#I took religion class as an elective for 8 years of my life because we just watched bad animated movies and drew and played outside

[heckling-hydrena]

love being the resident Atheist Blasphemer in a household of Lax "yeah sure we believe in God" Orthodox Christians. I've already eaten 2 of our easter eggs early. Hristos vaskrse to all who celebrate I hope your chosen egg beats the shit out of all the other loser eggs

[suzey8888]

“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching. “We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls. She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers. “Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.” No so. Hitler is welcomed to Austria “In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent bank loan interest rates. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs. “My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.’ “We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. “Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group – Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. “Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler. “We were overjoyed,” remembers Kitty, “and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed. “After the election, German officials were appointed, and, like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service. “Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage. “Then we lost religious education for kids “Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school.. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,’ and had physical education. “Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.” And then things got worse. “The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. “We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had. “My mother was very unhappy,” remembers Kitty. “When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly

any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination. “I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. “Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time, unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. “It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy. “In 1939, the war started, and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and, if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death. “Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men. “Soon after this, the draft was implemented. “It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. “They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. “When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. “Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service. “When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. “You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven days a week, under the total care of the government. “The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had. “Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna.. “After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. “When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. “If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries. “As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80 percent of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. “All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing. “We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. “Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands. “Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control. “We had consumer protection, too “We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency

specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the livestock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it. “In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated. “So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. “I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. “I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months. “They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness. “As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia. “Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law-abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily. “No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up. “Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.” “This is my eyewitness account. “It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. “America is truly is the greatest country in the world. “Don’t let freedom slip away. “After America, there is no place to go.” Kitty Werthmann ***Re-read the part where she says “everything was free” - healthcare and so on. Very much worth reading twice.****

[religioused]

Bigger God, Bigger Religion

Bigger God, Bigger Religion

by Gary Simpson

Isaiah 42:1-9 (KJV)

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

5 Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

8 I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Acts 10:34-43 (KJV)

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:

40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

42 And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

Matthew 3:13-17 (KJV)

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

I recently purchased the prayer book Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. Given this church’s rich heritage of social justice, I think that I might need a prayerbook for extraordinary radicals. Common Prayer has a liturgy for every day of the year. January 12’s liturgy reminds us of an important event that took place on January 12. On this day in 1948, Gandhi began to fast to achieve peace in the Indian subcontinent.

Gandhi was influenced by Christianity. He often read the Sermon on the Mount. Ghandi decided to live out Jesus’ teachings in an effort to bring peace to the region.(1) On a day that we reflect on Jesus going into the wilderness to be baptized and to bring peace to humanity, we also reflect on Gandhi’s life. When Ghandi was in the wilderness of conflict, he strove to bring peace to an important region of the world.

To put the Gospel reading in context, I am going to refer to the passage in Isaiah that is part of our lectionary reading. Isaiah Chapter 42 is considered by many people to be a Messianic passage, a prophetic passage about Jesus, the gentle Messiah, who will not “break off a bent reed or put out a dying flame.”(2) This gentle Messiah is predicted to bring justice to the world.(3) The gentle Messiah is important, because Jesus is considered to be the ultimate revelation of God to humanity. Some people might picture the passage in Isaiah as saying that God will bring justice without yelling at people on street corners and without breaking a bent read or putting out a weak flame.

There are times when we need to back up and place a Gospel reading in context of the lectionary schedule. Christmas Day, the lectionary reading covered Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. In St. Luke’s narrative, shepherds are invited to the stable to see Jesus in the manger. Shepherds were “despised” by good people of the time. There is no way the ancient shepherds could keep the ceremonial laws, such as hand-washing.(4) William Manson wrote the commentary on the Gospel of Luke for The Moffatt New Testament Commentary set. Manson notes that the shepherds are the “centre-piece” in Luke Chapter 2. The inclusion of shepherds is significant for those living in the “Judean home of Christianity.”(5) Luke refers to Jesus as the savior, which shows that Jesus is going to make an “appeal to sick and suffering humanity.”(6) Luke is very inclusive, including Samaritans, Gentiles, and the impoverished, disreputable, outcasts, and sinners.(7) Luke pictures God as having a universal embrace.(8) Commentator and Greek scholar William Barclay refers to the Gospel of Luke as the “universal gospel.”(9) There is also a universal element in the Gospel of Matthew. Alejandro Duarte, a Catholic theologian who worked in Beunos Aires, says that Jesus is the Messiah who is “geared toward those who are not considered important.” He supports his position by citing examples of Jesus healing ‘outsiders,’ lepers, blind, and Gentiles.(10) The life, ministry and passion of Jesus needs to be seen within the context of the universal gospel. We can see the theme of the universal gospel in Jesus’ baptism.

Matthew Chapter 2 contains Matthew’s Christmas story. In Matthew’s narrative, wisemen, Magi, arrive in the Palestine region. They tell Herod that they have been following a star and that they have come to worship the new King of the Jews. The wisemen ask Herod where the new king can be found. Herod summons Jewish scholars about where the Messiah will be born and they tell him that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Herod asks the wisemen to search for the child and to come back and tell him where the child is. A star then leads the wisemen to Jesus. After they see Jesus and worship Him, angels warn them to not tell Herod where they found Jesus. The wisemen return home by a different route, so they would not encounter Herod. Angels warn Joseph to leave and go to Egypt where Jesus will be safe. Herod is so threatened that he gives the order that all children under two years of age in Bethlehem be killed. And Jesus becomes a political refugee. Jesus’ family lives in Egypt until Herod dies.

When I was a student at Pacific School of Religion, I had the privilege of taking a course with Jim Mitulski. When searching for ideas for this sermon, I found a sermon that Jim Mitulski gave a Cathedral of Hope, a megachurch in Dallas, Texas. He was preaching on the Gospel passage.

Christianity traditionally holds that Jesus is God incarnate, God in human form. Mitulski makes the point that the God incarnate in Jesus was not just for Jewish people. The God of the chosen people is available to all people, regardless of religion, culture or background.(11) In Matthew’s birth narrative, Magi came to the stable, to the manger to worship Jesus. Jim Mitulski observes, that the Magi came, saw, worshipped, were transformed, and moved on. The Bible does not tell us that they converted to Judaism. While they appreciated Judaism and saw something of value, they did not need to co-opt it, corrupt it, domesticate or own it; they enjoyed it and experienced it, and “It opened their minds, their bodies and their spirits to see the world differently.”(12)

Who witnessed Jesus‘ baptism? Who was His audience? This is a question that we need to ask ourselves over and over again as we read the Gospels. The high priest and the Caesar were not at the river waiting to be baptized. The Gospel of Mark’s account tells us that John was preaching for a baptism of the repentance of sins.(13) The leading religious figures are not likely to have considered themselves sinners and the thought of publicly acknowledging that they needed to repent from sins was a no go. Those getting baptized were more likely to be the religiously marginalized, a class of people that the priests looked down on. Jesus told parables, because they “resonated with the lives of the poor, the tax collectors, the prostitutes . . . the marginalized.”(14) As we read Bible, we need to be open to reading the Bible from the perspective of those who are marginalized. There is power when we understand the Word from the perspective of the margins of society. The Gospels had to resonate with the common person or Christianity would not have rapidly spread across the Roman Empire.

Mitulski notes, “Experiences of divinity are meant to open us up to see wider, to see broader, to experience more. If our religion results in a smaller world, then we have missed the point. Religion is meant to expand, enlarge, inspire our imaginations, our spirits, our bodies, how we live.”(15) As we reflect on a story where we are presented with an encounter with the Divine, as the Spirit descends and speaks, the baptism experience calls us to expand our view of God and of religion.

There are far too many merchants of fear in religious circles. Some of those merchants of fear may claim that people who made serious mistakes or who are spiritually marginalized are not people of faith even though they are baptized. This is not true. Experiences with God cannot be taken away by people. Mitulski makes the point emphatically when he says, “Baptism can never be taken from you. I want to renounce as heresy any notion that a promise made to you by God and symbolized by water can ever be broken by human error . . . If you were baptized and were later told that you did not somehow belong in a faith community, that person committed a grave error, because you cannot take what is God’s to give.” He goes on to observe, "The devil did not give it and the devil cannot take it away . . . God gives us grace . . . no human can take it from us. When they try to, it says something about them, not about God, not about us.” (16)

Our task is not to over analyze the story. Our job is to focus more on how to apply the Biblical narratives to our lives, to improving society. Miguel De La Torre, a professor at Illif School of Theology, appears to believe that the task for the church of God is more to spend time learning how the our communities takes possession of the Bible texts than it is to spend hours trying to determine the exact words Jesus spoke. (17)

And there are those who may question your faith. I am not sure if you have ever wondered how to respond when a person asks you if you have a personal relationship with Jesus. Miguel De La Torre has an interesting response for his students who ask if he has a personal relationship with Jesus. He responds, “No, I have a public relationship with Jesus Christ.”(18) In the waters of baptism, Jesus showed He had a public relationship with us and that is the kind of relationship that we are challenged to have with God and with people.

Arsenius was known as Arsenius the Great and Saint Arsenius. He lived from about the 350s to the 440s of the Common Era. According to Wikipedia, Arsenius was a tutor for an Emperor’s sons. Later, he entered more religious work. Arsenius’ teachings influenced the development of the contemplative life.(19) An old story about Arsenius is that he “consulted an old Egyptian monk about his own thoughts.” Someone who knew this happened, asked Arsenius why Arsenius, a man who knew Greek and Latin asked a “peasant” about his thoughts. Arsenius is reported to have replied, “‘I have indeed been taught Latin and Greek, but I do not know even the alphabet of this peasant.’“(20)

Living out the spirit of Christ’s baptism can be as easy as taking the time to learn the alphabet of those around us, of having a public relationship with marginalized members of society.

Notes

(1) Shane Clairborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enumu Okoro. Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2010), 102.

(2) Isaiah 42:3 Contemporary English Version.

(3) Isaiah 42:1.

(4) William Barclay. “William Barclay's Daily Study Bible: Luke 2.” n.d., 17 Oct 2019. Study Light. <https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/dsb/luke-2.html>.

(5) William Manson. The Moffatt New Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Luke. Kindle ed. (Seattle: Source Digital Pub., 2018. Originally published in New York by Harper and Brothers Pub., 1930), ebook.

(6) Manson. (2018, originally published 1930), ebook.

(7) William Barclay. The New Testament: A Translation. Vol. 1. (London: Collins, 1968), 123.

(8) Barclay. (1968), 124.

(9) Barclay. (1968), 123.

(10) Daniel Patte, et al., eds. Global Bible Commentary. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2004), 353.

(11) Jim Mitulski. “‘Matthew 3:13-17’ - Gospel Lesson.” Cathedral of Hope. YouTube. 13 January 2014, 26 December 2019. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT_cjZIVYgI>.

(12) Mitulski. (2014). <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT_cjZIVYgI>.

(13) Mark 1:4.

(14) Miguel A. De La Torre. Reading the Bible from the Margins. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2019), 31.

(15) Mitulski. (2014). <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT_cjZIVYgI>.

(16) Mitulski. (2014). <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT_cjZIVYgI>.

(17) De La Torre. (2019), 136.

(18) De La Torre. (2019), 136.

(19) “Arsenius the Great.” Wikipedia. 02 Jan 2020, 05 Jan 2020. <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenius_the_Great>.

(20) Clairborne, Wilson-Hartgrove and Okoro. (2010), 95.

[prorevenge]

High School English Drama Class

This was way back in High School and that was yeaaars ago. I still remember the story because of the emotional scar that came with it. Not too sure if this is petty or pro but I think I had planned it a little for it to fall under petty. This is pretty long so please stay with me! TLDR at the bottom.

I was a nerd but I went to a HS that was made up of 100% nerds too. We all cared about grades. We weren’t into arts but we did have an English drama class that we took with no exceptions. It wasn’t an elective, it was a requirement for some reason.

For our finals, the teacher separated us into 2 groups to present the same play. We didn’t have assignments or anything for the whole year so she wants us to do a big play. Her words were “impress me!” So our final grade will rely on this presentation plus the attendance the whole year.

The teacher assigned a leader and director for both teams. We were going to be in charge of the whole team. My friend and I were assigned as the leader and director of our respective teams. A note that our class had friend groups too. All my friends were in the other team and I just had acquaintances in this group.

All was fine and dant until we’ve cast the leads for our play. We didn’t have a lot of males in class and we had a lot of male parts in the play. Our group unanimously voted for Shitty Lead Actor (SLA) to be the lead actor. He accepted it. Now onto rehearsals.

We scheduled rehearsals after school in one of our classmate’s house. She lives near the school so we set a time, if class lets out at 4:00pm the rehearsal will start at 6:00 pm. They are expected to get food or go home for change of clothes during that 2 hour time slot.

As a group of 15 members, 6:00 pm doesn’t always mean the start of rehearsals. Most people get there on or before 7:00 pm. That was fine, I understand time is tight and all. But one person got in my nerve so bad. Yes, it was SLA. He was never a few minutes late or an hour late, he was just always LATE. He never came in before 8:00 pm. NEVER. Not once.

Now the problem is that he is a lead actor. So he was ALWAYS in the scene. It was super hard to rehearse a scene when he was not there. So what happened is that the first 2 hours was set for just preparing props and my actors memorizing with me. We start actual rehearsal when SLA comes in about 8:00 pm.

He hasn’t even memorized his lines so we spend another hour memorizing lines and practicing blocking. It was super hard to finish everything within the time allowed because we all need to leave at 10:00 pm to go home.

As you can imagine, I was tired and stressed with him. He was just so hard to deal with. I tried talking to him, pleading and even seriously favours if he just took his role properly. He never budged. I had all but cried to him.

SLA is pretty much the “popular guy” in a school full of nerds so almost everyone in my team is friends with him. He started spreading rumours about me and talking behind my back. He said I was a hard ass, that I had a crush on him (gross) and that they should not come in time for the rehearsals because I was just a waste of time. I was devastated when I found out.

The best part was that SLA embarrassed me in class when we had this activity in religion class. The teacher had us write things about our other classmates anonymously and put them in a bowl of either “Good” or “Bad”. I only had “Bad” written about me all pertaining to my being the leader and director of the play.

The theme of the complaint is that I had a problem with SLA being late to rehearsals. Just imagine HS students writing horrible stuff about their classmates, that was it. They wrote that knowing fully well our teacher was going to read it out loud in front of everyone.

I cried in the bathroom with my friends. It was when I formulated the plan to get back at SLA (and a little to everyone else).

Everyone saw how mad I was. What they had forgotten was that as a leader, I was in charge of grading them.

Now onto a little petty revenge!

That day I scheduled a practice for 5:00 pm instead of 6:00 pm. None of them complained.

After class let out, I came to the other group’s rehearsals instead. As they were all my friends, they let me hang out there for the duration of the time I was hiding out from my group mates.

At about 6:00 pm, my teammates were texting me about where I was. I didn’t answer them.

At about 7:00 pm they were calling me, I didn’t answer.

At 8:00 pm, I arrive at the rehearsals. Everyone was present and working on the props. I assumed they would actually go home but they didn’t ditch that day. A surprise.

Most of them apologized for getting out of hand. I said ok but I didn’t tell them I forgave them. SLA never apologized, ofc.

Because I was obviously mad, SLA wasn’t acting up during rehearsals. I have no idea if he knew he pushed too hard or if he was just bidding his time. The rehearsals went well and that was all I cared about. We had so much done with the 2 hours that night than all the other nights combined.

After what happened, I was not friendly with my group mates anymore. I was cordial but cold, they never said anything about what happened again after some of them apologizing.

SLA started to arrive on time for rehearsals, had his lines memorized and never said anything in front of me again. If he said anything behind my back, I have no fucking idea.

So the day of the play came, we finished. My teacher was happy blah blah blah. This didn’t really mean anything to me besides good grades. Our teacher loved me, she would honestly believe anything I said. She gave us a very high grade.

