The Sandy Hook Elementary Massacre and Why This Matters to You

On Friday, December 14th at about 9 AM, 20 students between the ages of 6 and 8, and 6 adult school staff were shot dead by the kindergarten teacher's son, who is presumed to be mentally unstable, who then shot himself.  If you are from the United States, then this probably is not news to you.  If you are not from the United States, then you may or may not have heard about it before turning away sadly without a second thought.

The reason why I have postponed writing about this incident in a blog (if you read my blog, then you will notice that I wrote angrily about society's intensive focus on pop culture when they should be focusing on the welfare of students the day of the Ohio school shooting) is because I didn't know what to think.  I didn't know how to react.  I am ashamed to admit it.

I, of course, felt fear, deep sadness, concern, confusion, anger, and then once again sadness.  But feeling these things was not enough.  It had to matter to me. I am from the Midwest.  Connecticut is pretty far from where I'm standing.  I am nationally affected, humanly affected, maternally affected, but I am not personally affected by this incident.  Or so I thought.

The public nature of this crime has done two things: 1) It has brought people together (or apart if you're Brian Fisher, Mike Huckabee, or the Westboro Baptist Church. But screw them. Anybody who presumes that God's message is to hate someone into nonexistence or that He allows bad things to happen because they remind us that we shouldn't stray from His side is stupid.).  People from all over the nation are banding together to try and comfort those who need it.  Between Superstorm Sandy and this shooting, there are so many who need our help.  A local radio station and a local dry-cleaning business are teaming up to gather teddy bears, night lights, and blankets to give to children they don't even know who have been affected by these disasters. I am so proud and will do my part to help out.

But the 2nd thing that the media has done is that this massacre has been mounted on a pedestal and raised for everyone to see.  People who are mentally unstable or maybe just uncontrollably angry have been given new ideas.  Copycats, or those who try to copy a crime, have risen to a new level, as they always do after such publicized atrocities.  Threats to schools have gone up exponentially and arrests are being made all over the United States to prevent movie theater shootings (like the one in Colorado on the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises) and school shootings and bombings.  Facebook posts and Tweets that even suggest at a desire to follow in the shoes of the murderers are leading policemen to guns and arms stashes. While this may seem like a good thing, one has to wonder, how long have these people been hoarding the guns? What were they planning on doing with them before this shooting?  What if these guns hadn't been found?  How serious are they?

Now. I am immensely proud at our government's response to this issue.  Regardless of the speculations of the motives of the murderer, every member of congress and every staff member in the Capitol believe that something needs to be done.  So far, the talk has been good, progressive, hopeful.  They talk about making laws that understand the complexity of the arms business but that also reduce the possibility for violence against others.  It is my hope now that, in light of recent events, Democrats and Republicans  do away with their binary and work as a cohesive body to prevent further incidents.

So why does it matter to you? Because those crazies are out there.  You don't always know one when you see one, but they are always there, with their trigger happy fingers and their meandering incoherent motives.  So I urge you to experience what I experienced, a personal vindication to help those who have been traumatized and to be on constant vigilance.  It never hurts to be ready.

If you are interested in more than what I've talked about (which is a very limited scope, I admit) then I highly suggest you read more.  The usual picture that I paste down below is not just a picture this time, but a link to an article that is attempting to correct a wildly untrue rumor, that the reason behind the shooter's actions was the simple fact that he was mentally ill.  The shooter had autism, true, but autism does not cause violence.  A mental illness does not cause violence.  Mental illness simply inhibits development and, if one is not trained correctly and patiently to deal with the inhibitions in a constructive manner, then violent outbursts may result.  As you continue to read, I recommend that you keep an open mind and an open heart.  Everyone is deserving of compassion, especially those we find hardest to give it to.

http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/19/guilt-by-associationtroubling-legacy-of-sandy-hook-may-be-backlash-against-children-with-autism/

P.S.  Looking at the news right now, between this and the storms and the so-called "fiscal cliff", it seems so hard to seem happy right now.  But remember, it is Christmas.  Christmas is a time for rebirth and celebration.  It is a time for hope.  It is a time for peace.  It is a time for prayer.  As such, my prayers are that the families involved in this incident can pass peacefully through their grief and can begin to live again in a way that is hopeful and full of the light that all life deserves.  I pray that, instead of focusing on why the shooter did such a horrendous act, on the terror and trauma the kids have been through, on the waste of young life, we can look at the adults who lived and died so that their students would be safe.  Just because there are bad people in the world, we don't have to stop believing in the good ones.

