Crime and punishment...

Read more! This topic of conversation came up last night amongst friends. I attend a small bible study and as a group, we've been going through the Book of Galatians. In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul was posing in Chapter 6 that we "reap what we sow". We discussed this as a group and some interesting ideas came up:

The quick and easy answer (of which I immediately spat out) - was yes - we (humanity to a person) reaps what we sow - meaning - we get what we put into it. It's an easy judgement to pass on others in that if a person is doing evil, he will be punished accordingly to the severity of his/her actions. Any one of us can conjure up thoughts of "evil" people getting their just desserts who either were met with a horrible death or prison or possibly both.

The greedy CEO who stole from his company via fraud who kills himself when his world came crashing down. Or the dictator who was overthrown in a disastrous coup and hung mercilessly in the prison square. As an outside observer, it's an easy connection - of course they deserved it! They were evil.

Or what about the mean gal at school or the jerk in the office who torments you needlessly? And when that person meets justice at the hands of the authorities (hopefully) that they are carted off and you are left as the "victor" - albeit somewhat battered and bruised for the experience.

All of these thoughts are easy to connect with one another but they still all revolve around it happening to someone else. What about when tragedy befalls you directly? What about the unexpected death of a loved one or chronic illness. What about a toddler who has to deal with an acute sickness? Did any of you or, in this example, the toddler deserve this? If we truly do "reap what we sow" then we must have, right?

A friend of mine in that small group discussion brought that point up. She and her husband had been dealing with chronic illness, injury and general strain and she brought up that she didn't believe that she had done anything to deserve these plights. How could she? How could anyone? If it were a tit-for-tat bargain with God for our here-and-now well being, then what type of life is that? We would all live in a prison of constant fear of making a "mistake" and angering God to receive our own swift and commensurate punishment.

It just doesn't make sense. I don't believe that the Bible is actually making this argument in this sense. Which also means that those "evil doers" who were punished by history received their fates not entirely upon their actions (I guess the argument would go further to see how many evil dictators or generally bad people who lived out their entire lives). That God did not bring those "judgements" upon them and that the real culprit was mankind and our own version of justice (typically in the name of God).

How many wars have been fought where both side claimed God as their spiritual leader and where one side inevitably loses, then which side really did have God? Who got to make that call in the first place? I doubt God was consulted.

In my opinion, to reap what you sow is to imply judgements cast on others who may or may not have deserved any retribution and/or punishment. And to think that we have the right to case moral judgements on others is entirely wrong. Some of you may argue differently on this - especially those backed by religious convictions - but to cast a moral judgement on someone is to lay claim that there is only one morality. And morality is based upon the observer in a particular place and time (see yesterday's post on Conservatives). To pass judgement is to make law from a snapshot of history that is constantly moving.

Now passing judgement based upon crimes against one another - such as theft, murder, etc. is a different cause altogether. Those are crimes against humanity since they are at the expense of others for profit or gain of another individual. I've always had problems with vice crimes - because they are morality laws and should not be indicative of how a person chooses to live their lives. But once those actions cross over into crimes of humanity, then its a whole other story.

Maybe this is a fine line between some key argument points. It's easy to see the split on murder and theft - but what about drug use? It gets very blurry because people unwittingly start using usually at the profit of another (dealers/cartels) but that person still made an individual choice to start using.

Vice sex crimes are maybe a little more clear cut (in my opinion) in that they are actions between two consenting adults. Prostitution or "crimes" in the bedroom aren't crimes in my book and we waste precious resources "fighting" these types of crimes based on morality alone. Rape, on the other hand, is a crime against another human so yes, it must be dealt with swiftly and commensurately.

I believe the only way to even use the analogy of "reap what you sow" is to look at it through a lense of the very large/big picture. Maybe there is something to be said about patterns in a person's life where the overall quality of their lives are diminished because they chose to focus on selfishness instead of their fellow humanbeings. And maybe that will just have been enough for us to feel that any sort of "justice" was served on those individuals. Read more! Read more!

What is it to be a Conservative?

Read more! What does it mean to be a conservative? I was thinking about the meaning of the word and this is what Webster's has to say about it:

1con·ser·va·tive
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsər-və-tiv\
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century

1: preservative2 a: of or relating to a philosophy of conservatism bcapitalized : of or constituting a political party professing the principles of conservatism: as (1): of or constituting a party of the United Kingdom advocating support of established institutions (2): progressive conservative 3 a: tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : traditional b: marked by moderation or caution c: marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners 4: of, relating to, or practicing Conservative Judaism
— con·ser·va·tive·ly adverb
— con·ser·va·tive·ness noun

Or this entry for the root word used as a transitive verb of "conserve":

1con·serve
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsərv\
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): con·served; con·serv·ing

Etymology:
Middle English, from Middle French conserver, from Latin conservare, from com- + servare to keep, guard, observe; akin to Avestan haurvaiti he guards

Date: 14th century

1: to keep in a safe or sound state ; especially : to avoid wasteful or destructive use of 2: to preserve with sugar 3: to maintain (a quantity) constant during a process of chemical, physical, or evolutionary change
— con·serv·er noun

It all basically states what we probably already know but haven't spent much time thinking about (why would you?). To be a Conservative is to strive to conserve the ideals, values, morals, etc of a previous time or designation for the future.

What strikes me is that when you look at the transition verb to conserve, it eludes to a "transition" of what it is. That to be a conservative is to be in a transition from one state to another.

When that is applied to traditions - whether they are moral values, ideology or rituals, to "conserve" those traditions, is to acknowledge that they are moving from one state of being to another future state. That the tradition of your grandparents that you may practice today is an evolved form of what they experienced and/or regarded. Their viewpoint 50 years ago was shaped by the reality of the world that they lived in and those same rituals - say a Christmas gathering or historic annual event is shaped by how we experience it today.

So to say that moral values are slipping and to strive to restore them, in the example of traditional Christian beliefs, is to acknowledge that those very beliefs have always been in transition.

