{"id":725,"date":"2015-06-29T00:45:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T04:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/?p=725"},"modified":"2015-06-29T00:45:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T04:45:17","slug":"jeneral-finds-of-the-week-2015-06-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/?p=725","title":{"rendered":"Jeneral finds of the week: 2015-06-29"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Obama\u00a0and Amazing Grace,\u00a0what&#8217;s keeping America (and in a growing way Canada) so bitterly divided on so many fronts, the US Supreme Court ruling that\u00a0love is love, and figure skating as an X Game event? These are my Jeneral Finds of the week (or rather, month): 2015-06-29<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Please, make the time and effort to watch the entirety of President Obama&#8217;s eulogy of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the 9 fatal victims of the massacre\u00a0at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina 8 days earlier on June 17, 2015. It is tempting to skip straight to the end when Obama sings a portion of &#8220;Amazing Grace&#8221;. But have patience, it is even more moving and significant when you have the full weight of Obama&#8217;s speech leading up to it. He not only celebrates and honours the lives lost, he urges a rallying cry to continue the work to fight against the prejudices and racism both overt and subtle. There&#8217;s a brilliant cadence in his delivery, and marks him as one of this\u00a0generation&#8217;s noted orators. \u00a0[su_youtube url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZDXMoO9ABFE&#8221; width=&#8221;480&#8243; height=&#8221;300&#8243;] (here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/style-blog\/wp\/2015\/06\/26\/why-obamas-singing-of-amazing-grace-is-so-powerful\/?tid=trending_strip_4\">a great discussion<\/a> on why Obama&#8217;s use of grace as a central theme is so powerful)<\/li>\n<li>Two opinion pieces that emerged after this tragedy serves up thought-provoking ideas on the root causes for such continued and visceral divisions in contemporary American society. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/our-humanity-naturally\/201506\/anti-intellectualism-is-killing-america\">Anti-intellectualism is Killing America<\/a><\/em>\u00a0from David Niose argues that &#8220;[s]ocial dysfunction can be traced to the abandonment of reason&#8221;. A direct response from Ravi Chandra posits that\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/the-pacific-heart\/201506\/no-self-centeredness-is-killing-america\">No, Self-Centeredness is Killing America:\u00a0A lack of empathy is at the root of our ills<\/a><\/em>. I think the truth lies in the combination of the two.<\/li>\n<li>Congratulations USA on your Supreme Court <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/powerpost\/wp\/2015\/06\/26\/supreme-court-affirms-gay-couples-right-to-marry-in-all-states\/\">ruling that the US Constitution to guarantee same-sex marriages as a right<\/a>! The timing could not have been any more perfect, to coincide with Gay Pride celebrations all over, including here in Toronto. We&#8217;re glad you&#8217;ve seen the light!<\/li>\n<li>On a lighter note, I just heard today about a new figure skating competition form that is exclusively based on the jumps, and will take on more of an X-Games vibe. Meet &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/sporting-scene\/x-games-on-ice\">Freezer Aerials<\/a>&#8220;! (that&#8217;s a terrible name though, it should find a new moniker). The purist in me scoffs at the idea, but I realize skating needs to evolve for the sport to survive and attract an audience outside of the ardent fan. I just hope they don&#8217;t get to the point where skaters have their own theme songs they enter the arena in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>~Jen<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/2015\/05\/jeneral-finds-of-the-week-2015-05-31\/\">&lt;&#8211;previous find of the week<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Obama\u00a0and Amazing Grace,\u00a0what&#8217;s keeping America (and in a growing way Canada) so bitterly divided on so many fronts, the US Supreme Court ruling that\u00a0love is love, and figure skating as an X Game event? These are my Jeneral Finds of the week (or rather, month): 2015-06-29 Please, make the time and effort to watch the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/?p=725\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Jeneral finds of the week: 2015-06-29<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[38,45,127,146,221,256],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeneral-findings","tag-amazing-grace","tag-anti-intellectualism","tag-empathy","tag-figure-skating","tag-marriage","tag-obama"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/clothespins-e1474432379380.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}