We’ve heard plenty of rumors about when Apple would officially announce the iPhone 6, but when will you be able to get your mitts on it? While a simultaneous announcement/launch would be nice, it’s likely not th case this time around. If the latest reports are true, we’ll have to wait a full month before seeing the bigger iPhone in … Continue reading
Why can’t we all just get along? Hell if I know. Everyone seems to be shit-talking. Slut-shaming over Truvada, mad about the rainbow, feeling the class-ass-en masse divide? Yeah — me too.
Face facts — Truvada will be in everyone’s bloodstream in about 15 minutes, so why argue over it? A year from now we won’t need this essay — burn after reading. Some might not even need this essay now, but on two fronts we assault this virus — the POZ and the NEG, the dirty and the clean, the U Be Too — can we cut the crap and get in one line? We’re at war with an epidemic, not ourselves, so slit the jugular on your judgement because that old hood is still looking pretty good. Condoms, I mean. The PrEP rally too. And faster access to the tools, earlier treatment, testing everywhere. Let’s pile off each other in this moment, unless of course a group pileup is your fling — sex it up, homosexuals. If we smack-down on two fronts then everyone fits in the pool. We have a mission to get to the other side — end AIDS, period.
How we do it — faster, better treatment for those infected and the newly seroconverted, better access to testing, ARVs, PrEP, PEP and FREE condoms — the science of survival, people. Oy, I know those tired condoms are making you snore — but hey, let’s keep them sexy for the uninsured, the guy who has no access to Truvada. Plenty of MSM have zero health insurance, many are still closeted and can’t get it up to ask their doctor for PrEP, maybe it’s just not financially or readily available to them, or they are too young to go to their parents and say “Mother may I?” Condoms are cheap and easily available at any drug store, any clinic, and the last time I checked you could find them in bars. They are still effective when used properly. I think the reason they don’t get used enough is because we’re all so damn fatigued, we’re tired of fucking in a rubber sock. But we should promote them, promote it all, because our sexual health matters more than our breeding ground strategy. It matters more than the Grin Doctor, Scruffy, and your local sex shop. Your health matters to all of us — I speak for myself, it matters to me.
One thing I do love about the Truvada debate is that, well, it’s a debate. And debates very often generate knowledge. Knowledge is your friend. Get educated, find what works best for your body and mind, then take time to engage a pal. Don’t rat fink them, don’t put them on full blast when they disagree. Instead, try listening and searching for the data that matters most, because the data is out there. Another thing I like about PrEP — for the first time we are finding common ground between the sero-sorted. Or did I just dream that?
When I became HIV positive in 1995, I felt like I moved from a lifeboat to the Titanic. When I started taking antiretrovirals, I was an ARV guinea pig. No one knew what the hell was going to work or not work. My body was a battleground — it still is. But it did work, 20 years later and I’m still here. Many of my boyhood pals, not so much. Many lay in red fields with their wounds wide open, many died, and as their comrade I still suffer that loss. So ease up, it’s reason enough to stop slamming and shaming each other. The epidemiological trauma was quite thorough — we need to shoot down the rhetoric of hate, stigma and shame.
I am so imperfect. I am writing this to myself as much as I am to you. Anger issues? You bet. So, I write in big letters to myself each day — get along little doggie. And ask yourself, do we really need so much infighting right now? We are on the cusp of a social revolution. When in history has our community made so much progress in Western society? Maybe, just maybe, that little light at the end of the tunnel is not a locomotive bearing down on us. Maybe it’s the end. I tell you, I was 16 years old when AIDS came into the pleasure dome. That was 33 years ago — two-thirds of my life has been shit-smeared with AIDS. Will I jump in the streets like a wild man when and if we get those rates of transmission head down — Hell yes! Will I mourn still? Yes, I will. But my joy at the drop-off will not be sung like any other song — it will be sung like an anthem. I will be so grateful for the good fight to end our community scourge. I will hug a younger gay and say, “Brother, welcome to less fear, may your life never know it as I did.”