I feel like my group mates forgot what the finals entail because when my teacher announced the next day that although there was a group grade, their leaders would grade them individually. The group grade would amount to 50% and the solo grade amounts to the other 50%. The look of shock and fear on my group mates’ faces was worth all the harsh words they threw at me. Most of all, SLA.

So I raised my hand and asked our teacher, “Is there a guideline for grading or is it all up to the leader?”

My teacher went all, “All up to you, lovenotsweet!”

I graded them mostly fairly, I took points for being an ass but I wasn’t going to take a hit on all of them. I was reserving that for someone. The props were amazing so they all got high 80s, the lighting and sound were decent so they all got low 80s, and the actors. The female lead had a flat 90. She never stood up for me but she never said anything bad either. She was so-so so her grade was just what she deserved for her acting.

SLA got a whopping 40% on my grading. He never helped on the props, he never arrived in time besides those last few rehearsals and in my view, his acting was sub par. I had computed the highest I can give him while making sure his final grade for this class never reached the passing grade of 75%.

SLA’s grades didn’t even reach 70% even with the high grade we got as a team. He tried complaining to me about the grade but I didn’t entertain him. He tried going to the teacher, but our teacher likes me AND heard about what happened in religion class. We had a small school, news travel fast. Teacher told SLA she was only changing the grade if I agreed. I didn’t agree.

It was for finals so SLA failed that class spectacularly. A blemish into an otherwise clean record. He moved on from it for the next few years of HS.

I just smiled and bid my time.

The pro revenge didn’t come until senior year.

During senior year we all applied to this prestigious university for an entrance exam. It was a super important school so all of us nerds built our High School career in hopes of getting into this school.

SLA didn’t get to take the exam with us because of his English Drama class grade. The University doesn’t take anyone with a grade below 80% and I guess he forgot about that when he got that grade from English Drama class years ago? SLA had to write an essay explaining why he deserves a chance to take the exam even though he had one failing grade. He had to pay an extra fee for the processing.

SLA took the next batch of exam. He did pass the exams tho. He just had to start University a semester later than everyone else in our batch.

Do I regret ruining his life plans by a few months? Sometimes but then I remember the words said about me in class just because I don’t like someone being late and slacking off. I then forget regret.

TLDR; Classmate embarrassed me in class because I was a “hardass leader” that cared too much about being on time and actually doing the work. He gets the grade he deserved and feels the result years later.

(source) (story by lovetoobad)

[ascot016-blog]

Facts, what learned, and my advice on Costa Rica

The name of my host country is Costa Rica. It is located in Central America. The countries that borders is Nicaragua in the North and Panama in the Southwest. The bodies of water that borders Costa Rica is the Pacific Costa in the West and the Caribbean Sea in the East. Costa Rica is culturally influence by the Span because they were colonize by them. Therefore, the official language of Costa Rica is Spanish. Majority of the people there speak Spanish, but the native indigenous people have their own language. The indigenous The pre- Colombian languages that are from Indian tribes in Costa Rica. Theses tribes speak Boruca, Bribri, Cabecar, Chibchan, and Maleku. These languages derived from sections of the Central America language and a small percent of the population speak the native language. Also, Nicaraguan and Honduras are close to the Costa Rica culturally because the countries united to gain their independence from William Walker. Costa Rica is culturally close with the Unites States. Costa Rica has been influenced by America. The United States government has put a lot money into Costa Rica in standards and America companies have open up stores in the country. The Capital of Costa Rica is San Jose. The major cities there is San Jose, Limon, San Franciso, and Liberia. San Jose is the capital this where majority the government congregate to for politics. Costa Rica government is a democracy. It is similar to the United States government. The Constitution of Costa Rica was approved in 1949. So the country government is relatively new and only exist for over a little half of a decade. Then in 1950 they establish their currency which is colon. The colon has also exist for over a little of a decade too. But, they established three branches in the government the  executive, legislation, and the judicial branch. They also have a president that the citizens directly voted in office for four year term. The current president that is in office right now is Carlos Andres Alvarado and, he was elected in May 8th 2018. He has two vice presidents one male and one female. Also, the church and government maintain a close relationship with the church in Costa Rica. Even though a survey was taken among the people and 47 percent would rather live a secular state. But, the dominant religion in Costa Rica is the Christianity. Most of the citizens identify with the Roman Catholics, about 70 percent of the people follow behind the church beliefs. About 44 percent of the people that is practicing Catholic and the other 25 percent is non-practicing Catholics. Then, the rest of the people follow behind the Protestant beliefs which is 16 percent. The other 14 percent follow other religions beliefs or have no religions preference.

The social class of Costa Rica. The middle class is group of people that are between the upper and lower class of people that have median skill jobs such as professional and business workers. The middle class makes up 50 percent of the population. The class earns about 45 percent of the country’s income. I did not know that Costa Rica middle class made up the majority of the country’s income. In Costa Rica society the people admire citizens that are hardworking. The lower class makes up 25 percent and they only earn 7 percent of the country’s income. While the upper class makes up 2 percent of the population and they earn 20 percent of the nation’s income. Some of their wealth can be traced back to the first colonists. The distribution of wealth is very unequal with the upper class earning one third percent of the nation’s income while the lower class only earn roughly 10 percent of the country’s income. The class system is open. There is social mobility and everyone shares the value of hard work in Costa Rica. They have a strong belief in “The American Dream” where an individual puts in effort and works hard in school. Therefore, they will succeed in life.

The gender roles in Costa Rica are traditional. This country has a typical gender role the men are supposed to go out and work hard for the family. While the women stay at home and take care of the children. However, the roles are starting to change in country. The women of Costa Rica staring to convert from traditional roles to more modern roles. This started when women’s education was promote in the 20th century. Then, in 2010 Costa Rica had their first women president, Laura Chinchilla. Even though women work in the work force and have government jobs they still have responsible of housewife. Some families can hired a maid to take on the responsibilities of the wife, but economically lower income families cannot afford it. Also, women have made long strives to change their roles, but still have disadvantages. The women of Costa Rica are still fighting to change the role of women in their country.

Costa Rica has many media outlets. The main Costa Rica media for newspapers are the La Gaceta Government Official Newspaper, La Nacion, La Republic, Al Dia, and LA Prensa. These are just a few of the main newspapers in Costa Rica. If you looking for a newspaper that is in English I would recommend The Costa Rica. This newspaper is in English.  Some of the television news are Telenoticias, Noticias Repretel, and the Extra Noticias. When I was in Costa Rica and I tried to watch t.v. the shows look like typical American shows, but they were in Spanish. My roommate and I found a couple of t.v. channels that were in English. The radio stations that I found in Costa Rica were named RadioU and Beatz106. These radio stations were up tempo and Latin America music. I like the beat of the music even though I did not know the lyrics. In the film industry a lot of American made movies are film in Costa Rica. Jurassic Park, Spy Kids 2, and Suicide Squad are major films that were shot in Costa Rica. There are many more films that American made in Costa Rica. I did not know that Costa Rica is a good place to film movies. But the country is so beautiful I can see why people would wanted to shot movies there. Also, most of the America films that are film in Costa Rica are action movies. While I was in the country I saw several America made films that were advised around the city and on billboards. The only difference was that the title of the movie were written in Spanish.

Most of the food in Costa Rica is delicious. The second day I was in Costa Rica I went to restaurant in San Jose. The meal was excellent. They first serve us salad that had tomatoes in it. The dressing they gave us was olive oil and vinegar which interesting. You have to find the perfect balance for yourself. I also added salt to dressing to balance out the taste. The drinks they serve us was called casa. I really enjoy. It had a unique flavor and taste like lime juice. How the restaurant serve the main course was different. The serves brought us the meat that we ask for and then serve us a variety of options with our meal. You could either have vegetables, baked potatoes, and French fries. I know our waiter was probably thinking that my table ate a lot of food because we kept asking for a refill on the options that they gave us. It was a really unique and cool way to eat dinner. I would recommend that a traveler go to a restaurant like that in Costa Rica to get a different experience. One of the deserts that was popular in Costa Rica is plantain. This dessert is fried banana and this is a sweet dessert. I would try it before leaving the country.  But, the main dish that people eat in Costa Rica is rice, black beans and it served with eggs and sour cream this dish is called gallo pinto. At the hotel, I ate the rice and beans that they had out at breakfast. I like it, but I don’t know if I could eat rice and beans every day. In Costa Rica the people eat in the morning with the dish I talked about gallo pinto and then have a big lunch in the late afternoon normally with some type of meat rice and beans. Finally, for dinner they have a light dinner that is easy to digest. The people of Costa Rica typical eat with their family and friends. Also, Costa Ricans have probably eaten all there dinners at dinner since the have 12 hours of dark and light since they are so close the equator. I would strongly recommend taking a trip to Costa Rica. The people there friendly. I would normally greet them by smiling and saying hola. But, the country is beautiful.  Before I took this trip I have never been out of the country. I had an open mind of Costa Rica and, I am happy I did that. I truly enjoy my trip and recommend anyone to explore this beautiful and wonderful country.  

[christianmenatwork]

The End or the Means-Selah32-CMAW108

What You'll Hear:

S

The End from the Means

The Election - is Trump winning this election an end or a means, have you fallen in love with Trump and he's the end, is he a means to the end of his policies that you agree with, but are his policy preferences an end or means, if the "end" we're pursuing is God's Will and the advancement of His Kingdom, are conservative policies perfectly in line with His will?, what is God's will?  We can learn from teachers whether it's your favorite pastor with a TV or Radio Ministry, a teacher of Conservative Ideas like Dennis Prager or Rush Limbaugh.  But are these teachers an end in themselves or a means to the end of us learning truth, and are they best source of learning truth consuming most of our time and energy, or should we prioritizing reading God's word and spending time with Him in prayer as being a better source of the truth than any teacher we listen to,

let's now talk about work - is work an ends or a means?  I believe it's unique in that it's both, it is an end in that God gave us work as His first action after creating man, so that He intends work to be a part of His plan for our existence here on earth, but can also serve as an end to other means including providing for family, loving others, serving God,

being healthy, my target is 160-165, was at 190, made significant changes in diet and exercise and got to target, have since fluctuated and am currently at 175 which is the result of getting sloppy in some areas and making corrections to get back to target, are my behavior changes the end or the means, they are certainly the means, is my weight the end?  No, it's so that I have more energy and my body is healthier since it's not managing extra weight, glorifying God by treating my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and I'm glorifying God,

Another example - we're now in a Messianic Congregation, following the Torah, Christianity has erred by dismissing the Torah, recognizing we're not saved by following the Law and we're saved by grace, but it's still God's will for us to follow the Law, am I following the Law as an ends or means, it's a means, Jesus said "If you love me, keep my commandments" I follow the Law as a way to show God I love Him, I'm learning in a class about Jewish History, after Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Jews were expelled, there was a movement to create a new form of Judaism which rejected "The Way" or what we call "Christianity", and they started treating the Oral Torah as scripture equal to or even above the written Torah, they created the Talmud in two parts, the Mishnah is a commentary on the Torah, the other, Gemara, is a commentary on the Mishnah, or you could say a commentary on the commentary, even during the time of Jesus the Pharisees were treating their traditions of men as equal or above the written law, as I read scripture, I believe that Jesus didn't blast them for following the Law, but because they were treating their man-made rules as scripture, the Oral Torah were boundaries to give more definition to how to keep the Torah, for example the Torah says Honor the Saabath, the Oral Torah specified how to keep the Saabath, this is not bad as long as they are still treated as boundaries not the Law, we shouldn't be going right up to the line and see how close we can get to the Law without breaking it, 

Another illustration of this is in statistics, I've spent most of my career in manufacturing, we've statistically determined 2 levels on either side of a target, control limits and specification limits.  A control limit is a point at which you make a correction, the limit farther out from the target is a specification limit, and when you get beyond that limit it is unacceptable.   For example just for illustrative purposes let's say we need to cook in an oven breakfast cereal at 100deg, we know that if it gets down to 80deg we won't kill bacteria and it could hurt someone so we throw it out, if we go up to 120deg we'll burn it and it will taste horrible.  80 deg and 120 are the specification or spec limits.  Based on past history and some statistic formulas we set guidelines between target and spec limit, for example if get above 100deg or below 90 deg we make an adjustment in the temp of the oven to prevent us from getting out of spec, another statistical rule says even if we don't go outside those control limits but stay too long on either side of the target, for example we have 3 data points above the target then we make a correction, ideal is to be fluctuating on either side of that target, this system was developed because it works and because it's a reflection of how God made the universe, if we apply this to the other examples I've discussed, with health I'm making a significant change when I get over 175 to keep me from getting to an unacceptable weight, just saw documentary about Karen Carpenter and how she died of a heart attack, probably related to how she had gotten to such a low weight and was dealing with anorexia but not addressing it, very sad story, she wasn't making a correction in her life, 

Christian Denominations - I've adjusted my negative opinion about us having so many denominations, my pastor has shown me it's not necessarily a bad thing, they are different ways of applying principles from the Bible, most differences are not salvation issues, they are a means to an end, the problem is when the differences are so far away from our target which is God's truth and God's will, in the same way Rabbinic Judaism has placed the traditions of men above the Law and they have missed Jesus as their Messiah, I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the Holidays practiced in Christianity, I believe History tells us that Christmas and Easter were created by Rome to make the new official religion of Christianity palatable to their Roman Pagan citizens, I believe by basing these holidays on Pagan Holidays they are missing the mark and God did not tell us to do these, I know many of you feel that because your intent is pure then these Holidays are just a means to an end, I respect your opinion on this but respectfully disagree and I encourage you to learn more about the history of these holidays and a good place to start is the Playlist on Pagan Holidays found on the TruthUnedited.com website, we should all be like the Bereans, as described in Acts 17:11 "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so."

Before I finish up, I want to revisit the issue of politics and the election.  I'll just be blunt and say that I believe this election was illegally stolen and Joe Biden is not the legitimate winner of this election.  That's my opinion, it's not proven fact and I don't see how it will be possible to prove it regardless what happens as we move forward with lawsuits, etc. I'm very concerned about the policy changes that will most certainly be coming as a result of Biden/Harris taking office, particularly if they end up taking the Senate as well.  At the same time of all this craziness, I've been noticing a significant increase in opportunities for me to share my testimony and speak into others who are not believers.  Romans 8:12 says "All things work together for good, to those who love God".  If we truly believe that God's will is the end and everything else is a means, we should not assume that a more socialist leaning USA will not in fact be a primary driver toward revival and more people coming to Christ, and if that is the case we should welcome it.  We should also be very careful not to make a savior out of any man including Donald Trump.  As I've discussed in the past, I've been trying to lower my energy invested in politics and I'm using the current situation as an opportunity to accelerate that change in my life. I recently spoke with a man I respect who use to be a political junkie like me but now checks in with the news a couple times a month.  Though that seems impossible for me now, I see the peace in his life and the wisdom from his lips, and say there has to be a connection between his change in focus to the change in his heart.  I want some of that.

  E - James met just got out of jail, age 33, for me it took 3 years to give up on my failed business after I got saved and went back to get a job and stopped running up my debt.  After a series of bad choices, James is now living with his sister and they are helping him get a job in their local area.  It struck me that a job was a natural first step for him to set a new, positive, Godly path for his life.  What a gift God has given us with work and our job and we should praise Him for it everyday.  Please be in prayer for James.

L - ps 37:7-9

A - remind you that my book "Jesus is at Work" is available on Audible.  Still have it as a goal to get it published on Amazon as an ebook or hard copy.  I'll let you know when that happens.

  H

  Email-declare email bankruptcy to get to 0 inbox

Check out this episode!

[berniesrevolution]

In a community center just blocks away from King County's juvenile lockup, Nikkita Oliver stares at a whiteboard marked with the names of teenagers considered for enrollment in Creative Justice, an alternatives-to-incarceration arts education program for youth.

Money is tight, and five of the 23 names on the whiteboard need to go. Aaron Counts, the program's lead engagement artist, puts a yellow mark next to students who might not be able to return. One student came to the program through a friend but isn't currently involved in the court system. Others may just not be the right fit for this particular program.