Every Sci-Fy Fantasy Come to Life. Brought To You By...The 21st Century

Is this for real?  Am I living in an age where Trekkies, geeks, and hard science fiction fans are coming into their power?
Not long ago, I'm sure you remember gamers used the game "Foldit" to solve the puzzle of the AIDS virus in 10 days, a scientific inquiry that had stumped the brightest of minds for  15 years (http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/09/21/gamers-solve-aids-puzzle/). The entire world was shocked.  How did this happen?  What other seemingly impossible tasks can be accomplished by looking at old problems in new ways?
Well good sirs and gentle ladies, today I present to you: Science Fiction Alive in the 21st Century!!!!!
No. Really.  While I admit that a lot of my information comes to me via my Yahoo and FaceBook Newsfeeds, what is published and shared about scientific progression is usually accurate (and just to make sure that it is, I check it via some lightning-fast Google searches.)
My Top 5 List of Science Fiction IRL (for those who aren't internet literate, that means "in real life")

1) NASA is building warp-drive.
-I am a die-hard trekkie, even though The Original Series was before my time (but it's still the best. Kirk before Piccard!!!)  Space engineers are revisiting a paper that was written decades earlier and are finding ways to fix the technicalities that caused the issue to be discarded as nonsense.  Insert something intelligent about redesigning the Alcubierre drive to increase the thickness of the negative vacuum energy ring here, but however you put it, we are one-step closer from evolving from a pre-warp civilization into a new age of explorers and relationships. (http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/11/27/nasa-is-building-a-real-warp-drive/)

2) Ancient microbes are found, still living, deep within an Antarctic lake.
-What? What is this???  How is this even possible?  Nothing can survive for long in those temperatures!  Wrong again, apparently.  Scientists have discovered microbial organisms (that means really really REALLY small cells) living in water so salty that it couldn't freeze in anaerobic conditions (which means without air).  Now, we already knew that plenty of organisms could live without air or sunlight, like the organisms living around the thermal vents on the ocean floor.  But to live in water so cold for so long with no apparent source of nutrients is strange, alien even.  As scientists continue to study these organisms, it may prepare us for what life on other planets could be like, once we visit them in our warp-drive spaceships! (http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-microbes-found-buried-antarctic-lake-200620910.html)

3) The CEO of SpaceX wants a Mars colony.
-We knew this was coming.  As any reader of science fiction will tell you, as Earth reaches its critical population, our civilization is going to have to find somewhere else to live.  Resources are limited, any reliable form of media will tell you that.  Well now Elon Musk has found a way (doesn't that just sound like a science-fictiony name? An author could do miracles with a name like that).  For a mere sum of $500,000 American dollars, you could be one of the first 80,000 people to fly to Mars and begin a new life for people there.  While this might not be in the super near future due to ships still being made to be reusable  it is definitely something to look out for. (http://news.yahoo.com/huge-mars-colony-eyed-spacex-founder-elon-musk-120626263.html)

4) The Large Hadron Collider has created a new kind of matter.
-Woah. Just woah.  Apparently, if you increase the speed at which protons and lead ions race around underneath Switzerland and France, they'll collide into each other and certain particles, termed gluons, will explode of the collision point in correlated directions.  This article says that the scientists were not expecting this kind of result from the collisions.  No, duh.  I'll bet they were just doing what I do on a typical lab day.  "Huh," said French scientist Pierre to his Swiss friend and colleague, Arlette, "I wonder what would happen if I did this."  "I don't know," Arlette replied as she pushed the buttons, "but it might look cool." (http://news.yahoo.com/atom-smasher-creates-kind-matter-201132904.html)

5) Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) could theoretically take you from New York to Beijing in 2 hours.
-This one hasn't actually happened yet, but there are advocates who claim that the ETT system is faster, quieter, and cheaper than our current trains, planes, cars, and boats.  I will be the first to say that the age-long family car trips taught me a lot about patience and getting along with people even when you're really tired.  But ETT has the potential to send medical supplies or important information across the globe in the amount of time it takes to roast a small turkey.  That would be cool, wouldn't it? Sending a small roast turkey half way around the world? (http://elitedaily.com/elite/2012/high-speed-travel-tubes-ny-beijing-2-hours/)

Anyway, these are just some of the coolest ones I've come across.  If you have any others you'd like to share, leave a link or a description in the comment section below.
Who knows?  We may have just entered into a new age of exploration.

Cheers!

http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2008/08/captain-kirk-and-leadership.html

Feminsim: Let's all go cray-cray!!!

I will admit that women's studies is not my favorite class.

I am all for women's rights.

I understand that the differing opinions that come up in class might not be what I agree with but that they are opinions that need to be said none-the-less.

I am aware that women's studies is such a broad topic that a professor can't limit the readings without limiting the knowledge of his or her students.

It's fine, no really, it's perfectly alright to include anecdotal evidence.  In fact, anecdotal evidence is absolutely necessary to start the process of gaining interest and doing research.

But what pisses me off is that what often comes across as advocating for the rights of women is really just a man-bashing/ tradition-smashing session.  Women say the same things over and over, that we need change, that maternity leave is too short, that the rights to a woman's body should not just include whether or not she has an abortion approved by the government but that if she does have children there should be adequate resources and care provided by the government to raise her child appropriately.  And it's all true.  But we need to cut the crap and start being honest with the men about it.

The simplest explanation is that we are scared.  We, as women, are afraid to jump out of our comfort zones. We, as men, are afraid that confrontations will lead to resentment.  We, as an American people, are afraid that change is going to cost us more in taxes.  We, as human beings, are afraid to admit that we are doing things wrong and that we can't wait for people to change the world. We have to change the world ourselves.

So back to feminism.  Feminism has to include men.  There is no possible to way to exclude 50% of the population just because the other 50% thinks they're doing things wrong.  The real world is not a work of fiction.  We can't just edit, delete, and re-write history and the present.  Hell, it's going to take at least 8 more chapters and about 1000 more blog posts from me before societal opinions really begin to change (and we all know I don't post unless I've really got something to rant about. Oh well. It's not like I'm super dooper important or anything...because...you know...I'm..not.              Damn.  .  .)

So ladies! Let the men in! Welcome them! Form meaningful relationships with them! Stop perpetuating stereotypes about them being clueless fathers and sexist behemoths. Believe in them, in the change that can occur in them.  They might surprise you.

And gentlemen. Stop being chauvinistic pigs!  Stop running away when women feel close enough to you to talk about their struggles with anxiety!  Share your knowledge about fixing cars, wrangling cattle, and writing poetry!  Believe in us, and the potential we have to make a partnership with you great! We might surprise you.

And in reality, it's not about the little things, like saying "hey guys!" or using the word 'he' in a sexually ambiguous sentence.  It's about the mutual respect, tolerance, and equality of mockery in today's television that we're after.

And I still don't like Women's Studies.

http://www.savvysugar.com/Japans-Employees-Working-Together-Living-Together-1875222

Cheers!

Change

Nobody likes it.
Not when the waitress tells you that your bill is 3.45 and so just to make it even you give her a 55 cent tip.
Not when your publisher says, hell no. That's crap. Re-write this completely.
Not when your own consciousness says, hey! You're going the wrong way! If you don't change now, you're headed for emptiness and self-loathing! You don't want that, do you?
But it is absolutely necessary.  We must change. As soon as we get comfortable, we must change.  Change is the spice of life. It is that ingredient that always seems to be missing until you realize that something different needs to happen and you act upon it.  Attitude changes, personality changes, routine changes. If you become comfortable, then you are living life wrong. There are hundreds of billions of things in the world you have left to try! Why do you stick to the same 5? Because you're good at them? No! Because you want improve upon them? No! Because you're scared to try something new.
I'm scared.  The start of this semester was great. I was doing new things, I was seeking new challenges. I was actually living. Now, I'm going through the motions. It has become a drag just to keep doing the same things I've been doing this whole semester.  I need spontaneity.  I need change.
So when things got too stifled up in my dorm room and meeting rooms and class rooms, I pulled on a coat and my feet stuffed into faux-leather black flats, I froze on a walk in the dark to a nearby creek.  There, in the complete blackness, I stumbled down a hill. I took a road in between some hills, twitching at every sound, my imagination (I must admit) getting the better of me.  And I cried. I cried for a long time.
I am not ashamed to admit, that I am a daughter of God, a sister of Christ Jesus.  And so I am also not ashamed to admit that I cried and prayed and told God that I was absolutely not satisfied with the way my life was, that I felt the need to be validated, that I was not content with the same old thing day after day.
The message is not that we need to pray to God every time we get too comfortable (although it often helps, especially if you haven't prayed like that in a while) but that every time we get comfortable, we need to change our path so that it better suits us and those around us.  We need to find a way to rejuvenate, to reinvigorate, to re-inspire our souls and are hearts.  We need to find ways to change boring rituals into new traditions.  We need to find the fire in our bellies, the spring in our legs, the tensing muscles in our lungs and jaws that are all the signals that our soul is still young and ready to explode from our bodies and spread its message and love and vision of hope throughout the world.  We need to reconquer our own minds and bodies before we can conquer the world.
The method to our madness is...Change.

