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The next time you reach for that new skin care product, you should probably think again.
That fresh face may come with a big price tag. Microbead awareness is about to have its
moment, but at the moment, most people aren’t aware that many popular cleaning and skin
care products are extremely hazardous, filled with tiny little plastic pieces which pollute the
world’s water and may pose significant problems we’re yet to find. Activists, scientists,
environmentalists, and public health experts the world over are currently pushing for bans
on these deceptively dangerous little balls of plastic. And, so far, their push appears to be
working.
What are Plastic Microbeads?
Plastic microbeads are the tiny little spheres of plastics, such as polyethylene and
polypropylene, which are found in lots of cleaning produces. Manufacturers sell them to
public based on their exfoliating properties; those teeny dots are intended to reach into your
pores, scrub out the gunk, and leave your face looking bright and fresh. And, apparently, it
works. But there’s a price to pay.
Microbeads and Water
That price is big one. According to a report recently published in Nature, American water
habitats are flooded with eight trillion beads every day. Eight. Trillion. Every day. In Lake
Ontario, researchers found 1.1 million beads per square mile. While many of these beads
are supposedly caught by water treatment plants, they still make it into the larger world,
being sprayed onto crops and eventually trickling into the water system anyways, according
to Nature. Then they get eaten by local wildlife. That’s when things get nasty.
Microbeads and Wildlife
Microbeads look like plankton. Plankton is an important source of nutrition for much of the
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Plastic Microbeads: Scrubbing Your
Skin, Polluting Your Planet

world’s wildlife population. The world’s wildlife, being unaware of what polypropylene is,
gobble this plastic caviar by the mouthful. Shrimp and other little creatures eat a particularly
large amount of these beads. These animals are, in turn, eaten by larger animals. Which
we eat. If we are what we eat, then we get closer every day to become mannequins, it
seems. This is a new enough problem that the research is still out, but it can’t be good
more massive portions of the American population to be eating polypropylene regularly.
What’s Being Done
Luckily, environmentalists around North America have been raising the alarm, and
lawmakers have been taking notice. In California, lawmakers recently sent a proposal
governor Jerry Brown describing a law that would phase out plastic microbeads of a certain
size by 2020. In Illinois, the push to get them banned by 2017. A bipartisan bill by Michigan
and New Jersey lawmakers is pushing for a 2018 ban. The same thing is happening in
Europe.
These laws appear to be receiving popular support. Activists should appreciate the rare
ease they are having getting this issue noticed. While the damage being done is serious,
and the lawmakers will take a few years to get these bills through, it seems clear that the
government is doing the right thing here.
 Leave a comment  Posted on September 20, 2015
Humans have a long history of killing off animal populations. Our current tools (guns,
aircraft, traps) make over-hunting easy. Even prior to modernity, people pushed the earth’s
creatures into extinction; from–possibly–the mammoth, to the dodo bird, to the passenger
Simple Steps to Stop Poaching

pigeon, our species has hunted, trapped, eaten, and simply swept away entire species.
Observing humanity’s relationship to animals, you may be tempted to see people as cold
killers, and little more.
The recent uproar over Cecil the Lion’s death, though, is a reminder that people–at least
some of them–do care. These dedicated stewards of the earth seek a harmonious,
respectful relationship between humans and animals. The big question for many of these
people, many of whom live far from the hunting grounds, is what can I do? Saving
endangered species is a tall order. With dedication, though, you will make a difference.
Here are a few options for helping prevent poaching.
Donate to Wildlife Organizations.
When you want the job done right, your best option is often to pay the experts to do it for
you. Groups like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), The International Fund for Animal
Welfare, and the International Rhino Foundation, among countless others, do excellent and
important work in wildlife conservation. If you have a specific animal you’re interested in
helping protect, find a group dedicated to its preservation and give them some money.
They often need it.
Volunteer
If you want a more hands-on experience but don’t have the credentials necessary to work
in the field, consider volunteering. Many organizations have volunteer programs and would
be thrilled to have another compassionate person lending a hand. Find an organization with
a local chapter and email or call them. You might end up phone-banking, providing social
media outreach, or even get to interact with one of the animals you’re championing. The
International Anti-poaching Foundation’s site has many ideas about how to give some of
your time.
Spread the Word
People can’t care about issues they don’t know about. Educate yourself, speak with friends
and family, and make resources available to anyone who shows interest. Start a blog,
volunteer for social media outreach for a local group, or start a club.
Make sure you get your facts straight. People won’t listen to you if they think you’re not
credible. The WWF has lots of educational and easy-to-use fact sheets on their site. Read
up, organize your thoughts, and get the message out there!
Remember to Go Beyond
Charismatic Creatures
This can be a controversial topic among conservationists. Lovable animals like lions, rhinos,

etc. get a lot of attention (and donations) from the public, while their less cuddly brethren–
such as the Braken Bat Cave Meshweaver spider–are ignored. People who want to help
prevent species-loss need to be aware of the varieties of endangered animals out there.
(As a counterpoint, research does indicate that focusing on charismatic creatures can help
retain populations of non-charismatics as well.)
 Leave a comment  Posted on August 10, 2015
Although the lives of people around the world are constantly being disrupted by countries
and communities in turmoil, many people here in the United States seem to be dissociated
with what others living in different parts of the world are going through.
In Greece, people have been struggling with their country’s extreme debt crisis for a long
period of time. Banks have been closed. Despite nervous citizens wanting desperately to
pull their money out, Greece essentially shut down its banking system and restricted access
for the general public. Anti-austerity protests turned violent and the country is still in a state
of turmoil, until financial resolution is achieved and order can be restored.
CNN reports areas in China and Korea were hit hard with a Category 4 typhoon that pelted
the countries’ east coastline last weekend. Millions of residents had to be evacuated from
their homes, airports were shut down and ships were called back into port. The full extent of
the damage and losses, as well as the cost to the affected communities, has yet to be
determined.
Empathy for a Troubled and Suffering
World

Fighting continues around Baghdad and other areas throughout Iraqi, as Iraqi News reports
that Federal Police launched rockets in an attack which allegedly killed 20 ISIS militants.
Due to its financial resources, seemingly unlimited supply of arms, its recruitment efforts
and its aggressive tactics, many believe ISIS to pose more of a threat than al-Qaeda. This
is a danger both abroad and close to home, a fact which many Americans may not fully
grasp.
Seeing Life Through Other People’s Eyes
The majority of people who live in the U.S. have relatively comfortable lifestyles that can
cause them to be disconnected from the plights that other people, thousands of miles away,
go through on a daily basis. Even if you listen to the news, and hear about issues faced by
people around the world, what is it really going to take to see life through a different lens?
Only once we can see life through other people’s eyes will we truly be able to have empathy
for the situations that they may be may struggling with or living with on a daily basis. Millions
of people occupy this planet we call home. Unless we can empathize with humanity’s
difficulties and struggles, we will be unable to come up with solutions on a broader scale.
How We Can Become More Humble
While you go about with your day-to-day activities, it is important you recognize all you have
here in the United States. Even those who may be fighting with monetary problems,
physical ailments or other real life-threatening situations must realize how different life
would be if they lived in another part of the world. So, how can we humble ourselves a bit?
Before you comment, try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
Try not to be quick to judge. Everyone has their own struggles. Find out about someone
else’s before rendering judgment.
Be willing to admit when you make a mistake and take responsibility for your actions.
Be grateful and gracious, for what you have is probably far more than others could ever
dream of having.
Value other people’s time and worth as much as you do your own.
 Leave a comment  Posted on July 28, 2015

It is often said that voting is a privilege. As citizens, we have the right to vote, but when you
consider that millions of people around the world living in countries that do not have our
form of democratic system, and thus do not have a right to vote, voting in an election as a
United States citizen truly is a privilege. In the past few decades, people have become more
and more distrustful of the electoral system, especially the US presidential elections. Many
people have opined that the individual’s vote doesn’t count because of the Electoral College
system in place which allows the possibility of a candidate garnering the most popular, or
individuals’, votes while losing the election based on the Electoral College system. The
2000 presidential election is the most recent case in point, with then Vice President Al Gore
collection the most individuals’ votes while losing ultimately to George W. Bush because of
the Electoral College votes needed for election.
If you, like millions of other disenfranchised voters, have pondered what the point is in
voting, then here are a few good reasons to vote.
Make your voice heard
Voting is the most accessible way to have your voice heard. Whether your vote is cast in
confidence of a candidate or party, or in protest, voting in your local state or federal election
is the easiest way to be heard by the government.
Special ballot issues
When special referendums are included on the ballot, it is one of the most direct methods of
Important Reasons to Get Out and
Vote for Your Candidate

having your opinion be known by your leaders. Special referendums, such as the
legalization of marijuana, or a change in the state constitution, are directly decided by
popular vote. It’s usually a decision between a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’ and the votes of individuals
decide whether the measure passes and becomes law, or whether it is rejected.
Credibility
If you complain about the government, a politician, a particular law, or some other issue
that is in the news, if you have not voted in an associated election, you really do not have
much credibility. Voting is a way to be able to converse on these topics with a sense of
credibility because you actually cast your vote when it was time to make an ultimate
decision.
Vote for your children
Because those under 18 cannot vote, voting often serves as a dual purpose as some issue
or candidate you vote for can eventually impact the lives of your children. Vote for your
child’s welfare as well as your own.
 Leave a comment  Posted on June 23, 2015
A recent study brought clarity to the issue of climate change, as reported by the
Washington Post. Global warming does not necessarily cause any single weather event,
such as Hurricane Katrina, heat waves or extreme winter weather as experienced in the
eastern region of the country. What changes in climate does do is make the numbers of
these events much more frequent. This Swiss study found data that showed that 18% of the
earth’s extremes in rainfall, now, and 75% of extreme heat are made much more possible
due to global climate change.
Climate Change – What We Can Do

