There Had Been Forty-One Large Scale Massacres in the U.S., with the Media Slowly Stopping to Pay Attention, an All-Time High of Thirty-Three Cases, with the Media, Leveling Off Their Attention

What exactly, IS the cause of this “hike”, waive aside the second amendment rights, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Before the year 2019 is about to be over, the Associated Press posted its statistic findings on massacres, and it showed, that the cases of larger scale massacres had reached an all-time high in American history, with the primary weapons of assault used being guns.

The large scale massacre, by definition, is a massacre of more than four deaths, not counting the shooter.  The old record was the thirty-eight cases back in 2006, and this year, there had been, forty-one large scale massacres across the U.S., with over 211 fatalities, and of these, thirty-three were gun related.

Although the large scale murders in U.S. had reached an all-time high this year, but the fatalities still fell short of 2017.  Back then, there were, 224 who’d died, the massacre at the concert in Las Vegas, was by far, the most serious massacre in U.S. history.

There’s, another trend, most of the larger-scale massacres are, no longer under the attention of the media anymore, unless, the murders happened in public, then, it would, get the needed, airtime.

The numbers also showed, that the shooters of these massacres knew their victims, and the motives of the shootings are usually related to family disputes, drugs, gang violence, or the conflicts between coworkers, and relatives and friends.  But there were, the motives of some cases that still need to get cleared, for instance, at the start of the year, a 42-year-old man from Oregon hacked his own mother, stepfather, his girlfriend, and nine-months-old young daughter to death, and was shot to death by the police, and, the police still can’t find the motives of his murdering his next-of-kin.

right to bear armsimage from online

Guns are the weapons that had caused the most number of deaths, and there were the hatchets, the machetes, and the arsons.

The professor of criminology from the University of Minnesota believed, that these large-scale massacres are, “contagious”, the more frequently occurring they are, there would be, more cases like them.

And so, violence breeds violence is what this showed, and, because there’s NO ban on the right to own gun (second amendment, anyone???), and, a lot of Americans are, gun-loving people, that’s why, there are, many cases, and especially now, how easily people crack, that’s why, there is, this influx of larger scale massacres this year.

versus gun control…image from online

The Season of the Frost

As death, slowly, takes over, the living, translated…

The afternoon sun came in, from the southwest side, the light that weren’t, blocked out, by the house next door, slanted down, lazily, imprinted itself, onto the patio, reflecting the rhombus pattern of the screen door, her black cat, Charcoal lay, on that patch of sun that’s, on the ground, it seemed, that he was, unwilling, to leave that spot.

As she stared, at this frame, there came, the eyes of that elderly woman, the elderly face was, so thin, with the deepening of the wrinkles on her face, her skin, dark in complexion, very thin in its, layer, with one eye, slanted, and the eye that stared at people, it’d, looked, extremely, delicate, with the corner lifted upward.  Maybe, back when the elderly was a younger woman, she was, beautiful, it’s just, that the year drifted too far away from her now, and, she’s not related to her, and so, she can, only, make her own guesses on her.

what that, looked, like…photo found online

She’s, a caretaker, taking the shifts from the night previous.  The elderly woman is close to eighty years of age, not even forty kilograms in weight, quite weak in physique, and even so, she’d still, insisted on, taking herself to the bathrooms.  She’d, taken into considerations her stature, and wanted to allow the elderly to have what’s left of her own, dignity, she’d, allowed the elderly, to lean on her, and took her to the bathroom, and, as the night got deeper, she’d, made the trips, many more times.  The elderly always, sat on the toilet a long time, and, as she helped her back into bed, she could hear the elderly pant like a dog.  As the nurse saw, she’d, grilled her, to NOT help her go to the bathrooms again, that she could just, let the elderly go in her diapers.  Later she’d, taken care of the diapers’ worth of brownish, sticky material.  As the families learned of this, they’d told, that in these recent ten days, the woman lacked an appetite, and didn’t eat anything when they took her home, only had the liquid nutritional drinks, how can she expel so much waste.  As she heard, her heart went colder, and reminded the families in a round and about way, that they need to be, prepared.  What she couldn’t tell them was, please, take your mother home with you, so the high tech devices, don’t drag her life out for longer than it should’ve, lasted.