Cheers!

http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/on-being-an-agent-of-change/

RAPE IS RAPE: Activist Culture Short Version

So this is going to be a short one.
I'm taking Women's Studies to fulfill an English requirement and a gen. ed. and everyday we start of the class with what our professor fondly refers to as WTF moments.  Essentially, we share little bits of feminist news or personal reflections whether it relates to the current class material or not.  I was browsing a feminist news website ( http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswire.asp) when I stumbled upon the headline "Activists Project 'Rape is Rape' on to US Capitol".  Well, obviously I found this intriguing and so when I looked at the picture of what had been done, I found this:

Hella cool, right?  It leads you to start thinking about the different, non-detrimental ways that activists, or really anybody with a message can speak to the world at large.  I chose blogging.  Luminous Intervention and FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture chose a typography display using light as their medium.
And when you really think about it, light is just a wave.  Light is a wave that moves continually and allows us to see things we might have missed otherwise.  Similarly, our actions and words are just a wave that allow us to think about ideas we might never have considered.  And if light can affect our government, then we can affect the world.
Now, isn't that something?

Cheers!

If the World Was a Classroom

If the World Was a Classroom

If the world was a classroom,

I would teach Woman to hate.

To hate deeply the injustices of Her situation,

And hotter than the bodies who hate Her.

To hate more strongly, more cutting than the false diamonds of false lovers,

And longer than the span of ignorance.

If the world was a classroom,

I would teach Woman to shun,

To shun the wayward advice of others,

The blessings and curses

Societies and loneliness,

To shun Her innermost judgments and assumptions.

If the world was a classroom,

I would teach Woman to despair,

To despair at the quality of life She has been apathetic to,

And at the self-imposed oppression of global society.

To despair at the violence that stains the street with gore and rumor,

And also at the silence that follows.

If the world was a classroom,

I would teach Woman to hate, to shun, and to despair.

I would teach Her these things

So that She would learn to love, to accept, and to hope

So that She would learn to be independent of Her own body

And grow into Her mind and heart,

Grow into Her thoughts and actions.

If the world was a classroom,

I would teach Girl to be Woman to be Teacher.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=female+empowered#/d1azgsa

School and Sleep and Socialization

So it's been a while since I've posted. I know. My audience of 2 has been crying out desperately, wondering where I've been. Well, I would like to say that I have been keeping busy, thank you. And how have you been?
Disposing with the semantics, I would like to say that I am a new member in a wonderful sorority called Alpha Delta Pi. I am playing soccer (defensive mid) and my calves are coming back into the beautiful shape that I longed for, even though I didn't have the motivation to actually keep up that shape through-out the summer (whoops!). I am singing and socializing with fellow college students and community members and shamelessly eating rice-crispies and snickers-brownies left and right.  I am volunteering and procrastinating and falling behind on my homework and squeaking by in chemistry and getting over a cold that somehow morphed into an ear infection. And yet, I still manage to find time to sleep.  Well. That clearly provides evidence that does not disprove the Theory of the Two-Cornered Collegiate Triangle, represented in the following graph:

http://www.onestophumour.com/funny-pics/4468/

As you can clearly see, I am sleeping and maintaining a semi-stable social life, and yet my grades are mediocre.  I have performed a case study on myself and I believe it to be solid evidence that necessitates further studies into such an important topic.

Anyway, I'm running out of time even as I write this. I hope to be back soon. Good luck with you life!

Cheers!

In Case You Were Wondering What I Do at 1:30 AM When I Can't Sleep...

...I think about all the things that are wrong with the world. I scare myself. I can't believe how little I've done. How dare I fall asleep when I could be doing something to actually help people. Well, I've done it again folks.  I can't sleep. Here's why:
Basically, the whole sexism thing in the Middle East has peaked at a dangerously high level of pig-headedness once again.  Iran has officially banned women from studying over 70 BA and BSc degrees in 36 universities. Sucks right? Wait. It gets better. The reason they did this was because women were consistently achieving higher scores, receiving jobs with higher status and pay, stopped getting married and having babies all the time, and just generally moving up in the world. Can't have that now can we?
Of course not! Using 100% of your country's labor and ingenuity would just make too much sense and raise your world standing! (http://forum.phillyd.tv/discussion/4613/women-banned-from-universities-in-iran#latest)

Ok. So what do we do about it?