A single person can feel helpless and unable to effect a positive change. There are
important actions you can take, and urge your family, friends and neighbors to make, that
can make a difference. According to the EPA, (Environmental Protection Agency) some of
the most important actions individual citizens can take include:
Use lightbulbs that draw less power
The best bulbs now available now are LED. Although more expensive, they last longer, emit
less heat, and don’t have the dangers of mercury contamination as are found in compact
fluorescent bulbs. These bulbs must be recycled, and are dangerous if broken as they will
emit toxic mercury that could endanger you. Not only will your electricity bill be lower, you
reduce your home’s power draw, and the emissions created in the electricity production.
Get your home insulated
The cost of heating a poorly insulated home are far higher than a well-insulated home. The
EPA advises you get rid of air leaks by adding caulking or weather stripping. Your home will
remain much warmer or cooler, and can reduce the costs of heating and cooling by up to
20%.
Recycle
You may not like the inconvenience of carrying your own bags when shopping, but reducing
paper and plastic in the environment can make a big difference. Landfills produce
greenhouse gases, and you can make a difference by reducing your own consumption. Be
part of the solution rather than collecting and throwing away huge piles of paper and plastic
bags.
Restrict water usage
The highest water usage is actually a toilet, not the shower or dishwasher. Replace your
home’s toilet with a water-efficient model and save significantly on your water bill and
overconsumption. Get leaks repaired immediately. Only water your yard after sunset, rather
than during the day.
Kick the bottled water habit
Rather than buying bottled water, get a water bottle that is BPA-free and refill it. Don’t like
the taste of tap water? Get a filter system on your faucet, or get a delivery service for your
water that provides bottles of water that are used again and again.
The future of the planet is uncertain, but current research clearly indicates that climate
change is very real and more extreme weather is on the horizon. Your individual actions
make a difference. Share your knowledge. Pass on the positive changes you have made to
your friends, family and neighbors.

 Leave a comment  Posted on May 20, 2015
Community service can give you the pride and satisfaction of helping others. It can help
strengthen your community and your family. Most people understand the importance of
giving back to the community and taking an active role in improving conditions in the world
we live in. We know that volunteering is a good thing, but did you also know that it can be
good for your health?
The Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS) reports that a growing body of
research over the past two decades indicates that volunteering produces health benefits as
well as social benefits for the individuals involved. According to CNCS, findings presented in
its report entitled The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research
indicate that volunteers have higher functionality, less depression, and lower mortality rates
later in life than those who have not volunteered.
Mental Health Benefits of Community
Involvement
As discussed in the CNCS report, the evidence suggests that community service can have
a positive effect on social psychological factors. It can provide meaning and purpose in life.
Focusing on something other than oneself can alleviate stress. Volunteer work strengthens
Community Involvement – It Can
Benefit Your Health!

social ties and protects people from isolation. Helping others also produces a greater sense
of self-worth and trust, according to the report. As stated in a Harvard Medical School
publication, volunteering helps people feel more socially connected and wards off loneliness
and depression.
Physical Health Benefits of Volunteering
The Harvard Medical School article also states that growing evidence indicates a correlation
between volunteering and better physical health. According to the article, a recently
published Carnegie Mellon University study found that adults over 50 who regularly
volunteer their time to help others are less likely to develop high blood pressure, a major
contributing factor to stroke, heart disease, and premature death.
CNCS researchers found that people who engage in volunteer activities are less likely to
have health problems later in life. Even after factoring in age, gender, and health, the CNCS
study determined that individuals who volunteer have a greater chance of living longer.
Rush University Medical Center reports that, according to recent research, people who had
chronic pain experienced less pain and disability after beginning volunteer work with others
suffering chronic pain. Researchers also found that people who volunteered after suffering
heart attacks experienced less depression and despair, factors that increase the likelihood
of death in heart attack patients.
However, as reported by Rush, there are limits to how much health benefit is available to an
individual through volunteering. Researchers have identified a threshold of one or two
hours a week, beyond which no health benefits have been established.
 Leave a comment  Posted on April 29, 2015

Many federal employees visit the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website to learn
about salaries and wages, career development opportunities, retirement benefits, disability
compensation and other information.
However, according to a new site, Analytics USA, the OPM website is far from the most
popular government-run website.
The site’s data comes from a unified Google Analytics account for U.S. federal government
agencies known as the Digital Analytics Program. It shows how people find, access, and
use government services through websites.
Analytics USA does not cover everything the federal government does online, but the Digital
Analytics Program does collect Web traffic from almost 300 executive branch government
domains across more than 3,800 total websites, including every cabinet department.
For those who are interested in this data, the site clearly states that it is an open source
project in the public domain. The website, its data and code are free for anyone to use
without restriction. Additionally, the site provides various snapshots of its data already set
up to be downloaded in JSON format.
On a recent morning, the Top 10 federal websites based on the number of visits in the
previous 30 days were:
1. Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov)
It should be little surprise that in the months of March and April, as the tax filing deadline
approached, this site received the most visits of any government site.
Under Analytics USA’s “Now” search for “people on a single, specific government page
now,” this site’s “Where’s My Refund? ” page occupied the top spot.
2-3. National Weather Service
(forecast.weather.gov and weather.gov)
Both URLs go to the same National Weather Service home page. This may indicate how
people tend to find websites by using search engines rather than a site’s domain name. For
instance, in Google, these sites sit atop the results that are returned when a user types in
the query, “forecast weather.” Of course, this site’s popularity may also be attributed to the
fact that the National Weather Service provides the data that virtually every media outlet
bases its weather report on.
What Are the Most Popular Federal
Government Websites?

4. USA Jobs (usajobs.gov)
The federal government’s job board provides access to thousands of job opportunities
across hundreds of federal agencies and organizations. In light of the government’s plans
for increased federal hiring in 2015, USA Jobs is likely to remain a leading web destination
for months to come.
5. National Park Service (nps.gov)
As spring begins, it’s no wonder that a large number of people are looking at tourism
destinations through the National Park Service site. This site provides access to detailed
information about 407 parks, monuments, preserves, historic battlefields and more across
the country.
National Parks properties such as Death Valley National Park, Yellowstone National Park,
Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,
welcomed 292.8 million recreational visitors in 2014, the site states.
6. U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service
(uscis.gov)
The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service has a broad mandate to administer and ensure
the integrity of the country’s immigration system, grant immigration and citizenship benefits,
grant authorization to live and work in the U.S. on a permanent basis and promote an
awareness and understanding of citizenship. Each year, about 680,000 immigrants become
naturalized citizens of the U.S. through the USCIS, which likely accounts for this site’s high
number of visits.
7-8. Social Security Administration
(ssa.gov and socialsecurity.gov)
Everyone in the country at some point of time conducts business with the Social Security
Administration (SSA) or one of its 1,400 regional offices, field offices, card centers,
processing centers and hearing offices.
The SSA is best known for its retirement benefits and Medicare program. But it also has
large programs providing benefits to the disabled, including Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI) for workers and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for those whose
disability has prevented them from ever working.
9. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (nasa.gov)
Interest remains high in NASA and space exploration as the organization takes its first steps
toward a planned manned mission to Mars. The NASA site is also popular for its deep

archives of images of deep space and past space missions as well as live video from the
International Space Station and coverage of all launches via NASA TV.
10. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (noaa.gov).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the federal agency that
includes the National Weather Service as well as:
National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
National Marine Fisheries Service
National Ocean Service
Office of Marine & Aviation Operations
Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
The NOAA’s reach, which the agency describes as “from the surface of the sun to the
depths of the ocean floor,” is certainly broad and accounts for its high ranking.
 Leave a comment  Posted on April 2, 2015
Loving and helping your children is a source of happiness for them, and for you as a
parent. Life skills are desirable or necessary skills that are needed to participate in
Important Life Skills to Teach Your
Children