As the elderly woman was lying there, she’d, used her delicate eyes, asked, “Miss, can you please give me some medications, that I can take, and just, die.”  Then, “I’m going to find my dad now.” And from time to time, she’d, hung her head down low, held tight to her tiny achy frame, mumbled on, “I’m going to die”.

As the day broke, the families came by, the elderly started grilling them, “are you, leaving me here, to die?”, her children were about fifty or sixty years of age, looked honest enough, but without a clue, and, as they’d heard their mother’s questions, they’d, seemed, helpless, rebutted, “We sent you here to get better, how can we leave you here, to die?”  the nurse told the families to go outside, she’d watched the loved ones, nodded away like bobbleheads, they started, writing something down on a sheet of paper that the nurses handed them.

this, is what the end, might, look like…photo from online

At around noon, the medical staff, suddenly, gathered around in the room.  The families, as well as she, were, ushered outside.  In a panic, the elderly had, multiple tubes going in and out of her body: the trachea, the feeding tubes through the nose, connected to the stomach, the catheter, the drips, with some tranquilizer, the elderly lost consciousness, with the oxygen mask over her face, the assortments of drips on the poles, then, the entire bed, got wheeled off, into the I.C.U.

She received a day’s worth of nurse’s pays, dragged out her luggage, walked, on the golden sun rays of the season of the frost, as the golden sunshine was about, to get off the clock.

As she arrived home, there were the cats, and no humans around, her kids had all grown up and left home, her husband no longer alive.  She’d put a kettle on, gone to pick the two sticks of chamomiles out in her yard, on lemon grass, three leaves of mint, made it, into a cup of, lightly, sweetened, light green solution.  As she’d, found her calm again, she’d recalled, a patient she couldn’t, let go of as she was being trained as a caretaker, it was, also, an elderly of eighty or ninety years of age, she’d helped turned him over in the bed, and, as she’d touched his body, she’d found, that the man was, so stiffened up, that he’d, looked like a curled up shrimp, most of the patients she worked for, as she’d helped them flip over, would sigh, and yelp, but this elderly man, is a dead body, with just, one breath left inside of him, like a cookie, she’d turned him, left, and then, right, no response, there’s, no changes in the lines on his body, or posture, he’d, stuck on the hospital bed, and it’s, actually, abandonment, in the name, of terminal care, how long had it been, since someone, helped moved his muscles?  Otherwise, how could he be, so stiff?  And yet, the people around him, they’re sliding on their cell phones, eating their meals, and just, busying themselves, around, and about.

The sun had, retracted, to a corner on the lanai now, the rhombus shaped pattern now, gone, Charcoal hopped, into her lap.  She’d, patted that body of color, Charcoal started, purring at her.  The elderly with the corners of the eyes lifting upward, your wings of youth had already been, put up, stored away, inside, that long hallway of time, without all those, tubes to keep you alive, hmmmmmmmmm, it’s, hard to, say.————She took a small sip of the light scent, then asked Charcoal who’s in her lap, “the season of the frosts has arrived, do you know that?  And the days, go fast one by one, vanished, do you know, what a, good spot you were lying in awhile ago!”

And so, for this woman, in her line of work, she’d, seen it all, because she took care of the terminal patients, who are, on the verge of dying, and in taking care of these elderly, she’d, seen everything, from how the bodies are, no longer, capable of sustaining life on their own, of how the only thing that’s, keeping these bodies alive, are the machines, and tubes in the arms, connecting to the machines, and how the families refused, to let go of their elderly parents, and just, keep on, making them suffer even longer!

