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Shattered Dreams and Our Violent Society

  • Posted on January 11, 2011 at 8:59 pm

Shattered Dreams

After the last couple of days of hearing non-stop news about the shooting in Arizona, I have decided to say what’s really on my mind.  The pundits started the blame game early on and seem content to want this to be more about getting ratings than anything really useful.  From my perspective as a teacher, I don’t really see what is so different about this act of violence than the violence that schools have had to deal with since Columbine.  Every school administrator, teacher, school personnel and even students across our nation all know about the routines schools go through every year since Columbine to be prepared in the event of an emergency.  Prior to Columbine, we all felt safe.  Safety in schools is kind of remembered as before and after Columbine.  That one violent day changed our schools forever!

At Sturgis Middle School every teacher has a “Go To” box.  This box has a first aid kit, flashlight, class lists and a book of procedures to use in the event of an emergency.  Each year we practice drills with our students where we go into a “lock down” phase.  We have had in-services with police officers visiting our school and training us in the proper procedures to use in an emergency as well as what to look for when students seem troubled.  Students cannot wear long trench coats to school for fear that they might be hiding a weapon much like Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did on that fateful day.  Students aren’t supposed to take their backpacks to their classes for essentially the same types of fears.  The point I want to make with all of this is just to let the rest of the world know that learning about the shooting in Arizona this weekend wasn’t shocking at all to me.

I feel very strongly that many people are troubled right now.  Some of our youth are even more troubled.  I’ve said this many times on here about how my life as a youngster was a lot less complicated than most of my student’s lives today.  To top all of this off, we have record unemployment, woeful economic conditions, record costs to go to college, not to mention those hefty student loans when a kid is finished, and a society seemingly filled with hate and violence.

All during the fall we heard about bullying.  We couldn’t turn the TV on without hearing about some poor young person that just couldn’t take it any more.  They committed suicide because they just couldn’t take being harassed any more.  There is meanness in our country and a total lack of civility when dealing with each other.  It’s not just in politics, but it starts from the top down.

Yesterday, I came home from school to hear Chris Matthews on Hardball talk about how this could give President Obama and opportunity because he’s always been above the fray.  This might give him a chance to show some emotion.  This could be a good moment for him.  One again Chris Matthews speaks before he thinks.  I had to turn the TV off because it was appalling to me.  President Obama may appear to be civil but he has had his nasty moments as well.  Most people will remember his comment about bringing a gun, if the other side brings a knife to the fight.  http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/06/14/obama-if-they-bring-a-knife-to-the-fight-we-bring-a-gun/

At the top of our food chain of people there really isn’t the civility that we need.  Ronald Reagan believed in that trickle down economic crap, however, the only thing that I think has trickled down is the lack of decency people show each other on a daily basis.

At our school we have embraced a program called “Rachel’s Challenge”.  Rachel Scott was a young student at Columbine who didn’t expect to live a long life but who wanted to make a mark on the world.  After she died her parents went through her journals and also found a statement that she had put on the back of her dresser.  They were moved to have something positive come from her death.  Her family goes all over the country challenging students to commit to Rachel’s Challenge.  Rachel wrote an essay and she wanted to start a chain reaction of kindness.

http://www.rachelschallenge.org/LearnMore/RachelsEssay.php

When the Rachel’s Challenge program comes to our school students are challenged to do these five things:

– Look for the best in others – Eliminate Prejudice

– Dare to Dream – Set Goals – Keep a Journal

– Choose Positive Influences – Input Determines Output

– Kind Words & Actions = Huge Results

– Start a Chain Reaction with Family and Friends

These are not earth shattering concepts, but if you think about it many adults could benefit from following these five principles.  They are pretty simple and could actually be life changing.

The sad truth is there are many troubled people out in the world today.  We can choose to put our hand out and help each other or we can continue following the shrill, violent path to destruction that we are currently on.  Our government could start by creating people friendly programs instead of just business friendly programs.  It seems like our current government policies leave many people without hope.  If you are at the bottom of the economic food chain, life can be dismal as you face hardship after hardship.

