Dear 15-year-old Self:

Put down the Tolkien book right now and listen up.

You're not going to be a lawyer. You're probably never going to be rich and you probably won't marry rich either. You may or may not get published and a lot of things in your life are going to change by the time you're 25. For one thing, Crossfire is going to get canceled in favor of more political coverage that is just yelling back and forth. Quit that pipe dream right now because you don't want to be one of those yelling crazies featured over and over in videos on the Internet (and yeah, videos on the Internet will become a really big deal).

Participating in debate is going to give you a lot of good research and logical skill, but don't let it go to your head. There will always be people smarter than you, and there will always be people dumber than you. The trick is to realize where you fit on the spectrum and listen to those on both sides and then decide for yourself where your ideas fit and what those ideas are. You'll do yourself a big favor if you stop parroting your elders' positions now and learn how to think for yourself.

9/11 just happened. Remind yourself: the taking of a life to avenge a life stolen is never a good idea. A lot of people will use this tragedy to justify a lot of politics in the future - this is your generation's Pearl Harbor. Mourn the lost, but remember to let reason speak in areas emotion can't.

You probably haven't heard this term yet, but "megachurches" aren't all they're cracked up to be. Find a church, now, that challenges you to be a better follower of Jesus, not just a better "you." This church will likely be small and unassuming, and that's okay - you'll like knowing everyone's names and being able to react to the sermon right then and there. It'll be okay.

Also: There are some times you should just stop talking. Learn to identify those times as quickly as you can and you'll save yourself a lot of trouble.

Your friends are not mini-yous. Stop trying to make them that way and let them be themselves. You may not like anime, but you'll be living in Japan someday (I know!) and you'll wish you'd paid closer attention when they tried to introduce you to things like Fruits Basket and Dragonball Z.

You're never going to be as "cool" as you want to be, and the sooner you learn to embrace your nerdiness (hint: Are you wearing your Lord of the Rings "One Ring" replica on a chain around your neck yet? You're a nerd), the better. You'll be a lot happier if you just be the nerd you are and quit trying to like things you don't like just to be "cool." The "popular" kids aren't going to give a rat's patoot where you end up. Be concerned about where you, yourself, are going, and only you should have input on that. You'll end up with an awesome life anyway.

Doubt is okay. It happens. Roll with it. Showing doubt about things shows that you're thinking about your life and not accepting things at face value. Be afraid of the moments you stop asking questions.

Sincerely,
Your 24 year old self.

PS: Oh yeah, and Harry Potter? Yeah, it's not as bad as you think. Just read it already.

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Inspired by Vlogbrothers

listen to this.

"Lover" - Derek Webb (starts at 3:00).

This song came up on shuffle today.

I have nothing more to add except the lyrics. Take a few minutes, listen, and appreciate everything that God - the Great Lover - has done for all of us, and will continue to do.

Like a man comes to an altar, I came into this town
With the world upon my shoulders, and promises passed down.
And I went into the water, my Father, he was pleased.
And I built it and I'll tear it down, so you will be set free.

Yes, and I found thieves and salesmen livin' in my Father's house,
And I know how they got in here, and I know how to get 'em out.
I'm turning this place over from floor to balcony,
Men, just like these doves and sheep, oh, you will be set free

'Cause I have always been a lover, from before I drew a breath
Well some things I loved easy, and some I loved to death.
See love's no politician, cause it listens carefully.
So of those who come, I can't lose one,
So you will be set free, oh, you will be set free.

Go on and take my picture, go on and make me up
I'll still be your defender, and you'll be my missing son
And I'll send out an army just to bring you back to me.
Cause regardless of your brother's lies, oh, you will be set free.

Cause I am my beloved's, and my beloved's mine
So you bring all your history; I'll bring my bread and wine
And we'll have a set party, where all the drinks are on me
And as surely as the rising sun, you will be set free.

Hope and the DMZ

Last Friday, I woke up absurdly early, ate a quick breakfast of pre-packaged Danish donuts I bought at 7/11 the night before, and hopped on the subway in Seoul, and rode two stops over to the Samgakji station near the Army base. I had to be there by 7:00AM so that I could ride on a tour bus for an hour and a half up to the De-Militarized Zone between North and South Korea.

