What’s the good in being a Superpower if all you do is seek to maintain your own way of life at the expense of the rest of the world? Shouldn’t you be seeking to raise the standard of living in the rest of the world and easing suffering, hunger, and death, as opposed to raising your own lot? Pain and death are all too familiar in this world. You see it in Iraq, Kosovo, everywhere. And instead of using our power to bring an end to the injustice, the United States of America, a land founded on opportunity, hope, and justice, we use our power to protect our money, our oil, and our rich, selfish way of life. Is this what our forefathers envisioned? No, they wrote the Constitution hoping to escape from such tyranny. Now look what we’ve become.
Category Archives: Society
The Sacrifice of the Hmong People
In one of my classes we’ve been reading a book about a Hmong family (The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman) and their clash with American culture through the illness of their daughter. Even though it’s one of those obnoxious books you have to read for a class, it’s been rather eye opening. We have to do a service learning project with some Hmong people in the Twin Cities, so there are actually practical applications to this. What amazes me the most is how little people know about the Hmong. For example, I’m typing this in Word 97, and the spell checker doesn’t recognize “Hmong” as a word.
How Do We Treat One Another?
You know what, I don’t have anything to say today. So I’m going to let someone else speak:
“The way we are with each other is the truest test of our faith. How I treat a brother or sister from day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to the interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life than the anti-abortion sticker on the bumper of my car.
“We are not pro-life simply because we are warding off death. We are pro-life to the extent that we are men and women for others, all others; to the extent that no human flesh is a stranger to us; to the extent that we can touch the hand of another in love; to the extent that for us there are no ‘others.'” (A Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning, page 140)
Americans are Dumb
Okay, you know what? Americans are dumb. Not only does our country stick its nose in other people’s business, but we’re just dumb. This whole Kosovo thing… okay, if you guys don’t agree on peace, we’re gonna bomb the crap out of you. What kind of deal is that!? And then there’s Turkey, beating up on Kurds in northern Iraq. We don’t care what they’re doing. But be it Kosovo or Iraq or somebody else, we come in and kick some butt. We’re the United States of America, we can do whatever the heck we want. Just look at our president.
And another thing, why are we so dumb? What’s the American Dream? Get a job and settle down with a family. Why is that all we do? We go to school, we get a job, we get married somewhere in there, we have a family, we do the same thing for a million years, and at some point we get shoved in an old folk’s home. What a life. Why don’t we do anything different. Why don’t we do anything bizarre. A friend of mine is thinking about joining the Peace Corps. That’s radical. That’s different. That’s a cool experience. It sure beats settling down that much earlier and doing nothing. You know what, the American Dream isn’t all that exciting. It’s rather selfish. And yet it’s our ideal. What kind of a country is this? It’s like a country made up of a bunch of five year old brats. Except they’d be more exciting.
Spending Money We Don’t Have
It’s only the second day of the semester and I already have homework. What do these teachers think they’re doing to me!? I actually had to buy a newspaper and read it. I did come across some interesting stuff though, like Bill Clinton’s new 2000 budget plan for example. At first his plan seems all well and good. Using this surplus to take care of Social Security and Medicare, pay off some debt, and take care of some other concerns. It sounds just peachy, until I read the last half of the article that talked about where all this surplus comes from. It turns out Bill is just taking a stab in the dark at how much money we’ll have in the next fifteen years. Assuming of course that the economy stays just as it is right now. No recessions or anything like that. No change for 15 years!? Yeah Bill, that’s gonna happen. Already the economy is setting records for how long it’s been stable. And he expects it to go 15 more years? The paper was talking about other such predictions of surplus and a six month prediction forecast some 73 million. It turned out to be 166 million. And that was only six months worth. What about 15 years!? Why are we trying to spend money that we might have after 15 years? Why not just wait 15 years and when we have the money sitting in our pockets, spend it then. Then if Bill’s predictions are wrong, we don’t get screwed. Politics is stupid.
Oh yeah, Happy Groundhog Day. I guess the silly ground hog didn’t see his shadow so spring is coming early. Sounds like your average weatherman if you ask me.
The New Year & the New Millennium
1999. Wow. I had go back and fix the date. It certainly won’t be the last time. I guess I don’t have too much to say about the whole New Year’s thing. I don’t get into the resolutions, and the whole thing doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. It’s like getting excited about the odometer in your car turning over 100,000 miles. It’s kind of funny that we humans have to pause and celebrate, just because the numbers in our way of organizing things turn over. It’s not like today is any different from yesterday. The only thing different is that I’ll keep writing the wrong date. It seems the only thing this turning over of the calendar is good for is making money. Maybe I’m just a New Year’s Scrooge, but look at next year. Talk about a moneymaker. Hotels have been booked for years. M&M’s are sponsoring the new millennium. I’d wish I was the genius who came up with the idea of selling the Mars Candy Company those rights (anyone want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?). Next year is just a really big turn over of the calendar. Sometimes I wonder if God looks down at us and laughs. Silly people, nothing’s changing.
I guess the only thing the New Year does do is make us stop and think for a moment. I suppose that’s good. I do advocate thinking. It is the one time of the year when people stop for a moment and reflect on what they’ve done and what they’re doing. Where they’re going. Hmm… where we’re going. That’s a frightening question sometimes. But for me anyway, it does bring some sense of hope. Because I know that the only hope in the future I have is that God is in control, and so I don’t have to worry. That’s always a good thing to know.
So Happy New Year, I guess. Although I don’t see what makes it any different. Unless you remember to write the correct year, which would make it a happy year.
Christmas Story
Happy Christmas! Instead of rambling about the consumer-driven mess Christmas has become, I’m just going to point you to a good story to read.
Blogging and Racism
Whew. Nothing like losing your voice while singing praise to God.
I learned something about this Daily Ponderings deal today. People will remember what I write and hold me accountable for it. I guess that’s a good thing, but it’s kind of a slap in the face at first. But if you think about it, it’s really me slapping myself in the face.
So, on a totally unrelated tangent, I have an 8:15 final tomorrow, and I’m going to bed. So I leave you with a totally unconnected and thought provoking quote:
“When you look at me, you don’t see a man. You see a black man.” – Carl Lee Haley, A Time To Kill.
When I think about that, I realize that the only hope is in the line of a Rich Mullins song:
“My Deliverer is coming…
Christmas Shopping
I went Christmas shopping tonight. And I’m a little confused, which is to be expected. How is it that Christmas has become so filled with greed? I e-mail my parents a list of ‘gimmes’ and continually add to it as I see stuff I want. I was looking around—tonight in fact—and I saw a CD that looked really good. It just came out, and I didn’t have a chance to put it on my list. Well, I don’t want to pay for it myself, after all, it’s almost Christmas. So I’ll just tell my parents to add it to my list. That’s about the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard.