MkNotes

Don't Judge Too Quickly https://t.me/MkNotes/1292

His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice," he added. "Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain and We the People will come together again in our never-ending effort to form a more perfect Union, while Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/defense-secretary-mattis-trump-fomented-security-breach-us/story?id=75100611

E M P T Y

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Such memories, of course, would imply the unthinkable: that Iran was as beautiful, as fun, as energizing and romantic, as Oklahoma or Montana or New York. when all conversation would stop and she would be asked to repeat our escape story. The problem, of course, was that they wanted our salvation story as a talisman, no more. No one ever asked what our house in Iran looked like, what fruits we grew in our yard, what books we read, what music we loved and what it felt like now not to understand any of the songs on the radio. No one asked if we missed our cousins or grandparents or best friends. No one asked what we did in summers or if we had any photos of the Caspian Sea. “Men treat women horribly there, don’t they?” the women would ask. Somehow it didn’t feel OK to tell them about my funny dad with his pockets full of sour cherries, or my grandpa who removed his false teeth when he told ghost stories. In many of the classes I’ve taught, my quietest kids have been Middle Eastern. I’m always surprised by this, since the literature I choose should resonate most with them, since I’m an Iranian teacher, their ally, since the civilized world yearns for their voices now. Still, they bristle at headlines about the refugee crisis that I flash on the screen, hang their heads, and look relieved when the class is finished. Their silence makes me angry, but I understand why they don’t want to commit to any point of view. Who knows what their universe looks like outside my classroom, what sentiments they’re expected to display in order to be on the inside https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee?CMP=share_btn_fb

A Part of Harvard President Letter to Biden, December 11, 2020 The United States has brought the world’s best students, researchers, and scholars together to enrich teaching and learning on college campuses, and they have also served on the front lines of the nation’s most complex challenges. Currently, many foreign-born health professionals, physicians, and students are leading the COVID response, providing clinical care, conducting research, and developing the safe and effective therapeutics that are key to our ability to reopen while protecting the vulnerable among us. One example is Noubar Afeyan, a Beirut national who earned his PhD at MIT and worked on an H-1B visa before he became a US citizen. Today, Afeyan is the cofounder and chairman of Moderna, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that has developed one of the leading COVID vaccine candidates. Although his contribution is exceptional, Afeyan’s story is not unique. The National Science Board estimates that as many as 50 percent of United States PhD holders in the high-demand fields of science and engineering were born abroad. Additionally, more than a third—37 percent—of US scientists who received Nobel Prizes in chemistry, physics, and medicine since 2000 were immigrants, as well as five of Harvard’s 13 prize winners since 1998. https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2020/letter-to-president-elect-biden هفت شهر عشق را عطار گشت و دیگر هرگز به خانه برنگشت

White Hair One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?" Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"

JOAQUIN PHOENIX'S OSCARS 2020: I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we’re the center of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something; to give something up. But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment. I think that’s when we’re at our best: when we support each other. Not when we cancel each other out for our past mistakes, but when we help each other to grow. When we educate each other; when we guide each other to redemption. When he was 17, my brother [River] wrote this lyric. He said: “run to the rescue with love and peace will follow. https://t.me/MkNotes/1274

THE MEANING OF LIFE IS REDISCOVERY