Aliens, Social Reform and Love

I have a station on Pandora that is called “Strawberry Fields Forever Radio.” The station plays a lot of sweet, folk and country inspired music from the sixties and seventies. Its ultra hippie, peace loving and for some reason, I listen to it all the time. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about that. All of my favorite songs seem fall into a narrow set of themes.

·         Come Sail Away, Styx

·         Sound of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel

·         Peace Train, Cat Stevens

·         Higher Power, Boston

·         Hallelujah, Jeff Burkley

·         One Day, Matisyahu

·         Song for June, Slaid Cleaves  

They’re all about change. Well, aliens and God and social reform.

Aliens, God and Social Reform. 

That would be an awesome title for a book (No one steal it! It’s mine! Copyrighted right now 3-29-2013!). Maybe I’ll even retitle my blog that. I like it better than Patricia Lane. That was just a place holder until I came up with a really good title. This one perfectly sums up my interests. It really says a lot about me.

For example, today as I was telling myself, “Come on, Kelsey. Write in your blog, you have nothing else important to do,” I ended up on Facebook. I was okay with that because I have a few friends that post interesting articles and I get updates from UniteWomen.Org, Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA), I Fucking Love Science, 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting, The Society for Commercial Archeology, a few of my favorite authors and a bunch of TV shows (my greatest weakness!!).

So I ended up reading about:

The possible cure of 14 patients with HIV: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34733/title/HIV-Remission-for-14-Patients/

The Mars Rover finding clay suitable to sustain life: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34701/title/Curiosity-Finds-Clay-on-Mars/

A new technique for transporting livers and keeping them healthy for transplants: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23281-donor-livers-kept-alive-outside-the-body-for-24-hours.html

The Mantis Shrimp that can punch at over 50mph with its club claw, a punch that is strong enough to break aquarium glass, and about how learning about the structure of the claw could be applied toward hip replacements: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=461293937218920&set=a.465258143489166.127227.427481527266828&type=3&theater

I came across a bunch of articles about the Steubenville rape case and the uproar (small that it apparently is) at the reports who sympathize with the rapists and everyone ignoring the victim and more posts about rape culture. Those were disturbing and saddening articles. My favorite, though, was the one covering the comments of singer and activist, Henry Rollins: http://www.underthegunreview.net/2013/03/18/henry-rollins-comments-on-steubenville-rape-verdict/

(This is apparently my day for lists)

I had some great material to write about and nowhere to start. I would have liked to write about the developments in treating HIV positive patients, the social stigma associated with being HIV positive or about rape culture and the need for new teaching and education techniques in schools but then I thought, no one wants to come to my blog (not that anyone does) and read about such depressing stuff. Then I watched this video on my friend Karen’s Facebook page.

I cried.

I think I cried because bottom line, HIV positive people, sexual abuse victims, rapists, women, men, everyone just needs to love.

I originally started this blog to showcase my writing abilities (I’m doing a great job of that…) and I was advised to stay away from such hot button issues because a company might not feel comfortable hiring someone with my opinions. I thought, sure, I’ll stay away from crazy rants about women’s rights or civil liberties for gays or sex education in school or limiting the power of the church and religion in government. I will actually try my hardest not to go crazy about those things but every once in a while I’m going to need to post about love. Love and acceptance, fighting against discrimination, hate and ignorance of any kind, that’s what I want.

If everyone would care about the other humans around them, it would solve so many different problems.

Maybe I’ll change my blog to Aliens, Social Reform and Love.

KB

Here is a link to my friend’s blog, the one who posted the video. I think that she had some beautiful and well communicated thoughts while working at a clinic in South Africa last year:  http://www.kareninsouthafrica.blogspot.com/