everyday life. Teaching your child important and useful skills that he or she can use now
and into the future is a valuable parental gift of help, and love.
Basic Life Skills for Young Children
Life skills taught should be age-appropriate for your child. Young children are learning
about the world in which they live, and need life skills tools which help them interact safely
in their environment.
Learning to get along with others begins when very young, and continues throughout a
lifetime. Even the youngest child is presented with life situations that require decision-
making, and a wise parent teaches basic age-appropriate life skills to foster good judgment.
Basic life skills learned early serve as a strong foundation and building block for the many
life skills a child continues to learn as he or she grows to young adulthood, and beyond.
Some simple but powerful life skills tools for the very young include:
Set a good example for your child. He or she will learn from you how to treat others by
the way treat him or her.
Teach your child good manners. Saying “please” and “thank you” lasts a lifetime.
Teach your child kindness; to siblings, other children, and to other living things.
Teach your child honesty. Do not punish a child for telling the truth, but help them to
understand why it is important to be truthful with self and others.
Teach your child respect for self, for others, for living things, and for the environment.
Teach your child when to use caution, but do not teach your child to be afraid. Caution
should be used around people they do not know. Teach them never to go with a
stranger, and to go to Mom or Dad about it first.
Teach your child basic safety:
Drivers often do not see small children, so cars are dangerous. Never run in front of a
car. Look both ways before you cross the street. Never ride your tricycle or bicycle
into the street.
Teach your child to use caution with an animal they do not know, and that does not
know them. The natural curiosity and love of a child draws them to animals. Teach them
to go to Mom or Dad about it first.
The small size and lack of life experience of a child makes them especially prone to dog
bites.
Teach your child that a strange dog might not be friendly to everyone, and not to pet or hug
it. It is best to leave it alone, and just walk calmly and quietly away.
Basic Life Skills for Older Children and
Pre-Teens
Teach your children the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you”, beginning when they are very young. Continue to teach it as they grow-up,

encouraging them to try and treat others as they would want to be treated.
Teach growing children the lifelong value of competency and excellence in their chosen
fields of interest.
Teach your children the facts about drugs and drug use, and what to do when they are
faced with the opportunity or invitation to use.
Teach your soon-to-be adult child how to manage a bank account, establish and follow a
budget, establish and manage credit, apply for a job, do a job interview, and how to
purchase his or her first car.
Most importantly, encourage your children to follow their dreams in pursuit of a happy and
worthwhile life.
 Leave a comment  Posted on March 31, 2015
The Risks of Giving In
Today more than ever, the world is at our fingertips. A quick search on our smart phone, a
quick entry of our credit card number, a drive-thru window—we can have, it seems,
anything we want, and quickly. But if we considered the long-term effects of those
decisions, perhaps we wouldn’t make them so haphazardly. Rarely is the deal as good as it
sounds; something that gratifies us right now may have costs later on. Often, in chasing the
thrill of instant gratification, we’re compelled to take a risk. When those risks don’t pay off,
The Troublesome Nature of Instant
Gratification

they can have serious consequences.
For example, imagine that after a long night at a party, a drunk guest and his friends are
craving fast food, right that second. It can’t wait! They hop in the car, but on the way to the
drive-thru, the driver loses control of the vehicle and kills a pedestrian. It was, of course, an
accident, but that sort of accident is entirely preventable, note personal injury lawyers
Mushkatel, Robbins & Becker, PLLC. If the driver had weighed the lifetime effects on the
victim’s family against his instant need for a hamburger, he would never have gotten in the
car. The truth is, it’s usually pretty hard to suppress our immediate desires, but learning to
do so may not be such a bad idea.
The Benefits of Delayed Gratification
Giving into our desire for instant gratification can have long-reaching negative implications.
In a famous 1970 psychology experiment, Stanford researcher Walter Mischel offered
young children a single marshmallow, with the promise that if they waited a few minutes,
they could have two. Most children did not hold out for the second goodie, but the ones who
did were found to enjoy greater success later in life (as measured by higher SAT scores,
higher college completion rates, and higher incomes). On the flip side, more recent
research suggests that adults who can’t delay their gratification are more likely to have
higher BMI’s and drug-addiction problems.
Luckily, the research also suggests that we can outsmart our immediate desires. A key
player is attention—the less we think about the desire, the less likely we are to satisfy it
immediately. So, distracting ourselves for even a few minutes (from, say, the idea of a fast-
food run after a party) may help us resist. Another factor is our ability to imagine the appeal
of the delayed rewards. Typically, it’s hard to wait for something that by virtue of being in
the future is rather abstract, especially if the immediate reward is right within our grasp.
One way to get around this tendency is to try to flip that situation: hide the immediate
temptation, or pretend it’s something else, while visualizing specific details of the future
reward. No one is perfect, and we are bound to give in to our desire for instant gratification
once in a while. Considering the negative effects of doing so, however, we would do well to
try to overcome that instinct.
Sources:
The New Yorker: Don’t!
Psychology Today: The Power of Delaying Gratification
Scientific American: How to Avoid the Temptations of Immediate Gratification

Charity has many positive effects, and not just on the charity. Whether you are able to
donate goods, materials and money or by volunteering your time, giving can be as
beneficial for you as for the recipient of your time and charitable donations. As Mahatma
Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Reduces Stress
Being stressed out or anxious can put a lot of physical and emotional strain on a person’s
body. Stress has been known to lead to serious health problems as well. When a person
focuses his or her attention outward and onto someone else, it can help alleviate the
personal stress or anxiety that person may be feeling. Lowered stress levels can then lead
to improved health. Charity can create a little good karma that can go a very long way.
Improve Health and Increases Longevity
When an individual does not take the time to do charitable actions for others, he or she
faces a 30 percent greater risk of death following a stressful life event than someone who
helps others, according to a study featured in Prevention. Putting another person’s needs
ahead of your own can eliminate stressors which will often lead to decreased health and
shortened life span. Being charitable can help improve your mood, make you feel more
optimistic and bring you joy. When your emotional state improves, it can help strengthen
your immune systems and improve your physical state too.
It doesn’t have to be a lot. Sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference, like
offering to be a designated driver, making dinner for a sick friend, reading to someone at a
The Positive Effects of Charity

senior center, donating to a local shelter, volunteering to take someone to the doctor, or
picking up a friend’s kids from school when he or she can’t make it.
Volunteering Can Improve the Balance
Between Work and Life
Although you probably won’t consider giving up some of your valuable time to volunteer as
a way to get more free time, a study referenced in the Huffington Post says volunteering
can do just that. According to this University of Zurich study, workers who also volunteer
their time feel as if their lives have more of a balance. When you volunteer, you feel
productive and you get a sense of accomplishment. Volunteering can also lead to other
activities not associated with work, which in turn can help balance the time and attention
spend on work.
Brings People With Common Goals
Together
Another positive effect of charity is it brings people with common goals together. People
from all different backgrounds can volunteer. Many volunteers opt to join up with an already
established organizations, groups or team, where they can build camaraderie and get much
more accomplished. These groups can do so much when pooling their resources.
Aids Personal Growth
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, that’s the “Golden Rule.” When you
volunteer to help others and give the best of yourself, it can aid in your own personal
growth as well. When a person understands someone else’s needs and the importance of
community and giving, it helps to build empathy and improve self-esteem. Being able to
give back or pay it forward can provide a sense of self-worth and happiness otherwise
unattainable.

The Positives of Gaining Valuable
Experience
Sticking with a single profession for one’s whole working life is in some sense the
“traditional,” tried-and-true model. It’s what many of our parents did, and did successfully—
and it’s worth remembering that there are good reasons for that. In fact, for many workers
today, it is still the most attractive lifestyle choice. For one thing, it can make you more
employable. Should you ever want to change companies, even within the same profession,
potential employers often value the fact that you’ve put in the time learning a specific
business. It demonstrates persistence and means you probably have considerable
expertise in your field.
In addition, if you stick to one area, you will be able to gain seniority and leadership roles in
that area, instead of having to prove yourself anew in every job you take on. Some people
complain that sticking with one profession is boring, but if it’s a good fit, the routine will be
better described as stable. If your work life is relatively predictable, it will leave more time
for you to explore and experiment with other parts of your life. Instead of switching careers
to pursue your changing interests, you can instead develop your new interests as hobbies.
The Limitations of a Lifetime Career
Of course, sticking with a single profession does not work for everyone. Changing
professions is increasingly common as workers begin to recognize the potential pitfalls of
sticking to just one. Though a single career could mean stability, it could also translate to
The Realities of Sticking With One
Profession Your Whole Life