A little background:

Shortly after WWII, war broke out on the Korean peninsula between North and South Korea. This war, which the US got heavily involved in, in the attempt to beat back the march of communism in Asia, is often referred to as "The Forgotten War," overshadowed by its cousin, the Vietnam War, which occurred about 15 years later and was also about beating back communism. However, in this war, 33,000 American soldiers and 152,000 South Korean soldiers were killed in action - not a small war by any means.

I became interested in Korea about a year ago when my internet friend, Kelley, came through Waco on a tour she was doing with a charity, and needed a couch to sleep on. I was able to give her a place to stay, and I attended the movie that she was there to show. The nonprofit - LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) - is about 1. Political action for the US to pressure China to recognize defectors from North Korea as political refugees, and 2. Aiding these refugees when they come to the United States. The film that they showed was incredibly eye-opening as to the situation happening in North Korea right now - political prisoner and labor camps, nationwide famine, and an oppressive regime run by what can only be called a crazy person.

Looking on a map, you can see that North Koreans only have a few places to go: down into South Korea, a journey which would take one through the heavily guarded and somewhat harsh 2.5 mile wide zone known as the DMZ. The other options are up into freezing cold Siberia, or over into communist China, which is sympathetic to the regime, and therefore, if you're found out without the proper papers, you get deported right back to North Korea, where, if you're not executed immediately, you get put in a political prison camp.

The situation is not good for the North Koreans, especially not for those who wish to leave.

So, it's almost needless to say that the DMZ was something I absolutely had to see when I visited Korea. When I asked a couple of friends who had lived there before, one who had been in the military, stationed at Seoul, told me not to muck around with hotel tours, but instead to sign up to go with the USO. Because it's associated with the US military, the USO tour allows you to go further into the DMZ than most hotel tours - those will just take you to the spots you could visit anyway: the 3rd tunnel and the lookout points.

Instead, with the USO, you get to visit the Joint Security Area, or JSA, which is an area that was a previously neutral zone on the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) plop in the middle of the DMZ. Yes, that's a lot of acronyms.

Back when it was first established, the JSA acted as a neutral zone between two technically still warring countries (North and South Korea only signed a cease fire - they never actually ended the war). Because the neutral zone spread over the MDL (the line marking the border between North and South), buildings belonging to each side were built all over the compound. Part of the problem arose when North Korea built checkpoints on the South Korean side - particularly three checkpoints surrounding just one South Korean one - checkpoint three. One day in 1976, near checkpoint three, some South Korean (ROK) and US soldiers and officers were working to cut down a giant Yew tree that was blocking the view from checkpoint three to checkpoint four. They were ambushed by North Korean soldiers and two US officers were killed.

As a result of the incident, the zone, while still "neutral" reverted back to country borders - the MDL now became of extreme importance, and so the line was, quite literally, marked through the camp. Part of the issue here was that there were several buildings sitting directly on the line. Therefore, concrete slabs were positioned along the MDL, between the buildings, to mark out where the border is. You can see just such a slab in this picture:


So, by being able to visit the JSA, I was able to get as close to North Korea as I could without having to go through the troublesome visa and screening process (which I doubt I'd ever pass, considering my views about oppression). For a few minutes, I got to actually stand in North Korea, and for several more, I got to stare across the way at North Korea soldiers who were staring back at me. For me, it was quite sobering - to think that 20 feet away from me is a regime known for oppression, terror, and propaganda filled with lies. We were specifically told not to wave, smile or do anything that could be used in North Korean propaganda.

Coming to Korea as an, I'll admit, somewhat ignorant American, I was surprised by how much South Korea actually knows about North Korea and the conditions there. In the War Memorial, there was an exhibit marking the 60th Anniversary of the establishment of the DMZ, and a large part of the exhibit was about the current conditions in North Korea. There was a lot about the history of the Korean War, and then a section that was simply "North Korea since the war." There were charts pointing out where each of the political prisoner and labor camps are. Pictures depicting how far the nuclear range of North Korea actually is (for my US readers - they would be lucky to hit Alaska), and others talking about the famine and food problems. Displays showed conditions in the political prisoner camps and what the cells are like if you're sentenced to death (they are so small that you can't even sit properly). It is, all in all, remarkable how much information is available, and was just sitting on display in the museum - for only the admission price of 5,000won (about $4.50US).

