Stillness

A tranquil breeze blows in from the north. Sweet scents of flower blossoms drift by. The surrounding nature is in no hurry. A small creek gently flows through a valley of ancient trees. The crisp, clear water replenishes the local foliage and creatures with the essential source for life. Large branches loom overhead, sheltering the small, sprouting plant life and animals below. A protecting feeling, much like a warm cozy home, permeates throughout the area. Intermittent bird songs play throughout the environment, resembling a natural symphony.

All around, autumn leaves tumble graciously down from their branches, like miniature ballerinas twirling to the earth. Wild birds rustle in the piles of brown and discarded leaves in search of seeds. The dry foliage crunches and breaks by the titter tatter of small feet as critters of all sorts rummage and scour for treasures hidden under the vegetation. Occasionally, a puffy tailed squirrel will peak out and cleverly scurry around in search of a meal. More rarely, a deer will delicately happen by to visit a grazing meadow.

The tall azure sky, with patches of soft white clouds and the glowing sun, shines magnificently upon the valleys below. Every direction, to the edges of the land which the eye can see, stretches only the meadows and woodland areas. Nothing of a town or city, or even a car can be found. No honk of a horn, not the droning of traffic, nor the incessant murmuring of city life can be perceived. The true escape from the bustling of people and technology is finally found in these remote and small pockets of raw, untainted habitats.

It often takes days to reach this sublime scene. But serenity is worth the effort. With the activities of the human realm shed off and left behind, the mind becomes as calm and undisturbed, much like the surrounding landscape. A few regenerative days enveloped in the embrace of hundred year old trees, pristine and soothing rivers recharges the mind and spirit. Stillness brings true bliss.

A few quotes to ponder.

People often tend to seek outwards for redemption or fulfillment of something lacking in their life. In fact, this method of achieving happiness is artificial and short-lived. Many of us have already learned the wisdom but there are always those people that continue to be trapped making the same mistakes.

Yet human sentimentality is responsible for these failings. In all our pursuits for affection, attention, comfort, or any other emotionally driven desires to affect or control others, we have lost sight that true liberation begins from within.

The following are some quotes which remind me of this truth:

"If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere." -Francois de la Rochefoucauld

"Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have." -Doris Mortman

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere." -Agnes Repplier

"He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe."
-Marcus Aurelius

"Some people say they haven't yet found themselves. But the self is not something on finds; it is something one creates." -Thomas Szasz

The palest ink is greater than the strongest mind.

The axiom in this post's title rings true and relates an insightful perspective on effective and enduring communication. While people spend much of their life connecting with others through talking, the verbal exchanges we share are hardly ever recorded, and thus are forgotten through the passage of time. Even the wisest sage would not be able to share his or her knowledge fruitfully to future posterity without the help of written words.

At its best, the written words of humankind is certainly the chief technological feat which has enabled the development of civilizations, documented the precious knowledge of the ages, and facilitated the teaching of and enabling of the youth throughout history, to strive for their highest achievements.

Recorded words has had so much effect in advancing and molding the world, that the old adage, "the pen is mightier than the sword", certainly holds its weight in gold.

For home use, there are a few things that some people may overlook when setting up their wireless router. The following are some steps for computer users to secure their wireless home network:

1. Remember to change your default password for the administrator and user accounts in the wireless router. Many typical brands like D-Link or Linksys have default passwords such as "admin" or even no password at all.

2. Turn off or change the default SSID. Similar to the previous point, the default SSID (network name broadcast) of a Linksys wireless router is normally "linksys" and a D-Link, its model name. For most home users, changing it to something unique but not directly identifiable to your home is recommended. For a few households who have savvy computer users at home, SSID broadcast can be turned off.

3. Turn on the wireless security encryption. Most home wireless router devices have wireless security encryption options including WEP, WPA and WPA2. At a minimum, WEP should be turned on. But since this encryption method has been broken and considered weak, WPA or its newer and more secure format WPA2, should be used.

