Sexual Predators are Taking Over the U.S. & Christian Nationalists are Taking Over Schools
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Do humans give the world “its saddest sound”?
4 Trump administration picks have sexual misconduct allegations in their past: The Trump Administration has declared that sexual misconduct is no big deal.
Trump chooses loyalist Pam Bondi for attorney general pick after Matt Gaetz withdraws: One small victory for decency, but not really a setback for the dismissive attitude toward women.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens to Expose ‘All’ of GOP’s ‘Sexual Harassment and Assault Claims’ If Gaetz Report Is Released: So, she’s just revealed that there are a lot of sexual harassment claims against GOP and she’s done nothing about it all this time. Sexual assault cases are only important to her to get what she wants.
Russian Ballet Dancer Critical of Putin Falls to His Death: Another Putin critic plunges to his death. This is the guy Trump and his allies want to buddy up to.
Kareem’s Video Break: Jon Batiste demonstrates the difference between classical music and the blues.
Texas officials support Bible-based lessons in elementary schools: Texas loves to proclaim its patriotism while wiping its feet on the Constitution.
Explicit deepfake scandal shuts down Pennsylvania school: Imagine your face on another body doing despicable, embarrassing, or even illegal acts. It’s happening now.
Kareem’s Sports Moment: A new occasional feature that shows a remarkable achievement in sports. Today, the pole vault.
Simon & Garfunkel Sing “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)”: Here’s the haunting song that inspired today’s Daily Quote.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
A man gets tied up to the ground
He gives the world its saddest sound
Paul Simon, “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)”
There is an arrogance in believing that humans give the world its “saddest sound.” But since it is humans judging what makes them saddest, it’s also a fair assessment (humans give the human world its saddest sound). The whimpering of a helpless animal can squeeze our hearts, but not like the wailing of a helpless child in agony. Or the tears of a grieving parent. At those sounds, we are left deflated, boneless.
Scientists have determined that humans are the only species that consistently cry to express emotion. Babies don’t shed emotional tears for the first few weeks, they just bawl. As we age, we cry less due to physical pain and more due to emotional distress. Research from around the world indicates that women cry more than men (two to three times more), but that might be because of social pressures. Hormones may also be a factor.
The key is being able to hear the world’s saddest sound. Not just the audible crying but all the other signs of distress, whether from a person’s facial expression or the pain behind measured, banal words. But we have to want to hear it. And we only want to hear it when we hope to be able to do something about it. To alleviate pain and suffering. We don’t hear what we don’t care about, whether it’s racism, misogyny, or something else. Maybe the world’s saddest sound is the silence those who don’t care hear.
In my youth, I may have been deaf to the sounds of need around me, more focused on hearing my own words and needs than listening to others. I find that I much prefer the person that I am today because, even though my hearing may falter at times in conversation, I have a keen hearing when it comes to the suffering of the world around me. I find that true in a lot of older people who have become less focused on their own pleasures than on bringing pleasure to others in need. We give the world its saddest sound, but we also give it its most joyous sound—the silent gratitude of one person comforting another.
[Listen to “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)” below in my Jukebox Playlist.]