But Oliver desperately wants to avoid telling students they can't return to the program, which she views as a safe space for youth who aren't afforded the same benefit at home or at school.

"I mean, there are so many referrals," says Counts, by which he means juveniles sent from police to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

"I will sponsor one of them for $40 a week to keep them engaged," Oliver says. There simply isn't enough staff or resources to meet the program's demands. "We need a plan. I don't want to tell them they can't come back. That would be detrimental. I'm down to take on more work."

"Nikkita, you don't have time," Counts says.

"This is more important."

Less than an hour later, Oliver, wearing a Black Panther Party hoodie and hoop earrings, moves to another room of Washington Hall in the Central District, where she's holding her first Friday evening volunteer fair since declaring her candidacy for mayor of Seattle.

Dozens of prospective volunteers file into the second-story room to lend their time to the first candidate for Seattle mayor with a background in slam poetry, pro bono legal work, arts education, amateur boxing, and radical activism. Tables arranged at the room's periphery carry sign-up sheets for canvassers, campus outreach coordinators, and policy advisers. Another table sells multicultural cookbooks for $12 (two for $20).

Beanies and backpacks make a good showing at the fair. So do people of color, marking a stark contrast to gatherings of other Seattle leftist groups like Socialist Alternative or the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. (The former, led by city council member Kshama Sawant, endorsed Oliver this month. The latter has yet to endorse a candidate for mayor.)

Asked why he came out today, 22-year-old Carlos Nieto, a barista, tells The Stranger: "I believe what she says. I believe it because I've seen her in the streets."

Oliver entered the race on March 8 under the banner of the Peoples Party, a new political group that formed in the wake of the November elections. Much of the party's core volunteer group connected during a recent surge of local and national activism: Black Lives Matter, NoDAPL, and movements against a proposed juvenile detention center in the Central District (No New Youth Jail) and a police station near North Seattle College (Block the Bunker).

"We're all homies. We all work together," said Peoples Party member Jerrell Davis, 24, who met Oliver in 2006 when he was a middle schooler enrolled in a South Seattle summer program run by the nonprofit Urban Impact. She had recently moved to Seattle from Indianapolis to pursue a nursing degree at Seattle Pacific University. (Davis and Oliver have become close friends over the years. Together, they've led protests and organized open mics in South Seattle coffee shops.)

As Seattle reeled from the election of Donald Trump, young organizers and activists started to seriously think about running one of their own for office. Their platform would not shy away from intersectionality, an analytical model that recognizes the inexorable links between politics, economics, race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. Oliver, the daughter of a factory worker and a pharmaceutical rep, emerged as an obvious choice for the face of the Peoples Party.

"She represents the change we need to see," says Davis, who took part in the party's formative meetings. "She's black. She identifies as queer. She is a woman. People will see why we all love her." As Oliver puts it: "My life and my identity don't allow me to escape the realities of injustice. I see it all day, every day. Either I can choose to engage in a way that is about solution-building and transforming the system or I can just let it bring me down."

(Continue Reading)

[happyhealthyfitmomma]

“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.

If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching.

“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.

She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.

“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”

No so.

Hitler is welcomed to Austria

“In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent bank loan interest rates.

Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.

“My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.’

“We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.

“Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group – Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.

“Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

“We were overjoyed,” remembers Kitty, “and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and

everyone was fed.

“After the election, German officials were appointed, and, like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

“Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

“Then we lost religious education for kids

“Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school.. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,’ and had physical education.

“Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.”

And then things got worse.

“The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.

“We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.

“My mother was very unhappy,” remembers Kitty. “When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination.

“I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.

“Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time, unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.

“It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

“In 1939, the war started, and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and, if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death.

“Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.

“Soon after this, the draft was implemented.

“It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.

“They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.

“When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.

“Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.

“You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven days a week, under the total care of the government.

“The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

“Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna..

“After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything.

“When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.

“If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.

“As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80 percent of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families.

“All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.

“We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.

“Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands.

“Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.

“We had consumer protection, too

“We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the livestock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

“In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.

“So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.

“I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.

“I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.

“They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.

“As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

“Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law-abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

“No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.

“Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”

“This is my eyewitness account.

“It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.

“America is truly is the greatest country in the world. “Don’t let freedom slip away.

“After America, there is no place to go.”

Kitty Werthmann

[rumpikerzzzworld]

April, You Will Be Remembered

It’s the 1st of May!! I want to post about some unforgettable April 2019 moments because I want to keep the memories that someday I want to remember again. So many things happened in the month. There were some heart-breaking incidents and of course there were some enjoyable moments as well. I’m just gonna highlight the things I want to remember the most. Here they are!!

BLACK HOLE

It is announced that on 10th April 2019 a group of scientist from the international Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) releasing the image of a black hole to public. This project was began in 2006. It took supercomputers, eight telescopes stationed on five continents, hundreds of researchers, and vast amounts of data to accomplish (source: the verge).  

(cr: Event Horizon Telescope)

I was not someone who understands much about space life, even though I studied the basic knowledge when I was in secondary and high school. However, I appreciated a lot this not easy job. I used to have a dream to be an astronomer when I was a kid, but i have to come to realization that I’m not smart enough to pursue the dream, lol. I’m currently into astronauts’ life though. I watch documentaries, read articles and other sources about astronaut’s and space’s life. So that, it made me happy to read this news. Moreover, one of the computer scientists in the team who led the development program to get the first-image of black hole is a woman named Katie Bouman. She is just 29-year-old when she did that. She is amazing!! I always wonder what kind of method those people use when they are studying. I mean, how could they be so smart? I feel like I’m such a useless and stupid human being. I’m nothing huhu. Anyway, I’m happy to witness the history of the first image of black hole.

GAME OF THRONES

FINALLY, WINTER IS COMING. I might not be the fan of the show since day 1. I just started watching game of thrones in 2017. Ever since I watched the first season, I started becoming a fan and addicted to the show then finished all of the 7 seasons in a few weeks. The show is that addictive, it made me threw any dramas/movies for about 6 months because I felt that the show was too well executed and any other movies/dramas in that time period I was watching the show felt bland. I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to belittle other shows. It’s just the thing I felt that moment. I was so mesmerized by the storyline which literally beyond my expectation. It was so good. I know there are a lot of people who don’t like the show, and it’s okay as everyone has their own preference. But to me, this show is so far my very favourite one.

It took me 2 years to wait for the last season which is season 8 to be aired. I cant contain my feelings as I was so excited about this. AAAANNDDDDD IT’S FINALLY HERE. GAME OF THRONES SEASON 8 IS HAPPENING. 14th April 2019 should be put as a history date as the show was aired on that day. Actually, I’m pretty sad that there will be just 6 episodes. I wish they make it to 10, but who am I to complain?

Okay, back to the show. The most talked episode is episode 3, the Battle of Winterfell, which was shown in that very episode. The episode lasts for about 80 minutes long. The thing that has been waited since season 1 was the war between the alive and the dead. There are so much reactions and opinions regarding the episode, fans are splitted into two groups, the one who enjoyed the episode and the one who disliked the episode as it didn’t reach their expectation. I’m the one who included to the first one, I pretty enjoyed the show although I think it wasn’t the greatest battle in Game of Thrones. My favourite battle was Battle of Bastards as it was really tensed. But, I still like the Battle of Winterfell though. As of now, I want to put aside the negativity and just enjoy the rest of episodes. I’m planning on reading the books after the show is over.

One thing that I really like about episode 3 is the hyped from the people who watched together in cafes, restaurants, and other place. Their reactions were priceless. See these videos that went viral on twitter!!

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ELECTION

One of the most tiring to bear ever since social media era existed is election. The countries that pursue democracy usually conduct election to choose their own leader, including my country. In the past, there weren’t much sources to search about election information other than from tv and newspaper, so that the backlash could be reduced. But it’s different now. In this digital age, people can share everything including the positive and negative contents. Social media as one of the tools for people to do campaign and spread either good thing or black-campaign for the election candidates. ISTG, this is so tiring to witness people bashing each other and most of them have crossed the line. I’m so done!

In Indonesia, for 2019’s election, there were some changes compare to the previous election. They were included the period of time of campaign which was so long (about 7 months) and also adding the other 3 elections of legislative to be held in the same very day. It used to be held in different months, but due to the lack of participation in legislative election so that they were all conducted together.

Indonesian Presidential Election Candidates (Left: Jokowi-Amin, Right: Prabowo-Sandi) 

(cr: Media Indonesia)

I was eager for this to end soon. It finally happened on 17th April 2019. But, something bad happened again. The incident which happened in 2014 was re-enacted as both candidates claimed they win. Even though the quick count results from about 12 institutions showed that Jokowi-Amin led the vote by gaining about 54% votes while Prabowo-Sandi gained around 44% votes. I’m so done with this. I will just wait for the official results to be announced and I wish on that day there will be no chaos happen.

Aside of that, something that breaks my heart is there were a lot of election officers died and fell sick due to exhaustion from working way too hard as most of them working until very late night and some even worked until the next morning because there were so many jobs to do, including counting the vote for legislative elections (DPR, DPRD, DPD). Although there were no major incident happened during the election process itself, but still this thing supposed to not happen. There is definitely something wrong with the system and it should be fixed so that there will be no victims anymore.

MOURNING IN SRI LANKA

21st April 2019 is Easter Day. Things supposed to be calm and sacred on that day. But disgusting act ruined it all. Multiple bombing attacks happened in several places in Sri Lanka, including at churches and hotels. Hundred of people died and many people got injured. Some extremists claimed they are responsible for the attacks, SMH. I wish the ones who dead are resting in peace, while the ones who got injured will get well soon and receive some strength to continue life. and for the terrorists, I wish you die in suffer and go to hell!!

I don’t get why in 2019, hatred ideology is still growing fast in this world. Sadly, in some developed-countries which the citizen are more educated, this ideology also exist. People should learn that the differences that make this world beautiful. Why some people feel like they want to hurt each other just because they have differences in term of race, skin colour, religion, countries, ideology, etc. We need to respect each other differences as long as it doesn’t violate the rule of law.

I think there should be a formal lesson in school to teach students to respect the differences. Parents should teach their children right too. Sadly, I found a lot of parents who taught their children to hate people who are different from them. This needs to be stopped. Everyone deserves to get equal treatment. We all want a better future. We cant reach this as long as we still fight each other because of the differences. Just put aside it and look the bigger picture, the same goal we want to pursue. As of now, i’m kinda sceptical if we can reach peace in the near future. However, someday in the future, I wish the world will be a better place to live in. Amen

(cr: wisdom quotes)

AVENGERS ENDGAME

Marvel fans have anticipated the final movie from Avengers United. They are excited as well as sad as the avengers series come to end. Avengers Endgame was screened since 26th April 2019 in my country. There were so much fans who purchased pre-order ticket in a few days prior to the movie screening. It’s kinda cray because the cinemas are full packed with the audiences. Most cinemas even dedicated all of their studios for this movie as the demands are very high then putting aside the other movies. I feel bad for the other movies as they didn’t get time slot for their movies in cinema because of Avengers movie. I wish this wont last long as other movies deserve to get screened as well.

Okay, back to Avengers Endgame movie. Just in March 2019, I watched Captain Marvel movie and in April, I got to watch the last movie of Avengers. I’m actually not a big fan of Superheroes movies, I’m just a casual viewer who enjoyed the movies and i enjoyed watching this one as well. Avengers Endgame runs for 181 minutes, it’s pretty long. I came to bathroom in the middle of movie though, lol.

Overall, I like this movie as I think everything was executed very well. The cinematography, the sound, the edit, the effect are totally top-class work as well as the casts and their act. It really gives everyone goosebumps during the war between Avengers United and Thanos and his soldiers. I couldn’t blink my eye any second because I didn’t want to miss anything. Even though, I felt like I wanted to go to number 1 again in the middle of war scene, but I held it until the movie was over, lol. The movie is worth the hyped though. It’s indeed a masterpiece. I think I’m gonna rewatch it later. But, first I need to watch several marvel movies that I haven’t watched yet so everything will connect and make sense as I still didn’t understand some part. Anyway, thanks marvel for presenting a very well done job!! Goodbye or See you (?) Avengers!!

(cr: marvel)

Bye April 2019. Welcome my month, May!!

xoxo

mels

[lovemesomesurveys]

what is the second to last letter of your first name? ”I.” how bout the last letter of your last name? -- 5th letter of your middle name? -- what time was it 17 minutes ago? 6:09AM. when was the last time you ate your favorite food? I had ramen a few hours ago, which is one of my favorite foods.

what food is that? ^^^ describe the shoes you wore today I haven’t worn any so far and have no plans to. do you drink coffee? I sure do. what song are you currently listening to? I’m not listening to music; I’m listening to an ASMR video. tell me a line from that song -- how long has your favorite animal been your favorite animal? I’ve loved giraffes and dogs since I was a kid. when was the last time you spoke to your mom? Last night before she went to bed. tell me about something interesting you did today It’s only 6:28AM so not much. I dozed off around 230ish and woke up at like 5:45 needing pain medicine and then decided to scroll through Tumblr and do some surveys for a bit in hopes that I’ll be able to fall back asleep soon. do you have a job? where? Nope. what is your pet (if you have one) doing right this second? She’s in the living room so I can’t see her at the moment, but I’m going to assume she’s on her couch asleep. what kind of pet is that? She’s a doggo. what is/was your favorite subject in school? English. do you have an instagram? Yes. if so how many posts do you have? *shrug* I don’t feel like checking. have you ever been to Europe? No, but hopefully someday. if so, what country(ies)? -- what's your favorite number? The number 8. does that number have any particular significance to you? Yes. what did you buy the last time you went to the mall? Christmas gifts. what battery percent is your phone at right now? 59%. can you juggle? Nope. what do you expect to be doing in 3 hours from now? Sleeping, hopefully. have you ever done any acting/theater? I actually took a couple acting classes for electives at community college. I’m still surprised I did that. how is your hair currently styled? It’s up in its usual messy bun. do you have a pinterest? I do. if so are you addicted to it like me? No, but I do like spending some time on it. do you know anyone who lives in Massachusetts? No. what's the last movie you saw in theaters? I saw A Quiet Place 2 a few days ago. It was nice being at the movies again and finally getting my movie theater popcorn I had been craving. did you enjoy it? Yeah. what's your favorite color combination? I love pastel combos. can you speak any foreign languages? if so, which one(s)? I can speak a little Spanish. say something in said language: (and its translation) ”Estoy cansada pero no puedo dormir.” --> “I’m tired, but I can’t sleep.” what are your plans for tomorrow? I don’t have any. have you ever visited the location of your favorite movie? I haven’t visited any movie locations, but I think that’s cool and would love to do that with several locations. ever read The Book Thief? (if not you should, it's really good) Nope. what's been the best part of your summer so far? Nothing so far. I hope to make a few beach trips, though. do you know what boomwhackers are? Uhh, no. how about a vibraslap? Nope. what's the last thing you took a picture of? **starting this at a later time* I think it was a screenshot. what's your computer's wallpaper? Alexander Skarsgard. how about your phone? I have a Grumpy Bear Care Bear theme going on currently. what's the last thing you watched on youtube? I’m currently watching a YouTube video. how many facebook friends do you have? (if you have facebook) 100 and something. do you use vsco? I have the app, but I’ve hardly used it. what kind of phone do you have? An iPhone 12 Pro Max. are you musically inclined? No, unfortunately. if so, in what way(s)? -- do you prefer to type in word or google docs? I used Google Docs throughout university. what color is your water bottle? I don’t have a reusable water bottle. are you smart?? I feel I’m just very average. besides basic human nessecities what's one thing you can't live without?: I’d really like to always have my coffee, ha. what religion are you? Christian. have you ever seen your favorite animal in real life? Yes. tell me about a song that has personal significance to you. The acoustic version of “Everlong” by Foo Fighters. what are your opinions on Hamilton? The play or the person? does your cat purr really loud? (if you have a cat) -- does your cat have major mood swings? -- who do you admire? My mom. last time you went to starbucks, what did you order? A venti peppermint white chocolate mocha. have you ever gotten a really good grade on a test you didn't study for? Not a test, but essays and assignments that I may have BS’ed a little. how about a bad grade when you studied really hard? Yes. what's your favorite book you had to read for school? One of them is A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. how about your favorite book in general? I couldn’t choose just one. ever heard of the musical Honk!? (the ! goes with the title) No. have you ever met your favorite celebrity? No. who is that person? Alexander Skarsgard. how many times have you seen your favorite movie? I have many favorite movies. can you count to 100 in any languages other than English? Spanish. when was the last time you went to the beach? September 2019 aka waaaay too long ago. what's your dream concert? Hmm. what state do you live in? California. have you ever been in a youtube video? Yes. I’ve uploaded some vidoes before a longgg time ago, but those will remain private now forever. I don’t know wth I was thinking lol they’re so lame. A friend and I uploaded a few as well that are just like...why. how about in the newspaper? Yes. on TV? Yes, on my local news. on the radio? To request a song back in the day. do you prefer to call, text, or email people? Text. what's your dream job? I don’t have one. :/ last time you were in a theater/concert hall/auditorium what was it for? I saw The Phantom of the Opera a few years ago with my aunt. do you have pierced ears? Yeah, my earlobes are pierced. what's your favorite grocery store? We do our grocery shopping at Walmart and it works out fine. tell me a line from a song you particularly love I have many favorite songs. do you like elephants? Sure. how about giraffes? I love giraffes. describe the shirt you're wearing? I’m wearing an Adidas dress shirt. It’s quite comfortable. what did you have for lunch? I haven’t had lunch, yet, it’s only 6:57AM. is it sunny outside? Not yet. can you stand on your head? No. what's your favorite restaurant? I don’t have one. would you rather travel to the past or the future? The past. what's the best gift you've ever received? I couldn’t possibly choose. describe your perfect day. A nice, relaxing day at the beach. did you have chicks in your class in elementary school? Yes, I went to co-ed schools. I’m also a “chick.” Or are you referring to baby chickens? That would be odd, but *shrug* maybe that was the norm where you’re from lol. do you doodle in your notebooks? Yeah. what month is your birthday in? July. how many times a day do you brush your teeth? At least once, but I try for twice. when did you last change a lightbulb? I don’t remember. what's the last song you sang? I don’t recall at the moment. do you know anyone who had a baby recently? Someone on my Facebook did. do you avoid the cracks on the sidewalk? Yes. name 3 things in your refridgerator. Creamer, soda, leftover pesto pasta from last night. have you ever won an award? Honor roll awards and club stuff.