The Christian church that the Apostle Paul helped guide 2000 years ago was completely different than today's version (most would readily recognize that point due to time elapsed, regional-cultural differences and overall world "knowledge" and experience). And I would think that all would agree the evolution of the Christian church, through the reformation by Martin Luther and the divide of traditional Catholic and Protestant versions of what Christ meant for the salvation of the world has changed drastically for those very reasons.

And now, in this day and age, that traditional values and culture are falling away and to "conserve" them is in actuality to restore them. And to restore means to bring back to an original state which is to mean that a determination of some past point was the accurate restoration benchmark.

I believe that conservatives don't recognize that they are in a process of moving forward and that looking to the past for the moral value cues is to ignore the fact that evolution of thought and ideology is constantly in practice. And that viewpoints based on ancient beliefs are constantly in flux due to trying to pair them up with today's reality and experiences.

Many traditional groups have struggled with this and have broken off into misunderstood sects. Any group from the Puritans who ventured from England to the Netherlands only to arrive on American shores in the Mayflower voyage were escaping the viewpoints of the Church of England that was repressing their own personal beliefs. We can historically look back now and see that the Puritans were a very "conservative" group of believers - but from the perspective of the contemporary Church of England, they were a radical group of separatists who defied the widely accepted beliefs (albeit forced upon by the government).

Or who's to say that the modern day radicals of David Koresh who believed he was the embodiment of Christ on Earth as the Second Coming was wrong? The Branch Davidians were no doubt a ultra radical group from the traditional Christian belief system and their fiery end in Waco, TX only solidified their place in "kookdom". But they were only "kooks" because they were different.

So, my thoughts through all of this postulating is what are we conserving? If we are not restoring? And even if we (as a society) did try to restore, what are you restoring to?

My thoughts are also leading me to think that to be labeled as a conservative is to recognize that you are actually transitioning to a yet-to-be-determined future state of being. And that those beliefs that are held so dear in the current era will eventually fade away and will be replaced by a future set of beliefs that will have some resemblance to the past beliefs but will not, and can not be the very same.

Which also makes me think that we are all Liberals due to that fact. Here is Websters version of what Liberal means (as a noun):

2liberal
Function: noun
Date: 1820

: a person who is liberal: as a: one who is open-minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional, or established forms or ways bcapitalized : a member or supporter of a liberal political party c: an advocate or adherent of liberalism especially in individual rights

"one who is open-minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional, or established forms or ways" - this part of the definition, to me, shows that even being on a conservative route, we are in motion as defined by a state of moving forward in time - to be "open-minded" about what that future could be.

The worry that tradtional beliefs on marriage, diety, salvation, morality will someday be abolished and that at that time (many) Christians would think that the world was ripe for the events of Armagedon as revealed in Revelations. What if you took someone from the Church at Corinth and showed them what we practice today? In that things have truly changed - for some better and for some worse - but it is in it's entirity completely different from our past. And that the "end of the world" hasn't arrived and that by clinging to archaic ultra radical versions of Victorian morality is only hurting one another.

We are all entitled to believe what we wish or what we believe is to be true. We can still treat one another with respect and dignity - for if we are all created equal in God's eyes, then we must abide by that equality. Which means to give credit and viability to those who believe differently than you may choose to.

And that's OK. That doesn't erode the validity of your own beliefs and your right to practice them in any shape or form you choose. We can all "conserve" that right together and we can all be "open-minded/liberal" for other practices that shape our contemporary world. Read more! Read more!

A 32% raise!

Read more! This morning, Bloomberg.com posted that as of today, the Federal Government (yes, our Federal Government) has pledged just over $7.4 TRILLION towards company/banking bailouts this year. For every bank that went under or is kept afloat by these pledges or car company that could possibly get the funds, the amount just gets higher. Also, keep in mind that this is our money. All of this is taxpayer funding supposedly derived from our future federal tax earnings.

Now, we all know that a trillion dollars is a lot of money. But really anything over a couple of million dollars is pretty much unfathomable for most people living in this nation of ours. So I thought I would put this into a more reachable perspective for you:

According to the Census Bureau, in 2007 there were an estimated 111,162,259 households in America with an average household income of $50,223/yr. If you were to divide up $7.4 trillion amongst the households, it would $66,569 each. That's right - the government could have paid for everyone in America's household income for one year PLUS a 32% raise! EVERYONE.

Another way to look at it is that there are an estimated 300 million people living in America right now - that's every man, woman and child. $7.4 trillion divvied up amongst everyone would be and average of $24,666 per person. That's a hell of a stimulus package.

That $7.4 trillion is also around half (yes half) of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) - basically the total market value of all things sold in a given period of time - like a financial quarter, calendar year, etc. That is everything/service sold in one year. EVERYTHING.

Congress is looking to continue this amount going forward, only increasing the total amount pledged and eventually spent (if the money holds out). All of the bailout is to unlock the credit freeze (which it hasn't) and save jobs (which it won't). The country's economy doesn't rest in the large financial institutions, it's with the day to day trading of goods and services at the local level that trickle up to the large conglomerate companies. A WalMart or CitiGroup doesn't exist without selling it's individual products and services to people and businesses (that are comprised of people selling additional goods and services).

In my opinion, the approach to this has been completely wrong. Almost all households in the US are tightening up their spending which, in turn, is the cause of sending the total economy into a tailspin. Without individual purchases from anything from cigarettes to automobiles, money isn't moving around. The credit freeze won't unlock because there isn't any movement "below" with consumer spending to give the big credit companies any sense that they would recover their money if they did lend it.

If the government would have just kicked out an average of $10k per household, the total stimulus would have been less than 1/6th of the total pledged to date and would have given each household plenty of money to blow back into the system. The GNP would have increased and tax revenues would have been replaced from the moving money. This money would could have been applied directly to the value of homes near foreclosure and could have evened out the home values across our country.

But no, we're using it to prop up companies that are loosing for two reasons: one for have structuring themselves poorly by being inefficiently run and two we're wanting to loan money to companies who are on the downward slide of a slipping economy. There is no one to purchase their goods so what does it matter to keep them afloat? No one has addressed the key issue at the bottom to get people spending money again.

