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Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts

19 February 2014

A Truth Journal: Presidents Day: Weird Presidents and Fun Trivia







A Truth Journal: Presidents Day: Weird Presidents and Fun Trivia:

From Denny:  Presidents' Day comes and goes in a flash.  Some years it's wildly popular generating interesting articles and other years, well, no one cares.  Seems like this year is one of those off years for interest, especially with the winter Olympics in full swing in Sochi, Russia, garnering so much attention.

Poking around online I found some amusing - and downright weird - facts about the U. S. Presidents you may not know - just when you thought you heard it all.  Yeah, trivia kings and queens live at our house.

Let Good Times Roll 17 Inch Laptop Sleeve

Let Good Times Roll celebrates Mardi Gras all year long!

Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  And a special thanks to those of you supporting this effort!  You rock!

Vintage Bicycle 17 Inch Laptop Sleeve

Vintage Bicycle, a curious blast from the past, to warmly decorate the present.

Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  And a special thanks to those of you supporting this effort!  You rock!






08 June 2013

Poems From A Spiritual Heart: Legacy of Love

Cosmic consciousness by h.koppdelaney @ flickr

Poems From A Spiritual Heart: Legacy of Love: From Denny:   ... Mentoring others is important no matter what stage you are living in your life. You can be young or old. You can teach the young, those older, those your same age. Teach what you know and share your life experiences. You never know who you will inspire. And, as you teach, you learn from them too. Never feel what you know is not important enough to share. Never be too proud to receive knowledge from others eager to share what they have just learned or figured out. For today's shared knowledge just might answer tomorrow's problems - for them and for you. Mentoring: it's a fair exchange, don't you think? :)

05 November 2012

A Truth Journal: Will Your Kids' Mock Election Votes Influence Your Vote?






From Denny:   As a way to teach students the election process mock elections occurred across the country last week.  Right here in Louisiana, involving 88,600 students across the state from 280 public, private and home schooling, they voted President Obama into a second term.  Louisiana broke for Obama by a margin of 51.29 percent to Romney's 48.71 percent.

From Angie Franklin, the gifted program teacher at Peabody Montessori in Alexandria, Louisiana,  "Our objective was to make sure the kids here in the school knew what the election process was.  And why it's so important, every four years, to vote."

- - - To read more click on the title link - - -



Lulu Name Large Mug


Lulu feels special when you drink coffee with her in the morning! - check out more pet name designs!

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Louie Name Round Ornament

Funny Louie deserves his own Christmas ornament to show him how special he is!  - check out more pet name designs!

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09 August 2012

Dennys Funny Quotes: Scotland Govt Shut Down Child Food Critic of School Lunches But She Rebounds Anew




Dennys Funny Quotes: Scotland Govt Shut Down Child Food Critic of School Lunches But She Rebounds Anew: From Denny:  A couple of months ago this happened:  Can you believe this crazy stunt?  A precocious nine-year-old, Martha Payne, decides she is fed up with the poor standard of school lunches so she starts photographing them.  Then she put them up on her blog, Never Seconds.

She is quite the observant food critic too.  She spots ugly things like hair in her food.  Oddly enough, she actually liked this garbage on a plate in this photo.  Kids do love mac 'n' cheese and jello, and, to her, these were infrequent treats.

On Martha's blog school kids from other countries sent her photos of their school lunches.  They certainly don't look as bare as this plate.  Apparently, Scottish kids actually like - and will eat radishes - not so here in America.  Radishes are great for your sinuses and good for staving off colds.  Since she lives in a cold climate it's good she enjoys them.

This plucky little girl hails from a Scottish coastal town called Lochgilphead which is about 130 miles west of  Edinburgh.  She caused quite a stir in her area by revealing the awful food truth.

Normal is Boring iPhone 4 Slider Case


Throw out your funny challenge of the day - Normal is Boring... Step Aside

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10 April 2012

Jon Stewart Mocks Outrageous Arizona School Board Fearing Mexican-American Studies

Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
From Denny:  The Daily Show may be a comedy show but Jon Stewart utilizes what is happening right here in America as material.  You can't make up this stuff.  It's unbelievable.  How do these incredibly insensitive - and more importantly, really stupid - people rise to such high positions of authority where they affect the lives of millions of people?  It's scary in its implications.

It's difficult to believe this superintendent actually has a doctorate in education.  Are you sure this guy didn't lie on his resume or buy his degree from some online scam site?  It's like listening to my Republican Louisiana Senator David Vitter who claims to be a Rhodes scholar and a lawyer who graduated Ivy League schools.  He can barely put a sentence together and lacks rational thinking just like this fool.