I had a little boy come to school the other day because he was upset.  His mom had a car accident and he was worried about how they were going to pay for everything.  One hardship can break a family.  We all know families that are struggling in debt, or unable to find a decent paying job, worrying about how to pay their utility or health care bills or buy shoes for their kids.  These are hard times and some people crack under the pressure of hopelessness.  I’ve heard some pundits talking about Jared Loughner being mentally ill.  Of course, we all think he must be mentally ill because of what he did.  Chances are that he is mentally unstable but with the cost of health care how would some kid who worked at several big box stores afford that care?  It was probably cheaper just to buy the gun!

It seems to me that the American people have been failed by government officials and the government policies that they vote for because those policies don’t do a lot for the poor, the middle class and the disturbed.  In addition to this, we are assaulted daily by TV and radio pundits that drive the agenda and constantly bombard our homes with hatred and violence.  I remember that show “Crossfire”.  That was a hateful show and Jon Stewart was right then and he was right this fall when he talked about the political discourse at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

If people want to see a change in this country on the issue of violence, then it must start from the top with the president and government policies that help create a climate of economic hope.  However, we can’t sit back and expect the government to do everything.  If each of us does whatever we can to help each other in these trying times by just following the simple guidelines of Rachel’s Challenge, we could change the world.  We must change government policies, but we must also listen to each other.  It doesn’t matter if you are right or left leaning, an independent or non-political, we all need to find a way to talk to each other in a civil manner.  If we want to change our nation, violence isn’t the answer.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream and he had hope and he demonstrated through peaceful means.  We could all learn from this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AItMg70kg&feature=related

The Holy War of Oil

  • Posted on August 28, 2010 at 1:05 pm

My brother told me we are in a “Holy War”.  He was quite serious and took great offense to my position about the Muslim Mosque/cultural center controversy in New York City.  Personally I never thought any war could really be considered “holy”.  You know, “My God is better than your God!” stuff.  For me it’s always come down to the God of “OIL”, who has it and who wants it.  It really could be any mineral or something of value that everyone wants for that matter but in the Middle East is a vast amount of oil.

During the first gulf war Saddam Hussein went into Kuwait and it was also about oil.  Saddam claimed Kuwait was drilling at an angle into Iraq for oil.  Saddam decided to put a stop to that and we decided to stop Saddam.

I was surprised to discover this piece online:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-military-weapons-inscribed-secret-jesus-bible-codes/story?id=9575794

A supplier for military rifle sights puts biblical coding on the guns sights.  Here is one of the citations:

One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

This is also from the article:

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious “Crusade” in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

To me it is such an oxymoron to consider war to be part of any religious beliefs as most religions teach us to “love one another”.  However, we know that through out history religion has started many wars!  So I ask myself, “Is my brother right?”  Are we secretly involved in a “Holy War” for the religious right?  As a people we believe in the freedom of religion.  You can even be an “Atheist” if you choose.  You don’t have to be Christian; and you don’t have to be Christian to fight for the military as well.  So why must so many people think we are fighting a “Holy War” and how did this get started?

This weekend there is a Glenn Beck rally in Washington D.C. on the Mall.  It’s called the “Restoring Honor Rally” and I am watching it on C-Span as I finish this piece on “Holy War”.  The rally is huge, filled with a number of people that appear to be pretty white and by the make up of the speakers, “Christians”. Sarah Palin was asked to speak as a mother of a soldier, not a politician.  She introduced three war heroes, two from the recent wars and one from Vietnam.

