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Archive for the ‘politics’ Category
implosion
Saturday, October 25th, 2008Civics
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008I’m sure everyone is dying to hear me talk about civics, but it’s my blog and you don’t get a vote!
When I was in 7th grade at Heath Middle School, my civics teacher Mr. Mabry taught us the definition of the word “civics” the first day of class. This may be the only piece of valuable information I retained from 7th grade, but at least I remember that “civics is the study of the duties, rights and responsibilities of citizenship.” This being an election year, and a particularly interesting one at that, I have been thinking a lot about citizenship and my duties, rights and responsibilities. Unfortunately though, when I hear people talk, I seem to hear a lot about the rights, but very little about duties or responsibilities. We are quite concerned with our rights to vote, choose, pursue, spend, save, speak, express, etc. But when was the last time anyone asked us about our duties or responsibilities? Do we even know what those are anymore? I would love to hear someone address it. Anyone? Senator McCain? Senator Obama? Joe the Plumber? Can someone please remind us what our duties and responsibilities are before we sink any deeper into a quagmire of narcissism. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
$700,000,000,000
Saturday, September 27th, 2008That’s seven hundred billion dollars. That’s the amount of money our government is talking about spending for the financial bailout of “Wall Street.” That’s some pothole to require $700 billion to fix it! Now, I’m no economist, in fact, I’ve never even taken a class on economics. However, I did take math, and any 5th grader can tell you that $700 billion is a buttload of money. (A buttload, in this case, is equivalent to well over $2000 per person living in the U.S.) Now, according to my sources (NPR, CNN.com, and Will Davidson, esq.), the real source of the crisis is the real estate market and the foreclosures faced by many homeowners. It makes sense to me: when banks foreclose, and people move out of their homes completely in the hole, with credit destroyed, then the banks assume the property. The property goes up for sale, but no one is buying houses because all the people moving out have been foreclosed on and aren’t able to buy. So the banks are holding assets they can’t cash in on and suddenly, the liquid is dried up because everyone is holding too much inventory. Ok, so what’s the point, if you’re still reading? What if the government was proactive with that $700 billion dollars? What if instead of bailing out financial companies by buying defunct mortgages, they bought houses from the homeowners themselves and saved them from foreclosure? $700 billion dollars would buy 3.5 million homes at the price of $200,000 each. Currently in Miami, certainly one of the largest cities impacted by the housing crisis, there are a little less than 37,000 homes for sale. That’s approximately 1% of the number of homes that could be purchased by the government if they were to listen (yeah right). What’s the difference between buying defunct mortgages and buying homes at risk of foreclosure? If a homeowner is able to sell his or her home before foreclosure, they walk away with credit in tact (or more so) and in some cases, homeowners could walk away with money from equity built over years of paying for their mortgages rather than losing it all because of trouble over the past few years. These people would be more equipped to be homeowners again at some point and less likely to be homeless. I’d be interested to know what the numbers of the homeless are as a result of the housing crisis. Additionally, if these homes were taken off the market (the ones at risk of foreclosure) then the housing market could possibly recover. As it recovers, the government could sell the homes it holds gradually, regaining their investment and keeping the market from getting flooded with homes again. I’m sure my theory is full of holes, but I just keep coming back to $700,000,000,000 and thinking… now that’s a buttload of money.
Two year-old adults
Monday, September 15th, 2008If you stick around for the first 10 minutes of the two year-old class during children’s church, you can hear the children sing their favorite song: “Around and around is the name of the game and around and around and what’s YOUR name?” The kids get to say their names one by one and then everyone sings a lively chorus of “Lindy is her name, Lindy is her name.” The youngest ones in the class are shy and usually don’t say their names, but there’s is always an older, more verbal kid who knows everyone’s name and chimes in for the quiet ones. By the time they graduate to the 3s class, everyone has learned to say his or her name.
