This, my friends, is what’s wrong with the world, and we need to do better.

You do a good deed, and instead of people applauding you for it and going about their business, they start digging into your past and trying to taint your image.

While running through a few websites this morning to see what the news was so far today, I noticed a few of them, including The Smoking Gun, had found information on Charles Ramsey’s criminal history over the past few years and posted all the sordid details of it. While all this information is possibly interesting to know for some, what does it have to do with anything going on right now? And why did it need to be shared with the world after all these years?

When I look at situations like this, where good hard-working people do good things and then have their past thrown back at them to be painted in a negative light, I can sadly see why people might decide not to step in and do really big deeds to help others. It seems that the minute you do, people are trying to thrust you in the spotlight, make you an Internet sensation (often to mock) just for being yourself, and as you can see now, trying to dig out the skeletons in your closet just for the hell of it. And if folks digged up everything in our past we all might be out here trying to run and hide for cover.

This is a man who helped to rescue three women who had been held against their will for 10 years. A decade! He could have been like plenty other people in this world and continued walking by, playing crazy, going home to eat his McDonald’s. The fact that he helped, called the police, and stayed with the woman should be enough, especially since he didn’t try and accept any reward money, and just wanted to continue on with his way of life. That’s why you haven’t seen a change in his walk, his talk, his dress or his demeanor. He is who he is and he was just trying to help out someone in need. He’s not looking for a handout, a reality show (not yet at least), or fame–he just wants to be Charles Ramsay. So why can’t people let him do that in peace? Why must we try to build up people as a hero one minute, and then paint them as villains the next? It’s a true shame…

Image: Darren Baker

While the politicians are catering to the middle class for votes, others have proclaimed the middle class dead; that it has been squeezed beyond financial recognition. But The New York Times has reported on a new study that says two in three Americans actually achieve a middle-class lifestyle by middle age.

According to The Times, “The study breaks life down into stages (for instance, adolescence) and gives benchmarks for each of those stages (in that case, graduation from high school with a grade-point average above 2.5, no criminal convictions and no involvement in a teenage pregnancy).” Next, the children were studied over time, seeing if they met those benchmarks and projecting whether they would make it to the middle class by the age of 40.

“The researchers found that …a child who meets all the criteria from birth to adulthood has an 81 percent chance of being middle class. A child who meets none has only a 24 percent chance,” says the article.

Of course, there were other factors that determine who makes it into the middle-class. The Brookings Institution also looked into why some children grow up and make it into middle class and others don’t. The researchers — Isabel V. Sawhill, Scott Winship and Kerry Searle Grannis — examined how race, gender and family income were factors.

The study found that—what a surprise—“children born to rich families have a 75 percent chance of being middle income or better by the time they reach their 40s. For children born to poor families, the chance is just 40 percent.”

According to the study, only about two in five black adolescents met the benchmark of graduating from high school with a decent grade point average, no children and no criminal record by the age of 19. (You can read this story about disconnected black youth for more info on that.) Compare this to white teens — two in three white adolescents met those benchmarks.

up4discussion.org

Have you ever been on a first or second date with someone and felt like you know their entire life story, good, bad, and indifferent? On the flip side of things, have you ever found out something about a person after the fourth or fifth date and felt slighted that they hadn’t told you sooner? First dates can be somewhat of an awkward experience. You are spending time with a person for the first time, usually in an intimate setting. This is a really perfect time to get to know your new prospective love interest, as well as the time to allow them to get to know you. You want this person to get to know you for who you are, yet you don’t wanna give up too much, too soon. But where is the first date rule book? Who’s to say how much too much is? Here are some things you may or may not want to disclose during the first dates (or second if you’re feeling extra scary), but probably should.