“putting your eggs in one basket.” The job market is uncertain, and if your skills are not
transferable, you may find yourself in a lurch if you do lose your job mid-career. In this day
and age, having a guaranteed lifetime career isn’t always realistic, so it’s important to have
at least another option on the backburner. You could also become disabled, and lose the
capacity to do the single specific job you’re trained to do—though in this case, say J.B.
Bieske and Jennifer Alfonsi, Attorneys at Law, you may be entitled to Social Security
benefits.
In the personal realm, you simply may not find it rewarding to stay with a single career
forever. When you consider your career holistically, as just one part of your whole life, you
may find that changing careers is motivating and energizing. We all change as we get older,
and there’s nothing wrong with that; what worked for us at age 25 may not work for us at
age 35, and our priorities might be different again at 45.
Giving yourself the chance to try different things may lead to real personal growth and
development. Each new opportunity will teach you new skills, connect you to more people,
and make you more flexible. As employers also begin to appreciate this, they are more and
more accepting of career changes on a résumé. Doggedly sticking to one profession may
even prevent you from taking advantage of a great opportunity that comes your way.
Sources:
Forbes: 10 Reasons to Stay at a Job for 10 or More Years
Matador Network: Why Changing Jobs Often Can Actually Be a Good Thing
Careershifters: How Career Change Impacts Your Whole Life
What Rights Do You Have as a

Immigration law in the United States is complex and multi-tiered. It covers areas of law
ranging from families to employment, and asylum requests to citizenship. In fact, the U.S.
Immigration and Nationality Act, which has served as the foundation of immigration law
since its creation in 1952, is broken down into a full fifty separate subjects. As such,
immigration law can be an overwhelming subject for anyone to tackle. Here, we’ll look at
two common areas of concern in immigration law, asylum and deportation, and discuss how
they impact your rights as a United States immigrant.
Asylum and Refugee Seekers
It is the right of immigrants to request asylum based on fear of persecution in their home
country. If you are a victim of persecution, or there is a legitimate belief that you would be in
danger if you were to return to your home country, you may qualify for temporary or
permanent refugee status in the United States. Types of persecution that are considered
valid include religious, political, racial, and ethnic, among others. In 1980, the U.S. Refugee
Act was passed, and it serves as the framework for refugee law in the United States. The
Act covers subjects including qualifications to seeking asylum, the application process, and
resettlement of approved refugees.
It’s important to note that the burden of proof is on the applicant. The federal government
requires that the person seeking asylum show there is a true threat of danger, and that is
done via both a subjective and an objective test. The subjective test requires the applicant
to show he has a legitimate fear based on any of the protected classes (religion, race, etc),
and the objective test requires the applicant provide proof that there is a reasonable
possibility that he will be persecuted if he returns to his home country. If an applicant can
pass both tests, he may be granted asylum, which can then lead to citizenship.
Deportation
Many immigrants in the United States fear the threat of deportation, regardless of their legal
status. Why? There are myriad reasons for which a person can be deported, with two of the
most common being a conviction for certain crimes and the inability to prove through
documentation that he is here legally. Relative to documentation, if the federal government
believes that someone has gained entry into the U.S. using falsified documents, the
immigrant may face the prospect of being deported back to his home country. When that
happens, parents are separated from their young children, people lose their jobs, and they
are forced to return a country they left in order to pursue a better life.
Fortunately, though the process can be a bureaucratic nightmare, those facing deportation
are not without rights. In fact, the initial burden of proof is on the federal government to
show clear and convincing evidence that the person being charged has committed fraud or
falsified records and documents. If the government does provide convincing evidence of
fraud, the defendant has a legal right to rebut the accusation by showing that admission
United States Immigrant?

into the United States would have been granted admission even without the fraudulent
documents. Even though you are not a United States citizen, you are still protected by due
process, and even if there is a legitimate reason to deport you, there may still be
alternatives available that allow you to remain in the United States.
The United States has a long, rich history of welcoming immigrants from all corners of the
globe. Rights are afforded to people wishing to remain in the country because of fears of
persecution back home, or because they have established roots here. Understanding those
rights, and how they impact you, is the first step to securing permanent residency in the
United States.
 Leave a comment  Posted on February 27, 2015
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that more than 3 million people were injured
and 4,405 were killed on the job in 2013. While the numbers are high, they don’t tell the
whole story, because there are some industries that have a significantly higher ratio of
injuries and deaths than others. For example, almost 2.1 million of the on-the-job injuries
occurred in service industries, which employ more than 82 percent of the United States
workforce. The term ‘service industry’ is fairly broad, so here are two specific industries that
have the highest number of reported injuries and fatalities, and two that have some of the
lowest.
Trade, Transportation and Utilities
A natural inclination for many is to believe that police officers and firefighters must suffer the
The Inequality of Safety Factors in
the Workplace

most injuries and fatalities. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there
were 1,153 deaths reported in the trade, transportation and utilities sectors in 2013. That
figure represents more than one quarter of all fatalities. Transportation incidents accounted
for 665 of those deaths. There were also 3.8 injuries reported for every 100 full-time
employees.
Construction
Just as with the trade, transportation and utilities industries, there were 3.8 injuries reported
for every 100 full-time employees in the construction sector. Also, according to the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 20.3%, or 1 in 5, of all work-related
fatalities happened on construction sites in 2013. Falls, electrocution, becoming caught in
or between objects, and blunt force trauma from object impact were the leading causes of
those deaths. Of those reasons, falls were responsible for 294 of the 796 construction
deaths. It is estimated that, if those “Fatal Four” factors were eliminated, an average of 468
lives would be saved every year.
Information
Careers in publishing, broadcasting and motion pictures proved to be among the safest in
2013. The BLS recorded 39 fatalities in all, with 17 of them being transportation related and
10 being attributed to falls. Injuries were reported at a rate of 1.5 for every 100 full-time
employees in the information industry.
Finance
The finance insurance industry, which includes banking, insurance and real estate,
accounted for 84 on-the-job fatalities in 2013, making it one of the safest areas of
employment in the country. A total of 36 people were killed as a result of injuries sustained
by an animal or person, and there were 23 transportation related fatalities. The number of
injuries reported totaled 1.3 out of every 100 full-time employees.
Comparing the Numbers
When comparing injuries and fatalities between industries, it is clear that the nature of some
work makes it more hazardous than others. For example, the environment in which
construction and warehouse workers must navigate is infinitely more dangerous than that of
those who work in an office building. They must contend with heights, heavy and dangerous
equipment, and the inherent danger of road travel. In contrast, those who work in office
environments generally do not have to worry about any of those hazards, with the
exception of traveling between locations. In fact, 1,740 people died as a result of a work-
related transportation accident in 2013, making it the number one cause of on-the-job
deaths.
Regardless of the industry, for the millions of people who are injured on the job every year,
there is a fear that they will no longer be able to support themselves and their families. That

is especially true if the employee suffers an injury or illness that prevents him from returning
to work. Fortunately, Social Security Disability (SSD) is available for those who qualify. Most
people would prefer to continue working, but whether it’s a low risk or a high risk job, it is
comforting to know there is relief available when a debilitating injury prevents you from
continuing in your profession.
Apathy. We can all fall into a negative attitude in which we feel we are incapable of making
changes in our society. We may not like how much we pay in taxes, or the condition of our
local or state roads and highways, but what are we doing about it? Many people don’t even
bother to vote, even though the lawmakers who are elected will make decisions that will
affect us directly. Voter turnout continues to be shockingly low, at about 20% of the
population voting in municipal elections, and 59% in federal elections. Where did our
community spirit go? A change begins with the education of our children – they will be
grabbing the reins and determining all the important issues in the future, including for us
during our waning years.
Education is a critical aspect of whether the American spirit of community service and
engagement is restored. Schools that focus on volunteerism, teamwork and social action
could be an important influencing factor in the future of our country, and our planet.
At one time, civics was taught in every school. Young people learned about their
responsibilities and how governments work, and their part in the process as a citizen.
Education For Children: The Future
Of The World

Students that are exposed to important issues with hands-on activities often have a life-
changing experience, which impacts their inclination to serve as a community leader or
active participant in their future lives. The types of activities can include litter clean-ups,
fundraising for good causes, classes on lifesaving and other types of activities that have
been proven to bring more awareness of our community at large, and a greater sense of
responsibility.
One of the ways that makes community service more inviting is to create programs for
which the student can gain certification or acknowledgements. Working on these activities
teaches teamwork, and the ability to work with a range of personalities. Teenagers can be
exceptionally insular, and this offers an opportunity to break out of a certain group of friends
and interact with other parts of our society, and to understand other cultures, age groups
and types of people – a powerful skill to carry into working life.
Encourage your local schools to add volunteer programs, and urge your child to participate
in these programs. There has been an increase in volunteerism in recent years, and this
bodes well for the future of our entire country. Maybe we haven’t done as much as we
could – but let’s hope our children will.
In the days and weeks immediately after the December 14, 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook
Elementary School when 20 elementary school children and 6 adults were killed by a
One Year After Newtown: Guns &
Children

gunman, cries for stiffer gun control laws reached a fever pitch. The screams to leave gun
laws alone or even to relax them were just as loud.
Seemingly everyone had an opinion from the President,
to politicians on both sides of the aisle, to gun lobby
groups, to gun control advocacy groups, to parents of
Sandy Hook victims, to other moms and dads. Even
children weighed in on the issue. It is now a little over a
year since the shooting. Sandy Hook is no longer
regularly making national headlines. Sound bites from
the National Rifle Association no longer top the evening
news. It seems as if little has changed in the last 12
months. Or has it?
Changes in State Law
While Congress did not make any changes to gun control laws, state legislatures did. In the
year since Sandy Hook, over 114 measures were passed that affected state gun laws.
Strengthening Gun Control
Eleven states, plus the District of Columbia passed laws that strengthened gun control.
Two states made it harder to carry guns in public. Eighteen states and the District of
Columbia passed laws that made it easier for the government to track guns. For example,
Maryland and New York now require that lost or stolen firearms be reported, and Rhode
Island makes it illegal to tamper with identification marks on firearms. Fifteen states
strengthened mental health restrictions related to gun ownership. California, for example,
now requires psychotherapists whose patients threaten violence to report the threats, and
Colorado requires that mental health records be reported to the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System.
Letting GoLetting Go