To go to that exhibit, learn about the DMZ, and then to go visit the actual DMZ - seeing not only North Korea, but the Bridge of No Return, the two towns that exist inside the borders, the site of the Yew Tree that was the catalyst for the axe murder incident, and the living statues that are the ROK soldiers who are the front line against North Korea - made the conflict very real. There is no doubt that things are very tense between the two countries and that it will take a lot of work for things to cool down.

But, however, as one walks through the war museum, and looks at things at the more "touristy" areas of the DMZ, there can be no doubt that there is a hope for reconciliation. South Korea exudes this hope of ending the war, of being able to embrace the North Koreans as brothers and of seeing freedom for their neighbors to the North.

After a tense morning at the JSA and staring across at North Korea, and an interesting hike down into a tunnel which North Korea had been digging in the 1970s in the hopes of ambushing Seoul, and visiting a lookout point where, were it a clear day, we would have been able to see the treeless mountains of the borderlands of North Korea - treeless because they don't want to give defectors any cover - we went to Dorasan Train Station, which is the last possible stop on the South Korean train line - Gyeongui - going North.

Here, in an almost deserted train station basically in the middle of nowhere (this station is, indeed, at the very edge of the DMZ), the sense of hope is almost palpable. There are reminders everywhere of what should be a bustling train station, but instead one that sits nearly empty except for those who happen to go through for work up in the Industrial City just inside the border of North Korea, which means mostly freight trains - there is no passenger service, if I remember correctly. There is a large, billboard sized poster that confronts the visitor when they enter the train station. This poster shows train tracks disappearing toward the horizon amongst green fields, with lettering in the blue sky above it, first in Korean and then in English: "Not the last station from the South, But the first station toward the North."

There is a sign lit up above doors leading to the tracks that says "To Pyeongyang," which is the North Korean capital. Another large poster on the wall displays the eventual map of an intercontinental railroad crossing through Europe, Russia, China and North Korea to connect Portugal and South Korea.

These are big dreams, big plans. And they all depend on the reunification and reconciliation of two nations divided. Despite the fact that it has been 60 years since the war and the separation was solidified between North and South, despite continually bristling tensions between the two countries as North Korea looks for excuses and threatens and tests their nuclear weapons, despite the propaganda and the lies, fighting and the strain exhibited so obviously at the JSA ... despite all this, there is hope.

And that, my friends, is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

small moment in korea

For those of you who didn't know, I just now returned from a 10 day vacation in Korea. It's the first time I've taken a vacation really for just myself, by myself. Since we are so close to Korea, I decided to simply take the ferry over to Busan, and then have a train ride up to Seoul. All in all, the trip took 12 days, and it was a fantastic time. Rather than give you a big ol' update that would be the equivalent of trapping you in my living room to show you slide after slide of photos of the same thing, I'm just going to bullet point favorite moments. I will do a post later this week on the DMZ/JSA/North Korea and reunification later this week.

So here goes, some brief highlights:

-When I got to Busan, it was raining, and I had to walk across a parking lot (a BIG parking lot) to get to the metro. When I was still about 20 yards from the metro, this complete stranger - a Korean lady - came up and held her umbrella over my head. It was completely unexpected and kind.

-I met a Buddhist priest in a coffee shop and he showed me the temple where he works and we talked about New York, which is a place in the US he has been.

-I discovered that my hotel in Busan was, quite literally, across the street from the beach, and that said beach is much less populated in September than in August.

-I found out that Dunkin' Donuts is nearly as popular in Korea as it is in Boston. I think I had it almost every day for breakfast.

-I went on a long hike that ended at a large Buddhist Temple, where I drank water from a mountain stream (and no, I didn't get sick - it was over a week ago and I'm still fine).

-I listened to every single "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me..." and "This American Life" podcast (both GREAT NPR shows) on my train rides around town - I seriously spent that much time on trains. It's actually a good thing because I love riding trains.

-I found a cute little bakery by Haeundae Market that had the most delicious Gateau chocolate cake I have ever tasted. Also in said market, I found socks with Obama's face on them. They made me laugh, so I bought them.

-I saw dolphins - real, live, in the wild dolphins - surfacing in the ocean, while I was riding on a ferry ride just off the beach in Busan.

-I rode on a high speed train through the countryside, going 300km/hr.

-There's a Taco Bell in Seoul. Enough said.

-I got to see the World Cup Stadium (and the field) where the 2002 final was played. It. Was. AWESOME.

-I had delicious Katsu-Don (battered and fried pork served over rice) in a random restaurant I just walked into and sat down.