It seems to me that there are some really smart people who aren't seeing the bigger, and what appears to be, the simpler picture of what to do. If they could put money into the hands of the individual households, they would reinvest that money rather quickly and it would all trickle up, instead of down. But I think that is really the root of the problem - we've been lead by people who think on the trickle down theory when in all actuality, it trickles up.

I just wanted you all to know where your tax dollars are being spent. Happy Holidays!






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Devil's Dictionary...

Read more! I found this while on a etymology website (why etymology you may find yourself asking? - because I'm a geek and these things unknowingly interest me) and I found it rather entertaining especially in light of the recent election:

"Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others." [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]

I'm sure we could all agree on this one no matter what party you back. Read more! Read more!

Momentum...

Read more! Inertia can be a tricky thing. In physics (quoted from Wikipedia), it's "...the force that makes an object in motion stay in motion. It is directly proportional to an objects mass. The heavier the object is, the more inertia it has and it would keep going forever if it was in a frictionless environment. Another way to put it is inertia is how much an object will resist a change of velocity."

So a planet, like Earth, who has a very large mass moving through frictionless space will stay in it's orbit motion indefinitely due to this rule. Like it has for the last 4-5 billion years (or so we think).

We have all used this word to also describe our own lives. In that we just settle into a groove (what ever that may consist of) and changing from that cycle is very, very difficult. Those of you who have suffered through life changing events such as divorce, a death of a loved one or something even like a diet change can understand the gravity of what the size of that "force" has to be to change the velocity and/or vector that your life was previously on prior to that life changing event.

I am like everyone else in that there are certain aspects to my life that have shaped me to how I do things today and changing direction takes an immense amount of energy. And because of that very investment in the expenditure of energy, that in itself can be the limiting factor. Sometimes we convince ourselves it's just too hard or too painful to be worth the effort and that we should just settle for what we've been delt with - even if we don't really like it all that much.

I have written about motivation before in this blog. That we move from pain to pleasure and the degree of motivation comes from the amount of pain we're desperately trying to escape. The thing about a life change of any type is that the "inertia" that we've managed to find ourselves in, and even if we can make logical reasoning for a needed change, the fact of the matter is that in order to make the actual change, the energy required for that change is a very, very painful transition. So motivation is curbed due to not wanting to "walk through the fire".

Believe me, and I'm sure you can relate, that this is a very, very strong factor in stopping any progress that would require pain to finally reach the end result. This goes for starting an exercise program, to diet change, to breaking off a bad relationship to quitting your job and going back to school. Even if we can picture ourselves at the finish line successful - that image of ourselves can be just a pipe dream.

Self discipline and directed change is the toughest to do. We are our own judge and jury and sometimes we can prescribe the remedy of "probation with time served" when we attempt life change but then fall short of our goals, loose faith and then slide back into the previous reality. Even if that prior reality still has it's own pitfalls that have us soon longing for that life change again.

That's where surrounding yourself with good people comes in. And why that it is so important to back one another up when dreams are laid out on the table. Whether that dream has pragmatical issues or maybe it's something simple like wanting to live a better life through what we choose to eat. When your spouse/friend/loved one shares a dream of theirs, listen and entertain it. Don't rush to find a practical way of implementing it! Those details can (and will) work themselves out if the dream has merit and moves to that stage of actually executing it (and this note is for the guys out there - we're terrible at just listening and hopping on the "solve-it" bandwagon. This is something that I have been very guilty about in my own relationships).

But as with all things, dreams are fragile and they require care for them to blossom. And especially when those dreams of change need a lot of energy to reach the end result, all hands must be on deck to ensure it's viable delivery. For the scale of some dreams require the teamwork of many to accomplish them. Henry Ford could not have pulled off his vision of automobile manufacturing without the support (both financial and relational) of others. He may have been his own "force of nature" and could move mountains by himself, but every man reaches beyond his limits and that requires help.

Do any of you have any examples of recognizing a dream, working through the transition and then what it was like to either accomplish your goal or to have failed? I'm curious. Read more! Read more!

Filters...

Read more! I sometimes think quite a bit about the life of which I lead. A little bit about the history, but more often than not the why behind the reasons of it all. Reasons such as what drives the neighborhood/homes that we choose to live in, the types of cars we choose to drive, the restaurants we choose to eat at, the friends we choose to keep.

I have theorized the multitude of "filters" of which we all have accumulated in our lives that take in information, help us process it into bits of understandable portions and then allows us to work with them. These filters are a complex system of finding perception through the reality of a situation.

Some filters are readily apparent and are in our top reason for why we choose to accept things or disregard them. Religious views, ideals/standards handed to us by our parents, regionally accepted practices from the communities we live in or even national standards of that shape each decision that comes across our senses.

Some filters are much more discrete and function "behind the scenes". These are filters that allow further processing from the macro level and subtly shape the reality of any situation. These types of filters can be from your own personality type - whether you're an outgoing person or one that enjoys a smaller group. Or they can be micro views on subjects which allow for everyone to find themselves on a different point on the diversity scale. This infinite splitting of viewpoints shaped by these filters is what is really behind the difference between us all.

These filters all work together - somewhat seamlessly - as we deal with the world around us. They allow for us to then make judgement calls on those things that we include in our lives. Even to how large that circle of inclusion really is. They also allow for us to search for others who are like us. In that we find comfort in being around people who truly match up to most of our own filters and for that very reason why we are most uncomfortable around those who do not share this relatively same perspective packaging.

I think about my own filters. Those of which are truly ingrained in my psyche and those of which as I look at my own viewpoints can be altered or discarded due to poor reasoning. They are the filers that allow me to find comfort in a large room of people who are not interacting with me (such as now, sitting in a coffee shop, typing this blog entry, listening to my iPod and watching random strangers interact in their own small groups).

They are the makeup of my own version of this reality. The actual scribes of the oral and written history of me. All of these filters have shaped who I am.

And when I think of the "stuff" I have, and when I really think of the actual connection with them - such as the car I drive or the home I live in. I find myself really not caring too much since they are inanimate objects that give nothing in return. People can claim that they love their car for example, but it's not a mutual relationship - we all know that a car cannot love in return - but what the person is truly saying is that they love their car because in their perspective, their car brings joy from either the sensation of driving it (hedonistic view) or from the perceived perception of others who infer certain "successes" onto the owner (self-esteem view). Sometimes a combination of the two.

