When did the medical community decide it was imperative to our health that daytime TV was required to dominate every doctor’s and hospital’s waiting room? As we of the Repair and Maintenance Age (RMA) so often do, I recently found myself stuck for more than an hour while waiting for a relative who was having a “procedure.”

I’d brought work to do and a novel to read in case I felt lazy. As someone who writes at home, part of my attempts at discipline mean never turning on the TV before 6:00 pm. So I have little exposure to the daytime “celebrities” who float across the waiting room screens.

All but one of the eight people waiting with me for other patients were either reading e-books, print books, or were on their smartphones. As I often do in such situations, I asked that the volume on the TV be turned down so I could read (once I even got it turned off when I was the only person waiting) which was hard to do over the bubbly excitement of Rachel Ray and a guest discussing the best kind of jeans for women with big hips and thighs.

This part of an ongoing assault on women’s self-esteem went on for half an hour. The dumbing down of American culture is relentless, as screens of all sizes control our lives, even when we stop for gas. We’re like mental lemmings, rushing unconsciously toward blind consumerism. God forbid we should be comfortable with silence, with solitude, or with our own thoughts.

Isn’t it bad enough that as we progress through the Repair and Maintenance Age we have to cope with the vicissitudes of aging? Why, when we spend so much time at doctors’ offices must we be subjected to the odious mainstream daytime media when we have so much to contemplate and ponder?

Like why, in a nation struggling with obesity, do they serve chips or fries with every sandwich in America?

Who decides these things?

Be in Beauty,

Judith Trustone

MEAN MADISON AVENUE

Why we need a Global Kindness Revolution

Perhaps the young geniuses on Madison Avenue are products of the violent video generation. The tone of recent television ads makes me wonder—are they selling products or promoting meanness and an even greater lack of civility than already exists? Here are several examples:

Capitol One credit card ads star Vikings whose violence and roughness would never make me want to sign up for anything they’re selling. Swinging guillotines? Pouring hot tar over people? I don’t think so. Does this reflect the caveman mentality that permeates our male culture, exemplified by the recent effort of some politicians to take women back to the fifties and earlier?

Then there’s the ad for the Infiniti automaker where a guy in a white car with a smirk on his face makes a giant snowball that sweeps his neighbor’s blue car away in its downhill tumble. The perpetrator congratulates himself and pulls into the now vacant parking space. This is supposed to make me want to buy an Infiniti?

It reminds me of recent Volkswagen ads – whenever someone saw a VW, they yelled “punch buggy” and struck another person in the arm – usually quite painfully. How does this meanness sell cars?

The latest ad that arouses my ire is one for Staples, promoting their service while lauding the new Windows 8 computer program. A man timidly knocks on his teenage son’s door with his laptop in hand and asks the son – who is obviously on the computer that the father bought for him – if he could help him with a computer problem. The lad, without even glancing up, just says a dismissive “No.”

The father, his shoulders slumped in resignation, closes the door and goes to the waiting-to-be-helpful Staples people. The reason this ad really angers me is that it promotes the attitude that disrespecting one’s parents is to be expected and accepted. It also legitimizes a reason not to expect help from our entitled, more technologically adept children. This promotes Staples?

One of the most baffling of all is the Cialis ads.  A couple, after chastely kissing, end up in two bathtubs. This one puzzled me for the longest time. I could see the happy couple together in one bathtub, but holding hands in two adjacent tubs? Then it hit me. They are soaking away soreness after those four hour erections!

How to explain four hour erections to children who might happen to come into the room during commercial breaks?

Other ads are equally bewildering or tasteless.  Do we really need to know about catheters, erectile dysfunction, enlarged prostates and constipation? Or what we’re looking for in a toilet paper? How do we explain these things to curious children? After viewing some ads, we’re not even sure exactly what they are selling.

And these are items that should be personally and privately researched, not up for viewing on the family TV – or worse, the kids’ TVs in their rooms.

My favorite ad is the one for Etrade where a cute baby gives trading advice from his crib or high chair. If I ever decide to get into the stock market online, my first stop will be Etrade (I say, tongue-in-cheek).

