Flying is merely the art of learning to throw yourself at the ground…and miss!
There comes a time in every epic friendship when things go badly.
I don’t mean the silly squabbles about what to do once you finally decide to hang out Friday night, or whether that one movie really did deserve to win the Oscar for “Best Picture”.
No, I’m talking about a REAL disagreement. Raised voices, maybe some tears, and a cooling period will occur before both the parties involved can talk to each other in a civil manner again.To be honest, it’s always a little frightening the first time it happens – at least for me. I seem to have a secret hope, no matter how many times it’s proven wrong, that with this person, we won’t disagree. Or, if we do, we’ll settle it quickly and it won’t stretch out into an actual fight. Of course, it never happens, or, if it does, I realize that the friendship has become shallow. Not having dared to risk it on the rocks of talking about anything important, or showing enough of myself that things turn serious, my friend and I no longer connect.
It seems that, the closer I get to someone, the more inevitable it is that we will eventually fight, and fight quite badly. There is something that touches both of us deeply enough that it is worth risking the friendship to speak of.
I don’t mean that there is a conscious decision – a realization that what happens next is going to drive all parties involved to fury. I just mean that things happen when people get really close. Bad things.
Someone will say something uncalled for. The other person says something equally awful back. And before we know it, we’ve just had a fight that could sever me from the other person forever. If both of us hold a grudge, the bitterness will grow. And that’s when the choice comes. Is this person worth enough to me to work through this fight, and become better friends because of it? Am I going to allow simple, stupid human nature to prevent me from getting to know someone who, really, is one of the most awesome people I have ever met?
Hopefully, the answer is no. Any good friendship has scars. Any relationship worth holding on to isn’t pretty. But the point of scars is not to show pain, it is to show healing.
There was once a wound, yes.
But it’s better now.
WE’RE better now.
Last couple of days. Hard for America, hard for me.
I am an Obama supporter and I am horrified by what I have seen on and off campus these last couple days. The election hadn’t been over for two minutes before I was assaulted and assailed by text messages, emails, blog posts, Facebook statuses and other means of expressing one’s opinion saying that the America was going to hell and that we would be in a civil war by the end of 2009. Several even went so far as to make crude and racist comments about our future president, something that my friends know I don’t tolerate.
Understandably McCain supporters are disappointed and I don’t blame them for being so, but the time to be angry is long past us and all anyone can do now is pray and worry. I would go so far as to say that these attacks are not only crude and mean spirited but also anti-American and anti-democratic. The citizens of America have spoken and now is the time to come together and work to make this country unified.
One particularly nasty example of this post-election smear campaign is a text message I got stating that the book of Revelation describes Obama perfectly when it describes the anti-Christ as a “man in his 40s, of Muslim descent, who will come out of nowhere, deceive the nations with persuasive language. . .” and be “. . . allowed to have authority for approximately 42 months (almost 4 years)” and finishes with a plea for “God to have mercy on us.” Now this is the kind of thing that I would expect a high school student to believe and forward, but no. The text came from (what I thought was) a mature college student who has traveled extensively and who isn’t even that strong of a Christian. Now before all the conservative Christians out there rush out to get your bible and crucifixes and holy water to prepare for the Armageddon let me assure you that this chain letter is absolutely NOT true at all. While there is an abundance of fallacies in the text the two most blaring are this:
- The book of revelation does not even mention the anti-Christ in the entire book and thusly doesn’t describe him/her.
- The Islamic faith did was not established until a great deal after the book of Revelation was written and thus it could not have described a man of Muslim heritage.
These kind of remarks make me just a little nervous about where this country is headed, not because it is controlled by the Democrats (though a one party rule is something to be wary of) nor because the president is “not qualified for the job.” But rather because I tremble to imagine an America where people are this vehemently against democracy and don’t trust the majority.
I am not asking that you silence your opinions, because this country is great partially because its citizens are allowed to have opinions. I am asking however that you trust the system to work itself out, the majority of Americans obviously want the future president of the USA to be Obama and that is what democracy is all about. Don’t attack Obama supporters on their beliefs and don’t attack Obama, especially using lies and slander as your tools of doing such. Imagine if the situation were reversed and McCain had won. Would you want to be subject to the personal attacks that liberals are being subjected to now? As a closing note for all the Christians out their (and I realize that we aren’t all Christian) remember that in Romans chapter 13 verses 1-7 we are told to respect and obey authority (government) because it is God’s will that they have authority.
Thank-you for reading this and peace be upon you.
