This is why universal programs are important. Every single kid in my school got an eye test through the school at age 10. We just had some opticians come in and take over a room for a week to test every child. Testing for shit like colourblindness too. You need to test every single kid, or some of them will get missed. They might get missed because their parents don’t have vision problems and missed the signs, they might get missed because their parents can’t afford regular opticians visits, they might get missed because their parents couldn’t afford glasses, or couldn’t afford new lenses when a kids’s prescription changed. but they’ll get missed, and that’s really, really bad.
Systemic inability to afford glasses is terrible. I forget how lucky we are here to have the NHS. I mean, my mum hated her big blue NHS glasses, but she had them. And when I got glasses age 14 you got an £80 voucher for kids frames, and then lenses were free. IDK what it’s like now what with the cuts and all, but universal access to basic healthcare is so important.
People underestimate the degree to which kids do badly in school because of vision problems. Personally, if I were helping a child who was failing, it’s one of the first things I’d check.
With wealthier kids who actually get eye exams, and have their vision corrected to 20/20, it’s visual processing problems like difficulty converging at near or processing clutter or tracking. With poorer kids, it can be all of that, or just needing glasses.
And then kids grow up thinking they’re stupid or lazy when really they just can’t see.
Many people don’t think of poor eyesight as a disability, but it is. You don’t have to be legally blind to benefit from accommodations, i e eyeglasses.
This is why it pisses me off when yt leftists say the Black Panthers breakfast program was not “revolutionary enough”. The mere act of surviving is resistance and revolutionary. When everyone wants your children dead, feeding them and ensuring their survival is resistance to the status quo. Fuck yt leftists. Y’all ain’t shit.
“I want to give people social and financial empowerment, so eventually people who want to come out won’t be affected. They will have their own social security system. It won’t make a difference if they are disinherited.”
so exodus says that aaron stretched out his hand over the waters and the frog came up and covered the land of egypt and while english translators usually render “frog” as “frogs,” today at shul the rabbi challenged us to consider whether it could in fact have been one giant frog so we spent literally forty-five minutes arguing about whether there were swarms of frogs from the beginning or rather a single monstrous godzilla frog that split into multiple frogs once people started trying to destroy it and the congregation got so worked up that even after we’d sung aleinu and were heading out of the sanctuary people were still excitedly debating the moral implications of one frog versus many so what i’m trying to say is @judaism never change
This post. This was the one I was looking for when I was talking about how I was specially mad that we let Nazis just have pepe the frog bc of the role of frogs in Judaism, and particularly since I’d heard it could theoretically have been just one super giant Godzilla frog. Here it is. (Maybe it’s a word that’s the same both singular and plural? I don’t know Hebrew.)
Matilda was born in February 1102, the eldest child of Henry I and Matilda of Scotland. She had one younger brother, William Adelin. Little is known about her early life, but it is likely that she stayed with her mother where she was taught to read and educated in religious morals.
In April 1114, Matilda married Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. During this marriage she gained considerable practical experience of government. She played a full part in it by sponsoring grants, dealing with petitioners, and taking part in ceremonial occasions. She was controversially crowned Empress of the Holy Roman Empire when she and Henry traveled to Italy in 1116 and acted as imperial regent when her husband traveled. Henry died in 1125 and left childless, Matilda returned to Normandy.
Henry I’s failure to produce another male heir after the death of William Adelin in 1120 made Matilda his preferred choice as his successor. In 1126, the Anglo-Norman barons swore to recognize Matilda and any of her future heirs. In order to secure the southern borders of Normandy, Henry married her to Geoffrey of Anjou, the son of Fulk, Count of Anjou. They were married in 1128 and by the time Henry I died in 1135, they had two sons, Henry and Geoffrey.
After Henry’s death, Matilda and Geoffrey faced opposition from the Norman barons and were unable to pursue their claims. Instead, Matilda’s cousin, Stephen of Blois easily claimed the throne with the backing of the English Church. In 1139, Matilda crossed into England to take the kingdom by force with the support of her half-brother Robert of Gloucester and her uncle, David I of Scotland. Her forces captured Stephen in 1141 but her attempts to be crowned at Westminster failed due to bitter opposition from London crowds. Because of her retreat she was never formally declared Queen of England and only received the title Lady of the English.