Be aware that some older wireless adapters might not be able to connect to or have compatibility issues with wireless networks using the newer WPA or WPA2 encryption.

The wireless security encryption usually uses one key which all the devices share within a network. If someone outside the network tries to connect without the proper key, they will not be able to send or receive data properly on the wireless network, therefore denied use of the wireless home network.

A tip for advanced home computer users:
The next step is normally not recommended for general users as it is more technical.

4. Using MAC filtering. This is a great way to make a network secure from unauthorized wireless clients. An advanced home user can set the specific MAC address of the devices such as laptops and desktops he wishes to have connected to the router. All other devices without authorized MAC addresses listed in the wireless router will not be able to connect at all.

**Important note: Be aware that the MAC filtering is not a 100% fail-safe solution. Advanced computer users who know how to change their MAC addresses can still spoof (fool the wireless router) their way into your network. Generally for home use, this isn't a big concern.

Economic Philosophies

The role of government is to maintain economic and social stability and uphold the laws and rules of the land. While this idea has taken many forms throughout the centuries of this nation's history, one this is certain: the government is not perfect, but it does try to adapt to the changing times. However, while governments cannot change their policies on a dime, it does gradually transform itself over long periods of time. The concepts related to how much intervention government should play on the development or stability on the economy has been a experiment through the decades. In the Great Depression, for instance, the US government tried to let the economy correct itself out of the mess that some of the businesses had created. In this case, the government waited for "the invisible hand" of the market to fix its own problems. In the end, this was not to be, as those who wanted to help were too few, and those who were greedy maintained their old ways. Those who have do not necessarily care for the have-nots unless the world of the haves will truly crumble as a consequence. Having power and money is not contingent upon learning proper morals or ethics, even though it would be a benefit to the world if this was so. Coming back to the topic, it is seen that current government policies are more aggressive in stepping in to stabilize a failing economy, rather than using the failed laissez-faire philosophy practiced during the Great Depression. It is too early and also difficult to determine which methodology is the better of the two. Nevertheless, with the right intention and attention, I believe that a balanced and "dynamic" approach is required for a government to effectively oversee today's internationally mixed economy.

The Game

It is true that governments tend to help large business entities, as they have more money and more clout to affect the direction of legislatures and policy-makers. Whether we like it or not, the world spins along with those who have the most authority. Although this is considered a bad thing for the regular Joe citizen, there is some good attributes to this predicament as well. First, those in authority and with money wish to maintain their power and wealth. As such, they will use generally use selfish methods to achieve that goal. However, if the "peons" of the world decide in mass that they do not wish to play the "game" any longer, those in command will have to resort to new methods to resolve the state of affairs. The masses do have power, but the masses have been dumbed down and brainwashed to think they should be happy, content, and live their lives the way that the world has been currently structured. Freedom and the human condition has no rigid boundaries; the earlier we can individually break through and "see" this reality, the earlier real change can occur.

Government's Role in Economic Development

I believe that government should play a supervising role in regards to economic development. In terms of supervising, I mean that the government should not exceedingly interfere with the free market dynamics of our capitalistic economy. It should however oversee and regulate commerce to create a fair and balanced environment for businesses and organizations to thrive. Without oversight, businesses can become domineering, especially if one corporation is much larger compared to the rest of the industry competition. Examples of these types of monopolies are utility companies or corporations that specialize in a particular niche market. A proper government should preside over the economy similar to a teacher keeps an eye on his or her students. A good government gives guidance and support, and lets the economy have enough freedom to learn and grow. There is always the possibility of some bad apples in the economy and as such, those corrupt companies should be reprimanded. However, they should be given a chance to change, not only for fairness and equality, but also for setting a positive example for the economy as a whole. Thus, with the right mix of non-interference and oversight, a government’s role as a controller for the entire state of an economy can work purposefully and assume a valuable role.