AIDS — fuck you. That’s who I’m mad at. Rightly so — the epidemic took them all. My yearbook is empty. It’s as if all the signatures were written in invisible ink, just vanishing before my eyes. There was blood on the walls, the ceiling cracked and caved, and when that bomb went off I was standing in Sheridan Square counting KS lesions and wondering — Am I next? Answer: nearly next. 1996 happened, and that multi-colored “cocktail” left me with an afterglow. Promote the Malcolm X line “By Any Means Necessary” when confronting AIDS. If you’re having sex, your body is a battleground too. Arm up, when a spree killer like AIDS comes into the room you grab the first thing available and stab it in the brain like you would a zombie apocalypse.
There was an old public service ad you used to see on buses in NYC during the height of the epidemic. It read: “Kissing Doesn’t Kill: Greed and Indifference Do.” It still does, so I think it’s time for a bus stop revival. Remake that poster for a new generation because stigma, shame, hate and ignorance kill too. I sit on that bus — I look out and up from my window and the sky is blue. I look down, the road is rolling right past me. I can see the white dashes slide by on the asphalt. I can see the trash cans, the homeless, and the cigarette butts. I can see I’m on the local, not the express.
March yourself to the nearest search engine, look up that old ’80s poster, then imagine like John Lennon — AIDS is over, if we want it. To get there, we need only step off that disturbing curb and get out of our own way. Memo to self — cut the blank chatter and aim that canon where it matters most; live AIDS-free or die, don’t tread on HIV. Kissing is far better than killing each other, so after the debate hug your neighbor. Some of us never got the chance to say goodbye. I’m here to tell you regrets don’t get better with AIDS. We support each other with kindness, or we go down with that iceberg, and the choice is ours to make. So, why not give peace a chance?
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans on Thursday railed against states that have legalized marijuana, citing its connection to auto accidents.
During a hearing entitled “Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Operating While Stoned,” Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations, said stronger federal regulations on marijuana were needed in light of the wave of states legalizing the drug for medical and recreational uses.
Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) joined in the criticism, attacking Colorado’s recent decision to legalize recreational marijuana.
Fleming cited a study by the University of Colorado at Denver showing an increase in marijuana-related traffic fatalities since the state legalized medicinal marijuana in 2009. He implied that a further loosening of restrictions on marijuana is a slippery slope, especially for young people.
“As marijuana is de-stigmatized, use goes up, and it finds its way into the homes and candy and cookies and baked goods, and once it gets there, it finds its way into the brains of teens,” he said. “Marijuana will also become more pervasive as states continue to embrace permissible laws on medical marijuana and the recreational use of marijuana, and kids and youth will have easier access to the dangerous, addictive drug.”
Committee members also argued for a federal standard for drug-testing drivers.
At one point in the hearing, Mica held up an unidentified device he said was used for roadside drug tests in Europe, and jokingly offered to “swab the panelists.” The device is not currently used in the United States, but Jeffrey P. Michael, associate administrator for research and program development for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said that a law enforcement pilot program being developed in California uses a similar device.
Michael also testified that there is insufficient data and scientific research on the connection between drug use and driving, making it difficult to create national standards to drug test drivers.
“We make policy based on science. We cannot make changes without the science,” said Patrice Kelly, acting director of the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance for Department of Transportation, who also testified before the committee.
A growing body of research on the topic shows no clear connection between THC levels and impairment, unlike in the case of blood alcohol level. Moreover, some participants in recent studies have tested positive for THC long after the effects of the drug have worn off, which would complicate the enforcement of any imposed standard.
But Fleming, who is opposed to legalizing marijuana, argued that the lack of data and science means that states should exercise caution in deciding whether to legalize marijuana at all.
“Until we have the science, we should be careful and cautious,” he said.
Both Mica and Fleming have been outspoken critics of legalizing marijuana. Fleming told a conservative radio show in May that marijuana use will lead to “death and destruction” among military veterans.
On Thursday, Mica defended his decision to bring a fake joint as a prop during a previous hearing in May, in which he protested the District of Columbia’s marijuana decriminalization law.
“Some people thought that was entertaining, but it was also designed to illustrate that you can have 28 of those joints now in the District, and that would result in a $25 fine,” he said.