In response to increasing global violence and the epidemic of lack of good taste and common courtesy, we’ve started the Global Kindness Revolution as an antidote to violence and lack of civility. We’ve created and distributed 70,000 Kindness Cards so far, including a Spanish version in Ecuador, El Salvador and Belize. We are facilitating Community Kindness Circles in communities, churches, organizations and schools.

Our motto is “Be Kind All the Time!”not just randomly.

If you’d like to join us and help distribute Kindness Cards (which are $.20 each or whatever you can afford) go to www.TrustOneKindnes.com or write to us at info@TrustOneKindness.com or Box 215, Swarthmore, PA 19081 USA. We’d like to help you set up Kindness Circles wherever you are. And please join us every Saturday at 4:00 pm ET for our brief Global Kindness Meditation.

Tell us your reactions to mean ads and above all, contact the corporations using these kinds of ads that are tearing at the root of our society, largely ineffective (or are they?) and only encourage cultural meanness.

Judith Trustone, Sagewriters and the Global Kindness Revolution

info@TrustOneKindness.com

Byard Lancaster, a Warrior with a Horn

August 6, 1942 – August 23, 2012

Sagewriters is sad at the passing of our dedicated Music Director and Jazz legend, Byard Lancaster.

Byard’s dedication to our work, his commitment to encouraging young musicians and writers – especially those “at risk” – and his ability to connect people around the world, leaves a hole that can never be filled.

A talent recognized globally, Byard entertained from Philly to Chicago to Jamaica to Paris, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Guinea Montreal, and anywhere that jazz was performed.

A master musician with saxophone, flute and sixteen other instruments, Byard amazed us all when he performed at a Sagewriters’ fund raising art exhibit in 2009. He played three wind instruments at one time! His workshops inspired many of today’s prominent musicians, and his gentle but determined spirit led the fight for musicians to be able to perform on Philadelphia’s streets.

As Pennsylvania’s Jazz Ambassador, Byard was featured in our documentary, Healing Justice: a journey into Shadow America, where he said, “Why can’t we all get along? We have the tools.”

A while back, spending several months near Paris, Byard was working on a jazz opera. He also published several books for musicians.

We are proud that this unique human being graced us with his support and connection to others, helping spread the work of Sagewriters locally and globally, and we will always miss him and keep his spirit in our hearts.

Judith Trustone, Director, Sagewriters and the Global Kindness Revolution

First I apologize for my long silence. As some of you know, I was broadsided by a distracted driver over a year ago and am still in treatment for my severe injuries. Sagewriters and the Global Kindness Revolution have been on pause since then. (See below for an update.) I am deeply grateful to those of you who so generously sent me “green energy” through my local bank to help with the bills. Your expressions of support and caring have kept me going. Now, something exciting is happening and I hope you’ll be able to support me once again – it costs only a moment of your time. You’ll have to register but this doesn’t mean you have to do anything more or use Yahoo.

The managing editor of Yahoo Women website,  who is familiar with my community healing work,  has placed my name in nomination for an award in Yahoo’s new “Women Who Shine” contest. To vote for me, go to http://shine.yahoo.com/photos/healer-1344925552-slideshow/judith-trustone-photo-160054573.html. (A Yahoo! account is required, but if you don’t have one and create it just to vote, no one says you must use it.)

The contest, as described below, was created to honor women in seven categories who are working “under the radar” at the local level or in areas that receive little public attention. The one with the most votes wins, and the deadline is October 29^th. So please take a moment and go to the link http://shine.yahoo.com/photos/healer-1344925552-slideshow/judith-trustone-photo-160054573.html to support my nomination as a “healer” and pass along the message to all of your network and Facebook friends, as well as those you correspond with through regular mail. Winning this $10,000 award will enable Sagewriters and the Global Kindness Revolution to move forward. And while you’re at it, nominate another Woman Who Shines!

Thank you in advance.

Judith Trustone  www.TrustOneKindness.com

(Scroll below the nomination letter for updates on Sagewriters and the Global Kindness Revolution.)

(Letter about nomination from Jennifer Romolini, Managing Editor, Yahoo Women)

Hello Judith!

I’m reaching out to you because the website I manage Yahoo Women is getting ready to launch a new program called Women Who Shine that honors extraordinary women around the country. It’s our way of celebrating the women out there, who are blazing new trails, touching lives, or just being amazing every single day. We are asking readers to nominate their friends, mentors, families or any other women in their community who inspire them.

