Playboy.....oh does he play!
So, I have to say this. I admire Hugh Hefner. To me, if you are an 80 year old man and you can convince a woman...err......let me clarify... a beautiful woman, to frolick around your house and bedroom like a endless sexual game of romper room, I applaud you. And to do it with 3-7 women? Come on the guy has got it made!
However, I am a woman, so therefore I see something a bit perverse in the whole situation. First of all, after watching the new E! television show "Girls Next Door", I desperately wanted to hate them and their lives. But I didn't. Seriously, how can you hate on a lifestyle that sweet?
But, there is that perversity again. I know he is Hugh Hefner, an icon, a sexual dynamo who has bedded more beautiful women than I can keep track of, but still at the end of the day..........
HE IS 80 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UGGHHH.
I quote from the movie Big Daddy, "Old Balls....gross"
And what facinates me about Hugh Hefner and the Playboy Enterprise, is how quickly women are willing to strip their clothes off for Hugh. How quickly every rising star actress will pose for a spread just for a little notoriety, or just to be seen in something as legendary as Playboy.
Marilyn Monroe was in it for Christ's Sake!
But at the same time, the typical american women spits fire over a nipple incident at the Superbowl, or a MTV makeout between Madonna and that white trash chick...whats her name? Oh yeah Britney.
But you give that same american women the opportunity to strip down and run wild around the Playboy Mansion, I would say 80% would do it in a heartbeat. Odd isnt it?
And back to the old balls. I love you Hugh, don't take it the wrong way, but your 80. That borders on perversion. Your older than most men live to, and typically at that age they wear diapers.
I can just see it now, you and me cuddling on the couch and you reach over to give me a kiss, and there it is, the old smell. Well, what do I know? You have enough money you might have figured out a way to cover the smell.
But really, a word of warning to the girlfriends: ( And you should take this very seriously!!!)
Make sure you enjoy your time there, but get out quickly! You don't want to be stuck being the girlfriend that stayed too long and has to feed him his baby food. You know what I mean, it is bound to happen. He's 80. you are playing with fire! You think a 9 p.m. curfew is bad? It could always be worse.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Our Slow Downward Spiral.....
Recently I was lucky enough to escape the claws of corporate america, school, and my other job long enough to have what we Americans call a "Vacation". Vacation to us is really any time where we are not involved in some sort of activity that involves thought. To the rest of the free world a Vacation is called a "Holiday" because you are actually gone long enough to break free of the mental imposition created by the mundane actions of everyday life. Fuck yeah! Celebrate! Its a Holiday! If only we were so lucky.
Anyway, back to my point. On my "vacation" I found myself sitting among a few folks out to catch a drink in the early afternoon hours at a family resort. Hell, its a vacation.
As I sat there quietly enjoying a lovely cocktail, immersed in the words of Steinbeck, a man next to me leans over and says, "Whatcha doin'? As if I was invovled in some sort of intergalactic learning activity unknown to the human kind.
So, I swallowed my disgust, leaned over, and politely but sarcastically said, "Reading. You know, words on a page, they form sentences in which you put together to form stories."
As I waited for some sign or recognition, I began to feel less normal and more like a social outcast.
And then came the words.............
"People still do that?"
I am not kidding.
I laughed politely again.....this time swallowing contempt and replied, "Yep, yes we do."
The point of this whole story is that I never realized how far removed people have become from books. And it scared me.
And it wasnt just that guy. My other afternoon drinking companions began discussing the last books that they had read.....................in high school.
I guess living in a city I take for granted that most people do not read. Everday I am surrounded by people glancing across pages on the trains or buses. And to me it doesnt even matter if they are reading a "Youth directed" lower standard newspaper, or a jaquelyn steele novel, the point is that they are reading.
So it got me thinking. How much more educated would we become as a whole if everyone was forced to travel public transportation, therefore creating more demand for reading materials to cure boredom?
Of course now with gas prices being as high as they are, that doesn't seem to be such a bad idea.
Screw our government, lets get the people from Disney to come in and build monorails connecting every town to every city in every state. They seem to have a pretty efficient system working for them.
Then again, I dont know how much travel imposed happiness I could take before getting nauseaous.
Well regardless of gas prices and our lack of vacations, I think we are struggling with a larger problem in our midst; Generations of people motivated only by visual stimulus, who call exercise lifting the T.V. controller from the sofa.
For gods sake people, Read a Book.
Recently I was lucky enough to escape the claws of corporate america, school, and my other job long enough to have what we Americans call a "Vacation". Vacation to us is really any time where we are not involved in some sort of activity that involves thought. To the rest of the free world a Vacation is called a "Holiday" because you are actually gone long enough to break free of the mental imposition created by the mundane actions of everyday life. Fuck yeah! Celebrate! Its a Holiday! If only we were so lucky.
Anyway, back to my point. On my "vacation" I found myself sitting among a few folks out to catch a drink in the early afternoon hours at a family resort. Hell, its a vacation.
As I sat there quietly enjoying a lovely cocktail, immersed in the words of Steinbeck, a man next to me leans over and says, "Whatcha doin'? As if I was invovled in some sort of intergalactic learning activity unknown to the human kind.
So, I swallowed my disgust, leaned over, and politely but sarcastically said, "Reading. You know, words on a page, they form sentences in which you put together to form stories."
As I waited for some sign or recognition, I began to feel less normal and more like a social outcast.
And then came the words.............
"People still do that?"
I am not kidding.
I laughed politely again.....this time swallowing contempt and replied, "Yep, yes we do."
The point of this whole story is that I never realized how far removed people have become from books. And it scared me.
And it wasnt just that guy. My other afternoon drinking companions began discussing the last books that they had read.....................in high school.
I guess living in a city I take for granted that most people do not read. Everday I am surrounded by people glancing across pages on the trains or buses. And to me it doesnt even matter if they are reading a "Youth directed" lower standard newspaper, or a jaquelyn steele novel, the point is that they are reading.
So it got me thinking. How much more educated would we become as a whole if everyone was forced to travel public transportation, therefore creating more demand for reading materials to cure boredom?
Of course now with gas prices being as high as they are, that doesn't seem to be such a bad idea.
Screw our government, lets get the people from Disney to come in and build monorails connecting every town to every city in every state. They seem to have a pretty efficient system working for them.
Then again, I dont know how much travel imposed happiness I could take before getting nauseaous.
Well regardless of gas prices and our lack of vacations, I think we are struggling with a larger problem in our midst; Generations of people motivated only by visual stimulus, who call exercise lifting the T.V. controller from the sofa.
For gods sake people, Read a Book.
Friday, August 12, 2005
RELIGION ROYAL PT.2
Following the posting of my relgious debate with "Peter", I had an interesting conversation with "W" who we will call "Will". Below is a transcript of our conversation.
"W":
(Peter) and I (Will) both have devoted our lives to Jesus Christ but there are details about our faith that we disagree about because God has not revealed Himself completely to us at this time. So right now, we only see in part and know in part, but one day we will fully know about God when Jesus Christ returns. CS Lewis, (the author of the Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,) wrote a book called “Mere Christianity.” I mention it because it is common-sense reasoning for Christianity without using the bible. You may have heard of it, because it is a classic in Christian literature, but it describes the current state of the world, the human nature and condition, and argues that the world is ordered and controlled by one God, and follows that everything in nature and the world points to a one single God who has control over the tiniest aspect of life. It is written, that “No one is without excuse because all of nature majesty witnesses to God.” Abraham is the founder of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and he did not have the organized religion system the bible outlines, but he recognized that there a powerful creator that gave him life, and he had faith.
The world did not create itself out of nothing, and arguments about common descent don’t dodge the order of the world. We are like children who think they own their parent’s house, and forget that “life is absurd” (to misquote Sartre.) How is it that I didn’t exist 27 years ago, but now I think that I created myself or have always existed, because this world is mine?
I think it’s easy to get hung up on bad examples of Christians, or blame governments for oppression and spend all our time serving our common man, so that we loose site that there is a God who has made everything, and that he is in absolute control of the tiniest detail. Our pride is our biggest enemy. I don’t think it’s hard to believe in God at all, but what makes it hard is our pride. We want to be in absolute control of our lives, and do anything we want when we want it. Jesus was not concerned with governments, but did what he was required as a citizen. America is one country that has only existed 200yrs, and will likely disappear like all the great empires in the past. When our constitution was formed, the framers were trying to create a government that honored God, but they are men, so if there are flaws in the system its okay, because we have a perfect God, that if we follow Him, then our lives will be fine.
"Peter" and I both believe that God is absolutely in control, and that Jesus Christ is His son, and that Jesus Christ is returning. Things like politics for example. I voted for Bush, and like Him, and I don’t mind if my vote doesn’t “count” because I believe that God is the one that runs all governments in the world and that if I follow God, everything will turn out fine. I know this by the examples of believers throughout history, and the evidence of the bible, etc. The bible is a religious document, but it is natural that we would observe an all powerful god, who controls the smallest atom, and know truths about him. It is obvious that the world was created, and all the commands in the bible are observances of this wonderful Creation. "Peter" discussed hygiene in levitical laws given to the Israelites. It was a brilliant example (to praise my friend) because it shows that Christianity is not a fiction, but is entwined with creation, so that they are inseparable. There is not a secular world and a religious world, but there is the way the world works, and then there is man’s attempt to remove God from creation because the world justifies it. The bible testifies that God is in control, because he shows us truth before we realize them, and as man has progressed, God has revealed himself more and more, through prophets and history, that is exclusive to Christianity. The original document reinforces God’s dominion because it is evidence that He is in control, like I said when all nature testifies to God.
Now you mentioned many truths but I don’t believe that is true. I believe that science and Christianity are inseparable, but all of the details are not defined. Christianity is a word we use to describe our vignette of the truth, but there is no more accurate religion in the world, or ever will be. New religions form from out pride, and desire to be God, and do our own will. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and since the Fall, man has progressed further away from God. Buddhism, Islam, etc, are versions of Christianity that start with the truth, but then include the mutilations and altercations of man; each with its own tactic for distracting away from God. Even Christianity has had its dark times when man has tried to manipulate it, like the Reformation of the Catholic Church, or the Crusades, etc.
The glory of Christianity is it allows imperfect men to be considered sons of God like Jesus Christ, although we are imperfect. We are unable to know God and to follow God on our own. It’s important to know that it’s the sovereignty of God that has allowed the Bible to be maintained, but it’s also obvious that we would be unable to quiet the voice of creation, (which testifies of God) so that no matter how hard we have tried to hide the voice, ultimately, the truth will never be quieted. So it is impossible for men to tamper with the Bible. Like the reformation, when the Catholic Church tried to reinterpret the scriptures for power and control, the Holy Spirit caused the church to rise up and recapture the truth.
I can go on and on about how God is in absolute control and that is why Christianity is exclusive and true. "Peter" did a good job of arguing that also. This is why I am not so concerned about politics, but I am concerned about serving God. Christianity will never leave, because Jesus is coming back soon.
I tried to touch on how we are just waves in the ocean, that appear and disappear, and worrying about controlling our lives and making the most of it is really not something we can do. God decides the fate of the world, and he does use tragedy and pain to accomplish his will. I remember reading about Aaron’s son dying when he made an incorrect sacrifice. There is a great freedom in trusting God and following him, and knowing that we are temporary and have no real control. God has shrouded himself because of our sinful nature, so that we don’t know everything about him, and although "Peter" and I, and all other Christians have a personal experience with God, God is still the same and unchanging, and in absolute control. Debates about politics and religions and such will be ceased when Jesus returns, because there will no longer be this veil over our faces, and we will see God face to face, and know the truth and find freedom in it.
No one has committed intellectual suicide, but we have realized that the truth is that Jesus Christ is God, and that He’s coming back soon. I don’t stop at every green light, because I’ve learned over time that green means go, and it would be foolish or even dangerous to stop at the green lights because someone could hit me. I still ask questions, but both "Peter" and I are satisfied that there is no greater truth than Christ. Of course there are things we question all the time, but we consider some things as facts. viz. I have no doubt that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again, but if a TV preacher tells me that he’s selling holy water from the Jordan river and I have to buy it to go to heaven, I’m going to question it against what I’ve learned is truth.
We will be fine if we trust in God. I believe this life is temporary and like a mist that disappears quickly. I am here maybe 100yrs, and in comparison, that’s not long at all. I think that my entire life could be in torture, but once Jesus returns, or my life ends, then all my suffering will be nothing compared to future joy. There is no promise that I will be content in life, and God could strike me dead at any moment. Pleasure does not define what is good either.
Pride is the embodiment of all that is wrong, and it is rebellion against God. Cory made a good contest that there are so many evils in the world he wished he never knew about. I think that seeing ignorance as the enemy is our pride saying, we must understand to be better and have more power, but ignorance is to let go of that power and have faith that you will be okay. We are slaves to the lives we live and that’s okay. I would consider innocent children better than a man like me who uses his knowledge for gain. It’s written that Knowledge puffs up, but Love builds up. ;)
Nothing is truly our own, because we are given everything. From our thoughts, to our language, to our reasoning, to our six senses to our very life, it was all given to us, and there is nothing we have that we can say we truly earned. Life is a gift and when you treat it as a gift and not strangle it, you become free of control. If you want your life, you have to lay it down because if you try to force it, you’ll lose it in the end.
I’m not saying that all religions spun from Christianity, but rather Christianity is the Word of God, and although we were not aware of Christianity, the truth about God has always existed. Abraham was not fully aware of Jesus Christ, but it was planned before life began that Jesus would come. There was an ideal of Adam and Eve, when they were innocent in the garden. They ate the apple, because they doubted God, and their knowledge led them further into sin. So I’m saying that God’s truth has been the same since the beginning, but all eastern religions are spun off from that truth. That’s obvious because how desperate many try to tie into the root to gain credibility. "Peter" said that Islam points to Ishmael, as its entry point, and even religions like Mormonism tie into the bible at some point. As for Buddhism and Hinduism they’re removing the Almighty god from it and freeing yourself from the cycle… Buddhism is an extension of Hinduism, and you can see the procession away from God. Hinduism removes God and says that nature punishes itself through Karma, but Buddhism says we don’t need to go through 83million births to be freed, but we can have nirvana on our own. Anyway, that’s a very detailed argument, and I’m more concerned with Jesus Christ. I believe once you understand Jesus Christ, the flaws of other religions become very visible
C:
I would rather be a slave in this life, and enjoy the ever present beauties that life has to offer, than exchange it for feeling content with a "faith". The difference between me and you guys essentially comes down to the fact that you are not comfortable living this life without feeling that there is Jesus, and a reason for it all. I on the other hand am comforted by knowing that I could never ever really know it all, and wouldn't want to. I dont need to put labels on things to feel happy, or sad. I don't need to wear a shroud of "faith" in order to understand why I feel things the way I do. I just know I feel.
I think it is very arrogant to say that you understand Jesus Christ. I have said before and I will say it again. If there is a higher purpose, what makes you so sure that you Understand what the real purpose is. You are human. I know what you are thinking.....because your love of Christ is enough. I say, bullshit. You are relying on the same instinct to turn inward for solace, that I use. Except when you come back out you are armed with your version of security, "Christianity", and I come out with inner perspective. I don't think it is pride when I admit to knowing nothing. How could it be?
As for knowledge puffing up, I hope to be the size of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. I love to learn, open my mind, explore new depths, as I am with you in discussion. And I feel built up with love everytime I take a breath. you dont have to trade one for the other.
Your search for "truth" is ultimately a search for divine knowledge, without which you feel you would have no purpose.
Anyway, I think that we all could go back and forth forever. A seemingly endless debate of words and will. It will always have the same outcome though. You are both truly happy in your place in life, and I in mine. I have enjoyed our talks, and feel that if more people communicated as openly and freely, we would all be in better shape.
