Rants and Rages: The Lives We Lead

Rants and Rages: The Lives We Lead: "Sometimes it is a good idea to take a step back and really look at our lives. People get so caught up in the every day hassles. Our jobs, if..."

The Lives We Lead

Sometimes it is a good idea to take a step back and really look at our lives. People get so caught up in the every day hassles. Our jobs, if we are lucky enough to have one. The kids, if they are part of the equation. Our partners, traffic, shopping, pet care, and bills, all the ordinary parts of life. It can become pretty daunting and it can wear you down. The routine of living a normal life can weigh you down. When it happens and it will unless you have super human powers just stop. Take a deep breathe, step back, and look at life. There may be questions that need answers. Are you having fun any more? If not, why not? This is the life you chose, the ideal hopefully of how you wanted it to be. If it is not, then what can you do to make life conform? There are ways to do it, each person can make life what they need it to be. The key to getting there is to want it bad enough to work at it and work at it until you get it just right. Sounds easy enough, problem is you have to keep living while your working on the perfect existence. All the routine stuff still has to be done every day. It is not easy, nothing in life ever is. I am still working on my perfect life and it is half over. But I will not give up or give in. I enrolled in college for the first time at 49 years old. I have made it almost to the top and had the displeasure of being knocked to the bottom again, twice. Trick is do not lay there crying, get up, dust off and start climbing again. I mean what are the options, going along to get along, cowering in the corner, death? None of those are options I can be happy with.

Ethical Behavior for All

     Media has been the focus of the Humanities class I have been taking for the last eight weeks. A great deal of the discussion has centered on the Internet. Last week the we covered news media. This weeks discussions were on ethics. Everyone should be aware that more often the news comes to us with a generous helping of bias and opinion. This type of reporting is reserved for the more controversial subjects. Politics, war, policy, taxes, and environmental issues are rarely just the facts reporting. The Internet is a good place to find bias and opinion. So the question arises is the plain truth out there?
    
      People from all walks of life from professional to obsessional have a blog. Every site on the web has a place for comments. People read these posts and many take them at face value. Meaning they never question the knowledge of the writer or their ethics. These are both important considerations, because their are people who are stealing the work of others. They post entire articles as their own without acknowledging the actual writer even once. As a student we learn that these practices are not just unethical but they are illegal. Copyrights are implied the minute the work is posted and no one has the right to use it without giving proper credit to the writer. Even then the use of the article in totality is wrong unless it is done through a direct link to the article or with the writer's permission. It is stealing folks and stealing is wrong. Think about it.