Weakening Gun Control
Twenty-nine states passed laws that made it easier for people to own guns and carry them
in public places such as schools, bars, and casinos. Twenty-six states added laws that
strengthened the ability to carry concealed firearms in public. Seven states now allow guns
to be carried in schools. For example, Alabama now allows school security personnel and
resource officers to carry firearms, and Oklahoma allows handguns in private schools and
on private school buses. Alabama, Alaska, Kansas and Missouri all passed laws that
prohibited state officials from enforcing certain aspects of federal gun control laws or
nullified federal gun control laws.
A Kansas city personal injury attorney remarks that clearly most people believe that the gun
violence in the United States needs to stop. No one wants even one more child injury from
gun violence. No one wants a repeat of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School,
Columbine High School, the Aurora, Colorado movie theater, Virginia Polytechnic Institute,
or the Tucson, Arizona Safeway. However, people disagree on the most effective way to
stop the gun violence. Some believe that fewer guns in society will result in fewer
shootings. Others believe that more guns in the hands of lawful citizens will result in fewer
gun deaths by criminals. What types of policies do you believe will have a meaningful affect
on gun violence in the United States?
 Leave a comment  Posted on December 29, 2013
The Military’s Sexual-Assault Laws:
Friendly Fire

In recent years several high-profile military sexual
assault cases have left the military open to
criticism. Furthermore, the government has
released troubling data on the frequency of military
sexual assaults. According to the Department of
Labor 20-48% of female veterans have been
sexually assaulted and 80% have been sexually
harassed. Critics are not just disappointed that the
assaults occurred. Critics are disappointed,
surprised and angered as to how such cases have
been handled by the military justice system. As a
result, several members of Congress have
proposed changes in the way the military handles
accusations of sexual assault. The goal is to both
reduce the number of sexual assaults and to
ensure that both the accuser and accused are treated fairly when there is an accusation of
sexual assault.
Current Law
Currently, military law gives a commander a tremendous amount of authority over the
course of action when there is an accusation of sexual assault. Indeed, the commander
decides whether or not to refer the case to the military prosecutor or not. The commander
can even have convictions dismissed. For example, earlier this year Air Force Lt. Gen.
Craig Franklin overturned the sexual-assault conviction of Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, who
like Franklin is a fighter pilot. In the relatively small military world it is not uncommon for the
commander to know and even be friends with the accused. Sadly, the commander is
sometimes the accused rapist. As a consequence victims are often reluctant to report
assaults and reported assaults are sometimes not fully investigated. Accusers have been
the subject of harassment and retaliation.

A Macon personal injury lawyer notes that the way the military handles sexual assault cases
and other crimes is very different from how such cases are handled in the civilian world. In
a civilian case, typically the accuser informs either the police or a prosecutor of the attack.
If an investigation uncovers sufficient evidence of an assault the accused is arrested and
criminally charged. A criminal trial is held and a jury determines the fate of the defendant
based on evidence presented by both the prosecution and the defense. During this
process steps are taken to shield the identity of the accuser from the public and to ensure
that the accuser is not victimized or demonized. In cases where there is not sufficient
evidence to prosecute (or even where there is a prosecution), the victim has the option of
pursuing a personal injury case against the perpetrator.
Proposed Changes
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., proposes an amendment that would remove sexual-assault
cases from the usual military chain of command. Thus, only military prosecutors would
have the authority to investigate and prosecute military sexual assault cases. Military
commanders would also be stripped of their authority to dismiss court-martial convictions in
cases of rape, sexual assault and other crimes. Furthermore, Gillibrand’s proposal would
make it a crime to retaliate against a victim for reporting being attacked. This proposal is
sharply opposed by the Pentagon and does not generally have strong support in Congress.
Senators Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) offers a competing proposal on the issue of military
sexual assault cases that appears to be more palatable to both the Pentagon and members
of Congress. McCaskill’s proposal would also strip commanders of their authority to dismiss
court-martial rape and sexual assault convictions. It too would make it a crime to retaliate
against a victim for reporting an attack. The significant difference between McCaskill’s
proposal and Gillibrand’s proposal is that McCaskill’s proposal leaves authority and
accountability within the current military chain of command. Both proposals, however,
recognize that a change is necessary to protect victims.
In addition to the legal aspects related to investigating and prosecuting sexual assault
cases, there are psychological nuances that make such cases best handled by those with
specialized training and experience. In what way if any should a “specialist” be involved in
the investigation or prosecution of military sexual assault cases?
 Leave a comment  Posted on November 30, 2013

When it was announced that Qatar would be hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it seemed
like a great victory for the Middle East. Qatar would be the first Arab State to run a World
Cup. However, shortly after Qatar won their bid, controversy surrounding the country’s
extremely high temperature climate during the summer and their laws banning alcohol and
homosexuality began to arise in the media. While efforts are being made to make sure all
the players feel welcome and accommodated in the country, Qatar’s also coming under fire
for their unethical use of migrant workers for the construction of stadiums, roads, hotels,
and other buildings relating to the World Cup infrastructure. The conditions for these
workers are so harsh, Qatari Government has been accused of engaging in “Modern
slavery.”
Modern Day Slavery
Under the frequently criticized Kafala system, migrant workers from mostly Nepal (but also
other countries in the Middle East) are legally at the mercy of their employers. This means
that, in Qatar, it is very easy for an employer to mistreat its migrant worker without any legal
repercussions. According to the Guardian, these various mistreatments have led to, on
average, one wrongful death a day over the last summer, mostly due to heart attacks, heart
failure and on-site “accidents.” These deaths are caused by poor and cramped living
conditions, little to no food or even water, working on an empty stomach, and dangerous
work environments. Many of these Nepalese workers relocated to Qatar for work and a
better life…unfortunately the promise was not the reality. Even if they wanted to, many of
these migrant workers cannot leave because many employers (their “in-country sponsors”
Modern Slavery in Quatar: Wrongful
Death

under Kafala) are either withholding their pay to discourage them from running away or
refusing them the visas that would allow them to leave the country.
In America, if a worker is personally injured on site, they are legally guaranteed some form
of compensation. Unfortunately for these Nepalese migrant workers in Qatar, they are not
granted that right. In fact, many of these migrant workers’ identifications and passports are
confiscated, essentially turning them into illegal aliens.
Bringing the Issue to Light
The British newspaper The Guardian was one of the first presses to really bring this
unethical practice to light, writing, “The overall picture is of one of the richest nations
exploiting one of the poorest to get ready for the world’s most popular sporting
tournament.” The Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization, has
similarly referred the Qatar Kafala as being exploitative in a 146 page report released back
in June 2012. Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA who in the past championed hard for
Qatar, admitted that choosing the country was probably a “mistake.” Even the Nepalese
Ambassador to Qatar Maya Kumari Sharma has referred to the situation as an “open jail for
migrant workers.” Although the shady recruitment brokers that allow these men to work in
Qatar without any regard for their safety should also take some of the blame.
Although the World Cup is still nine years away, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee still
doesn’t seem very proactive in solving the problem; and hard labor still seems to be the
norm in Qatar. However, with international pressure increasing, the Qatari government may
have no choice but to look into this matter deeply. What do you think should be done?
Should the World Cup venue be changed?

