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Ever Fall In Love With The 'Wrong' Person? He Has A Few Stunning Things To Say About That.

They shared a love that some would say is too complicated to survive. The way Usman Hameedi describes his passion gave me a heartache at 1:05, and the hopelessness he describes at 2:03 is almost too much to bear.

Poem Postmarked for the Middle East

We were two-state solution complex.
She, Star of David necklace
Me, Keffiyeh around neck.
But some things were simple:
when I glanced from across the room
Faith smiled, radiance of Mecca.





Adonai and Allah ask our people for Friday prayer
so I attended Shabbat services and
Faith was the only Jewish woman at Jummah.

Forbidden Commandments.
While Abraham’s children fought bloody,
we parted red seas,
exodus to smooth lands of milk and honey.
Our Bodies intertwined like messages in Torah and Quran.
Beneath the starry splatter paint masterpiece of God,
I held her answered prayers thankful.





Our moaning drowned out the war cries,
harsh Hebrew and Arabic
Our orgasms were our resistance
When your lover is the target
political terms have their face,
bullets aimed at their skull.




In Conflict, Dialogue is survival.
It is necessity, despite its difficulty.
Yes, we poached the elephant in the room.
Words like sharp ivory tusk:
Zionist. Apartheid. Hamas. Hitler.
These conversations
were jagged rocks thrown at tanks.
Learning is an ugly experience.
Faith pissed me the fuck off
I tried her patience.







Still, we knew an angry fist
is just wilted fingers, flowers fallen in drought
Our hands were open invitations
Kisses silenced rockets
Muted those that told us
Our Holy Books cannot coexist.
I am Terrorist and Faith is Occupier.





With peace treaties on our tongues,
we exhaled new scriptures into the walls of Mosques and Synagogues
hoping to purge asbestos animosity.
We knew it was temporary.
I forgot the expiration date.
Before leaving, she said:
“Habibi, please share our story.”
Dead Sea trickled from her emerald eyes
And I mourned, sat shiva for months







chaim shali
neshema sheli
I wanted to reconstruct my collarbone into Jerusalem
so you could breathe prayer onto the Western Walls of my chest.


Even from Israel,
I hear Assalamualaikum
spoken in your accent, carried on wind whisper.
I respond, press my hands into The Atlantic, Shalom,
my rippling affection crossing continents.



Will I ever see you again?
If I do, I will be an atheist
rediscovering his former religion.
Baruch Ata Adonai
Bismillah Ir Rahman Rahim
I’ll hold you like prayer beads
humbled by the beauty of Faith.





Photo by Igor Ferreira on Unsplash

Florida principal fired after showing statue of "David."

If you ask most teachers why they went into education, they'll share that it had nothing to do with the money and everything to do with their passion for teaching. Even with rapid changes in curriculum and policies, teachers who remain in the classroom are lovers of education and are doing their best to help kids learn.

Hope Carrasquilla, the former principal of Florida's Tallahassee Classical School, was one of those teachers who simply enjoyed teaching. As the principal, Carrasquilla was required to teach two classes. During her sixth grade lesson about Renaissance art, which is also a requirement of the school, Carrasquilla showed a picture of Michelangelo's "David" statue.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, three parents complained about their children being shown the picture. Two of those parents were mostly upset that there wasn't sufficient notice given before the photo of the sculpture was shown. The third parent reportedly complained that the statue of the Biblical figure was pornographic.

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That question is the heart of Bikers Against Child Abuse International (B.A.C.A.), an organization dedicated to creating "a safer environment for abused children." With specific training and extensive security checks, the frequently big and burly members of B.A.C.A. serve as protectors of chid abuse survivors, giving vulnerable children people to call on when they feel scared, and even showing up in court when a child asks them to.

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@thehalfdeaddad/TikTok

Dad on TikTok shared how he addressed his son's bullying.

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Single dadPatrick Forseth recently shared how he made a truly teachable moment out of his son, Lincoln, getting into trouble for bullying. Rather than forcing an apology, Forseth made sure his son was actively part of a solution.


The thought process behind his decision, which he explained in a now-viral TikTok video, is both simple and somewhat racial compared to how many parents have been encouraged to handle similar situations.
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When Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi both landed their high jumps at 2.37 meters, they were in the battle for Olympic gold. But when both jumpers missed the next mark—the Olympic record of 2.39 meters—three times each, they were officially tied for first place.

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via YouTube

These days, we could all use something to smile about, and few things do a better job at it than watching actor Christopher Walken dance.

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English metal detector hobbyist finds a real treasure near Nottingham.

A retired merchant navy engineer in England has found a treasure that would have made his country’s most popular folk hero proud. Graham Harrison, a 64-year-old metal detector enthusiast, discovered a gold signet ring that once belonged to the Sheriff of Nottingham.

The discovery was made on a farm in Rushcliffe, Nottinghamshire, 26.9 miles from Sherwood Forest. The forest is known worldwide for being the mythological home of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. A central road that traversed the forest was notorious in Medieval times for being an easy place for bandits to rob travelers going to and from London.

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