicit teachings of senior Wat Pa Pong Ajahns, these things are alien, ‘Western’ values irrelevant to the Dhamma and of no value for liberation. What we are now seeing is simply these principles put into practice.

(I’m letting the article speak for itself. The religious issues here are of major importance and my knowledge is not deep enough to do careful analysis.) JP

It’s now a year and a half since Ajahn Brahm and Bodhinyana monastery were excommunicated from their monastic circle, Wat Pa Pong, for disobeying orders by ordaining women in accordance with the Buddha’s teachings. Has anything got better? Short answer: not so you’d notice. Long answer: Ajahn Brahm has been in discussions with some of the WPP Ajahns overseas, trying to arrange a forgiveness ceremony, to let go and move ahead. He is clear that nei … Read More

via Sujato’s Blog

The Seduction of Power (via Only Ed)

Battle. That’s a very strange word to use in the context of media in conflict but I don’t doubt its importance or relevance.

I believe the battle for the print, broadcast and cable media has been lost. The kind of news that was in the paper and on the television 35 years ago is gone. We now live in an age of “distraction” news, content free news and outright deception. It is a great pity.

A free people cannot defend itself without information, facts and leadership, we have none of that. We have celebrity scandals, fake facts that our sniveling media decline to describe as a lies and a jello spined leadership so beholden to financial interests they contest among themselves for who is the most slavish in their devotion. They throw their offering on the altars of these demigods like the food offerings thrown before the wooden carvings of Odin in Pre Medieval Scandinavia.

Read on and discover nations and cultures where the media is still up for grabs.

James Pilant

  The Seduction of Power   Posted 24 June 2011, by Raúl Pierri, Inter Press  Service (IPS), ips.org MONTEVIDEO, Jun 24, 2011 (IPS) – The governments and big private media groups in Latin America are waging a war to win over public opinion, the ultimate arbiter of legitimacy, and the only solution would appear to be to strike up an alliance. "Battle" was the most oft-repeated term in the seminar on "Communication, pluralism and the role … Read More

via Only Ed