Asian American Studies

The struggle for civil rights and freedoms has been an ever present battle between those who have the rights and those who continuously wish to obtain it. The struggles of Asian Americans to attain equal voices and opportunities, as well as an education of their heritage, are a seldom recognized part of the American legacy of Ethnic Social Movements. During the late 1960s, Asian American activism started without warning throughout the United States. This spur to action was led in part by the Black Panthers and other civil rights movements at the time. Many campus activists on the East and West Coasts of the United States protested a lack of college and university curriculums regarding the history of Asians in America. Others thought that the absence of a strong Asian American community was resulting in a wearing away of the Asian identities of those individuals and their children. This call for action resulted in a three decade long process that would find in its outcome, changes in the college and university educational system; as well as, a recognition in American society that Asian Americans had a voice that needed to be heard.

Initially, many Asian Americans identified with the liberal White Americans regarding the Black Panthers and civil rights movements at the time. Ultimately, the bitter truth of American society led Asian Americans to empathize with the African Americans and their plight to achieve racial equality. Asian Americans became conscious to the prejudices they also suffered and that as a group, they too were victims of a collective racism and were generally excluded from mainstream American society. They became increasingly aware that they had much more in common with the African Americans than with the European Americans. The land of equality became the land of inequality. Where the United States was envisioned as a place where any person could succeed through hard work and effort, it became a reality where racial discrimination and the degradation of cultures outside the mainstream Eurocentric model became common practices.

Groups of Asian Americans started to demonstrate alongside other civil rights activists. During the rallies to free Huey P. Newton of The Black Panther Party, Asian Americans from around the nation stood alongside African American protestors. One photograph of that period shows an Asian American college student holding a sign asserting, “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power.” This “Yellow Peril” referred to a derogatory term that White Americans used in the 19th century to incite animosity towards the mass immigration of Asians during the late 1800s. There was a belief circulated by popular press that the Asian immigrants threatened the White laborers’ livelihoods and standard of living. Although the connotation is negative, the “Yellow Peril” protestors of the late 1960s used the phrase to convey their awareness that the discrimination in the United States was more than the work of just individual bigots; the intolerance of other cultures was in fact an inherent characteristic of American society.

The Asian American Movement reached a deeper significance in 1982, after the hate crime beating and murder of Vincent Jen Chin in Detroit, Michigan. This period showed many layoffs in Detroit’s auto industry due to a growing market share of Japanese automakers. The two men that attacked Chin both were involved with the auto industry and had personal resentment toward the Japanese. Many critics believed that Chinese American Vincent Chin was harassed and attacked in retaliation. The attack, which consisted of blows to the head with a baseball bat, was racially motivated. A witness of the incident overheard Ronald Ebens, one of the assailants, yell out, “It’s because of you little motherf*ckrs that we’re out of work!” Prior to Chin’s passing, he was employed as an industrial draftsman for Efficient Engineering Co. and had set to marry his fiancé on June 27, 1982, four days after his unforeseen death.

The resulting lawsuit convicted the two men, Ebens and Nitz, to second-degree murder. They were given three years of probation, fined $3,000 and served no jail time. The Judge on the case, Charles Kaufman, stated, “These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail … You don’t, make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal.” In objection, this case became a rallying point for the Asian American community. It angered the Asian American community around the country. The appeal accusing the two men of violating Chin’s civil rights ensued; but after years of court battles, Nitz was acquitted and Ebens was cleared of all charges due to a legal technicality. After the verdict, Vincent’s mother decried, “What kind of law is this? What kind of justice? This happened because my son is Chinese. If two Chinese killed a white person, they must go to jail; maybe for their whole lives … Something is wrong with this country.”

