Miltary Behind Times in Disability Awareness

Hanna Cvancara, a nurse, exceeds the military fitness tests, as she can do double the number of push-ups required, and has finished the timed 1.5-mile run with minutes to spare. However the military will not let her join because she has a prothetic foot. 

While there is no specific rule barring amputees from serving, in practice, that caution has meant routinely rejecting amputees.

Ms. Cvancara recently applied to the military once again, to join the Air National Guard. And in case she is rejected once more, she is working with her representative in Congress, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, to pass a bill called the Hannah Cvancara Service that would create an exception to allow amputees to join the military as medical personnel.

“My whole life, no one ever told me I couldn’t do anything I wanted to, until I tried to join the military,” she said. “I don’t want to be treated like I’m special. I just want to be treated like everyone else.”

 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/25/us/amputee-military-nurse-hannah-cvancara.html?referringSource=articleShare

Yep, WNBA Players are Paid Horribly Compared to Men in NBA

Despite Caitlin Clark's record-breaking performance on Iowa's team in the NCAA and the energy that she’s generated for the sport, Clark’s base salary will be $76,535 as a rookie. In the NBA, meanwhile, the first draft pick is expected to make roughly $10.5 million in base salary their first year.

Needless to say, sexism in sports is rampant.

https://www.vox.com/24132057/caitlin-clark-wnba-draft-2024

Get Healthy - Looking at Alternatives in Other Countries

Will our health system that has tended to shun alternatives to western medicine get behind a new trend coming? Prescriptions for social activities, exercise and the arts — first popularized in Britain — are coming to America. 

Social prescriptions generally aim to improve health and well-being by connecting people with nonclinical activities that address some of the underlying problems, such as isolation, social stress and lack of nutritious food, which have been demonstrated to play a crucial role in influencing who stays well and for how long.

In recent years, the English national health care system has employed 1,000 new link workers, with the goal of making social prescribing available to 900,000 people by 2024. However, with no socialized health care system in the United States, implementing this alternative approach will be far more complicated. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/well/mind/social-prescription-health-medication-art.html

Racists Yell Slurs to Utah Women's Basketball Team

The Utah women’s basketball team changed hotels out of safety concerns before its first NCAA Tournament game after reporting that racist slurs were shouted at the team in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, according to a report from a Utah television station and Utes coach Lynne Roberts. They moved to a hotel in Spokane, Washington.

Utah played Saturday and Monday in Spokane, Wash., where Gonzaga hosted first- and second-round games. The team arrived at its hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, about 30 miles east of Spokane, on Thursday.

Coeur d’Alene has a history with extremist groups, according to its mayor in 2022, when 31 extremists were arrested after being found near a LGBTQ pride event in a truck with riot gear and a smoke grenade.

/https://theathletic.com/5369148/2024/03/26/utah-womens-basketball-racial-slurs-ncaa-tournament/

NCAA Asks Black Athletes to Reconsider Florida Public Higher Education

The NAACP urged Black college athletes to “reconsider any potential decision” to attend a public university in Florida following the University of Florida's eliminating its Diversity and Inclusion office. 

On the day the University of Florida announced it was shuttering the DEI office, DeSantis tweeted, “DEI is toxic and has no place in our public universities.”

The outdated Republicans don't know how ridiculous their hierarchies and culture wars look to a majority of Americans. 

https://theathletic.com/5334351/2024/03/11/naacp-florida-college-athletes-ron-desantis-dei/

Musk Shows His Top of the Hierarchy Attitudes Again

"'Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse' should filed be listed among 'Reasons that Western Civilization died,'" Elon Musk wrote in an X post referencing Jeff Bezos' ex-wife.

Musk was responding to another user who said Scott had been giving money to oorganizations that "deal with issues of race and/or gender."

All you can do is laugh at him. So clueless and ridiculous and full of himself.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/elon-musk-lashing-mackenzie-scott-091605822.html

Maine Church Loses Case for Public Funding When Denying LGBT Students and Employees

In Maine, a federal judge denied a Bangor church’s request for its affiliated schools to be exempt from Maine’s anti-discrimination laws when seeking public money.

Crosspoint Church of Bangor sued last year the Maine Human Rights Commission and Education Commissioner Pender Makin over its inability to accept public funds unless it follows the Maine Human Rights Act, which was amended in 2021 to require schools taking tuition from towns without high schools to accept and hire LGBTQ+ students and employees.

Crosspoint’s affiliated schools operate under a “statement of faith” that says marriage is between one man and one woman and sexual activity, identity or expression outside of that are “sinful perversions” and unacceptable. The judge also pointed out the schools’ code of conduct bans students from “identifying as a gender other than their biological sex.”

The church is claiming “religious discrimination” and calls the laws unconstitutional. 

The case will be appealed.

https://wgme.com/news/local/judge-denies-maine-churchs-attempt-to-ignore-anti-discrimination-laws-crosspoint-church-of-bangor-maine-human-rights-commission-education-commissioner-pender-makin-lgbtq-students-employees

Ghana Proves Itself to be Ignorant of Human Rights in LGBT Case

The parliament of Ghana has passed legislation that continues to discriminate against LGBTQ people. 

Their new laws impose a prison sentence of up to five years for the "willful promotion, sponsorship, or support of LGBTQ+ activities.

The people of Ghana are apparently not seeing hierarchies as a whole, if they do understand the hierarchy of race.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/28/ghana-intensifies-crackdown-on-rights-of-lgbtq-people-and-activists

Democrats Trying to Get Rid of Missouri Law Prohibiting Pregnant Women from Divorcing

Laws can be very outdated, but here is a great example. 

A controversial law in Missouri doesn't allow pregnant women to get divorced. The legislation has been in place for 50 years, but there is now a push by a Democratic state representative to overturn it.

The state's law was initially meant to "prevent what the courts consider the 'bastardization' of a child," Missouri House Rep. Ashley Aune, a Democrat who represents the 14th district in Kansas City, told USA TODAY.

The law was aimed at protecting families and basically made it illegal for pregnant couples to get a divorce before the mother gives birth.

Conservatives love to define women by pregnancy, and take away any right they can because only women can become pregnant.

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/29/missouri-divorce-law-pregnant-women/72758534007/

Religious "Nones" are Largest Group in US

Perhaps hierarchical religions are turning people off. So many religions think they are the one and only true viable alternative, placing themselves on top of a religious hierarchy that they create.

NPR reports that the Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated – a group comprised of atheists, agnostic and those who say their religion is "nothing in particular" – is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They're more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226371734/religious-nones-are-now-the-largest-single-group-in-the-u-s

Gene Robinson: "I felt God called me out of the closet"

Gene Robinson was the first openly-gay bishop in all of Christendom.

Robinson is quick to point out that there have always been gay bishops in the Episcopal Church. "There have been a lot of us, let's just be clear," he said. "I'm just the first openly-gay one."

 "We forget what a big deal it was and how hard it was and how many people were opposed, and the pain it caused a lot of people," he said.

"I can tell you from my own experience, and it's one of the things that led to my coming out: it's an awful thing to stand in a pulpit and encourage people to live authentic lives when you know you're not being authentic," Robinson said. "It's why I felt God called me out of the closet."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bishop-gene-robinson-on-why-god-called-me-out-of-the-closet/