Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

The memoirs of my family outings are still a source of strength to me. I remember we'd a pile into the car - I forgot what kind it was - and drive and drive. I'm not sure where we'd go, but I think there were some trees there. The smell of something was strong in the air as we played whatever sport we played. I remember a bigger, older guy we called "Dad." We'd eat some stuff, or not, and then I think we went home.
I guess some things never leave you.

Ignorance is Offensive

I realize I am most likely speaking to the choir here because what value would any ignorant person find in blogs of wisdom? I don't mean to sound arrogant at all because anyone who knows me knows that I am not the most educated person. And I am fully aware that the amount of knowledge and information that I DO know is just a drop in the ocean of all I DON'T know. But I refuse to speak in arrogant ignorance.
Anyway, I just watched a documentary that was very moving. The name of the documentary was "Fall From Grace" and it was about a southern baptist preacher in Topeka Kansas who is protesting and pretty much waging an all out war against homosexuals. This guy, Fred Phelps, of the Westborro baptist Church has gained national media attention by picketting at U.S. soldiers funerals. His stance is that his 'god' has killed these soldiers in wrath for our nation tolerating homosexuals among us. His church is the creator of the website http://www.godhatesamerica.com/ a hate-site that is protected by the first amendment. I was sickened by this bigot's hatred. His church consists of his entire family and a few other members that have been accepted into the fold and 'family'. Yeah........sounds pretty cultish.
So I write now absolutley dumbfounded at the hate & intolerance of this Southern Baptist preacher. Hate, intolerance, bigotry, racism, are all products of ignorance. Ignorance passed on by families, groups, & races that have now become institutionalized. And what is sad is that this specific hatred is fueled by 'god's holy church'.
Fred Phelps does what every 'god-fearing christian' does when stating their side of the argument; they back it up with passages of scripture from 'god's holy word' (his being Lev. 18:22). He grabs a passage from here, another from there, and still another from somewhere else, takes them out of their original context, and creates a holy war (let's not say jihad here even though they mean the same) for his cause. Let's omit the fact that he takes these 'holy scriptures' out of context, forget for a moment that he is basing his beliefs from men of the Bronze Age and just focus on his claiming to be a christian- a follower of christ. Yes Christianity spawned from Judeaism ( in which the Jewish Law was written in the book of Levicticus) but did not Jesus Christ supposedly say something along the lines of "I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it"? So as a CHRISTian shouldn't you follow the teaching of CHRIST, who never spoke a word about homosexuals but instead stated that the greatest commandment was not one commandment but two: Love your god, & Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
So what I'm getting at is this is normal thinking among most conservative christians in the Southeast region ( I keep my statement regional due to my ignorance of mindsets elsewhere in the country) of the U.S. even if it's not quite as adamant as Roy Phelps's. Jerry Falwell came close when he said 9/11 happened because of gays & lesbians. So how can so many people be so ignorant about this subject? How can so many CHRISTians be led by everyone but CHRIST? Even when I was a christian I was embarressed to be one because of the ignorant arrogance associated with that word.

A New Era

I sit here one day after President Obama's Inauguration extremely, profoundly glad to be an American. It is a testament to this on-going democratic expirement that only 40 years after being granted equal civil rights, We the People have put an African-American in our nation's highest office.
I sit here unemployed, a victim of our nation's economic crisis, knowing that it will get worse before it gets better, but with a hope I have not believed in for years. Hope that President Obama is who he says he is, does what he says he will do, and not be just another politician. Times are tough right now and we haven't hit bottom yet, but Obama's plans seem to make sense, they seem solid, they seem to be what is best for the common good of We the People. He seems to be a voice of the People, just as the Presidential office should be. He is not an elitist, he is not part of a political dynasty and those two reasons alone make him valid in my book.
I sit here with so much on my heart and mind that it would be impossible to ever convey it all but now that I don't have much else to do I will try.
Until next time.....