Hey everyone!
We have a lot to talk about today so let’s get started!
- France
What to say?! My heart broke when I first heard the news and I’ve continued to feel uneasy about this situation since then. I’m so sad that this keeps happening – with the few crazy members of a culture wreaking havoc on so many people they don’t know. It breaks my heart to see a city that I love filled with terror. Plus I am sad about all the other places are being attacked and no one is talking about them. It also breaks my heart seeing people younger than me committing suicide to hurt other people. And finally, I worry about the anti-Islam backlash this attack is going to cause… Be careful with your blame everyone… :-/ - Science!
For all of you who got excited about my post last week, yay! I am so excited too! I got a lot of comments concerning “who to trust?” considering anyone (including yours truly) can talk about science on the internet these days. Also I got a great question about what types of jobs we scientists can get these days (excellent question and super relevant to me as I am on the market for a specific type of job that may or may not exist right now). Finally, I had some general comments about what it feels like to talk about science with people who “get it.” I can’t wait to address all of these questions and comments. Soon… >_< - Tolerance vs. Acceptance
Last week, I spoke on a panel of Tolerance vs. Acceptance on the CU campus. I think it turned out really well! The room was packed! The first part of the panel was to ask our audience to discuss the definitions of tolerance vs. acceptance and we found that it was much easier to define tolerance over acceptance. I talked about how “tolerance” to me means being acknowledged but not being invited to “the party” that everyone else is talking about/attending. We decided that acceptance would then be being invited to the party and asked to dance! I talked about how I was at a loss about what to do with feeling accepted – I can’t figure out how how I got there. I don’t understand that I can just be accepted as I am. Clearly I had to have done something “right” to make people like me? Then everyone else started sharing their own personal stories about what acceptance looks like to them. It came down to opening up and being authentic with each other as well as being curious about people’s lives. So we practiced these in small groups! I feel much more closer to my fellow panel members after that and I hope everyone else in the audience feels closer to their group members now too! I think it was a pretty successful panel. I’ve heard a lot of really interesting stories about what it feels like to be an undergrad/grad student, postdoc, faculty, or staff on CU’s campus and excellent personal examples of what tolerance vs. acceptance looks like in general. The stories have continued over the course of this week and I hope people keep talking about this issue!
Speaking of this panel – I will be on the radio this morning at 8:35 am (it looks like you can stream it live or listen to an mp3 recording on that website) talking about this panel and the new seminar series I helped start at CU. Check it out! - Snow!
I turned 30 last week!!! How does this happen?! Anyway, to celebrate my birthday and the fact that we had an unusually warm weekend, Cobalt and I went to Golden Gate State Park and ended up doing a 3 mile hike around in the snow. I injured my knees this past summer and have been not allowed to do any exercise besides walking for the past few months. It felt pretty good to be able to play a little in the snow with minor knee pain. I’m slowly getting better…
Now it’s your turn: What’s the weather like for you? I think everything is shifted back a month for us – nice October weather goin’ on for us in Colorado… not so great for people who like to ski though. Also – tell me your definitions of tolerance vs. acceptance or give me an example of what it feels like to be tolerated vs. accepted!
Potassium Photography 
I, too, am so very sad about what happened in France. It is getting way more media coverage than attacks in other parts of the world, probably because most people in the U.S. have an emotional connection with Paris, and with France, even if they have never been there, and they may not even be able to find the other countries on a map. It was interesting to me in 1989 when we lived in northern California during the big Bay Area earthquake – the media coverage and sympathy were enormous, coming from all over the world, people who had an emotional connection to San Francisco. Yet fewer than 70 people died in that earthquake. A bit later (can’t remember exactly), there was an earthquake that hit Mexico City and a huge number of people died although the sympathy and media coverage for that was much more muted. I also remember when Princess Diana and Mother Theresa died within about two weeks of each other. Both were very sad events. But seriously? I would have thought Mother Theresa’s death was a bigger blow to the world. It was almost lost in the media coverage regarding Diana. I personally have a very emotional connection to France, having lived in Paris for three years, and go back to visit about every five years. But certainly the media focuses on what will get the most people to watch, and get money from advertisers. And I must admit that I have probably watched more news in the past few days than in the entire previous month. (I hate election year “news” so avoid TV pretty much) It is sad that many other terrorist attacks and natural disasters get their little blip and then are gone from our consciousness, and gone from people’s desires to help.
I agree the backlash against Muslims and Muslim refugees is so terrible since the vast majority are normal peaceful people just wanting to live normal peaceful lives without terrorism, and practice their religion in freedom.
(We DO have freedom of religion in this country, don’t we? Will we still???? Do we WANT a country without religious freedom for ALL? Obviously some people want that. I’m so glad that at least Pope Francis preaches compassion on this issue, although pretty soon certain politicians will be accusing him of being Muslim instead of Catholic, if they don’t already.)
It always brings back thoughts of the internment of patriotic citizens of Japanese heritage during WWII when I hear about what many are saying about the refugees fleeing terrorism in their countries. I understand that some people don’t have friends of different religions, races, ethnic groups, sexual orientations, etc., and that helps them justify their xenophobia. I don’t want terrorists to get into our country either! But obviously we can’t consider ourselves Christians (I’m talking to you, fake Christian politicians!!) and turn our backs on humans needing help. We certainly have had our share of homegrown terrorists, too, and as we know, most of them don’t fit the ethnic stereotype of a terrorist. I’m embarrassed that the governor Susanna Martinez of my state of New Mexico, has decided to reject all the refugees based on……what? So much for “masses yearning to breathe free”.
Sorry. Enough ranting. I’ve been watching too much news and reading too much on the internet. Makes me despair for our country.
On to your other items! Good explanation of the difference between tolerance and acceptance. I’m going to try to figure out how to listen to the radio show that you were on!
I’m glad your knees are getting better, too. And very happy you are back to blogging since you are always fun and interesting to read!
I’ve been ignoring the media coverage of the Paris attacks. Seems that the excess coverage is just helping the terrorists. My prayers go out to both the Parisians and the Muslim in hopes of finding an answer.
I heard you radio segment this morning. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing with us!