Last Friday the Pursue office was rather quiet. Several staffers worked from home or were
out traveling to spend Yom Kippur with family. We didn’t turn on the overhead lights while
we worked, and instead worked by natural light coming through the windows of our office.
As the time drew near the end of our short work day, updates and posts continued to pop
up over Facebook about Kol Nidre Service at Occupy Wall Street. As the sun descended, a
reported 500-700 Jews gathered in front of the Brown Brothers Harriman building for a
candlelit, social justice focused Kol Nidre services in New York City. Since Friday evening
articles, posts, and videos have been published.
Boston, one of the cities that have joined the Occupy Movement, also held Kol Nidre service
on Friday evening. Jocelyn Berger, former Bay Area Program Officer for Pursue, wrote her
reflections on Yom Kippur, social justice, and Occupy Boston:
“What do Yom Kippur and the Occupy Wall Street movement have in common? Both are
about imagination. On Yom Kippur we imagine that a better self is possible. At Occupy
Boston, we imagine that a better country, a better world, is possible. And although these
are individual imaginings, we come together in community to make them collectively
realized. By moving Yom Kippur from a sequestered, individualized experience in a
synagogue out into the public square (literally!), we transform the purpose of the holiday
from simply imagining a better self to imagining an whole better world.
Undeniably, one of the most exciting things about this movement is how democratic and
collective it is. This rang especially true as we recited the Sh’ma together at our Kol Nidre
service, proclaiming oneness – of our voices, of our values, of our aspirations, of Hashem,
all one and the same, unified. My emotional climax occurred during the Al Chet – we invited
Occupy Wall Street Meets Kol Nidre

folks to call out sins, personal, political, economic, social, all repeated through “the people’s
mic,” adding even greater resonance: “Racism. Turning our backs on the old. Turning our
backs on the young. Climate change. Defunding women’s health programs. Putting profits
before people (aka capitalism). Citizen’s United. Private health care. Eroding the social
safety net. Blaming victims. Katrina. Sexism. Homophobia. Anti-Semitism. Islamophobia.
High interest rates. Student loans. Unemployment. Not taking responsibility sooner. Not
speaking out sooner. Not showing up sooner.”
On a hot and sticky New York afternoon, an East Village parking space was home to a
traveling museum–located inside a 20-foot truck. Even with fans running, it was
uncomfortably hot in the truck yesterday, which only helped the exhibit to make its point.
The truck is a model of the vehicle that was used to hold Florida tomato harvesters at night
in a case of modern-day slavery. Photographs of wrists bruised by shackles are among the
sparse display of hard-hitting images and text. The few artifacts include a bloody shirt
retrieved from a worker who fled the fields after being violently beaten.
The successful prosecution of two brothers–labor contractors–who held workers in the truck
nightly against their will is just one of five recent cases highlighted in the Florida Modern-
Day Slavery Museum, a project developed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
that is currently touring the Northeastern United States. Based in Florida’s rural tomato and
citrus growing area with headquarters in the sleep town of Immokalee, the CIW and
partners including Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida and Student Farmworker Alliance
advocate for improvements in farmworker conditions, and developed the museum in a truck
as a tool “to raise awareness and bring attention to the solution,” according to exhibit guide
Brigitte Gynther of Immokalee’s Interfaith Action.
Through its Campaign for Fair Food, the CIW has gained recognition for its penny-per-
pound campaigns to encourage major retailers, including Burger King and McDonald’s, to
pay additional wages directly to piece-rate earning harvesters. The solution to modern-day
slavery cases in farming, and to ending “the abuse and poverty in general” that allows such
conditions, is to demand improved wages, and a zero-tolerance policy for forced labor
through well-monitored codes of conduct, says Gynther. “Poverty and powerlessness are
really at the roots of the slavery cases.” The instances of slavery highlighted at the museum
were all perpetrated by labor contractors: debt bondage, violence toward workers, theft of
legally obtained visas from migrant crew members, and the luring of prospective workers
from homeless shelters. The common trope is one of worker intimidation. And as CIW tour
guide Romeo Ramirez, a 29-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who has worked in farming all
his life, explained, it is difficult to know when and where to seek assistance. He found his
Let’s Have a Jubilee: the Torah’s Fix
for Modern-Day Slavery

way to the CIW in 1998 after unexplained pay docks for his harvest work.
The treatment of farmworkers did not escape the Torah’s many dicta on agriculture, a
series of laws and observations that are becoming an increasingly significant part of the
intellectual discourse on sustainable, fair food. In a 2006 American Jewish World Service
Torah commentary on a parshat that examines agricultural workers, Rabbi David Rosenn,
the founder of AVODAH and the current COO of the New Israel Fund, looked at the
significance of the Jubilee year, “one of the Torah’s most revolutionary ideas.” Every 50th
year, debts are forgiven and land is redistributed to original owners, ensuring that even the
unfortunate individuals whose unproductive farms forced them away from their own
property into a migrant pattern of working on other farms–leaving them without reliable
work, income, or property assets–would not permanently become a class in servitude.
Interfaith Action’s Gynther says that the problems agricultural workers face are about more
than wages, immigration, or piece-rate pay mechanisms. It’s about “the real power in the
agriculture industry,” and consolidation among major growers and retailers whose “demand
for artificially cheap tomatoes” has a direct impact on labor costs. The power imbalance
between the poorest migrant harvesters and the fast food executives is precisely the type of
inequality that the Jubilee year is designed to correct. As Steven Stoll mused in Harper’s
Magazine recently, the Jubilee year “constitutes nothing less than the first land-reform
measure. The upshot was a legal mechanism for preventing class differences.”
One visitor to the Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum, Orlanda Brugnola, an adjunct
assistant professor of philosophy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a Unitarian
Universalist minister, was offering extra credit to students who took part in fair food efforts.
She found the museum to be a provocative, though unsurprising, portrayal of greed and the
corresponding systematic devaluation of labor. “If you look at the workplace and the world,
whether farms or other businesses, workers are usually treated as objects of use. To me,
that’s not an acceptable way of treating any human being.” Having just returned from
protests in Arizona against the state’s new immigration law, Brugnola expounded to say that
“the greatness of the nation can be judged by how it treats all the people within its borders.”
The museum’s mission is to serve as an educational tool and call to action for participation
in its campaign to restructure the power imbalance–a campaign that seeks, in many ways,
to function as the “modern-day equivalent of the Jubilee year: a way to prevent
dispossession and destitution from becoming the inheritance of families and countries over
generations,” as Rabbi Rosenn writes. For Ramirez, who was visiting New York for the third
time, the museum was helping to make progress. Visitors, including two couples from South
Florida, were positive and hopeful, he said. Modern-day slavery exists, but with a modern-
day adaptation of the Jubilee year, perhaps the structural obstacles toward eliminating
inequity can be eliminated.

As we walked into The Commons in Brooklyn on Monday, June 20th, we passed by walls of
foodie goodies: delicate jars of golden honey, colorful packages of fresh herbs, and a
bunch of arugula labeled, “This was grown on the roof of this building. That’s as local as
you can get.” This spunky display of food, set out in old, beautifully worn boxes was–to put
it lightly–attractive. But one of the questions of the night was present even as we set foot
into the building: what is the connection between these foodie gems and food justice?
Professor Louie, a veteran spoken word poet, did more than connect the dots for us. His
poem (check it out below!), a 10-minute overview of our broken down food system, was a
comprehensive and compelling take on the complexities of the global food industry. Shifting
his weight and clapping his hands between lines, he took us all the way from rural El
Salvador to Detroit, from hunger to worker’s rights, from access to sovereignty, from
corporate control to democracy. And it was all woven together with a refrain that kept
bringing us back: “You are what you eat. You know that’s true. So what else is new? You
are what you do.” It wasn’t a lecture; it was a challenge.
After listening to Louie’s words, we turned to a text study to explore what exactly is Jewish
about food justice. We looked to Shavuot, wrestling with traditional Jewish agricultural
practices, and commenting on the laws that command us to allocate some of our harvest
for the poor. The Book of Ruth delves into the power dynamics that these practices create
and perpetuate; the charity model renders Ruth a helpless dependent, a position influenced
by both her class and gender. We broke into small groups to have discussions on the
potential and limitations of this model, and examined the words of Paulo Friere in order to
investigate the difference between false charity and models of solidarity and empowerment.
Then Nancy Romer, the General Coordinator of the Brooklyn Food Coalition, clarified even
more for us what it means to be a food democracy organizer.
Her presentation was marked by her passion and engaging personality, spanning the
spectrum of issues all the way from obesity and starvation to the 2012 Farm Bill. Our food
system, she argued, is so out of whack that it creates a “war on our people.” Gesticulating
passionately, she led us through an astonishing graphic of the progression of obesity over
the past decades, shared heart-wrenching details of the abuse of animals, and drove home
the importance of incorporating workers’ rights into our analysis of the food system. But she
didn’t forget to offer opportunities for change. Her talk ended on a hopeful note, suggesting
small and large ways that each of us can get involved in the struggle for food justice: join a
CSA, volunteer to “crop mob” at an urban farm, organize efforts for advocacy, work for
labor rights in the food system. The event as a whole was certainly an engaging first look
into the food justice world, and there was a lot to chew on.
What on Earth is Food Justice?
Chew on This!