Well, we could just wait for Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi to petition the UN (AKA "The Un") and cross our fingers and eyes and hope for the best. But noooo, that's not what's keeping Sara up. No way. It's because my mind and my consciousness has taken my sleep from me and has it held ransom until I personally figure out a fully-thought out way to solve this problem.
I was told at a seminar that the best way to permanently solve a problem, as opposed to the all-famous ever-failing band-aid solutions, is to ask "Why is this a problem in the 1st place?"
So I ask myself: "What is wrong with women becoming educated?"
And I answer myself: "Well...we stop having babies because we have other things to do with our time besides changing diapers. So we lower slope of the curve of the world population. Solves the over-population crisis. Ok. So that doesn't work..."
And I think some more before I answer: "Well...we earn more money, which also means we'll spend more money, which, as far as I understand the global economic system, means that the global economy will move more smoothly.  Ok. so that doesn't work..."
And I think some more before I answer: "Well...as we rise in the world, women start to take up positions with more power, even more power than men, which means that at some moment, there is a hormonal woman making a huge decision....AHA!"
I figured it out. We should not be educated because we bleed from a place that doesn't exist within the male gender.
Ok, so how do we fix this?
Well, technology has come up with awesome hormonal treatments and therapies, but I like the good old-fashioned approach of just having more than one person, male OR female, in some sort of committee/parliamentary/democratic-type setting make a communal decision.
Now, this does not solve the problem at hand, that women are being refused the right to pursue careers and dreams, but it solves the problem that comes after it i.e., what to do with educated women.  Now here comes the hard part, how do we educate them?
Obviously women are being denied entrance to attend universities in Iran. So that leaves two choices: re-instate university privileges for all genders in Iran, or get the Iranian ladies the hell out of there.  Shirin Ebadi is tackling the 1st option which, in the long-run, will be most efficient, I want to tackle the 2nd option.
I know it's a half-baked, hare-brained idea, but I never said it was good.
I want to fund a scholarship for women in Iran. I want to be able to pay for their student visas, full tuition, room-and-board, books, EVERYTHING they could possibly need to overcome this horrendous setback.  I want to start an organization. I want to set-up a charity. I want to do something useful to show these girls, these students just like me who are studying English, physics, engineering that we are not all bigots!!!
Like I said, not very good. But it's a start. If anybody has any experience at all, PLEASE help me set this up. Please help me not be a bigot. Also, please help me get some sleep. I can't do this all-nighter thing. It just doesn't work for me. But I can't not do it when I could be doing something useful. I hope my pronouns didn't just throw you off there. Unless you're an Iranian women. In which case you were probably never taught what a pronoun was just in case you used it against your husband when you grew up. Sorry about that.

http://www.bangalorehelp.com/news-iranuniversity.php

*As I have been doing more research on this subject, it becomes apparent that Iran is not the enemy here.  Iran is still one of the best countries in the Middle East for women. They are on a self-proclaimed crusade for women's rights, including education.  It is the universities themselves who are making the individual choice to restrict women's education.

When the.....

It appears as though the metaphorical shit has hit the metaphysical fan.  Yes, that's right.  I'm talking about becoming an adult.  Throughout my ordinary, everyday life, I have begun to notice a certain...appearance of the environment around me.  There's lots of $$$ and paper and green and plastic, so much so that I have now been forced to succumb to the realization that I too must earn some of this $$$ and paper and green and plastic.
As a 19 year old with little experience in the working field, I begin, of course, with an online search.  But there really isn't anything for a girl who has to balance out a bizarre, full-time, college schedule and activities such as soccer, choir, and Habitat for Humanity. You'd think that after volunteering and doing so much extra-curricular work, that finding something would be easy.  Nope. Not the case.
I have looked into numerous possibilities, including package-handler, child-care, wait-staff, pretty much everything short of psychic (although it shouldn't take too much time to learn Tarot. Maybe then I could work off street corners?), but I haven't found much. Oh wait! I found a company that sells cutlery. CUTLERY!!! I'm barely allowed to have a pocket-knife in my dorm. I'm pretty sure the RA's would kick me out if they knew that I would be harboring a full set of kitchen and butchers' knives underneath my bed.
But really, what else is out there? Oh, I suppose I could enter writing contests.  So, after hours of looking into that option, I emerge from the internet, tired and disheartened. Free-lance writing is for "professionals".  And so I think, 'Well, I could fake professionalism, couldn't I?'
Oh well. And with that realization that free-lancing is not in my immediate future. I thought about the poor blog that I had almost abandoned. It's hard to say abandoned; I only post a couple times a month. I'll work on it. I promise.
But, my dears, in response to a hearty kick in the rear I will resume my job search with renewed vigor.

