Politics

Granted, this was in 1994, but most of what he has said has come true!

Take a look here.

I met a man from Columbia not so long ago. I’ll call him, Roberto. He’s retired living in Northern California. He managed to retire well on a acreage. That can be a solid acheivement for a 50 year old immigrant in an area where small houses go for about a million dollars.

Up until about seven years of age, he lived in Columbia. In Columbia, getting an education is not for everyone. It’s exclusive. In his words, you have to be in either the wealthy class or you have some sort of genius if you’re poor.

His aunt had applied for a green card to the United States and made her way to boston. She took a job as a maid and worked for a few years. After some time had passed and, I guess the green cards status was in full effect (I’m not familiar with how it works), she sent for her sister and her three children. The subject of this post was one of those children.

She also took a job as a maid and got her children in school. She focused on their education and they all knew how important it was. Back home in Columbia, there was no chance of an education like they were getting and they knew it.

Roberto said he always knew from a young age how important it was to get educated. He said he always remembered attention and focus on it. He told me about one teacher who had helped him with an application and a letter of recommendation to get him into Boston College, a private school. He talked of more deliberate acts that continually kept him on the path to a solid education. This path worked well for him. He’s wealthy and retired at 50.

Contrast that with my upbringing. I don’t fault my parents in anyway. I am doing just fine and I’m on track to retiring early if I choose. However, here’s the contrast. I grew up in Oklahoma City, OK. None of my friends that I grew up with ever even talked about College or grades. Even in my high school, the only discussion about college was about the girls we might find or the beer we’d certainly drink. There was no focus on education. I didn’t even have a clue as to what I might be interested in getting educated in. I didn’t know what my options were. The only reason I did well in high school was because I sought a girl who was into straight A’s. I wasn’t focused on the education. I was focused on her and what I needed to do to get and keep her interested in me. When I finished high school, there was not any direction from my elders on whether to attend college or not. The question I got was, “What are you going to do now?”

The environment was totally different. Where I grew up, people had whatever they needed and didn’t need to worry about what wouldn’t be available. Where Robert grew up, people didn’t have whatever they needed and needed to worry a lot about what might not be available. I had a stable country. Roberto did not. I’m sure there are other class factors here to contrast as well.

The important part is the environment. The environment dictates the thinking. What’s interesting to me is that my environment had everything so I didn’t feel a need to make anything happen. Roberto’s environment was the opposite so he did feel a need to make things happen. I’ve often heard that the children of hard working immigrants often do well. This is because they know the importance of an education and they see the hard work ethic purveyed by their parents. Mix the two and, Viola! Nice job, nice income, nice house…the whole environment gets setup with every thing that’s needed. I should state that the immigrant’s grandchildren, I’ve heard generalized, don’t do as well as the parents. They miss the hardship and the work ethic to know what’s important and thus squander themselves. Perhaps here is a parallel to my experience?

Our system of Jail is meant to punish people for wrong doing. I think everyone would agree on that. This punishment is also meant to be a deterrent. However, I think what the Jail system really is trying to solve for is responsible people. In our society, we need people to behave. Otherwise, getting along and living would be quite difficult. We need people to behave, to be responsible.

However, I don’t think Jail creates responsibility. It just punishes. However, I think it punishes more than just the offender. In fact, I think it does just the opposite of creating responsible people. Let me illustrate how our Jail system creates irresponsibility.

1. Once an individual is convicted, they no longer have to pay a mortgage, rent, or make money of any kind. They are prevented from taking part in society.
2. Clothes are provided to them.
3. Food is provided to them.
4. Shelter is provided to them.
5. Medical care is provided to them.

They are not responsible to provide any of these things. They are not even held responsible in any restitutional way to anyone who they wronged. (Sometimes, people do pay restitution…it depends on the crime.)

The message this sends is that they are no longer responsible. This is a big point. This is an ongoing operating mechanism that drills into their heads that they don’t have to be productive and provide value to our society.

Once their time is completed, there is a huge transition back to responsibility…having to pay rent/mortgage, make money, provide themselves food and medical care, etc. This creates a strain further as they now need to be “integrated” back into society.

What we need is a system that is focused on producing responsible people. I don’t think Jail cuts the mustard. What we need is a program where convicts are put into an environment that requires responsibility. Dollar figures could be put to crimes where people would be indebted to the entity(s) they wronged. (This would have to be done through work productivity and could not be paid in advance to prevent wealthy flagrance.)

Any expert comments?

Today, I walked by a local newspaper and the headline was “Does God Love Gays?”. I thought it was odd. At first, I was irritated at how the writer/editor was planning to sell magazines by preying those in our world who this is a hot topic for. Then I remembered that’s the modus operandi of many publishers and I guess I should be used to it. I still think it’s cheap.