Unedited
Below is my unedited version of the Barack Obama endorsement I wrote for this week’s Whitworthian. I’m doing this because I feel as though the article edited out some of my actual arguments, rather than just my hyperbole, which makes me look like a bit more of a tool than I want to look. The published article can be viewed here:
http://media.www.whitworthian.com/media/storage/paper1220/news/2008/10/21/Opinions/Debate.Obama.Will.Point.Us.In.The.Right.Direction-3496483.shtml
Few would disagree that this country is in a precarious position. Whether one is considering the current financial crisis, the state of our healthcare system, our dependence on foreign oil, or our military involvement abroad, it appears we are doing something wrong.
For the past eight years, the country has endured under a president who not only has the lowest approval rating in history, but who has also made more executive orders than any other president. In some major ways, the president has been ignoring the civil liberties of U.S. Citizens and has been treating us like subjects instead; abusing democracy and offending politicians from both parties.
These realizations have prompted both of this year’s major presidential candidates to run on a platform of change. Neither of the candidates’ proposals is perfect in my opinion, but we’ll never see Jesus run for office- no matter what the fundamentalists might think.
However, when presented the choice between Senator John McCain (R) and Senator Barack Obama (D), I choose to support the candidate whose policies have a better chance of moving this country in the right direction. I’m going to vote for Obama.
We live in an American age where trust in the government is often considered foolish. There is a good reason for our mistrust. President Bush has exemplified how skewed our system of checks and balances has become. The executive branch has run amok. Go online and review the list of executive orders he has made and you will probably find yourself afraid of the influence of one man, even if you agree with his policies.
Do we really want to vote a self-proclaimed maverick into the most powerful office in the land? A man who says “country first” over and over again, but who is willing to nominate a gimmick as his running mate?
Do not misunderstand me, a qualified woman in the office of President or Vice-President would be a positive testament to our society, but the nomination of a woman with less than two years of experience governing a sparsely populated and naturally wealthy state should be an insult to everyone.
Again, go online and watch Katie Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin, it should make you sick at the risk McCain has taken by nominating her. After that, look up the definition of the word maverick. McCain has fallen into the very political circus he is so outspoken against.
If Obama is voted into office, the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. Government will both be ruled by democrats. In other words, Obama will be able to lead effectively, without needing to abuse his power or play maverick to bring about actual change.
It is scary to have a majority opinion in the government, but think about what would be able to be accomplished.
Obama’s platform includes tax breaks for 95% of Americans, affordable health-care for everyone, and an eventual withdrawal from Iraq.
Admittedly, Obama’s tax plan may have to be reexamined in the light of the current financial crisis, but his philosophy of working from the bottom up instead of the top down will be key to providing as much relief as is possible in the days to come.
I would rather be governed by the actual U.S. Government than by a multitude of profit hungry businesses benefiting from subsidies and tax breaks. Trickle down economics is a trickle of spit by the time it reaches the common laborer. It is simply human nature; those who have, keep, and those who can take advantage of a situation, do.
It is time we took our country back from the faceless corporations who legislate our lives more than congress ever could. Follow the money trail and we all end up in the same machine, victims of our own greed. This is why we need the regulation promised by Obama, not the corporate freedoms offered by McCain.
This includes insurance companies who stand in the way of Americans and healthy lives. Earlier this year when I had the flu, I had to stay by the phone for hours trying to get a referral so I could see a doctor outside of my hometown. I ended up becoming too exhausted and going to bed. This is a picture of privatized healthcare and one of many reasons to change the system. It’s not hard to imagine a worse scenario than mine that ends up taking someone’s life. It happens on a regular basis to the homeless and mentally disabled citizens wandering the streets of Spokane.
Obama wants the government to subsidize healthcare for those who don’t have it. In the second presidential debate he stated that he believes healthcare is a right, not a commodity. I couldn’t agree with him more.
It is also no secret that America is at the mercy of foreign oil companies, much the same way the average citizen is at the mercy of insurance companies.
McCain supports offshore drilling and extended drilling in Alaska, two temporary solutions that would not not affect the price of fuel in a noticeable way.
Obama supports alternative energy research first and foremost. The world is running out of oil, alternative sustainable energy is the right direction no matter what it temporarily does to the market.
In the meantime, a vast amount of our country’s resources are being poured into an un-winnable war abroad that has lost us the respect of other world powers. Someone should explain to me how anyone can defeat terrorists. Several groups of unorganized idealist radicals are as impossible to defeat with guns as drugs were for the Clinton administration.
In the second debate, McCain said he wants to bring our troops home in victory. In my opinion, they have already had several small victories working on the infrastructure of Iraq, but there is no war to win, just several unending battles.