Cheers!

http://www.axsite.com/behavioral.htm

Impromptu post because I wanted to

I write poetry about the things that I find important in my life.  Chief among these are God, language, and tolerance.  And from these important things came 'Believe'.  Read it as though I am speaking to you because, in this glorious internet age, this is the only voice I have.

Believe

Write until it doesn’t make sense not to write.

Pray until it doesn’t make sense not to pray.

Sing, speak, scream, sign until it doesn’t make sense not to do any of these things.

Communication is the basis of our survival so let me communicate to you:

Let me speak to you about what I know is true.

In my universal heart, I see that we are all so far from one another;

We hide from one another and run from one another until we’ve run out of others to hide and run from and deceive

Because we believe that the moment other see us we’ll be revealed.

We’re afraid we can’t heal.

We know that healing means survival,

A revival of our soul within the human race,

But we’re afraid that in this case, our case needs to be made to God.

You know, communication to each other, to God is the validation of our existence,

You can pick any instance and I’ll bet,

Without resistance,

That you’ll claim consistency.

But you didn’t believe because you wanted to.

You believed because you had to.

So one day I’m talking with you,

Debating meaningless news and views that are common knowledge

And you suddenly tell me that things have changed.

And I’m ecstatic,

But I know the conversion can be problematic so I’m trying to be diplomatic until you tell me you’re sure.

See, I know what you know.

I feel what you feel.

Not long ago, I was the one leading that crazy life in those gorgeous high heels

And my head was reeling as my friends were appealing to me to take off the shoes

Because they were bleeding me out

And I thought, “Really?  What difference could one pair of shoes make?”

The difference was I couldn’t talk to my shoes,

Ask my shoes for advice,

And I’d think twice before praying to them for forgiveness.

But my friends didn’t give up on me

As I struggled with the difficulty of

Finding something, someone, that considered me worthy,

I hadn’t believed because I wanted to.

I believed because I had to.

A few years later and we’re still so young,

Knowing as much today as we did yesterday or the day before that or the day before two years past last week,

When we accepted the uniqueness of our situation

And started to seek salvation.

And I’ve changed.

Poetry once filled with lightning and sharks is now lined with

Love and remarks about change and communication and hope.

And the truth of it all?

I don’t even know what I’m saying.

I’m just praying and playing with the idea that I am loved,

That God wants me above all the tasks he assigns,

Even though I sort of fail.

Jesus took 3 nails for me

And a spear in the side

And besides, His crown of thorns wasn’t just a fashion statement.

A few hundred miracles later and we’re together again as friends in Christ

As Christ has upended our lives that we’re still scrambling to reconcile that

We believe because we want to.

http://www.westessexpct.nhs.uk/ournews/images/newsimage201009.jpg

God Hates Fags...or maybe He just hates morons who think they can read His mind

In the midst of a battle against discrimination, the media once again distorts love and comfort and joy and inspiration and turns it into hate and spite.

A picture of a gay couple kissing at their engagement party was taken to inspire other LGBT persons and supporters.  The message was that their love was above the law and that they were willing to wait for each other.  They were married in New Jersey in late 2010. Awww...how sweet!

Now the not-so-sweet part...

In a brutal smear campaign, bordering on libel and slander, a Colorado board looking to eliminate a senator, from the PRIMARIES no less, took this beautiful photo of the men kissing in a park with a stunning city-scape behind them, edited it, and replaced it with a snowy, pine-tree background and added the slogan "State Senator Jean White's idea of 'family values'?"  White lost the primaries.

Now, what I've just restated were the facts (minus the introduction to that previous paragraph. That was me upset).  It's OPINION time.