last time you had ice cream, what flavor? I had a homemade chocolate banana milkshake last night that was made with vanilla ice cream. what other tabs do you currently have open? Pinterest, Bzoink, YouTube, and Google. what's the 4th song in your iTunes under letter S? *shrug* I haven’t used iTunes since like 2012. the 2nd song under letter M? -- do you prefer to travel by car or plane? Depends how far I’m going. what internet browser do you use? Chrome. what's your favorite kitchen utensil? Forks and spoons are pretty great. how do you feel about ducks? They’re cute. ever ridden a horse? No. can you eat with chopsticks? I haven’t given them much of a try, but when I have I was flimsy and just gave up quite quickly. do you know what imbakwa moyo means? (without looking it up)? No. tell me a line from the song you're currently listening to. I’m not listening to music. have you ever been to a u-pick berry farm? No. are you good at dancing? Nope. would you like to swing on a star? That sounds terrifying. have you ever forgotten to do your homework? I was good on staying on top of that because I worried about that happening. do you like Shakespeare? No. if so, which play is your favorite? -- are there certain words/phrases that trigger songs in your brain? Yeah. would you rather read a book or watch a movie? Depends on my mood. who sent the last text message you received? My dad. don't you hate that rainbow spinning wheel on the computer? It’s quite annoying. how many minutes are in a year? 525, 600 minutes. do you only know that from Seasons of Love? Yep. what's your favorite article of clothing? My oversized grahic tees and leggings. Although, these shirt dresses I recently got are very comfortable and convenient. do you prefer even or odd numbers? I don’t have a preference. ever heard a hammer dulcimer? No. do you enjoy going to the library? I loved going to the library as a kid. I went all the time. when did you last write someone an actual letter? I have no idea. what's the last gift you received? A new pair of Beats wireless earbuds. did you know that strawberries and raspberries are not actually berries? I did know that. I still say they are anyway. are you good at spelling? I think so. can you roll your r's Nope. can you lick your elbow? Nope. do you have a twitter? I do. do you recycle? Yeah, cans and plastic bottles. when's the last time you rode the bus? Like 5 years ago. I used to have to take it sometimes in college. what's the longest vacation you've been on? A week. what's your favorite kind of donut? Glazed and maple.  do you own anything from Vera Bradley? No. when you go in a pool do you jump in or use the ladder? I don’t do either. I can’t swim, so if I’m going to get into the pool I have to be helped into an inner tube. do you have perfect pitch? Uh, no. I have no athletic abilities. what's your mom's name? I don’t know if she wants me sharing that. do you have an uncle called Steve? Nope. do you have multiple friends with the same name? I don’t have any friends. do you play neko atsume? No. I don’t even know what it is. what did you think of The Fault In Our Stars? I liked the book and the movie. did you prefer the book or the movie? ^^^ The movie actually had me really crying, though. do you like yogurt? Nah. do you like riding on carousels? Nah. ever played with a pinwheel? Yes. do you like museums? I do. if so, what type is your favorite? I like historical ones. is your bedroom a mess? It’s a little cluttered at the moment. Things have been hectic and I have all these medical supplles spread out right now. what's your favorite thing to eat at Thanksgiving? Turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, my brother’s homemade baked mac and cheese, rolls, appetizers... ever had a treehouse? No. have you ever seen a kangaroo in real life? No. a year ago today, what were you doing? I could check my Timehop app again and see, but nah. are you procrastinating on something? Not at the moment. do you have a brother? I have two. a sister? No. do you know what a pandereta is? No. are you currently reading a book? I am. what book is it? ”The Girl and the Unlucky 13″ by AJ Rivers. how are you today?? Eh, alright. when's the last time you used a dictionary? I don’t recall. which do you dislike more, doctor or dentist? The dentist. what's the last thing you searched on google? About a movie. do you ever have conversations via text/email with people in the same room? I have. what was your favorite book when you were a little kid? I had many. I’ve always loved to read. ever owned a pet bunny? Nope. how about a goldfish? Yes. what color hair do you have? Naturally, it’s dark brown, but I dye it red. what did you eat for dinner? I haven’t had dinner, yet, but probably just some leftover pesto pasta from last night. what song, if any, is currently stuck in your head? None at the moment. are you right handed or left handed? Right handed. what website did you last visit? (besides this one) Google. what time do you usually go to bed? When the sun is coming up. Sigh. have you seen the movie Miracles From Heaven? No. what is your opinion on muffins? I love muffins. do you remember your locker combination? I don’t have a locker. do you listen to classical music? I haven’t in a long time. ever take buzzfeed quizzes? Yeah. what's your favorite store? Boxlunch and Hot Topic. when's the last time you were onstage? My UC graduation back in 2015. does it snow where you live? No. :( do you like pasta? I loveee pasta. how about chinese food? Yeah. do you prefer to color with markers or colored pencils? Colored pencils for sure. do you usually look good in pictures? Ha, no. I never do. describe the case on your phone It’s a Winnie the Pooh one. what kind of shoes did you wear today? I didn’t. have you seen any plays/musicals recently? No. what's your favorite thing you've been for Halloween? Eh, I don’t really have a favorite. what do you like to eat at the movies? I have to get popcorn. It’s a must. what was your favorite TV show when you were 10? Whatever was on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel basically. do you have neat handwriting? No, my handwriting is shit. what's your favorite quote? I have several. when did you last have a glass of water? Like an hour ago. what's your shoe size? 6 in women’s US. do you wish you were older or younger? Younger. I’d even be fine if I just stayed this age. do you have more than one best friend? No. when did you last brush your teeth? This afternoon. are you wearing socks? Yep. Always. are your nails painted? Nope. I haven’t painted my nails in years. why do people park in a driveway and drive on a parkway? It is what it is. is the glass half empty or half full? Mine is empty. where was the last beach you went to? About 2 hours away. why does the dentist talk to you when they have stuff in your mouth? I never understood that either. when did you last get a haircut? Over a year ago. how many lights are on in the room you're in? Three. do you like wolves? They’re beautiful animals. what are the first 3 digits of your phone number? --- how long is the song you're currently listening to? I’m not listening to music. have you ever bought anything on etsy? Yeah, a lot of things. do you prefer breakfast or dinner? Dinner. have you ever experienced a tornado? No. a hurricane? No. an earthquake? No. do you like sushi? Ew, nooo. are you registered to vote? I am. when did you last eat waffles? A couple days ago. do you wear glasses? Yes. do you like spicy food? I loved spicy food, but I can’t have it anymore. :( do you like your neighbors? I don’t know them. do you play 2048? No. what's your dream college? I already went and graduated from college. have you ever been to Africa? No. have you seen your favorite movie more than 5 times? I have many favorite movies and a lot of them I’ve seen countless times. what did you last post on facebook? I shared some meme thing.

do you use a mouse or a trackpad? Trackpad. what's your favorite word? *shrug*

what voice part are you? Huh?

how is your hair currently styled? In a messy bun. how much caffeine have you had today? Just coffee this morning so far. where do you typically do your grocery shopping? Walmart. do you know anyone who has a birthday soon? One of my cousins. when did you last receive mail? Recently. what was it? Bills, of course. are you sitting on a chair? Yeah. what did you last watch on youtube? An ASMR video. is your bedroom upstairs or downstairs? I live in a single story house. are you wearing any jewelry? No. do you prefer sunrises or sunsets? Both are nice. have you ever seen Wicked? No. (if you have) what's your favorite song from it? -- what's your favorite game on your phone? I like to play murder mystery games sometimes. do you take surveys a lot? I’d say so. do you wear a watch? Nope. what was your biggest accomplishment of the day? Getting out of bed. did you ever have an American Girl doll? Nah. how about webkinz? No. have you ever seen the awesome fountain in the detroit airport? I’ve never been. ever thought you saw someone you know but it turned out to be a stranger? Ha, yeah. what web browser do you use? Chrome. are you wearing shorts? No. what do you wish you could do this summer? Beach vacays. have you ever skipped school? In college sometimes. has a song ever freaked you out cause the volume was up too loud? Yeah, I’ve jumped many times because of that. I’m so jumpy. do you have an ipad? No. is there anyone who you miss even though you don't know them very well? No. what's your favorite time period in history? I find various times in history interesting.  when's the last time you were in a church? It’s been five years since I’ve been in an actual church, but I’ve been attending the live streams to a local church for over a year now. how do you typically watch movies? Certain movies, like the ones I’m really into and excited about or just think looks really good, I like to go see in theaters for the first time. I also watch through some streaming service or on TV. besides money, what would you like a lifetime supply of? My favorite foods. do you like rain? I love it. do you shop at thrift stores? No. look behind you! what's there? My back pillow is right behind me. who did you last talk to outside the family? My doctor.

can you touch your tongue to your nose? No. what/who do you fangirl/boy over? Alexander Skarsgard. where does your dad work? A car repair shop. have you ever caught a fish? No. do you play candy crush? Nope. Never got into those games. flappy bird? No. do you have an ipod? Yeah, but it’s been stored away and unused since 2012. do you celebrate christmas? Yes. I love Christmas. how many songs do you know all the words to? Many. when did you last eat a donut? A few days ago. what's your favorite ride at the fair/amusement park? My favorite amusement park is Disneyland and I enjoy majority of the rides. what are 3 things you want to do before you die? Get my shit together, do something with my life, and travel. have you ever shopped on redbubble? Yes. what is on the walls of your bedroom? Some canvases and framed photos. what brand of toothpaste do you use? Sensodyne. what do you wear to bed? Clothes. do you eat seafood? Nopee. who do you admire? My mom. what color is your computer? Silver. do you do your own laundry? I need help with that, which my mom does. ever broken a bone? yes. what restaurant did you last go to? The last one I physically went to and ate at was Denny’s last year before the pandemic hit. I get takeout regularly, though, from various restaurants and fast food places. what do you spend most of your money on? Food. when did you last see your cousins? It’s been awhile. when's the last time you saw a rainbow? I don’t remember.  when's the last time you were on a boat? Years ago. what time do you usually get up? Between like 9 and 11 lately. do you like fluffy cats? Sure. what's your favorite time of year? Fall, Halloween, winter, and Christmastime. what's the most beautiful song you know? Hmm. what's your favorite stuffed animal? All my many, many giraffes and my two Baby Yoda plushies. what do you put in your ice cream sundae? Strawberry syrup. any plans for the weekend? No. is it sunny outside? No, it’s 11:40PM. have you read the hunger games? Yep, I read the series. can you speak Spanish? Very little. do you like enchiladas? Sure.

[watchmanis216]

Foibles: Of Mice, Men, and Bunny Tracks

“The Heart of man is the greatest imposter and cheat in the world. God Himself states it, ‘the heart is deceitful above all things.’” Matthew Mead, Puritan Preacher 17th century London; Almost Christian Discovered

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The danger of any people is that in their blindness, they see perfectly. It is here between the morbidity of idiocy and the sheer determination of people to elude the truth that wars begin. Of most danger is that the America which was borne and bred out of the bloodshed of those Americans who cherished liberty from the heavy burden of government and the rule of tyrants shall once again be taken captive by the same evil which America broke free from. How shall a people stand if in the sway of political correctness and in the pride of their own souls, they do not see the enemy before them. For say they, I looked and wondered where be the enemy? But as I saw, so saw I that indeed, “We are the enemy”!

“But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation while it is practicing iniquity and extravagance and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world; because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” —John Adams, To the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, 1798

Foibles: Of Mice, Men, and Bunny Tracks

Today in America we have Mice, some Men but not plenty, and as those in Washington and in the liberal press go about looking for enemies, the one they choose is Donald Trump. Along with him as a target is anyone who may have voted for him or have sympathized with him. While Islamic terrorism, open borders, and open immigration are not an enemy to these people, it proves that trying to protect America is viewed as an enemy.  Free elections, democracy, and giving someone a fair shake in the Presidency is also not in the cards for the liberals who funded by Soros and others continue their war.

The Mice are rats, or a better term maybe cockroaches that have gotten into the American system and have chosen to undermine the constitution and the American way of life. The so called Men in the picture are anyone with testosterone and the sexual anatomy that God originally gave them. And The Bunny tracks are those systemic failures of a people to really see what is ahead of them and the real enemy which lay in their future. In short, the recent election of Donald Trump which followed 8 years of the liberal, left leaning, communist and socialist agenda of Barack Obama has shown just how far down the proverbial rabbit hole of destruction we have fallen. For a people in America, we cannot see the truth for the mud of oblivion which is being launched by the left wing media types and the political hacks in DC.

Let me digress for a minute. As I thought on this article, I was sweeping up my sidewalk and driveway. It was one thing I could take care of today. After a horrid winter some time ago which killed off all our trees, we have now laid to rest all of them. The branches, twigs, and remnants still remain to some respect. We have more to cut and the yard is the worse it has looked since we moved here. The lawn was the best in the area, and it was here I did gardening and planting and busied myself with things I enjoyed to do. As I surveyed it, I know with work; it will come back. But as I did clean up this morning; America, DC politics, and the divide in this country is not something that can get fixed. I might add, much less do anything about it!

The forces dividing this nation have taken root and what is more the systemic problem here in this nation is one of God, faith, and repentance. Today we herald multi-culturalism, homosexuality, transgenderism, lesbianism, fornication, murder, and many other things that are the rule of the day. We have cast off Christianity and the one True God. In its place under Obama we have pushed Islam and actually saw an uptick in the attacks on Christians and their businesses who wanted to stand on the principles of their faith.