It’s time we elected a candidate who can see the big picture and who can understand how to shape America into a country we can be proud of. It’s time we elected Barack Obama.
Links:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm
http://www.ontheissues.org/John_McCain.htm
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/orders/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/30/obama-would-order-review_n_115782.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/14/bush-strategist-mccain-kn_n_134570.html
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Katie+Couric%2C+Sarah+Palin&search_type=&aq=f
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/maverick
Race on campus — Our response to GFU
By now most students are aware of what happened last Tuesday on George Fox University’s campus. If you are not, I will save time by simply linking you to this story.
To quote President Bill Robinson’s Friday evening email:
This stunt is not funny. It is abhorrent. It assaults GFU’s commitment to be a more diverse campus. It belittles Act Six students who are trying to engage a dominant culture, in most cases one that is not their culture. It invites angry and inaccurate speculations about people and motives responsible for this. It affronts every student who is different from the mainstream.
I agree with Robinson on all fronts.
A Brief Rundown of Heller
I think most people have better things to do than read 157 pages of judicial decision over the summer, but I spent all yesterday vigilantly scouring the U.S. Supreme Court’s District of Columbia v. Heller opinion written by Scalia. While I bet most people don’t want to read these long texts for themselves to sort through their meanings, I hope that they are skeptical of all-or-nothing summaries declaring that either Heller is God’s Blessing Upon our Glorious Faithful Nation or it is An Opinion Guaranteed to Lead to Violent Rioting Chaos Throughout the U.S. So after briefly purveying news results, I was sad to find lots of opinions of and political responses to Heller, but no clear evaluation of its actual implications. Political evaluations and opinions most certainly have their place, but a clear understanding of a case’s holdings should come first.
I’ve typed up this basic evaluation of Heller after reading the whole thing and noting what it specifically purports to do and not to do, and I hope it is helpful to anyone who’s interested in understanding the decision.
Tear Down This Wall, Mr. Schwab
I’m not sure if this is the best place for this, but it is basically the first draft for a piece I am writing. I am interested in hearing your opinions on both the subject, and the piece itself. Thanks. -Brent
There is no wall separating east Mountlake Terrace from west Mountlake Terrace. If there was a wall, the East side would be populated by the Smaller Learning Communities proponents. These would include former principal Mark Baier, former vice principal, and most prominent pro-SLC voice, Steven Gering, and most notably, Bill and Melinda Gates. Yes, the Bill Gates and his wife. The Westside would consist of the SLC opponents, including most students, many parents, and some faculty members. The Smaller learning communities, much like communism looks great on paper. The idea is simple. In the last fifty years, the average high school has grown from 1,000 students to 1,500 students, and research has shown that “smaller schools are safer and more productive because students feel less alienated, more nurtured and more connected to caring adults, and teachers feel that they have more opportunity to get to know and support their students” (Great Source Grants and Funding). So, if you are a large school, like Mountlake Terrace High School with its 1,800 plus students, you use grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to divide yourself into smaller “academies” within the school to give each individual school the feel of a smaller school. As a former Mountlake Terrace student who attended the school both before and during the implementation of the SLCs, I can tell you that like communism, in practice, the SLCs are not an effective fix.
The Catholic Mystique
No one will deny that there are some blatant biases on the Whitworth campus. Some get talked about more than others. There’s probably been more discussion about the bias against gays at Whitworth than there has been about the bias against, say, smokers. On the whole, though, most biases seem allowed at least a modicum of dialogue. There is one in particular, though, that I haven’t seen discussed in a public forum at all.
That, my friends, is the bias against Catholics.
Before you deny having any idea of what I’m talking about, I’ll admit it’s not just Whitworth. I’ve grown up going to various private schools. It’s always very heavily emphasized that there is no denominational favoritism. Yet, strangely, Catholics always seem to get left out from under this tolerance umbrella. “We’re all a big, happy family….except for the Catholics. They’re weird.” There is a similar attitude at Whitworth. Presbyterian-oriented as it is, I’ve never heard of any of my multidenominational friends have to deal with being told they’re “not really Christians,” having the tenets of their beliefs dismissed as being “outdated,” or having a sin committed by a miniscule amount of people associated with their denomination thrown in their faces over and over again. Except Catholics. Why is this?
There may be several reasons. America itself isn’t exactly geared toward Catholic friendliness, having been founded by low-church Puritans. And Catholic theology doesn’t really mesh well with our modern sensibilities. Nobody really listens to their parents anymore, so the idea of listening to some old guy in Rome who wears a funny hat is really out there. Accountability isn’t real big either. It’s a lot easier to just quietly whisper to a conveniently invisible and rather quiet God the fact that you totally blew it on keeping your relationship with your girlfriend pure for the third weekend in a row than it is to confess to a respectable priest you really admire, who’s probably going to give you a good telling off. But since when were our religious beliefs supposed to conform to what was fashionable, or even what was easy?