Our culture has even derived sayings such as "clothes make the man". Clothes did no such thing in their own right - but as that individuals filters worked through that situation, their self-esteem could be altered and ego satisfied by wearing such an outfit. Their clothes had nothing to do with their upbringing, their education or their individual talents.

So it makes me think - why do we work such terrible jobs with people we don't really like doing things that we're typically not proud of to accumulate physical manifestations of "things" that, in their own purpose, bring no joy? And, at that same time, spending our precious time in the pursuit of such things that we neglect the very things that do truly bring us joy? Relationships that bring back - especially those that are founded under unconditional love?

I know that our soul's require this. Think of every tear-jerker movie that moved you to sob because of the beauty of the relationship conveyed? I have personally watched the Shawshank Redemption some 100 times and the very end, when Morgan Freeman "Red" skips his bail and goes south to meet up with Tim Robbins "Andy" on the beach. How the camera is moving far away and you don't get to hear what they say to one another, but in that hug each other in a moment of purity. My eyes well up and my heart aches for such joy every single time I have watched it.

Or that if all things were lost in my life - those that would truly crush me would be the loss of my wife and children. And how the fear of that loss can bring such quick nightmares of being left alone to grieve the exceptional and devastating loss of potential. A loss that would be haunting for all of time.

Would you trade all material possessions away for the pursuit of a relationship(s)? Would you be willing to trade away all things that surround you in false idolatry of addresses and transportation to bathe in that purity of relationship?

To give of yourself to those around you - to create a circle of investment of the very best kind - to have that relationship with your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends (near and dear and those yet to be labeled as such). To pursue a career that allows for this very thing to be fostered in which a person could actually leave a legacy of love and charity of spirit instead of one that only takes from one another?

I can tell you that I am. Read more! Read more!

Speeding and the Art of the Near Death Experience...

Read more! Travelling home this weekend from Moscow and watching my beloved Vandals get their ass handed to them (one more time), I was starting to nod off in the back seat of the car as the girls chatted away up front and my friend and I sat in back.

It had been a long night of me drawing the short straw and sleeping on the floor in the hotel room and although several cups of coffee were ingested at breakfast, my eyes were just getting too heavy from the monotony of the 3 hours we had already travelled through country I had seen far too many times on my treks between home and school. It had also been a good day - good friends and pleasant conversation.

As we neared the north side of Riggins, ID, the cars in the long procession of southern Idaho residents making the same journey were bunched up into small groups. Recently there was a land slide on Hwy 95 a few miles north of Riggins and we had waited quite a while as the automated flagger/stop light let small segments of the caravan through the one-lane passage. We had waited our turn and had zoomed off trying to regain a little bit of time.

That's when I closed my eyes. I couldn't have had them closed more than a few minutes when excitement started to rise in the car and my friend exclaimed that a car had gone off the road in front of us. I zipped up to alertness trying to see what everyone else had just witnessed and missed the whole thing. Our car was still speeding south and as we came up on the event, I finally saw the first glimpses of what had happened.

This section of Hwy 95 follows the Salmon River in the canyon created millennia ago by the water's passage. The highway department had done a good job carving out a fairly wide road and in recent years had increased the speed limit to 65 mph which made following this road not all that bad. The road twists and turns following the course of the river for dozens of miles with decent stretches for passing lanes and the occasional turn out for the traveller to enjoy a small break and look at the beauty of the landscape.

The road is nestled right up against the steep hillside that is typically vertical walls of basalt rocks laid down from ancient volcanic eruptions. On the other side is the wide river with a variable drop in elevation from the road of anywhere from 10 to 50 feet. The river is also floated by salmon fishermen and whitewater rafting guides as the season permits. The water is cold and move rather quickly. In the spring run off I've seen whole trees floating down with the power of the current.

Traffic can sometimes been a pain since Hwy 95 is the only north-south route in the state. Following the far western edge of the state and nearly traversing the entire length. So trucks and cars of all types need to use this road to get anywhere upstate. And, because the road is relatively wide, it's easy to want to go fast and take (unnecessary) risks and pass vehicles that may not be up to your travel expectations of speeds. I know that I had done it a thousand times before in my irresponsible youth.

As our car approached the scene and as several other fellow travellers did as well, we hit the brakes and pulled over to the one of those scenic turn outs designed into the roadway. I looked down and realized that a small pickup truck was on its cab - upside down in the water. The car hadn't come to a complete stop as my friend and I hopped out and rushed over the embankment to see if we could help.

My first thoughts were that I was going to see death. The truck has sped off the roadway at considerable speed and had flipped at least a couple of times and came to a rest on a very small beach. The cab was in the water, but barely.

As I barrelled down the embankment over the large basalt rocks and across the sand, a young man was standing there and a young woman was on her hands and knees crawling out of the window. I ran down to her and helped her stand and moved her up to the beach away from the vehicle since it was still making noise from the immediacy of the accident.

The vehicle was smashed. It as an older Ford Ranger 2WD pickup. Small, regular cab with a small four cylinder engine - I have owned two of them myself over the years. The cab where the two were previously sitting was compressed down so far that I couldn't imagine where their upper bodies would have been able to physically fit. All glass was shattered and there were no airbags. Their cargo and luggage was strewn all over the small beach. Colorful neon paper was floating around in the eddy of the river from a ream of paper that exploded. Two spare tires bobbed in the waves and their bags were strewn all over. The tonneau cover to the bed of the pickup was flown away and sunk in the water of the river.

My friend and I looked them over and asked if anything was wrong. There was no apparent serious injury with either of them other than being shaken up from the trauma. The boy had a few scratches and the girl had a small cut on her hand and complained that her neck was sore. The boy had lost his shoe.

I looked again at the truck and looked back at them - they should have been dead. We asked if they were wearing seat belts and the boy said no (the girl had hers on). No airbags in the truck - nothing. No injuries.