Watch as comic Al Madrigal baits this guy about Mexican-American studies now banned in Arizona's Tucson school district.  The reasons this superintendent gives are incredible, all based only upon hearsay. Hearsay - can you believe it? This guy who heads their school board never even bothered to talk to the teachers of the program or read any of the textbooks.  And he calls himself an educator?  Unbelievable.

13 October 2011

Dennys Funny Quotes: Funny Halloween Town Names in America

Scary PumpkinImage by solyanka via FlickrFrom Denny:  Want to scare your pants off with a new address?  Who knew that a town's name could be so creepy - just in time for Halloween.
Dennys Funny Quotes: Funny Halloween Town Names in America: From Denny: Want to scare your pants off with a new address? Who knew that a town's name could be so creepy - just in time for Halloween.
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10 September 2010

The Understanding poem - Libations Friday 10 Sept 2010

We build Peace in our lives a moment at a time - and this is a poem story of how it can start early in childhood as it did for me.







The Understanding


My thoughts flew back to primary school
When I heard the news today about a woman in Iran
Who was condemned as a scapegoat for evil men.
Women in her culture are considered subhuman and
Deserving of whatever is heaped upon them.
They just have to bear the injustice and cruelty.








I remember another female who was blamed
Through no fault of her own. It was accepted.
The kids at school thought it fine to harm her.
The kids at school treated her as subhuman.
What was so horrible about her that everyone
Thought it acceptable to treat her shamefully?

She was French-Canadian.








My father was stationed in Maine during that time.
Eleanor’s father moved her often as he followed one
Engineering project to the next engineering project.
Her mother had died the year before and Eleanor,
Well, Eleanor felt lost and alone. She forgot how to smile.
Then one day Eleanor came to our school to join us.







I could tell Eleanor needed a friend so I walked up to visit.
Eleanor was surprised at the offer of kindness and friendship.
I asked why and she replied, “Because I’m French-Canadian.”
To which I answered, “So? What has that got to do with anything?”
“Do you want to play with us on the swing set or not?” She followed
And we enjoyed laughing while we pushed our swings higher.







Soon the kids began to gravitate away from our area.
It was as if we were contagious. Then a boy called to me.
He whispered in my ear, “She’s French-Canadian, you know.”
He scampered off to join the growing group away from us.
“I tried to warn you,” Eleanor said sadly. “It’s always like this.”
“Do you want me to go?” Her eyes pleaded not to send her away.







“Keep swinging,” I said. “They aren’t going to spoil our fun.”
Eleanor slowed her swing, wondering what was going to happen next.
Soon, a group of big boys bunched up together to approach us.
Eleanor wanted to run away from them. I stopped my swing and stood up.
The boys told me not to friend “the French-Canadian.” I shook my head “No.”
The boys moved closer, trying to intimidate me. I asked what was the problem.
“Because she’s a French-Canadian,” they accused like it was a dirty word.
“Let me see if I understand you correctly. You hate her because she is French and from Canada. Correct?” They nodded a “Yes.”
“Now has she ever said anything cruel to you?”
“Well, no,” said the lead boy.
“Has she ever insulted or harmed your parents or any of your friends?”
The lead boy scratched his head while his sidekicks nervously shifted their stance, “Come to think of it, no, she hasn’t harmed any of us.”







“So, what’s the problem?” I asked.
“Well, she is French-Canadian,” stated the lead boy.
“So, what you are saying is that she is of French heritage and was born in Canada. Yet she speaks English just like us. She acts like us. What’s the problem?
“Do you and your parents live at Camp Stupid or something?”
I was losing patience with them.







The big boy started to grow angry at me for calling him “stupid,” raising his fist.
Fighting ready, I was the strongest football kicker, well placed on mean boys.
Both Eleanor and the group standing behind the lead boy were growing scared.
I might have been the size of a gnat compared to the lead bully but he did not hit me.
The crowd knew I wasn’t scared of him and would stand my ground no matter what.
The crowd drew away from the boy when they realized he could not break me.







Suddenly, the boy slowly lowered his fist and a strange look came over his face.
I recognized that look and was thankful for it. It was the look of awareness.
He looked at me then at her, shook his head, mumbling about French-Canadians.
The boy turned to leave and then looked back at us, gesturing us to follow.
“Well, come on, do you two want to play with us or what?”
He saw me give him a suspicious look, not trusting his next move.
“Camp Stupid is a bad place. None of it makes any sense of why not to like her.”







Eleanor glowed with acceptance – at last. Such was my first foray into civil rights.
It was one of many firsts of negotiating with bullies, some dangerous, some not.
I stood my ground before that day and stood my ground for decades since then.
But I never forgot how good Eleanor felt that day when she learned that being
French-Canadian no longer carried a stigma for her. That day all the power was
Taken out of those two words, and now, well, they were just words.








