Hope And Dignity

From the Foreword by Maya Angelou InHope and DignityEmily Wilson and Susan Mullally have offered some answers to the question of Black survival. Wilson, a good and recognized poet, traveled her adopted State of North Carolina (she is originally from Georgia) talking to older Black women and listening to their responses. Interestingly, the women collected in this book appear to be speaking more to their ancestors and even to their unborn progeny than to Emily Wilson and therein must lie the book's success. For, since Wilson is White, it is natural to suspect anything Black people might say to her. (There is the old saying among Blacks: "If white people ask you where you are going tell them where you've been.") It is a compliment to Wilson to say that she was wise enough to pose her questions then stand aside so that the women could reflect privately on the pasts they have lived and even those they wished they had lived. Mullally's photographs are inspired and to the point. She has demonstrated as much sensitivity as Wilson and an equal amount of poetic curiosity. The subjects appear, as out of a mist, suddenly clear and clearly mistresses of their real and imagined times. They have overcome the cruel roles into which they had been cast by racism and ignorance. They have wept over their hopeless fate and defied destiny by creating hope anew. They have nursed, by force, a nation of hostile strangers, and wrung from lifetimes of mean servitude and third class citizenship a dignity of indescribable elegance. "If I had it to do over," Mrs. Bryant explains, "I would just as soon have the days of back yonder as today. I had. But I'm sure the children can have so much more and so much more easier till this is better days for living but not the kind of living we was brought up with. We had time to visit each other, and had time to go see the sick and didn't have no thoughts of putting nobody in the rest home. Maybe if there was four or five working on the farm, one could stay at the house and wait on that sick person. And it didn't put no bigger strain on them. Now it seems like they have keyed up themselves for fine houses, fine furniture, fine cars, fine everything until it takes them both to work [the wife and the husband]. But used to if the man had to be sick, the woman with the neighbor's aid could carry on. Or if the woman had to be sick, the neighbors would help do the chopping or do whatever she had been doing till she could get well. Now there's no way that no one hardly, the way they've got themselves stretched out for wanting so much, that they can carry on as well as we did. When mother stays at home with the children and works with them, like I did, you near about know them. No way hardly they can fool you or nothing. I'm not giving myself no pat, but nobody worked more hours than I did." These women are teachers comprehensively. Their accounts inform us that while life in North Carolina and in all the United States, has been hard for the Black woman (and man and child) it can be borne with dignity, and it can be changed by hope. Salutes to Wilson and Mullally, and humble thanks to all the women collected in this book. I understand them. They are my grandmothers. Author note:Emily Herring Wisonis a writer in Wonston-Salem, North Carolina. She is working with Margaret Supplee Smith on a history of women in North Carolina.Susan Mullally Clarkis a photographer in Greensboro, North Carolina, who is currently working on a photographic study of brothers and sisters. Wilson and Clark traveled more than 20,000 miles through the South in the course of interviewing, lecturing, and photographing forHope and Dignity.

A noted conflict-resolution expert explores dignity, its role in human conflict, and its power to improve relationships Drawing on her extensive experience in international conflict resolution and on insights from evolutionary biology, psychology, and neuroscience, Donna Hicks explains what the elements of dignity are, how to recognize dignity violations, how to respond when we are not treated with dignity, how dignity can restore a broken relationship, why leaders must understand the concept of dignity, and more. By choosing dignity as a way of life, Hicks shows, we open the way to greater peace within ourselves and to a safer and more humane world for all. For the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Dignity, Hicks has written a new preface that reflects on her experience helping communities and individuals understand the power of dignity and how it can lead to a more peaceful world. "Anyone who understands the importance of personal feelings and their fuel for conflict should consider Dignity as a powerful advisory and motivational guide."--Midwest Book Review Winner of the 2012 Educator's Award, given by the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International.

Surveys the phenomenon of Jewish spiritual survival during the Holocaust in the framework of the Jewish urge to sanctify God through the affirmation of life ("Kiddush ha-hayyim") rather than through martyrdom ("Kiddush Hashem"). Describes the historical development of the concept of "Kiddush ha-hayyim." Ch. 2 (pp. 29-42), "The Ghetto as a Tool for Extermination, " summarizes the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews, and its implementation in the Kovno, Lodz, Vilna, and Warsaw ghettos. Discusses cultural, religious, literary, artistic, and political activities in these ghettos, designed to raise morale and help Jews to survive and live a meaningful existence.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "A profound book.... It will break your heart but also leave you with hope." —J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy "[A] deeply empathetic book." —The Economist With stark photo essays and unforgettable true stories, Chris Arnade cuts through "expert" pontification on inequality, addiction, and poverty to allow those who have been left behind to define themselves on their own terms. After abandoning his Wall Street career, Chris Arnade decided to document poverty and addiction in the Bronx. He began interviewing, photographing, and becoming close friends with homeless addicts, and spent hours in drug dens and McDonald's. Then he started driving across America to see how the rest of the country compared. He found the same types of stories everywhere, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and geography. The people he got to know, from Alabama and California to Maine and Nevada, gave Arnade a new respect for the dignity and resilience of what he calls America's Back Row--those who lack the credentials and advantages of the so-called meritocratic upper class. The strivers in the Front Row, with their advanced degrees and upward mobility, see the Back Row's values as worthless. They scorn anyone who stays in a dying town or city as foolish, and mock anyone who clings to religion or tradition as naïve. As Takeesha, a woman in the Bronx, told Arnade, she wants to be seen she sees herself: "a prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God." This book is his attempt to help the rest of us truly see, hear, and respect millions of people who've been left behind.

ad;bnpaio nbqw;oreb n Is it possible to have a good death, free from unnecessary pain and trauma? What if our final days were designed to bring about reconciliation and release? In this wise and large-hearted book, Dr. Jim deMaine offers advice pointing the way toward a grace-filled transition out of life. Facing Death is both a memoir-in-vignettes and a handbook full of practical advice from Dr. deMaine's forty years in busy hospitals and ICUs. Using stories from his own life and practice, the veteran physician walks readers through ethical questions around "heroic" interventions: Do we fully understand what we're asking when we tell doctors to "do everything" to prolong life, even in cases when a patient has no chance of regaining consciousness? If we write advance directives outlining the kinds of care we would, or would not want, how can we ensure that they will be followed? As a pulmonary and critical care specialist, Dr. deMaine developed deep experience navigating such quandaries with patients and their families. In Facing Death he also treads into territory many physicians avoid, such as the role of spirituality; conflicts between doctors and families; cultural traditions that can aid or impede the goal of a peaceful transition, and ways to leave a moral legacy for our descendants.

Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Dignity therapy, a psychological intervention developed by Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov and his internationally lauded research group, has been designed specifically to address many of the psychological, existential, and spiritual challenges that patients and their families face as they grapple with the reality of life drawing to a close. In the first book to lay out the blueprint for this unique and meaningful intervention, Chochinov addresses one of the most important dimensions of being human. Being alive means being vulnerable and mortal; he argues that dignity therapy offers a way to preserve meaning and hope for patients approaching death. With history and foundations of dignity in care, and step by step guidance for readers interested in implementing the program, this volume illuminates how dignity therapy can change end-of-life experience for those about to die - and for those who will grieve their passing.