Me: Ok. I come from the Midwest. I have family in Colorado Springs (in case you were interested, both they and their house survived those awful fires.  The house took minor smoke damage, but all in all, it's a blessing to just have them.).  I am prairie-born and -raised.  I love where I live.  I love the people that live where I live.  That said, the fact that people who claim to be Christians and follow Christ's teachings, the fact that people who claim to be open-minded, the fact that otherwise intelligent people belligerently refuse to accept fellow well-functioning members of society as their community just downright pisses me off.  And the fact that this happened in the Midwest that I love just saddens me.

For all of you who have a problem with Christianity fine.  Here's what I say to you.

John 15: 17..."This is my command: Love each other."

So whether you hate me for being Christian or for supporting gay and lesbian rights to marriage and civil unions and....well, just their rights in general, then fine. Hate me. In the mean time, I'll just be busy trying to love you.  And you know what?  Even if you don't think that what the bible says is, at the very least, reasonable, that is to say that you don't think that loving each other is something that civilized human beings should do and that people can deserve you hatred, then respect them and tolerate them.

Tolerance does not mean that you have to appreciate their ideas.  It just means you can accept that they have it.  It's a lot like accepting that some people have really big houses and some people live in cardboard boxes.  They have what they have. They deal with it.  Oh sure, the people with the really big houses often try to help the people living in the cardboard boxes, and sometimes it works.  Sometimes we can change an ideology, much like moving the people in the cardboard house into a shelter or maybe even their own home. But sometimes you can't change ideas.  Sometimes you can't change the people in the cardboard house.  Those people simply want to be left alone.  It doesn't mean that the people in the big houses stop trying.  It just means that the people in the big houses accept their existence.

So why do we refuse these gays and lesbians and bisexuals and yes, even transgendered or questioning folk, their right to the existence of their love?  Why is it so impossible to believe that love is the only thing that really matters in a relationship?  What are these "family-values" that we are trying to instill in our children?  What exactly classifies as a family value?

I am a camp counselor.  I am privileged to claim some responsibility in the shaping of my campers' lives.  Is it wrong that I try to teach fairness?  Love of the earth?  Responsibility of themselves? Perseverance in difficult tasks?  Kindness towards animals?  Respect of authority and peers? Inspiration and imagination in every bug in a rotting log and deep in the waters of a polluted creek?  Cooperation and teamwork in large and small groups?  What exactly is wrong with what I am teaching?  What exactly is wrong with my co-worker, who is a lesbian, who is teaching the same things as I am?

I am in love with humanity.  I am in love with this world.  I have said these things before and they have never ceased to be true.  But right now, I am severely disappointed in humanity.  The only thing I can do right now is express my disappointment and shake my head sadly and hope that society, that this Colorado campaign board realizes that it has failed in its expectations of responsibility and reliability and that it behaved like an ill-mannered child.  Unlike the child, I can't deprive them of their privileges to a fun activity or make them last in line for snack.  I can merely hope and pray that they realize their mistake and do their utmost to fix it.

If you would like to read more of the story, this is the link to the Yahoo coverage of this story: http://gma.yahoo.com/gay-couple-eyes-lawsuit-finding-photo-hate-group-180612168--abc-news-health.html

http://americansfortruth.com/2011/12/24/homosexuality-and-the-incredibly-shrinking-jesus/