As more people came down, we performed some basic first aid for the girls cuts as we waited for help to arrive. There was no cell phone coverage in that area so someone had to drive into Riggins to summon the authorities and the ambulance. All arrived in about 15 minutes. The girl wanted to know the status of her stuff and their bags had laptop computers in them. We pulled them out and the water had annihilated them. She started to cry and we told her that she was lucky to be alive and it was just a damned computer.

Come to find out they were students at LCSC in Lewiston headed back up to school from a family visit. There were driving north and the boy was driving her pickup. He had tried to pass a car with a young family and the truck didn't have enough guts to go quick enough. He had gotten even with the car to be passed when an oncoming car came up and he slammed on the brakes. As coincidence, there was a scenic turn out they pushed left to dodge the oncoming car. His speed was too great and even with the tires locked up, he plowed off the pavement and over the embankment about 15 feet up from the water level. The truck veered off to the left and over the edge hitting on the passenger's side front quarter panel and flipping up into the air to come to rest on it's top on the beach.

The couple who they were trying to pass had also stopped to help. They were a young married couple with a 2 month old child in the car. If the boy had steered into them, he would have put that young family into the rocks of the cliff.

The emergency crews checked them over and took her by ambulance to Grangeville where the hospital was. The boy hitched a ride with their friends who were also travelling with them in a separate car and saw it happen at a distance.

My friend and I helped to pick up the mess and lug their belongings up to the other vehicle. The medical crew placed her in a immobilized neck device and onto a back board just in case she had any neck damage. I helped carry her up the embankment and into the ambulance.

For all intents and purposes, the couple should have been killed or at least seriously injured. I still can't picture how they "fit" into the wreckage in such a way that they only had minor scrapes and cuts.

Or that out of all places on the river to go in, this spot had a nice soft sandy beach to land onto and an eddy that didn't whisk them away downstream only to die from drowning. It was a perfect combination of circumstances that let them survive this accident and it struck me as odd.

Maybe there are angels that help a situation. I don't know. I can tell you the most compelling thing was how fellow humans stop what they're doing to help another who needs help. All without requiring any thanks or recognition and then leaving to go on their way when the work was done. Read more! Read more!

Postrelevant...

Read more! I've been sitting here for the last 10 minutes thinking of at least one meaningful subject to write about today and I'm drawing a blank. I guess I'm not too superstitious and writer's block (to me) is a something that I haven't experienced too much of in my life. Although even thinking the words let alone writing them down seems to be on par with talking about a "shank" in golf. Whose other utterance would send shivers down the spin of any hapless golfer.

And maybe not everyday is an interesting one. One that is full of piss and vinegar of pent up emotions stirring around political injustices or freedoms denied. Or maybe those days when blogging seems to be more of a concise lecture about subjects few people actually find interest in. Or at this point in their lives, they just don't have the energy to deal with.

Like the Dow dropping another 400+ points today bringing the NYSE to around 8300 again. Which points to fears in the market because retailers aren't selling enough crap this year to make their stock a worthwhile investment. And not that anyone really cares of Macy's makes their projections - I didn't know what they were to begin with so missing them is much like telling me that another star in the sky has a new name given it by their boyfriend as a cheesy gift.

Or that mortgages are in default because (surprise) people bought too much house than they could afford and now are crushed into eviction (either self imposed or forced). Or that Capitol Hill is authorizing another outrageous amount to bail out some other business that really has no reason to be bailed out only in that their rich Uncle Sam has deep pockets or more than likely his own sovereignty to print as much money as he likes. Seriously, every time the government speaks of bailing out some other company for billions of dollars - does it even register now? It's like a money tree has been doling it out like a kid in a candy store (with his mom's credit card).

I worry that the reality of all of this is really coming soon. That the government can't just keep bailing out companies who they fear will cause irrevocable harm if they fail and unemployment skyrockets. In a way, I kind of want it to happen.

That our nation has been complacent for so long and has expected life to be handed to them. That for millions of people, the idea of a free society isn't tied up into what handbag you bought on 5th Ave, but that we all must take responsibly for our actions.

Businesses take risks - households take risks. It's part of life. We hedge our individual risks from knowledge of the situation and off of common sense. All those euphemisms that your mother taught you - "if it looks too good to be true, it is" or "what you see is what you get'" or my favorite "if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and swims like a duck - it's a duck".

But as Voltaire stated in his native Francais: "Le sens commun n'est pas si commun (Common sense is not so common)". And sometimes people need to learn through trial and harsh error.

I worry that in the next 3 years will be very stressful. With many of our friends suffering through economic issues of either lost jobs or being called on business decisions they made along the way that just caught up with them. I worry that our perspective of the future will be rather bleak for the time to come and our children will see us struggle.

The deal is that those decisions made by our leadership over the last 60 years have finally been called on the carpet. No more deferral for some poor bloke to pay for in the future. The future is now and the piper needs to be paid (look at all of these wonderful euphemisms!).

This time will pass and in the next decade things will have turned around. But for us as a nation to make progress into a positive direction, we need to have our teeth kicked in from time to time. And all of us, every single household will bear some of that price that will have to be paid to set our collective house in order. Massive programs will have to be launched and the status quo will no longer exist. We simply can't afford to continue on in the same manner we've done for the last 60 years. Read more! Read more!

Ramblings...

Read more! There is a certain air of optimism that weasels it's way out when things start to look a dim for me. At times when direction seems lost and the ability to reconcile feelings of guilt because I long for a more meaningful life against the stubborn determination of doing what I need to do because of commitments and obligations. The conflict isn't necessarily diabolically opposed to one another - but more in tune with being just stuck in a rut and the slope seems pretty muddy.

The optimism comes from just who I am. In that I can usually see some sort of silver lining even when the clouds seem darkest. And with that I am truly grateful. I don't necessarily feel "lost" but more of at a "pause" and all is still for the moment.

I can imagine standing in a winter field where the frost has highlighted the ground and the grass crunches as you walk with a icy fog enveloping the peripheral. The crispness of the air and the complete stillness of sound awaken the mind while marveling at the beauty of that very moment - knowing that this moment will somehow pass and a different backdrop will rule the venue - even if you never moved a muscle.