The categories for our first Women Who Shine program are:  Activist, Athlete, Entrepreneur, Healer, Public Service, Mother, Teacher and Survivor. The nominee who receives the most votes overall will win a $10,000 cash prize and the runners-up in the other seven categories will receive a $250 cash gift card.

…Our honorees will not be the high-profile women or celebs you see in other “Woman of the Year” or “Most Powerful Women” programs. The women nominated will be those who are local heroes in their own communities and it is Shine’s readers, not an editorial staff, who decide who wins.

This is where you come in In order to launch the site next week and start doing our marketing push the week after, we want to pre-populate it with some awesome, inspirational nominees–which of course made me think of you and all of the wonderful work you’ve done through the years. Would you be game to be nominated for the program in the “healer” category? Your photo would appear on Shine, either in a photo gallery or on the main page and you’d be eligible to win the $10,000 grand prize or at least a $250 gift card.

I’ve drafted a nomination for you and chose a photo, Please let me know as soon as possible if you can participate. Thanks so much. Hope you are well. Jennifer     xx

———————-

UPDATE ON SAGEWRITERS & THE GLOBAL KINDNESS REVOLUTION  10-01-2012

While Sagewriters is on pause for now, those of you interested in publishing your books have a couple of new opportunities to do so for free, through Amazon.com and their ebook program with 70% royalties, and their pbooks (printed books) with about 15% royalties. Of course you must have an outside person who can edit, format and post your book online; and while your book will be promoted on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, you will have to do your own marketing. But you will receive royalties.

We no longer have a partnership with Infinity Publishing, which since 1999 was so supportive, and we were able to publish many books through them. Now John Harnish, their former Vice President of Special Projects, is no longer with them. He has published a number of ebooks to help authors though, and his Ebook about Ebooks is available online for $5.00. He gives a history and contemporary look at the publishing industry as well as a step-by-step guide for professionally publishing your book online. The direct link to John’s book is on Amazon.

Another organization is championing prison authors. They’re on a mission to publish 500 free books for prisoners; they will scan them in unedited and make them available to read online, download or print, without charge:

“If you know a prisoner who has written a book, or would like to write a book, we want to publish it. … Prisoners are free to write anything they wish. And there is no charge whatsoever to either place or read/download these books. Prisoners retain full rights to their books if they later wish to place them with literary agents or commercial publishers. For more information about this exciting program, please Click Here.” (www.PrisonsFoundation.org) To help or for any questions, staff@safestreetsarts.org or call 202-393-1511. Prisoners can submit their books to: Safe Streets Arts Foundation, PO Box 58043, Tel 202-393-1511, Washington DC  20037.

Sagewriters’ Inside Director, Patrick Middleton,Ph.D.,  is finishing his novel, Hope, which will be available the beginning of 2013; and Illinois writer, Larry Rocky Harris, is finishing his 18 Years on Death Row while he successfully advocates for prisoners’ rights, and is part of a class action suit against the Illinois DOC for prison food (it is moving slowly through the courts).

I’m working on Social Networking for Grandparents: one woman’s guide for the newly old and those on the cusp which will be an ebook when it’s ready. My short documentary, Medium, won honorable mention in an international short film contest sponsored by Kindness: the Movie.

My vision for the future is to obtain funding to create a national network of groups working on Kindness so we can have a positive effect on the body politic, hopefully eventually partnering on some projects with the peace community. Is there anyone interested in helping with this? My documentaries, Soothing and Nurturing Human Spirits and Healing Justice: a journey into Shadow America, continue to be well-received at colleges and organizations working for justice.

Meanwhile, my healing journey continues, and if I get enough votes to win the $10,000 Women Who Shine contest, we’ll be able to purchase more Kindness Cards for distribution to add to the 70,000 distributed so far. If you’d like some to give out, let me know at: Sagewriters, Box 215, Swarthmore, PA 19081.

Thank you in advance for your votes, your support and of course your feedback.