Then there’s the fact that Catholics and Protestants are supposed to be mortal enemies, religiously speaking – Protestants did split from the Catholic Church after all. Yes? So? One of the reasons there are so many varying Protestant denominations is splintering of the original movement away from Catholicism. Yet the only denomination that constantly has the others at its throat is Catholicism. Why?
Finally, I’ll address the issue I’m sure everyone has had in mind since I the word “Catholic” came up. Pedophile priests. Everyone knows priests are just a bunch of dirty old men, right? Ever since the abuse scandal broke in 2002, the Catholic Church has been up to its ears in bad press. And rightly so! Any organization that allowed such horrendous goings-on to fly under the radar for so many years should be inundated with nay-sayers! Except that a look at the statistics yields something odd. There are 11,000 cases of abuse by about 4,000 priests and deacons in the U.S. since 1950, about 4% out of the total amount of priests in the U.S. That’s five decades. Comparatively, 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee from ONE DECADE —1991-2000. So where is all the outrage about pedophile teachers?
In my admittedly limited experience at Whitworth, I’ve found it to be a friendly environment without outright hostility. It’s that lurking under the surface that I’m worried about. Hopefully I’ve given everyone some things to ponder. And next time you feel like telling your buddy that absolutely hilarious priest joke you heard the other day…maybe you won’t.
Things I Don’t Understand
What? Sandals just aren’t douchey enough? So you genetically crossbreed a sandal and a Birkenstock? The result is a hideous mutant freak shoe that is a crime against nature. Quit playing God you Dr. Moreau of footwear
Jessica Biel:
She is just not that hot.
The Mariners keeping Richie Sexson:
This is not a sports blog (If you would like to see a good one try Withleather) so I won’t bore you with stats and whatnot, but he is as worthless to the Mariners as Jack Johnson is to music.
Skydiving:
Throw myself out of a plane? No thanks. Here is a list of things I would rather do: Eat a cricket, wear chacos in the winter, punch myself in the face, play scrabble with Nancy Grace, watch an episode of Mind of Mencia… ehhh, maybe not that last one.
Cover charges at bars:
You want me to pay you for the privilege to come in and buy alcohol at your bar? I’ll pass.
The Arcade Fire:
I am missing something here? Am I the only person who does not like the Arcade Fire? Really? Maybe I am missing something, but I just can not stand how pretentious they are.
Comedians who blame the audience when their joke bombs:
You probably don’t see this a lot because most comics who are good enough to be on TV don’t do it, but as an open mic regular I see it often. Example: comic goes to the stage and pulls out phone, (props?) pretends to have conversation with someone on the other end of the phone. Conversation is profanity laced and about a club she went to. Punchline: “The club was called the Aristocrats,” near silence, one person sympathy chuckles, “Oh good, one person here has seen that movie.” No, he was not the only audience member who had seen the movie or was familiar with the concept, the joke wasn’t funny. Five minutes of almost incomprehensible muttering full of f-bombs followed by “The aristocrats” is not a joke. Don’t insult my intelligence by assuming that your jokes are too complicated for me. They were not funny. Get over yourself.
Horses:
If you don’t live on a farm, you don’t need a horse. Someone tell my neighbor back home. Every time I drive down my drive way, at a reasonable speed mind you, it spooks her horse, which results in her shooting me a dirty look.
Black Licorice:
It tastes like dirt. On a related note, here is something else I don’t understand, how I can hate black licorice, but not mind the taste of Jägermeister.
Homophobes:
I worked with a guy who was: A. A total douche, and B. a homophobe (I think the two really go hand in hand). We worked for a party rentals company and one day we were setting up a bunch of tents at a winery in Woodinville. This winery had an event coordinator named Marcus. Marcus is gay. Not normal gay dude gay, but TV stereotype gay. Like Ryan Evans gay. We had some questions about the tents and Marcus was the person to ask. “I’m not gonna ask him, I avoid talking to gay guys whenever possible,” Mike so eloquently stated, “ ‘Cuz if one of hit on me, I’d probably have to kick his ass.” Keep in mind, this is at 9:30 in the morning, and Mike already has ranch dressing on his face, shirt and sock. Gay dudes are not into that, you fat, sloppy bastard. No one is into that. A lot of guys think that because they have no standards and will copulate with any woman that breathes, that gay dudes are the same way, but (duh) with dudes. Not true. Homophobes, think of gay dudes as being like your classier male friends who actually have standards. Dipset! No homophobia. (I guess you guys don’t get that joke. Your fault, not mine.)
