Stair Stepper (pt 4)

Read part 1 then part 2, followed by part 3, and then if you're still interested, read this:

         ...But you’ll also feel higher, in position and in mentality. It’s a queasy feeling, altitude sickness, perhaps, or overexertion. Nonetheless, it’s a high that you cannot ignore. When that next opportunity to jump arises, you check that your shoelaces are tied and push off with vigor. You struggle, but remember, if I did it once, I can do it again
         This mentality may work, but should be used with caution. Eventually our muscles thin and our bones break down. As time passes, we cannot handle the full climb. But our minds drive us to accelerate, to push through and just do it. 
         We keep moving up the belts, waving at those we surpass and grumbling about the individuals who always manage to stay a step ahead. And so, the distinct rungs of our society form. Much like the revolving belt at the airport, the escalator doesn’t care whether you’ve gathered your bags. It’s going to keep moving and climbing, so hold onto your hats and your competitive drive.

Photo is from this site

For now, that was the last part. If you've read them all, I'd love to hear your thoughts (preferably the positive ones, but criticisms keep me on my toes too.)

(bird)Brain Washed

        I'm sitting on my patio right now watching this mother bird feed her chick and thinking how nice animals have it; they don't have to deal with the societal dramas that we face in the human race.


        I just finished watching this documentary called Independent Intervention on Netflix, which aimed to reveal the deep rooted presence of the media in global culture. News media are supposed to deliver accurate, unbiased descriptions to citizens worldwide. But they are a corporation. 80% of the media are now controlled by 5 major companies, a significant drop from 1983, when 50 companies owned media stations. What does this mean? It means that we're being brainwashed. Not for our own good, and not for the good of our government. It's all about cash-flow, shocking the viewer, and keeping people tuned in so that stations receive high ratings---adequate vantage points be damned.

        In Iraq, journalists can join up with the military so that they can see events close up, but they must first sign a contract and become 'embedded.' This agreement limits what they can see and what they can say, thus limiting what we see and hear. Unembedded journalists struggle in the trenches; many are harmed or killed overseas because the government and military don't go the extra mile to ensure their safety. But these are the men and women we want to survive- these are the people who are willing to show us the heartwrenching realities of war (shown in the movie I just watched).

        As voters, as global citizens, and as people, we need to be exposed to truthful stories of war, of the economy, of oil drilling, of natural disasters. We need to be exposed to images taken by independent media groups, not ones from CNN, MSNBC or any corporation driven station. We need to support journalists, papers and websites that support real, information that has not been sanitized to please the pockets of those who pay for airtime on the nightly news.