It's a lesson that life moves with or without you. The sun moves through the sky, the clouds move overhead. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's cold and sometimes it's too hot. But then there are days when everything is just perfect and that is when thoughts of time standing still creep in. It's a perfect juxtaposition from those days when it's uncomfortable and time seems to crawl.

Even when things look difficult, life will still move on - the time line of all things slows for no one.

I know that I'm moving although I don't feel it most days. It's a slow journey who's speed allows for far too much indifference to the scenery. That work days spill into one another until a week has gone by, then two, then a month and so on. And when the moment hits me that I should be paying closer attention to what's going on around me, I find myself wishing that I did more, thought more, acted more.

I find myself dreaming of what I could do. Thinking about possibilities of sweeping career path changing of which the true investment and toll on my family are simply brushed off in my mind since they are negative thoughts that would otherwise crash this brainstorm. But it's for that very cause - my family - of which I find myself having these dreams in the first place. In that I believe in the direct correlation between being a good husband and father to having a perceived value in society.

Now don't take that too far - I do believe that I have inherent value as a working professional - to someone or I wouldn't be employed to begin with. But with all things, it's the cost of that relationship that I struggle with. I simply find it just not worth it. It's not worth the money or any perceived titular value. Who really cares in the end?

It's a shame that those career paths that have the best direct correlation between quality of work and workplace seem to have the lowest available compensation. Or that our most valuable asset, time, is squandered on such useless things.

Of that I am truly guilty. Too much TV, too much surfing on the Internet. Too much time thinking about myself instead of focusing on others. Too much time wasted doing things that bring neither renewed quality or pleasure to my life. Just time killed as if Pol Pot had taken over my day planner and started his own cultural cleansing.

As I've aged, "things" have become less and less interesting to me. I enjoy more individualized "tools" that help me live my life, but I don't see the value in the things I have. They can always be replaced and more often than not when I have purchased big items it's the thrill of the purchase that's interesting, not the actual thing itself. Kind of like a kid with a new toy - it's cool for a while then it's just a "something".

If my wife would let me (mainly for the safety of the kids and reliability), I would totally drive a very old car - maybe a '68 VW Van that was fixed up or better yet a classy car like a '67 Benz. Something that really only a few people had and stirs some iconic thoughts of a better time when consumerism didn't seem to penetrate all things.

I would like live in an older house in a old established neighborhood with a simple address like 123 1st St. Not the endless rat maze modern subdivisions that are impossible to navigate, have rubber stamped designs and whose claim to fame are the expansive square footage and the "good schools" nearby. I live in one of these right now and my street address is 25 characters long - it's a rather insipid experience.

In all reality, I do have inspiration and motive for change - I am in the process of gathering the energy to move forward into the unknown. And I know that in a few short years, I will look back on this tumultuous period of my life and know that growth sometimes comes with pain - and in my case the pain of being tossed around in the money first - people second environment that I've come to loathe. Maybe I should write a book about this one...

I'll keep you posted as things progress. Read more! Read more!

Gay Marriage...

Read more! With the passing of Proposition 8 in California on Tuesday and subsequent (and similar) ballots cast in Arizona, Arkansas and Florida - I am really wondering when people are going to wake up and see that they're blurring the lines between Church and State.

I'm sure most of you have heard about this either prior to the election and now, especially afterwards. These states have passed constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage. California of all places! It passed rather solidly in California - 52% in favor of it. It has been listed as the most expensive ballot measure in the history of mankind with over $70 million spent from both sides. With rumored (and entirely possible) financial support pouring in from the bible belt and Utah LDS leadership/businesses to snuff out the original California Supreme Court ruling back in January that allowed for gay marriage to take place. Since then nearly 18,000 couples have been recognized as legally married under the law. And going forward in the new year, that will cease.

I guess I just don't get it. I grew up in a conservative Christian household and if you talk with any evangelical/conservative Christian, they'll spout off how the Bible tells of the evils of homosexuality and that stance has been run with within the individual denominations. That those who are homosexual are equal to the devil or some sort. These were beliefs held myself at one point in my life and this was well before I started to take a hard look at what I was parroting and what I truly believed.

I have some friends that are gay. Both male and female. I don't believe for one single minute now that they made some "lifestyle choice" and have made some conscience decision to just be a homosexual. All evidence points to that these people are just wired that way from birth. No differently than I was for heterosexuality. It's who they are, not a choice to lead some hedonistic lifestyle that is in defiance of the ruling cultural values.

And if you disagree with me, then fine. But how many of you know childhood friends of yours who at an early, early age were just behaving a little differently? And, some years later when you were an adult and you found out that they were gay, that it just wasn't very shocking to you. In your heart you know that they were just born that way and when you heard that news it was almost like "well, duh?"

I can't see why it could be a preferential choice - it's just who they are. And that they are born into a society that just doesn't know how to deal with it. Millions of people who went through their own struggles in the most awkward years when all people start to realize their sexual drives and what fuels them. The courage that every homosexual has to summon to not only realize the root of their internal conflict, but also to overcome that they were born differently and then to become public with that difference. I can only imagine what these men and women had to endure.

I would liken it to be born left handed into a entirely right handed world. Where those lefties were forced to be right handed and if you were left handed, you were chastised and ridiculed for being left handed. Even when things just worked much better when they let their left hand dominate they had to submit for social reasons. We have actually had some of that pressure today on left-handed people that that's just the use of a dominate hand! My god.

If a gay couple wants to marry because they love each other, it has absolutely no bearing on my heterosexual marriage. Just as other heterosexual marriages have no bearing on my own. Those people out there that have taken their fear and intolerance based upon religious and ancient cultural views who then manipulate those same fears in the general populace to pass legislation to diminish and/or remove civil liberties away from very good people. It's criminal not to mention unconstitutional.

And that if that gay couple wants to take on that responsibility of raising a child - by no means will that child turn up to be homosexual. There is absolutely no evidence that environmental ques factor into how a child will grow up to become either homosexual or heterosexual.

If these states that just passed laws banning gay couples and/or singles from adopting children could put their irrationality aside for only just one moment and see that with a 1 in 2 failed marriage rate, I would think that this has a far larger impact on a child's life than any perceived impact from being raised in a gay household. Children develop into quality adults when they are loved and cared for - that is the A#1 priority for the health and welfare of our children. The people who voted for these measures need to wake up and smell their own hypocrisy.

