When I am not trying rules change.I am no longer afraid of who I am. Valueless like the tree falling with no one there to hear it crash.I love you. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry Journal, Chronogram Journal, Ampersand Literary Review, The Angle at St. John Fisher College, and 3:16 Journal. George’s blogs, essays […]
society
Book Review: “Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out”
Feature image art from: https://www.taracousineau.com Ruth King teaches mindfulness meditation at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and at the Insight Meditation Society. She is also the founder of Mindful Race Institute, LLC, and a celebrated author. Although I have never met her, to me King is one of those Dharma teachers who seems to truly embody the […]
After the Tear Gas
and joyful taunts of revolution, the fallof every infant sparrowis evolving as a eulogyin my heart, producing a vision of peace throughjustice, still conversant withthe knowledge of Babylon. Oh, how I know these sonsand daughters of Babylon, their language and history,on both sides, they came from sailors and farmers and weavers. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. […]
A Social Duty
Header image from https://www.rferl.org/a/mural-masks-coronavirus-inspires-global-graffiti/30527353.html It has often been said that these days, young people have no respect for the elderly. To be honest, up until very recently, I wasn’t so sure what people meant by this. I tried to imagine how elderly people were treated in previous generations, while around me I observed my peers helping […]
Patriotism and Other Myths
At some point, there has to be apoint. A reason why. But what if the reasonwhy is why there isno reason? What if there is nothingbut suffering heroes hopingthat their suffering will makea difference, yet knowingthat it doesn’t mean adamn. They do it anyway. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been […]
On Not Taking Sides
It has been heartbreaking to watch my adopted city tearing itself apart and becoming awash with anger and hatred. The events that have led to this are well known both in Hong Kong and around the world and I am not going to rehearse them here. I did in fact sketch my own narrative of […]
Different Abilities, Different Individuals: Shifting Perceptions About Disability
In most schools with a progressive curriculum and solid ethics, students living with disabilities are welcomed, their needs accommodated, and encouraged to participate as fully as they can in the life of the school. However, once they graduate, many feel thrown into a world where diverse institutions neither have nor care to have the kind […]
Dalits: A Community Excluded from the Common Good
By Sangita Bauddh The word dalit is an Indian Hindi word that represents a unique class of Indian society with few parallels in any other social system. Dalit means “depressed class,” which included scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other backwards classes in British India but now includes only scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Caste is […]
Exemplary Buddhists: Hong Kong’s Sri Lankan Community
I was unfortunately out of Hong Kong and missed my chance to attend the Sri Lankan community’s 71st celebration of Independence Day. 4 February, like the equivalent commemorations of so many postcolonial societies, is critical to modern Sri Lankan identity, and in many ways the opinion makers and influencers of Hong Kong—scholars, journalists, writers—have not […]
China’s Harmony and Freedom from Fear
Amid the turmoil and scandal of the contemporary political world, many eyes are turning toward China as a natural counterbalance to the stumbling United States. The continued growth, both internally and externally in influence, trade, new ports and infrastructure around the world should give pause to any China skeptics still remaining out there. The political […]