The civil suit for the unlawful death of Vincent Chin was settled out of court. Nitz was ordered to pay $30 weekly installments for ten years. Ebens was ordered to pay $200 per month up to a total of $1.5 million. Yet Ronald Ebens did not carry out his payments; as of 1997, with accrued interest and charges, Ebens adjusted total payment balance became $4.7 million. Chin’s murder continues to be controversial even today; because of the racial motivations on the attack and the relaxed sentencing that resulted from the court decision. The attack was a hate crime, but pre-dates hate crime laws in the United States. This case has since been referred to by a number of Asian Americans as verification to their belief that they are seen as underprivileged citizens, or “perpetual foreigners” compared to “real” Americans. Even while the criminal cases were lost, Vincent Chin’s murder is regarded as the establishment of a pan-ethnic stage of the Asian American movement. The subsequent failed appeal in federal court was a product of public pressure from a union of many Asian ethnic organizations.

It was also during this period that Asian American Studies started to become established within the curriculum of American universities. Their goals were to include ethnic studies that would be available to all students with multicultural backgrounds who wanted a higher education. Its central purpose was to instill them with the facts, awareness, and dedication needed to solve the issues of their communities. In addition, there was a need to increase diversity to the student body and faculty of colleges and universities. Thus, it made these educational centers more representative of the society in which they served, and less exclusively European American. This change was considered necessary because traditional learning offered a program that was unrelated to the experiences of Americans from largely ignored ethnic backgrounds and only advanced a Eurocentric ideology that degraded other cultures.

Today, Asian American Studies is an academic discipline which studies the experiences of people of Asian ancestry in America. It critically examines the experiences, issues, culture, history, and politics of Asian Americans. The Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University created the College of Ethnic Studies, which offers a Masters Degree program and is the first and only such “college” in any United States university. Many universities that offer Major programs in Asian American Studies are located in California because of the high concentration of Asians living in the state. These universities comprise of Cal State Northridge, UC Berkeley, UC San Bernardino, UCLA, UC Irvine, Stanford, UC San Diego, SFSU, UC Davis, City College of San Francisco, and The Claremont Colleges. Outside of California, the Major programs are offered at Columbia University, University of Colorado, University of Washington, Cornell University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition, City University of New York and Queens College is home to both the Asian American Center and Asian American Research Institute. It is located in Flushing, New York, a neighborhood which is populated heavily with Asian Americans.

The Asian American Movement created a tidal wave of change and recognition for the Asian immigrants that transplanted themselves here in the United States, some as far back as 160 years ago. With Asian American Studies, the present generation of ethnic Asians has the opportunity to discover his or her heritage and the history of Asians living in America. A profound and reflective testimony by Gordon Lee, an Asian American, attests to this change of awareness:

“I had never thought of myself that way – a grain of sand, in the belly of a monster, a yellow pearl – descended from a line of courageous workers who built railroads, enduring great hardships, facing exclusion acts, were not allowed to own property or to marry outside our race – raised by women who slaved in sweatshops.

It’s hard to explain why it affects me so deeply, but it’s like ‘seeing’ for the first time. Seeing that we didn’t have to fit into someone else’s world, into someone else’s image.

Learning about our own history, our own culture, one that had been hidden for a long time. It is – like finding a piece of myself. I learn how to write my Chinese name. I begin looking for my own stories.”

Asian Americans have certainly taken their part in American history, from the arduous building of the transcontinental railroad to the inequitable movement of Japanese Americans into internment camps, Asian immigrants have countless stories to impart. No longer are Asian Americans the submissive and silent minority in the United States, it is time they are finally noticed.

Reflection Journal

An experience that taught a great deal about myself happened about fifteen years ago when I was a junior in high school. At the time, I lived in a family environment that was very closed and old-fashioned. I was not allowed to do the regular extracurricular activities like my fellow classmates. Nor was I able to create strong friendships, as I was unable to invite friends to our house and was seldom allowed to visit theirs. Also, there was an inability to efficiently communicate between members within my family. Misunderstandings would often occur and create friction between us. Finally, during the summer of my third year of high school, after a heated exchange at home, I decided to leave.

During the next half a day, while I was leaving my home, I had a lot of time to think about my life, including what was going on with my personal life and my relationship with family members. After much thought and reflection, I began to understand the intricacies of relationships. I knew that although I was unhappy with the situation at home, I could not personally change the habits and personalities of my family. How they reacted to situations was brought about from years of habit or experience and whatever they did now, they would probably do the same into the future. And although I might feel that there was something inherently wrong about life at home, my family might feel that it is the norm from their own perspectives. Their values were different than my own.