Following the posting of my relgious debate with "Peter", I had an interesting conversation with "W" who we will call "Will". Below is a transcript of our conversation.
"W":
(Peter) and I (Will) both have devoted our lives to Jesus Christ but there are details about our faith that we disagree about because God has not revealed Himself completely to us at this time. So right now, we only see in part and know in part, but one day we will fully know about God when Jesus Christ returns. CS Lewis, (the author of the Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,) wrote a book called “Mere Christianity.” I mention it because it is common-sense reasoning for Christianity without using the bible. You may have heard of it, because it is a classic in Christian literature, but it describes the current state of the world, the human nature and condition, and argues that the world is ordered and controlled by one God, and follows that everything in nature and the world points to a one single God who has control over the tiniest aspect of life. It is written, that “No one is without excuse because all of nature majesty witnesses to God.” Abraham is the founder of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and he did not have the organized religion system the bible outlines, but he recognized that there a powerful creator that gave him life, and he had faith.
The world did not create itself out of nothing, and arguments about common descent don’t dodge the order of the world. We are like children who think they own their parent’s house, and forget that “life is absurd” (to misquote Sartre.) How is it that I didn’t exist 27 years ago, but now I think that I created myself or have always existed, because this world is mine?
I think it’s easy to get hung up on bad examples of Christians, or blame governments for oppression and spend all our time serving our common man, so that we loose site that there is a God who has made everything, and that he is in absolute control of the tiniest detail. Our pride is our biggest enemy. I don’t think it’s hard to believe in God at all, but what makes it hard is our pride. We want to be in absolute control of our lives, and do anything we want when we want it. Jesus was not concerned with governments, but did what he was required as a citizen. America is one country that has only existed 200yrs, and will likely disappear like all the great empires in the past. When our constitution was formed, the framers were trying to create a government that honored God, but they are men, so if there are flaws in the system its okay, because we have a perfect God, that if we follow Him, then our lives will be fine.
"Peter" and I both believe that God is absolutely in control, and that Jesus Christ is His son, and that Jesus Christ is returning. Things like politics for example. I voted for Bush, and like Him, and I don’t mind if my vote doesn’t “count” because I believe that God is the one that runs all governments in the world and that if I follow God, everything will turn out fine. I know this by the examples of believers throughout history, and the evidence of the bible, etc. The bible is a religious document, but it is natural that we would observe an all powerful god, who controls the smallest atom, and know truths about him. It is obvious that the world was created, and all the commands in the bible are observances of this wonderful Creation. "Peter" discussed hygiene in levitical laws given to the Israelites. It was a brilliant example (to praise my friend) because it shows that Christianity is not a fiction, but is entwined with creation, so that they are inseparable. There is not a secular world and a religious world, but there is the way the world works, and then there is man’s attempt to remove God from creation because the world justifies it. The bible testifies that God is in control, because he shows us truth before we realize them, and as man has progressed, God has revealed himself more and more, through prophets and history, that is exclusive to Christianity. The original document reinforces God’s dominion because it is evidence that He is in control, like I said when all nature testifies to God.
Now you mentioned many truths but I don’t believe that is true. I believe that science and Christianity are inseparable, but all of the details are not defined. Christianity is a word we use to describe our vignette of the truth, but there is no more accurate religion in the world, or ever will be. New religions form from out pride, and desire to be God, and do our own will. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and since the Fall, man has progressed further away from God. Buddhism, Islam, etc, are versions of Christianity that start with the truth, but then include the mutilations and altercations of man; each with its own tactic for distracting away from God. Even Christianity has had its dark times when man has tried to manipulate it, like the Reformation of the Catholic Church, or the Crusades, etc.
The glory of Christianity is it allows imperfect men to be considered sons of God like Jesus Christ, although we are imperfect. We are unable to know God and to follow God on our own. It’s important to know that it’s the sovereignty of God that has allowed the Bible to be maintained, but it’s also obvious that we would be unable to quiet the voice of creation, (which testifies of God) so that no matter how hard we have tried to hide the voice, ultimately, the truth will never be quieted. So it is impossible for men to tamper with the Bible. Like the reformation, when the Catholic Church tried to reinterpret the scriptures for power and control, the Holy Spirit caused the church to rise up and recapture the truth.
I can go on and on about how God is in absolute control and that is why Christianity is exclusive and true. "Peter" did a good job of arguing that also. This is why I am not so concerned about politics, but I am concerned about serving God. Christianity will never leave, because Jesus is coming back soon.
I tried to touch on how we are just waves in the ocean, that appear and disappear, and worrying about controlling our lives and making the most of it is really not something we can do. God decides the fate of the world, and he does use tragedy and pain to accomplish his will. I remember reading about Aaron’s son dying when he made an incorrect sacrifice. There is a great freedom in trusting God and following him, and knowing that we are temporary and have no real control. God has shrouded himself because of our sinful nature, so that we don’t know everything about him, and although "Peter" and I, and all other Christians have a personal experience with God, God is still the same and unchanging, and in absolute control. Debates about politics and religions and such will be ceased when Jesus returns, because there will no longer be this veil over our faces, and we will see God face to face, and know the truth and find freedom in it.
C:
Ok, where do I start. I dont mind the conversation, but what I dont understand is why everytime a valid question is posed, the response is "Because I believe" or its "Gods will".
To me, that is a way of avoiding very obvious truths and questions. Everything I or any skeptic might say is easily combated with the rehashed words over and over again that have been drilled into your minds.
I think that its amazing that you believe in something so great. But I also think it is sad when one shuts off his ability to question. Where would we be as a species if there was no one to question or go against the grain? I know your answers already......"it was gods will for that person to go against the grain."..yadayadayada.
But really, you believe and live your lives along this very straight line, choosing to believe and refusing to question. I refuse to live my life that way.
Another thing, you said in your last email that if we "choose to follow HIM, our lives will be fine."
Are you kidding? Is that not the biggest piece of religious propoganda used to scare people into becoming well mannered and devout followers? I know many people who CHOSE to believe in him, whose lives were, well, NOT fine.
And I mean no offense in my statements, but you really have to hear what you are saying sometimes. You said in your email that Christianity is one of the most accurate religions in the world. WHAT? According to WHO? The Bible, Your own personal blanket? Christians? Why yes, of course you are going to believe that your beliefs are accurate. In the same way that I believe that the New York Giants are the best football team in the world. According to ME. I assure you that there are many people who would dispute that.
I wasnt going to bring this up until W mentioned it, but you discussed the Levitical issues that C was talking about in your last email. He was using that reference as proof that the Word is true. What you are both forgetting is that while, hygiene was discussed, there was also discussion of things that don't make any sense at all. We can get more in depth about that another time.
And your discussion of pride being the enemy. I disagree. Pride is not the enemy. Ignorance is. I believe that we have very few things in life that we can hold on to and call our own. Our deeds, accomplishments, experiences. And without pride, the human ego would not have a reason to go on with life. I am proud, well, to be proud. That is what sets me apart from other people. My ability to work harder, acheive goals, and gain valuable relationships and experiences keeps me going. I do not live my life according to pride and do things only for recognition, instead I enjoy quiet moments where I can reflect and know that I am responsible for the happiness or drama in my life. You understand?
One more thing. It seems to me that you are under the assumption that all things have come from your religion and its affect on the world. However, i think it is very dangerous to say things that infer that all cultures, including eastern cultures religions are spun from Christianity.
I think you said something about Buddism being the same until man mutilated and altered its principles. Where are you getting your information from exactly. (and if you say the bible Im going to kill you!) Really, I would like to know.
Okay, back to work!!
No one has committed intellectual suicide, but we have realized that the truth is that Jesus Christ is God, and that He’s coming back soon. I don’t stop at every green light, because I’ve learned over time that green means go, and it would be foolish or even dangerous to stop at the green lights because someone could hit me. I still ask questions, but both "Peter" and I are satisfied that there is no greater truth than Christ. Of course there are things we question all the time, but we consider some things as facts. viz. I have no doubt that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again, but if a TV preacher tells me that he’s selling holy water from the Jordan river and I have to buy it to go to heaven, I’m going to question it against what I’ve learned is truth.
We will be fine if we trust in God. I believe this life is temporary and like a mist that disappears quickly. I am here maybe 100yrs, and in comparison, that’s not long at all. I think that my entire life could be in torture, but once Jesus returns, or my life ends, then all my suffering will be nothing compared to future joy. There is no promise that I will be content in life, and God could strike me dead at any moment. Pleasure does not define what is good either.
Pride is the embodiment of all that is wrong, and it is rebellion against God. Cory made a good contest that there are so many evils in the world he wished he never knew about. I think that seeing ignorance as the enemy is our pride saying, we must understand to be better and have more power, but ignorance is to let go of that power and have faith that you will be okay. We are slaves to the lives we live and that’s okay. I would consider innocent children better than a man like me who uses his knowledge for gain. It’s written that Knowledge puffs up, but Love builds up. ;)
Nothing is truly our own, because we are given everything. From our thoughts, to our language, to our reasoning, to our six senses to our very life, it was all given to us, and there is nothing we have that we can say we truly earned. Life is a gift and when you treat it as a gift and not strangle it, you become free of control. If you want your life, you have to lay it down because if you try to force it, you’ll lose it in the end.
I’m not saying that all religions spun from Christianity, but rather Christianity is the Word of God, and although we were not aware of Christianity, the truth about God has always existed. Abraham was not fully aware of Jesus Christ, but it was planned before life began that Jesus would come. There was an ideal of Adam and Eve, when they were innocent in the garden. They ate the apple, because they doubted God, and their knowledge led them further into sin. So I’m saying that God’s truth has been the same since the beginning, but all eastern religions are spun off from that truth. That’s obvious because how desperate many try to tie into the root to gain credibility. "Peter" said that Islam points to Ishmael, as its entry point, and even religions like Mormonism tie into the bible at some point. As for Buddhism and Hinduism they’re removing the Almighty god from it and freeing yourself from the cycle… Buddhism is an extension of Hinduism, and you can see the procession away from God. Hinduism removes God and says that nature punishes itself through Karma, but Buddhism says we don’t need to go through 83million births to be freed, but we can have nirvana on our own. Anyway, that’s a very detailed argument, and I’m more concerned with Jesus Christ. I believe once you understand Jesus Christ, the flaws of other religions become very visible
C:
I would rather be a slave in this life, and enjoy the ever present beauties that life has to offer, than exchange it for feeling content with a "faith". The difference between me and you guys essentially comes down to the fact that you are not comfortable living this life without feeling that there is Jesus, and a reason for it all. I on the other hand am comforted by knowing that I could never ever really know it all, and wouldn't want to. I dont need to put labels on things to feel happy, or sad. I don't need to wear a shroud of "faith" in order to understand why I feel things the way I do. I just know I feel.
I think it is very arrogant to say that you understand Jesus Christ. I have said before and I will say it again. If there is a higher purpose, what makes you so sure that you Understand what the real purpose is. You are human. I know what you are thinking.....because your love of Christ is enough. I say, bullshit. You are relying on the same instinct to turn inward for solace, that I use. Except when you come back out you are armed with your version of security, "Christianity", and I come out with inner perspective. I don't think it is pride when I admit to knowing nothing. How could it be?
As for knowledge puffing up, I hope to be the size of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. I love to learn, open my mind, explore new depths, as I am with you in discussion. And I feel built up with love everytime I take a breath. you dont have to trade one for the other.
Your search for "truth" is ultimately a search for divine knowledge, without which you feel you would have no purpose.
Anyway, I think that we all could go back and forth forever. A seemingly endless debate of words and will. It will always have the same outcome though. You are both truly happy in your place in life, and I in mine. I have enjoyed our talks, and feel that if more people communicated as openly and freely, we would all be in better shape.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Trimming the fat
Today, in the Chicago Tribune there was an article about how the FAA is beginning to have weight issues aboard aircrafts due to the rising weight of passengers.
Sometimes I am embarrassed to be a human.
When did it become acceptable to be morbidly obese? And I wonder whether the culture in this country is changing so much that skinny people will eventually become the outcasts and target of all mocking.
The interesting thing is, there are food shortages and humanitarian crisises of epic proportions occuring right now in Africa. There are 3 and 4 year old children that weigh about 14 lbs, and here in the states we have "super babies" hitting 50 pounds.
What kind of country are we building? The health care system is literally "weighed down by these people, and every day more and more people die from heart disease.
So I propose a plan. We have a people swapping program. Screw fat camp! We are sending you people to Africa to live off of millet for 3 months! Supersize what??
We in turn will take boat loads of starving children and adults, fatten them up with greasy fast food, and send them home with a few extra pounds and a taste for consumerism.
It will be an interesting experiment that will no doubtedly level the scales.
Honestly though, if more people relyed less on modern technology, and more on themselves, we wouldn't be facing the same issues.
It leads me to wonder, is the ever growing dependency on modern invention, fueling our appetite? When everything is so accessible, is it safe to say that it slows down our human urge to hunt, gather, forage, destroy, and conquer? Are we destined to become a race of useless blobs?
God forbid there was any actual natural disaster that would leave us without food, water, electicity, or......hold on kids.....IPODS!!!!!!!!! Whatever would we do?
(Note: I do not own an IPOD.I try to fight forward movement from time to time, and yes I carry a walkman cd player. According to my friends, avid IPOD users, I might as well be carrying around an 8 track player.)
Anyway, I guess I want to say, no offense to those of you who struggle with obesity and are really trying to get better, but to the rest of you here is some advice:
1) Stop making excuses. It is not acceptable to live in a culture that sympothizes with others who are living highly destructive lives.
2) Stairs are not just for normal weight people. You can use them too!
3) Take the words "Extra" out of your vocabulary
4) YES, one little milkshake will hurt.
5) Flaming hot Cheetos and Pepsi is not an acceptable breakfast
6) If you find yourself complaining to a store clerk about them not carrying your size, its probably because they dont make clothes that size.
7) Just because it is called channel "Surfing", does not make it a sport.
8) Calling a built in tummy tray for beverages and snacks convienient, is the same thing as calling a triple bypass fun.
9) Wheelchairs are for the elderly and disabled. If you find yourself in one, you have a problem.
10) If you don't want to have to pay for 2 seats on an airplane, become 1 person.
There, I feel better now. Again, I want to say that I support overweight people who have serious problems and are trying to get better. However, if you choose to live your live extra large, dont be suprised when you have to expand your pants and your budget.
Today, in the Chicago Tribune there was an article about how the FAA is beginning to have weight issues aboard aircrafts due to the rising weight of passengers.
Sometimes I am embarrassed to be a human.
When did it become acceptable to be morbidly obese? And I wonder whether the culture in this country is changing so much that skinny people will eventually become the outcasts and target of all mocking.
The interesting thing is, there are food shortages and humanitarian crisises of epic proportions occuring right now in Africa. There are 3 and 4 year old children that weigh about 14 lbs, and here in the states we have "super babies" hitting 50 pounds.
What kind of country are we building? The health care system is literally "weighed down by these people, and every day more and more people die from heart disease.
So I propose a plan. We have a people swapping program. Screw fat camp! We are sending you people to Africa to live off of millet for 3 months! Supersize what??
We in turn will take boat loads of starving children and adults, fatten them up with greasy fast food, and send them home with a few extra pounds and a taste for consumerism.
It will be an interesting experiment that will no doubtedly level the scales.
Honestly though, if more people relyed less on modern technology, and more on themselves, we wouldn't be facing the same issues.
It leads me to wonder, is the ever growing dependency on modern invention, fueling our appetite? When everything is so accessible, is it safe to say that it slows down our human urge to hunt, gather, forage, destroy, and conquer? Are we destined to become a race of useless blobs?
God forbid there was any actual natural disaster that would leave us without food, water, electicity, or......hold on kids.....IPODS!!!!!!!!! Whatever would we do?
