If you even dabble in politics, I'm sure you've had a chance to interact with someone with a different point of view. It usually goes something like this:
-"Talking point!"
-"But...rhetoric!"
-"Buzzwords and such!"
-"Well you're just a stupid *insert political party here*. What would you know?"
Sigh. It's difficult to get involved in political debate when all you're doing is name calling and reciting talking points you've heard on the news. Not to mention the fact that most people can't figure out who is lying and who is telling the truth (pro-tip: they're all lying.) This is probably the biggest reason that people hate politics. With most political discussions, there is no room for actually talking about differing views points or why I believe one thing and you believe another. There is no room for facts. It's all about spewing your opinion onto the other person then calling them names if they don't agree.
Unfortunately, this is exactly why people should get into politics. It's important to be able to understand all the ins and outs (no pun intended President Clinton.) Get all the facts in order, but do NOT use the media to do so. All media is biased one way or another, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's important to read articles from varying opinions and make up your mind one way or another. One thing we should all learn, and teach our children, is not what to think...but HOW to think. That is the first step.
The second step is getting involved. I'm not talking about starting a political action committee or standing on the street getting people to sign petitions (not that there's anything wrong with that.) But the first, and best thing people can do to make a difference is VOTE. Is your representative in Congress not listening to you? Fire him. Now, it's important to make a clarification here. Our congressmen in the House of Representatives are there to listen to the voice of their constituents and vote accordingly. That's not what the Senate is for. Senators are supposed to vote based on the Constitution and whats best for the country as a whole. However, no matter what their position in Washington, if you don't like the job they're doing, remind them that they work for you. Write letters and emails. Call their offices. If you don't like what they have to say, use your vote and fire them. Many people try to call out the Electoral College as an obsolete voting system and blame that for not voting. No excuse. Vote anyway. And just to let you know, Senators and Congressmen are voted in by popular vote, not the electoral college.
Look, it sucks. There are days when we would all just rather not think about how the country is being run by people who might sell their vote to the highest bidder. Or vote to ban something then turn around sell the same damn thing on the black market (I'm looking at you Leland Yee.) Or maybe how all these people who are supposed to be working for us have no clue what the real world is like.
The system may not be all we want it to be, but that is all the more reason to work to make it better. We might not have everything just right, but I dare you to find a place anywhere else in this world you would rather live.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
A Reason To Thank Fred Phelps
My immediate reaction to hearing about the death of Fred Phelps, the leader of Westboro Baptist Church, was mainly thoughts I would probably have to confess for if I were Catholic. A lot of people have had the same reaction. Good. Good riddance. The world is a better place without him. I hope he rots in hell. I would be lying if I didn't admit I hadn't felt all of these. But here is something I want us all to think about.
As a Christian, I never, EVER want someone to go to hell. Everyone of us deserves hell, admittedly some seem to more than others, but we all deserve to go. It pains me to think of someone having to spend eternity without Christ. I understand why people hope this man rots. I really do. But we need to think about the bigger picture and remember that the ONLY one who determines who goes to hell is God himself. Let's leave it up to Him. Although I wish I could have seen the looks on Mr. Phelps face when God smacked him upside his head with the good book and yelled at him for doing all this in God's name.
Allow me to get straight to my point about all this. The only reason we should thank this jerk is because he gave EVERYONE someone to despise. It doesn't matter if you're a Christian, an atheist, gay, straight, black, white, brown, military, or pacifist. Everyone saw this man for who he was- a no good so-and-so who used the name of God to do whatever he wanted to do. This man brought us all together. He gave everyone of us a reason to stand together and publicly shame this man for the things he did. How many other times can Christians and atheists stand hand in hand and agree? How many times can we say we can stand in support of someone we may not necessarily agree with and say, "I'm putting our differences aside in support of you."
Perhaps, after the death of this man, it would do us all some good to remember how we felt about each other while he was still alive. Remember that other people might disagree or hold different beliefs, but what matters most is being supportive of one another. Let's all be the anti-Phelps. Everyday we live in love and understanding is a day that this man turns over in his grave.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God."
~1 John 4:7
As a Christian, I never, EVER want someone to go to hell. Everyone of us deserves hell, admittedly some seem to more than others, but we all deserve to go. It pains me to think of someone having to spend eternity without Christ. I understand why people hope this man rots. I really do. But we need to think about the bigger picture and remember that the ONLY one who determines who goes to hell is God himself. Let's leave it up to Him. Although I wish I could have seen the looks on Mr. Phelps face when God smacked him upside his head with the good book and yelled at him for doing all this in God's name.
Allow me to get straight to my point about all this. The only reason we should thank this jerk is because he gave EVERYONE someone to despise. It doesn't matter if you're a Christian, an atheist, gay, straight, black, white, brown, military, or pacifist. Everyone saw this man for who he was- a no good so-and-so who used the name of God to do whatever he wanted to do. This man brought us all together. He gave everyone of us a reason to stand together and publicly shame this man for the things he did. How many other times can Christians and atheists stand hand in hand and agree? How many times can we say we can stand in support of someone we may not necessarily agree with and say, "I'm putting our differences aside in support of you."
Perhaps, after the death of this man, it would do us all some good to remember how we felt about each other while he was still alive. Remember that other people might disagree or hold different beliefs, but what matters most is being supportive of one another. Let's all be the anti-Phelps. Everyday we live in love and understanding is a day that this man turns over in his grave.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God."
