Worried For My Country

Share

At the Post Office yesterday during lunch, I had an interesting exchange with the elderly gentleman in front of me. He was there mailing out lien notices towards eviction and foreclosure. I told him I have a near neighbor who has admitted to me that he’s not paying his mortgage. The man told me “I would hate to be a young person trying to start out today.” I responded that every generation had their challenges, but I’m honestly jealous of his position.

I don’t know what happened to the America in which I believe. Since I became an adult, I have seen issue after issue surrendered to the party of allowances and license in the name of equality and fairness. This they do without regard for how I feel about it, and I don’t think it’s wise or fair. Truthfully, this began before I was born, but we are now reaping what they sowed.

One of my new coworkers put it an interesting way. As she told me why she loved the beatnik era, she said it was because she loved the thought of something from nothing. This rising generation, begun by the beatniks and romanticized by English literature majors like this woman, believes that something can come from nothing and does. Even worse, they believe in something for nothing. When history is recounted, I think the modern civilized society will trace its fall through the beatnik era. As soon as “eat, drink, and be merry” became not only tolerated but celebrated, it was all downhill from there.

People around me like to compare this time to 1776. In truth, it’s worse. Sure, Franklin was a philanderer, and George III was a tyrant, but this morning I read that Massachusetts of all states has now ablated all idea of gender. When everyone is equal, nobody will be.

I don’t know what will happen or what to expect. What I do know is that George Washington referred to the establishment of this nation as “little short of a standing miracle”. I will pray that God will preserve us as long as a band of Christians remain in the land, not just people who use that title or have that surname, but people who actually follow Christ and strive His works to do for the reasons He prescribed. If He doesn’t intend to preserve us, I will ask Him to help us flee to the next land of promise for us and establish a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created. I have been promised that He will protect and preserve me as long as I defend the Constitution and Declaration. I am a crusader. This is what we do.

Is Money the Solution?

Share

Like most politicians, Congressman Horsford thinks that money is the solution to any problem. He came to work yesterday to talk about what we can do to increase student success and talked mostly about money for education. I realized as he spoke that money is exactly the problem and that more funding is a red herring, and I even called him on that. However, politicians use money because it’s easy to measure, easy to move, and easy for folks at sidewalk level to visualize, and so he can seem to be doing something whether or not it’s useful work. One reason that students in Nevada aren’t graduating is because of the money. What are they going to do when they graduate in a town that doesn’t require or reward folks for a college education?

Congressman Horsford surprised me initially by being early (about 20 minutes) and then by being available. He surprised me again by stepping outside and not returning until 20 minutes after the hour; his tardiness I viewed as a sign of disrespect, but I don’t know if anyone else noticed it. As he fed us the typical talking points, the congressman acted completely in character from the Democrat playbook telling the people what they wanted to hear without providing any useful information. Like his mentor this protégé redistributed the blame (people on the other side have been obstructing…), attempted to create consensus (when this is something a majority of Americans support [did he ask a majority of Americans what they support?], used charged language (red states make sure THEY get enough money), and sounded like a pirate (I’ll make sure Nevada gets money) without regard for whether it’s something true, legal, ethical or moral. All the while, the clapping seals applauded in cadence. Most of the questions were selfish about making sure WE get our pay restored and WE have enough, without regard whatsoever for what WE will be required to sacrifice or what responsibility belongs to us. He made it sound like the people who don’t agree lock stock and barrel with him don’t like the people in that room. Horsford played his parliamentary foist on a somnambulant audience, and they ate it up, shaking their heads and clapping while he fed them unsubstantiated phrases and outright lies. I am not sure whether he took credit for things he didn’t do or opposed, but he certainly didn’t take any blame.