(Note: I do not own an IPOD.I try to fight forward movement from time to time, and yes I carry a walkman cd player. According to my friends, avid IPOD users, I might as well be carrying around an 8 track player.)
Anyway, I guess I want to say, no offense to those of you who struggle with obesity and are really trying to get better, but to the rest of you here is some advice:
1) Stop making excuses. It is not acceptable to live in a culture that sympothizes with others who are living highly destructive lives.
2) Stairs are not just for normal weight people. You can use them too!
3) Take the words "Extra" out of your vocabulary
4) YES, one little milkshake will hurt.
5) Flaming hot Cheetos and Pepsi is not an acceptable breakfast
6) If you find yourself complaining to a store clerk about them not carrying your size, its probably because they dont make clothes that size.
7) Just because it is called channel "Surfing", does not make it a sport.
8) Calling a built in tummy tray for beverages and snacks convienient, is the same thing as calling a triple bypass fun.
9) Wheelchairs are for the elderly and disabled. If you find yourself in one, you have a problem.
10) If you don't want to have to pay for 2 seats on an airplane, become 1 person.
There, I feel better now. Again, I want to say that I support overweight people who have serious problems and are trying to get better. However, if you choose to live your live extra large, dont be suprised when you have to expand your pants and your budget.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE CENTS$$
Dear Chicago Cab Drivers,
Alright cabbies , I got some beef with you. You see, I am on to you. I have figured out your ways, and Im here to say......um.....im here to say......ugh..........Well I figured you out!! Haha!
Here's the deal, I take cabs on a pretty frequent basis, about 2-3 times a week. Usually late at night when public transportation becomes a bit too scary for my taste, or after a night of light to heavy drinking.
So recently as I made my way home, grumbling on the inside about having to shell out almost $20 for the ride, I made a realization about the way in which we are conditioned to tip. ( Now for those of you who are non-tippers, I have to say in defense for all other service industry workers and veterans, you are scum, and I will deal with you in a later blog. )
Anyway, I noticed when we pulled up outside my apartment, the meter said $13.45. So, being the consciencious and very generous person that I am, I always assume to give a dollar tip just for the ride. (Note: If they put anything in or out of the trunk for you, it is a few more)
Now there are those of you who may consider a dollar cheap, but you are the same people who probably never take cabs, and when you do, you are visiting friends and whip the money around indispensibly like toilet paper, and than go on and on about how good you feel to give tips to cab drivers that have moved here from other countries. But for the rest of us, who frequent cabs all the time and have since grown tired of interviewing every driver on his country of origin and what his plans are in the U.S. , we understand that a dollar per trip, with an occasional conversation is more acceptable.
Anyway I digress. So, I was about to hand the driver a 20 when I realized that he only had $6 in his hand. Seems fair right? $13.45 fare, I give him $20 then he gives me $6 of which I can choose to tip him.
But then I got to thinking. What about the other .55 cents? Now, I know this might come off as a self righteous or selfish rant, but considering I work in the service industry, I feel I have a right to pose a concern on this issue.
When I give change at work, I give them ALL the change, not the rounded up number. Just think of how much extra money I would be making if I rounded up every tables change and then extended my hand for additional gratuity.
Now I know it's just pocket change, but when I mentally add that pocket change over the course of one month it figures something like this:
3 cabs a week: $1 tip + 50 cents they assume= $4.50 a week
X 4 weeks = $18.00 a month in gratuity
$18!!! Thats more than a whole cab ride!!
So even if I am nitpicking, and I don't count the voluntary gratuity, the cabs are recieving a amount of $6 a month in money they are not even offering me in change.
That might not seem like alot to some people, but $72 a year is a lot to some people.
Anyway, the moral of the story is, don't look at me funny when I ask you for the .55 cents, or the .35 cents after giving me my change. Because you know what, that's not how it works. YOU give ME my change, then I decide what I want to tip YOU.
And for all of you that think that I am giving cabbies a hard time, I'm not, I got much love for them escorting me home night after night, dealing with all the traffic, drunks, traffic, etc. etc.
And I understand gas is expensive, but remember, I am aware of the fact that the prices of cabs just went up too! And now I am aware of your other side operation. So start carrying change guys, cause if you come across me, I'm gonna want it.
P.S
Oh and by the way, when a girl gives you a few extra dollars to make sure she gets inside her apartment safely without being mugged, dont be a jerk and drive off until she is inside. At least give the illusion that you give a shit. Thank you for listening.
Dear Chicago Cab Drivers,
Alright cabbies , I got some beef with you. You see, I am on to you. I have figured out your ways, and Im here to say......um.....im here to say......ugh..........Well I figured you out!! Haha!
Here's the deal, I take cabs on a pretty frequent basis, about 2-3 times a week. Usually late at night when public transportation becomes a bit too scary for my taste, or after a night of light to heavy drinking.
So recently as I made my way home, grumbling on the inside about having to shell out almost $20 for the ride, I made a realization about the way in which we are conditioned to tip. ( Now for those of you who are non-tippers, I have to say in defense for all other service industry workers and veterans, you are scum, and I will deal with you in a later blog. )
Anyway, I noticed when we pulled up outside my apartment, the meter said $13.45. So, being the consciencious and very generous person that I am, I always assume to give a dollar tip just for the ride. (Note: If they put anything in or out of the trunk for you, it is a few more)
Now there are those of you who may consider a dollar cheap, but you are the same people who probably never take cabs, and when you do, you are visiting friends and whip the money around indispensibly like toilet paper, and than go on and on about how good you feel to give tips to cab drivers that have moved here from other countries. But for the rest of us, who frequent cabs all the time and have since grown tired of interviewing every driver on his country of origin and what his plans are in the U.S. , we understand that a dollar per trip, with an occasional conversation is more acceptable.
Anyway I digress. So, I was about to hand the driver a 20 when I realized that he only had $6 in his hand. Seems fair right? $13.45 fare, I give him $20 then he gives me $6 of which I can choose to tip him.
But then I got to thinking. What about the other .55 cents? Now, I know this might come off as a self righteous or selfish rant, but considering I work in the service industry, I feel I have a right to pose a concern on this issue.
When I give change at work, I give them ALL the change, not the rounded up number. Just think of how much extra money I would be making if I rounded up every tables change and then extended my hand for additional gratuity.
Now I know it's just pocket change, but when I mentally add that pocket change over the course of one month it figures something like this:
3 cabs a week: $1 tip + 50 cents they assume= $4.50 a week
X 4 weeks = $18.00 a month in gratuity
$18!!! Thats more than a whole cab ride!!
So even if I am nitpicking, and I don't count the voluntary gratuity, the cabs are recieving a amount of $6 a month in money they are not even offering me in change.
That might not seem like alot to some people, but $72 a year is a lot to some people.
Anyway, the moral of the story is, don't look at me funny when I ask you for the .55 cents, or the .35 cents after giving me my change. Because you know what, that's not how it works. YOU give ME my change, then I decide what I want to tip YOU.
And for all of you that think that I am giving cabbies a hard time, I'm not, I got much love for them escorting me home night after night, dealing with all the traffic, drunks, traffic, etc. etc.
And I understand gas is expensive, but remember, I am aware of the fact that the prices of cabs just went up too! And now I am aware of your other side operation. So start carrying change guys, cause if you come across me, I'm gonna want it.
P.S
Oh and by the way, when a girl gives you a few extra dollars to make sure she gets inside her apartment safely without being mugged, dont be a jerk and drive off until she is inside. At least give the illusion that you give a shit. Thank you for listening.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
A MATTER OF RELIGION
Lately, I have been lucky enough to stumble upon some interesting people with whom I share very heated, in depth, and interesting theoretical debate. I myself, not being particularly attached to one affiliation of religion, am usually interested to hear what others have to say and offer, but am usually left scratching my head by realizing how completely attached some can be to the notion of their "God". Now, to preface, this will not be anti-religious or pro- religious rant. Nor will it be some sort of defense of my own opinions. The following is simply the transcripts of some very interesting debated emails that I shared with some very cool people, topics ranging from libertarianism to Christianity.
I like to think of myself as someone who is open mined enough to engage in these types of conversations without stomping off to my corner, shaking my head in confusion. But often times, I end up feeling more comfortable in the place that I am in, and more affirmed in my own beliefs.
For the purpose of this blog I will name the very Christian commenter "Peter" and I am "C".
Enjoy!
PETER:
I am a libertarian, I became one last fall before the election, the whole affair seemed so tremendously superficial and inflated, I just got fed up and started looking at third parties. I read Badnarik's essay's and was really blown away by how direct it was, I agreed with most of what he had to say, and his message was not cheapened. I voted for Badnarik and all the libertarians on my ballot. I think Noam Chomsky said he was an anarchy-libertarian, sometimes I get really enthused about chomsky and have little chomsky binges and get all indignant. Righteous indignation is nice from time to time but one finds that too much gall gets kind of lame after a while.
You should get religion, not just religion, but the good religion. That stuff we talked about a little bit that night at the blues club was only like the tip of the iceberg. It is weird that people don't see some of this, it is kind of like that thing about how once I was blind but now I can see, yeah, now that I can see out and around me a bit and kind of gauge what is going on it is strange to imagine being so blind before. Jesus takes you deep, when you get with him it is something else. Everything out there seems like superficial noise when you draw near to Jesus, there is this awesome indescribable peace, or this profound joix de vivre, you can literally get high in the Spirit. Jesus is like one of the best kept secrets there is out there. Don't be swayed by the abuse of cliches and the aesthetics involved, think of some of the things you learn when you start to think critically about the media, aesthetics are a formula to prime the will, In art you learn how to break beauty down into the elements and principles, things have different psychological implications, aesthetics are extremely manipulative. Like think for instance if the quintessence of evil were to be manifest in a innocent cuddly kitten, you can bet that people would still look at it and say awwww. I'd say that most of the stuff that turns our generation away from getting into the real substance of the good religion is aesthetic. Think of how the people you went to school with were, I bet that you could name bands that your peers listen to just by seeing what they are wearing, and that within the readimade aesthetic identities most rely on an implication of some sort of tragic darkness, and beyond that have an implicite unarticulated or even openly stated enmity against Jesus. You are a smart girl, I can tell that, you have a capacity for resilience, maybe it has something to do with that italian stuff, I urge you to read about Jesus, ike actually read a Gospel, I bet you have already. I recommend a translation that doen't use thee's and thou's and all that embellishment, and read a gospel, one of the first four books of the new testament. You might have learned alot about christianity, but even if you learn about christianity, like church doctrine and history, that is often shaded by the fact that humans are fallable, fortunately the preservation of the bible is meticulous and reliable. Please set down for a while what would hinder you from an honest unbiased look at this stuff.
Ok I'm tired of preaching, you are too genuine too just get swept up in all the worldly stuff that proves itself shallow over and over again, if not immediately then with time . transcend fasion and dull religion , embrace Jesus.
Ok I'm really tired of preaching, If I annoyed you by assailing you with the Gospel stick, just tell me and I'll tone it down, I won't stop wanting you to hook up with Jesus though. please respond if you have time. Some people feel uncomfortable when people display as much evangelistic zeal as I just did, Don't feel obligated to discuss religion beyond what you are comfortable with.
C:
There is a article called "Delusional Democracy" that I wrote in frustration at our whole political process that might interest you. I can't say that I have gotten that much into Libertarian literature, but I totally agree with you about 3rd parties, or 4th parties even. However, in our chronically bias and corrupt legal and political systems in this country, the other parties don't really seem to have enough impact, except to swing votes from one of two people that ultimately will be in power. It's the less of two evils theory i guess. I'm not condoning it, i am just being realistic. I think it sux though.
Something needs to change in a very "fall of the roman empire" type of way in this country in order for things to be shaken up enough for change. I mean think about the problems we are facing today. We live in a state that is very close to uprooting all of the policies for which we have lived for 200 years.
Now I believe that these systems are in dire need of revamping, however, there are a few liberties and balances that cannot be thrown off or aside. For instance, (I know you are religious and this is not meant to offend you), but the whole movement to undo separation of church and state. Now in a perfect world, we would all be able to live peacefully under one roof and share similar beliefs. But we don't.
So by infusing religion back into our government, we run the risk of isolating and separating the different cultures and religions in this country that we have today even more than they even are. Wasn't this country founded on the principles of freedom from religious persecution, be it Catholicism, Protestant, Judaism, whatever? In theory, People wanted to settle because they could supposedly live freely in a governed society and belief in smurfs if they wanted too.
Nowadays, there is the argument that schools should teach creationism and evolution. Well what about the little Jewish girl, or Muslim boy, or native American kid, who sit in these classrooms everyday. How fucking confused are they gonna be? Pretty soon are we going to have to separate all children to schools of religious beliefs? It is a conundrum.
I am open to people living and dying by their beliefs in life, however, they are YOUR beliefs and a free society should not have to follow.
I think that the only way to keep balance in a society, and to keep peace, is to leave the social programs, education, and governing systems, as neutral entities, and allow people to live among each other practicing their own beliefs on their own time. That saves a lot of conflict, and time that would be spent in arguments/debates about deciding policy.
Anyways, sorry about the rant. I do that sometimes.
PETER:
Ok, on the libertarian thing, yeah I realized that my vote didn't count but I will strongly object to the notion that it detracted from the two major parties votes. I approached voting in as honest a way as I could think of, well maybe that is a little more of a noble statement than it's worth. I voted for the candidate that I agreed with the most, I think that is the essential Idea in voting. Granted that I could have contributed to the bipartisan madness had I wanted to, and I knew that my candidate was not going to win, my vote was for badnarik, not for bush or carey, and after what my mind went thru in bipartisan thought neither of them could have gotten my vote. My vote was more valuable than most americans votes were. i represented a larger proportion of badnariks voters than any one person was a percentage of bush or carey. In fact I did more as an individual to bring badnarik victory than any one person did to bush or carey, I'm not absolutely sure but I think it is true. I don't know, maybe I'm being obstinate, but the larger political process was just too ,much for me to make a decision for either of the two big parties.
Another underlying motif in the political process that I cannot stand is the over use of the conservative/liberal breakup on everything. I postulate that the two party system forces people to think in red and blue or conservative and liberal, and I think that to attempt to view lifes issues from this paradigm is inadequate.
I urge you to reconsider your view on church and state. I will say that your reasoning Is clear and makes sense but I think you may benefit from a broader more general view of religion on the essential character of a nation. What I'm saying is that the view of religion you presented is sort of based on the premise that faith in God is impotent. Now granted, I don't think you or many people with similar views would feel comfortable saying to the effect that I think religion is impotent, because you probably don't believe that it is. (sorry, I don't like assuming so much but do bear with for the functionality of the statement). I think that many people's mental picture of the power of religion has a lot to do with mystical events or signs and wonders and profound encounters, and that God is otherwise detached. While I would say that it is true that signs and wonders and amazing things are a part of religion, a wonderful and cherished part too, backing up and looking at the seemingly mundane aspects of the effect of Faith in God. We have to remember that normal tangable existence as well as spiritual presence coexist in the seeming mundane/everyday things of life. Look at some of the things in the bible in the old testament, many of these things aren't just about the fireworks of mysctic encounter. God outlines to Moses things like hygenical practices, the basics of clean living while camping in the desert. Also functional things like a judicial system. There are even things in there about crop rotation, crop rotation that is more in depth than the farming methods we currntly use. This doesn't sound so profound initially but consider that the hygiene relavent ordanances come thousands of years before people have any idea that bacteria exists, they figured out that bacteria exists in 1683 and then like in the 1800's figured out that it causes disease. Think of the grotesque lack of proper hygiene practices in europe's history, or even in the civil war in the U.S., where more casualties were from sickness than from violence. Or on crop rotation think of the dustbowl in the 1920's or 30's in the U.S. in Oklahoma, because of poor farming practices like lack of crop rotation. People are born naked and helpless, we don't know much of anything, somebody needs to spell out clearly to people simple things like don't sleep with your mom. EVerybody would be like the folks on the Jerry springer show. It might be humerous to watch people from trailer parks duke out their inscestious soap opera conflicts, but that is a cheap thrill based in shock value and if it were going on in evry one of your neighbors houses and you were trying to raise a family that was wholesome and genuinely beneficial to the human endeavor you'd freak out. We have some morality in us instinctively, but human beings are way bad at determining right and wrong for ourselves, think of greed or the things that people do that you wish you never heard about. Human history isn't neat and tidy, it has it's dark points, plenty of them, but the light in all of this would not happen without some basic morality, and that is something best defined by someone beyond mankind alone, one with infinite foresight. 97.7 or something like that percent of religious believers in the united states are either Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, my 97.7 percent is rough, from something I read last night, anyhow. Jews Christians and Muslims all honor the Old testament, Jews honor it pretty much exclusively, Christians honor it and the New testament, Muslims honor it, they regard Jesus as a prophet too, and they have their own writings. Sure ther are miscelaneous other religions out there, and we should tolerate them as well, but in practices that involve religion with politics sufficient general ambiguity is used in the semantics that all believers can bow their Hearts to "God", Christians to Father/Son/Holy Spirit, Moslems to Allah, And Jews to YHWH, there might even be folks out there who are pagans or what so, but as long as they are polytheistic they probably won't mind a nod to God, if not to one then to another. Secularism sounds like it's nuetral but really, when most people, which is really true, most people do believe in God in some form, it is shutting everyone out.