Only the Maternity Leave Bonuses? Helping Women to Enjoy Becoming Mothers

Why the whole environment doesn’t add to women’s wanting to have children, causing the aging population, the declines in birthrate to continue, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Legislative Branch upped the bonuses of women having children, and although all three of my children are all, over four years of age, I’m still very happy, toward the signing of this law. After all, this was, the most direct, most simple method. But, there are a lot of highly-educated, high income friends who’d still, refused to have children, and all these working moms told me, that it’s simply, too tiresome, to have to work, and look after their own young.

I was born in the eighties, and, a lot of my friends and families had their young after age thirty, they’d lacked that strength compared to the people in their twenties, and they’re at the stage of their lives they needed to, work hard to get ahead in their jobs, it would be, even more difficult, to look after their families. I’d consoled with them, to stop working, and enjoy being a full-time mother, but they’re not, taken with the idea.

Surely, the birthrate had been, dropping year after year, and the divorce rates, higher and higher, our generation has that sense of emergency toward marriage. I’d heard many who’d experienced it, telling me, that women need to be economically independent, not wanting to let go of their jobs, with marriages, untrustworthy, who has the mind, to have, and raise children? But, the duties of childrearing are mostly on the women’s shoulders in Taiwan, and this, won’t be resolved, with a couple of thousand dollars worth of bonuses given by the government.

One of the root causes of decline in birthrate is the economy, secondly, it’s the problems of the society. If the families are stabilized, if men are willing to chip in to help with raising the children too, then, women would surely, enjoy being mothers.

And so, this showed how it would be, unwise, for women to settle down to have children, and how this society doesn’t support the ideas of we women having children, after all, we are the ones, raising our own young, while you men just comes home after a long and hard days of work (NEWSFLASH, you MORONS, we women work our nine to fives outside the home, and we come home, to continue the job for 24/7!!!), and, this problem still won’t be resolved, by the extra bonuses that the government pays us women, for having more children, and what are we, NUTS? Why would we want to start our families, if we can excel in our jobs, after all, a job that pays well, gives us that sense of security, and, none of us would be happy, not contributing to this society here!

A Senior Rookie

Switching tracks later on in life, translated…

I’d switched tracks at almost forty years of age, the former decade I’d spent, working in the business realm, and the latter decade, to now, I’m working in the realms of education.  And, I’d become, rookies in the workforce twice in my life.

The very first time I was a rookie, it was when I’d just, started out working, I was, a blank piece of paper, and, the goal of my work from day to day, is to fill up this blank piece of paper that I once was with a wide variety of colors, hoped to gain the approvals of others.  Back then, all us rookies all wondered, how “do we enrich ourselves”?

not my drawing…

The second time I’d become a rookie, I’d gone from working in business, to teaching, and, although I was a rookie in the field of education, but because of getting olrder, plus the decades’ worth of work experience, this time, this rookie’s focus is no longer on the “self”, but how to benefit someone else.  I’d taught the subject of English in school, but, I’d known, that before I’m able to teach the lessons in English, I must find a way to connect with my students, and so, other than teaching the lessons in class, I’d worked really hard, to manage my classes as well, after I’d gained the trust of my students, the classes flowed even more freely.

These two experiences of being a rookie gave me different understandings of life, it’d also, enriched my working experience as well.

not my picture still…

So, this, is on switching tracks, this person wnet from working in business, to teaching in a classroom, and it’s such a huge difference, and, he must’ve needed to, adjust himself, based off of the people he’d encountered in business, and in school, teaching a classroom of students, but, it’s, these sorts of varied experiences in life that makes life more interesting.

The Thirty-Sixth “I’m Sorry”, in the Workplace

Translated…

I read across a report in a magazine, “the most widely used phrases came from the Zen Master of the era during 420 to 589, in the west, it’d become popularized in the 1850s, meaning those words one said repeatedly”.  In the article, it’d mentioned how those most widely used phrases can have positive effects in communication, that if the working class constantly used the positive most widely used phrases, they would attract those who are similar to them, and naturally, get closer, to success………I’d told my son, since he’d gone into the travel industries, his most widely used phrase was, “I’m sorry”, is this positive?

