Word: plights
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...Sept. 5 - the first annual International Vulture Awareness Day - zoos and bird societies around the globe will sponsor educational tours and flight demonstrations to get the word out about the plight of the vultures. Unlike blue whales, polar bears and other beloved species in danger of extinction, it may be harder to rally folks to save these prickly feathered birds with bumpy, bald heads, portly physiques and a tendency to be knee-deep in rotting flesh. "People look at vultures and see an ugly bird," Aversa says. "We will try to change attitudes and raise awareness of these scavengers...
Disciplining wrongdoers with arduous physical activity stretches as least as far back as the ancient Greeks - and it's always really sucked. Homer's Odyssey recalls the plight of Sisyphus, the Corinthian King consigned to nudging a boulder up a hill for all eternity; according to the gods' twisted decree, when he neared the top of the hill, the rock would come tumbling down. Rehabilitation in 19th century England took a page from the Greeks' prescription for soul-crushing drudgery: inmates would be forced to trek endlessly on treadmills, pass their days turning purposeless cranks for thousands of revolutions...
...over.". In a sense, by picketing George Bush, Cindy Sheehan (albeit inadvertently) picketed them all, everyone who felt entitled to success because of an alleged ability to occupy both an elite world and still live among the masses, to reap the benefits of wealth but to understand the plight of the poor...
Despite the considerable costs to his agency, Samuels is sympathetic to the plight people find themselves in. "They don't do this gleefully. These people are really heartbroken about the fact that they can't [bury their loved ones]. This is not just a distant relative - you have kids who can't bury their parents a lot of times, or siblings who can't bury each other...
...There has been a temptation to use the Gates arrest as a metaphor for the plight of all black people. And yet much of what we think of as "black issues" doesn't really affect most black people. We too easily conflate the words disproportionate and majority. While a disproportionate number of black males are in prison, the majority of us have no experience with hard time. Black people are overrepresented in the ranks of impoverished Americans - but most of us are not poor. Affirmative action may ignite all sorts of racial tensions - but a lot of black people will...