I felt very alone in the room and wondered if it was a mistake. Before I went, I considered several times not going at all, but I knew that if I didn’t go it was likely nobody would throw him any tough questions. He seemed surprised by my inquiry, as if he were a boy back on his home stomping grounds not expecting to be challenged. My nerves were on edge, first because I was unsure if I was right in what I intended to mention, so I went to fact check before returning. Secondly, I was nervous because there were initially only two rows of chairs, and so I was closer to him than I wanted to be in a small gathering where I was sure to be easily noticed. As he continued to spoon feed hogwash, I felt the energy rise in my chest, and so at length I decided to proceed. I stood, and although I had practiced verbally and on paper what I might say, words came out of my mouth that I can no longer recall. He asked me to repeat it, and I did so, verbatim, not having planned the actual phrases I used. They were the right ones. I made it clear that I know he is a hypocrite without outing him to the assemblage.

Immediately after it ended, I left. I was anxious. I wasn’t sure I had done the right thing for me. I knew that I had done the right thing for my country, for truth, and for the students. I am a crusader. This is what we do.

There was a lot of talk about money, which I tried to point out is a red herring. The real problem as I see it is that we have the wrong heroes, the wrong definition of success, and the wrong front men in this campaign, and so all of his talk is irrelevant. Students all too often choose as their heroes people who are successful in spite of college rather than because of it, people who often use college as an application to professional sports and then never matriculate (I don’t know if Horsford knew that word when I used it). Particularly in this town, they are not motivated to finish college because they can earn twice what I do as a professor dealing blackjack in a casino. Finally, it’s a paradox to have people who never finished college talk about how important college is for success in life. Of course, Horsford touched on all of these, but I didn’t hear any concrete ideas, answers, or proposals. Instead, he diverted attention away from the problem as if that solves it and told me that supply creates its own demand. If we train students, the jobs will come. I don’t see people lining up to buy “President Romney” quesquilia or Tickle Me Elmo dolls. I see them buying ammo and taking their cars to mechanics, but those jobs aren’t sexy, so people don’t want them. So Horsford proposes more money.

This is what they do- they lie about money. They talk of meat cleavers and harmful cuts in a time when the government has never been so large, never employed so many people, never borrowed so much, as they do now, and when the number they propose to cut is statistically insignificant compared to the trillions they will spend. Most of the people in that room with me probably just assume that what a Democrat says is true without checking at all. They just assume that a Democrat is qualified without checking his resume. What experience does Horsford have to serve on the Homeland Security Committee? Zero. They tell us they can’t cut anything but that the rich can afford to pay for more while the rich, including people who work for Obama, cheat on their taxes. Obama likes to compare himself to the fictional “Dave”, but he never invites Murray in to cut the budget. It is assumed that there is no bloat in his administration; only the GOP has bloat.

Horsford, like so many people, appears to have repeated the lies so much that he actually believes that they are true. He can’t explain any of it. He is a true believer. He worships government, and since he is now part of that government, he probably views himself as a demigod or at least a prophet. Consequently, what we have comes from him, and so he will shower us with money and call out as did Jack Nicholsen as the Joker, where is your answer, because I have free money for you! There is no such thing as a free lunch unless the government is giving it to you, and then it’s taken from some distal and ephemeral villain known as “the rich”. Democrats speak in foregone conclusions, that just because a thing can or may occur that it necessarily will or must. Who knows what will happen? What I know is that continuing to do what we have done will get us the same results as in the past.

The original premise for Horsford’s visit was to discuss how we can make particular subsets of the student body successful in college. In answer to my inquiry, he provided few actionable items with measurable metrics, ostensibly so that he cannot be tied down to performance and can blame the other party when nothing changes. You see, if you have a plan, people can measure you on your record. He wants to be measured by weaknesses in the record of his opponent. I have previously pointed out that drawing attention to the problems in other people does nothing to fix you own (typo intentional). I wanted to know what he intended to do, but this was a public appearance so he could politic and get his back patted by fawning acolytes who already agree with him. That’s probably why he seemed shaken by my question. He came to be validated, not questioned, to be applauded, not held to account, to appear busy rather than to do useful work. Clearly he has no idea that useful work is one of the pillars of the universe.

