People are blinded

People are blinded 

O! Say can you see

Though the same sun shines on Syrian families who washed up dead on the shores of the Aegean.

By the dawn's early light

We hail a god that doesn't exist

What so proudly we hailed

while making a sacrilege of the principles we claim he upholds.

At the twilight's last gleaming

We'd rather decry meaningless symbols

Whose bright stripes

and cast stones at those we do not understand

and bright stars 

than face any true fight for real freedom, not to mention equality.

Through the perilous fight

The haves and have-nots are firmly divided by a wall firmer than stone,

O'er the ramparts we watched

and blood gleams as it pours out across the world.

Were so gallantly gleaming?

Rockets,

Through the rocket's red glare

Bombs,

The bombs bursting in air

The proof of tyranny and terror

Gave proof through the night

That reigns from nation to nation:

That our flag was still there.

A clear sign of hatred, bigotry, intolerance

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free [What land of the free
And the home of the brave. What home of the brave?]

Learning Language by Eavesdropping

Reblogged from NeuWriteSD.org:

via WikiMedia Commons.

Though kids seem to learn language without effort, scientists continue to puzzle over how children go from scream-y, pre-linguistic squooshballs to slightly-less-scream-y toddlers who can string a few words together (including “no!”) to older children who speak more or less like adults do. Researchers have learned a lot about how kids learn to talk—they know that children are in tune with their environment, with caregivers [1-2]. More recently, research suggests that when mom and dad direct their attention (and verbal labels) towards what a child is already engaged with, children might to learn more quickly [3]–that is, when mom says “doggy” and a child is petting the dog, the word is probably more likely to stick than if only mom was looking at the dog.

Read more at NeuWriteSD.org...