A Brookings Institution report released Thursday shows that Colorado’s legalization of marijuana has largely been successful and safe so far, particularly in surveillance and enforcement efforts. The state also has seen an increase in tax revenue as a result of the new law and a decrease in crime.
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Along with its towering monuments to socialism, bronze statues of its leaders and sprawling plazas for mass political gatherings and military parades, North Korea’s showcase capital is a city of parks.
To be sure, daily life in Pyongyang is filled with the many duties of work, school and mandatory community service. But even in Pyongyang, people need a place to relax and unwind. With the heat and humidity of the Pyongyang summer now setting in, one of the most popular is Moranbong — Moran Hill — just a short walk from Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square and famous for its shady walking paths, vistas of the city and grassy fields.
Crowded with couples at night and families on weekends, the park on a typical summer afternoon is used by schoolchildren practicing musical instruments, retirees playing chess or sharing stories, and young artists painting landscapes. At the bottom of the hill are stalls selling popsicles, chips and cold drinks.
Like most other landmarks in Pyongyang, it does have a political side.
Moran Hill is closely associated with the history of North Korea’s first president, Kim Il Sung, and his son, Kim Jong Il. An all-girl pop group that is all the rage in North Korea these days — yes, North Korea has one — even bears the district’s name.
Hand-picked by North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, it’s called the Moranbong Band.
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AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/1ox8vgG
North Korean students practice playing their musical instruments at the Moranbong or Moran Hill, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A North Korean couple walk along the footpath at the Moranbong or Moran Hill, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A North Korean boy sits on a rock as he sketches at the Moranbong or Moran Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, July 31, 2014. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
North Korean boys climb a tree at the Moranbong or Moran Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, July 31, 2014. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
North Korean students practice Taekwondo at the Moranbong or Moran Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, July 31, 2014. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A watercolor painting of the landscape at the Moranbong or Moran Hill is left to dry while a North Korean girl continues with her own painting, Thursday, July 31, 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Men carrying their watercolor artwork walk the Moranbong or Moran Hill, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Elderly North Korean men relax in the shade of trees at the Moranbong or Moran Hill, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A North Korean student is silhouetted against the sky as he practices Taekwondo at the Moranbong or Moran Hill, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
North Korean students practice playing their musical instruments at the Moranbong or Moran Hill, Thursday, July 31, 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Nearly nine in 10 Californians with a plan purchased through the state’s health insurance exchange will see price increases of less than 8 percent next year, the exchange, Covered California, announced Thursday.
The weighted average rate across California will be 4.2 percent higher than this year. The new, estimated rate is calculated by factoring in increases and decreases, as well as the number of consumers in each health plan, according to a press release. The new premiums are preliminary, pending review by other state regulators. Ten health insurance companies will offer plans on the exchange, which is three fewer than this year.
“It’s good news for California. It’s good news for the Affordable Care Act,” said Peter Lee, the executive director of Covered California. The 2015 increases are lower than annual hikes in the years before Obamacare, he said. “We’ve been seeing consumers facing 10 percent or more in rate increases year over year. This year, 4.2 percent is the average increase,” Lee said.
Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, California has positioned itself as a national leader in health care reform. The state created its own health insurance exchange and participated in the law’s expansion of Medicaid to more low-income residents. And California’s uninsured rate was more than halved by the end of the first Obamacare enrollment period that ended this spring, as 3.4 million Californians gained coverage, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Prior to Obamacare, California had one of the highest uninsured rates in the nation.
“We still are at the starting point, and we know we have a long way to go,” Lee said.
The low average price increases for 2015 could quell fears of double-digit rate hikes in the state, but individual consumers’ experiences will vary.
Thirteen percent of Covered California users are in health plans that will see price increases of more than 8 percent, and more than 35 percent of users will see rate hikes between 5 percent and 8 percent. Another 35 percent will pay less than 5 percent more, while 16 percent of policyholders have plans with prices that will stay roughly flat, or even decrease, according to Covered California. Average increases differ among the state’s geographic areas and based on other factors, including age.