It is true here that we are a lawless people and really have not one clue as to what is right or wrong. At the beginning of this article I quoted 17th century preacher, Matthew Mead. The likes of this Puritan preacher would have been drawn and quartered if he was preaching in London today like he was back then. The riots from Muslims and Christians alike would be expansive as they battle the heretic Mead and his preaching. The same thing would happen in America if he came here to preach his message.

But as America has fallen headlong into lawlessness and the iniquity which it has embraced, the silence of the major churches, denominations, and Pastors are the loudest of all.  The preaching of the Gospel of Christ, the continuance of the Christian faith in America, and the freedom of practicing our faith are all in jeopardy today. The voices today do not call for repentance.

Instead they herald a cry for blood and vengeance over the election of Donald Trump. I have heard, seen, and read so many who openly called for Trumps assassination that this is truly unreal. Very few of those saying these things are ever taken to task for it. In fact, the thing to do is to threaten and aim such verbal assaults on Donald Trump.

I can hear the dismay of Michael Moore over Trumps election and his administration. Moore calls for his downfall and to put Hillary in his place; his voice which echo’s over the land can be heard and repeated by thousands of liberals who believe he is right.

On the heels of a New York Times story saying members of Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign had multiple interactions with senior Russian intelligence officials, Moore hopped on Facebook and wrote that it’s “what we all suspected. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on: TRUMP COLLUDING WITH THE RUSSIANS TO THROW THE ELECTION TO HIM.” He then suggested that Hillary be put in his place. The Blaze

Moore is nuts, but the problem is; there are many just like him. Just as radical, and just a hateful. He just as soon as see America and her way life return to what he thinks is correct. That means liberal socialism, and not one conservative voice allowed to speak up.

Star Treker, George Takei took to the media to blast Trump as well. He views Trumps order to stop immigration like to the days when the Japanese in America were put into camps. This by far is the biggest stretch of imagination to date.  Today is nothing like World War 2; although George was young at the time and with his parents was put into a camp. But realize at the time the Japanese did bomb Pearl Harbor, Germany had pretty much ran all over Europe and the world by then.

At the time Americans literally feared a Japanese invasion.  You cannot judge history and what happened by just looking back. Even as a child Takei had no sense as to truth, all he saw was injustice.  But the situation is not even close to the same although Takei wishes to stretch the truth. In World War 2, the Japs were the cause of the problems. If anyone is to blame it is the Japanese and not America’s policies at the time. If the Japs had not of attacked, then there would have been no camps.

George Takei has taken out of context what happened in World War 2 and compares it to a limited 3 month immigration/refugee stay in order to see that those coming in are properly vetted.  Even Obama did this during his rule as President.

Takei said Trump signed his travel ban executive order just like President Franklin D. Roosevelt did with the Japanese internment order in the early 1940s, “with a broad brush characterizing one group of people as terrorists.” Trump in late January temporarily banned travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering America — a measure that a federal judge later halted. Trump acted in the name of national security, much as Roosevelt did in 1942 when he authorized the relocation of several thousands of Japanese Americans into internment camps after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Takei said.

The issue here is that Muslims in the world are the terrorists and I can name you where Christian persecution exists and in many cases it is Islamic terrorism and war that causes it.  Although many times it is simply Islam which persecutes Christians, like in Pakistan, Indonesia, Sudan, Yemen, and other places.

At the Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, student Caleb O’Neil recorded a video of a “human sexuality instructor telling a class that Republican President Donald Trump’s election was an act of terrorism”.  The fact that such an idiot of an instructor said this and was allowed to say it to students shows how liberal classrooms in California have gotten. O’Neil literally got suspended for taking the video. In fact, the student cannot get back in school until he meets with the dean of students.

Right now Trump’s White House is besieged with leaks and the Left wing media, democrats, and Trump haters all smell blood. They have successfully taken out Michael Flynn and have eyes on Steve Bannon, and others who work alongside Trump. Then they are determined to take down Trump with a mighty stroke.

The problem is Obama’s hold-overs that are in place.  These people are virulent, anti-capitalist, socialist leaning wackos that have not been ferreted out of the place.  

Obama and his loyalists, it seems, will remain in the center of the political fray, officially and unofficially, in an organized effort to undermine the Trump administration…the leaks are part of a larger, loosely organized effort now underway to preserve Obama’s legacy. This effort involves Obama-era officials still inside the federal government, former Obama staffers working in the private sector, and Obama himself.  Obama had eight years in the White House to secure his legacy. Any efforts on his part to undermine his successor aren’t just an affront to the principles of our democracy; they’re an admission that he and his acolytes never put much stock in democracy to begin with. The Federalist

Today the Foibles of those running DC, the government, the spy agencies, and the left leaning wacko newspapers can be seen everywhere. From specialized anti-Trump hit pieces to jumping on the issues that heralding Trumps possible downfall, the media has it covered. In fact, the worse besides ABC, CBS, NBS, MSNBC, CNN, and others is the MSN network and its own windows 10 app that covers the news. It is a minefield of Anti-Trump coverage and hit pieces. It is so bad I have stopped using it as much. They run and re-run old Anti-Trump news, and add to it.

The voices I have included in this piece are limited. There is enough out there to write several books on. To me, I will go back outside; clean up and make my world where I live a little cleaner and brighter place. I don’t expect America to change, or the churches to speak up, nor will the Pastors to do anything like really preach Holiness or the gospel. But I can change some things around me. But as for Washington DC, the Presidency has changed but Barack Obama, George Soros, and other liberals are in place in close proximity of DC politics. Nothing will change anytime soon and in fact things could get much worse.  Between the socialist types like Soros and Obama and the globalists, America as we know has no chance of being brought back from the dead. America is on life support and much to the chagrin of those watching, we can identify with the danger to our society and way of life.

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Shalom, until next time;

The Watchman Dana G Smith

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16,000 Readers Shared Their Experiences of Being Told to ‘Go Back.’ Here Are Some of Their Stories.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/reader-center/trump-go-back-stories.html

PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ, ABSORB AND SHARE readers responses when they were told to 'GO BACK ' TO where they came from. 😭🙏🏻😭🙏🏼😭🙏🏽😭🙏🏾😭🙏🏿

16,000 Readers Shared Their Experiences of Being Told to ‘Go Back.’ Here Are Some of Their Stories.

By Lara Takenaga and Aidan Gardiner | Published July 19, 2019 | New York Times | Posted July 19, 2019 |

“Go back to where you came from.”

These seven words are seared into the minds of countless Americans — a reminder that they haven’t always been welcome in the country where they were born or naturalized because of their appearance, language or religion.

For many, the pain of past encounters throbbed again after President Trump attacked four Democratic congresswomen of color in a series of tweets this week.

“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” he wrote in one.

When we asked readers if they had been told to “go back,” some 16,000 responses flooded in on our website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Readers recounted the insults they’ve heard as African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans and Jewish Americans. Many recalled first becoming aware of their “otherness” as young children and said that slurs have followed them into adulthood. Their stories span decades, with notable upticks after 9/11 and Mr. Trump’s election. And several readers expressed regret after telling others to “go back.”

We chose 67 of the most representative stories to feature here, lightly edited and condensed. If you’ve been told to “go back,” please share your experience in the comments.

The First Time

I was 12 the first time I heard that. My mom and I were at Costco and it was Christmas Eve. We went there to pick up a ham. By the time we made it to the register, the lines were huge. At some point, a middle-aged white woman tried cutting in line. My mom stopped her, and when she did, the woman said, “Get out of line and go back to Mexico.” When we wouldn’t respond, she got louder and louder.

I had never felt so small or so angry in my life. Even though I’d seen racism on TV and in the movies, that was the first time I ever experienced it in real life.

— Justin Vazquez, Irvine, Calif.

I am American. I was born and raised in Texas. I call this state my home and have never known any other. I am also Muslim and South Asian.

I vividly remember the first time a boy yelled at me to “go home.” I was in middle school and getting used to my first official locker. I had a top locker, which I was excited about, but had not quite mastered it. One afternoon, rushing to change out books between classes, I accidentally dropped one of my textbooks on the foot of a boy whose locker was below mine. I recall turning to him and his friends and saying, “I’m so sorry!”

He stood up — much taller and bigger than I was at 13 — and screamed into my face: “What is wrong with you? GO HOME, YOU DIRTY … ” I won’t repeat his words, but they are seared into my memory.

It was the first time I felt someone’s hatred of me so viscerally. I felt confused, scared, angry and alone. He was the first of many — usually men, usually white, usually angry — who have yelled at me to “go home.”

Now, as a professional adult, it is usually not a slur screamed through an open car window or someone shoving me down a middle school hallway — it is the subtle and not-so-subtle, “Where are you really from?” and, “Are you sure you’re Muslim? You don’t seem like the others,” comments masked as questions.

No matter how many American flags I put on my lawn, how diligently I pursue the American dream that my parents came here for or how hard I try to be the model citizen, it seems I am the perennial “other” — that I have to constantly prove my allegiance to my country and that I am (no really! I am!) American.

— Sakina Rasheed Foster, Dallas

When I was in seventh grade, I commented to some classmates that I didn’t like cheeseburgers. One of them, a white girl, turned to me and said, “You’re not American, go back to Mexico!”

Everyone in the group laughed, and I joined in, trying to disguise my shock.

I’ll never forget that instance, and how “othered” it made me feel. Never mind that I was born in Albuquerque, and am not of Mexican descent.

Up until that moment, I thought my classmates saw me as one of them, an equal. I realized after that day that my Spanish surname and the color of my skin made me an outsider in the eyes of my white classmates.

— Margot Luna, Washington, D.C.

New Tensions After 9/11

I’ve been called a terrorist and Osama bin Laden’s son. I’ve been told to go on my jihad. I’ve been called a member of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. These all came during high school. I was born here, yet others told me I didn’t belong.

I always tried to shrug off the comments. At times, I’d even try to educate the people who called me these names to tell them why it’s incorrect to categorize me as that. I’m a first-generation American and my parents emigrated to the United States from Iran in the 1970s.

— Keian Razipour, Los Angeles

I immigrated to the United States from Panama in 2002 at just 8 years old. My mother enlisted in the Army, so my first experience of America was living and attending school at a military base in North Carolina six months after 9/11.

Faced with hypernationalism, hyperpatriotism and being “othered” by my peers for my language and cultural barriers, I was told to “go back” to my country on an almost daily basis. I was called an “alien,” “beaner” and “wetback,” words that I had no cultural context for.

I wished for nothing more in those first months than to be able to go back home to Panama — but this was my home now. My mother was fighting alongside their fathers. Didn’t that mean we belonged here, too?

— Paola Salas Paredes, Washington, D.C.

I had just started a doctorate program in August 2001. Soon after 9/11, I was talking about the attacks with some of my fellow graduate students. We had a disagreement about what the American response should be. My response was clearly not bellicose enough — my classmates thought we should immediately obliterate the entire Middle East.

These same classmates told me I should “love it or leave it” with respect to the United States. I asked them where I should go — back to Texas (where I grew up)? They said no, where your parents came from. I asked them if I should go back to New York (where my parents were from). They said no, where my “people” are from (three of my four grandparents emigrated from Poland and Russia).

I’d experienced anti-Semitism growing up, but never anything like that. I had never been called un-American, and never been told that this wasn’t my home. I didn’t realize at the time that this was just the beginning, and that this “with us or against us” mentality would metastasize into what we are seeing today.

— Rachel Walker, Keller, Tex.

Growing Up As An Asian-American

The worst experience was when I was a young child, playing on my driveway, and heard several thwacks and felt a cold sticky substance running down the back of my neck. I had been egged, and our house had been hit with vegetables. Someone shouted from a distance, “Go back to China, chink!”

— Kenneth Hung, New York City

I immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines in the early 1970s with my parents, and we became U.S. citizens soon after our arrival. We lived in a very diverse neighborhood in the Near West Side of Chicago right next to the local university’s medical schools.

One unfortunate day, my mother took my 8-year-old brother and 12-year-old me to a neighborhood that was predominantly white. While my brother and I patiently waited in the car for my mom, a group of kids from that neighborhood came up to the car and started throwing stones at the car while yelling, “Go back home, you chinks!”

Thinking this was just a case of mistaken identity, I tried to explain to them that we were not Chinese, but was pelted with rocks. My mother ran out to yell at these kids to stop, and soon a white adult from the neighborhood came running out. Just when I thought sanity would ensue, the white adult, in support of the rock-throwing kids, told my mother to get the hell out of their neighborhood and to go back home.

My mother drove us out of there in tears, as she wiped the tears from my face.

I had never experienced such outward hatred and bigotry before and I was wondering to myself why were they so angry. My innocent 8-year-old brother broke our silent drive home by saying, “Those must’ve been Sox fans!”

My mom and I could only smile through our tears at the wonderful innocence. From that day on, my brother and I became very aware of our ethnic identities and the power of ignorance and hated.

— Gerry Granada, Chicago

My parents used to own a small diner in Santa Monica, Calif., when I was young. A customer didn’t like his order and got the ketchup bottle and sprayed it all over the wall of the store and yelled, “Go back to your country!”

It was the first time I was made to feel like an “other,” through my parent’s experience.

— Brian Kim, Hayward, Calif.

Los Angeles

I’ve been called a terrorist and Osama bin Laden’s son. I’ve been told to go on my jihad. I’ve been called a member of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

—Keian Razipour

As a kid in elementary school, people found out that I’m Vietnamese and would tell me to go back to my communist country because I must be a communist.

Hearing that from students and teachers as an American citizen and as a young child was hurtful and incredibly frustrating because my family had fought in Vietnam against communism. I had family members that never came home from that war — but that didn’t make a difference.

— Hannah Tong, Winona, Minn.

When my younger sister and I were in elementary school, we were told by an older student to “go back to China” after we refused to tell him whether we knew Yao Ming (so, two racist slurs for the price of one!).

We were both born in America to immigrant parents; our father came from Japan, our mother from Taiwan. We had never even been to China. We grew up in a predominantly white suburb of Chicago, and though I knew we were Asian, it had never occurred to me until then that we might be seen as different or strange in the only home we had ever known.

— Natalie Yang, Chicago

The People Who Said ‘Go Back’ — and Regret It

Unfortunately, I do not want to admit this, but I have told people, people who are Americans, to go back to their country (which does not make much sense other than the fact that they look different from the majority) and I feel horrible for it.

While I do regret these actions, I felt emboldened at the time because of the current political climate.

— Richard Nahas, Omaha

Several years ago in Los Angeles, a guy cut me off in a parking lot. That escalated into yelling out of windows and, to my utter shame, I yelled for this Arab-looking man to go back home.

I was ashamed then and more so now and have never repeated this epithet.

But to say this is not who we are as Americans is not entirely true. This is who we are on our worst day. I would give a lot to be able to apologize to this man.

— Matthew Sunderland, Joshua Tree, Calif.

One day while shopping in Home Depot, a lovely dark-skinned man of obvious Asian origin commented to me how very hot he found it in my Florida hometown ever since moving from New York.

Without thinking, I said, “So why don’t you go back to where you came from?” meaning, fully and honestly, to New York, not the country he’d emigrated from.

“I mean, to stay cooler,” I quickly added, seeing the look of insult that swept over him.

Both of us remained silent as he led me to my aisle. For me, I realized every word I utter has impact.

— teZa Lord, St. Augustine, Fla.

African-Americans’ Constant Battle For Equality

I’ve been told to “go back to Africa” repeatedly. At this point, I don’t really feel anything about it because I’m accustomed to people’s ignorance. I’m a black American and my family has been here since the 1600s. I usually just respond with that fact and people get uncomfortable. The funny thing is that one of my nonblack ancestors is actually Robert E. Lee.

— Whitney Lee, Washington, D.C.

Decades later, I still remember how much it hurt.