Glenn Beck spoke and kept referring back to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  I found this rather appalling.  Glenn’s rally seemed to me to be more about a “Holy War” and pushing “Christianity” on the world than anything Dr. King ever spoke about.  However, he appeared to have the backing of all the usage of the “King” words and philosophy as Kings’ Niece, Alveda King, was a part of the rally.  She is an anti- abortion activist that had two abortions in her youth that she now regrets.  She acts as a voice for the “Silent No More Awareness Campaign.” Glenn Beck stealing the words of Martin Luther King Jr. is frightening to me.  Just this last week Glenn made a very anti-Catholic statement about social justice.  I talk on here about being raised Catholic with the ideals of social justice often.  Glenn Beck wants people to leave any church that speaks about social or economic justice, saying they were code words for Communism and Nazism.

For me Glenn Beck follows a narrow form of Christianity that probably does indeed believe we are in a “Holy War”.

Glenn talked about the origination of the “Purple Heart” and decided to take a cue from it and give out three special medals based on faith, hope and charity.  “Faith” went to a black minister who talked about sitting next to Martin Luther King Jr.  Unfortunately, I don’t remember his name.  “Hope” went to Albert Pujos who came from the Dominican Republic, scored a 100% on his citizenship test and has a foundation organized for “Down’s syndrome” and finally “Charity” went to John Huntman, Sr. from Salt Lake City, Utah.  He is a rich philanthropist that wrote “Winners Never Cheat: Everyday Values We Learned as Children (But May Have Forgotten)” in 2005.  He is worth about 2 billion and is dedicated to giving away the majority of it.  He was not there to receive the award as he was at the marriage of his granddaughter.

They began this  rally talking about the Mayflower and Native Americans, Indians and it was all about basically saying that America was founded on religion, Christianity.  I feel the underlying implication of this entire rally is that President Obama and maybe the Democrats have some how taken away our “Honor”.  They don’t mention his name but you know it’s there.  .  The rally is about heroes and God, fighting wars and religion.  I dare say it might be about a “Holy War” after all.

After watching this rally I know my brother isn’t alone with his thinking.  For me it’s such a waste of human life and resources in these never ending wars that we seem to be involved in.  Who would have thought that students that I taught in middle school classes many years ago are now preparing to go off to fight these same stupid wars?  We seem to be embattled in endless war.

While our cities, economy, and way of life are being destroyed at home, we continue to battle on in these two wars overseas.  Bush said, “We fight them overseas so we don’t have to fight them here.”  Yes, I know we have had a draw down of sorts recently in Iraq but many more soldiers have just been shifted over to Afghanistan.  At this time it appears that many oil companies are hopeful for their profits in the years to come in Iraq.  Imagine that!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704125604575449001388136336.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Isn’t it comforting to know that this is the end result of our efforts in Iraq?

I cannot think of a good reason for constant war let alone a “Holy War”.  My favorite song in my youth was the Universal Soldier by Buffy Ste. Marie.  It may have been written in my youth but it is as important of a statement today as it was then.  I used to sing this song all the time.  Here Buffy tells how she wrote the song and then sings it.  Listen to it and you will know that we are the product of war and we continue to be the pawn of war.  It doesn’t matter what religion you are as you know you aren’t supposed to kill, but you will kill.  You will kill for whatever your government tells you is worth killing for!  And if you think this will put an end to war, think again!

Finally here is “Holy War” by Thin Lizzy.

Below are the words to Holy War:

If you will adore me
Bow before me and praise my name
If you place no God before me
Then all I have is yours to claim

And if God is in the heavens
Why did God let children die
If you don’t ask these questions
There is no reasons why

We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law

All the visions shown before you
All the kingdoms and the thrones
All are yours if you bow before me and adore me
All this you can own

There are those that will go to heaven
There are those that will never win
No one knows what will happen
There are those that turn to sin

We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law

(solo)

We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law

We are chosen

The devil is in hell with the demons
This is the holy war

They lead us to our temptation
Lead us, take our souls
There is no evil in salvation
There is evil in us all

Just as Satan tempted Jesus
And Jesus slips and falls
He is a station on the cross now
He is dying to save us all

We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law

We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law

We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law

We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law

If God is in heaven, won’t you save me now
Oh lord forgive them for what they’ve done
Lost children of Babylon
Oh Allah oh no oh no (? )

This is the holy war