So all that I just stated was just a practical measure on the inclusivity of acknowledgement of God in government, but beyond that, God is real, and why should He acknowledge a notion that throws Him Away to rely on their own delusions of how things should be. Do you really want the absolute authority over you to be the state? One can get away with disobeying the laws of the state, by lying cheating and stealing, or by offering bribes, the authority of the state is trumped by the inherent cleverness of man in his determination to have his own way. I know that for me what keeps me inclined toward doing what is right, doing what is right, admitting when I am wrong, and obeying the laws of the state is not the state itself, but the knowledge that I am loved by God more personally and more intimately than any other loves me or can love me, and that it hurts him when I knowingly do wrong in order to have my way in the World. I think that I have my share of kinks that aren't worked out yet but through Jesus's atonement formy wrongdoings, (which saying it that way makes it sound like I know technically how it works, I'm still working on that part) and his compassion and ongoing hand in my life, I will be saved and preserved to be a part of His Coming New Vision of Peace, which is Heaven on Earth.
C:
As far as what you responded to, in response to my response (Phew), I have to say that you still didn't really completely answer my question. Now I agree that I wouldn't want the State to have total control over me, but I also don't want a religious sect having control over me. Lets put this into a different kind of context.
Lets say You, are living your life day to day the way you always have, believing in Christianity, Jesus, and feeling fulfilled in the fact that you can be free to do so. There are other opinions, ideas, religions out there, but you are content with your own. Now, one day a group of people that represent a fictitious majority (Religion X for the sake of the argument), but not your religion, begin taking more and more control over the place in which you live.
Suddenly, your opinion is becoming drowned out among people telling you that they know the ultimate truth and that their beliefs in Religion X and their leader XX is the only truth and the sooner you understand that the better off you will be. Now you don't necessarily disagree with their or anyone elses beliefs, but you are comfortable with your own and don't understand why that should change.
Well in this fictitious example, it wouldn't really make a difference if it were just opinions, but its not. in our culture today, some of the religious views represent things that affect more than just our conversation. Look at stem cell research, abortion, prayer in schools. Now I'm not saying i agree or disagree with any of them, what I'm saying is that these are things that come under scrutiny because of religious beliefs and therefore set a precedent of how EVERYONE lives in our society.
Now back to Religion X, how would you feel being a Christian, living among all of the Religion Xers shouting to get your attention. Magnify that by about a 10 and you start to grasp how I feel.
I think it is great that you have such faith, and that you are willing to teach others. And that in your heart you believe, no feel, it to be true.
But remove yourself from your emotions and consider that if you were anyone else, your beliefs may be different based on what you have been taught, experienced, and felt in your life.
Now tell me, how are you any more right than anyone else in your beliefs? Forget all the historical stuff and the bible. ( i know that may be hard) Look at life, removed from what you have been taught, as just life, with a higher purpose that maybe we are not supposed to know.
I was telling W, that i believe that there is something greater than ourselves, but I think it is silly for us to believe that we have even figured out a fraction of what it is. As long as you live your life as a good person, and enjoy each breath that you take, the reason we take those breaths become secondary.
I understand that most people are not strong enough to live their lives without a purpose. I mean, emotionally weak people need a reason to get up out of bed everyday and if they can find a reason through believing in GOD than I think that is amazing.
I also understand that there are brilliant minds such as yourself who can give me reason after reason why and how Jesus existed and that he is coming back, so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, I would have gotten out of bed anyways, you know? And I would have basked in the notion that there are millions of other people out there who share the same beliefs, through different stories, that I hope to learn one day.
I have faith in people. (most of the time!)
I have faith in myself.
I think that is an amazing thing.
PETER:
I started to reply to your last e-mail, but it got erased before I finished it, that or I lost track of it. I can't remember exactly what we were talking about to perfect detail, but I believe we were talking about church and state, and my response was going to be on why it is beneficial to honor God in the public arena, though a number of different belief systems exist among the population. The reason I think it is beneficial to honor God in the public arena just in general I think was outlined in the last response. I think that if I remember correctly I stated that regard for God is healthy because of the basic foundation it lays for justice and cultural establishment, a lot of things we take for granted. To that, before before I will address the plurality of belief systems I will add that if we were to have only a secular authority as the highest standard of morality layed out in our societal conscious, it would be disastrous. Humanity is not fit to claim that it can set the standard for the highest authority, note that on your website you rail against corruption and the rediculious practices in the government, we cannot "get it right" on our own. The mechanisms of our psyche that demand self interest in order for basic survival of the species corrupt our most righteous aspirations. People who mean well still abuse and oppress other groups of people to atrocious extent, thinking they are right, only because their scope does not extend to understand the needs of the groups they oppress. People are magnificent creatures, but consider that it is impossible for people to understand the needs of other people who are foreign to them. We can be our cruelest in our efforts to be kind even. There is probably a lot more to be said about what I just stated but I will continue and address regard for God in the public arena within the context of religious plurality. The God we should address in public is the most high God, the absolute top, the greatest God. We should address no one smaller, I mean, why should anyone worship a god who also has a God over him/her/it. Then beyond that, anything that would claim to be worthy of worship who were not really the absolute highest authority, would be pretty pretentious. I think that is pretty essential, I mean, we should not in our acknowledgement regard some generic god. So far I've written purely in terms of concept of diety, in rational terms, I mean, even an athiest could agree with that, I think, they might disagree that there is a God or gods, but they would probably agree that if perchance they were wrong on the exitence thing and that there were a God or Gods that only the absolute highest most powerful God is worthy of worship. If there is someone out there who wants to worship a diety they regard as inferior, they have betrayed their worship by regarding that god as inferior, and have further demeaned themselves by worshipping an inferior. I will not for a second consider that there is some other supreme diety than God who has revealed himself through the Bible, that is what I believe, and not only believe by mere feeling, but on the soundest rationale I have a capacity for, I would even extend to say I know that the God of the Bible is God. I do not care to demean any human being that disagrees, because by believing in God I believe that all humans are made in His image and that they are all wonderful creations. I would say that I pursue God, but I don't know everything there is to know about Him, I have learned a lot, and I want to learn as much as I possibly can. At this time I don't know what he looks like for instance. I would want every man woman and child to render their hearts to Him, but I understand that I cannot force this to come about, that this is a matter of the heart and that it would be wrong to force someone into believing, because that would be corrupted belief. So for plurality, I can live in a country where other people worship God in a different manner. I am cool with Jews, they've got it right I'd say, but I understand that a number of factors play into why most of them don't believe in Jesus. The Jews were waiting for God to send their messiah, and when he came, they had distinct ideas about what he was going to do, but those distinct ideas were not in line with what God had planned. They estimated what it was going to be like, and didn't recognize it while it happened. Muslims believe in the Bible, but they've taken on some other information, and they kind of don't view it as absolute. Islam also advances forcefully, accept allah or die was how it was for a long time, I'm sure for that matter christians had some of the same blunders, but those action would have been the product of their minds not Gods. Islam advanced largely violently for a long time in history and that accounts for much of its spread and establishment, and a lot of the world then has islam as thier belief system. That takes care of the 3 major religions, most of the believers out there. I know there are people who believe a lot of other things out there too, but I think those things would be too much too addres in this letter specifically except to say that anyone who believes in god believes that their god is supreme or believes their god is second-rate, but they would probably pray still. In a prayer for the sake of our nation, it is no question that my heart would be bowed toward the God of the Bible. But my neighbor might have his heart bowed to Allah, or somebody else, I am still going to love him, I might if context provides tell him about my faith, but I will not bludgeon him with it. To have secular authority doesn't only offend Christians, but also Jews, Muslims, any pagan, or deist, and possibly agnostic. Secular supreme authority means that athiests rule that humanity and all its vices and folly is the supreme authority.
seperation of church and state never meant that religion was to be out of the public arena, it was meant that the government would not dictate things to the religious. It was put in place so that the government could not send a preacher to jail for preaching. That applies to imams and rabbis and other religious leaders too, that they cannot be forced by the government to teach and preach as the government wills.
Look at the abolition of slavery, look at the civil rights movement. Those things happened because people regarded God over the authority of the government. That didn't happen because of secular authority.
C:
I don't think that I have so much of a problem with people leading the masses with religion to motivate, inspire, help, etc etc. I have a problem with the packaging.
Stay with me here. You said in your last email that you refuse to believe that there is any other GOD but the one that you believe in. And that most major religions are similar in their beliefs. That is fine with me. What I can't understand is why can't it just be "GOD" without having to conform your thinking to one story or another.
If in fact, it is the one supreme GOD, it doesn't really matter what story you believe, as long as you believe something, right? I think that you can have the Bible, or the Koran, or whatever. I think it is all the same. I believe that whatever helps you live your life, is what you should believe in.
Can't I just say that I believe that there is a higher power, without having to commit myself to the very details of how and why? We all know that historically humans are very mischevious and forgetful people. How can we trust them getting the story straight? Thus being human. Why is it so important to focus on the details? As long as you live a good life, treat others with respect, and have LOVE in your heart, every little detail of creation to the present, is not necessary. I believe history is important, so in that sense, I understand why people would join such heated debates, but I also think that getting the facts straight, often leads to more problems than solutions.
And so, I guess what I am trying to say is, I think it is wonderful that you have found what you deem to be the ultimate "truth". But I feel that I have my own sense of truth in my heart, without having to wrap my brain and heart around one particular version or the other. Does that make sense?
At this point in my life, I do not feel lost or misguided. I do not feel like I need answers to questions about GOD. I do not seek the ultimate "Truth". I feel that I am blessed, and I feel that there is something greater than myself. And because of that I do not seek confirmation. Maybe thats just me.
Anyways, if your GOD is all forgiving and I am wrong, I dont think he/she will hold it against me!!!! J/K
Lately, I have been lucky enough to stumble upon some interesting people with whom I share very heated, in depth, and interesting theoretical debate. I myself, not being particularly attached to one affiliation of religion, am usually interested to hear what others have to say and offer, but am usually left scratching my head by realizing how completely attached some can be to the notion of their "God". Now, to preface, this will not be anti-religious or pro- religious rant. Nor will it be some sort of defense of my own opinions. The following is simply the transcripts of some very interesting debated emails that I shared with some very cool people, topics ranging from libertarianism to Christianity.
I like to think of myself as someone who is open mined enough to engage in these types of conversations without stomping off to my corner, shaking my head in confusion. But often times, I end up feeling more comfortable in the place that I am in, and more affirmed in my own beliefs.
For the purpose of this blog I will name the very Christian commenter "Peter" and I am "C".
Enjoy!
PETER:
I am a libertarian, I became one last fall before the election, the whole affair seemed so tremendously superficial and inflated, I just got fed up and started looking at third parties. I read Badnarik's essay's and was really blown away by how direct it was, I agreed with most of what he had to say, and his message was not cheapened. I voted for Badnarik and all the libertarians on my ballot. I think Noam Chomsky said he was an anarchy-libertarian, sometimes I get really enthused about chomsky and have little chomsky binges and get all indignant. Righteous indignation is nice from time to time but one finds that too much gall gets kind of lame after a while.
You should get religion, not just religion, but the good religion. That stuff we talked about a little bit that night at the blues club was only like the tip of the iceberg. It is weird that people don't see some of this, it is kind of like that thing about how once I was blind but now I can see, yeah, now that I can see out and around me a bit and kind of gauge what is going on it is strange to imagine being so blind before. Jesus takes you deep, when you get with him it is something else. Everything out there seems like superficial noise when you draw near to Jesus, there is this awesome indescribable peace, or this profound joix de vivre, you can literally get high in the Spirit. Jesus is like one of the best kept secrets there is out there. Don't be swayed by the abuse of cliches and the aesthetics involved, think of some of the things you learn when you start to think critically about the media, aesthetics are a formula to prime the will, In art you learn how to break beauty down into the elements and principles, things have different psychological implications, aesthetics are extremely manipulative. Like think for instance if the quintessence of evil were to be manifest in a innocent cuddly kitten, you can bet that people would still look at it and say awwww. I'd say that most of the stuff that turns our generation away from getting into the real substance of the good religion is aesthetic. Think of how the people you went to school with were, I bet that you could name bands that your peers listen to just by seeing what they are wearing, and that within the readimade aesthetic identities most rely on an implication of some sort of tragic darkness, and beyond that have an implicite unarticulated or even openly stated enmity against Jesus. You are a smart girl, I can tell that, you have a capacity for resilience, maybe it has something to do with that italian stuff, I urge you to read about Jesus, ike actually read a Gospel, I bet you have already. I recommend a translation that doen't use thee's and thou's and all that embellishment, and read a gospel, one of the first four books of the new testament. You might have learned alot about christianity, but even if you learn about christianity, like church doctrine and history, that is often shaded by the fact that humans are fallable, fortunately the preservation of the bible is meticulous and reliable. Please set down for a while what would hinder you from an honest unbiased look at this stuff.
Ok I'm tired of preaching, you are too genuine too just get swept up in all the worldly stuff that proves itself shallow over and over again, if not immediately then with time . transcend fasion and dull religion , embrace Jesus.
Ok I'm really tired of preaching, If I annoyed you by assailing you with the Gospel stick, just tell me and I'll tone it down, I won't stop wanting you to hook up with Jesus though. please respond if you have time. Some people feel uncomfortable when people display as much evangelistic zeal as I just did, Don't feel obligated to discuss religion beyond what you are comfortable with.
C:
There is a article called "Delusional Democracy" that I wrote in frustration at our whole political process that might interest you. I can't say that I have gotten that much into Libertarian literature, but I totally agree with you about 3rd parties, or 4th parties even. However, in our chronically bias and corrupt legal and political systems in this country, the other parties don't really seem to have enough impact, except to swing votes from one of two people that ultimately will be in power. It's the less of two evils theory i guess. I'm not condoning it, i am just being realistic. I think it sux though.
Something needs to change in a very "fall of the roman empire" type of way in this country in order for things to be shaken up enough for change. I mean think about the problems we are facing today. We live in a state that is very close to uprooting all of the policies for which we have lived for 200 years.
Now I believe that these systems are in dire need of revamping, however, there are a few liberties and balances that cannot be thrown off or aside. For instance, (I know you are religious and this is not meant to offend you), but the whole movement to undo separation of church and state. Now in a perfect world, we would all be able to live peacefully under one roof and share similar beliefs. But we don't.