Be a Teacher

Share

After work Thursday, I played racquetball against one of the employees. He has watched me for several months and decided he wanted to play me. Although I had to work for it, after I beat him 15-1 twice in a row, I asked him if he wanted to know what to do to play better against me. After I explained those things, I said, “I don’t know why I’m telling you how to beat me. It must be the teacher in me.” He then proceeded to play, and this time improved to 15-9.

You see, far too many so-called teachers view the classroom as an exercise in ego. If you are a teacher but you aren’t smarter than a fifth grader, that might be a problem. However, I don’t see who benefits if I prove that I know more than the students. That’s how it works. They come to me to learn things I know. Keeping them there however makes zero sense to me. If the next generation is not smarter than we, then we cease to progress as a civilization.

My young friend may one day beat me handily. This is because although I can explain to him how to play better against me, he probably lacks experience or desire to do in kind. Most professionals in sports maintain their hegemony by taking advantage of any weaknesses revealed by their opponents while obfuscating their own. They do this because their livelihood depends on it in part, and so they are unseated only when someone who is naturally better supersedes them or someone younger passes them as they age. This unnecessarily retards our progress as a society.

It’s about ego for far too many people. While they talk of community and shared sacrifice, they are secretly, clandestinely seeking to carve out a niche for themselves…their own…their precious. At work, in school, at church, and in families, I see the older generation desperate to maintain itself and hold the rising one back so that they look better. Are we really that insecure that we cannot see another person succeed without automatically inferring that their success makes us lesser? Sometimes these subsequence successes stand on something someone else already did. It does not make your accomplishments less; it made theirs possible.

I don’t know why I tell people the things I do. I don’t know why I tell them the truth and you the truth in person, on this blog, and every other opportunity afforded me. It must be the teacher in me. Is there a teacher in you?

Presumed Racism

Share

Since early in 2012, I fly a flag every day of the year. Sometimes, I fly two. For example, on 22 February, I will fly General Washington’s personal banner in honor of his birthday, just as I will fly the American Flag next Monday in honor of all presidents, even the current one. Before I could do this, I had to obtain permission from the HOA to install a flag pole, which is why this post is very strange.

My HOA required me to obtain permission from my neighbors about the pole I intended to install and how they could expect flags to fly. When I first flew the Stars and Stripes, my neighbor to the south, whose parents are from Mexico and whose signature appears on my permission form, glared at me. When I flew it on Cinco de Mayo, he glared at me more. My friend Alfredo, who is himself from a small village in southern Mexico, is fascinated with my displays of Washington’s portrait, the Declaration of Independence, my penny Lincoln portrait, and a model of the USS Constitution. He is not offended by any of that. Imagine my confusion and anger to read today that students at an American High School in California were told to remove their flag regalia and stop chanting USA at a rally today. Since when has it become a problem to celebrate this nation?

In the story mentioned today, some words reminded of a conversation I had after my neighbor glared at my flag. It is presumed that being pro-America is anti-Mexico. It is presumed that celebrating the United States and its achievements automatically makes you a racist. Excuse me? I have nothing against Mexico. My great grandfather was born there. Which nation was the first to fight a war with itself to end slavery? Which nation has gone into Asia to throw off Japanese hegemony over other Asian countries? Which nation allowed every single one of its territories that voted so to become independent? Which nation surrenders its blood and treasure all over the world to keep the peace and establish freedom without gaining any land or extra power? It is presumed that being a patriot makes you racist unless you can prove you’re not, which we know is a logical fallacy. How do you provide evidence that something is not so?

Like those students, I do not fly my flag because I hate Mexico or Austria or Botswana or Thailand or New Zealand. I fly it because I love my country. I think it is racist to presume that something I do MIGHT be racist. Why is it automatically assumed that white people are racist until they prove that they are not? I don’t do business with people because of their race. I don’t befriend people because of their race. I am offended that you are offended. If you have taken offense where none is intended, you need to grow a thick skin. What are you, six years old? What flag did my neighbor assume I would fly? Why isn’t he also offended when it flies for Whitney Houston or at the White House or outside every fire station in America? Why is he offended when I do it? Why isn’t his father upset? In fact, his father likes me because I gave him things from my landscaping for free. I didn’t even take advantage of him or try to sell it. He was doing me a favor to take it away.