So, I started to think about this question. First, it assumes that a majority of people would believe that God exists. Second, it assumes that God has a preference for straight people. So, it sounds like a religious question about homosexuals. But, is it really a religious question?

Just as fruit for a discussion, does a God exist? There’s a whole lot of stories about God and about creation. But, before I go into that. There’s a big physical component. It’s called life. And, there’s another called death. I don’t know of much else from experience. Most people don’t remember anything before life. Some do, but their credibility is often questioned. We can’t really ask those who’ve past what they are experiencing now because they’re gone. Their intangible consciousness isn’t available to us. Now, there are some who claim that it is. However, their credibility also comes into question.

Given that we can’t see before life or after it. How can we not be agnostic? Well, I don’t think agnosticism is a complete approach. I say this because there are so many things that are invisible to us. You can’t physically see a thought or consciousness. You can only see their result…that result can be a physical manifestation like a house that was built or an emotional response. This is a lot like the wind in that it’s not seen, but it is felt. Is everyone with me? Any experts around on this one?

What other invisible forces are there? I think I’ve seen the results of Karma. However, I can’t be sure that’s what it was. I know people who talk of things that have happened to them that were so coincidental that it just had to pre-ordained. Once again, these things are not easily measured. There are definitely things that occur that we cannot explain, and these kinds of things are what make up, I think, what many people call God or the results of God. I have to say, just because something can’t easily be measured doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It just means our ways of measuring aren’t perfect. If they were, who knows what we’d find out?

Given that we can’t for sure say God exists, this is where believing comes in. Believing comes in lots of different variations. Mostly people interpret things for themselves when it comes to beliefs. I think this is based on their translation of the thought of what God means to them compared to their life experience. Each person has a unique view. I haven’t heard all people agree to all things. There are always differences. Regardless, many people have similar enough beliefs that put them into larger groups. The larger groups are what make up religions. Each religion is unique as well. Regardless of how long they’ve been around, they usually all have creation stories.

If I was born in Egypt, I’d probably think differently than I do from being brought up in Oklahoma. If I was born in Ireland when the Celtic Galls were the main people prior to the Romans, I probably would have a different outlook as well. If I was Persian…etc. Given that I understand that a different life experience and different cultural environment would no doubt shape my religious view, I have a hard time accepting a dogma…even if I agree with it.

Now, back to the question of “Does God Love Gays?”. That whole thing about assuming a god exists is very grey if you followed my last paragraph. You’d have to choose a belief to even go into that question. And, by choosing a belief, you are choosing something based on a preference you have. That preference has likely come from where you were born, raised, and largely experienced life. It seems more to me that this question is a distortion because it is not really a religious question. It is a preference question that is distorted by a religious assumption. No?

Moving past the God part and moving now on to preferences, many people are not comfortable with Gays. In my own experience as a young person who encountered gay people, honestly, I kept a fair distance. I had heard many rumors about gays and how they were sick and would try to seduce me and make me gay. There could have been a few seduction attempts, but I can’t be so sure. What I can say happened for sure is that as I came to know the gays as people, I found out they were people. They had many similar needs to me…food, water, shelter, emotional wellbeing, financial success, etc. I began to approach them not from a standpoint of them being gay, but from a standpoint of them being people. I now have gay friends who are very good people. I can see it in their thoughts, words, and actions.

The root of my apprehension was actually fear. I didn’t know what these kind of people were up to and so I feared them. Honestly, I feared what they might invoke in me (Could they make me gay? Oh no!). I extrapolate and generalize that is what the rest of the question means. So if the newspaper was cutting to the bone, they would have asked the question “Do people not like gays because they are afraid of them?”

Experts, what do you think?

So, the news is in. President George Bush knew on August 28th that hurricane Katrina was going to be a monster . Here’s the link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060302/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_video

Jeez! This article made the FEMA Chief actually look like he was doing a decent job. He has been completely beaten up over this. Was he a scapegoat?

We truly live in a world of cause and effect. Looks like our President, not having had much experience living a real person’s life (I might be a bit jealous of his privilege), could not effectively judge what the result of a large hurricane would be. He didn’t even ask any questions during the briefings. That’s probably because he doesn’t have any experience with compassion for common people to even ask about the basic needs of the people and if they could be easily taken care of. I’m generalizing. I don’t have all the information. There’s a myriad of information that I’m missing I’m sure. However, the more I hear of this president, the more I can’t believe how off track he is. When I say off track, I mean in congruence with the American people about what the basic needs are of the American people.

Is this a slanted view? I’m certainly irritated at what I’ve heard. It appears to be true in that it is an actual video of a major briefing that took place. It appears that Bush lied to the people about not expecting the levees to break. Did he have his head in the clouds? If he was my employee, I’d fire him.

Ooh, here’s a good question. Is there any small business person that would hire George Bush as an employee to make decisions about their business? I’d be interested to hear those answers.