So by infusing religion back into our government, we run the risk of isolating and separating the different cultures and religions in this country that we have today even more than they even are. Wasn't this country founded on the principles of freedom from religious persecution, be it Catholicism, Protestant, Judaism, whatever? In theory, People wanted to settle because they could supposedly live freely in a governed society and belief in smurfs if they wanted too.
Nowadays, there is the argument that schools should teach creationism and evolution. Well what about the little Jewish girl, or Muslim boy, or native American kid, who sit in these classrooms everyday. How fucking confused are they gonna be? Pretty soon are we going to have to separate all children to schools of religious beliefs? It is a conundrum.
I am open to people living and dying by their beliefs in life, however, they are YOUR beliefs and a free society should not have to follow.
I think that the only way to keep balance in a society, and to keep peace, is to leave the social programs, education, and governing systems, as neutral entities, and allow people to live among each other practicing their own beliefs on their own time. That saves a lot of conflict, and time that would be spent in arguments/debates about deciding policy.
Anyways, sorry about the rant. I do that sometimes.
PETER:
Ok, on the libertarian thing, yeah I realized that my vote didn't count but I will strongly object to the notion that it detracted from the two major parties votes. I approached voting in as honest a way as I could think of, well maybe that is a little more of a noble statement than it's worth. I voted for the candidate that I agreed with the most, I think that is the essential Idea in voting. Granted that I could have contributed to the bipartisan madness had I wanted to, and I knew that my candidate was not going to win, my vote was for badnarik, not for bush or carey, and after what my mind went thru in bipartisan thought neither of them could have gotten my vote. My vote was more valuable than most americans votes were. i represented a larger proportion of badnariks voters than any one person was a percentage of bush or carey. In fact I did more as an individual to bring badnarik victory than any one person did to bush or carey, I'm not absolutely sure but I think it is true. I don't know, maybe I'm being obstinate, but the larger political process was just too ,much for me to make a decision for either of the two big parties.
Another underlying motif in the political process that I cannot stand is the over use of the conservative/liberal breakup on everything. I postulate that the two party system forces people to think in red and blue or conservative and liberal, and I think that to attempt to view lifes issues from this paradigm is inadequate.
I urge you to reconsider your view on church and state. I will say that your reasoning Is clear and makes sense but I think you may benefit from a broader more general view of religion on the essential character of a nation. What I'm saying is that the view of religion you presented is sort of based on the premise that faith in God is impotent. Now granted, I don't think you or many people with similar views would feel comfortable saying to the effect that I think religion is impotent, because you probably don't believe that it is. (sorry, I don't like assuming so much but do bear with for the functionality of the statement). I think that many people's mental picture of the power of religion has a lot to do with mystical events or signs and wonders and profound encounters, and that God is otherwise detached. While I would say that it is true that signs and wonders and amazing things are a part of religion, a wonderful and cherished part too, backing up and looking at the seemingly mundane aspects of the effect of Faith in God. We have to remember that normal tangable existence as well as spiritual presence coexist in the seeming mundane/everyday things of life. Look at some of the things in the bible in the old testament, many of these things aren't just about the fireworks of mysctic encounter. God outlines to Moses things like hygenical practices, the basics of clean living while camping in the desert. Also functional things like a judicial system. There are even things in there about crop rotation, crop rotation that is more in depth than the farming methods we currntly use. This doesn't sound so profound initially but consider that the hygiene relavent ordanances come thousands of years before people have any idea that bacteria exists, they figured out that bacteria exists in 1683 and then like in the 1800's figured out that it causes disease. Think of the grotesque lack of proper hygiene practices in europe's history, or even in the civil war in the U.S., where more casualties were from sickness than from violence. Or on crop rotation think of the dustbowl in the 1920's or 30's in the U.S. in Oklahoma, because of poor farming practices like lack of crop rotation. People are born naked and helpless, we don't know much of anything, somebody needs to spell out clearly to people simple things like don't sleep with your mom. EVerybody would be like the folks on the Jerry springer show. It might be humerous to watch people from trailer parks duke out their inscestious soap opera conflicts, but that is a cheap thrill based in shock value and if it were going on in evry one of your neighbors houses and you were trying to raise a family that was wholesome and genuinely beneficial to the human endeavor you'd freak out. We have some morality in us instinctively, but human beings are way bad at determining right and wrong for ourselves, think of greed or the things that people do that you wish you never heard about. Human history isn't neat and tidy, it has it's dark points, plenty of them, but the light in all of this would not happen without some basic morality, and that is something best defined by someone beyond mankind alone, one with infinite foresight. 97.7 or something like that percent of religious believers in the united states are either Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, my 97.7 percent is rough, from something I read last night, anyhow. Jews Christians and Muslims all honor the Old testament, Jews honor it pretty much exclusively, Christians honor it and the New testament, Muslims honor it, they regard Jesus as a prophet too, and they have their own writings. Sure ther are miscelaneous other religions out there, and we should tolerate them as well, but in practices that involve religion with politics sufficient general ambiguity is used in the semantics that all believers can bow their Hearts to "God", Christians to Father/Son/Holy Spirit, Moslems to Allah, And Jews to YHWH, there might even be folks out there who are pagans or what so, but as long as they are polytheistic they probably won't mind a nod to God, if not to one then to another. Secularism sounds like it's nuetral but really, when most people, which is really true, most people do believe in God in some form, it is shutting everyone out.
So all that I just stated was just a practical measure on the inclusivity of acknowledgement of God in government, but beyond that, God is real, and why should He acknowledge a notion that throws Him Away to rely on their own delusions of how things should be. Do you really want the absolute authority over you to be the state? One can get away with disobeying the laws of the state, by lying cheating and stealing, or by offering bribes, the authority of the state is trumped by the inherent cleverness of man in his determination to have his own way. I know that for me what keeps me inclined toward doing what is right, doing what is right, admitting when I am wrong, and obeying the laws of the state is not the state itself, but the knowledge that I am loved by God more personally and more intimately than any other loves me or can love me, and that it hurts him when I knowingly do wrong in order to have my way in the World. I think that I have my share of kinks that aren't worked out yet but through Jesus's atonement formy wrongdoings, (which saying it that way makes it sound like I know technically how it works, I'm still working on that part) and his compassion and ongoing hand in my life, I will be saved and preserved to be a part of His Coming New Vision of Peace, which is Heaven on Earth.
C:
As far as what you responded to, in response to my response (Phew), I have to say that you still didn't really completely answer my question. Now I agree that I wouldn't want the State to have total control over me, but I also don't want a religious sect having control over me. Lets put this into a different kind of context.
Lets say You, are living your life day to day the way you always have, believing in Christianity, Jesus, and feeling fulfilled in the fact that you can be free to do so. There are other opinions, ideas, religions out there, but you are content with your own. Now, one day a group of people that represent a fictitious majority (Religion X for the sake of the argument), but not your religion, begin taking more and more control over the place in which you live.
Suddenly, your opinion is becoming drowned out among people telling you that they know the ultimate truth and that their beliefs in Religion X and their leader XX is the only truth and the sooner you understand that the better off you will be. Now you don't necessarily disagree with their or anyone elses beliefs, but you are comfortable with your own and don't understand why that should change.
Well in this fictitious example, it wouldn't really make a difference if it were just opinions, but its not. in our culture today, some of the religious views represent things that affect more than just our conversation. Look at stem cell research, abortion, prayer in schools. Now I'm not saying i agree or disagree with any of them, what I'm saying is that these are things that come under scrutiny because of religious beliefs and therefore set a precedent of how EVERYONE lives in our society.
Now back to Religion X, how would you feel being a Christian, living among all of the Religion Xers shouting to get your attention. Magnify that by about a 10 and you start to grasp how I feel.
I think it is great that you have such faith, and that you are willing to teach others. And that in your heart you believe, no feel, it to be true.
But remove yourself from your emotions and consider that if you were anyone else, your beliefs may be different based on what you have been taught, experienced, and felt in your life.
Now tell me, how are you any more right than anyone else in your beliefs? Forget all the historical stuff and the bible. ( i know that may be hard) Look at life, removed from what you have been taught, as just life, with a higher purpose that maybe we are not supposed to know.
I was telling W, that i believe that there is something greater than ourselves, but I think it is silly for us to believe that we have even figured out a fraction of what it is. As long as you live your life as a good person, and enjoy each breath that you take, the reason we take those breaths become secondary.
I understand that most people are not strong enough to live their lives without a purpose. I mean, emotionally weak people need a reason to get up out of bed everyday and if they can find a reason through believing in GOD than I think that is amazing.
I also understand that there are brilliant minds such as yourself who can give me reason after reason why and how Jesus existed and that he is coming back, so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, I would have gotten out of bed anyways, you know? And I would have basked in the notion that there are millions of other people out there who share the same beliefs, through different stories, that I hope to learn one day.
I have faith in people. (most of the time!)
I have faith in myself.
I think that is an amazing thing.
PETER:
I started to reply to your last e-mail, but it got erased before I finished it, that or I lost track of it. I can't remember exactly what we were talking about to perfect detail, but I believe we were talking about church and state, and my response was going to be on why it is beneficial to honor God in the public arena, though a number of different belief systems exist among the population. The reason I think it is beneficial to honor God in the public arena just in general I think was outlined in the last response. I think that if I remember correctly I stated that regard for God is healthy because of the basic foundation it lays for justice and cultural establishment, a lot of things we take for granted. To that, before before I will address the plurality of belief systems I will add that if we were to have only a secular authority as the highest standard of morality layed out in our societal conscious, it would be disastrous. Humanity is not fit to claim that it can set the standard for the highest authority, note that on your website you rail against corruption and the rediculious practices in the government, we cannot "get it right" on our own. The mechanisms of our psyche that demand self interest in order for basic survival of the species corrupt our most righteous aspirations. People who mean well still abuse and oppress other groups of people to atrocious extent, thinking they are right, only because their scope does not extend to understand the needs of the groups they oppress. People are magnificent creatures, but consider that it is impossible for people to understand the needs of other people who are foreign to them. We can be our cruelest in our efforts to be kind even. There is probably a lot more to be said about what I just stated but I will continue and address regard for God in the public arena within the context of religious plurality. The God we should address in public is the most high God, the absolute top, the greatest God. We should address no one smaller, I mean, why should anyone worship a god who also has a God over him/her/it. Then beyond that, anything that would claim to be worthy of worship who were not really the absolute highest authority, would be pretty pretentious. I think that is pretty essential, I mean, we should not in our acknowledgement regard some generic god. So far I've written purely in terms of concept of diety, in rational terms, I mean, even an athiest could agree with that, I think, they might disagree that there is a God or gods, but they would probably agree that if perchance they were wrong on the exitence thing and that there were a God or Gods that only the absolute highest most powerful God is worthy of worship. If there is someone out there who wants to worship a diety they regard as inferior, they have betrayed their worship by regarding that god as inferior, and have further demeaned themselves by worshipping an inferior. I will not for a second consider that there is some other supreme diety than God who has revealed himself through the Bible, that is what I believe, and not only believe by mere feeling, but on the soundest rationale I have a capacity for, I would even extend to say I know that the God of the Bible is God. I do not care to demean any human being that disagrees, because by believing in God I believe that all humans are made in His image and that they are all wonderful creations. I would say that I pursue God, but I don't know everything there is to know about Him, I have learned a lot, and I want to learn as much as I possibly can. At this time I don't know what he looks like for instance. I would want every man woman and child to render their hearts to Him, but I understand that I cannot force this to come about, that this is a matter of the heart and that it would be wrong to force someone into believing, because that would be corrupted belief. So for plurality, I can live in a country where other people worship God in a different manner. I am cool with Jews, they've got it right I'd say, but I understand that a number of factors play into why most of them don't believe in Jesus. The Jews were waiting for God to send their messiah, and when he came, they had distinct ideas about what he was going to do, but those distinct ideas were not in line with what God had planned. They estimated what it was going to be like, and didn't recognize it while it happened. Muslims believe in the Bible, but they've taken on some other information, and they kind of don't view it as absolute. Islam also advances forcefully, accept allah or die was how it was for a long time, I'm sure for that matter christians had some of the same blunders, but those action would have been the product of their minds not Gods. Islam advanced largely violently for a long time in history and that accounts for much of its spread and establishment, and a lot of the world then has islam as thier belief system. That takes care of the 3 major religions, most of the believers out there. I know there are people who believe a lot of other things out there too, but I think those things would be too much too addres in this letter specifically except to say that anyone who believes in god believes that their god is supreme or believes their god is second-rate, but they would probably pray still. In a prayer for the sake of our nation, it is no question that my heart would be bowed toward the God of the Bible. But my neighbor might have his heart bowed to Allah, or somebody else, I am still going to love him, I might if context provides tell him about my faith, but I will not bludgeon him with it. To have secular authority doesn't only offend Christians, but also Jews, Muslims, any pagan, or deist, and possibly agnostic. Secular supreme authority means that athiests rule that humanity and all its vices and folly is the supreme authority.
seperation of church and state never meant that religion was to be out of the public arena, it was meant that the government would not dictate things to the religious. It was put in place so that the government could not send a preacher to jail for preaching. That applies to imams and rabbis and other religious leaders too, that they cannot be forced by the government to teach and preach as the government wills.
Look at the abolition of slavery, look at the civil rights movement. Those things happened because people regarded God over the authority of the government. That didn't happen because of secular authority.
C:
I don't think that I have so much of a problem with people leading the masses with religion to motivate, inspire, help, etc etc. I have a problem with the packaging.
Stay with me here. You said in your last email that you refuse to believe that there is any other GOD but the one that you believe in. And that most major religions are similar in their beliefs. That is fine with me. What I can't understand is why can't it just be "GOD" without having to conform your thinking to one story or another.
If in fact, it is the one supreme GOD, it doesn't really matter what story you believe, as long as you believe something, right? I think that you can have the Bible, or the Koran, or whatever. I think it is all the same. I believe that whatever helps you live your life, is what you should believe in.
Can't I just say that I believe that there is a higher power, without having to commit myself to the very details of how and why? We all know that historically humans are very mischevious and forgetful people. How can we trust them getting the story straight? Thus being human. Why is it so important to focus on the details? As long as you live a good life, treat others with respect, and have LOVE in your heart, every little detail of creation to the present, is not necessary. I believe history is important, so in that sense, I understand why people would join such heated debates, but I also think that getting the facts straight, often leads to more problems than solutions.
And so, I guess what I am trying to say is, I think it is wonderful that you have found what you deem to be the ultimate "truth". But I feel that I have my own sense of truth in my heart, without having to wrap my brain and heart around one particular version or the other. Does that make sense?
At this point in my life, I do not feel lost or misguided. I do not feel like I need answers to questions about GOD. I do not seek the ultimate "Truth". I feel that I am blessed, and I feel that there is something greater than myself. And because of that I do not seek confirmation. Maybe thats just me.
Anyways, if your GOD is all forgiving and I am wrong, I dont think he/she will hold it against me!!!! J/K
Monday, July 04, 2005
Fourth of July......
It is hard to celebrate sometimes, when you are surrounded by drama. And it's easy for anyone to get cynical when you live in a country that seems to get worse and worse economically and politically every year.
And usually, I find myself to be one of those cynics. This year for some reason, I felt good.
Last week at work, as every one marveled at getting out early and spending an extra day celebrating the "Holidays", I couldn't help but have an instant gag reflex. Not that I don't enjoy having a day or twelve off from work, cause I do.
I just can't help but roll my eyes at people that run around with fake patriotism yelling "Happy Fourth of July", when to them I know that the founding of this country has less significance to them than reality TV. To them, its BBQ's and fireworks, which is great and all, but not really the point.
But as I thought more about it, I realized that the process of celebration itself is enough to give the whole point of Fourth of July meaning.