In the end, I made the difficult decision to leave permanently. Although I was young at the time, I was fortunate to have a more forward-thinking relative who took me in for the next few years. Thus, the experience of leaving was so profound because it was the first time that I truly made a hard choice and made a stand that would impact my future considerably. Moreover, I learned responsibility and truly how to think as a free individual. After several years, I resumed the relationship with my family, but in a different way. Now I have an untroubled mind, as the concerns I had before with them are no longer my burden.

Legal, Religious, and Moral Systems

Since time immemorial, law and religion has had profound implications on the moral systems human societies have followed. These two establishments have historically been closely associated and worked together in forming a moral foundation for a culture. Example of this includes the Emperors, Kings, or Pharaohs of old who mandated laws and codes of conduct for their people; the rules were legitimized through the peoples’ belief that the instruction was the will of heaven, God, or gods, which was relayed through their mouthpiece, the ruler of the land. However, today’s societies view law and religion as separate entities. The relationship in which morality interplays with law and religion has become more discrete. Consequently, it is important to identify and distinguish the similarities and differences of legal, religious, and moral systems.

Jacques Thiroux stated that “morality is not necessarily based on law”, but it does “[provide] the basic reasons for any significant laws” (Thiroux 29). The definition of morality in this sense conveys the idea of fairness and conscientious human conduct. When laws are established by using the principles of natural law, which expounds the idea that there are certain human rights which can be applied universally to all of humanity, the argument that morality provides the fundamental basis for primary laws is accurate. Accordingly, the U.S. Constitution is one example where the concept of natural law has been judiciously applied to a country’s legal system. In this case, the legal system harmonizes with moral system principles. Conversely, there are instances where laws have been created and enforced that are morally irreconcilable. Hitler’s Germany, for instance, authorized and sanctioned to law the extermination of millions of people, mostly civilians, on the basis of ethnic and anthropologic intolerance. Here, the distinction between law and morality is apparent; although the laws endorsed by a government, those laws were morally unfit within ethical standards of behavior. Ultimately, it would seem that laws are a function of governments, and other forms of authority, to implement a minimum standard of morality for a given society. Thus, laws created contrary to expected standards of morality are essentially diametrical and would be eliminated over time.

Alternatively, religion has provided the foundation for many traditional moral systems throughout history. The Ten Commandments have been the base for Christians and Jews for defining their standard of conduct. Many proponents of these religious mandates, such as the Ten Commandments, explain that without divine wisdom, morality would not be graspable by man. In addition, while many believers consider religious affiliation to also be a critical factor in evaluating an individual’s capacity for morality, there are disputes to the contrary. Examples of religious individuals and their moral improprieties are well-known realities. From the Roman Catholic priests who molested young children under their care, to the religiously directed zealot wars over the centuries, religious believers have caused harm and committed moral offensives which have contradicted the idea that religious systems are all necessarily moral. Therefore, where a religious individual has the power to commit immoral acts, so a non-religious person also has the capacity to be a moral agent. Religion, in and of itself, is not the embodiment of morality or ethics. Indeed, extreme religious attitudes have often been the scourge of humanity.

Therefore, the differences and similarities of religious, legal, and moral systems are important for a person to recognize in order for that individual to obtain a developed comprehension of ethics. Historically, laws were sanctioned in conjunction with religious mandates regarding morality and human conduct. Progressively now, laws are commonly established to preserve the way of life of one society or culture, with a nominal influence of morality or religion in mind. These changes in human traditions have allowed for a new understanding of the legal and religious implications on moral systems. Moral agents live within the boundary of human societies. However, those moral individuals are not necessarily predisposed to affiliation with any religious institutions and their doctrine, or any governmental legal bodies that enforce law and order. Morality, in its strictest sense, has become its own independent entity.