~1 John 4:7
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Redefining Feminism
Ladies, let's face it. We have it pretty good here in the US. We can drive. We can vote. We can work. And we don't have to walk around with stuff covering our faces. World War II brought to life a new side of women. Women were working in factories, playing baseball, and raising families by themselves while their husbands, sons, and fathers fought the good fight. The world realized that American women are tough, and so did American women. We started fighting for equal pay for equal work. We started proving that women are just as capable as men to be CEO's, senators, and whatever else we wanted to be. However, things are a little different now.
Women are now bombarded by talking points and feedback from feminists across the country. You can be whatever you want. It's your body- a man in Washington can't tell you what to do with it. Women are just as good as men at everything...and probably better. It all sounds too good to be true- and that's because it is.
It seems interesting that women are told they can be whatever they want to be as long as it fits in with what the hard-core feminists had in mind. Be a CEO. Be a senator. Run a multi-million dollar corporation. Get your masters degree. Get an abortion. Be and do any of those things. But the first time you mention being a submissive wife, or being "just a mom" all of a sudden they tell you you're not living up to your potential.
Take Candice Cameron for instance. It seems DJ from "Full House" is all grown up. She has been married for 17 years and has three children. During an interview, she said that one thing that helped her relationship with her husband was to take a backseat role in making decisions. She would voice her opinion, but the decision was ultimately left up to him. She has since been flooded with people telling her she has sent women back 100 years. That she's nothing more than a doormat. This just isn't so. It takes a very strong woman to voice her opinion but leave a decision up to someone else. We live in a society where women wear the pants in a relationship, then want to get out of the relationship because their significant other isn't a true leader. How can he lead if you won't let him? If you want to see your husband "be the man" then you have to give him that chance.
I have personally been pressured by society to get back into the work force. There's two different forces at work here. There's the group who think stay-at-home mothers are lazy and sit around eating bon-bons all day (I laugh at them). Then there's the group who say women who stay home with their children are wasting their talent and intelligence. We should be out there, leading. Proving to people around the world that we can do it. Well, even if I were to concede to be "wasting" myself, what better to "waste" it on than my own children? And no. I'm not conceding that I waste anything. My talent has always been being good at a lot of things. What better career field could there possibly be than being a mother? I'm a chauffeur, a chef, a laundromat, a nurse, a referee, a coach, a psychologist, a guidance counselor, a teacher, a judge, a personal assistant, and yes, a maid. YES. I am a maid. (Let's not kid ourselves ladies. We don't have to like the title though.)
My point is this. Who in God's name decided that the founding point of feminism would be to compare us to men? How is that empowering? Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, we aren't supposed to be equal to men? Maybe we're supposed to be...complimentary? Not quite equal, but just as necessary?
I challenge every single one of my readers to help me redefine feminism. A new feminism where we are no longer compared to men about anything. Where we can literally be whatever we want to be. Whether it be a CEO or a stay-at-home mom. Whether it be a single, working mom who does a great job, or a submissive wife. Let us no longer view ourselves as in a struggle to define rights for women. Let us simply look back at what we have accomplished, look at all that women already offer this world, and sit back with a deep satisfaction and say to ourselves, "You're damn right we can."
Women are now bombarded by talking points and feedback from feminists across the country. You can be whatever you want. It's your body- a man in Washington can't tell you what to do with it. Women are just as good as men at everything...and probably better. It all sounds too good to be true- and that's because it is.
It seems interesting that women are told they can be whatever they want to be as long as it fits in with what the hard-core feminists had in mind. Be a CEO. Be a senator. Run a multi-million dollar corporation. Get your masters degree. Get an abortion. Be and do any of those things. But the first time you mention being a submissive wife, or being "just a mom" all of a sudden they tell you you're not living up to your potential.
Take Candice Cameron for instance. It seems DJ from "Full House" is all grown up. She has been married for 17 years and has three children. During an interview, she said that one thing that helped her relationship with her husband was to take a backseat role in making decisions. She would voice her opinion, but the decision was ultimately left up to him. She has since been flooded with people telling her she has sent women back 100 years. That she's nothing more than a doormat. This just isn't so. It takes a very strong woman to voice her opinion but leave a decision up to someone else. We live in a society where women wear the pants in a relationship, then want to get out of the relationship because their significant other isn't a true leader. How can he lead if you won't let him? If you want to see your husband "be the man" then you have to give him that chance.
I have personally been pressured by society to get back into the work force. There's two different forces at work here. There's the group who think stay-at-home mothers are lazy and sit around eating bon-bons all day (I laugh at them). Then there's the group who say women who stay home with their children are wasting their talent and intelligence. We should be out there, leading. Proving to people around the world that we can do it. Well, even if I were to concede to be "wasting" myself, what better to "waste" it on than my own children? And no. I'm not conceding that I waste anything. My talent has always been being good at a lot of things. What better career field could there possibly be than being a mother? I'm a chauffeur, a chef, a laundromat, a nurse, a referee, a coach, a psychologist, a guidance counselor, a teacher, a judge, a personal assistant, and yes, a maid. YES. I am a maid. (Let's not kid ourselves ladies. We don't have to like the title though.)
My point is this. Who in God's name decided that the founding point of feminism would be to compare us to men? How is that empowering? Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, we aren't supposed to be equal to men? Maybe we're supposed to be...complimentary? Not quite equal, but just as necessary?
I challenge every single one of my readers to help me redefine feminism. A new feminism where we are no longer compared to men about anything. Where we can literally be whatever we want to be. Whether it be a CEO or a stay-at-home mom. Whether it be a single, working mom who does a great job, or a submissive wife. Let us no longer view ourselves as in a struggle to define rights for women. Let us simply look back at what we have accomplished, look at all that women already offer this world, and sit back with a deep satisfaction and say to ourselves, "You're damn right we can."
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