Freedom. Freedom to sit around in your underwear all day if you want to. Eat a nasty hot dog. Don't take a shower. Get drunk on cheap beer at 2 in the afternoon, or 2 at night on a Sunday cause you can sleep in Monday morning. Be lazy. Be social. Be whatever.
So on this seemingly ordinary Fourth of July I had an amazing time. And I didn't even have to go anywhere. Living in Chicago has its perks here and there, but it was only tonight when I found one of the coolest ones.
Starting at about 7:30 I could stand on my porch and watch fireworks. I didn't have to haul myself to a cluttered field of families, I could stand on my porch, in my pajamas, and watch fireworks.
In every direction there was light and sound. It was as if there were a million tiny thunderclaps going off every second, in every direction.
And it went on for hours.
At that moment, standing alone on my porch, previously feeling lonely for not going out with friends or family, I felt content because realized that I wasn't alone.
Sometimes in a city it is hard to realize how much life is around you. Even though you see people everywhere, it doesnt really hit you. But tonight, it did.
Everyone had slowed down their lives, just for a few hours, to celebrate. In a city of endless possiblity is seems impossible for everyone to be doing the exact same thing that at the exact same time. But they were.
In every direction people were sharing moments. Lots of them. Hours and hours of them. It was unlike anything I have ever seen and felt. I looked around from my porch and saw other people like me, marvelling at the show we didn't even have to leave home for.
And for once I felt utterly grateful to be celebrating Fourth of July, with thousands of people I dont' even know.
It is hard to celebrate sometimes, when you are surrounded by drama. And it's easy for anyone to get cynical when you live in a country that seems to get worse and worse economically and politically every year.
And usually, I find myself to be one of those cynics. This year for some reason, I felt good.
Last week at work, as every one marveled at getting out early and spending an extra day celebrating the "Holidays", I couldn't help but have an instant gag reflex. Not that I don't enjoy having a day or twelve off from work, cause I do.
I just can't help but roll my eyes at people that run around with fake patriotism yelling "Happy Fourth of July", when to them I know that the founding of this country has less significance to them than reality TV. To them, its BBQ's and fireworks, which is great and all, but not really the point.
But as I thought more about it, I realized that the process of celebration itself is enough to give the whole point of Fourth of July meaning.
Freedom. Freedom to sit around in your underwear all day if you want to. Eat a nasty hot dog. Don't take a shower. Get drunk on cheap beer at 2 in the afternoon, or 2 at night on a Sunday cause you can sleep in Monday morning. Be lazy. Be social. Be whatever.
So on this seemingly ordinary Fourth of July I had an amazing time. And I didn't even have to go anywhere. Living in Chicago has its perks here and there, but it was only tonight when I found one of the coolest ones.
Starting at about 7:30 I could stand on my porch and watch fireworks. I didn't have to haul myself to a cluttered field of families, I could stand on my porch, in my pajamas, and watch fireworks.
In every direction there was light and sound. It was as if there were a million tiny thunderclaps going off every second, in every direction.
And it went on for hours.
At that moment, standing alone on my porch, previously feeling lonely for not going out with friends or family, I felt content because realized that I wasn't alone.
Sometimes in a city it is hard to realize how much life is around you. Even though you see people everywhere, it doesnt really hit you. But tonight, it did.
Everyone had slowed down their lives, just for a few hours, to celebrate. In a city of endless possiblity is seems impossible for everyone to be doing the exact same thing that at the exact same time. But they were.
In every direction people were sharing moments. Lots of them. Hours and hours of them. It was unlike anything I have ever seen and felt. I looked around from my porch and saw other people like me, marvelling at the show we didn't even have to leave home for.
And for once I felt utterly grateful to be celebrating Fourth of July, with thousands of people I dont' even know.
Friday, July 01, 2005
With Liberty and Justice for Some
As people all over the U.S. join together this weekend for a little independence Day celebrations, it makes me wonder what we are really clinging on to.
This week marks the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and conservatives and liberals alike are scrambling about in speculation and anticipation.
And I'm not afraid to say it......I'm just a wee bit worried.
First of all, I know O'Connor was not your typical conservative. Although many of her opinions had more conservative leanings, there were always just a few moderate opinions that gave me hope for a more balanced bench. She was a voice of reason and often fairness, sometimes facing harsh opposition.
For months everyone was assuming that Chief Justice Rehnquist would be retiring, and liberals every where were freaking out. Who would replace him? Think about it, have you seen the candidates for O'Connor's replacement?
Granted Rehnquist was also a conservative, but he was also a defender of the law, and the judicial system as we know it. His steadfast beliefs that the judiciary should be safeguarded and kept separate from the legislative branch, is something that seems to be lacking in today's political arena.
Do we honestly believe that someone like say, Attorney General Gonzales will be able to keep the ever present "Bush" voice out of his ear?? I mean the guy owes his whole political success, and career to the "W."
As potential candidates go, there have been about 8 people mentioned so far, and all seem to have more conservative leanings (to put it lightly). I just hope that the administration will choose someone who understands what upholding the laws means, and that treating every situation fairly without personal relationship influence, is vital to the future of "democracy", or whatever is left of it.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller…..-cc
So, I’ll just say it now, I am not a huge sports person. Now that’s not necessarily to say that I don’t enjoy some sports.
For example, I love football and for Monday nights I will always be thankful. I like hockey. Actually let me clarify that, I like going to hockey games. There’s something about the cheap beer and men kicking each others asses that really gets me going. It’s kind of like watching gladiators.
As for basketball and baseball……I guess I just really need to be at the game……under the influence, to really get involved.
That being said, I want to state clearly and for the record that I am not a sports hater. I am merely just a person that cannot define life or death with all things involving balls, or pucks.
And especially when being good at handling one of those balls or pucks, means that you are entitled to a better lifestyle than say…..me…?
I am absolutely amazed at the amount of money that goes into paying professional athletes every year. And sure there are the die hard sports fans who will argue that these guys work hard for the money, but honestly to me, their just like work horses that are just dragging people along for a ride.
They are a distraction from life and all the crap around it, and for that I applaud them. They give people something to look forward to, something to care about, be competitive about, and talk about.
But should they really be making that much money?
I was talking to the roommate of a friend of mine and he says that as long as there are corporations out there big enough to sign the checks, than no one is getting hurt.
Now, I understand that concept, hell I even slightly agree with it, but does it really make it right? Instead of just saying, “Fuck It, that’s just how it is” shouldn’t we be saying, “share the wealth”?
With the economy being in the shape that it is right now, couldn’t we divert some of that superfluous money into things that are more deserving than say a……fifth car that someone will never drive….or a giant indoor ski slope?
But anyways, back to sports. Recently, just for laughs, I went online just to see how much the NBA players make in contrast with the WNBA players. I always wondered how weird it must be to be a female basketball player and to know that if you were just born with a penis, you would be a multimillionaire.
What I found was that although the WNBA has half of the amount of teams and players, the average salary is less than the lowest paid athlete in the NBA.
For example, one of the highest paid NBA players makes about $30 million a year. That is more than the entire salary cap for the WNBA times about 30.
Even the lowest paid NBA athlete makes more than the entire salary cap for the WNBA. Now I know that money comes from revenue, and I don’t know anyone who rushes out to buy tickets to WNBA games, or even watches them at home for free, but Wow, that’s really nuts.
Imagine destroying your body for a sport, racking up injuries and medical bills. How are you supposed to pay them on a salary average of $40K a year? Even the WNBA’s highest player only makes about $87 K.
Kinda sucks huh? Make you wonder why some women haven’t tried to have sex changes and play in the NBA. $30 million might be worth it to some people.
Well, Im sure that all these women aren’t completely at a loss. They can always have endorsement deals and advertising dollars coming in to dry their tears with, but man, if I loved basketball that much, I would be pissed.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
To Clone or Not to Clone….That is the Question-cc
As of the last few days, the United States has once again been pushed back in the ranks of countries leading the world in technology in medicine. Hwang Woo-Suk of Seoul University in South Korea successfully cloned an embryonic cell from the DNA of a sick patient, the second successful clone in two years.
And here we are in the United States scurrying around with our priorities completely out of wack.
Sick people? disease you say? Screw em’, we need oil and gas for our SUV’s!!!!!
At some point you really have to start to wonder what is happening to our government when even staunch anti-abortion politicians are disagreeing with President Bush’s crusade on banning stem cell research.
Utah republican Orrin Hatch has been stepping up along with numerous other republicans for years in order to push along bills and funding for such research that could help aid Americans with Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.
But once again we hit a wall of arguments from pro-life supporters who believe that by using embryonic cells (THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THROWN AWAY ANYWAY) we are ending a life.
I just don’t get it.
Honestly, I think that the President and many other opponents know what the benefits of such research would be and would probably support it if they hadn’t buried themselves under piles and piles of “Moral” speeches about the value of “unborn life”.
This isn’t unborn life we are talking about here. These are cells that still need to be implanted manually into a body in order to become a life. If you remove the human element completely, they would never have a chance anyway, so how are we destroying life?
I think that this is an issue that few too many people are focusing on right now. And although I am tempted to side a bit more with the idea of using the cells for research, I can understand why some people are concerned.
If you open the door for cloning, what could possibly slip in underfoot and go unnoticed? Could it be possible for a country to create an army of dispensable cloned soldiers on a mission to kill, kill, kill? Or could people start determining the kind of child they want prior to conception themselves?
And to side with Mother Nature for a second, I can see how cloning to cure disease may offset the natural order of things in life. Maybe we are not all supposed to live till 100. That leads to other problems, such as overpopulation, destruction of forests and the depletion of natural resources.
I almost think that we have natural disasters as a way for the earth to shake off a little extra weight from time to time. I know that sounds bad and all, but realistically, it’s possible.
There are many scary notions to the idea of cloning, but if you think about it in terms of evolution, there have been many scientific advances in the last thousand years that one could have never anticipated, but we couldn’t live with out now.
We’ll just have to wait and see what kind of smart decision our paid lawmakers
can come up with, all the while crossing our fingers that our country won’t become the international version of the slow kid on the short bus.
As of the last few days, the United States has once again been pushed back in the ranks of countries leading the world in technology in medicine. Hwang Woo-Suk of Seoul University in South Korea successfully cloned an embryonic cell from the DNA of a sick patient, the second successful clone in two years.
And here we are in the United States scurrying around with our priorities completely out of wack.
Sick people? disease you say? Screw em’, we need oil and gas for our SUV’s!!!!!
At some point you really have to start to wonder what is happening to our government when even staunch anti-abortion politicians are disagreeing with President Bush’s crusade on banning stem cell research.
Utah republican Orrin Hatch has been stepping up along with numerous other republicans for years in order to push along bills and funding for such research that could help aid Americans with Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.
But once again we hit a wall of arguments from pro-life supporters who believe that by using embryonic cells (THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THROWN AWAY ANYWAY) we are ending a life.
I just don’t get it.
Honestly, I think that the President and many other opponents know what the benefits of such research would be and would probably support it if they hadn’t buried themselves under piles and piles of “Moral” speeches about the value of “unborn life”.
This isn’t unborn life we are talking about here. These are cells that still need to be implanted manually into a body in order to become a life. If you remove the human element completely, they would never have a chance anyway, so how are we destroying life?
I think that this is an issue that few too many people are focusing on right now. And although I am tempted to side a bit more with the idea of using the cells for research, I can understand why some people are concerned.
If you open the door for cloning, what could possibly slip in underfoot and go unnoticed? Could it be possible for a country to create an army of dispensable cloned soldiers on a mission to kill, kill, kill? Or could people start determining the kind of child they want prior to conception themselves?
And to side with Mother Nature for a second, I can see how cloning to cure disease may offset the natural order of things in life. Maybe we are not all supposed to live till 100. That leads to other problems, such as overpopulation, destruction of forests and the depletion of natural resources.
I almost think that we have natural disasters as a way for the earth to shake off a little extra weight from time to time. I know that sounds bad and all, but realistically, it’s possible.
There are many scary notions to the idea of cloning, but if you think about it in terms of evolution, there have been many scientific advances in the last thousand years that one could have never anticipated, but we couldn’t live with out now.
We’ll just have to wait and see what kind of smart decision our paid lawmakers
can come up with, all the while crossing our fingers that our country won’t become the international version of the slow kid on the short bus.
Monday, May 16, 2005
I Swear!!! The Dog Ate My Homework! -cc
Remember that one class in high school that you couldn’t stand and without fail would always forget or purposely not do the homework? For me it was Algebra. I don’t know what it was, the Susan Powter look-alike teacher, or just the idea of sitting around trying to figure out why x= AB cause honestly we all know you will never need to know that stuff, despite what your parents said.
I just couldn’t get into it. So it was punishment upon punishment to have to drag the Algebra book home with me under the context of “homework” as if the class work was not torture enough.
And often times I would skip it altogether and have to feign illness or go to great lengths creating a remarkable story for why I didn’t complete the assignment. Usually neither worked. But regardless of my spite for the class, the work, and my teachers hair, I always went to school knowing that I was going to lose credit for the assignment and I would have to own up to it. I would face the consequences of my actions on test day when I would stare blankly on the paper in front of me and wonder why I just couldn’t have done the damn homework assignments.
So here I am today at 24 years old and am facing a whole new slew of challenges through education. I still hate Algebra, in fact I hate anything involving math, but I have a whole new respect for the light workload that I had in high school.
In college, the teachers could care less if you don’t do the work, its your money going down the toilet. And now I even find myself to be a bit of a homework nerd. I learned from my shoddy work ethic in high school that if you don’t do the work, you won’t pass the class and with classes running about $1500 bucks a pop, that’s not a decision I’m willing to make.
Recently I stumbled upon a article about Marya Yates School in Matteson Illinois. Apparently some genius teacher thought it would be a good idea to get rid of homework altogether. Her excuse: Children simply don’t have the time and will get better grades if they drop off all those zeros for missed work.
You think I’m kidding right? Wrong, I wish I was!
Look it up, I swear to you. There is honestly a junior high that has eliminated homework so kids can have more free time.
The real evil at work here?
You got it! The current administration that believes that standardized testing scores are more important than say… teaching children about art and music, and how to be creative.
No no, we have enough of those creative types. What we need is a solid work force that will be happy working for minimum wage right?
So what I’m wondering is, what happens to these kids when they go to high school, or even college. How will they cope with the work load?
I spoke to Dan Cahill, an employee and former writer for Chicago Sun-Times, teacher at Columbia College, and a parent about the situation at Marya Yates School.
“I think that that is absolutely asinine and ridiculous. Education at that level should be directing students towards self re-enforcement by providing them with the tools they need to be successful students on their own.”
And I couldn’t agree more. Even now as I sit and slave away on whatever assignment I have thrown my way, I am tempted to give up halfway through, but my experiments with procrastination and punishment have taught me to do the latter. But then again, maybe I’ll be proven wrong. I mean anyone can be hopeful at the idea of thousands of non-creative, video game expert, and overweight children being pushed out into the real world right? Aahhh....our future.....sounds good huh?
Remember that one class in high school that you couldn’t stand and without fail would always forget or purposely not do the homework? For me it was Algebra. I don’t know what it was, the Susan Powter look-alike teacher, or just the idea of sitting around trying to figure out why x= AB cause honestly we all know you will never need to know that stuff, despite what your parents said.
I just couldn’t get into it. So it was punishment upon punishment to have to drag the Algebra book home with me under the context of “homework” as if the class work was not torture enough.
And often times I would skip it altogether and have to feign illness or go to great lengths creating a remarkable story for why I didn’t complete the assignment. Usually neither worked. But regardless of my spite for the class, the work, and my teachers hair, I always went to school knowing that I was going to lose credit for the assignment and I would have to own up to it. I would face the consequences of my actions on test day when I would stare blankly on the paper in front of me and wonder why I just couldn’t have done the damn homework assignments.
