I'm curious as to how different people would handle various situations... and how you all could challenge each other's thinking. Here is the first scenario:

Imagine that you own and operate a small shop in town. One night, a parent came into your shop with a small child. While browsing, the parent neglected to keep an eye on the child, who has begun running up and down each aisle. You decided to be friendly with the child by striking up a conversation, wherein you reminded the child that running inside a store could be dangerous. Nevertheless, the child took off running again, and as luck would have it, tripped over one of the fixtures and fell, resulting in a minor injury (e.g. a huge gash or a few bruises, but no broken bones). The parent is furious at you and is threatening to file a lawsuit.

How would you handle the situation?

What if...
...the parent was a person of high status or power in your community?
...the child had managed to sustain a more serious injury when s/he took the fall?
...the parent and child were the only other people in the store besides yourself?
...you were not the owner, but someone with less authority over the business? (e.g. cashier, stock person)

Feel free to throw any other "what ifs" into the pile! I may add them to this list.

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I have 14 days to go and 250 more dollars to raise for this year's Walk for Hunger! Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. I still have a ways to go before reaching my super goal of $500, though, and am hoping that you wonderful people will help me meet my goal!

Project Bread's 2008 Status Report on Hunger showed us that more than 522,000 people struggled to put food on the table this past winter. Money raised through The Walk for Hunger funds more than 400 food pantries, soup kitchens, food banks, and food salvage programs in 128 communities across Massachusetts. If you have anything -- even $1 -- to spare, please consider making a tax-deductible gift in my honor. Visit my Walk Website and click on "donate to me" or "make a gift" to pay via credit card. Every little bit will help! Feel free to pass this info along to any do-gooder who may want to contribute.

Two people mentioned having trouble donating online, and I let the organization know about it, but I don't know if the issue had been resolved. If it hasn't, and you're itching to do a good deed, you can always PM me for my address and mail a cheque over. I can submit donations in-person the day of the event, and they'd still count towards my goal!

Lastly -- since my "team" has pretty much dissolved, leaving me in ronin, if anybody wants to spend a Sunday morning walking 20 miles in the Boston area with me, let's talk! ;)

Happy Women's Day to all the ladies out there! Keep fighting the good fight. That goes for everyone.

Time for a long-awaited...


I apologize for not pumping these out every week like I had been doing, but after moving and starting a new job at the busiest time of year, I ended up with a lot less free time than I had previously. In any case, today's topic is affirmative action.

John F. Kennedy first coined the phrase "affirmative action", demanding that federal contractors must "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin". Lyndon Johnson expanded the system to include gender/sex a few years later. Last night, two US states had proposals to end affirmative action, and it seems that at least one of them (Nebraska) is all set to move forward with it.

Having heard from people who are both for and against affirmative action, I think this block of text from Wikipedia sums it up pretty well:

Proponents of affirmative action generally advocate it as a means to address past or present discrimination or to enhance racial, ethnic, gender, or other diversity. Opponents of affirmative action contend that affirmative action programs are discriminatory and that they, in many cases, result in the promotion of under-qualified individuals over higher qualified individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender.

• How do you feel about affirmative action? Do you feel that it is still necessary in 2008?
• Do you feel that affirmative action effectively evens the playing field?
• What do you think about these measures that were put in place to end affirmative action? What consequences do you foresee?

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