-I found Harry Potter in Korean and discovered that the books are split up into volumes, so I had to buy two - volume I and volume II of book I.

-I walked in on a private function in the Seoul Art Museum, only because no one bothered to stop me. The museum was actually closed, but I couldn't see that right away (because of the event going on, there were a bunch of people around).

-I discovered that the Korean National Assembly Building is NOT like US Capitol buildings where you can just wander in. Oops.

-I found an English language bookshop called "What the Book?" that played Wilco. It was awesome.

-My taxi driver in Seoul was extremely kind when he realized he didn't know where the hotel was, and pointed me in a direction where I could maybe find it (and I did). We did well for as little English as he knew and the complete nonexistence in my knowledge of Korean.

-At the Korean War Memorial, I met a very nice security guard who took my picture for me.

-I found a cat cafe in Seoul. Yes, it's a cafe where you pay ten bucks to sit around playing with cats and drinking coffee. Uh-mazing.

-I stepped foot in North Korea.

Most importantly, on this trip, I learned how to travel alone, and how to love it. I pushed myself to do more things than I might have done if I was with someone else. I took some risks, and they paid off. It was, all in all, a fantastic trip. I learned a ton about Korea and the Korean war, and the De-Militarized Zone between the two Koreas. It's a very interesting story, one which I hope to tell later this week.

What are some of YOUR favorite vacation moments?

hey, megalomanaic

I'm very sleepy today. It's afternoon; I'm still not entirely dressed. I woke up just before noon. I have my reasons though, and though it wasn't an exciting match of England vs. the United States that kept me up until all hours, nor watching a movie with friends, I'm rather glad I stayed up.

Last night, I was up watching a stream of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Now, frequent readers of this blog space will know that I do not like Glenn Beck. Or rather, I don't like his philosophy and influence: his rejection of social justice in the church as a front for communism and Marxism is a ridiculous stance I have discussed at length (above).

That said, I also believe in giving those I disagree with a voice, as long as it contributes to productive discussion. So with that in mind, I settled into bed last night, computer on my lap, snarky twitter on full blast, ready to listen and think. (For the record, I tend to respond better to people I disagree with, at least on a political level, if I get all the snark out of the way while I'm listening to them - that way it doesn't color my eventual analysis. This sounds weird, I know, but it seems to work for Glenn Beck and O'Reilly - I'm a Jon Stewart kind of gal).

And what Beck had to say scared me. Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally is an entity that no one is really sure what it was about, other than possibly Beck himself. It's supposedly a non-partisan, non-political, rally to raise money for a charity benefiting ... I think war veterans? But Beck's discussion of it leading up to it confuses things - there is much talk of "reclaiming" the civil rights movement, whatever that means, and "restoring honor" to America, again an unclear term. Many of its attendees clearly thought it was a tea party rally, and the blogosphere often referred to it as such. I'm still not entirely sure what it accomplished, other than giving Beck an enormous platform from which to lay out his entire political philosophy.

However, if there was any doubt of Beck's stance on the line between church and state, no one can wonder anymore after his sermon yesterday. That sermon - one of the longest and vaguest arguments for an American theocracy I've ever heard - should have scared every single one of Glenn Beck's viewers who identifies with the Judeo-Christian tradition, and with Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In short, the man is a heretic.

Here's why.

Beck began the lead up to the rally 40 days ago when he asked his audience to get on their knees and pray - to pray for America, to pray for our government, to pray that we get back on "the right track." Before he took the stage, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's niece, Alveda King (who is not, as she calls herself, a doctor - she has an honorary doctorate, but has not earned the title she uses), spoke about accepting prayer back into the public square and back into schools. There was no doubt that what was meant by prayer is prayer in the Judeo-Christian tradition, not any other sort. This is one of the first signs we have of the "America turn back to God" thesis of the rally.

Then Beck stepped up to the plate. No transcript has been posted yet, so I am having to go based on quotes I have culled from other online (reliable) sources, and my own notes. But what he had to say should cause every Christian viewer of his to rethink their lockstep march to his drum.

In the first section of the speech, Beck told us the story of Moses and his fight for the people of Israel against Pharaoh. He repeated several times that we Americans need to "pick up our stick," ostensibly to show the honor of God/America, as Moses did. We need to stand up and listen to what the founding fathers/the burning bush told us to do - it was unclear what exactly was meant as he jumped from burning bush to founding fathers so rapidly I didn't quite catch the connection.