On Monday, July 25th, Pursuers gathered at the Sixth Street Community Center in
Manhattan for Chewing on Food Justice: Got Access, the second installment of the New
York series on food justice. The space was a synagogue turned hip community center, a
creaky, colorful old building whose walls were equally marked by old Hebrew and Aramaic
letters and vibrant murals of figures like Emma Goldman and Zora Neale Hurston. It was a
fitting context in which to wrestle with the intersection of Judaism and justice and to awaken
our inner rabble-rousers.
The evening featured four change-makers doing wildly different work on food justice issues
both locally and globally. Melissa Extein, the Associate Director of Grants at American
Jewish World Service, began the night by getting us on our feet with an exercise on power.
She symbolized power and stood in the middle of the room, challenging us to choose a spot
that signified our relationships to her. The reflections that followed were insightful; we
collectively explored our feelings about power, influence, and control. Does power mean
dominance and coercion? Are we skeptical of power or drawn to it? How much power does
each of us, with our unique positionalities, actually have?
Melissa brought an international lens to food justice, discussing the blunders of Food Aid,
and how what looks like a basic charity program actually seriously undermines the
livelihoods of local farmers in the Global South. Using Haiti as an example, she complicated
the simple idea of dumping loads of free rice, and shared what Haitian farmers are saying
about their inability to compete with free foreign produce. In exploring food sovereignty and
discussing what gets in the way, we got inspired to advocate for concrete changes in
the Food Aid program in the Farm Bill of 2012.
Up next was Mara Gittleman, the director of Farming Concrete, a research project that aims
to measure how much food is grown in New York City’s community gardens. She certainly
brought it close to home, taking us on a tour through New York City’s history with
community-based agriculture, the mass abandonment that came with the fires of the
1970’s, and how finally, these no-man’s lands naturally morphed into a sort of “communal
backyard,” areas for voter registration, community gatherings, and of course, gardening.
Her presentation shed light on how data can be leveraged as an advocacy tool, and
illuminated just how gigantic the yields of the humble raised beds scattered all around the
city are all put together. She told us of Puerto Ricans in the Bronx growing sugar cane and
Brooklyn gardens sprouting callaloo, fearless planters producing kiwi, gooseberries, and
pigeon peas, and the hefty bounty that results from all this hard work (I’m still trying to get
my head around the 29,628 lbs of tomatoes produced in 2010!).
Next, Steven Deheeger of the South Bronx CSA connected the dots between all of this
community-based food production and issues of access. Calling 10 volunteers up to the
front, he illustrated how, despite having some of the highest rates of diabetes, childhood
Breath and Pursue How Jewish
Meditation Supports Social Action

obesity, and other serious health conditions related to malnutrition, the South Bronx
continues to lack the healthy food options found in other parts of New York City, rendering it
a “food desert.” There are 12 (low-quality) grocery stores in the South Bronx for 88,000
people, compared to 35 on the Upper West Side for just 60,000. So what would food
sovereignty mean for the South Bronx, Steven asked? Not being forced to use assistance
income on junk food at bodegas. Not needing to rely on private, for-profit supermarkets to
fill the gap. More fundamentally, food sovereignty means that healthy food should be a right
instead of a privilege for a few wealthy citizens of New York.
Reverend Robert Jackson, the director of Brooklyn Rescue Mission, stepped in to add a
race and class analysis to the concept of food sovereignty, to combine what he called a
“foodie movement” with the civil rights movement. “The reality of poverty is not a theory; it’s
not in a book. Food is access. You have to connect the dots between food, equality, and
access,” he said. As a farmer, reverend, and community leader, he seeks to bring fresh
food to low-income areas of Brooklyn, and supplies the food pantry program with produce
straight from his Bed-Stuy farm. He spun the story of Joseph that we had looked at in our
text study, advocating for all people to have the power to make decisions about their food,
regardless of their income level. The late civil rights leader Bayard Rustin famously said,
“We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.” Perhaps that was
Reverend Jackson’s point when he urged Pursuers to wrestle with food justice, confront
their privilege and choices, and gather up some chutzpah. “I want you guys to leave here
bigger troublemakers than you came,” he said, smiling mischievously. And judging from the
spirit in the room, I think everyone did.
While most people tend to think of cholesterol as a bad thing, it actually serves a useful
purpose. According to Harvard Health Publications, cholesterol has three main functions: it
makes hormones for the body, it helps produce bile acid that digests food, and it helps to
make the outer membranes of cells.
There are two types of cholesterol: low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density
lipoproteins (HDL). Triglycerides, a type of fat, also contribute to your cholesterol level. LDL
is considered the bad cholesterol because it contributes to plaque build-up in the arteries,
which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. HDL is beneficial because it moves cholesterol
out of the arteries and into the liver. According to the American Heart Association, your total
cholesterol level is calculated by adding your HDL level, your LDL level, and 20% of your
triglyceride level.
What Is An Ideal Cholesterol Level?
The American Heart Association says that a healthy total cholesterol level should be below
Understanding Cholesterol Levels

200. An optimal HDL level is 60 or more, and an optimal LDL level is below 100. The key is
to keep your cholesterol at a manageable level. This and can be achieved through physical
activity and a change in diet.
How Do I Know What My Cholesterol Level Is?
Schedule an appointment with your doctor to get your lipid panels reviewed. This usually
involves a fasting blood test.
What Foods Should I Eat To Lower LDL Cholesterol?
If your level is high, make an effort to cut out the sweets and red meats. Foods high in fiber
and foods with omega-3 fatty acids can help bring your bad levels down and your good
levels up. Here are several foods you should incorporate into your diet, according to
Harvard Health Publications. As always, talk to your doctor first for advice on how to best
lower your cholesterol level.
Fatty Fish Like Salmon
Walnuts, Peanuts, and Almonds
Green Tea or Black Tea
Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil
Beans
 Posted on October 21, 2013
Now that fall is upon us, it’s a great time to take advantage of the cooler weather. Your
community probably has several festivals, fairs and outdoor events lined up in the coming
weeks before winter sets in. Though it may seem early, right now is a good time to consider
getting a flu shot. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flu
season usually peaks in the winter months. However, some years have seen cases of the
flu start as early as October. According to NBC Los Angeles, there have been “earlier-than-
usual reports of the flu” reported in September.
What Are Symptoms of The Flu?
Although many people find it difficult to differentiate between the flu and a common cold,
the flu is much more severe. Common symptoms include: coughing, sore throat, body
ache, tiredness, chills, fever, stuffy nose, and even vomiting. Serious symptoms that require
medical attention include: seizures, chest pain, blue lips, or difficulty breathing.
What Types of Vaccines Are Available?
This Year’s Flu Season

According to Vaccines.gov, you can receive the flu vaccine through shot or nasal spray.
The CDC says that this year’s vaccine protects against the influenza A (H1N1) virus,
influenza B virus, and influenza A (H3N2).
How Long Does It Take The Flu Vaccine To Work?
You will be protected from strains of the flu mentioned above about two weeks after
receiving the vaccine. The vaccine will keep you protected for one flu season, which is why
it’s a good idea to always get an annual flu shot or spray.
Who Should NOT Get The Flu Vaccine?,
Although it is recommended that everyone six months or older should get the vaccine, it is
not a good idea if you: are allergic to chicken eggs, have had a severe reaction to the
vaccine in the past, are currently ill with fever, or have Guillan Barre Syndrome.
 Posted on September 26, 2013
With high temperatures on the horizon, it’s tempting to want to go for a swim in order to
beat the heat. It’s a great way to get exercise and keep the kids entertained. But if you
enjoy making trips to the beach or nearby lakes and rivers, there is a possibility of facing
potential health risks. Recently, 90 people became ill after swimming in a Rhode Island
lake, which tested positive for shigella.
Dangerous Bacteria Found in Recreational Water
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) names the following bacteria as some of the top
causes for recreational water outbreaks.
Shigella – This type of bacteria is typically passed from person to person and originates
from infected stool. Shigella can cause the shigellosis disease, which causes stomach
cramps, fever and diarrhea. People sickened by shigellosis usually recover on their own,
although antibiotics may be used for severe cases.
Leptospira – This bacteria can be transmitted to people through contact with the urine of
infected animals. Leptospirosis can live in the soil or water for several months. Signs of
the bacterial disease include: diarrhea, muscle aches, chills, red eyes, jaundice, fever,
rash and vomiting. Treatment typically involves antibiotics.
Escherichia Coli – Often known by E. coli, this bacteria has several strains that can be
harmful to humans. E. coli that cause disease are often known as ETEC. This is usually
found in water infected with stool. Symptoms of e. coli can include diarrhea, stomach
cramps, fever, nausea, aches and chills. Antibiotics are usually not necessary, unless it
is a very severe case. It is recommended that infected individuals get a lot of rest and
drink plenty of fluids to keep from becoming dehydrated.
Bacteria Found in Recreational Water