Denny Lyon
Copyright 6 Sept 2010
All Rights Reserved



Dennys Photo Gallery: Swinging Good Fun! - Check out some wonderful photos from around the world validating how much we all have in common as children: we love to swing! (These photos are just a few of the gallery.)



Photo Credits


Blonde girl and boy swinging high photo by wsilver @ flickr

Single boy on long swing black and white photo by Divine in the Daily @ flickr

Empty swing at Navajo nation in Arizona photo by shulamit0903 @ flickr

Brunette girl posing on still swing photo by Brittany ((Halo)) @ flickr

Great fun swinging high "Weeee!" photo by annnna_ @ flickr

Balance of power of boy and girl facing off photo by Ken Wilcox @ flickr

Fighting boys photo by Aislinn Ritchie @ flickr

Mean boy with a gun photo by comenKlein, J. Scott 2 @ flickr

Child's shadow as he swings photo by miamism @ flickr

Girl in red dress swinging photo by anthrovik @ flickr

Empty swing by the tree of battle photo by Robb North (a Canadian photographer) @ flickr


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*** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:

The Social Poets - news, politics
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor

08 June 2010

Funny Video: Lampooning Racists Gone Wild Horrified Teaching Chinese Language

*** Racists think teaching the Chinese language to middle schoolers will turn them into communists. Check out the funny response from Jon Stewart.





From Denny: Talk about funny. There are actually people fussing in California about teaching the Chinese language in their middle schools. They sound like the McCarthy era trying to root out the Communists in America. They actually believe we are brainwashing our children by teaching them to speak another language besides English. Talk about self-absorbed. We do share the world with billions of other people who learn our language so why not learn some of theirs?

Stewart could not resist the mock news interviews about the situation. Take a look and laugh:


From Jon Stewart: Aasif Mandvi exposes the communist threat as Hacienda Heights introduces a Chinese language program to middle school kids - Socialism Studies


The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Socialism Studies
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party



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02 April 2010

Legacy of Love poem - Libations Friday 2 Apr 2010



*** Never feel what you know is not important enough to share: mentor!

From Denny: This week a famous American teacher passed out of this life and into a new adventure. His name was Jaime Escalante and it was his life story told in the movie "Stand and Deliver." He was well educated and worked at NASA. Yet when he read of the failing schools in Los Angeles he quit his high-paying job and went to teach advanced math at one of those failing schools, Garfield High School. He fought the public school system's failing mindset cemented into the old ways of doing things, believing low income kids were not smart enough or motivated enough to learn advanced math. Escalante proved them all wrong: the educators who ran the schools, the parents and the students.

Escalante brought faith in his students and passion to the job of more than teaching: He was a mentor of gigantic proportions. Today, many of his students are successes, working at NASA or teaching the same calculus to their students that he taught them. Most of all he taught a group of people to believe in themselves. He taught the educators to never give up their faith and reach higher so their students can succeed in life.




Cosmic consciousness by h.koppdelaney @ flickr


Mentoring others is important no matter what stage you are living in your life. You can be young or old. You can teach the young, those older, those your same age. Teach what you know and share your life experiences. You never know who you will inspire. And, as you teach, you learn from them too. Never feel what you know is not important enough to share. Never be too proud to receive knowledge from others eager to share what they have just learned or figured out. For today's shared knowledge just might answer tomorrow's problems - for them and for you. Mentoring: it's a fair exchange, don't you think? :)




Legacy of Love






Have you ever thought about…
All the knowledge in the Universe?
Have you ever thought about…
Your place in millions of information bits?
Have you ever thought about…
Why your experiences were important?






Did you know that on the other end of that information
Lived someone waiting for you to tell them about it?
Did you know that in the world every day there is
A person sharing what they know with someone else
Who yearned for the solutions to their problems but
Did not know where to find that knowledge – until you?






The old speak of their long lives while the young listen.
The young shout their enthusiasm while the old smile.
When tough times strike we all stretch out helping hands.
When Life is sweet we lift up our hearts in shared Joy.
Kindness and sharing creates more kindness and sharing,
Giving comfort and ease to many hearts, lightening the load.





When at first we meet as strangers we become friends.
Sharing our experiences we relax into deep friendships.
Family we become when we give Love and receive Love.
Have you ever seen all the thoughts floating in the Universe
Wondering of their origins and how long they were seeking?
Sharing what you know is your legacy of Love.