And if gay people make you uncomfortable, then you need to take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror. If you call yourself a Christian, then for every verse in the Bible that denounces homosexuality you will find 10x in loving your neighbor as yourself and the generosity of spirit. Don't cast your own religious beliefs in this wrong context and if you feel that morality in America is slipping - keep in mind that is only your opinion and that the Christian version of morality isn't law - it only your belief. Exercise your own right to the freedom of religion and quit messing with other people's lives by trying to legislate your morals onto others who neither need them or want them. Read more! Read more!

O Canada, my home and native land...

Read more! I've been seeing this pop up in conversation with some of my Republican friends who aren't taking the election of Barack Obama very well. Flippant comments about wanting to move to Canada now that the Republicans have lost quite a bit of control of the government (much to their own chagrin, I might add).

What makes me chuckle about this comment is that Canada, our friendly cold-weathered country to our north, is a government based on the English model of Parliament. Which bides well with our own democracy since they pass laws democratically. But they also do, like most of our European democratic allies, have abundant socialist programs for their citizens with a corresponding high tax rates.

So in effect, when my Republican friends who in disdain threaten to move to Canada, they are opting for a much more liberal government than what was elected with this new Democrat landslide.

Plus why, out of all things to say in a time of needed collective patriotism, would any losing party (because I heard this plenty from the Democrats too pre election) member state that they would want to move away from America. It's very much like Cartman from South Park: "Screw you guys, I'm going home" or in this case "I'm leaving the country".

And for all of the unfounded fears thrown back and forth at opposing sides in any election of a two-party system, there are always idle threats and I don't believe for a moment that any of my friends who have muttered these words would actually do such a thing, but it makes me wonder why we have all taken such radical sides that a thought like that would pop into someones head?

I can disagree with Republican policies and their constant strides to control civil liberties all day long, but it doesn't have to escalate into anything other than a disagreement between allies about how something should be done. Not if they have a valid argument point or not. It is a belief of theirs that they hold dear and I can respect it - even if I don't understand it.

Maybe we all should live in another country for at least a while. Just so we can all appreciate the freedoms and lifestyle that we have been afforded here in America. I know that in my travels to Mexico to work in some of the poorer areas, I got a taste of just how good we've got it stateside. Especially when you buy a soda from a 5 year old who's been left by his parents to mind a store all by himself for the day.

When our nation needs us the most, we must put our party differences aside and find some common ground to stand upon. The cliche of "reaching across the aisle" is rather silly in my opinion. We should have never of had to reach across anything to find the obvious commonalities that we must protect the safety and freedoms of all of our citizens. Our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

And maybe, just maybe, that Canada may just be looking for some new ex patriots, there could be a place for those too blockheaded to see that. Read more! Read more!

900 lb Gorilla

Read more! I can tell you honestly that never before in my years have I been so excited about a Presidential election. Not just for the immediate change that I believe will be the daunting task for President-Elect Obama, but for the social significance of the voice of the American people.

All across our nation, people of every race, creed and color cast their ballots and overwhelmingly chose the Illinois Senator to represent them and to lead our nation. I was thinking about this a lot last night while glued to CNN as the results came in - that just a scant 40 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was bringing the cause of race relations and civil rights for all men and now, four decades later, we have transcended this racial divide that has scarred our nation for so long and have elected the most qualified person for the highest leadership position in the world regardless of race.

This speaks volumes to where America has come as a nation that we can get this 900 lb gorilla off our backs and people of all races can now truly expect from their dreams that they can do what ever they wish in this land. This election has shot life back into the American Dream. The original dream - not the one that has morphed into where you live and what car you drive - it's the one that uprooted peoples from all over this globe to have them move ever closer to the beacon of light that America has offered since it's inception. That dreams are valid and that although we have gone astray in so many ways, we can now refocus on the prize.

There were people yesterday that got to cast their ballot for a black man who 40 years ago would have been segregated to even mingle with whites. The brave people, people of all races, who stood up to this racial intolerance and fought and bled to change the momentum of an establishment that had been entrenched defiantly for so many generations.

This doesn't mean that America has gone through some miracle cure and our past transgressions have some how been absolved. It does mark a significant milestone in that race is becoming less of a barrier to seeing the person who is inside. And that we can someday finally grasp that brass ring and reward our best and brightest people in a well formed meritocracy.

I am filled with a hope this morning that is hard to capture in this meager blog. A hope that our self imposed oppression has somehow been lifted and that freedom will ring true in the hearts of Americans making that beacon burn so much brighter than it ever did before. And that my children, who are too young to even know the significance of this day, have the potential laid out for them in that they can achieve great things based upon their talent and character.

I am filled with a joy that can only be summed up in seeing the glimpse of an undivided America where we care for one another more than we care for only the privileged few.

I am filled with pride in knowing that when pressed against any wall, Americans can rise up together and utilize the democracy that they have been blessed to have, but have been apathetic towards for so many years, and as a singular voice press for change when our leadership has failed us.

And as we move forward and these imminent struggles lurk at our collective doorsteps, that we may dig down to these overwhelming emotions and find that strength to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, buckle down and march through this difficult time. And that we may look to one another as sisters and brothers of the same great nation and support one another until we have reached our goals.

Can we do this? YES WE CAN! Read more! Read more!

Election Eve...

Read more! There is no doubt that history is being made tomorrow and the people of America who will come out in record numbers to wait in line, sometimes for hours, to cast their vote and do their duty as US citizens. Here's some interesting data to put the election of our leaders into some different light.

In the 2000 Presidential Election, Bush won the electoral college vote, but not the popular vote. The overall population of America was right around 281 million people with approximately 168 million people who are 18 and over and that could vote. There were an estimated 118 million registered voters of which 101 million actually voted. Bush won the election with 47.9% of the popular vote (again, Gore won the total number of votes) which translates to approximately 48.6 million people voting for Bush in 2000.