“Averages are meaningless. What’s meaningful is to talk about a person’s circumstances,” Lee said. Consumers facing rate increases who shop around on the exchange during the next open enrollment period, which runs nationwide from Nov. 15 to Feb. 15, 2015, may find a comparable plan at a lower price, he said. Californians can review next year’s rates for specific health insurance plans on the exchange’s website as of today, he said.
These 2015 rate increases follow a significant one-time bump in prices for coverage on California’s individual market last year. That increase was caused by Obamacare’s benefit mandates and its prohibition against insurers rejecting consumers based on their health.
According to California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, prices rose anywhere from 22 percent to 88 percent from 2013 to 2014, although those rates don’t factor in the effect of tax credits that reduce what customers pay. For 2014 benefits, 88 percent of Covered California users received such financial assistance. Jones supports a proposition pending on the ballot that would empower his office to reject insurance price increases, while Covered California’s leadership has been skeptical. Lee on Thursday called Jones’ findings “misleading and distracting.”
California’s health insurance premium increases appear in line with preliminary information coming from other states, although some consumers will face significant increases if they remain on their current plans next year. State and federal regulators are reviewing companies’ proposed rates.
There are plenty of companies out there that claim to be the Google for this or the Netflix of that. But this “Pinterest for learning” may be on to something.
Launched two years ago, Learnist has earned a small but steady audience — 3.5 million to 4 million people log on every month — for its slideshow-like “boards” meant to educate readers on everything from “The Ukrainian Crisis” to “5 Mind-Blowing Theories about Your Favorite Disney Films.”
Learnist already has versions for iPhone, Android and the web, and it’s launching a new iPad app on Thursday.
One of Learnist’s biggest hits: “How to Pack a Suitcase like a Flight Attendant”
Learnist’s boards might remind you of Vox.com’s “card stacks,” which also offer bite-sized facts in a slideshow format.
Like Twitter, which got an early boost from celebrity accounts, Learnist is courting notable contributors like Washington think tanks, a co-host of the TV show “MythBusters” and HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington. These authors can sell “premium” original content for 99 cents through the site.
Despite the comparisons to Pinterest, Learnist Vice President of Product and Customer Development Steve Rodriguez said he thinks the company has a niche with its experts. While Pinterest is used to bookmark things you like or show off things you’re interested in, Rodriguez said Learnist is about more.
“We had some early comparisons because we have boards and they have boards,” Rodriguez said. “Curation is effectively pinning things to a board. But in Learnist, you’re pinning — if I can use that word — knowledge.”
Photo: I.Rimanoczy
In a recent meeting my colleague Barri Litt, who teaches accounting and audit at Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, commented about a sleepover party she participated in, invited by a friend who hosted a group of 11-year-old girls. When bedtime arrived, they asked the girls to put down their iPhones, iPads or the like that each of them were holding and fiddling with.
“What do you mean, will we actually talk to each other?” one of the girls asked. “Yes,” my friend replied. “That is exactly what we had in mind.” The girls looked surprised and intrigued, as the adults brought a set of cards with trigger questions. “If you were an animal, what animal would you be?” The girls were excited and an animated conversation started that lasted until almost 2 a.m.
Needless to say, the next day they reported to their parents how amazing that sleepover party had been! So different. The parents looked a bit suspicious and with disbelief: “Did they really put their devices away?” “Did my daughter agree to that?”
We have become so used to spending time and attention on what comes up on the screens of our devices, that we actually develop a “relationship” with our devices. We used to wake up thinking of the person we’re in love with, and that often was also the last thing on our mind before falling asleep. Nowadays, the first thought when waking up is to check our phone for messages.
What is the relationship we have and what is the one we would like to have with the devices? What are we missing out while we look at the screen?
As students of my Sustainability Mindset class at Fordham University were reflecting on what they valued about the course experience, one person said:
I loved that we didn’t sit as in other classes, at the tables, but that we sat in a circle during class, and that I had a chance to listen to the thoughts of my colleagues. In all these years, I never really talked much to anyone, and sitting in class I always just saw their neck. We run in and out of classes, rush from work to school and from there home. Having time to talk, that is not something common at school. I was amazed, surprised, and enjoyed so much discovering the diversity and richness of experience of my colleagues.