I think that some people are offended because they want to be. They want to be victims. They want people to take pity on them and make it up to them when no offense was intended. Of course, they never give offense, and I am sick and tired of having to defend my honest opinions when other people are completely insensitive to how their utterances come across to me. Do you think I like being kept awake by their music and gunfire at midnight on days of Mexican celebration? I don’t call the cops or glare at them. I roll over and go to sleep. People frequently apologize to me for having offended me. I tell them that I learned long ago that you cannot offend me unless I give you permission to do so. I can choose to take things as I wish. These people need to get over themselves.

As the Democrats talk about shared sacrifice and community and such, they need to realize that the universe does not revolve around them. Respect and cooperation mean that they also extend to me deference as well. What they call community they actually mean as capitulation, where I must tolerate everything they do and think and feel when they consider themselves under no obligation whatsoever to reciprocate. I must change for them. No deal.

America has flaws, but she also has great strengths. If you look for the bad in mankind, Abraham Lincoln said, expecting to find it you surely will. People tend to find that for which they look. The people who see racism are looking for it. If they were looking for virtue in me, they would see that. Perhaps it is naïve of me, but I assume people are good and decent until they prove otherwise. Even then, I don’t hate them; I just choose to deal with other people. I close with the words of Aaron Tipton: “I pledge allegiance to this flag. If that bothers you, well that’s too bad, but if you’ve got pride and you know you do, we could use some more like me and you.” Everyone who really knows me knows that I'm far too complex to distill down to one word. Get to know me. Get to know what I really mean. If you don't understand, ask. Don't let your opinion of someone or something actually be someone else's. Have your own opinions. Make them by study and experience like I have.

Politicians are Paradoxical

Share

This morning, I was notified that Congressman Steven Horsford will be coming to campus to discuss how we can help African American students succeed academically. I find this to be a huge paradox, but that appears more and more to be the rule when it comes to politicians. Even as they decry some among them because they lack credentials, those who are the least accomplished among them sell themselves to us as the world’s foremost experts on everything.

Back in 2010, when Horsford announced his candidacy, I considered running against him because he seemed to be a very weak candidate to me. An early screenshot of his campaign website that I captured as a PDF shows that his own website is incoherent and illiterate. (screenshot coming soon) You would think that he would find someone to proofread his website before publishing to the world that he knows very little about English. Then there’s the fact that he is himself a college drop out. He might point out that his wife teaches at UNLV, but her work does not matter in this arena. She was not elected to office; he was. She is not at the meeting; he is. He is uniquely unqualified to talk about helping African Americans academically because that’s not what he did. It’s classical “do as I say, not as I do” hypocrisy.

However, this kind of hypocrisy runs rampant in Washington particularly among the Democrat party. What exactly are Obama’s credentials? We don’t actually know how well he did in school or if he finished law school because he never released his transcripts to say nothing of whether he ever passed the bar if he even took it. Yet, not only did he serve as a guest lecture at a prestigious law school, he also apparently knows more about health care, the economy, war, ad infinitum than any other person ever through all generations of time.

Democrats like to talk about how you can only talk about something if you have credentials. Yet, it didn’t stop a national reporter from claiming erroneously last night that police had positively identified Dorner’s body in the still smoldering ruins at Big Bear Lake. The police still have not confirmed or denied that. My own students ask me frequently why I don’t teach history or philosophy. I don’t have a degree in that. My degree is in Biochemistry. I have educated myself in those other subjects since leaving college. By their logic, Newton could not teach math or physics and neither could Einstein because they didn’t have degrees in that, Mendel could not teach Genetics because he was a monk, and Darwin could not talk of evolution since he attended school to be a parson and earned an “ordinary degree” after a Bachelor of Arts. That’s hardly first author material today. Yet, their experts like Bill Nye (Mechanical Engineering) or Al Gore (who has a BA with emphasis in TV and Political campaigns and dropped out of Law School to run for Congress) are held up as science experts without anything other than theories to back it up. Meanwhile, Conservatives are shouted into silence if they don’t have demonstrable 100% success records on the thing they propose to discuss.