Beck also believes that America is the world's savior. There is no doubt about this, as he said so in his speech. He also commented at several separate points to the extent that "America has set man free," saying so directly at one point. Within the first few minutes, he referred to the Constitution and the founding documents as "American Scripture." He told us in the rally yesterday that we all need to go to "God Boot Camp," so that we can be the Americans who "rush in at the last second to save the world."

It's all beautiful rhetoric - take back the country for God, God wants us to be this and that, America is specially blessed.

But it's all wrong.

Beck would like to imagine us (Americans) as the Hebrews and himself as Moses, pick up the staff that God had touched and rallying his people, shouting at the scary big government, "LET MY PEOPLE GO." Beck's exegesis here, however, is severely lacking. Moses was not reclaiming the people of Israel so that they could get out from under the thumb of big government. He was reclaiming his people so that they could know who they are as God's chosen. It's a subtle difference, but a difference nonetheless.

Moses's gathering of the people resulted in them being nomads, wandering government-less in the desert for a whole generation. Even after that, the Jewish people have rarely had a time when they had a free country to themselves to rule. Jesus was born into the regime of Herod, after the Jewish people - God's chosen, and the only people who have EVER been identified as God's chosen - were scattered in the Diaspora. Granted, my Jewish history is a little fuzzy (it has been 4 years since my last class on the subject), but I do know that the Jews never really got their promised land - they're STILL waiting, still waiting for that promise of God's chosen to be fulfilled completely.

And let's not forget: we have to keep in mind that when the Jews did have a government, it was a big one - one that dictated taking care of the poor, that used money taken in the form of taxes to help the less fortunate, that, every fifty years, made all private property revert back to the original owners, and celebrated the idea that private ownership is a figment of the imagination - if everything is God's, then I cannot possibly own it.

What Beck has done, then, is ignore all that Jewish history, look at the Moses story, and supplant "Americans" for every mention of "Hebrews." It's some quick sleight of hand, but it's important to note for the rest of his heresy.

With Americans taking the place of the Hebrews, and the Exodus now turned around into the story of getting out from under the thumb of government rather than being reclaimed as God's people under God's law, a dangerous idea begins to take hold. If Americans - true Americans being those who follow an undefined, but probably Judeo-Christian God - then we must reclaim the country for God. America is clearly blessed by God, and our lives show his enriching. Government becomes the evil in the story, rather than the hardness of one man's heart. Government becomes the whipping boy for all that is bad, conveniently forgetting that the Jews then set up a vastly complicated and invasive theocracy in which they were the ruling class. Government is evil, and therefore we must take back the government for God.

America, then, is painted as this divine being that has been shoved off track by those who want to expand the government, by those who want to use the tax money for helping the people on whom this government depends. America becomes both victim and savior.

That's a scary thought.

What Beck has created and espoused here is no less than a civic religion, a nation worship, in which America playing the part of God. The idea that we could possibly have God on our side specially blessing our country, and guiding us to be the savior of all is a megalomaniacal, ethnocentric complex of extensive proportions.

America is just over 200 years old, a baby in western civilization's terms, even if you take the extremely conservative estimate that the Earth itself is only 6,000 years old. Who was saving the world before now?

Oh right. Jesus.

And here is where everyone should have bristled: By painting America as the savior of the world, Beck causes us to forget that kingdoms of this world are transient things, wiped away as so much dust. Massive empires have come before and fallen before, and many will come and fall after us. None of those - many of which were declared to be eternal and live eternally - are still standing. The Babylonians? Gone. The Romans? Gone. The Turks? Gone. The Brits? Failed. The Mongols? Gone. Napolean? Dead and rotting. Alexander the Great? Long turned to dust. Constantine? Dead, ages ago, right along with his government.

Every single Emperor and Empire that has existed before us, and who will come after us, has thought they had God on their side. In Ancient Rome, Caesar is a God.

Each and every single one of those empires is now gone, barely remembered by the high school students who are taught about them, relegated to the study of PhD's as academic interest.

America will be no different. Now, whether we fall in a 100 years or a 1000, there is the one thing that is certain: We will fall. We will become a relic of the empire we once had.

We are not God's kingdom.