I was usually the only little black girl in class. I was teased about my nappy hair and my wide nose. My dark skin was called dirty. Many times, I was told to go back to Africa although I’ve never been.

And it wasn’t just mean kids. Even teachers would sometimes ask me where I was from with a look of disdain.

I rarely stood up for myself. I would just shrink inward in unwarranted shame. It wasn’t until the era of black pride that I finally found my voice. I’m black and I’m proud of my African ancestry and look forward to one day going to Africa for the first time!

— Pat St.Claire, Atlanta

I was about 13 when a white classmate overheard me complaining to friends about the Vietnam War. He looked at me and said, “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you go back to Africa?”

I was too shocked to respond. I had never considered Africa to be my homeland. My family has roots in northeastern Louisiana dating back to slavery. To me, my ancestral home was Oak Grove, La.

It wasn’t until much later, after many other such negative interactions, that I understood how, to many whites, African-Americans are not considered to be real Americans, equally deserving of the rights and privileges of citizenship.

— Michael Hornsby, Albany

I was on a summer league basketball team in 1990. We played a game in Squirrel Hill, the same neighborhood as the Tree of Life shooting.

We beat the all-white team with a late flurry of baskets. In the team and their fans: anger. We were called “N-s.” Our lone white player was an “N- lover.” We were “monkeys” and told to go back to Africa.

In 1990 and in western Pennsylvania, we all had experienced racism and disrespect on that level except our white player. He quit the team. Embarrassment? Shame? We don’t know because none of us ever saw him again.

— Allen Malik Easton, Pittsburgh

The Ignorance Fueling Racist Comments

I was in high school and my brothers were in elementary school. We were riding the school bus in the morning to school. Some kid threw a crumpled-up piece of paper and yelled, “Go back to where you came from! You didn’t win in Iraq and you aren’t going to win here!”

What this redneck didn’t know was that we are from India, not Iraq. He had thought that my Sikh brothers and I were Muslim.

— Reetu Height, Nashville

I’m Peruvian-American born in Flushing Hospital, and yes, I’ve been told to go back to “Taliban.”

— Chris La Rosa, Queens

I am a black woman of biracial ancestry. My mother is a white Jewish woman and my father is black. My facial characteristics are racially ambiguous, and I am often misidentified as Latina, specifically Puerto Rican, Dominican or Cuban.

Several months ago, at a gas station in Jacksonville, Fla., an older white man approached me as I pumped gas into my car.

“How many houses did you clean to buy that convertible?!” he yelled.

Startled, scared and angry, I chose to ignore him because, well, it is a “conceal carry” state.

As I attempted to quickly place the nozzle back onto the pump station, he walked closer to me and with venom in his voice said, “You should take your ass back to Mexico!”

— Chevara Orrin, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

My family suffered at the hands of plantation owners in Hawaii and during the internment camps of World War II. Even when our countrymen thought of us as traitors, we fought for them in the 442nd.

My mother, sister and myself have been told numerous times to “go home.” My family has fought, died and worked for a more perfect union for generations. Seeing the president and his apologists share this idiocy is infuriating and hurtful.

— Joel Higa, Chicago

During my first semester in college, my friends and I were walking to dinner when two guys told us to “go back to China.” This was 2015, at a highly selective private school in an urban city, so it was incredibly shocking to hear those words on campus.

I envisioned college as a place where people were past making racist remarks, but it only confirmed to me that society still saw Asians as perpetual foreigners.

To be honest, at the time I was still a green card holder, but I had spent my entire childhood in the U.S. The country that I’m “from” is Canada.

— Stephanie Yuan, Washington, D.C.

Abuse In The Trump Era

I was walking my two boys out of their middle school. In the school’s driveway, as several students and parents were walking out, a minivan pulled out to my side and a middle schooler yelled at me and my boys to go back to my own country. She was driving with her mother and was barely 13 years old.

I was dumbfounded and surprised. There was hate in her and her voice and expression. I did not catch the minivan’s license plate number but did catch a Trump sticker on the back. This was right after Trump got elected.

I felt hurt, as this was the first time I was confronted with racism in my face.

— Yogesh Lund, Austin, Tex.

I am the U.S.-born white parent of a child adopted from Vietnam. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

In early February 2017, just a few weeks after the “Muslim ban” went into effect, someone put a sign on our front lawn. It was a Trump/Pence sign from the 2016 election. The side facing our front door had been papered over with “Ban Them All” written on it.

It was devastating. It took my breath away to see such hatred directed at a child, to know the intent was for my sixth grader to see that message when he opened the door to go to school.

We called our town’s police, but we had to make follow-up calls to try to convince them to classify it as a hate crime. I posted a picture of the sign on a local Facebook page, and this spurred an outpouring of support.

Two days later, our lawn was decorated with dozens of signs saying things like “You belong here” and “We’re glad you’re here.” I believe love will always trump hate, but two years later, my family is still reeling from this hateful act.

— Bonnie Gardner, Vienna, Va.

I had a new employee whom I was instructed to train in 2017 where I was employed in Kansas. He was from the South and I am originally from California.

Upon introductions, he immediately spun around and told me to go back to the country where I came from and get the “HELL” out of America. This was after Trump was elected and he was bragging about being a Trump fan. I never talk politics at work so I let his comments go.

It was very unnerving trying to train someone whose viewpoint was that I was an unwelcome immigrant from California.

— Mayjo LaPlante, Topeka, Kan.

I mentioned to my friend, whom I’ve known for 50 years, that during my recent visit to Australia, how impressed I was with the national health care system in comparison to the dismal state of ours.

I was devastated when she suggested I move to another country since, “You don’t seem happy with this one.” I responded that “I’ve been a proud and patriotic American citizen since I was naturalized at age 10,” that this is “my country as much as it is yours,” that I care deeply it and that critiquing and participating in protests against certain government policies is patriotic.

I reminded her that protests against the Vietnam War helped end it sooner and saved American and Vietnamese lives. She didn’t respond.

We’ve had a deep chasm in our relationship since she voted for Trump, whom I consider a racist and abhorrent individual who lacks character and decency.

I love my friend, but I now suspect she’s a white nationalist. As painful as it may be, I’m considering whether it’s time to address my concerns with her and see where the chips fall.

— Nadia McGeough, McLean, Va.

Reacting And Responding

About five years ago, I was watching the Fourth of July parade in Bristol, R.I., when a woman who was upset because I was unintentionally blocking her view, shouted, “Go back to your country!”

Even though I wasn’t an American citizen, I had lived legally here for more than 15 years, married to an American citizen with an American daughter. I was very upset and felt humiliated, but I said back to her: “Are you a Native American? If not, you should go back, too!”

— Rogeria Christmas, Bristol, R.I.

I was told to go back one beautiful, sunny afternoon in Brooklyn. I turned around to make sure it was indeed what I had thought I heard as I walked past a woman, someone mumbling, “Go back to Egypt.”

When I turned back and looked at the deliverer of the message, she looked at me directly and repeated it. I was in a sassy mood and retorted, “I’m going to take you with me.” She quickly turned around and avoided further conversation, and I smirked my way down that Brooklyn block and laughed it off with my friend who was with me.

— Rokshana Ali, Queens

Changing To Blend In

From my experience here in Tennessee, I have learned that I am no longer allowed to wear my head scarf in public because of constant harassment and physical assault.

I used to work in West Town Mall at a local phone store, and I was harassed and followed to my car multiple times by racist people telling me to go back to my country.

There was even a time I was grocery shopping and was screamed at and chanted at in the middle of Walmart, “RATS GO BACK TO IRAQ.”

It was so hurtful as a child to know people didn’t know me and already hated me. And it has affected my mental health as well.

— Yasmeen Hamed, Knoxville, Tenn.

This happened a couple of years after Sept. 11. I was walking out of the old Barnes & Noble on Austin Street in Forest Hills with my husband, who was carrying our granddaughter on his shoulders. An older white woman, who mistook my husband to be Iranian (he’s Central American and has a beard), started shouting at him to go back to Iran.

She then said our granddaughter should have burned in the towers instead of Americans.

I was blind with rage, but my husband remained calm, as it appeared our granddaughter was unaware of what the woman was saying and that it was directed at the two of them. This woman did not see me, as I was behind them. It took all of my willpower to not make a scene for my granddaughter’s sake.

The next day my husband shaved his beard so as to not appear too “Muslim.” My heart broke that day.

— Adele Chavarria, Brooklyn

When Bystanders Stay Silent

One day, on a crowded subway train in New York City, an older couple wanted to get on the extremely crowded train car that I was in. They asked me (a visibly Muslim woman wearing a hijab) to move over, although there was no room for me to do that. I told them that I couldn’t move, and they responded by pushing me to the side and saying: “In this country, you’re not that important. Go back to where you came from.”

I felt offended about the assumption of where I am from, and totally taken aback by the fact that they felt they had more of a right to take up space than someone else did, no matter where I was from. Although others nearby heard what they said, no one spoke up and I felt incredibly vulnerable.

— Lama Ahmad, Dearborn, Mich.

The day the lockdown broke in Boston after the marathon bombing, I went with a friend who happens to be East Indian to celebrate (and breathe easier) at a bar in Boston.

An older white man who stood behind us was muttering insults somewhat under his breath. Finally, I turned around to face him, to which he replied, “Take your slanty eyes back to your country.”

I am Filipina-American, born in San Diego. My father served in the Navy. Though I grew up in New Orleans, I have no “accent.” Not Southern, not Asian, not even Bostonian. Not that that would matter, but I mention it only to highlight that the only quality that signaled “not from here” to this man was the color of my skin and my facial features.

He would not relent, and out of sheer disbelief and anger at his taunts, I stood up on my bar stool, now the tallest person in the room, and shouted at the top of my lungs (I was a junior varsity cheerleader): “WHAT DID YOU SAY? Say it again! Say it again because everyone in this room is going to hear you now.”

I was shaking and afraid. The room buzz went down, then back up again. No patron intervened the way someone always does when there’s a punch thrown. Soon, the manager of the bar, a white woman, came out and asked me to wait in the back room. The bartender, a black male who had witnessed the incident and knew the man taunting us, came back as well. I explained what happened and she offered to give us a gift certificate or to comp our dinner. I was appalled. I did not want a free meal, nor did I want to be pulled aside for my calling a bigot out.

I left that day, not celebrating freedom after the city’s siege. I left feeling imprisoned in my skin in my home country — a born citizen who will never truly belong.

— Annaliza Nieve, Newbury, Mass.

San Antonio

It doesn’t matter that I’m multigenerational American. It doesn’t matter that I come from a long history of veterans and social activists who have worked to make our nation safer and stronger.

—Eddie Torres

I was born in the States but raised mostly in South Korea until I moved here in the early 2000s. About five years ago, I sat next to an elderly man on a bench in the subway. He immediately recoiled and started complaining about how I shouldn’t be sitting there, though I didn’t realize this at first because I was listening to music.

When I finally realized he was speaking to me (or about me), I immediately felt afraid. I did not want to engage him, so I stood up and began walking away. He yelled to my back: “You don’t even speak English, do you? Go back to your [expletive] country!” It was a pretty busy platform, but everyone averted their eyes and pretended they couldn’t hear anything. No one said a thing.

I waited for my train burning in shame, thinking about all the things I could have said to him. I’ve had quite a few encounters like this over the years and it’s always the same: I’m stunned into silence, and the slow burn of anger lingers for a long time.

— Seine Kim, Brooklyn

Dealing With Slurs At Work

When I was a reporter for the CBS TV affiliate in Fresno, a viewer called asking who was “the spic on the air?”

I said: “You are talking to him. How can I help you?”

Other times, the message was, “Go back to your country.”

— Pablo Espinoza, Elk Grove, Calif.

I am a physician. I worked on a patient in serious condition. In the morning, he was much improved and woke up. The first thing he said when he woke up was that he wanted a white physician and I should go back to my country (expletives excluded).

A Latino patient next to him defended me and told him, “If that doctor went to sleep instead of taking care of you, you would not have woken up today. Be thankful.”

I knew I saved his life and that was important to me, not his prejudice.

— Sridhar Chilimuri, White Plains, N.Y.

One day at summer camp, a bully who pretty much did whatever he wanted at camp was bullying a little girl over her ice cream. She was crying and before I realized the implications of what I was about to do, I yelled out, “Hey, leave her alone.”

He looked at me and said, “Shut up, spic, go back to where you came from.”

This was the first time I was ever called a “spic” and suggested that I did not belong here because I was not American.

I felt isolated, alone and scared because the bully was now moving toward me and I was surrounded by other kids who were his friends, and I was now going to be the recipient of his wrath. Luckily for me, camp counselors saw what was about to transpire and broke up the confrontation.

In my first year as a firefighter, I was the only person of Hispanic heritage in the department. One person asked if I was an affirmative-action hire. Another said, “Why couldn’t a white guy get the job?”

The thought that I had gone through the testing process and passed on my own merit was more than they could comprehend. Then someone said, “Why don’t you go back to where you came from?”

Those same feelings I felt as a 10-year-old boy came rushing back. Again I felt isolated and alone, but the counselors were not there to save me. I looked back at him and said very calmly, “I was born in Stamford, Conn.”

— Rey Rodriguez, Danbury, Conn.

Children of refugees on ‘American-ness’

As the first-generation daughter of Vietnamese refugees, throughout my entire life I have been told to go back to where I came from. Every single time, those words wound me to my core. My parents fought and sacrificed endlessly to scratch out a life of opportunities for my sisters and me.

Just because my eyes are slanted does not mean I am any less deserving of being here. Just because I am a woman of two languages and two cultures does not mean I am any less American. Just because I see the flaws in our government does not mean I am not patriotic.

In fact, all those things make me inherently more American. This country was built on the backs of immigrants, shaped by hundreds of cultures and molded by the voices of dissent for equality.

— Christina Tran, Greenville, S.C.

Growing up in Chicago in the Uptown neighborhood, I’ve been discriminated against since I was 5 years old. My parents were Cambodian refugees who arrived to the U.S. in 1981. I was born four years later.

The one that I remembered clearly was in Uptown. I was helping a friend parallel park her car. I stuck my head out the window to help her when all of a sudden a white man walking by told me to go back to where I came from.

I was stunned but not fazed because this racism wasn’t my first encounter. People always question my American-ness because I’m Cambodian-American and I don’t look white.

— Phirany Lim, San Francisco

When you’re told to ‘speak English’

I was born in Philadelphia to Palestinian immigrant parents. I’ve been told on numerous occasions to go “back to Palestine” (or “back to Pakistan,” an unsurprising error racists seem to make).

Once while shopping and chatting with my mother in Arabic on the phone, I heard a man tell me that “We speak English in America. Like it or leave.” I hung up the phone, turned to him and said, “I beg your pardon?” and watched his shock. He hurried away.

But I didn’t feel victorious. I felt humiliated. As he’d wanted me to.

— Susan B. Muaddi Darraj,Phoenix, Md.

I went to the post office to mail a package. There were many steps going up to the entrance door. I was holding my 4-year-old daughter’s hand. We counted in English on our way up. We mailed the package. On the way back down we counted in Spanish. Suddenly, an older woman said, “This is America; talk to your daughter in English or go back to Mexico.”

I don’t think she realized I spoke English because she was very caught off guard when I replied: “As a U.S. citizen I know that because I live in America, I can speak in any language I please.”

This is just one of five instances since Donald Trump was elected president. In my entire 34 years previously, I’d only ever been told such a thing one time.

It makes me feel like I belong nowhere. I’m a U.S. citizen born to an immigrant parent who later became a naturalized citizen. However, I feel like I will never be American enough because I’ll never be white. Regardless of my accomplishments or strife, I’ll just never be good enough.

— Sandra Benitez, Sunnyside, Wash.

Some years ago, I was in a bar with a friend chatting in Arabic. I went up to get a few more drinks, and some guy thought I had cut in front of him and said, “Don’t you know we have lines in this country?”

I was taken aback and asked, “Excuse me?” He responded, “If you don’t like it, why don’t you go back to your country, and have fun drinking over there.”

