"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between
Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or
his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions
only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that
act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature
should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of
separation between Church and State."~Thomas Jefferson
I like this quote even though I don't agree with Jefferson and his slave-holding legacy. Nonetheless, it sets up a very important doctrine of the US Constitution, which is the separation of church and state.
Sadly I have seen pastors from the Christian denomination take political positions on taxes, as well as to whom we should vote in November. It is one thing if a social issue is at play, but these people just want the current President out of office because he doesn't belong to their political party.
After 3 years in office, these people blame this president for the collapse of the US ECONOMY, despite the fact that it was collapsing years before he entered office.
After 3 years in office, these people fail to acknowledge what this president has done to capture and/or kill threats to U.S. interests,
After 3 years in office, these people FAULT the current president for bringing affordable healthcare to many American people who would have otherwise been without insurance.
The reason these people fault the current president? JESUS!
They refuse to believe the president is a Christian. They refuse to efficiently look back at what was done on the past. The simply refuse to believe...and they do it under the guise of being good Christians.
It is a pathetic attempt to control the political dialogue through religious discussion, and it needs to stop.
What can we do?
Until next Monday, I look forward to your ideas...
Monday, July 30, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
Choosing Not To Engage
There is a theory that we are all social animals who should love one another and live in community.
I think that this theory is like seeking a unicorn.
It doesn't exist, nor should we force it to exist.
Recently, some young, white-American terrorist went into a movie theater and killed 12 people while injuring many others during a premiere of a Batman movie. He used an automatic assault weapon! Yet there are many people who are coming out with their regular excuse for gun violence...They say, "People kill people...Guns Don't Kill People."
This is the most ludicrous reasoning I have ever hear...Oh, and not just that, they resort to the "Our Founding Fathers" argument, without any mention of how these founders treated other human beings. They almost make it seem like the Founding Fathers were some sort of divine human beings, and their writings of the U.S. Constitution are perfect.
Usually, these people making this claim are white male Republicans who have benefited from various provisions in the Constitution to help them make money...and nothing but money.
We can say we are a Christian country, but in the end, when you read the fine lines, you will discover that the document that so many consider perfect is about money and maintain white male privilege.
Because many refuse to see this, I have stopped debating the issue and have sought to change minds through teaching critical thinking/reflection and rhetoric. Whether it is the guy on the bus or the student in the classroom, I will always be open for an opportunity to get people to think! They don't necessarily have to agree with me, but they need to challenge their assumptions.
Conversely, I will no longer engage people who are just spouting out information they heard on the Glenn Beck Show or MSNBC, without presenting to me the rationale of their argument.
It's about PEOPLE!
* People who were sadly killed because the gun lobby has a big voice.
* People who were not considered citizens because the "Founding Fathers" considered them 3/5 a person.
* People who are children of God, but who so-called Christians regularly treat horribly.
It's about PEOPLE!
Until next Monday...
I think that this theory is like seeking a unicorn.
It doesn't exist, nor should we force it to exist.
Recently, some young, white-American terrorist went into a movie theater and killed 12 people while injuring many others during a premiere of a Batman movie. He used an automatic assault weapon! Yet there are many people who are coming out with their regular excuse for gun violence...They say, "People kill people...Guns Don't Kill People."
This is the most ludicrous reasoning I have ever hear...Oh, and not just that, they resort to the "Our Founding Fathers" argument, without any mention of how these founders treated other human beings. They almost make it seem like the Founding Fathers were some sort of divine human beings, and their writings of the U.S. Constitution are perfect.
Usually, these people making this claim are white male Republicans who have benefited from various provisions in the Constitution to help them make money...and nothing but money.
We can say we are a Christian country, but in the end, when you read the fine lines, you will discover that the document that so many consider perfect is about money and maintain white male privilege.
Because many refuse to see this, I have stopped debating the issue and have sought to change minds through teaching critical thinking/reflection and rhetoric. Whether it is the guy on the bus or the student in the classroom, I will always be open for an opportunity to get people to think! They don't necessarily have to agree with me, but they need to challenge their assumptions.
