If You're Black, Reblog This

tumblr is not instagram. likes on tumblr, while appreciated, are effectively useless in helping a creator reach a wider audience.

when you like something, it goes into your own personal folder. and chances are good that, even if it’s public, no one will see it.

likes do not get shared to the dashboard, where others can actually see and have the opportunity to engage.

liking a creation only really benefits you, and not the creator or the rest of the tumblr community!

likes are great for bookmarking, saving posts with the intent of a later reblog, engaging with certain posts that don’t need to be shared (ie. personal posts), posts that you are not comfortable sharing, and prepping a queue.

REBLOGGING is the best way to support a content creator!

reblogs boost attention and engagement. it actually allows for that content to be shared with others. which, really, is what tumblr is all about!

tldr; reblogs > likes. please don’t take content creators for granted. this site would be nothing without them!

A hero can go anywhere, do anything, as long as he/she has the nerve!

Unfortunately

Who created the manuscript?

     NO. 1

  Ever since the rise of modernism, it feels like people have only looked to see such medieval manuscripts in museums or hear about them in lecturers. The beginning of medieval, or illuminated manuscripts were beautiful but so very old and have to be handled with great care. Archaeologists and anthropologists have discovered and studied such manuscripts as a testament to keeping record of humanity’s past forms of writing. But would we ever get to such technological advancements, in forgetting our past, without it? This report explains the creation of how medieval manuscripts came to pass.

     NO. 2

From the met museum, ‘Unlike the mass-produced books of our time, an illuminated manuscript is unique, handmade object. In its structure, layout, script, and decoration, every manuscript bears the signs of the unique set of processes and circumstances involved in its production, as it moved successively through the hands of the parchment maker, the scribe, and one or more decorators or illuminators.’’ Illuminated manuscripts began in Ireland after the fall of the western Roman empire. Christianity came to Ireland around 431 A.D, introduced by Palladius and reinforced by the ministry of a Roman Briton named Patricius, or St. Patrick as he’s called today. He was kidnapped at the age of sixteen, and spent six years in captivity before escaping back to Britain. Upon returning, he was met with ‘distrustful druids’, and ‘murderous bandits’, and by bribing tribal kings did he made it out alive.

 NO. 3

   Eventually, he came back to Ireland in the 5th century. The island became lidded with monasteries in the 6th, and in the 7th the scribes of these centers of religious life were experimenting with new forms of decoration and bookmaking, the better to reflect God’s glory in the written word.

          The first illustrated book to be found by archaeologists was the Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’, a guidebook for the afterlife in which those in question would come to face-to-face with the jackal headed god Anubis, where he would balance their heart against a feather to determine what would become of them. A fortunate soul would either be in the Elysian paradise, the ‘Field of Peace’, or travel the night sky with Ra in his sun-boat, or rule the underworld with Osiris; those less fortunate would be eaten by the chimera looking god Ammit the soul-eater, for her body was part crocodile, lion and hippo. From Keith Houston’s, The Book, ‘’One of the main reasons the Book of the Dead is so well studied is because so many copies have survived, their colorful illustrations intact for Egyptologists to pore over endlessly. And though their subject matter may have been a little monotonous, it is clear that the ancient Egyptians were past masters at the art of illustrating books.’’

NO. 4

Under Charlemagne’s the Great Holy Roman Empire, politics, religion and art flourished. Monks filled their libraries with tens to thousands of volumes, where they borrowed and copied books to expand their holdings and occasionally to sell to laypeople, and those who wrote and collected realized the importance of illustration was towards a society of illiterate people. The monks who were in charge of the survival of Europe’s history were very vocal about physical maladies and working conditions. The dismal chambers were called ‘scriptoria’ or the writing rooms, which was the most important features of a medieval monastery, other than the Church itself. But society within the empire was transformed. Skilled peasants were leaving their rural homes for towns and cities, while the cities themselves, such as Johannes Gutenberg’s hometown of Mainz fought to eke out some measure of independence from the old feudal aristocracy.  Money was assuming a progressively larger role, and it spoke louder than an inherited title. Always a reflection of the societies that had made them, books were changing in response. Gutenberg’s printing press, which churned out books too rapidly for them to be illustrated by hand, is often blamed for killing off the illuminated manuscript.

A characterization of Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''

Homelessness in America

Homelessness in America is rampantly occurring, and we could all blame it on the recent COVID-19 disease, but we could all agree it is because of poverty. In New York City, and other huge cities all over the world, the gap between extreme wealth and extreme poor have always co-existed. Politicians have wholly ignored such issues, in favor of giving attention to other social issues.

The recent poll, taken in January 2020, ‘‘New York had an estimated 91,271 experiencing homelessness on any given day, as reported by Continuums of Care to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Of that total, 15,151 were family households, 1,251 were Veterans, 3,072 were unaccompanied young adults (aged 18-24), and 7,515 were individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. Public school data reported to the U.S. Department of Education during the 2017-2018 school year shows that an estimated 153,209 public school students experienced homelessness over the course of the year. Of that total, 5,939 students were unsheltered, 44,678 were in shelters, 3,157 were in hotels/motels, and 99,435 were doubled up.’’

The numbers continue to grow because legislation is slow, and most shelters are up to their capacity. Most people who have little to no income cannot survive only on government benefits and as it limits to nothing, homelessness increases. ‘‘There is a general consensus that, while not necessarily preventing homeless, the generosity and comprehensiveness of welfare systems of welfare systems shape the degree to which households will experience homelessness and housing exclusion, as well as the characteristics of those households (Allen et al, 2002.) The basic pattern, developed by Stephens and Fitzpatrick, (2007), is that the more generous and comprehensive a welfare system, the fewer the number households who experience homelessness will be largely single-person households and will have experienced other forms of exclusions, substance misuse, and various disabilities. On the other hand, more miserly and constrained welfare systems will generate a much higher number of households experiencing homelessness due to poverty, and housing affordability, rather than individual-level disabilities.’’