As respects qualifications that’s just one way in which politicians are paradoxical. Too often they live one way and insist we live another. Too often they excuse in themselves behaviors for which they would roast us on the spit of public opinion. They are not gods. Like us, they too bleed. Like us, they too will die. Like us, they too must some day answer to truth, and the truth is that most of them are living a lie that will seem like hell when faced with truth before the Judgment Bar of the Great Jehovah. There we will find no hypocrites or deceit, only truth, and for those who have lived in truth, it will truly set us free.

USF Romeo and Juliet Review

Share

Dear Friends-

Friday night was my fifth annual attendance at the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Shakespeare in the Schools tour. I came hoping that the reviews I had thus far heard were unjustified, and I am quite pleased to report that I disagreed with their criticisms in nearly every whit. The troupe of players this year continued the fine tradition evident in years past of faithfulness to Shakespeare’s original intent and context as well as their acting acumen. It was well worth the price I paid as usual.

Certain aspects dictate more specific praise. I liked the simple, modern, and comfortable costumes. DaVinci is credited with linking simplicity with sophistication, and I have always enjoyed the focus on the players and the play rather than the distractions of set, costumes and other appurtenances. I liked that Juliet was appropriately played by someone who could convey the childishness of her actual age and couple that with the maturation process that accompanies love, marriage, and familial felicitations. I liked having slightly elder persons in the place of Tybalt/Lawrence and Lord Capulet, given that these were not blossoming youths. Your choices conveyed authority and legitimacy to those characters by coupling the character to someone of somewhat more mature stature.

Owing to your choices in the presentation and editing of the play, I was able to pay better attention to the story than ever before. I noticed some things that I did not notice over a dozen years hence when last I saw the play or in other modernized adaptations of late in cinema and on stage. My only lament is that unless one attends both public performances in Vegas and retains the retinue in remembrance can one remonstrate repeatedly on your recitation given that you disallow recording and do not even record it yourself. This particular troupe will never convene again in this way to present this play, and I think that other persons besides myself might be interested in purchasing copies of the performance for private home exhibition after you depart to other cities on tour.

I felt impressed to pass on my thoughts. I enjoyed your work. I wish you the best of success and maximum of safety as you continue the tour throughout the spring.

Sincerely-

Doug Funny

Company Praise: Slime.com

Share

Several days a week, I try to ride my bicycle to work. Most of the trip is through residential areas, but for about 25% of my ride I pass through industrial areas where my 18-speed’s thin tires just aren’t quite strong enough. In the past two years, I have had about six flats. Recently, I restocked my supply of patches. I had switched to Skabs by Slime.com because they were cheap and easy. Then I discovered the codicil.

Apparently, not all skabs are built equally. The past three times I have repaired my tires, the patches have failed. When I remove the tire and put it under water, air is escaping from underneath the patches even after I made sure to follow their directions meticulously and used gloves. Accordingly, I turned to their website to give them feedback, and they have earned my continued business.

A very fine woman has written me back and forth for about a week now. Not only are they standing behind their product, but they’re replacing the skabs with a SUPERIOR product free of charge no questions asked. Of course, they took the time to educate me as to the line of their products and turned me to their website. However, they also went above and beyond to continue to win my trust. This is the fourth communication since Thanksgiving 2012 I have initiated and the best one. Wal-mart didn’t even acknowledge my letter.