Be in Beauty,

Judith Trustone

www.TrustOneKindness.com

Blog: http://judithtrustone.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @TrustOneKndness
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/judith.trustone

Books by Judith:
Celling America’s Soul
The Cat’s Secret Guide to Living With Humans

Books by Patrick Middleton, Ph.D.
Healing Our Imprisoned Minds: a people’s guide to hope and freedom
Incorrigible: a memoir

TONY AUTH / The Philadelphia Inquirer (tauth@phillynews.com)

Darwinism is more often associated with the liberal left than the conservative right, but it’s moved a long way across the political spectrum from Darwin’s day, when it was embraced by advocates of free-market economics, colonialism, and similar ideas today associated with the right.

Apparently, Darwinism is still sometimes invoked in arguments for economic conservatism. It’s reflected in a recent e-mail I received from a reader: “Maybe you should write about the current reversing of evolution by humans, using technology. . . . Fitness, in humans, means the intelligence and ability to deliver a healthy child. . . . Today, especially in the USA, the least fit make the most offspring while the more fit have the least children. The most fit pay to insure the survival and future breeding of the least fit.”

Let’s leave aside the part connecting fitness and intelligence for another column, since the term fitness has a very specific meaning in evolution apart from what people try to achieve in the gym. Instead, I’ll focus on the idea that helping people interferes with evolution.

I find this letter so intriguing because it reflects the reaction some people had to Darwin’s publication of On The Origin of Species in 1859.

According to University of Massachusetts historian Diane Paul, people of Darwin’s time realized that evolution was an ongoing process and that our policies and medical advances would influence its direction.

Some preached that charity and social services impeded evolution – a position that came to be called social Darwinism.

Many Christians of the time opposed that attitude, believing mankind should help the poor and the sick.

Paul said Darwin’s writing reflected mixed reactions to the ideas that would later be called social Darwinism. He did, however, hit on an important argument against it in his second book, The Descent of Man: Sympathetic instincts that lead us to aid the helpless are themselves products of natural selection.

That idea has stood the test of time.

“Evolution made us all the things we are by nature – it made us cooperative and selfish,” said David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University. Evolution, he said, left us with the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly.

To read the rest go to:

Survival of the kindest: The evolution of sympathy | Philly | 05/02/2011

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By Karen J. Greenberg

You only had to listen to the recent hearings convened by New York Republican Congressman Peter King on radicalization and the Muslim religion to know that, if the ascending right in Washington (and elsewhere) has its way, the age of tolerance in America is over.  In the name of putting political correctness in its grave, a surprisingly sizeable contingent of politicians, judges, and other influential figures are now calling for transforming draconian behavior — that once would have made Americans blanche — into the order of the day.

Blaming Political Correctness for Terrorism

King’s hearings underscored the urgency with which a growing cast of influential characters seeks to open yet wider the door to the sort of anti-democratic (and anti-constitutional) actions that have been woven into counterterrorism policy since September 11, 2001. As chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, King made it his job to acknowledge the obstacle that — as he might put it — excessive tolerance for minorities, foreigners, or other religions and cultures can pose. “To back down [from these hearings],” he insisted when criticized, “would be a craven surrender to political correctness and an abdication of what I believe to be the main responsibility of this committee — to protect America from a terrorist attack.”

It was hardly the first time in the Obama era that political correctness has been identified as a major cause of terrorism, or at least as a major roadblock to confronting terrorism.  One need only think back to the November 2009 killing spree in which Major Nidal Hasan, a Muslim Army psychiatrist, fatally gunned down 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas. In an op-ed penned several days after the attack, Republican Congressman John Carter, who represents the district where Fort Hood is located, pointedly connected political correctness to the dangers posed to the country by terrorism, warning, “Political correctness is killing Americans and undermining the national security of the United States.”

To read the rest of this article go to:

Torture the New Black? How We’ve Come Accept Cruel Treatment for Anyone Perceived as an ‘Enemy’ | Ne

Global Kindness Revolution

Mini Seminar

Free & Open to the Public

Three Mile Island Woman
By Judith Trustone
March 28, 1979

Home again
sparkling kitchen
shag carpet hiding
paranoia … breathed
dreamed just around the edge
of every moment.
She stares at the glass
In her hand eyes searching for atomic
particles swallowing
fear she drinks
water.
Dust dancing in sunbeams
looks menacing.
Afraid to breathe eat sleep
she covers her swollen
belly with sweaty hands.