Steps To Avoid These Water-Borne Illnesses
The CDC recommends that you check out local beach information provided by the EPA.
You can find out about bacteria levels and learn if the water is safe for swimming. If you do
become sick shortly after swimming in a lake, ocean or river, be sure to contact your doctor
as soon as possible.
 Posted on August 1, 2013
If you happen to live in an area that gets a lot of rain, it’s important to keep an eye out for
leaks and standing water. Mold spores typically thrive in moist, dark areas, which can have
an adverse effect on your health. Spending time in humid places with poor ventilation can
increase your chances of developing mold-related illnesses, which include allergy-like
symptoms such as skin rashes and respiratory problems.
What Health Problems Are Caused By Mold
Inhalation?
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the symptoms associated with mold
exposure can vary significantly. Individuals who are sensitive to molds may develop more
severe reactions, some of which are found at the bottom of the list below.
Upper Respiratory Infections
Skin Irritation
Wheezing or Congestion
Asthmatic Symptoms in Children or Individuals with Asthma
Fever
Pneumonitis
What Places Often Have A High Rate of Mold
Exposure?
The CDC lists several places that can be potential breeding grounds for mold spores.
Saunas, farms, mills and construction sites are just a few such areas. Interestingly enough,
summer cottages are another place that can have high levels of mold. If you have a place
you visit in the summer, be sure to check thoroughly for signs of mold growth. The CDC
recommends that you turn on your air conditioner during summer months or open windows
to rooms that don’t get a lot of ventilation.
What Type of Treatment Is Involved?
If you have developed the symptoms above, tell your doctor when you developed
The Effects of Mold Exposure

symptoms, where you were when they occurred and when the symptoms were at their
worst. According to the Mayo Clinic, if the doctor suspects a mold allergy he or she may
offer you a skin prick test or a blood test. When your doctor has confirmed a mold allergy,
he or she may prescribe one of the following treatments:
Antihistamines
Nasal corticosteroids
Oral Decongestants
Nasal Decongestant Sprays
Immunotherapy
 Posted on July 10, 2013
If you enjoy hiking and spending time doing outdoor activities, you’ve probably experienced
a tick bite at some point in time. Ticks are commonly found throughout the United States
and have been known to carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans. If you plan to
spend a lot of time outdoors this summer, know the symptoms of tick-related illnesses.
Tick Borne Diseases
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are several species of
ticks found within the United States that can transmit the following diseases. Though many
of the symptoms are similar across illnesses, it is important to contact a doctor immediately
if you recognize these signs.
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: Spotty skin rash, muscle aches, headaches, fever,
nausea and vomiting are commonly associated with RMSF. This illness can be very
serious and even result in fatality.
Tularemia: According to the Mayo Clinic, tularemia is indicated by a skin ulcer at the site
of the tick bite. Lethargy and weakness, aches, fever and swollen lymph glands are
other signs of the disease.
Lyme Disease: A circular red rash surrounded by a red ring that can spread several
inches in diameter is often found at the site of the tick bite. Joint and muscle pain,
swollen lymph nodes, fever and exhaustion are other signs of the disease. If untreated,
more severe problems can develop that include: facial droop, shooting pain, heart
racing, meningitis, severe joint swelling.
Anaplasmosis: Symptoms include: headache, muscle aches, chills and fever, nausea,
lethargy and confusion.
Babesiosis: People often do not develop symptoms of this disease, which attacks the
body’s red blood cells. Symptoms do vary in severity and include: fever, aches, loss of
Warmer Weather Brings Out Ticks

appetite, tiredness, nausea, jaundice, dark urine. It can be fatal in people with weak
immune systems.
STARI: Also known as southern tick associated rash illness can cause a large red rash
surrounded by a red ring, tiredness, aches and fever.
Ehrlichiosis tularemia: Aches, fever and tiredness.
It is common for these diseases to develop several days or even weeks after the initial bite.
Reduce Your Likelihood of Getting Bitten by Ticks
Here are a few easy reminders that can help keep ticks away.
Keep the grass in your front lawn and backyard cut short.
Check yourself thoroughly after doing outdoor activities, including scalp.
Check clothing and shoes for ticks before going in your house.
Cut back overhanging branches or bushes that are close to your home or patio.
Wear light-colored clothing if you’re going through heavily-wooded areas.
If you have outdoor pets, treat them with anti-tick medication.
Check your pets for ticks after going to the park.
 Posted on June 6, 2013
Now that summer’s here, there’s certainly more variety when it comes to fresh produce.
Whether you’ve decided to start your own garden or you’re a fan of farmer’s markets, you
can come across some truly healthy foods. The fruits listed below have some pretty
amazing health benefits.
Fruits With Health Benefits
While you might not think tomatoes are peppers should fit into this category, they are
actually classified as part of the fruit family. Everything below contains antioxidants, which
can prevent cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune system diseases and decline in brain
function.
Tomatoes: Probably one of the easier plants to grow on this list, tomatoes contain
potassium and carotenoids, including lycopene. Carotenoids, a type of antioxidant,
contain Vitamin A and can help prevent progressive neurological diseases like ALS and
cancer.
Healthy Foods with Real Health
Benefits

Blueberries: Known for having an incredibly rich amount of antioxidants, studies on
blueberries have indicated they can prevent heart disease by lowering LDL cholesterol.
They are also high in Vitamin C and low in calories.
Strawberries: It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t enjoy fresh strawberries. They’re
high in Vitamin C and fiber, and can increase you HDL cholesterol (which is good for
cardiovascular health!)
Bell Peppers: Whether eaten raw, grilled or roasted, bell peppers are tasty in a variety
of different entrees. They also contain Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and the carotenoids
lycopene and beta-carotene.
Plums: With their deep, rich color, plums are full of antioxidants and Vitamin C.
Peaches: A perfect summertime snack, peaches are filled with potassium, Vitamin A,
Vitamin C and cancer-fighting agents.
Eating Healthier Has Its Rewards
Adding fresh fruit to your diet can work as a proactive measure that can prevent potential
health problems. Incorporating these foods into your daily routine can increase your
chances of leading a long, healthy life, while decreasing the likelihood of age-related
illnesses.
 Posted on June 5, 2013
The summer is often full of relaxation for
many people, but it’s also a time when
the majority of injuries and accidents
occur. To stay protected, educate
yourself about the common summer
injuries and how you can play a role in
preventing them. Before losing all your
worries in summer bliss, take a few
precautions to ensure that the good
times will keep on rolling without any
major incidents spoiling your fun.
Slip and Falls
Slip and falls are some of the leading reasons for emergency room visits every single year.
They are a major cause of accidental injuries and death for both the home and the work
environment. Slip and falls can happen on any surface or at any time of year, so it’s
important to always be aware of the risk these injuries represent. Summertime is a time for
fun in the sun, as well as for cooling off by the pool. Spills and wet surfaces, such as the
Common Summer Time Injuries

deck of a pool, can be extremely dangerous for both children and adults during the
summer. Those enjoying the summer on a boat or yacht should also inform all passengers
about safety procedures and how to reduce accidents while on the watercraft. Particularly
when summer thunderclouds bring torrential rain, accident and personal injury can be
imminent disasters. Awareness and precaution can go a long way in reducing these
accidents.
Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke
Especially if you are working in an outdoor environment, heat stroke is much more common
than you think. It’s very important to stay hydrated during the hot summer months in order
to reduce the likelihood of dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. Try to limit
physical activities to early mornings or late evenings when the temperatures are cooler,
always drink plenty of water to stay fully hydrated, and wear loose fitting clothing to reduce
the impacts of heat exhaustion. Keep an eye on children to see if they are showing signs of
dehydration or heat exhaustion, and make sure that all parties are properly protected with
sunblock throughout the course of a hot day.
Bites From Insects
Since many people tend to spend the majority of their summertime outdoors, there’s an
increased exposure to all outside elements, including bugs. Insect bites are some of the
most common injuries associated with summer for both children and adults. Besides using
insect repellent, it can help to wear long sleeved clothing if you know you’ll be in an area
where insects run rampant. Be aware of poisonous insects that are prevalent in your area,
and always keep a watchful eye. If you are bitten, seek medical attention immediately, even
if the bite seems minor at first glance. Insect bites can be deadly if left untreated.
Auto Accidents
Summer is the ideal season for everyone who owns a motorcycle. Motorcycles are always
associated with an increased risk for accidents; this danger is especially enhanced by
increase traffic during holidays such as Memorial Day through Labor Day. More pedestrians
and bicyclists are also enjoying the summer weather, so drivers should be aware of these
additional modes of transportation. Make sure to keep a watchful eye for pedestrians and
cyclists, and remember it is a social responsibility to share the road. Drivers should always
remain aware of their own surroundings and proceed at a safe speed. It also helps to be
able to identify reckless driving behavior in others, and report it to the authorities to get
these drivers off the road. It is easy to get carried away in the summer fun and have one
too many cocktails. This can endanger your life and the lives of others around you. Always
make responsible decisions in regards to drinking and driving. Automobile accidents can
lead to serious injuries and even death.
Make the most of your summer by staying safe.As the cliche saying goes: “Hair gets lighter,
Skin gets darker, Water gets warmer, Drinks get colder, Music gets louder, Nights get
longer, Life gets better-IT’S SUMMER!”

 Posted on May 18, 2013
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