We never were. The founding fathers knew that when they were writing - they were smart men - and that is why they attempted to give us plenty of freedoms and to give citizens a voice. They did not seek to install a theocracy, as that was what they just left. And they were just men - they were not the divine hand of God giving us a means to save the rest of the world. Beck's own faith (Mormonism) came after the separation of church and state, a faith that was only allowed to develop because of the separation Beck's beloved founding fathers so carefully set up. Having America be pictured as "the savior of the universe," then, supplants the founding fathers careful declarations with a theocracy of Beck's own choosing.

Jesus tells us quite clearly in John 18:36: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world” (ESV).

If we were fighting for an earthly kingdom, as Christians, we could willingly take up arms, install an oppressive theocracy, and invent our own definition of justice, which involves private ownership, prayer in schools, and no abortion.

But that is precisely what Christ cautions against: He does not want us fighting for that which will pass away, as every earthly kingdom does. He does not want us viewing government as anything more than a means to an end, and He certainly doesn't want us to view anything but Him as savior of the universe. He did not come to install a civic religion. Instead, He came to teach us how to love one another, to be peaceable people, and to live for eternity, not for a quickly passing empire.

Glenn Beck: you are not my Jesus, and America is not my God. I will not stand for this civic religion that supplants my all loving, all sacrificing, communal, Trinitarian, personal, timeless, all knowing, and all powerful Lord of the Universe with a piddly government that was created by men and is run by men. My God is so much bigger than your America, and his justice is not yours.

As was oft-quoted by people in your rally yesterday, Mr. Beck, I repeat the words of the big government supporting, freedom shouting, everyone loving, possibly socialist man who would have ended up on your blackboard if he was alive today: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Freedom from government means nothing if you're starving in the street. And in helping that person, whether it be through transforming oppressive institutions that harm their rights, even if it means rejecting private ownership, I will do it. Gladly.

That, Mr. Beck, is where my honor lies. Where is yours?

cabbage and community.

Alex Day, a vlogger on Youtube I follow and find absolutely hilarious [click here for some hilarious stuff on Twilight (language warning in some of the videos)], is being more awesome this week by taking a trip to Zambia with World Vision. The above is his first real update on the trip, and the particularly important part is at the end.

Alex makes the point in the above video that helping out one person ended up helping out an entire community. By changing the life of just one, you end up creating a ripple effect that changes the entire world surrounding that one. Because one child got sponsored, a father was able to start a local business selling cabbage, the community is able to get cabbage from someone they know and trust and are able to feed their families, and an entire area - small as it might be - improves.

Kiva.org works on this same principle - using the ideals of capitalism to create ways to help the less fortunate. Kiva does microloans to people in impoverished countries to help them start their own small businesses. This helps in so many ways: 1. The people are able to be independent and learn not only a trade, but a business, 2. The local economy is helped because it's locals producing goods for locals, allowing the money to stay in the area rather than going off to some random CEO, 3. It cuts into one of the cycles that creates trafficking - poverty and not being able to make money on your own, and 4. It's more dignified than a handout.

Seeing Alex's videos and thinking about these sorts of issues reminds me that there are positive people making positive changes in the world, and that gives me hope. It all comes down to the choices we make every day and the way we decide how to use the resources we've been given. In the internet age, we are more connected, and more in tune with what is going on in our world than ever before. And it's easy - incredibly easy - to focus on the terrible things: the racist comments being flung around by pundits, the oppression of peoples by the very people who are supposed to protect them, the nearly impossible task of finding a company that isn't doing something unethical somewhere, the mindsets of those around you that just say 'haha whatever' when you show them pictures and videos of factory workers living in slums, the rage and yelling of protesters comparing an elected official to Hitler when all he wants to do is make sure that people have access to a doctor.

It can get frustrating and oppressive and sometimes I look at the world and wonder why the hell I fight. Why in the world do I even try? I'm obviously not changing people's minds, and discussion just goes in circles a lot of the time, and sometimes I feel so alone in the fight.

And then I see videos like Alex's, and I'm reminded, yet again, that the community of people working for positive change might be small, it might be quiet, but by God, it's doing some good. And that's the side I choose to be on. That's the side I choose to fight for: The one that says I don't care if you're Muslim, black, white, Jew, Palestinian, Hindu or Shinto. I don't care if you are the very definition of a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. You are human, and are therefore deserving of my love and respect. You have dignity. You deserve a voice.