My son laughed in disbelief, at which time, his cell phone started ringing, it was, the tour guide to Japan, said that two of the guests refused to have the hotpot arranged for them by the tourist agency, that they’d insisted on having pork chops; the leader of the tour worried it might be inconvenient to the restaurant, and feared, that it might be a bad example for the rest of the tourists, called from overseas, to file a grievance to my son, “Your clients, you take care of them.”  My son immediately apologized to the tour guide, then, soothed the travelers, asked them to just eat the hotpot with the rest of the group, that after they returned, he will treat them to the pork chops they’d wanted to have.

from the papers…

Seeing how my son had, lowered himself, as his mother, I felt that he was taken.  But my son told me, there are people from all walks of life, don’t know how many bad customers I’d come across over the years, this, was merely, a side dish, he said, that once, he’d continually told a client “I’m sorry” a total of thirty-six times, after the phone call, he was, completely, depleted of energy.

That time, he’d taken on a foreign tour group, at the information session, over thirty people came, as he’d collected the fees, some paid by credit card, some paid by cash, all of a sudden, he’d become aware, that there was a tourist, Ms. Lee who’d asked to pay by installments, and asked the others, “are there any like Ms. Lee who are paying by installments?” then, a group of people rushed up to him, and Ms. Lee was extremely furious, “What do you mean?  Why did you use my name?”

“Holy!  Could she have, mistaken my meaning that she didn’t have enough money that, was why she’d paid by installment?”, my son immediately realized that he’d misspoke, and told her that he’d not meant anything by it, but Ms. Lee wouldn’t have it, still pressed on.  And my son, who was then, cornered, can only kept apologizing to her, and as he’d counted to the thirty-sixth time he’d apologized to her, Ms. Lee finally got tired of grilling him, turned around and left, and he’d gone back to his cubicle, and, downed half a liter of water in one gulp.

not my comic…

Afterwards, my son received a call from Ms. Lee’s coworker, told him, that Ms. Lee was scolded by the superiors at the office for NO reasons at all, that she wasn’t in a good mood, that, was why she’d taken her angers out on him, hoped that my son can empathize.  My son said, that it was his fault first, that he’d spoken too fast, without taking into considerations that it may affect the way she felt, that he will surely improve the next time.

Although my son said carelessly, that he’d, rolled around the workforce for many years now, and had already become totally immune from everything that happens in the workforce, I can still see, that he was, somewhat hurt.  As for his most widely used phrase, did it have any positive influences?  I’d thought for a long time, and still couldn’t reach my own conclusions, but, you can never be too courteous, if you’re not closer to success, you would be, a step away from failure, I suppose.

So, this, is when one deals with a customer who’s WRONG, but, because this guy works in the service industries, he’d needed to, lower himself, to make his clients feel better, and this woman took out how she was grilled by her superior at work on someone unrelated to her work, and that just shows how low emotional control this woman has.

Jia-Tong Lee: the Elementary School Education Lacked the Qualities, Harder to Get Caught Up as the Children Get Older

This, is how not-caught-yet the college level English majors are here, from the Newspapers, translated…

The foreign language majors couldn’t even differentiate the be-verbs, the children from the distant regions couldn’t even write out the twenty-six English alphabets… “You must start quality control in education starting in the first grade”.

The education conference that was held yesterday disclosed how the basic knowledge of elementary school level students lacked quality, and that as the children grow older, they’d fallen behind more and more, and it would be, harder, for them to get caught up again; and there were middle school graduates from the distant areas that had flunked on the national English and mathematics exam, with the grade of C.

The honorary professor from Chinghwa University, Lee suggested, that from the first grades, the children MUST have the basics to build up from, and told the instructors that they not give up on any child, because when children get into middle school, it would be difficult, for them, to get caught up again; at the same time, the instructors should teach the students using the different learning styles that fitted them best, devise different materials, to give the different examinations; and that this remedial teaching method should not be just on the tutoring basis, but to make sure that the students have the basic skills levels.