That means that in the 2000 Presidential election, 28.8% of eligible voters elected Bush to his first term as President. That means 71.2% didn't.

In the 2004 Presidential election, our nation was slightly larger with an overall population of approximately 298 million people with a little over 190 million people of voting age. There were approximately 137 million registered voters with 122 million casting their ballots. Bush won this election over John Kerry by a better margin than Gore, although he bested Kerry with winning 51% of the vote.

That means that in 2004, 32.7% of eligible voters elected Bush to his second term. About one-in-three.

What this tells me is that the roughly 25% of eligible voters who haven't or will not register to vote and those who are registered but who choose not to vote have absolutely no bitching rights to the leadership of the country. They exercised their right to not vote - but by doing such they've allowed others to chose that path for them which, in turn, means no complaining.

What this also tells me is that in hotly contested elections, at best we have 33% approval rate from the get go for the newly elected president. 67% of the nation didn't want him there (or voted by their silence).

This election is poised to be the greatest turn out in the history of American voting. Somewhere around 130 million people are expected to vote and with Obama leading with a fairly wide margin in almost all polls, he has an excellent chance of pulling this off. That's if people don't get cocky and not vote.

In that lies the rub people just need to get out and vote. American polling stations are run by local governments. Precincts are designed to have enough machines for expected voter turn out, but in some cases, turn our is much more than expected (which makes me think that we've been far too lazy as voting citizens that our polling stations are underestimating their work by that much). People need to demand that they do their part.

And if you don't think your vote counts, then you're not looking at it properly. Your vote is one in a large chorus of people who are all voicing their opinion on the best for our collective nation at a single time. One solitary voice is meek, but a chorus of millions is deafening. And in this day and age, you need to be pretty loud to make things happen.

So, if you haven't done it yet by early voting or if you're thinking of skipping it - don't. Head down to your precinct and vote. Do it for yourself and know that you did something - plus, if your horse doesn't win, you have at least earned the right to complain. Read more! Read more!

Separation of Church and State...

Read more! I don't know how many of you out there really have thought much about what this really means. I can tell you that up until recently, I didn't pay much attention to it. It was a clause that seemed reasonable, but I didn't take time to think about how that should actually be practiced.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote this into the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States, the English Monarchy had the long established Church of England wherein there was only one "church" to belong to. The Pilgrims over a century before had fled England to ultimately end up in America to flee the persecution of the Government/Church so that they may practice their faith as they had wished. Our original intention of creating a nation that encouraged religious freedom wherein those of different faiths could express themselves in any fashion they saw fit without fear of reprisal or persecution here in America.

We may think back now at the actual Puritan faith that the Pilgrims practiced and view it as a very conservative religious practice, but in that time and space, it was a liberal and radical move to rise up so defiantly against the ruling power(s) in England. Think about it, they literally had to leave the country in order to practice what they thought was the best course of action for their beliefs. Would you do that today for how you believe?

Since people came to America's shores four hundred years ago, all sorts of faiths have found some level of comfort and ability to survive and even thrive here without any (or much) government interference. With the dominate form(s) of faith coming to America throughout our history, Christianity has had the rule of the roost for our entire existence as a country. Thus many of the values and standards that most Americans hold dear seemed to have evolved out of the Christian faiths that have risen into all levels of government and have shaped most of our policies at every level.

So in the context of a pure form of separation of Church & State, we have mostly observed it to the point that over most of our history, those in power were typically from mainstream Christian faiths that didn't raise any eyebrows with the constituency when policies or civic actions were taken that leaned heavily towards Christian values and practices.

Take the numerous monuments raised in city parks to the Ten Commandments or biblical passages written down on public property. Property that was funded and erected by governmental dollars. Even in our nation's motto of "In God We Trust" is a direct link to an innocuous phrase on our currency that really doesn't raise any fuss as long as everyone actually believes in the existence of God.

And how in recent years that the ACLU has gained momentum to look at the practices of local, state and even the Federal governments where tax dollars are still used to promote the blending of Christian beliefs with policies that affect all citizens under the influence of those policies.

Think about the continued existence of Blue Laws or Dry Counties. These are either municipalities or county governments that have a ruling legislative body that forces the ultra conservative Christian views on the mass public. Or how much stink is risen when after 50 years a monument of the Ten Commandments is deemed unconstitutional and is forced to be removed. There are a lot of vile comments that are flung towards the liberal left in their "unethical" views on the world by removing a piece of local "history".

What most Americans don't seem to think much about - at least those living in conservative regions of the country is that they had no right to use tax dollars to either erect and/or maintain such a monument in the first place.

When this is spun around towards most Christians I know, the typical reaction is guarded and appalled at the then "devaluation" of "moral decline" of America in general. The argument isn't about how moral values are either evolving or shifting, it's in the argument that Christian morals are NOT THE DEFINING MORAL VALUE for Americans.

Just as Christians would not want to have a Muslim or Kosher Jewish faith principals guiding legislative policy, those same minority faiths have endured an incredible reign of another faith's value system forced upon them.

I think what scares Christians the most when someone of another faith or markedly different background is in a position of leadership that can influence policies that would/could eventually affect their own established value entrained policies, threats of the Antichrist or the Devil or Terrorist start to be muttered to attack the character of that policy leader. We've seen that directly with the right wing supporters who actually "fear" Obama.

What Christians haven't realized is that what they should be fighting for are the basic, core issues that all peoples of faith should band together. This is the common ground in our American laws that allow all of us to exist in some shape or form - the Freedom of Speech and the Freedom of Religion. Every single person in America should be card carrying members of the ACLU who's sole existence is to protect and defend the Constitution for ALL Americans. That means those that have faiths that are not Christian or practice social behaviors that are not in line with the Holy Bible. Just as Christians don't want to be under the policy influence of legislature that is written from the Torah or the Koran.

To be an American, we must respect those who are citizens who are all protected by the Constitution and keep our bad mouthing, fear mongering comments to ourselves. We are all free and just because someone lives in a way that you would find completely offensive, it doesn't mean that they don't have that right to do such.

Our laws and policies should be crafted to ensure that our individual freedoms are protected and that no one individual or group can unduly influence others for power. Read more! Read more!