Are You Keeping Up With New Technology?

By Cheryl Myrie

Today’s world is vastly incorporated with the ever changing science of technology.

If you are not engaged in the area of technology you are out dating yourself and you are putting yourself at a disadvantage in being a competing candidate for employment, limiting your method to communicate and you are decreasing your perimeters in which you can operate.

In shadows of the court decision against Samsung, in the case of Apple vs. Samsung, it’s important to understand the direction this country and the global industry is headed, if we are interested in becoming economically empowered. Barry White one of my all-time favorite singers, gave great insight to those who were listening during a televised interview I was blessed to watch. I don’t remember the host or the show where the interview took place, perhaps someone who does know could provide us with the details by way of the comment box at the end of this commentary.  What Barry White said basically, was that anyone interested in getting into the music business, during the time period the interview had taken place, he said the opportunity had greatly improved due to technology. The new technology had introduced new electronic instruments, which also provided access to more than one instrument.  One individual could add the sound of different instruments, this was cost effective and enhanced the ability of someone starting out on their own and who did not have the connections necessary to incorporate other individuals with skills and knowledge of varies musical instruments. God bless his soul, that was a jewel of information he gave to those seeking to make a living by getting into the music industry.

Well the same hold true even more today. Yes socially many of us are heavily engaged in the technology world. And I am not saying there is anything wrong with the social interaction side of it. What I am saying is do not limit yourselves to just that side of it. I remember after getting married and having my children, I was seeking to get into the work force arena, and my siblings who were already there were telling me about the emphasis on computers and how simply it would be for me once I got the hang of it. However, I was hesitant about the hold thing, it sounded more complicated than they were making it appear. Anyway it would be some years later before I took a computer class and I have been hooked ever since. It was extra hard for me because I did not have a computer at home. So I spent hours in the computer lab on campus. I would see people come in and an hour or two later they would be leaving and I would still be there trying to complete my assignments. This went on for days until I completed my course and I passed with an A. I am grateful to my teacher for being the kind of teacher that wanted his students to learn.

Certainly these new instruments of technology have their side effects and/or downsides, which if you take a broader perspective is another avenue which could provide access to revenue, in the field of research. We as a society are now asking questions about proper use of our newly invented tools and the advent affect caused by misuse of them.

Having The Means

^{By Cheryl Myrie}

Post the month of July in which the United States celebrates its Independent’s Day and it’s drafting of the U.S. Declaration.

I have some observations I would like to share, beginning with two of the framers of United States Declaration.

George Mason one of the delegates from Virginia statement I believe said it best when he said “That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights…namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” The key words in my opinion are “the means” of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

However, George Mason’s statement was altered by Thomas Jefferson to read “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Certainly the nation would return to the issue of having the means to pursue, and that would be with the ending of slavery. The division that split the states, a division that created an atmosphere where those states for slavery, drafted a second Constitution called The Constitution of the Confederate States (March 11, 1861). That’s how serious those states that continue to use slavery as a means of their economic system felt about maintaining that means (slavery) which had been establish. Prior to the Civil War a law had come into effect where the transport of slaves to the United States was illegal. Yet the operation of slavery remained legal in the country.

One of the last major slave ships seized, by a United States Naval ship the USS Constellation, was a ship by the name of Cora. There had been a lengthy pursuit of this vessel by the USS Constellation that had been on patrol in (African Waters). None the less it was captured and brought to New York City for prosecution of the captain and the crew. According to sources slaves were not returned to their original origin once a vessel was seized. However the ship Cora was apprehended once again in March 1861, she was suspected of transporting slaves.

The patrol of these waters for ships transporting slaves would end with the announcement of the Civil War, which meant in some cases those who were once comrades would become opposing forces during the Civil War.

Such corruption that comes in the form of discrimination, sexism, classism and deceit, breeds the mind set of disrespect, poverty, thievery and mental illness.

A seemingly endless cycle, the cycle beginning with a group of people who felt as George Mason said “That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights” or as Jefferson said that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” which ever choice of words you prefer, their point was they felt their rights had been fringed apond more than they were willing to submit under Britain’s rule.

“Inherent rights”,” unalienable rights” there were laws in place during that period in England, which mandated as to how and to whom estates of the deceased, family members would be disturbed.

Certainly these rights also apply to human rights, which brought about the amendment of the U. S. Constitution with the Bill of Rights.

The means to obtain the necessities and comforts of life is what every human being should have access to without impeding on another’s right to the same necessities and comforts in life. This struggle is what birth this nation, yet remains an imbalance for her today.