I just wanted to give Slime a public affirmation. In times of financial duress, it could be easily assumed that customers are out to take advantage of company guarantees. I know your bottom line is tight because I can conceive how I might act if mine were. Your business model stand by your products and supports the customers, even when we ride through areas of town strewn with metal fragments that tear up our bicycle tires. I will continue to buy and use your products, because you have given me reason to believe that you mean what you say and that I matter to you. Thank you so much, and best wishes for your company’s continued success.

Seek Better Things

Share

I have many well-wishing friends who seem dissatisfied with the choices I have made and the life I live. I also have many well-wishing friends who understand that what I value is different from what other people value. That’s completely normal. What I wrestle with is that when you don’t seek after the things of the world, the people of the world don’t really know what to do with you, and because it is they who are uncomfortable with your choices, they will seek to make you miserable for being different. I find it ironic because they all seem to be fascinated with being unique and famous and standing out, which is why they dress their bodies and their Facebook pages and their cars with whatever random quesquilia they can find.

Several years ago, I started coming to a realization in this matter. I turned to close friends and spent time on my knees with my Maker trying to find out if I was off kilter. One of my friends told me as he watched women reject me that if he were female I was the kind of man he would seek. An ecclesiastical leader told me that he felt I was like a finely tuned radio, and that I was unlikely to be receiving the wrong messages. One day while praying, I felt impressed with the following scripture from the 15th chapter of the Testimony of John: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” I realized that was God talking to me- I was not looking for the world, and so the world didn’t know what to do with me. I would get upset about things I saw on Facebook and forget the quiet whisperings of the Comforter, and so I was the cause of my own distress.

Today in Sunday School we read a scripture I had not noticed before. “Thou shalt lay aside the things of this world and seek for things of a better”. That’s a COMMANDMENT. It’s a tough one too, particularly today for some people with the SuperBowl in full swing. How do you lay them aside when they are so much a part of our current reality? All around us we have people who clamour for greater pay, nicer houses, more attractive mates, more exciting vacations, and the like, and so we get caught up easily in the quest for things of no worth and that cannot satisfy. Likewise, we concern ourselves with the cares of the world- with war, poverty, disease, unemployment, politicis, etc., forgetting that those things grow out of man’s decision to seek for things that are of little worth. It’s hard to imagine God or a better world; sure we talk about it all the time, but nobody’s ever been there, at least not anybody I actually know personally, and so it’s more abstract than our current bout of influenza, troublesome upcoming presentation at work, squabble with a neighbor, or broken appliance that demands urgent attention.

Turning to God makes you unpopular. Frequently the things of God ask you to ignore the things of the world because they are either not urgent or not important. The people in the world don’t like the notion that their ideas and endeavors and opinions are irrelevant, and so they usually attack the people of God, not necessarily because they dislike them but because the people of God make them feel like they might not be right after all. Some small fraction of them also mock you because they would like to have your faith or diligence or testimony without having to do the work necessary to become like you. Remember that people make fun of things they envy. People drag other people down when those people have something that gives them better hope and prospects. It’s an ego thing. They think you don’t value them. What you really do when you act on inspiration is show that you value God more.

For the things of God it makes very little sense to turn to other people for answers. People like to think they are important, and they are, but they are not the most important thing when it comes to things of God. More often than not, they will try to trump the advice and impressions we receive as revelation. Why do we allow that? Do they ask God? Do we let the opinions of interested albeit uninspired people get in the way? Is it even in their purview to receive revelation on your behalf? They will take it personally because they care about you without reciprocally realizing that, unless you are a mechanic, they will not ask you for help or advice in fixing their car. God is the expert on things of God, and so His opinion and counsel are always the best. It is fine for regular folks to share their opinions and help you work through something, but as the consequences are yours, the decision is too. The only person who should be able to trump you is God, and so if you take something to Him after consideration and thought and preparation, and then He vetoes it, that holds weight. If not, Paul advises us to “cast not away therefore thy confidence which hath great recompense of reward.” Jeffrey Holland tells us that “if it was right when you prayed about it, had faith in it and lived for it, it is right now”. God himself told another modern prophet, “Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can a man have than from God?”