As a rule, I don’t ever try to explain my humanity to someone — it’s a degrading experience in and of itself. So I ignored him, got my beers and went back to my table. My best revenge is enjoying my time with my sister at our local bar.

— Randa Tawil, Seattle

[progressiveveteran-blog]

A Liberal Veteran in Trump’s America

I’ve struggled with how to fathom what happened on and after November 8th, 2016.  I watched as an election that was all but guaranteed for what was to be the first female president in American history – albeit a flawed candidate with some shady friends and family – all of a sudden shoot into the small hands of a xenophobic, tax-cheating, employee-cheating, tenant-discriminating, Islamophobic, misogynistic, ill-tempered, ill-mannered, always-privileged, and exceptionally spoiled man whose lifelong actions, both before and during his campaign, stand as anathema to basic human decency.

I continued to struggle as I witnessed the decent Republicans I knew – particularly my family members – excuse Trump’s unconscionable actions while condemning the shortcomings of Hillary Clinton as much more louder and immoral than the sins of Donald J. Trump.  I especially struggled, as a student of political science and communication, when many of my liberal acquaintances continued an “Anyone But Clinton” mantra even after the primary, and used their lay-understandings of politics and elections to school me over why I knew nothing about politics or elections.  In the end, the progressive votes that went to the anything-but-qualified Jill Stein in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan were enough to secure Donald Trump’s historic and unprecedented electoral college victory. 

I am a progressive, but a fairly moderate progressive. I have a conservative Republican upbringing, a college education in political communication and American politics and elections, graduate training in public speaking and logical argument, and wartime service as a member of the U.S. Army. For me, the election of Trump, and the rejection of Clinton by both sides has been a painful injury for too many people who care for equality and justice.  It particularly hurts me at a gutwrenching level.  Why do I hurt so much?  I would not have admitted it while a 20-year old college student, but it is because I truly have always believed that there is such a thing as American exceptionalism. No, I don’t think Americans are more exceptional than Germans, Russians, Koreans, Iranians, or even Antarcticans (sorry, penguins). But I grew up always believing that the U.S.A. was more exceptional than any other nation-state in the world because we offered a way out – a shining city on a hill for others oppressed in their countries by the whims of mad dictators, poverty born from fascistic or communist policies, or restrictions on free speech.  In short, we were a superhero country, there for anyone needing an escape to seek refuge. It is no wonder my pride in America began at age four.

Kindergarten Voter, Elementary Republican, Apathetic Teen

I first caught the bug for politics in Kindergarten, as our class voted in the Bush-Dukakis election of ’88 (I voted for Bush because I didn’t know what a Dukakis was). The bug grew in third grade, where I typically found myself in the Christa McAuliffe Elementary School library in McAllen, TX memorizing every single president, from George Washington up to George H.W. Bush.  I memorized their political parties, and even all the dates of their terms.  As a raised Republican, I abhorred the Democrats, especially the new President Bill Clinton who had the nerve to unseat the first president I ever voted for. I also had a big dislike for the new First Lady who, in the words of my mother, dared to be a horrible woman for only having one child (for somehow it was Hillary’s fault, not Bill’s?).

My passion for elections grew into my middle school years.  Although I was constantly bullied by my peers in both home and church (sometimes by the same people), and as I struggled to find friends and fit in, I still had a sense of pride in my country, particularly when learning about the Civil War and the Alamo.  During the 1996 election, I held my hopes high that Republican Senator Bob Dole would finally get rid of Bill Clinton.  My hopes were dashed, of course.  The bullying continued, the passion for country waned, and before long I saw my life not as one of exceptionalism, but one of constant survival. I attempted suicide three times during these years, out of desperation of a neverending torture that neither my school or parents were willing to help adequately fix.  Once high school began, my priorities of fitting in took precedence over my passion for country.  At times, I would grin seeing things like Bill Clinton’s sex scandal and impeachment, as well as our Democratic Governor Ann Richards finally being defeated – by the son of the first president I ever voted for, no less! (a.k.a Dubya).  When the election of 2000 happened, I harbored small emotions toward my new Governor George W. defeating Vice-President Al Gore. When he did, no thanks to the Supreme Court intervention of the Florida recount, I breathed a sigh of relief – but I was still not as interested as the younger Dan was.

Somewhere in the beginning of college at the University of North Texas, my passion for politics excessively dissipated, replaced by the pain of post-bullying and post-family angst. When I was finally eligible to vote for president for the first time, I instead took the route the majority of my fellow apathetic peers did: I said I wasn’t going to vote because I didn’t like either candidate.  George W. Bush had botched the Iraq War, and John Kerry was a Democrat.  I jumped on board the “flip-flopper bandwagon” in making my excuse for not voting for Kerry because it was easier.  But truth be told: switching party’s is hard, and when it is ingrained in you – anything other than your party brings about a severe sense of betrayal.  I would come to regret this decision years later, once my military service unlocked my sense of pride for my country.

Army Strong and My Political Realignment

I had several reasons for joining the military after college.  The easiest one was economic: I was in debt, unemployed, and going broke fast.  With a BA in Sociology, after 5 ½ years of mostly toiling with mediocre grades and dealing with depression – I had nowhere near the resume or academic excellence to get anything other than a job in sales. But my situation was hardly unique, for I was one of the vast majority of college graduates in the same boat. Many turned to moving back in with their parents.  I couldn’t do that.  

It’s easy to trivialize someone’s angst-ridden child-parent relationship, but mine was a little different.  If my multiple suicide attempts, my 5 ½ years of depression through college, and my losing of my faith was enough of an indicator, I knew that to move back in with my parents would be a death wish.  I could not and would not move back under their roof to live under their rules.  I was still only 23.  At the time, I held deep, traditional beliefs in serving one’s country, and I continued to feel the pride that others felt in the idea of defending the U.S.A. with their life – a feeling likely established in my early days learning about the boys in blue fighting the South to free the slaves.  However, we were at war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, something way different than the Civil War.  I still saw it as my citizen’s duty to join up, though, and I sought out the recruiter, asked to join, and realized later just how big a decision I had made.  I knew that I would likely be in a war zone one day, regardless of my military job as an Army musician.  I called my grandmother on the phone the night I was set to ship out.  She was the only family member I felt I could truly talk to.  She was a snarky grandmother with a disciplined attitude, and an immunity to the ridiculousness that was the Mormon religion her son (my dad) adopted.  Plus, she was a Rust Belt Democrat!  Her comforting words helped me gain the courage to see my military decision out.  I ended up serving 8 years, with a year spent serving in Iraq.  It was during these years when I met my wonderful spouse Ariela, also in the Army, and I found the motivation to resurrect my love of politics and country.

It was also during these years when I voted for the first time – Barack Obama in 2008.  When chided by my parents for it, I searched myself for the reasons why I switched parties, and knew I had made the right decision, particularly since John McCain’s pick for his VP, Sarah Palin, was dangerously unfit to be let anywhere near the Oval Office, let alone White House.  But it wasn’t just this reason – it was because I knew that, contextualized with the hypocrisy of the ideology my parents raised me to believe, that conservative Republicanism was only an ideology that prioritized some Americans over others.  My parents, especially my Korean mother, raised me to believe that I was an American, not a Korean.  I was not taught the Korean language, and I was not raised in Korean custom. However, I was constantly reminded outside of the home just how “un-American” I was.  In 2008, it didn’t matter how my parents or any Republican attempted to rationalize conservative Republicanism.  When the message by the overall Republican base permeated with a Gentleman’s Agreement that non-white males and white males were practically “separate, but equal,” I knew better than to continue participating.  In fact, I chose to make my participation stronger – but for the other side.  I couldn’t very well do that with an Army uniform on, and I saw my military time as a sense of citizen service, not a career.  It was time to move on.

Just a Couple of Veterans Going to School

Ariela and I both finished our active duty obligations to the Army and moved to Iowa to attend the University of Northern Iowa (UNI).  There, I began Round 2 of college, beginning my studies in political communication and public administration.  I loved it!  Not only I gained further understanding of how our American politics work on paper, but also in action.  Additionally, I graduated Summa Cum Laude!

I was also privileged to be in Iowa during the 2012 presidential election season, where I campaigned vigorously both for my state senator and the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Des Moines, as well as helping various progressive causes.  I also gained experience in Iowa politics - two different internships, one fellowship, and a field organizing position in a congressional primary campaign.   It was a privilege to learn how our elections work not only from an academic perspective, but more importantly an in-person, grassroots perspective.

As a student at UNI, I also participated in different progressive student group activities.  However, it was when I formed the first student reproductive rights group at the university where my political action muscles really had to be flexed.  This was a big step on my part, but when I learned that UNI had a pro-life group but no pro-choice group, I made the decision to take action and start the group from scratch.  My fellow members and I coined the name UNI STARR (Students Together for the Advancement of Reproductive Rights).  I’m so touched that, to this day, STARR still exists and is continuing its efforts to educate students about reproductive rights.

Toward the end of my time at UNI, I heard the call of the Master’s degree and I felt I had to answer.  I chose to attend the University of Kansas to finalize my understanding of political communication.  We moved to Lawrence, where I wrote my Master’s thesis on Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper and how language in the film resulted in two highly polarized responses from liberal and conservative audiences.  I also busied myself as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, where I taught four successful semesters of public speaking.  I made sure in my curriculum that I showed my undergraduate students the importance of political participation and how to detect logical fallacies in the arguments we hear from others in our citizenry.  In short, I did everything in my power to help make smarter citizens.

I put my hopeful doctoral studies on pause so Ariela could attend graduate school in New York (The New School of Social Research).  But I admittedly have felt yet again the wane of my field’s importance now that Trump and his brand of communication is seen as “the new normal.” But it was before November 8th, during my interactions with angry liberal and misguided conservatives in the Facebook crucible where I first began to second guess my education goals.  Of course, the challenge for someone like me – someone educated in politics – is the patience (or lack thereof) it takes when the lay public denigrates your expertise because, in our American democracy, everyone’s an “expert.” The toxic stew which we call the 2016 presidential election, however, was my tipping point, and Facebook became the crucible that took hold and imprisoned both my pride for having any political expertise, as well as my optimism for rational discourse.  In short, the 2016 election toxicity made me lose hope in continuing as a scholar in politics and communication.

The Facebook Crucible: Where Reason Goes to Die

The most memorable Facebook disagreements I had were with what I refer to as “ABC voters” (“Anyone But Clinton”).  If I want to explain the toxicity of political rational discourse from my 2016 experience with ABC voters, there are plenty of examples to choose from.  For purposes of shortening it down, I’ll pick the most memorable two ABC voters: 1) Melvin - a French Horn player in the Army Band who knows more about me than elections, logical fallacies, and morality; and 2) Brendon - my brother-in-law, a Mormon from Utah who also knows more about logical fallacies and morality than me because he doesn’t get his news from the liberal media. 

Melvin is a radical, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  He purportedly cares for all humans, regardless of nationality – a “radical” view I feel we should all have but sadly don’t.  But when it came to 2016 presidential politics, Melvin was/is a single-issue voter.  For someone like me, this seems so stupid, as the presidency is never about a single issue.  However, too many voters rely on a single issue in finally making their decision.  In the case of the 2016 election, however, Melvin’s single issue wasn’t abortion, or the environment, or national security, or the economy, or even foreign relations.  It was Hillary Clinton.

Melvin first Facebook-challenged me when I had posted a status update about the toxicity of the “Bernie Bros” telling women they didn’t know what was good for them when they supported Hillary Clinton.  During the Primary season, Melvin’s key argument was that Clinton was a corrupt monster with lifelong ties of regime change in other countries, something he absolutely abhorred. His intentions behind his argument reeked of utopianism - the unrealistic values of a dreamer who thinks morality shouldn’t be a complicated issue.  In this case, the complicated issue is deciding international policy within the paradigm of the security dilemma (whatever decision we make needs to keep us safe, while balancing relations with others and bluffing adversaries at times).  His view is that it shouldn’t be complicated to value all human life, but this gives such short shrift to the reality of the international security dilemma.  He didn’t understand the complicated nature of such an issue to make a fully-informed viewpoint on the matter, but he disguised this non-understanding with absolute confidence and “know-it-all” condescension.  For Hillary, whatever her husband Bill did that harmed civilian lives in other countries, as well as what she may have advocated for as Secretary of State, was enough for Melvin to put his hopes in Bernie Sanders - who knew nothing about foreign policy or hard decisions, and later Jill Stein - who simply knew nothing.

Melvin’s primary argumentation device against me was the use of what I call the Fallacy Card.  This is where you use the definitions of specific fallacies to conveniently fit your opponent’s argument within that definition in order to make it seem invalid.  In other words, he molded anything I said into the Wikipedia definition of a flawed argument - and boy did he keep at it.  His Fallacy Card playing reeked of the common Strawman fallacy where you unfairly compare two sides in order to strengthen the side you’re on.  In his case, he used it to accuse others of making Straw fallacies – the fallacy of crying fallacy!  Every time I made an argument, I could predict the steps of his Fallacy Card response: 1) cry fallacy; 2) post a Wikipedia definition of the fallacy I committed; 3) victory.  For example, I argued that he was throwing his vote away in a regressive display of ignorance by voting Jill Stein.  His fallacy card: I committed the False Dichotomy fallacy (where you falsely claim there are only two solutions to a problem when there are actually more options).  In this case, he accused me of saying there are only two options for president when Gary Johnson and Jill Stein were clearly in existence, and then posts the definition of False Dichotomy from Wikipedia while claiming the high ground of argumentative superiority. Of course, I didn’t commit such a fallacy because the reality of PROBABILITY was on my argument’s side.  In other words, the amount of support (and qualifications) for both Gary Johnson and Jill Stein was infinitesimally impossible to realistically succeed, making any progressive vote that went to Stein simply a futile effort to deny the realistic progressive candidate (and progressivism across America) a victory through indirectly and regressively electing Trump and conservatism.  Of course, Melvin refused to accept this, telling me I had no perception of reality.  Quite the easy response to anything, of course.

My fear from these stupendously baffling exchanges with Melvin was that it his sheer ignorance represented a sizable number of progressive voters.  If this were true, it truly did give relevance to the old saying that “Progressives Fall In Love, Conservatives Fall In Line.”  My hopes for rational discourse and the success of progressivism dissipated further.  

It took me a short while, after closing my Facebook account, to reflect on the matter.  After much thought - too much thought - I’ve gained a little of my optimism back.  For starters, I had to reason with myself that just because Melvin was truly representative of the toxic ABC voter that seems to define our negative worldview of rational voters DOESN’T mean he is representative of a majority of progressive voters.  In fact, he’s NOT a progressive voter.  Witnessing firsthand the power behind people coming out of the woodworks to do as much as possible to fight Trump’s America, I realized that Melvin only represents a “couch activist”; in his case, a Facebook troller and political ranter that wears an Army uniform (something he has admitted he knows he is NOT allowed to do).  But when a guy says he’s unwilling to give up his comfortable military paycheck for playing military music, and when a guy uses his family as his reason for giving participating only at the bare minimum (while others with families proudly do WAY more), I know he’s truly not a progressive.  In short, a Green Party couch activist should be given the amount of respect we give conservative Republicans by not pursuing their vote.  Progressives shouldn’t be factoring these kinds of voters in our progressive coalition.  We need to move on - we need to find fighters.

Unlike the radical non-progressive that is Melvin, my brother-in-law Brendon is a different take.  As a Mormon from Utah, he is – you guessed it – a conservative Republican.  My frustration with him started when I read his Facebook post prior to Election Week: he and my sister Christina would be voting for Trump.  Before I continue, some context is required.

I’m the eldest of five children, and the only one who has publicly and officially resigned from the Mormon church (and apparently conservative Republicanism).  Christina, the youngest of the five, was always a pragmatic and down-to-earth dude-ette.  However, she had her own crisis of conscience her first semester in college at BYU (Mormon University).  She called me on the night I was set to deploy to Iraq, pleading for help.  She said she felt absolutely alone, trapped in a Mormon college where the average freshman girl had a ring on her finger and a baby on the way.  Worse, all of Christina’s real friends from high school were at the University of Texas in Austin (UT).