Lee said, that the education forum in Taiwan is quite well, but, there are two major problems, one, the children from distant regions couldn’t pass the fundamental level exams, and even for the students who managed to pass the entrance exams, they may not have the strong basics to build up on, the primary reason for this was because there’s no quality control in the elementary years, and the examinations only has the more difficult questions, and skips all the basics.

And so, from this, you can see, how much problem IS in the reforms in education, and, it’s because of this low level of understanding, because the teachers can’t possibly keep an eye on all 20+kids, and so, naturally, some of those children who have difficulties are bound to be overlooked, and so, children are still getting left behind…

Two Things that the Middle Schools Failed to Teach the Students

The downside of this reform in education, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

Recently after the results of the college entrance examinations, the related questions are once again, brought up, all of these problems, may be the issues of the systems, but, they are also a reflection of the blind spots of education, we failed to teach the younger generations the following:

Plans for One’s Futures: all the parents know, that entering into college is a very important decision.  But, other than preparing for the entrance exams day and night, what ELSE did we put in, for preparation’s sake?  We’d been led to believe, that so long as we scored high enough, we can attend ANY school we wanted to; but, the colleges are filled with an INFLUX of students who’d chosen the wrong majors, and has an even HIGHER rate of dropping out.  Aren’t the youths of eighteen years-of-age allowed their rights to explore their areas of interest?  Couldn’t they have the chances, to fail at the options they were choosing?  Shouldn’t they get to know the situation in those schools they’re applying to?  Are they really certain, of what they’re doing? 

The writer recalled, back when he’d applied for graduate school in the U.S., in order to make the best choice with limited funding, he’d conflicted between the choices of schools, or the majors, but, after going through that, I’d understood better, the purpose of me, studying abroad.  The whole purpose of the application process, is for the students to sort through their plans for themselves in the next four years, to choose the major that is mostly fitting to oneself.  But unfortunately, we’d educated the students by rushing them through the lessons, then, giving them endless reviews, examinations of the subjects, unwilling to let the students find their own separate piece of sky, no wonder, the college interviews, the entrance exams for the separate majors are almost exact, and, the schools had spent a TON of money, to publicize the academics, and not getting the desired results.

The Students Couldn’t Live Independently by Themselves: undeniable, the process of heading to interviews will take the students all over the map, but, the parents shouldn’t accompany the children to and from, and hover over them, wasting their money away.  An eighteen-year-old youth, in order to fulfill one’s own life, venturing out on one’s own, it’s the MOST meaningful thing in life.  In Europe or the U.S., a youth such as this may have already backpacked around the world, or worked odds and ends, to provide for one’s own tuitions, but, our beloved parents seemed to be more unwilling to let their babies head off to college, and would rather treat their grown children like babies, and had even hoped that the kids would choose schools closer to where the parents lived, so they could look after them better.

To tell the truth, if the parents are having troubles, letting the kids fly solo to school, how could they possible expect, these children will grow up, to be the pillars of the community?

Naturally, a lot of the schools could improve more on the processes of deciding on admissions, for instance, they should have separate offices for the applications, and personnel who handle the matters professionally.  And, the restrictions of the percentile markings from the examinations should also be more lenient, so more of those students from less fortunate backgrounds could get equal opportunities, so they could use the potentials to overcome their backgrounds, to give back to the community later on as they graduated.  But, all of these key determinants of success is based off of the real understanding of the purpose of education: grades are a minor part of life, we needed to help our young work hard to follow their paths, to become more practical in life.  But, all of these, more important values, we’re not, teaching them at all.

Because this application process had just been set up this past couple of years, whereas they’d used the exam grades, to determine WHICH major you are to study in in the past, and so, this, is all new to the students, as well as the parents, and so, the parents AND the students NEED to adapt themselves, quickly, to how this current system works, and that, would be one thing that those legislators failed to consider, before they’d implemented the new ideals.