Well, yes, may be talking to each other is the next hot thing.
At a Halliburton fracking site in Clarington, Ohio in the southeastern part of the state, a fire broke out on a recent Saturday morning. What happened next should be a wake-up call to every U.S. citizen, especially the millions of Americans who live in communities where fracking is planned or underway.
Ohio firefighters battled the blaze for an entire week. Before they managed to fully extinguish it, the fire caused some 30 explosions that rained shrapnel over the surrounding area; 20 trucks on the site caught fire; and tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals–including a toxic soup of diesel fuel, hydrochloric acid, and ethylene glycol–mixed with runoff into the nearby creek, killing an estimated 70,000 fish as far as five miles downstream. State officials physically removed the decomposing remains of more than 11,000 fish and other aquatic life in their efforts to reduce the damage to the waterway.
Drinking Water Threatened
If the severe damage to a local creek weren’t troubling enough, this particular waterway feeds into the Ohio River roughly five miles away where, just another 1.7 miles downstream, a public water intake on the West Virginia side of the river serves local residents.
But here’s the most disgraceful thing of all about the accident: despite the fish kill and potential contamination of drinking water, the public still doesn’t know the full list of chemicals that polluted the air and water supply. In fact, the fire raged and runoff occurred for five full days before Halliburton provided state and federal EPA officials with a full list of the proprietary fracking chemicals the company used at the site.
Why?
Because Ohio, like many other states, has a fracking disclosure law that does more to protect company secrets than it does to protect citizens.
It’s a situation that clearly needs to change.
Officials in the Dark
The preliminary EPA report on the accident in Ohio makes for eye-opening reading. After the fire began on June 28, local, state, and federal officials worked straight through the July 4th holiday to contain the accident but their efforts were hampered by poor interagency coordination and a lack of adequate information about the hazards involved.
As one environmental official at the site later told the press: “We knew there was something toxic in the water. But we had no way of assessing whether it was a threat to human health or how best to protect the public.”
Officials made the determination to evacuate residents within a one-mile radius of the fire. Luckily, in rural Clarington, this meant the evacuation of just 25 households. But the report makes it clear that the precaution was based on insufficient information. Among the report’s many revelations is the fact that significant quantities of more than 16 chemical products were stored at the site, including caches of explosives and even radioactive Cesium-137.
Ron French, a Clarington, Ohio resident who lives less than two miles from the fracking site, says his property was blanketed in soot but he was neither evacuated nor fully informed about the potentially toxic hazard he and his family faced. He now worries about letting his kids play in the yard.
Outrage in Ohio
Nathan Johnson, an attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council, says the Clarington fire “points out that we sorely need changes to Ohio law to protect the public and get this essential information to officials in order to protect public health.”
As Johnson notes, the way Ohio fracking disclosure law is written, it prohibits anyone from accessing information about “trade secret” fracking chemicals except the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) or doctors treating a specific patient. By statute, however, neither ODNR nor doctors are allowed to share that crucial information. The Clarington case points out that the key emergency responders didn’t have access to the information they needed to protect the public, Johnson says. “Water authorities need secret chemical information immediately. Our drinking water is at risk unless the legislature makes some much needed changes.”
The argument seems to have convinced Gov. John Kasich, a strong supporter of fracking. Since the accident, Kasich has stated that Ohio needs to change its law, telling the Ohio press that it was unacceptable for emergency responders, including federal and Ohio EPA officials, not to know the full list of chemicals that might have spilled into the river. Under such conditions, Kasich said, “We want people to know what the fracking fluid contains.”
A National Problem
The alarming fact is that Ohio’s laws are actually slightly stronger than those in many other states. Of the roughly 30 states where fracking is now underway, only six require advance disclosure of the fracking chemicals that will be used. Many state laws, like the one in Ohio, allow the agency overseeing oil and gas drilling to receive the needed chemical information but limit that agency’s ability to share the information, even in the case of an emergency.
Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the Ohio case clearly highlights the need for laws across the country to better protect the public. As he puts it, “It is totally unacceptable that claims about trade secrets should be allowed to trump public health and safety.”
No matter what, Rosenberg says, the safety of our communities must be paramount. “Can we as a society really believe that allowing Halliburton to protect its profits is more important than protecting the health of our communities and citizens when a disaster occurs?”
As Rosenberg notes, the Center for Science and Democracy has called for stiffer fracking disclosure laws, baseline analyses of air and water quality near drilling sites, comprehensive monitoring, and increased community access to information about local fracking activities.
Based on a meeting last year that brought together scientists, lawyers, oil and gas representatives and community activists from across the country, the Center published a free community toolkit on fracking that offers local citizens vital information to make informed decisions about unconventional oil and gas drilling in their communities. If you live near a fracking site or know someone who does, you owe it to yourself to take a look.
Seth Shulman, senior staff writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, is a veteran science journalist and author of six books whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Discover, Nature, Technology Review, Parade and many other publications. You can sign up to receive his monthly Got Science? column via email at the Union of Concerned Scientists website: www.ucsusa.org.
In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 3,217 Americans were asked to rate religious groups on a 0-100 “feeling thermometer,” with 0 representing the coldest and 100 the warmest. Hindus received a lukewarm rating of 50.
There are several reasons for this, I believe. The first is obvious, and not terribly surprising: in a related Pew poll, only 22 percent of Americans said they know a Hindu. This makes sense, since almost all self-identified Hindus are of Indian descent, and while theirs is a hugely successful immigrant story, they’ve been trickling in only since immigration laws were changed in 1965 and they constitute less than 1 percent of the population.
Your doctor may be Hindu. Your kid’s engineering professor may be Hindu. The owner of the hotel down the street may be Hindu. Mindy Kaling, Sanjay Gupta and the last six winners of the national spelling bee may be Hindus. But still, not many people actually know a Hindu personally. And it’s only when we really get to know members of a different religious, ethnic or racial group that we drop our preconceptions and stereotypes and let that nice warm feeling in.
If any proof of that is needed, look at the religious groups that ranked warmest on the feeling thermometer: Jews (63) and Catholics (62) (Evangelical Christians scored 61). A century ago –even half a century ago — scores like that would have been unimaginable; Jews and Catholics were reviled and discriminated against. But over time the rest of America got to know them, and now they make up the entire Supreme Court.
A second reason much of the country lacks warmth for Hindus is that many Americans harbor misconceptions about their religion. This is partly because the story of Hinduism was written mainly by British colonists and Western scholars, and various errors have yet to be corrected in textbooks, despite the efforts of advocacy groups like the Hindu American Foundation and the Dharma Civilization Foundation. Among other things, aspects of Indian culture have been conflated with the nation’s dominant religion, so that the caste system and other antiquated customs have come to be seen, erroneously, as central features of Hindu doctrine.
Eventually, that will change, of course, and Hindu children won’t be taunted as monkey worshippers. When was the last time you heard someone accuse Jews of drinking the blood of Christian children at Passover?
But here’s the weird thing about the Pew surveys. While only 22% of Americans know people who call themselves Hindus, almost everybody knows someone whose life and belief system has been impacted by the multifaceted knowledge base that came to be called Hinduism. As I documented in my book, American Veda, for about 200 years now we have been absorbing, assimilating and adapting insights articulated ages ago in the Himalayas. Some of our most influential thinkers, writers, musicians and scientists were, in varying degrees, shaped by those ideas before transmitting them to the rest of us. In addition, the practices propagated by Indian gurus have taken root in the culture, with millions meditating, chanting and stretching into yoga postures. The fast-growing category of Spiritual but not Religious (SBNR) would not have arisen if practices we think of as Hindu and Buddhist were not made accessible to spiritual seekers and secular self-improvers alike.
