RAYS OF SUNSHINE.

Last week, France finally hit the crescendo from the religious right toward the liberal left in the form of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper who have published provoking comics, attacking every group and way of life as a way to poke fun at humanity. However, it can be said that you can mean what you say, and say what you mean, but you can never control how someone feels about it. And this was just the last straw for those "extremists" living in France.  The French government places so many restrictions on faith practices that differ from the French or Gallic way of life. Christianity is allowed to be openly expressed in the form of Christmas markets and festivals, while hijabi women are condemned for wearing their faith expression through fashion.  The meanings of faith expressions belong to those expressing, not the government. If you ask a hijabi woman if she feels she has freedom in relation to what she's wearing, she oftentimes does. The c...

JFK's old sailboat that he'd take out on Hyannis weekends. x3 Finally, I am at a point in my personal independence that I could decide to take my morning for myself and spend it at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Anyone who has known me knows my longstanding  obsession  with JFK, this library, and his Bostonian background. But this was the first time I had been back there since I was twelve years old! And reading "Elusive Hero" with my  legend ary coke. (October 2014)  Spending good time reflecting on my life and the man who was so bold he looked illness&death in his life as part of his christian struggle. A man so amazing he followed his family's history yet reimagined their life. A true leader. Someone who was the everyman and christ incarnate for this country. My fave president. #jfk (September 2013)  Just seeing his sailboat and this site, right next to UMass Boston, relaxed me so much. Reading Chris Matthews' "Elu...

I say this yearly now, but my heart can't take it. Every year people honor the victims and heroes of NYC, and while I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment, it ignores an aching sore in the American hear-- what about Balbir Singh Sodhi, an elderly Sikh-American racially targeted the next days after 9/11? What about the thousands of hate crimes and racially charged incidents all over the United States, United Kingdom, and the world over? What about the communalism and divisiveness that has only grown more pointed since 9/11? Last year was the 10th anniversary. One decade. The mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came to USC to make a speech. There were initiatives made, promises whispered, the resounding response seemed like it had a reasonable chance for success. One year later, and we have already grown complacent. We have barely integrated our new charges into those established initiatives. We have barely brought up this national tragedy, relegating it to a generic Facebook post ...

I have decided to post my blogs about my family vacation to Florida from 8/15 to 8/20.  Here's the second one, August 17th: our day at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral!   (These are directly transcribed from my written diary on my iPad.)      At this NASA Center, we first took a lot of pictures, then we checked out the Early Space Exploration exhibit, waiting for the lunch with the astronaut Charlie Walker. He presented about "food in space"while we ate fried ravioli, salad, TANG, and apple pie. Then, I asked a question during the Q&A. We proceeded to take pictures with Charlie Walker and then watched the old IMAX movie about the International Space Center. We continued to check out some of the NASA art before the shuttle and simulator. (I went, the 3 wimps didn't!) Then I went to the Space Store to wait for the Charlie Walker signing, buying some reasonably priced souvenirs for me and Adi. I went to the Hubble 3D at...

So, first there was Aurora. A small mountain town in the middle of Colorado. 12 people dead. The killer apprehended and under trial. A Phd student in Neuroscience who secured a National Institutes of Health grant-- a very prestigious opportunity. A lonely man, distraught about being alone in an isolating environment, heralded by the media as a " poor boy who lost his way". There is much more to this story than simply a boy who lost his way back to sanity and reality. The truth of the matter is that we track all Arab-Americans and South Asians in this country due to a xenophobic fear, but we cease to regulate those who seem harmless: i.e. white males. Our inability to seek them out as a threat, married with their penchant for feeling privilege and ownership over public spaces causes an epidemic of sad white male trigger-happy enemies. In Aurora, his personal become most political. The theatrics of his modes operandi only further isolated this incident. People began t...