Steve M.'s Comments

A Photo by Steve M.

Jan 12, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 4

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:27pm EST

Well Sonali, if you know it in person, you know the picture can't capture it, but I appreciate the compliment. Mt. Rainier is one of my favorite places on Earth, but I no longer live nearby.

A Photo by Steve M.

Jan 12, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 2

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:26pm EST

You live down there? It's a beautiful area. I've only visited once, but ate up the opportunity to be there.

A Photo by Steve M.

Jan 12, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 2

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:25pm EST

Well thank ya!

A Photo by Steve M.

Jan 15, 2007 | rating: 9 | comments: 2

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:25pm EST

You know, I don't even know what the place was. We stopped for ice cream somewhere down in Brazil, and this was out back.

A Photo by Steve M.

Jan 15, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 8

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:24pm EST

Glad so many people liked this. I don't live near the ocean, so this was neat to see during a trip to Brazil.

A Photo by Steve M.

Jan 15, 2007 | rating: 9.7 | comments: 6

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:23pm EST

Yes, an abandoned mining town, and the best-preserved ghost town in Montana. This past summer (2006) they had a forest fire at the bottom of the mountain, and you could see the smoke for miles. But I guess they contained it because, as far as I know, the ghost town still stands.

A New Approach to Reading Books by Steve M.

Jan 14, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 2

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:18pm EST

Glad you like the thought. Seems to me a fun way for readers and writers to connect in a more intimate way and give readers a unique way into books.

A Photo by Kim H.

Jan 16, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 5

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:12pm EST

This is a nice shot. I like the simple setting.

A Photo by Luisa Morgan

Jan 16, 2007 | comments: 2

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:10pm EST

It's a beautiful mountain! Thanks for sharing the pic.

Smashed Starbucks by Steve M.

Jan 15, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 2

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 9:07pm EST

The World Trade Organization was meeting in Seattle. As with many of the places where they meet, there was a riot against them because of a sentiment that the WTO is a cause of global poverty, worker abuse, etc. I don't know enough about it to comment intelligently on that, but I know that a lot of people get involved in stuff like this because big business is automatically bad. Starbucks was attacked, as you can see from the picture, yet Starbucks is considered to be incredibly generous with its employees and does a good deal to help with local economies where their coffee farmers work.

Why black history month? by Kelli M.

Jan 16, 2007 | rating: 7 | comments: 20

Steve M. Jan 16, 2007, 12:13pm EST

LOL Not trying to open a can of worms?

See, it's like this: the Asians got money, the Native Americans got reservations and liquor, and the Blacks got a month. We were just saying, "Sorry about that whole domination thing" in different ways. Oh, and women got to start baring themselves on the internet and MTV.

You're right about the things we don't teach much in history. I mean, keep in mind, we got those black slaves from other blacks in Africa, where tribes already attacked one another, raped each other's women, and took each other as slaves. The rest of the world just paid to take some of those slaves into their own countries. Granted, that gave an economic incentive to all those tribes to keep up the good work.

Sincerely, I think you're right -- it would be valuable to spend a week each year studying the unique histories of the various minority groups within the larger context of our nation's history.

Why only a week? Because we have a lot of minority groups to consider and, in the end, most of our history is really a white male history, like it or not. So you need to give emphasis in that direction in order to provide the context for all the others.