Conversely, I will no longer engage people who are just spouting out information they heard on the Glenn Beck Show or MSNBC, without presenting to me the rationale of their argument.
It's about PEOPLE!
* People who were sadly killed because the gun lobby has a big voice.
* People who were not considered citizens because the "Founding Fathers" considered them 3/5 a person.
* People who are children of God, but who so-called Christians regularly treat horribly.
It's about PEOPLE!
Until next Monday...
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Ignorance is Bliss
I missed my Monday deadline to post an entry, so I will be short and say that ignorance is truly bliss.
Sometimes when you don't know anything about a subject or a person, you can truly explore it. On the other hand, if you have an idea about those things or can apply an academic theory, you could possibly be ruined forever.
There are times when I wish I didn't have knowledge about certain people, places or things. Yet, because I do, I'm never fully able to experience them based on the singularity of my own concept. I am influenced by studies, research, and quite possibly other persons.
Today, I encourage everyone, including myself to have a degree of ignorance about things. Perhaps in this way, we can discover something new!
Until next Monday...
Sometimes when you don't know anything about a subject or a person, you can truly explore it. On the other hand, if you have an idea about those things or can apply an academic theory, you could possibly be ruined forever.
There are times when I wish I didn't have knowledge about certain people, places or things. Yet, because I do, I'm never fully able to experience them based on the singularity of my own concept. I am influenced by studies, research, and quite possibly other persons.
Today, I encourage everyone, including myself to have a degree of ignorance about things. Perhaps in this way, we can discover something new!
Until next Monday...
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today-O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home-
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay-
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again-
The land that never has been yet-
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME-
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath-
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain-
All, all the stretch of these great green states-
And make America again!
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today-O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home-
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay-
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again-
The land that never has been yet-
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME-
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath-
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain-
All, all the stretch of these great green states-
And make America again!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Quirks
In a week that saw the passage of the Affordable Care Act and a number of trusted Republican legislators acting like children, I think that I want to write about something that all of have and can relate to: QUIRKS!
Quirks are interesting and can be endearing. However, once they get out of hand they become annoying to others, and it becomes recognized as the price we have to pay for having to live amongst other people.
In my late-teens and into my mid-20s, I had annoyed my mother with my refusal to eat in public spaces. For some reason I became extremely self-conscious and would not eat at restaurants or cafeterias. This was annoying to her since I would often meet with her at her job to have lunch and she would eat her food, but I would keep mine in my bag and take it home in order to be eaten later. We'd have conversation over an meal, but the only one eating was my mother.
Hindsight is truly 20/20.
There is no doubt that other people's thoughts of me were affecting my decisions and this opportunity to enjoy precious time with my mother. As someone who is not thin, I let this create a quirk in my personality, and as a result wasn't living with vigor and purpose.
It is something I regret. Nonetheless, quirks can present a learning opportunity to determine how one will live life on their own terms. Everyday, I challenge a quirk in a proactive way to live fully on my terms and not in response to how I think others may react.
Until next Monday...
Quirks are interesting and can be endearing. However, once they get out of hand they become annoying to others, and it becomes recognized as the price we have to pay for having to live amongst other people.
In my late-teens and into my mid-20s, I had annoyed my mother with my refusal to eat in public spaces. For some reason I became extremely self-conscious and would not eat at restaurants or cafeterias. This was annoying to her since I would often meet with her at her job to have lunch and she would eat her food, but I would keep mine in my bag and take it home in order to be eaten later. We'd have conversation over an meal, but the only one eating was my mother.
Hindsight is truly 20/20.
There is no doubt that other people's thoughts of me were affecting my decisions and this opportunity to enjoy precious time with my mother. As someone who is not thin, I let this create a quirk in my personality, and as a result wasn't living with vigor and purpose.
It is something I regret. Nonetheless, quirks can present a learning opportunity to determine how one will live life on their own terms. Everyday, I challenge a quirk in a proactive way to live fully on my terms and not in response to how I think others may react.
Until next Monday...
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