So here I am today at 24 years old and am facing a whole new slew of challenges through education. I still hate Algebra, in fact I hate anything involving math, but I have a whole new respect for the light workload that I had in high school.
In college, the teachers could care less if you don’t do the work, its your money going down the toilet. And now I even find myself to be a bit of a homework nerd. I learned from my shoddy work ethic in high school that if you don’t do the work, you won’t pass the class and with classes running about $1500 bucks a pop, that’s not a decision I’m willing to make.
Recently I stumbled upon a article about Marya Yates School in Matteson Illinois. Apparently some genius teacher thought it would be a good idea to get rid of homework altogether. Her excuse: Children simply don’t have the time and will get better grades if they drop off all those zeros for missed work.
You think I’m kidding right? Wrong, I wish I was!
Look it up, I swear to you. There is honestly a junior high that has eliminated homework so kids can have more free time.
The real evil at work here?
You got it! The current administration that believes that standardized testing scores are more important than say… teaching children about art and music, and how to be creative.
No no, we have enough of those creative types. What we need is a solid work force that will be happy working for minimum wage right?
So what I’m wondering is, what happens to these kids when they go to high school, or even college. How will they cope with the work load?
I spoke to Dan Cahill, an employee and former writer for Chicago Sun-Times, teacher at Columbia College, and a parent about the situation at Marya Yates School.
“I think that that is absolutely asinine and ridiculous. Education at that level should be directing students towards self re-enforcement by providing them with the tools they need to be successful students on their own.”
And I couldn’t agree more. Even now as I sit and slave away on whatever assignment I have thrown my way, I am tempted to give up halfway through, but my experiments with procrastination and punishment have taught me to do the latter. But then again, maybe I’ll be proven wrong. I mean anyone can be hopeful at the idea of thousands of non-creative, video game expert, and overweight children being pushed out into the real world right? Aahhh....our future.....sounds good huh?
Saturday, May 07, 2005
A Family Divided-CC interview
Imagine coming home from school or work one day and finding your parents sobbing in the kitchen clutching photos of family a world away. Imagine the frustration you would feel at knowing that you came to this country in hopes of gaining opportunity, while leaving behind everyone and everything you know.
Now imagine that one day, your new land of opportunity, a land that you had become a proud citizen of had decided to invade your homeland for reasons you could never understand. For reasons that are insignificant to you because the only thing that matters to you there is your family and their safety.
Every day, as the United States and countries around the world bounce from one conflict to the next, families are torn apart in the fray. For the thousands of Muslim Americans who emigrated here from Iraq, they cannot do anything but sit back and watch, and pray, as chaos and death envelops their homeland and families.
Although the U.S government would like to censor what we see in order to minimize the horror and realizations of the true cost of war by its citizens, we have history to remind us that the battles we engage in have a cost that cannot be measured.
And as the insurgencies and rebellions continue in Iraq, we find ourselves again picking at a cultural scab, North Korea, and the question is when the blood will begin to flow.
For Korean born Jessica, Korea is as foreign to her as Iraq. She was born in Korea, but raised here in the United States and exemplifies all aspects of an American born citizen. She has no Korean accent and is even fluent in Spanish. But although she grew up as an American, she has never attempted to acquire citizenship; instead she lives in Chicago as a resident alien. She says that she just hasn’t gotten around to it, but even more so now, she doesn’t want to. And like most twenty-something Americans, she doesn’t even care if she can vote.
But for her Korean mother, becoming a citizen was something to be proud of. Jessica says that her mom still bugs her about taking the citizenship test, but she really doesn’t see the point, especially now in a time where the United States isn’t proving to be the helpful big brother nation that it claims to be. She feels conflicted about it in the same way that I’m sure many younger Americans feel now, especially following an election of a not-so-popular president after record turnout among younger voters.
As for the conflict of North Korea, she says she can feel how her mother feels divided. I asked Jessica about the current issue in North Korea and quizzed her on some general knowledge of Korea itself. The following was our conversation.
Q: So how much do you know about the conflict in North Korea?
A: Um..Well not as much as I should I guess.
Q: What part of Korea is your family originally from?
A: Well my mother is from South Korea but I know that she had family in North Korea, but I think they are all dead. Actually, my parents always told me that all of the Koreans that are in the U.S. now are from South Korea and that North Koreans were not allowed to leave the country, but I’m not sure if that’s
completely true.
Q: Now you’ve said that you are not really actively pursuing American citizenship,is there any reason for that? Do you have plans to go to Korea again?
A: (laughs) NO! No, I just don’t really think about it that much.
Q: So if there is a major conflict in Korea in the next few years, even if it is just
South Korea, how do you think you would be affected, if at all?
A: Um…I don’t really think that I would
Q: What about your mother?
A: Yeah, I guess she would. She’d probably be scared for family that she still has there. I never even thought about that before now though.
Q: Would you ever have any fears of similar racial profiling that a lot of Muslim Americans are facing in the states today?
A: I never really thought of that either. But not really I guess. I mean there are a lot of Asians living in the states so it would be kinda hard I think to single out the Koreans.
After talking with Jessica for a while, I realized that ethnic roots don’t always have a bearing on how informed people are when it comes to conflicts overseas, even if it involves a region from which they are born. But for Jessica’s mother, and the hundreds of thousands of people who have immigrated to this country over the last 100 years, the idea of conflict in their homeland is a sobering notion that we are only as safe as we believe we are.
Imagine coming home from school or work one day and finding your parents sobbing in the kitchen clutching photos of family a world away. Imagine the frustration you would feel at knowing that you came to this country in hopes of gaining opportunity, while leaving behind everyone and everything you know.
Now imagine that one day, your new land of opportunity, a land that you had become a proud citizen of had decided to invade your homeland for reasons you could never understand. For reasons that are insignificant to you because the only thing that matters to you there is your family and their safety.
Every day, as the United States and countries around the world bounce from one conflict to the next, families are torn apart in the fray. For the thousands of Muslim Americans who emigrated here from Iraq, they cannot do anything but sit back and watch, and pray, as chaos and death envelops their homeland and families.
Although the U.S government would like to censor what we see in order to minimize the horror and realizations of the true cost of war by its citizens, we have history to remind us that the battles we engage in have a cost that cannot be measured.
And as the insurgencies and rebellions continue in Iraq, we find ourselves again picking at a cultural scab, North Korea, and the question is when the blood will begin to flow.
For Korean born Jessica, Korea is as foreign to her as Iraq. She was born in Korea, but raised here in the United States and exemplifies all aspects of an American born citizen. She has no Korean accent and is even fluent in Spanish. But although she grew up as an American, she has never attempted to acquire citizenship; instead she lives in Chicago as a resident alien. She says that she just hasn’t gotten around to it, but even more so now, she doesn’t want to. And like most twenty-something Americans, she doesn’t even care if she can vote.
But for her Korean mother, becoming a citizen was something to be proud of. Jessica says that her mom still bugs her about taking the citizenship test, but she really doesn’t see the point, especially now in a time where the United States isn’t proving to be the helpful big brother nation that it claims to be. She feels conflicted about it in the same way that I’m sure many younger Americans feel now, especially following an election of a not-so-popular president after record turnout among younger voters.
As for the conflict of North Korea, she says she can feel how her mother feels divided. I asked Jessica about the current issue in North Korea and quizzed her on some general knowledge of Korea itself. The following was our conversation.
Q: So how much do you know about the conflict in North Korea?
A: Um..Well not as much as I should I guess.
Q: What part of Korea is your family originally from?
A: Well my mother is from South Korea but I know that she had family in North Korea, but I think they are all dead. Actually, my parents always told me that all of the Koreans that are in the U.S. now are from South Korea and that North Koreans were not allowed to leave the country, but I’m not sure if that’s
completely true.
Q: Now you’ve said that you are not really actively pursuing American citizenship,is there any reason for that? Do you have plans to go to Korea again?
A: (laughs) NO! No, I just don’t really think about it that much.
Q: So if there is a major conflict in Korea in the next few years, even if it is just
South Korea, how do you think you would be affected, if at all?
A: Um…I don’t really think that I would
Q: What about your mother?
A: Yeah, I guess she would. She’d probably be scared for family that she still has there. I never even thought about that before now though.
Q: Would you ever have any fears of similar racial profiling that a lot of Muslim Americans are facing in the states today?
A: I never really thought of that either. But not really I guess. I mean there are a lot of Asians living in the states so it would be kinda hard I think to single out the Koreans.
After talking with Jessica for a while, I realized that ethnic roots don’t always have a bearing on how informed people are when it comes to conflicts overseas, even if it involves a region from which they are born. But for Jessica’s mother, and the hundreds of thousands of people who have immigrated to this country over the last 100 years, the idea of conflict in their homeland is a sobering notion that we are only as safe as we believe we are.
My Daily Dose-CC
So I know that people are probably sick and tired of hearing the youth of America regurgitate the satirical views of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show as truth, I know I am, but I have to give it to Jon Stewart for keeping his show more real than a lot of top networks programming, even under the context of satire.
I sit in classes day after day at what is probably one of the most liberal institutions I have ever encountered, and I often find myself listening to people spout out often lopsided views on politics. And although my political leanings are a bit more towards the liberal side, I often find myself playing devil’s advocate or even defending some of the more conservative views of fellow students. And the only reason I feel compelled to do so is that people are not very well informed.
It saddens me completely to know that a majority of my fellow students, that will soon be stepping out into the world at large, base a majority of what they believe in off of what they hear in programs such as The Daily show, or even MTV News. Are you fucking kidding me?
Now, I watch the Daily Show, not religiously, but enough to respect Jon Stewarts approach to political satire. And although it bugs me to know that he is the main source of news for some of young America, I am relieved that at least someone can get them involved.
I respect Jon Stewarts approach towards issues, and often times I don’t think he gets enough credit for balancing out the humor on all political parties. For example, he had Zell Miller, a notoriouslly outspoken and conservative former democratic senator, and gave him an opportunity to promote his book, although they both have completely opposite views on almost everything.
Long gone are the days of Walter Cronkite and journalism that would make anyone proud. There still are amazing people out their fighting for stories and to get the truth, but I guess it’s just a lot harder now to sift through all the implanted media run garbage. So when I’m dizzy from the sensory overloading that comes from endless hours of half-rate journalism, I’m glad there are people like Jon Stewart out there, to give me a dose of humor and even me out.
So I know that people are probably sick and tired of hearing the youth of America regurgitate the satirical views of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show as truth, I know I am, but I have to give it to Jon Stewart for keeping his show more real than a lot of top networks programming, even under the context of satire.
I sit in classes day after day at what is probably one of the most liberal institutions I have ever encountered, and I often find myself listening to people spout out often lopsided views on politics. And although my political leanings are a bit more towards the liberal side, I often find myself playing devil’s advocate or even defending some of the more conservative views of fellow students. And the only reason I feel compelled to do so is that people are not very well informed.
It saddens me completely to know that a majority of my fellow students, that will soon be stepping out into the world at large, base a majority of what they believe in off of what they hear in programs such as The Daily show, or even MTV News. Are you fucking kidding me?
Now, I watch the Daily Show, not religiously, but enough to respect Jon Stewarts approach to political satire. And although it bugs me to know that he is the main source of news for some of young America, I am relieved that at least someone can get them involved.
I respect Jon Stewarts approach towards issues, and often times I don’t think he gets enough credit for balancing out the humor on all political parties. For example, he had Zell Miller, a notoriouslly outspoken and conservative former democratic senator, and gave him an opportunity to promote his book, although they both have completely opposite views on almost everything.
Long gone are the days of Walter Cronkite and journalism that would make anyone proud. There still are amazing people out their fighting for stories and to get the truth, but I guess it’s just a lot harder now to sift through all the implanted media run garbage. So when I’m dizzy from the sensory overloading that comes from endless hours of half-rate journalism, I’m glad there are people like Jon Stewart out there, to give me a dose of humor and even me out.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
The Pope's Legacy...sounds like a Star Wars movie-CC
Okay so as much as it pains me to talk about the pope AGAIN, I will. It's not that I'm against Catholicism or Christianity as a whole, its just that I am against that idea that if you dont believe what they believe, than your gonna rot in hell.
I quote the pope in 1981: "the church cannot be an association of free thinkers."
So what do they expect people to be, sheep? I understand that the point is to live your life the right way, and you will go to Heaven. THATS GREAT. But I mean, am I that far off when I say that I think by scaring people into behaving a certain way, or even telling them that they are not supposed to be free thinkers, is a kind of violent and odd method. And what if you dont do what your supposed to do? Go to church on Sunday, repent, and all is forgiven? Talk about the ultimate loophole!
Anyways, the pope is gone and he has left behind this legacy which would make any candidate for the job a bit nervous. It's like going on a job interview to replace GOD.
I guess you dont really have to be Catholic to appreciate the many good things that the Pope did, ie: helping end communism, ending wars between nations, helping create better relations between the catholics and the jews.....etc etc....
But for some reason it is easier to dwell on the negative, especially if your not a practising Catholic. It's hard for me to really admire someone completely if there are a lot of things that I dont agree with. For example, his highly conservative views towards abortion, artificial insemination, and homosexuality.
Maybe for me, the biggest issue would be his opposing views towards women in the clergy. Maybe because I'm a girl my opinion is a bit skewed but heres what I think. I think the current state of the church is more conservative and worse off because there arent more women involved in the decision making. I mean, women are stubborn too but I think a bit more flexible.
Especially in issues invoving womens lives such as birth control and abortion. You can't expect a man to really understand what going through something like pregnancy or unwanted pregancy is like.
Well anyway, I hope that the next guy they pick knows what he is in for, and up against.
Okay so as much as it pains me to talk about the pope AGAIN, I will. It's not that I'm against Catholicism or Christianity as a whole, its just that I am against that idea that if you dont believe what they believe, than your gonna rot in hell.
I quote the pope in 1981: "the church cannot be an association of free thinkers."
So what do they expect people to be, sheep? I understand that the point is to live your life the right way, and you will go to Heaven. THATS GREAT. But I mean, am I that far off when I say that I think by scaring people into behaving a certain way, or even telling them that they are not supposed to be free thinkers, is a kind of violent and odd method. And what if you dont do what your supposed to do? Go to church on Sunday, repent, and all is forgiven? Talk about the ultimate loophole!
Anyways, the pope is gone and he has left behind this legacy which would make any candidate for the job a bit nervous. It's like going on a job interview to replace GOD.
I guess you dont really have to be Catholic to appreciate the many good things that the Pope did, ie: helping end communism, ending wars between nations, helping create better relations between the catholics and the jews.....etc etc....
But for some reason it is easier to dwell on the negative, especially if your not a practising Catholic. It's hard for me to really admire someone completely if there are a lot of things that I dont agree with. For example, his highly conservative views towards abortion, artificial insemination, and homosexuality.
Maybe for me, the biggest issue would be his opposing views towards women in the clergy. Maybe because I'm a girl my opinion is a bit skewed but heres what I think. I think the current state of the church is more conservative and worse off because there arent more women involved in the decision making. I mean, women are stubborn too but I think a bit more flexible.
Especially in issues invoving womens lives such as birth control and abortion. You can't expect a man to really understand what going through something like pregnancy or unwanted pregancy is like.
Well anyway, I hope that the next guy they pick knows what he is in for, and up against.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
For a Good Time Call Pope John Paul II!!!
So today marks the day of the death of the Pope. Seems like a pretty big deal right? Honestly, I'm not what you would call a religious person, more like a spiritual one, but I can still see the significance of his death. He was a world leader, Christ he had his own fuckin city. Wait can I say christ and fucking in the same sentence....? I'm not really to sure on the rules of these things. Anyways, he died yesterday and the whole Christian faith mourns. I can understand that, but man do I not understand where the modern religious ideals have gone.