Another behavior you can see in the same class is the rule of possession. Whatever one kid possesses is what all the other kids want. A toy is completely uninteresting until someone else is playing with it. Then, a struggle ensues and adult intervention is necessary.
“Yeah, yeah, why are you bringing this up?” you say. It’s because adults, as it turns out, are just like two year-olds. I am flipping channels the other night and stop on PBS. I see this lady named Suze Orman, who apparently is hot snot, but since I don’t watch Oprah and pay close attention to the Best Sellers list, she had flown under my radar until this particular night when I got to see the end of her seminar on TV. She’s addressing a crowd of women into which I would have neatly fit. 20s to 60s professionals (well, that may be a bit of a stretch for me, but nevertheless) hanging on her every word. On the screen behind her is the profound statement, “Say your name.” It’s in all caps, but lest I scream… As I listen to her, all she is doing is encouraging the women to say their names. She says in her most polished motivational speaker voice, “I want you to say… your… name!!!” And the women are all excited, saying their names. She picks some out of the crowd to do it, criticizes one for her lack of gusto, I suppose, but quickly coaches her and wham, bam, thank you ma’am, she is saying… her… name!!! (These people paid money to see her, I’m sure.)
Then, the next day, I am listening to NPR and I hear that there has been a massive sell-out of the Japanese glasses frames and red patent peep-toe pumps that have adorned Sarah Palin on the world scene in recent days. It’s just like the two year-old class. I want what SHE has!!! Like I say to my kids, “Monkey see, monkey do.” Adults are just over-sized, not-nearly-as-cute two year-olds. Lord save us!!!
The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Acts 11:26
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:20-21
When will we get it that our name is His name and that our treasures cannot be contained on this earth?
The slavery of our generation
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008[This is something I wrote several years ago. It has been published in Spanish on the web here and I have shared it with a few people.]
In our enlightened age, one can hardly imagine the narrow minds that conceived of the institution of slavery as viable, good or defensible. We marvel at the notion that humans were disregarded based on race. I am proud to live in a land and a time where this heinous crime against humanity is no longer practiced and our past association with it is admitted with shame. From this perspective, we see the shallow, selfish, arrogant nature of the arguments used to defend slavery—arguments such as these:
· Negro slaves aren’t fully human.
· They are not able to think in the same way and on the same level white men think.
· I purchased these slaves, therefore they are my property and I can do what I please with my own property.
· Freeing these slaves would hurt my lifestyle and ability to live as I now do.
Many of these arguments are false. All of them are selfish. However, if we look closely, we will recognize some of our own rhetoric regarding an issue which is hotly debated in our day. That issue is abortion.
When we think of civil rights movements, we think of the refutation of the shallow arguments mentioned previously. Unfortunately, those promoting civil rights are upholding these very arguments over the issue of abortion. Do any of these statements sound familiar?
· A fetus is not a person.
· A fetus is not able to think and function as I function.
· The fetus is inside me, therefore it is a part of me, and I can do what I please with my own body.
· Allowing this fetus to live would greatly affect my lifestyle and I would not be able to continue to live as I now do.
Are any of these reasons good reasons for abortion? Only insofar as they are good reasons to allow one race to enslave another. And ironically, this debate is based on freedom. We have turned the rhetoric for slavery into rhetoric for freedom. Where is the lie? It’s in the idea of freedom. Does an abortion really free a woman? Does pregnancy really enslave a woman? These are questions which have not been asked in this 30-year debate. But let’s ask. Let’s ask the women who have experienced these things. You, sister, who had an abortion 10 years ago, are you free? Did that procedure liberate you? Were you not told that it would offer you these promises? Did they lie to you? And you, sister, who chose to keep that fetus and birth that child, are you in shackles? Are you a slave with no hope of a life of freedom? Find you any joy in that one you call son or daughter? It’s time we started asking the questions. When we do, we will expose the lie.
It is the great crime of our time. Abortion is not the freeing of a woman, it is the enslavement of society to shallow, selfish and arrogant thinking. How could we have been duped a second time?