But here’s the rub: very few of the non-Indian Americans whose values, beliefs and spiritual pursuits are Hindu-esque, or Hindu-like, or quasi-Hindu, call themselves Hindus. They may say they’re students of Indian philosophy. They may call themselves yogis, or devotees of this guru or that lineage. They may say they follow the philosophy of Vedanta. They may say that their core beliefs were shaped by the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads. Some–including a number of Indians–may say they follow Sanatana Dharma, the term used for centuries before colonial intruders coined the term Hinduism.
Why the reluctance to self-identify as Hindu? Some see it as a form of Hinduphobia. I think it’s an aversion to all religion. The yogis, meditators, devotees and SBNRs don’t like religious labels or religious lingo, and “Hinduism” is, in common usage, a religious term. They prefer generic, nonsectarian spiritual jargon. Plus, no guru ever asked followers to abandon their own religions — or lack of religion — and no Hindu ever tried to persuade anyone to convert. The Hindu-based teachings that came to us from India were presented as universal principles, more akin to scientific laws than religious doctrine, that could be viewed in religious or secular terms according to the individual’s orientation.
And therein lies the irony: that universality is one of the great virtues of what we call Hinduism, and it’s also the reason the term is not used by so many of the people it has impacted. In time, as Indian-born Hindus assimilate further and accurate information about Hinduism disseminates, the linguistic issues will sort themselves out. Meanwhile, the temperature on the feeling thermometer will surely rise.
“Mommy! Get that ball!” My 5-year old calls out as I’m walking out the door holding a coffee in one hand, a water bottle under my arm, my 40-pound pocketbook over my shoulder, two camp knapsacks over the other arm and a bag of dirty clothes for the dry cleaner.
A wrapped granola bar for my oldest dangles from my mouth. “Oh yeah,” I mutter, through gritted teeth, “Let me get that for you.”
“What?” He jumps in front of me. “What?”
“Get the ball, mommy!” My 11-year-old repeats, leaning on his wiffle bat.
I’m struggling with the keys, trying to press the button that automatically opens my mini-van door and not drop my coffee, or I’d freak on them.
“Mommy? Can you get the ball?” He asks again. Seriously, does he not have eyes? Or legs?
Only my 8-year-old has the ability to see outside of himself.
“Can I help you? He asks, “I can take my bag.”
I try to smile with my eyes, the only unencumbered part of my body, but I keep moving. Any disruption would cause everything to drop faster than a pair of boobs nursing twins.
I make it to the car, spit the bar onto the seat, drop the water bottle from my arm pit, drop the dry cleaning bag on the car floor, and place the coffee I am dying to sip in the holder.
With the knapsacks deposited, I breathe a puff of exhaustion. It’s 8 a.m. and I’m already done. But of course, it’s just beginning. I need to drive the oldest to baseball camp, the middle to day camp and the youngest… Damn, the youngest has no camp.
“Mommy! You didn’t get the ball!” My 5-year-old accuses, which I ignore.
“Get in the car, please.”
They pile in and once they’re settled, I run across the street to retrieve the wiffle ball. I toss it on the lawn and we’re ready.
First stop! Baseball camp for Boy 1.
Second stop! Camp for Boy 2.
Then me and Boy 3 drop the dry cleaning, stop at the supermarket and head home to play Legos,have a catch, draw pictures and watch a show while I work out on the elliptical and eat lunch.
Pick-up time!
First stop! Boy 1.
Second stop! Boy 2.
Next stop. Train station to pick up daddy!
We get there in about 20 minutes, but have almost an hour before the train. My middle son has a game tonight so he changes into his uniform in the back while they eat the snacks I packed and watch episodes of The Brady Bunch on the minivan TV. All hail the minivan TV.
This is our down time. Hope you’re enjoying it. Want a cheese stick?
Once husband/coach is in the car, we head straight for the field.
Throw. Catch. Pitch. Strike. Run. We win. Yay! Or, we lose. Boo!
Either way, we head home.
Once inside, I collect their dirty clothes and send their dirty bodies to the shower.
“Look, Mama,” My 5-year-old says over and over, and every time I do, he’s in a different naked position displaying himself.
Balls. Balls. Balls.
I hear my husband click on the TV and the sport caster’s voice pervades my living room. There’s no time like every minute to fill with baseball.
No way he’s going to score tonight.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
