Posts tagged ‘social issues’

Adverse Effects of Unemployment on a Community

by , posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 9:01 am

By Geraldine Solomon and Timothy Beushausen

There are many negative effects of unemployment on both personal and social levels. In the realm of the former, the person who loses his or her job can feel a depreciated sense of self worth. On a social level, the entire structure of society can disintegrate, as we can see clearly in the city of Juarez, Mexico. The policies of so-called “Big Government” were designed to stimulate production and ameliorate the effects of unemployment. The problem is, they no longer work. To see why, we have to look at the economy itself.

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On Homosexuality

by , posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 12:00 pm

by Timothy Beushausen

I recently contacted an ex-classmate from high school on Facebook (who had amazingly wished me a happy 60th birthday), and chatted with him for a few minutes, more than we ever talked to each other in four years of school. He had hit dotage a few months before I did, and wanted to know if I still look as young as my avatar from 15 years ago. Not. Like Alice and the Walrus, we spoke of many things, and at one point he mentioned his musical talent, which in me is merely a passion rather than a talent. He plays the viol, quite beautifully, which caused me to have one of the very few, full-blown aesthetic reactions I have ever had in my life. He brought up that he was persecuted in high school by the perceived association of piano talent with being gay, which brought back painful memories of being called such names since long before I had any idea what they mean. If that was the genesis of my becoming a commie-pinko-fag {in fact, my true sexual identity is that of a young, black lesbian stuck in an old, white man’s body (you don’t believe me? Then prove I am lying!)}, then it was basically the best thing that could have happened to me. I wouldn’t trade my life experiences for those of anyone else in the world.

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