And I choose to be a part of a community that will give you that voice. That will give you the choices to be educated, to not spend your days doing the same tasks over and over again in a factory if you don't want to. That will help you when you get sick. That will give you the chance to live and learn what a healthy sexuality looks like, rather than being forced into a trade that rips that away from you. That will stand and support your rights when everyone else screams that you're a terrorist. A community that will choose to love you when it seems like no one else will.

And goldarnit, that gives me hope that things can turn out alright.

To close, John Green, another vlogger and author I really enjoy, said in a video a couple weeks ago:

I know it doesn’t feel this way all the time, but we get to choose what we care about and what we spend our resources on. We choose what (or ideally, whom) to lust after. We choose what to watch, what to write, what to build, how to spend to the breaths that we’ve been allotted. And the fact that many of our choices are unconscious - get that handbag, get that Starbuck’s, look at that Snooki - does not in any way make us less responsible for those choices. I’m happiest when I feel like I’m part of a community that makes me choose more intelligently and with greater empathy.

Let's go and be that community, guys.

The "Ground Zero Mosque" or The Right to Be Offended

Note: This blog entry is full of snark.


I cannot stop laughing.

I have to keep laughing at this whole situation, otherwise I will go insane.

There are a number of reasons I think it's perfectly okay to build the "GZM" (for short), most important of which is that objections have absolutely no basis in law. There is no legal reason that can keep them from building that mosque, mainly because of a pesky little thing called the First Amendment.
You see, the beauty of America so many Patriots (with a capital P) celebrate is our freedoms - I have the RIGHT to read that book. I have the RIGHT to play that guitar. I have the RIGHT to use that word.

You do. Within reason. Just like the landmark Supreme Court Case Schenck vs. United States of 1919 determined, you are allowed freedom of speech insofar as it does not bring harm to another person or infringe upon their rights. The famous metaphor used to describe this ruling is not shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, when there is no fire. This puts your fellow citizens at risk.

What appears to be happening now, though, is that we take freedom of speech and freedom of religion to mean freedom from offense. "You can't build that mosque there! It offends me!" "You can't say that! It offends me!" I admit, I may be guilty of the latter (I frequently request that friends don't say "retarded" around me because of the offense), but I'm not going to sue them over it.

Members of both parties seem to misinterpret the idea of freedom of speech to mean either of two extremes: 1. You can't say anything that might offend another human being, or 2. I have the absolute and total right to say whatever the hell I want, and screw you if you get offended.

Finding a balance between the two is damn hard, but I think it becomes easier when we consider it from a "love your neighbor" point of view. While I may not like the racist characterization of Muslims that I find being flung back and forth during the discussion of the misnamed Ground Zero Mosque (more aptly, "the Islamic Community Center [a YMMA, of sorts] that happens to be near ground zero but still a few blocks a way and not at all visible from the site"...but that doesn't quite roll off the tongue), I fully support your right to say them if that is how you truly feel.

Will I encourage you to examine the issue and think about it more closely? (adopting a Palin voice): YOU BETCHA!

Will I attempt to show you in what ways you are wrong? (repeat Palinism).

Will I tell you to shut up because you've "offended me"? No. No I won't. I might stop listening, but I won't tell you to shut up.

And see that's what's ironic about this whole thing: People all over the United States are making the point of how important these first amendment rights like speech, religion, assembly and petition by exercising them in a way that is offensive to others, as they are attempting to block one of the freedoms from a group that is potentially offensive to a much smaller group of people.

After all, the thoughts and very loud opinions of the majority trumps the rights of the minority, right?

Worked for Civil Rights in the South.

Worked for Women's Suffrage in NYC.

Worked for freeing the slaves after the Civil War.

Oh wait.

No, my bad. In each one of those instances, the voice of the minority was shown to be just as valuable, and just as protected as the majority. It seems to me that we're all on equal footing when it comes to these practices of our freedoms and liberties.

Huh. So I suppose this is the America I was born in - one where, hopefully, the voice that is loudest (corporations with deep pockets, the richest 2%, the one with a cable channel with the highest amount of viewers) isn't the one who gets to dictate policy all the time. It's an America where the little man, hopefully, has the same right to state his opinion into the din that is our political discourse. It's an America where the rights of the minority aren't always trampled by an oppressive majority. It's an America where even the people who offend and whom you offend are on equal footing, and each get to have their say.

We are so lucky to have a voice, even if it does produce that awful, awful inexplicably stupid song I posted above.

"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing about Voltaire