Denny Lyon
Copyright 4 April 2010
All Rights Reserved


A Powerful Mentor: Remembering Jaime Escalante


Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy









Photo Credits


Galaxies and universes by Torley @ flickr

Cosmic consciousness by h.koppdelaney @ flickr

Fun in the rain by Nina Matthews Photography @ flickr

Looking into eternity by jasleen_kaur @ flickr

Helping hands by batega @ flickr

Artist's concept of the universe by NASA Goddard Photo and Video @ flickr

Walking into the sun by Harold Laudeus @ flickr


*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

05 January 2010

Keeping Chicago Kids Out of Trouble: After School Matters

From Denny: Oh, that we had the national will to do this for every school across America! We could lower the number of drop-outs if we kept kids engaged with programs like this one. Gangs? No one would have the time - or be in the wrong place - to join a gang. Building self-esteem is yet another way to reduce the demand for drugs, helping to wipe out the drug trade in America.

"After School Matters" was founded in 1991 by Chicago's First Lady, Maggie Daley. This program combines culinary arts, photography, science and sports as a diverse approach to continue the teaching process: mentoring. What's wonderful about it is that these same kids go on to mentor younger kids, building their self-esteem and status in their community.

I view these kinds of programs as a way to bridge the gap from childhood to adulthood since they teach responsibility and mentoring. These are skills they will require in the adult world and it's easier to learn them while still in school. Take a look:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy




*** THANKS for visiting!

12 August 2009

Cheeky Quote Day! 12 August 2009



Photo by Tansan @ flickr

From Denny: For today's funny and ironic quotes it seems I hit the Mother Lode! In my research I ran across an additional category of Back to School quotes that was most amusing to add to the original idea of the Education category. Parents and kids are going back to school this week in Louisiana, very early in order to make room for any lost days due to hurricanes or if there is a flu outbreak. With some of those frazzled nerves out there from all the pressure of working AND getting kids back to school a few grins were in order...



If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers. - Edgar W. Howe

Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you. - Erma Bombeck

Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken. - Bill Dodds

You send your child to the schoolmaster, but 'tis the schoolboys who educate him. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. - Friedrich Nietzsche

As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools. - Anonymous

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. - Lily Tomlin as "Edith Ann"

Often, when I am reading a good book, I stop and thank my teacher. That is, I used to, until she got an unlisted number. - Anonymous

There are three good reasons to be a teacher - June, July, and August. - Anonymous

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child. - George Bernard Shaw

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. - W.H. Auden

A cross-eyed teacher can keep twice the number of children in order than any other, because the pupils do not know who she's looking at. - Four Hundred Laughs: Or, Fun Without Vulgarity, compiled and edited by John R. Kemble, 1902

Anyone who thinks the art of conversation is dead ought to tell a child to go to bed. - Robert Gallagher

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn - and change. - Carl Rogers

My education was only interrupted by my schooling. – Winston Churchill

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain

It doesn't make much difference what you study, as long as you don't like it. - Finley Peter Dunne

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. - Albert Einstein

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. - Attributed to both Andy McIntyre and Derek Bok



It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. – Albert Einstein

Education aims to give you a boost up the ladder of knowledge. Too often, it just gives you a cramp on one of its rungs. - Martin H. Fischer

Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it. - William Haley

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught. - Oscar Wilde, "The Critic as Artist," 1890

When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course. - Peter Drucker

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. - Daniel J. Boorstin, Democracy and Its Discontents

The founding fathers... provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called education. School is where you go between when your parents can't take you and industry can't take you. ~ John Updike, The Centaur, 1963



You learn something every day if you pay attention. - Ray LeBlond

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. - Winston Churchill

Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet. - Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. - William James, Principles of Psychology

Intelligence appears to be the thing that enables a man to get along without education. Education enables a man to get along without the use of his intelligence. - Albert Edward Wiggam

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily. - Thomas Szasz

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. - Alvin Toffler

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. - Epictetus

If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job. - Donald D. Quinn

If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found time to conquer the world. - Heinrich Heine

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. - Mark Twain

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre. – Gail Goodwin



I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That's what I call a liberal education. - Tallulah Bankhead

America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week. - Evan Esar, American humorist, 1899-1995

No matter how long you teach a fool, he still knows everything. - Leonid S. Sukhorukov, All About Everything (2005)

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. - Mark Twain

Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog. - Doug Larson

You can get all A's and still flunk life. - Walker Percy

I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated. - Al McGuire

The more that learn to read the less learn how to make a living. That's one thing about a little education. It spoils you for actual work. The more you know the more you think somebody owes you a living. - Will Rogers

Did you know America ranks the lowest in education but the highest in drug use? It's nice to be number one, but we can fix that. All we need to do is start the war on education. If it's anywhere near as successful as our war on drugs, in no time we'll all be hooked on phonics. - Leighann Lord

College is about three things: homework fun and sleep ... but you can only choose two. - Andy Stern


Thanks for visiting!