My name is Arielle, I am a social scientist, and I am a New Yorker speaking about homelessness in my state because I feel that, especially now, everyone should speak up and give their voice as a show of solidarity. I will continue to write and post about social issues impacting my community, state, and the world. There are links to help and donate to all these shelters down below.

1) Hoboken Homeless Shelter (hobokenshelter.org)

2) Urban Pathways

3) DonateNYC

4) Siena House - Siena House (weebly.com)

The cons of overthinking

The Abuse of Police Power

Occurrences on the news shows police brutality almost every day; just recently, Dereck Chavin, the cop who murdered George Floyd was charged with murder, and though that was a serious win, at the same time Makiyah Bryant was killed by the Columbus Police Department. The system has and always will be a discriminatory one based on race and class, and unless there’s real.

The first documented and filmed case of abuse of police power was the beating and death of Rodney King; then in 2014 the death of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Normally, the Bill of Rights is supposed to protect your rights from normally being harassed from a task or police force, like the fourth amendment, which involves the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, which means the Constitution declares a person has the right to be secure in their homes and in their persons against unreasonable searches and seizures. A person has the right against arrest without probable cause and the right to due process of law. Not every police member is a racist, but every police member is a part of a racist and oppressive system.

Forty years ago, the Bill of Rights used to protect every citizen from brutality, wasn’t taken as seriously as it is today in court justice proceedings around the country, most likely because modern technology hadn’t progressed as it has now, where if you hear any word of police assaulting a citizen, you can be sure it will be filmed. ‘’Police operations during that period were often far more informal than they are today, and investigating officers frequently assumed that they could come and go as they pleased, even to the extent of invading someone’s home without a search warrant. Interrogations could quickly turn violent, and the infamous “rubber hose,” which was reputed to leave few marks on the body, was probably more widely used during the questioning of suspects than many would like to believe. Similarly, ‘doing things by the book’ could mean the use of thick telephone books for beating suspects, since the books spread out the force of blows and left few visible bruises.’’

Every branch of the government, including the legislative, judicial, and presidential branches of the government is supposed to be held accountable by the other branches. The system was designed to ensure that no other individual or agency can become powerful enough to take away the rights and many freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution but without that accountability, a police agency can have absolute power based more on political considerations and personal vendettas than objective considerations on guilt or innocence. The court systems would become the area for resolution, not just between citizens and the agencies of government. After handling by the justice system, individuals who feel that they have not received respect and dignity under the law can appeal to the courts for correction. Those appeals can be based on procedural issues and are independent of more narrow considerations of guilt and innocence. In the case of search and seizure, there have been many court cases that involve illegally searches and seizure, which is any evidence seized without regard to the principles of due process as described by the Bill of Rights, particularly the fourth amendment, which says, ‘the rights of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the individuals or things to be seized’; most illegally seized evidence is the result of police searches.’

The Fourth Amendment, a part of the Bill of Rights, was adopted by Congress and became effective on December 15, 1791. The first case concerning search and seizure was that of Weeks. U.S (1914), whose case was upturned because federal agents found the right man, suspected of breaking a federal crime by using the U.S mail to sell lottery tickets, but unfortunately the case was overturned because those federal agents conducted a home search without a warrant; nevermind that they found incriminating evidence. Which means that Weeks, whom federal agents could have proved to a federal/Supreme Court that he was guilty, was set free because the police were also guilty. The Weeks case forms the basis of what is now called the exclusionary rule, which holds that evidence illegally seized by the police cannot be used in a trial. The rule acts as a control over police behavior and specifically focuses on the failure of officers to obtain warrants authorizing them either to conduct searches or to effect arrests, especially where arrest may lead to the acquisition of incriminating statements or to the seizure of physical evidence. The decision of the Supreme Court in the Weeks case was binding, at the time, only on federal officers because only federal agents were involved in the illegal seizure.

There are exceptions to the exclusionary rule, of course, like the exception of the fleeting target that permits law enforcement officers to search a motor vehicle based on probable cause but without a warrant, and is predicated on the fact that vehicles can quickly leave the jurisdiction of a law enforcement agency. Any search and seizure that was illegally obtained or violated due process will be seen as ‘tainted evidence’. The Silverthorne Lumber case (1920) created a new legal principle that excludes from introduction at trial and any evidence later developed as a result of an illegal search is called the fruit of the poisonous tree. When an emergency search is needed, it is justified for the police on the basis of some immediate and overriding need, such as public safety, the likely escape of a dangerous suspect, or the removal or destruction of evidence. Several cases improved the light on this, like Maryland vs. Buie (1990), which extended the authority of police to search locations in a house where a potentially dangerous person could hide while an arrest warrant is being served. Searches like this can save lives by disarming felons or by uncovering medical reasons for an emergency situation; they may also prevent suspects from escaping or destroying evidence. Emergency searches can fall under the exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. The Legal Counsel of Division of the FBI provides the guidelines, after the 1979 case of Arkansas v. Sanders, where the Supreme Court had ruled, ‘‘where the societal costs of obtaining a warrant, such as danger to law officers or the risks of loss or destruction of evidence, outweigh the reasons for prior recourse to a neutral magistrate.’ The guidelines and conditions apply that 1.) There was probable cause at the time of the search to believe that there was evidence concealed on the person searched, 2.) there was probable cause to believe an emergency threat of destruction of evidence existed at the time of the search, 3.) the officer had no prior opportunity to obtain a warrant authorizing the search, 4.) and the action was no greater than necessary to eliminate the threat of destruction of evidence.

Oh my gosh

just do it