I know it can be hard to have confidence in the revelations of God. The people around us seem so much more concrete because we can see them, smell them, and hear them in a way to which we have become accustomed. If you find it hard to push forward, know that others have walked that path before you. I look to Elijah frequently, because he thought he was the absolute last person to still believe in the God of Israel and felt so very unworthy of the calling to which God lifted him. It got so bad that God sent him Elisha as a second witness, and He will do the same thing for you. For the past two years, here, at work, with my friends, and everywhere I can, I have worked as hard as I know to turn people to the Lord. I have told several people who know me well and think highly of me that in the world towards which I am working I expect to be average at best. I do not have all the answers; my mother taught me where to find them, and now I pass on that direction to you. Seek better things. Inquire of the Lord.

Using the Children

Share

It’s always “for the children” but rarely to their benefit. I have a close acquaintance who claims she loves her children. They bring her great joy, but they are less of a rare possession than they are an accoutrement with which she festoons herself to establish her status and stratification in society. Children are frequently used by people rather than cared for by those who sire them. We see them treated as pawns in divorce proceedings or in dating or even children leveraging each other to prove who is loved more.

Children work as leverage because the people who leverage them know that children make other people emotional. Criminals kidnap or kill children because they know parents who really care will do anything if they think they can get their children back. Most of us would do whatever we could to protect children if we could. Consequently, when something awful happens or looms or when an idea comes out that might in any way affect children, they use the image of a helpless child to guilt trip those with consciences. It’s about stratification, and far too many people rise to power on the auspices that they care more about children than others without much regard for how they treat their own children, which is a far better metric for whether they mean what they claim.

The Newtown shooting was awful. It has become that way because the children were all small. It ignores that fact that the shooter was someone’s child and that every person on earth is someone’s child. We’re not small any more, and fewer of us are totally defenseless. The political aftermath of Newtown has been about fear, blame, and power to those who leverage children to advance themselves. The solutions show a desire to punish rather than protect as evinced by the following coincidental events. For Christmas, it was reported that the most requested item was a father. This week, they revised unemployment for the Christmas season UP, meaning fewer people were working at Christmas than previously reported. Bill Clinton was named Father of the Year. The single best indicator of a child’s life prospects is whether or not both original parents are still together. Children whose parents remain together behave better, score better, live better, and live longer than their compatriots. Marriage leads to prosperity. How many politicians have you heard advocate strengthening of marriages and parent-child relationships?

Look at some other paradoxes in this situation by those who manipulate the children of strangers. The president hasn’t said anything about the Syrian hostages or the thus far 30 homicides in Chicago, including a small girl who performed at his inauguration. They seem intent on nickel and diming us with a few deaths and swallowing the greater camel of regular child slaughter to strain at a gnat in this one time tragedy. More people are on food stamps and unemployment at Christmas than ever before. What did Santa bring them? If they really cared about children, they would be out helping some. They blame the GOP and gun nuts, forgetting that Chicago and Connecticut are largely governed by Democrats. They focus on stories where guns were used by villains and ignore news reports about people using firearms to do something heroic. They trust soldiers to use guns to defend us while in uniform but require them to register personal firearms when they come home.

This is not about children at all. It isn’t even about THEIR children. It’s about them. They use children to elevate their status in society. Sure, they may give their children attention, pay for the best schools, bring them the best toys, and think they genuinely love their children. The real reason is that when you do what’s best for “the children” sometimes it hurts your own. Take for example the Lexington Minutemen. What they did in April 1775 was intended to benefit all children, but nine of them never came home to their families. It was bad for THEIR children, but ultimately it has helped many more. The people who really care for children are willing to sacrifice their desires for those of their children, giving away their time, their salaries, and their talents. I know some fathers justify long hours because it brings better pay, but children don’t hug their father’s paycheck. They are glad when daddy comes home, throwing their arms around his neck and climbing on his knee to share in their joys. What have Obama’s children suffered? What has Obama given up? As he insists that you surrender your guns, he goes out and gets a photo op shooting one and exempts himself from the laws he insists apply to you. He sacrifices nothing.

