Mayasvevak

If in fact in the United States “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God,” as in the words of Thomas Jefferson, and the “principal or primary effect [of a government practice] must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion,” as conceptualized in the US Supreme Court’s Lemon Test, then… Read More

As an Indian woman who does not adhere to a Judeo-Christian religion and whose cultural context is oriented toward science, self-actualization, and the female creative force, terms such as ‘Lord,’ ‘Father,’ ‘Jesus,’ ‘will,’ ‘obedience,’ and ‘Amen’ are not naturally integrated into my vocabulary or conceptual framework. And so the United States, land of immigrants that… Read More

“…I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ʺmake no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,ʺ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, January 1st, 1802. Recently I… Read More

I remember that week. I was in college. It was the summer before my last year. My advisor had been so pleased with my research that he registered me for one of the year’s most well attended conferences. I was so excited I practically skipped onto the bus. It was a five hour journey to… Read More

COVID-19 has hit the United States hard. One of the reasons may be an ill-conceived notion of liberty. If you listen to news about the Coronavirus pandemic in the United States, it may have come to your attention that a recurring theme is the belligerent resistance that many Americans are putting up to ordinances requiring… Read More

Can I camouflage my loneliness as a byproduct of mandatory social distancing? Or do I have to dig deeper to find the actual cause? How peculiar in this age of overpopulation, resource shortages, and crowded cities that one can feel disconnected from others. There are more of us than ever before. Yet it may be… Read More

At times I feel that the more I interact with people, the less I understand them. Especially when they behave poorly. Or perhaps it’s just that my hope that people will act with honesty and integrity supersedes any other considerations. That too may be an oversimplification though, for honesty to others requires honesty to oneself… Read More