Why your mother refuses to tell you that she and I are in a relationship:
You are an adult and you deserve to know. Now that I am your new daddy, go mow my lawn.
Why the open face sandwiches went away:
It has been mentioned in this blog several times (sometimes by me, sometimes others) that SAGA did make delicious open faced sandwiches in the pizza conveyor/oven at lunch, but now they are gone. In their place we have a pizza with mushrooms so big and gnarly they look like they escaped from middle earth. (Is that what it is called in LOTR? Or is it Mid-world? Is that from The Dark Tower? Am I a nerd? Yes.)
Arrested Development gets canceled during the 2005-2006 season and Mind of Mencia was the highest rated show on Comedy Central in 2005, and is still on the air:
I just threw up.
The Spanish subjunctive tense:
AKA the bane of my existence.
The Japanese language:
I watched five minutes of a Japanese language on Youtube the other day, and I did not understand a single word. I know; I was surprised too.
Spokane Dick’s:
How is this even legal? The same name, same menu (plus crap), same style, but much lower quality than a real Dick’s. It is an embarrassment to Richard himself, customers, the city of Spokane, cows, potatoes, and most importantly, me. I love Dick’s. (No homophobia.)
How to cut my post in half and insert “more after the jump” link:
The Wright Response
There has been a great deal of controversy this past week over some statements made by Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Reuters reports:
In sermons widely circulated in the media, Wright has called the September 11, 2001, attacks retribution for U.S. foreign policy, cited the U.S. government as the source of the AIDS virus, and railed against a racist America.
Now, forgive me if I am misguided about the entire state of our nation, but are these statements really that inflammatory? Only in a nation obsessed with patriotism and nationalism could someone be so crucified for honest remarks. Of course, the issue is not really with the remarks themselves or even Wright but rather their association with Obama and his political campaign. What saddens me about this whole situation is that Obama has distanced himself from Wright, rather than affirming his statements. I would have much more respect for Obama if he truly sought to transcend “politician” status and spoke honestly, rather than seeking to garner more votes.
Personally I would agree with Wright. Was 9/11 caused by America’s foreign policy? I would say absolutely yes. Do I think that the United States is a racist country? Not overtly, but certainly covertly. We thinly veil our prejudices and simply self-segregate—by moving out to the suburbs or going to private liberal arts colleges—and thus avoid uncomfortable racial interactions.
I suppose what frustrates me about this whole “controversy” is that I feel like a huge number of Americans hear Wright’s sentiments, and they resonate—they certainly do with me.
This is my first post here on the forum, and it is quite possible that I am simply talking out of my proverbial arse. I would be delighted to hear your thoughts about this topic and please share criticism, suggestions or anything else you have to say.
Note: Obama will be giving a speech tomorrow morning and will be discussing this situation. I will write some more once we hear what he has to say.
The N-word, revisited
This forum tends to spark good conversations with people I respect, so I wanted to bring this topic here. My branch of communication studies is speech, rather than journalism, so there are accepted norms in the journalistic profession I’m not fully aware of… and I hope my writing this does not violate any.
Words are symbols that represent ideas in peoples’ minds. Those symbols are radically different in different cultures (almost any concept expressed by an English word is expressed very differently with a Chinese character, for example). They also change over time. However, they can only change with regular usage – which is why “burying” a word will not do anything except perpetuate its legacy.
I honestly don’t think many young people today associate the word “gay” with “happy,” nearly as much as with today’s more common meaning. A similar thing can happen with the “N-word,” but only if we let it. I’d like to make two points:
First, if a parrot squawked the “N-word,” would you scold it? Clearly, the only important thing when a word is used is the meaning – either the meaning intended for it by the speaker, or the meaning listeners get from it. So to be as clear as possible: My advice is not to go around yelling the word from the rooftops. It is very inappropriate in most settings, especially since people will often be offended by its use. Because of the intense feelings associated with it, it should not be used casually, but… burying the word will not help anything.
This is especially true considering my second point. There are many other derogatory terms used to degrade blacks in the past (and present). The truth of the matter comes out: Words and slang obviously can be created faster than they can be buried. You can bury the N-word, but you’re just burying the word as the parrot spoke it – empty and meaningless. At the funeral, it’s an empty casket going in the ground, the contents – racism – still walk the earth and will inhabit other words. All you will gain is zombifying the N-word. Whenever it is resurrected, it will be all the more terrible.