And we consider him a good father? He’s using all of the children, particularly the as yet unborn to pay for what he imposes on us and then demands we give him the glory. I think it should go to “the children”.

“Equal” or Preferential Opportunity?

Share

From my earliest days working, I have been subject to different standards. As a new employee, of course, they expect less during the learning curve. What I find counterintuitive is when people with chemical addictions get smoking and drinking breaks, but when I try to take a break I am told to go back to work. When we reward people for aberrant and abhorrent behavior, more people will engage in those behaviors, and consequently they spend more time on their addictions and increasingly less doing work, particularly when those behaviors are related to the stress of work.

People have long argued about pay disparities such that the oppressed have now become the oppressors. This week, I read about the Paycheck Fairness Act, and we’ve heard ad libitum about the Lily Ledbetter Act, which both talk about ostensibly equal pay but are particularly worded to give special attention to women and minorities who are apparently always at a disadvantage. The fact of the matter is that, when the data comes out later this year, it will show probably that all of my female coworkers outearn me despite the fact that I have been “in grade” longer because they have been state union employees longer. If they meant equal pay, then I could use those acts to force my employer to justify that their higher pay is because they do superior work. It’s probably really because of my disparate melanin or testosterone content more than the content of my work character.

I have been a conscientious worker, and it has rewarded me to a degree. The rewards are not always things that I value. Sometimes, they are paper accolades while other people receive pay increases and special accolades for things I do all the time. While working for Wal-mart, my supervisors gave a commendation to a coworker for wording that essentially congratulated him for showing up for work on time. I told my manager that such an award cheapened the value of the commendation I had, especially since mine was for performance. In fact, a few years ago when a friend asked my opinion of working for Wal-mart, I told him that he would have to work harder than people of other demographics just to be competitive. I ran at 130% of expectations every week, even the week I had diarrhea, and I was passed over for promotion, and they rewarded me with more work for the same pay. From each according to his capability is a tenant of Karl Marx. In fact, when they promoted another person to a management position, he was promoted precisely because he was exactly like me.

Equal rights is a double edged sword. As they clamour for perfect equality, they run risks they may not consider. Women are granted maternity leave, and employers are required to hold their job for when they return. They may rue the day when MEN convince a judge that this is unfair. Women want to be able to serve on the front line of combat when it suits them, at least some women, but when they are drafted and forced to go their against their will because a few people were pissants about it, they may rue the day that a minority established that tyranny.

Speaking of tyranny, equality is often a matter of expediency. the argument exists that our gun rights are only for muskets. If they really mean equality, why do we not have the right to the equal protection opportunity the government has? I could really use a tank. They claim that women deserve free contraception, for which I have to pay, and that I must see a doctor. What if I want an abortion? Aren’t we all equal? We are NOT equal. It’s about equal opportunity, not equal outcomes, rewards, pay, care, or whatever. I haven’t had a pay raise for years, but I don’t worry because I know I exist to serve the people, that they can get along without professors, but that I can’t get along without them. Government is actually the lowest part of our society. If they really are the best among us, they should be serving us, not we them. Yet, they have the greatest of preferential treatments as they exempt themselves from gun control, health care, and a whole slew of things they insist apply to us.

I have good friends and good coworkers of all backgrounds. While I agree with Dr. King’s desire that we be judged on the content of our character, I think he would be dissatisfied with the manner in which people are treated today, that it is still about the color of their skin with the scales weighted differently. He asked for a different scale altogether. When we do not provide the best person or product possible, we cheat everyone. If you put garbage in, you get garbage out. We are setting up a system that makes toys that are already broken because the raw materials of which they are made cannot stand the stress. It seems like everyone feels unfairly treated and demands assistance from someone else. They all demand special attention when there is nothing special about them except for the accident of their birth. Truly, when everyone is special, nobody will be.