Yeah...and so, anyway...

I had a dream last week about Iran and the United States, and it scared me out of a deep sleep. I purposely wiped my mind clean of the dream's details. I am powerless over the events in this country and in Iran; I can only do what I can to make myself be in the service of God and humanity a little bit more each day. For now, that involves working my recovery program so I'm not zoned out on food, making as much of my daily life as possible be acts of prayer, and to make sure that people are aware of the situations that befall us on this Earth because we are not looking for spiritual solutions to our problems. That's all I can do. I'm just, as a friend has said so often, "another bozo on the bus." But God obviously wants me to participate in this business of being a world citizen. While I was working on this post, I've been checking my Twitter stream. After clicking on a link to a story, I read this blog post from The Daily Dish : "My next door neighb...

I'm working on a story about the legacy of racism and the dawning of hope and healing in this country for the Religion and Spirituality section (Sacramento Edition) of the online newspaper, Examiner.com. I attended a screening of the documentary "Stand", produced and directed by Tavis Smiley, and featuring Dr. Cornel West, and several other admirable men. To summarize the plot, Tavis made a road trip documentary because he wanted to find some answers to the question, "What happened to Dr. Martin Luther King's dream?" I'm not sure if there are any answers, but certainly more provocative questions are raised during the 90 minute film. But the story for me was personal, a literal six-degree-of-separation type of thing. Dr. Cornel West, the esteemed Princeton professor, author and lecturer, was born on June 2, 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I know that because Tavis Smiley announced it during the screening. So Brotha West is a Gemini. Just had to throw that in, ...

Senator Diane Feinstein with 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl. I received a letter from Senator Diane Feinstein about the persecution of Baha'is in Iran. Here's what she said: Dear Ms. Shortt: Thank you for writing to express your concerns about the persecution of the Baha'i people in Iran. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this topic with me and welcome the opportunity to respond. As you may know, the Iranian Government has recently stated its intention to try seven leading members of the Baha'i community in Iran who are accused of spying for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. If convicted, these individuals could receive the death penalty. Like you, I am concerned about the safety and welfare of these individuals. During my tenure in the Senate I have often expressed my support for the rights of the Baha'i community to practice their faith freely without fear of persecution. As a strong supporter of human ri...

I missed this program, which aired tonight. I read about it on Twitter, and by the time I saw the conversation, the show had already aired. But I don't think I can get TVOne through Comcast anyway. The comment that Michael Eric Dyson's brother made was profound: "It takes a keen eye to look beneath the rocky soil and rough exterior of a person to see the beauty of the person within." And this man is serving life in prison! Breaks my heart that some of the best minds have been locked up. I'm not saying that some shouldn't have gone to jail, or they should be let free "because the man did them wrong." I have no details about this particular brother's case. But I do know that he obviously has a sharp mind, and he can articulate his thoughts with such succinct brilliance that it is a shame of our society will not be able to benefit from his capabilities. But who knows--if it is His Will, God will use him to contribute in whatever way emerges from...

At right: Fariba Kamalabadi (Taefi) Angela's aside: We are often so besieged by news stories from all the various of media available to us that we forget that there are flesh and blood human beings involved in those reports. Their story is often trivialized by a 30 second summary of events during a newscast, or it is overly-dramatized by those wretched (my opinion) "reality" shows. This letter touched me because it is the heartfelt words of a young lady who is going through an all too familiar tragedy in Iran--family members being taken away to face a very precarious future at the hands of a cruel and unrepentant fundamentalist theocracy. These are her words,and they are her truth, not the dispassionate reading of a carefully moussed and made up newsreader, or the overly-wrought railings of a Nancy Grace-sque reality show host. It is simply the words of a girl who misses her mother. No more embellishment is needed. But they deserve a global audience so that other people ...

Florence Holway I'm starting to calm down and settle into my new job as part of Examiner.com's Religion and Spirituality group of writers,also known as the Religion and Spirituality channel. I was hired as the Sacramento Baha'i Examiner , which put me in a panic at first. (I'd rather not get into the "why" of it. Let it suffice to say that "fear, doubt and insecurity" clamped a major choke hold on my brain.) But I wrote an introduction to the Baha'i Faith, which my channel director liked in spite of initial formatting problems, and article number 2 is now up. It's called A moment from a film: Rape In A Small Town . Please check it out, and if at all possible, submit to Reddit, Digg, or any other bookmarking or "social media network" you happen to use. I would greatly appreciate it! The latest slavery story to break my heart comes via Twitter @justiceandcare: Child Slavery on Lake Volta . The worldwide slave trade WILL BE an ongoing...