For instance, last night at work, (keep in mind that I work in a bar) I nearly peed on myself when I caught a glimpse of the words: "Rest in Peace Pope John Paul II April 2005", on the back of the stall door.
After recovering my balance and turning to flush, what do I find there but another set of "RIP POPE" messages on the wall.
Granted, I am not the most up to date when dealing with the modern religious followers, but seriously, isn't it against some sort of law to use the popes name in the bathroom? I mean really, how ironic is it that the pope is being remembered in a stall next to the words:
"For a good time call Mike X...he has a big ......"
This question really leads me to wonder, how do we define religion in our current world? Have we as a people strayed so far from traditional religion that we can't even see that although our intentions may be right, we're not quite getting it. I'm sure that the pope would have loved to know that a good Christian was getting wasted and thought of him while urinating.
Is it really possible to continue on in life believing the same stories, while knowing there are so many other possibilites? For example, I have always wondered how I could believe in one religion, when if I was born in any other part of the world, I would believe in another. How do I know which is the right one? Oh yeah, that faith thing right??? Well I just don't buy it.
For centuries, and in more dark and isolated times, religion was necessary to give people a reason to get up at the ass crack of dawn, participate in back breaking manual labor, suffer wretched diseases and all for a life span of 35 years. Without religion, and the hope of going some place better, wouldnt every one have just said "fuck it" and try to have as much fun and sex as possible? Think about it, there would be no cities or roads or anything without the faithful people to build them.
But now, we live in a more modern society, not necessarily enlightened by any means, but maybe just a little more aware of the world outside our own private boundries. So now we as a race have a harder time grasping onto the concept of morality and life beyond death. We are a people obsessed with right now, gotta have it, ASAP. How often in our daily lives do we even have time to stop and think about next week, much less next lifetime.
This whole religion thing eludes me. However, I am open to the search for a spiritual understanding of life and all things within. I will read about and consider all angles of modern religion, till I find one that makes sense to me. But I'm pretty sure of one thing, I dont think I will be practicing my faith in a bathroom stall. To me, there is only one throne and concept I can worship at a time in there, I like to keep it simple.
So today marks the day of the death of the Pope. Seems like a pretty big deal right? Honestly, I'm not what you would call a religious person, more like a spiritual one, but I can still see the significance of his death. He was a world leader, Christ he had his own fuckin city. Wait can I say christ and fucking in the same sentence....? I'm not really to sure on the rules of these things. Anyways, he died yesterday and the whole Christian faith mourns. I can understand that, but man do I not understand where the modern religious ideals have gone.
For instance, last night at work, (keep in mind that I work in a bar) I nearly peed on myself when I caught a glimpse of the words: "Rest in Peace Pope John Paul II April 2005", on the back of the stall door.
After recovering my balance and turning to flush, what do I find there but another set of "RIP POPE" messages on the wall.
Granted, I am not the most up to date when dealing with the modern religious followers, but seriously, isn't it against some sort of law to use the popes name in the bathroom? I mean really, how ironic is it that the pope is being remembered in a stall next to the words:
"For a good time call Mike X...he has a big ......"
This question really leads me to wonder, how do we define religion in our current world? Have we as a people strayed so far from traditional religion that we can't even see that although our intentions may be right, we're not quite getting it. I'm sure that the pope would have loved to know that a good Christian was getting wasted and thought of him while urinating.
Is it really possible to continue on in life believing the same stories, while knowing there are so many other possibilites? For example, I have always wondered how I could believe in one religion, when if I was born in any other part of the world, I would believe in another. How do I know which is the right one? Oh yeah, that faith thing right??? Well I just don't buy it.
For centuries, and in more dark and isolated times, religion was necessary to give people a reason to get up at the ass crack of dawn, participate in back breaking manual labor, suffer wretched diseases and all for a life span of 35 years. Without religion, and the hope of going some place better, wouldnt every one have just said "fuck it" and try to have as much fun and sex as possible? Think about it, there would be no cities or roads or anything without the faithful people to build them.
But now, we live in a more modern society, not necessarily enlightened by any means, but maybe just a little more aware of the world outside our own private boundries. So now we as a race have a harder time grasping onto the concept of morality and life beyond death. We are a people obsessed with right now, gotta have it, ASAP. How often in our daily lives do we even have time to stop and think about next week, much less next lifetime.
This whole religion thing eludes me. However, I am open to the search for a spiritual understanding of life and all things within. I will read about and consider all angles of modern religion, till I find one that makes sense to me. But I'm pretty sure of one thing, I dont think I will be practicing my faith in a bathroom stall. To me, there is only one throne and concept I can worship at a time in there, I like to keep it simple.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Big Brother....the US Government, Federalism, and Nonsense,-CC
It occurred to me recently that we live in a society of good-hearted, well-intentioned complainers. These are the people who sit on the sidelines and watch life pass by, too scared to actually join in, but quick to point out when others make mistakes. In this country, we are lucky enough to be surrounded by endless opinions, thoughts and ideas that often create mass and sometimes hysterical dialouge. However, it seems that people are often so caught up in the mix, they forget to actually attempt to solve problems.
It's amazing to me that people are so infatuated with stories like Terri Schiavos. This may seem crude but, we all die one day people. Let this family figure this shit out themselves. If it wasnt for the constant barrage of media attention and people putting in there two sense everywhere, this wouldnt even be an issue. It's like people who are Pro-Life and jump all over any attempts made by facilities like Planned Parenthood to help curve pregnancies by encouraging the use of and educating people about birth control. YES they support abortion, but they are at least trying to do something positive to prevent them. These stauch opponents crucify these organizations in the media, and most religious people agree, but I ask these people, How Many Children and Unwanted Babies Have You Adopted?????
This is precisely my point. Have an opinion, but back it up with more than just emotion. People all over the country who are for the government intervention in the Terry Schiavo case are fueling the fires of confusion by screaming about murder and everything else, but what are they doing in their own communities for the greater good. There is a plethera of websites out there now that I can't get enough of. I think that people would truly rather rant and rave than solve problems. Especially in cases like the Schiavos.
As for the government intervention into issues like these, I often wonder whether our founding fathers would have forseen what this nation has become. Even early federalists could not have really known the what large scale government control would mean 200+ years later in a society such as our own.
I believe government intervetion should only be considered in matters that cannot be resolved on a state or local level. At this time and only this time should a centralilzed power be able to come in and change the way in which people are affected in their communities. The government, as a solid entitey is too large and without enough flexibilty to be able to relate to individual situations the way a smaller government can. Smaller government can relate with a human edge, knowing faces and names and being familiar with circumstances. Larger government can only know the law and the extent thereof.
As for our current big government, I agree with Terri Schiavo's husband Michael on the one point where he stated that the administration should be ashamed of themselves. Whether the outcome of her life is right or wrong, we cannot allow a larger power with no sense of humanity to come in and scutinize issues in our private lives.
It occurred to me recently that we live in a society of good-hearted, well-intentioned complainers. These are the people who sit on the sidelines and watch life pass by, too scared to actually join in, but quick to point out when others make mistakes. In this country, we are lucky enough to be surrounded by endless opinions, thoughts and ideas that often create mass and sometimes hysterical dialouge. However, it seems that people are often so caught up in the mix, they forget to actually attempt to solve problems.
It's amazing to me that people are so infatuated with stories like Terri Schiavos. This may seem crude but, we all die one day people. Let this family figure this shit out themselves. If it wasnt for the constant barrage of media attention and people putting in there two sense everywhere, this wouldnt even be an issue. It's like people who are Pro-Life and jump all over any attempts made by facilities like Planned Parenthood to help curve pregnancies by encouraging the use of and educating people about birth control. YES they support abortion, but they are at least trying to do something positive to prevent them. These stauch opponents crucify these organizations in the media, and most religious people agree, but I ask these people, How Many Children and Unwanted Babies Have You Adopted?????
This is precisely my point. Have an opinion, but back it up with more than just emotion. People all over the country who are for the government intervention in the Terry Schiavo case are fueling the fires of confusion by screaming about murder and everything else, but what are they doing in their own communities for the greater good. There is a plethera of websites out there now that I can't get enough of. I think that people would truly rather rant and rave than solve problems. Especially in cases like the Schiavos.
As for the government intervention into issues like these, I often wonder whether our founding fathers would have forseen what this nation has become. Even early federalists could not have really known the what large scale government control would mean 200+ years later in a society such as our own.
I believe government intervetion should only be considered in matters that cannot be resolved on a state or local level. At this time and only this time should a centralilzed power be able to come in and change the way in which people are affected in their communities. The government, as a solid entitey is too large and without enough flexibilty to be able to relate to individual situations the way a smaller government can. Smaller government can relate with a human edge, knowing faces and names and being familiar with circumstances. Larger government can only know the law and the extent thereof.
As for our current big government, I agree with Terri Schiavo's husband Michael on the one point where he stated that the administration should be ashamed of themselves. Whether the outcome of her life is right or wrong, we cannot allow a larger power with no sense of humanity to come in and scutinize issues in our private lives.
Monday, March 14, 2005
This Guy Again?? Geez.....-cc
So here we are again amidst another Jackson controversy. We go through our daily lives focusing our attention on another media feeding frenzy over some guy that we will all pretty much agree is not all there. Now, I won't lie, I danced to Thriller and have to say that Off the Wall was one of the best albums of the 80's, but it doesnt change the fact that the guy has a few screws lose, or has just screwed one too many times. Okay, I know thats gross, but seriously, how is it that we set aside so much time out of our days talking about something that really has minimal importance in the greater scheme of things? Do we not remember that there is a war going on???
Anyway, if we have to talk about it, here is what I think. First of all, there are more holes in the stories (on both sides) than on a block of swiss cheese. I was checking out an article on Smoking gun and I noticed there was allegations from the defense that these kids were running lose around the ranch and that they supposedly stole alcohol that Micheal had bought for guests. My first question is, what guests are those? Since he usually surrounds himself with children and he supposedly doesn't drink, the only guests he would have are like 13?!
And whats up with these kids parents? Shouldnt they be on trial for leaving their kids there for weeks at a time without supervision, just cause Jackson has money? Money does not mean safety. And how was it that these kids were able to run crazy through Neverland Ranch? Doesn't Micheal have security? Hmmm.... makes you think. Now I'm not saying that he didn't do it, I'm inclined to think he did. However, I'm gonna need a little more evidence proving his guilt. So far the witnesses have been about as useful as a seeing eye dog for a deaf person.
Check out some recent articles and you tell me how reliable the witnesses are. Somehow the kid can remember, in graphic detail, everything that happened a few years ago, but cant remember a conversation he had with his school dean not that long ago. Weird right? And if they were so frightened by Micheal and his security, why didn't they turn to authorities sooner. If you ask me, I definatley think some hanky-panky went on there, but I think the parents were equally as responsible for letting it go on for so long, and then deciding that it might not be a good idea for their kids to spend night after night, missing school, with someone as obviously removed (from earth) as Micheal. Um...hello?
So here we are again amidst another Jackson controversy. We go through our daily lives focusing our attention on another media feeding frenzy over some guy that we will all pretty much agree is not all there. Now, I won't lie, I danced to Thriller and have to say that Off the Wall was one of the best albums of the 80's, but it doesnt change the fact that the guy has a few screws lose, or has just screwed one too many times. Okay, I know thats gross, but seriously, how is it that we set aside so much time out of our days talking about something that really has minimal importance in the greater scheme of things? Do we not remember that there is a war going on???
Anyway, if we have to talk about it, here is what I think. First of all, there are more holes in the stories (on both sides) than on a block of swiss cheese. I was checking out an article on Smoking gun and I noticed there was allegations from the defense that these kids were running lose around the ranch and that they supposedly stole alcohol that Micheal had bought for guests. My first question is, what guests are those? Since he usually surrounds himself with children and he supposedly doesn't drink, the only guests he would have are like 13?!
And whats up with these kids parents? Shouldnt they be on trial for leaving their kids there for weeks at a time without supervision, just cause Jackson has money? Money does not mean safety. And how was it that these kids were able to run crazy through Neverland Ranch? Doesn't Micheal have security? Hmmm.... makes you think. Now I'm not saying that he didn't do it, I'm inclined to think he did. However, I'm gonna need a little more evidence proving his guilt. So far the witnesses have been about as useful as a seeing eye dog for a deaf person.
Check out some recent articles and you tell me how reliable the witnesses are. Somehow the kid can remember, in graphic detail, everything that happened a few years ago, but cant remember a conversation he had with his school dean not that long ago. Weird right? And if they were so frightened by Micheal and his security, why didn't they turn to authorities sooner. If you ask me, I definatley think some hanky-panky went on there, but I think the parents were equally as responsible for letting it go on for so long, and then deciding that it might not be a good idea for their kids to spend night after night, missing school, with someone as obviously removed (from earth) as Micheal. Um...hello?
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
The Real Christen-CC
Every year, children around the world awake from a one eyed sleep, to scurry to their living rooms in anticipation of finding their Christmas dreams come true. Some get baseballs, in hopes that they will one day play for their favorite team, some get dolls that they dress up and make their own. On a similar morning about twenty years ago, one little girl got a typewriter, and so began the adventure that she would create for herself.
I was born in Hartford, Connecticut on November 25. Shortly after my parents divorced in 1989, me and my brother Stephen were more formally introduced to the world of the arts. Since they we lived with our father, we spent most of the time with our mother on the weekends, which were usually occupied by whatever theatrical production she was involved in.
Surrounded by actors and writers at an early age, I was inspired to become a writer and began my own newspaper, The Freestone Flyer, at the age of 9. Following a neighborhood scandal involving the town I grew up in and the local residents, I decided that I would be the one to speak up, when others did not know how. The first edition of the Freestone Flyer, a monthly newsletter, was an early example of my journalistic tendencies.
In following years, I was active in the music community, touring Europe at the age of 16 with the United States Youth Ensembles choir.
At the age of 17, I attended Central Connecticut State University. However, I left after two years to pursue a career with Cydcor Marketing. After completing the management training program in 1 year, I was one of the youngest managers in the company. Upon arrival in Chicago, I decided to leave Cydcor to pursue a career as a writer.
I currently attend Columbia College as a journalism major, and hopes to work in the magazine industry, or as a producer in broadcast news. Having supported myself since the age of 17, I still works full time, presently in the blues industry at a local and renowned blues club in Chicago.
Every year, children around the world awake from a one eyed sleep, to scurry to their living rooms in anticipation of finding their Christmas dreams come true. Some get baseballs, in hopes that they will one day play for their favorite team, some get dolls that they dress up and make their own. On a similar morning about twenty years ago, one little girl got a typewriter, and so began the adventure that she would create for herself.
I was born in Hartford, Connecticut on November 25. Shortly after my parents divorced in 1989, me and my brother Stephen were more formally introduced to the world of the arts. Since they we lived with our father, we spent most of the time with our mother on the weekends, which were usually occupied by whatever theatrical production she was involved in.
Surrounded by actors and writers at an early age, I was inspired to become a writer and began my own newspaper, The Freestone Flyer, at the age of 9. Following a neighborhood scandal involving the town I grew up in and the local residents, I decided that I would be the one to speak up, when others did not know how. The first edition of the Freestone Flyer, a monthly newsletter, was an early example of my journalistic tendencies.
In following years, I was active in the music community, touring Europe at the age of 16 with the United States Youth Ensembles choir.
At the age of 17, I attended Central Connecticut State University. However, I left after two years to pursue a career with Cydcor Marketing. After completing the management training program in 1 year, I was one of the youngest managers in the company. Upon arrival in Chicago, I decided to leave Cydcor to pursue a career as a writer.
I currently attend Columbia College as a journalism major, and hopes to work in the magazine industry, or as a producer in broadcast news. Having supported myself since the age of 17, I still works full time, presently in the blues industry at a local and renowned blues club in Chicago.
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