Society and Culture, United States, Kids and Teens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Education, Lily Tomlin

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10 July 2009

Libations Friday! 10 July 2009



Featured today: Video of how astronauts drink coffee from an open mug in space and a short essay about the CIA on why it is important to write in order to change the world as you know it, plus a couple of great quotes.

Coffee Photo by once and future @ flickr

Astronauts Drinking Coffee from Unusual Mug in Weightless Space

From Denny: With this video who needs a coffee recipe this week? This was so unique I just had to share it with you!

Did you see this video yet? An astronaut sips coffee from an unusually designed mug to accommodate weightlessness in space. He explains how the mug works to enable an astronaut to drink coffee without resorting to the old school way of sipping out of a plastic bag. They use this mug design for rocket fuel tanks too. Really interesting; take a listen!



On to the writing portion of Libations Friday:

From Denny: While I have the CIA on the brain because of the latest news, let me tell you a little bit of what it was like growing up in that extreme sport atmosphere of the intelligence community. Every country has an intelligence community, many far worse than America’s, some a bit more benign.

Generally? The intelligence community is one of prolonged sustained high stress levels that cause people to get out of balance. Because they say and do so many things contrary to good character and just plain common sense – all in the name of saving the country – they often turn to addictive substances to sleep at night. There is a high rate of alcoholism in both the military and the intelligence community. That should tell you they are off course on a lot of issues. It should also tell you that human beings are simply not hard-wired for long-term stress.

What’s more, as in the military community but with more destructive consequences, there is the culture of “How dare you tell me I’m wrong, I will never apologize, I’m above the law so I can do what I want because I will never be held accountable” and “You are not allowed to question or challenge me.” This goes for the CIA officers as well as their families. Routinely, when CIA wives try to divorce they are screwed over by the CIA as they will not verify income and so the wife and children get nothing unless the husband is willing to do right by them. That’s just one little peek into the world of living with these abusive people.

How well I could write if I were not here!Image by Esther_G via Flickr


When CIA officers beat their kids or their wives, again, there is nowhere to go for help. The law is useless and - unless you have built up your own personal network among unrelated groups of people in case of an emergency - you are basically toast out in the field with your parents. What is not discussed or released to the news media is who and how many wives and children of CIA officers are killed in foreign countries while the husband is on assignment there. What they also don’t tell you is how foreign powers as well as American Presidents - to a man they are always Republican - use the families of CIA officers as pawns and cannon fodder in their creepy power games. One side kills the families to provoke the other side and the innocents never see it coming. So much for believing they are patriots. Patriots don’t kill the innocent and their young.

So, with this small amount of back story in mind you will better understand the following short essay written for an online writing group when they started a thread asking other writers what motivates them to write. When I saw that thread the immediate thought that went through my head was, “Are you kidding?!”



Why I Write

It's like breathing - because you can. Of course, it helps the breathing when someone you never met suddenly pops up in your little corner of the world and tells you something you wrote meant a lot to them. Then you're left wondering as to how you managed to be a catalyst for someone to gain a new awareness or just plain feel better about themselves. That's when it crosses over from the internal dialogue, jumping over the imaginary boundaries so many people erect for self-protection and into the world of others with similar internal dialogues humming in mass cacophony.

Sure, like others here, there were those teenage years. I grew up in the intelligence community where meanness, abuse and lying became their indelible trademark and I challenged them on it continually at great personal risk. Well, I'm still here.

Their life philosophy was diametrically opposed to mine. They believed the sword was mightier than the pen; I declared the pen was mightier than the sword. I drove them crazy, as relentless as they were to break my spirit I just pushed back harder to wear them down. I always figured the honorable are obligated to stand against the dishonorable; it's a gatekeeper mentality. Why allow truth to become a casualty in this world? Not while I still breathe. Besides, it's the artists and writers who sculpt the world into meaningfulness for the greatest power is in transforming mindsets.

My father stole and then burned my teenage writings, especially the ones written at age eleven when my mother died. The writing convicted him of his heavy guilt, as he was guilty of much, both what he did for a living, my mother's untimely death by his hand and his choice to throw away everything about good character his parents had taught him in exchange for a world of illusion that only brought pain to others. Those writings weren't written to him or about him. Just goes to prove the point: The pen really is mightier than the sword.

I keep breathing - because I can.

Denny Lyon
Copyright 12 June 2008
All Rights Reserved

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