The Underground Railroad

There is a really good site that gives the facts and myths about the Underground Railroad in quiz form. I started taking the quiz (and got about 80% so far on the questions).

Here's an example of one of the True or False questions:

Question:Nearly all runaway slaves managed to escape to safety in the North or Canada.

Answer: False-- Many fugitive slaves failed in their attempt to be free. Those closer to the North faired better because they didn't have as far to go. Why did they fail? Slave narratives explain that the runaways faced many dangers. For example, they traveled on foot through hills, meadows, woods and swamps they did not know. If they came across rivers, they needed to swim across or chance catching a boat. They had no maps, no suitcases, and the only food they had was what they found, such as wild fruit and plants. They always carried with them the stress of the possibility of being found by professional slavecatchers and sent back into slavery.

This would be a great site to use to teach kids about the Underground Railroad.

Self-Respect

There's an interesting piece on the L. Ron Hubbard web site on the relationship between the lack of self respect and crime.

"There is not a criminal in the world, L. Ron Hubbard tells us, whose life of crime cannot be traced to a loss of self-respect. And if we were to ask that criminal what is meant by a loss of self-respect, we would inevitably hear the most pitiful phrase imaginable: 'one day I found I couldn’t trust myself.'"

The article goes on to describe how Mr. Hubbard's technology has been used to help rehabilitate the self respect of people caught up in prison system - notorious for the incredible rate of recidivism. Criminon, which uses these breakthroughs, has had tremendous success reforming criminals.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love. It was settled by the Quakers who proved their dedication to their belief in the integrity and value of all humankind by establishing and running the Underground Railroad, which smuggled thousands of slaves out of the South and to Freedom before the Civil War.

My Fellow Man

The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

However, it is one thing to say this, or publish it. It is another thing to live it.

In his essay "What is Greatness" L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion, wrote:

"The hardest task one can have is to continue to love his fellows despite all reasons he should not.

"And the true sign of sanity and greatness is to so continue.

"For the one who can achieve this, there is abundant hope.

"For those who cannot, there is only sorrow, hatred and despair. And these are not the things of which greatness or sanity or happiness are made.

There is no quick, easy fix to achieve the ability to grant such importance and life to others. In fact all of Scientology ultimately puts the being in good enough shape that he/she can accomplish what Mr. Hubbard wrote in these few lines.

But every step you take in Scientology you become more able to live up to these ideals.

And, as the writers of the Universal Declaration so correctly put it, every man is worthy of being considered important, valuable, and precious.

If we all had or strove to have, this view of one another, there would be peace.

The Dalai Lama

"Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free."

His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Freedom Magazine Human Rights Leadership Awards

Three real humanitarians were awarded Human Rights Leadership Awards last night on Capitol Hill. It was the celebration of the 38th Anniversary of Freedom Magazine, and the mistress of ceremonies was Academy Award nominee Ms. Anne Archer.

Auditors

This week was the celebration in LA and in Clearwater and England of "Auditors Day."

This is a day Scientology churches celebrate each year to honor auditors.

According to the Scientology glossary and auditor is:

... a person trained and qualified in applying Dianetics and/or Scientology processes and procedures to individuals for their betterment; called an auditor because auditor means one who listens.

The remarkable thing about Scientology and Scientology auditors is that they address the spiritual needs, purposes and lives of individuals while at the same time being a technology as invariable as any of the physical sciences.

That's remarkable because 1) it never happened before and 2) boy do we need a science that can help men, women, children and groups overcome their all-too prevalent tendency to act crazy!

What is war but group insanity?

And riots? Terrorism? Racism?

All group insanity.

Personal Integrity

There is an excellent chapter in the Scientology Handbook dealing with the subject of self-respect and personal integrity. It is called Improving Conditions in Life.

The information in this chapter is really powerful. I've seen people totally turn their lives around with the use of this information.