The Girl Who Played With Fire and other not-so-sexy sex-related topics

Ok, so I haven't been posting in a while but that doesn't mean that nothing has been happening.  School ended, I passed Chemistry (that was a surprise, I assure you), I began my job as a camp counselor for a local nature day camp, and I finished The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson.  Great book by the way.
But it is its contents and theme that I actually want to discuss.  I have supported Tiny Hands International for about 3 years now.  For those of you who don't know what Tiny Hands is, it is a Christian organization with the goal to use a country's own resources to prevent the sex slave trade.  The reason for this is that if a populace has a personal stake in and control over the smuggling of underage girls over their borders, there are more likely to be more interested and more involved.  Tiny Hands does a lot of awareness promotion, both in the areas with high risk for girls to be taken in in lower risk areas.
I keep saying countries.  What comes to mind when I think of countries who are involved with sex slavery, I tend to think of third world countries and regions like Thailand, Cambodia, the Balkans, some Eastern Europe countries (especially with the sale of Russian wives), and poorer African countries who are looking for a way to increase their revenue.  And to an extent, all of these countries are involved.  But what is most surprising, least known, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for these and any future girls kidnapped by these monsters, is that not a single country in this world is completely free of it.  The United States is horribly involved in the sex slave trade, and actually just slave trade in general.  There are at least 27 million people who are being used and traded and abused because they are slaves in the modern world. What kind of fucking modern world is this?
Human trafficking is cruel, inhumane, and downright stupid. And yet nobody seems to know about it!  Nobody seems to know or care about the 27 million SISTERS AND BROTHERS AND MOTHERS AND FATHERS that have been torn apart, raped, beaten, subject to humiliation, and denied the basic rights that we often take for granted.  And then the Secretary of State of the United States of America goes and publishes the ANNUAL REPORT that grades nations on how well they've enforced the trafficking laws. A glorified report card that cuts the allowance of the country who gets a C or lower.  All from "Mother England and Uncle Sam" both of whom failed themselves but then tweaked the criteria in their favor, just so they could stay in power.  Filthy cheats.
So yes. This stuff actually happens.  And yes. You should probably care about it because the people who don't are either ignorant morons or arrogant bastards.
Tiny Hands isn't the only organization involved.  There are groups of people devoted to the repudiation of sexcations: a vacation where one goes just to have sex with girls in some country where prostitution is legal.  There are organizations to buy girls out, to get local police involved, to get the population involved.  PLEASE! Even if you are not remotely interested (which I think by the end of this post it's safe to say that you would fall into the category of arrogant bastard), at least look at some of the websites where people with much more knowledge, experience, and opportunity than I talk about what we can do to help spread the word, alarm, and disgust at the degree of human trafficking in our 'civilized' society.
Now go out there and do something about it!

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
http://www.polarisproject.org/
http://www.catwinternational.org/
http://humantrafficking.org/
https://thesoldproject.com/

https://nupurmkr.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/holding-hands-peace-planet-earth-painted.jpg

Does this really happen???

I am so ashamed of my sheltered life. So totally and completely ashamed. I am a white, middle-upper class female attending a good college, with good and secure job.  I am not deformed in any way, nor am I overweight. I don't do drugs and I don't drink.  I am not from a broken home.
And yet...
The internet is an objective provider of information.  Teachers bully autistic 5-year-olds and are not held accountable.  People in positions of authority electroshock mentally retarded teens like it's the 1950's. (links to both of those videos below)
I am...outraged.  Frustrated. Helpless.  I feel like I can't do anything, but I know I must. I absolutely must.  How can I possibly justify my existence if I do not try to help someone in a position less powerful than mine? How can I even breathe normally when I am aware that yes, even in the land of the free and the home of the brave, there are those who do not have the power to act freely and there are cowards who prey upon these victims of society?  How can I live with myself if I don't try, by some small and seemingly inconsequential act, to aide the abandoned?
I am ashamed to have to ask myself, "Does this really happen?  Do people still do these things to one another? What kind of barbaric animal does this?" and I'm even more ashamed when I realize the apathy of people who stand in the room, next to the screaming and crying kid, and do absolutely nothing.
And then the shame takes a backseat to the fear: the fear that these people actually think they're doing good or helping these children; the fear that their bosses take no notice of the situation until it is brought before a court and only then is minimal restitution paid, mostly because everyone just wants it to disappear; the fear that these types of situations are hidden from the public because districts and corporations pay to have it withheld or because networks think it will hurt their ratings.
And after fear comes anger.  I am angry at the specific individuals who bully others.  I am angry at humanity for not rising to the occasion of these thoughtless acts of deprecation.  And I am angry at the bastards who comment on the youtube videos, either by saying the kids deserved their treatment or, at the other extreme, saying the individuals responsible should be dragged out into the street and lynched.  That does not help matters, dillinger9999.
And now, I am determined.  I want to get the message out that yes, these things do happen but no, we do not have to let them.  Now, I want to empower the world into stepping in when someone is being beaten down.  I want to empower the world into stepping in when someone looks like they have been beaten down. I want to empower the world to empower the world.  This cannot continue, for the sake of humanity. A race of supposedly advanced beings, the Homo sapiens, needs to be advanced in every respect, technology, conservation, production, and morals.  We cannot degrade our own species because then we are only holding each other back.  I realize we can't love everybody.  I realize it is very nearly impossible to even like everybody.  But we don't have to like somebody, we just have to respect them.

These videos inspired my post.  Some of the content is hard to watch or hear, so do so at your own risk.

Footage of Judge Rotenberg Center torturing a person with a disability aired in court (Graphic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aAj9W0ntUMI

Teacher/Bully: How My Son Was Humiliated and Tormented by his Teacher and Aide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfkscHt96R0