Later in 1141, Matilda’s brother Robert was captured and she agreed to exchange him for Stephen. The war then degenerated into a stalemate and in 1148, she returned to Normandy which was now in the hands of her husband. She left her eldest son Henry to continue the campaign in England. She settled into her court near Rouen and for the rest of her life focused on the administration of the Duchy. When Geoffrey died in 1151, Henry claimed the family lands and in 1154 succeeded the throne as Henry II. In Normandy, Matilda often acted as Henry’s representative and presided over the government. Henry depended on her during the early years of his reign and asked her advice on policy matters.
In her old age Matilda focused increasingly in Church affairs and her personal faith. When she died in 1167 her remaining wealth was given to the Church. Her tomb’s epitaph included the lines, “Great by birth, greater by marriage, greatest in her offspring: here lies Matilda, the daughter, wife, and mother of Henry.” (x)
this map is fascinating for a variety of reasons but the particular part of it that made me fall down a wikihole was the Cucuteni–Trypillian culture, which I was not familiar with. they seem pretty cool for a variety of reasons but what caught my eye is that they’d build a city, literally the largest city in the world they would build, and then they’d live there for about sixty years, and then they’d burn the fucker down. Why? Nobody knows. They’d move somewhere else and do the whole thing over, and then maybe move back and rebuild the first city identically on the same foundations. In one place they did that thirteen times.
this is some SCP type shit. what was chasing them. what happened in these cities that they needed burning down over and over
…what
right????? also i forgot my favorite part: we can’t get buildings to burn down this way. we’ve tried, nobody has actually managed to set a fire that leaves the same kind of rubble. it is not…traditional…fire
How this war is breaking down prejudice and hatred!
‘It
was the most inspiring service I have ever conducted. Nearly
three hundred Jewish men came in from all parts to celebrate the
Passover—Orthodox and Reform—all joining in the common service I read. I
had the little book issued by the British for the Jewish soldiers and sailors. The
boys really felt their Jewishness on this occasion and I could feel a thrill of
pride as I looked at them They were proud of their heritage of Judaism and Americanism
and their feeling of loyalty to their double heritage was growing more and more
with their stay in France.
Even the YMCA tried to arrange services. A Christian organization promoting a Jewish
religious service and offering to foot the bill! How this war is breaking down prejudice and hatred!’
“The first cat to cross the Atlantic by air was the diminutive Kiddo, shown here with Melvin Vaniman, chief engineer of the airship America in 1910. The America was the first aircraft to carry radio equipment, and Vaniman ordered a wireless message sent to [owner Walter] Wellman’s secretary back on shore—so the historic first radio communication from an aircraft in flight reads: ‘Roy, come and get this goddamn cat.’”
This is an important message on how privilege really works.
it’s good to remember that we shouldn’t only define ourselves by our marginalized identities. for example I am cis, I am middle class, I am educated, I speak English, I am a documented citizen—remember all of those identities you possess that give you privilege.
Always check your privilege. Everyone has one in some way
Homeless people are human beings with immense value. They are members of our families, communities, neighborhoods, cities, and, for a number of people reading this, they are themselves (or have been).
The fact that homeless people do not have housing is a wrong done against them, not a sign they did something wrong. To then try and ban them from public spaces and existing in public (including doing things we all have to do, like sleep or eat), is yet another grievous wrong.
An attack on homeless people is not “protecting the community”, it is an attack on the community. Homeless people aren’t my enemy, those who would ban them from things like sleeping in public are my enemy.
So many people make comments on this post about how they think homeless people are inconvenient to them, as if it’s not more inconvenient being fucking homeless and then facing these constant attacks and being treated like vermin by people who see you as an eyesore rather than as a human being and part of the community.
Being angry at human beings for just existing and trying to survive because you find the horrible conditions society puts them in unpleasant to look at makes you an asshole.
It says a lot about you if you see cops, government officials, rich people, landlords, etc. attacking some of the poorest and most desperate members of society and you automatically align yourself with cop and not the homeless person.
Cheloneuniverse 