Knowing full well that my dad had a deeply-held prejudice against UT that came from witnessing a group of drunken football fans acting drunk (in his view, they were EXCEPTIONALLY drunk and, hence, UT was exceptionally wicked), it disturbed me that Christina’s dreams were being held hostage my parents’ ultimatum that if she dropped out of BYU and went to UT that she’d be cut off financially.  My parents were not only using their inexplicable animus toward UT in this ultimatum – but they were also trying to prevent what they likely saw as their youngest child following in the footsteps of their eldest – the path to apostasy (cue chilling wind-blowing sounds).  Christina had every right to feel scared and helpless.  My help in our phone conversation was limited given my predicament (packing for deployment to Iraq).  However, every time I think about that conversation, the memory haunts me, especially given what happened afterward.  Christina ended up capitulating to my parents' ultimatum and staying at BYU.  There, she met Brendon and rededicated herself to Mormonism.  At her wedding reception, I had to listen to Brendon brag about Christina’s UT crisis.  While he reminisced on her “close call,” and all the good little Mormons laughed along - including Christina, I had to bite my lip and look at the floor.  End of context.

One week to election day, I read Christina’s regurgitated arguments about Hillary Clinton being the next Richard Nixon. She exuded a “husband knows best” attitude that Brendon arguably inspired.  When I challenged her, she shied away by saying that checks and balances will probably save the day, and Congress will prevent Trump from running amuck with the Oval Office.  She and Brendon also accused me of being a product of the liberal media, an accusation another of my sisters (who also attended BYU) threw my way once upon a time - in particular CNN.  For the record, I never watch CNN because it’s for-profit priorities and media sensationalism are downright horrible.  But what is it that BYU students have against CNN?  Do all professors warn the Mormon college kids that CNN is the Devil?  It's just freakin’ weird!

Brendon deployed his own Fallacy Card at me - and it was a doozy.  In this case, he accused me of using Donald Trump as a distraction from the real problem – Hillary Clinton.  In other words, a Red Herring fallacy: he thought that my “Trump-is-the-Real-Problem” argument was really a decoy from the TRUE menace that was Hillary.  Of course, this really revealed more about Brendon and Christina than it did my alleged lack of reason and fallacious argumentation.  Why?  When Donald Trump brags about sexual assault, cheating employees out of pay, or how he takes advantage of our tax system for his own businesses, Brendon gives it a pass and calls it explainable - but this is because it is palatable given their morals (if you could call it moral) and values: capitalism, deservedness through zero-sum competition, patriarchy, and a societal disciplinarianism.  What is not palatable is when Hillary’s husband makes backdoor deals for pardons, or when her campaign manager’s emails show how he dares to strategize political communication, or when the DNC leaders are revealed to be trying to sway the election in Hillary’s direction.  Regardless, Hillary Rodham Clinton is GUILTY to Brendon and Christina (guilty by association), and hence UNFORGIVEN and UNVOTABLE.  In the meantime,  Donald Trump will not be mentioned (and if I mention him, I’m obviously partisan and distracting from the real problem?)

That very night, I tossed and turned in bed, wondering how it was possible that Christina, my down-to-earth sister, could mentally inoculate all of Trump’s transgressions and corruption in order to justify her’s and Brendon’s anti-Hillary position.  I had to accept the fact that she was no longer down-to-Earth, but down-to-whatever-Mormon-planet-she-hopes-to-live-on-in-the-afterlife-with-Brendon (this is a real Mormon thing, by the way). I also had to tell myself that her continual arguments that everything would be okay because Congress would stop Trump were only her justifications in the moment to vote for him.  As we’ve seen in Trump’s first two weeks, Congress can do nothing about executive orders, while we the People wait nervously, worried just what new executive order Trump has up his sleeve.  Today - while Trump continues using his immense power that Congress is powerless to check, I read that his firing of Sally Yates as acting Attorney General is resurrecting comparisons to Richard Nixon.  Of course, I will not throw this in Christina and Brendon's faces, because it would be an exercise of futility.  Like Melvin, they are unreachable - at least when through the Facebook crucible.

In short, I seem to have thought that Christina was within the realm of reasonable voters.  However, she is clearly not when her own values and priorities highlight Clintonian corruption while excusing - or filtering out completely - Trumpian corruption that, on paper, has been proven as WAY more numerous and problematic.  But the other side values Trumpian corruption as a moral necessity, and Christina has chosen this side.  In essence, I have to remind myself that our fight for American decency is against those who align with the opposite.  I cannot anymore worry about this other side, but instead about knowing who is on our side and how we can mobilize them to join the fight for decency.

The Burial of Decency, and It’s Hopeful Resurrection

We are now at a crossroads in American History, as now-President Trump has issued an unprecedented amount of extreme executive orders within just the first week, let alone first day, of his presidency – all of which victimize incredibly large numbers of people: women around the world who rely on abortion-supporting non-governmental organizations; refugees fighting for survival from their war-torn countries; millions of Americans now with affordable healthcare poised to lose it due to ideological preferences for free-market priorities.  We now have nepotism in the White House with Trump’s son-in-law serving as an advisor. We now have proven anti-semitism in the White House and National Security meetings with Breitbart extremist Steve Bannon, Trump’s most trusted advisor.  We also have a President who has faked the divesting of his office from his businesses, now proven with documentary evidence that he is still making money and, hence, using the Office of the Presidency as a personal profit mechanism.

What hurts me and many progressives even more is that the entire legitimacy of the United States of America as the beacon of hope for millions of people in the world, the exceptionalism I grew up to view in America, has now been lost.  It has now been recast as the kingdom of a spoiled madman tarnishing its image of legitimacy on a daily and even hourly basis with the most petty and childish Tweets and public displays of unmeasured, unpresidential language, let alone corrupt actions meant to bolster his brand and his profits.  Our legacy as a country that led the way for the world with its steady leadership now shares commonalities with countries that have fallen in stature due to the whims and actions of mad dictators carrying a big gun in one hand and a solid gold rattle in the other.  And our voters chose this.  Our families chose this.  My family chose this.  They had the information, and yet chose Trump.  It really happened.

Liberals chose this as well.  The flawed action/inaction of ABC voters and single-issue curator voters of the liberal wing have wasted OUR (not their) efforts for progress toward the quixotic Jill Stein and have allowed for the Republican Party and their anointed Demagogue-in-Chief to take over.  On November 9th, plenty of these “voters” chided their scared friends that everything was going to be okay.  Today, they are now eating crow.  Of course, it was obvious to me why Jill Stein launched an even more quixotic campaign than her presidency in her failed recount of the three states where her margins of the vote, if they had gone to Hillary, would have prevented a President Trump.  But now he’s our president, and those who say “Not My President,” really mean “he IS my president, and it’s a travesty.”  This new president has already single-handedly undone all President Obama’s efforts to repair our reputation on the international stage, recasting it now as an America of an unapologetic authoritarian bent on absolute power and greed disguised as “America First.”  The word “presidential” is now a substitute for weakness, decency is something that can be politicized, and lies in the name of Trump are “alternative facts.”

Instead of social media obsessions and distractions, I have proudly marched in the Women’s March, I pay dues and volunteer for local progressive causes in my area, and I spend 8 hours a day working for Planned Parenthood.  Although I have been fighting tooth and nail for progressive causes here in New York – doing my part when I feel my country needs it more than ever – my internal fight over what to do with my ties to my now Trump-allied family members has been exceedingly tough. Friends and families are always naturally divided every election season. But this election season and its outcome is not politics-as-usual. Given the circumstances, how does one interact with friends and family when they participated to help make America totalitarian while dismissing the very existence of others different from them as spilled milk?  I’m reminded of the many who fled Germany in the wake of the Nazi takeover.  The story of the old movie director Douglas Sirk is the first to come to mind.

While a German national, Douglas Sirk painfully watched his country adopt Nazi totalitarianism.  His ex-wife and son swallowed the Nazi Kool-Aid to make Germany great again.  Sirk had a choice in remaining loyal to his family and his country, or turning his back, knowing full well what the outcome of such political direction would be.   He turned his back.  He was faced with the difficult decision of doing the right thing, when family loyalty happened to be on the opposite end.  Sirk never saw his son again – the boy was killed in action wearing a Nazi uniform in 1944.

History and reason tell us that the direction of Trump’s executive action and totalitarianism only goes one way.  Things are going to become worse.  It is now where I ask myself if it’s possible that Americans may have to turn their backs on their families and home country.  I wish I could ask Douglas Sirk how it felt.  However, unlike Sirk, my ties to my parents have already been more troubled than the average person.  Their allegiance to Trump was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  If I’m going to continue my fight to undo the terror diminishing our country like other countries have experienced, I have no room for those that vote for madmen while claiming the moral high ground - family or not.  I have nothing more to say to them, so nothing will be said.  As for siblings – the same goes for them. In the wake of the Trump election and the outbreak of hate crimes against minorities in the name of Trump, Brendon tried to convince me it WASN’T really happening, and that liberal-on-Trump supporter violence was the REAL problem.  Needless to say, I have nothing more to say to such a person.  When our family members ally with the inexplicable and participate in dehumanizing human beings, the responsibility is not to tolerate them but to quit them.

I embrace the irony that I am not the young boy my parents raised to hate the Clintons.  Instead, I embrace having voted for president the very woman I attacked in the 4th grade for having only one child.  I embrace the fact that although I once shared my parents dislike for our Texas Gov. Ann Richards and her liberal politics, I now sit rooms away from her daughter Cecile as we continue fighting to defend a woman’s right to proper healthcare.  As a former Republican, Veteran, and now progressive crusader for what’s right, I will continue to fight as long as I breathe.  While the Melvins of the world (not the Seattle kind, haha) continue their political action through Facebook trolling and quixotic votes meant to aggrandize the size of their morality, and the Brendons continue wearing their “See-No-Liberal-Media” blindfolds and “Hear-No-Liberal-Media” earplugs, I can only look away from such foolishness and focus on what can be achieved, rational discourse with those truly open to such an idea.  I should not give up on my pursuit of reason in politics simply b/c those with imaginary expertise delegitimize my field with a Facebook post or tweet. The work must continue!  And if the time comes where the fight is lost, the experiences of the very Syrian refugees whom our new president has now victimized on a massive scale will be felt by all Americans. The time to leave America and turn our backs on friends and family may become a tragic possibility, one I hope never becomes a reality.

In the meantime, I fight to prevent such a reality.

[noblelake-blog]

Trump and the people

The fireworks started around midnight on the west coast, they were probably the most depressing fireworks I’ve ever listened to in my life. I hadn’t seen any Trump signs around the ‘hood but it wasn’t too shocking. This stretch of deep Southeast Portland backing up to Powell Butte is in the old school white working class vein of town, though it’s had a thrush of new blood in the last decade, as the few remaining communities of color have been pushed out this way. I sat at my kitchen table feeling like a bad acid trip was coming on. I was about to turn 40, and my 20 year old self would probably have been surprised that something like this had taken so long. I remember sitting around with a bunch of degenerate punk clowns in Austin watching the returns the night Bush “won” in 2000, and feeling the same kind of despair while my girlfriend and I consoled each other in ‘04. But beyond that, it had felt for a long time that a country rapidly overrun by oligarchs was gonna run itself off the cliff sooner or later. Now that it’s done, I feel utterly alone and terrified a lot of the time. I don’t know if that’s a valid reaction or not. It is certainly one of fear, and that fear is by no means ungrounded. I write this not so much the 20 year old anarchist who went to anti-globalization protests but a self-employed carpenter father and partner of a teacher. Working people, raising our child with the same working class values our parents instilled in us: do your best, and take care of each other.

  I had to think of the time, 8 years before, when I rode my bike drunk on a warm November night in Brooklyn, fist pumping anyone I saw on Myrtle Ave and yelling “Obama!” on my way to a victory celebration with a bunch of friends. The restaurant was run by a lesbian couple, it was a diverse crowd, and the sense of elation I felt that night was potent. I’ll never forget the way I felt when the president elect verbally reached out to queer community, it seemed so strange to hear that from the man who would be president, the first black president, so improbable and unstoppable at once. And it was stranger still because I hadn’t even voted for him. I had voted in the first presidential election of my lifetime in ‘04, although I was old enough to have voted in the two previous ones, solely out of sheer terror at the prospect of another Bush term. When Obama came onto the scene, I liked him, but perhaps it was the way in which so many of my friends had become involved in elevating him to such a high stature that they weren’t able to see that much of his politics were firmly rooted in neoliberalism and, even if he were able to embrace his more progressive tendencies, he would certainly be hamstrung by the political establishment, more so because he is black. I did not vote for him or anyone in that election, but I was three sheets to the wind a fair amount in those days, and I couldn’t remember if I had updated my registration since I moved to New York. It was the last presidential election I would ditch, I voted happily for Obama in 2012, even though by then the dream was dead and the Tea Party racists were half unhinged over a black man trying to tell them what to do with their health insurance. I voted for him partly because I felt a little ashamed of not voting for him in ‘08, and partly because I hate stiff rich white guys like Mitt Romney as much as most Americans.

  But Donald Trump is no Mitt Romney. The now famous picture of the two of them dining together may speak to their shared cartoonish robber baron natures, but the similarities end there. Mitt Romney is the stuffed shirt blue blood with the weird religion, Donald Trump is the macho TV star whose antagonism has been saturating the market of our daily lives for two generations now, his kind of sales pitch is safe as milk to a lot of us. The picture of the two of them is terrifying, his dominance of Romney broadcast so viciously.

It’s no coincidence that he came out of the same 80’s culture that made guys like Vince McMahon rich and famous, his antics are right out of the WWE playbook. Trump is the classic heel, in wrestling terms the villain you love to hate, the guy who doesn’t mind fighting dirty to get the job done. In the working class neighborhood in Baltimore I grew up in, more kids idolized Rowdy Roddy Piper, the heel, than Hulk Hogan. To draw further comparisons between Trump and the Hot Rod would do a disservice to the memory of the latter, but Trump is indeed cunning in his abilities. His racism is well documented going back to the 80’s, as is his treatment of women and outright powerlust, but it was not within his grasp to become a politician, for that he would have to wait until 8 years of living under a black president had created such an apocalyptic mindset in the voters of white America that he was able to seize his opportunity. And he held fast.

  Count me among those who believed that his candidacy would fizzle after the initial blast of profane assaults, but once his momentum gathered I felt like we were in for it. I was canvassing neighborhoods for Bernie Sanders but I knew he was never going to be given a serious look by the Democratic establishment. White folks in our neighborhood who were for Trump would give lip service to Bernie, and that kind of sentiment fueled the idea that he might be the only one who could beat him. We’ll never know how that would have turned out, unfortunately. But one thing that’s clear is that the Trump phenomenon is a vindication of the power modern media domination, and, to put a finer point to it, mind control. The Apprentice gave rise to its titular character’s aura of invincibility. Here we have the lavish billionaire, the picture of wealth and power, thronged by beautiful elites and backed by ominous music, dangling the sword over outstretched necks of would be sycophants, buoyed by the immense drama of those two famous words…..

  And in the end that’s all it took. The rich and middle class Republicans by and large fell behind him like we all knew they would, but much ink has been spilled in these last months about the rest of his voting block, those poor racist white people, and how could they be so stupid to vote for someone who so obviously doesn’t give a shit about them? Did they feel wounded and left behind by 8 years of a “reverse” racist-in-chief, or were they simply sick to death of the status quo and willing to vote for the flamboyant playboy because he at least doesn’t seem like such a phony? I suspect it’s more than a little of both, and more than a lot of decades of misinformation and subterfuge clouding the waters for working people of all colors, leaving the talk shows and comment threads with nothing but vitriol and bad analysis. Given the alternative of a candidate like Sanders, would people see that his brand of populism gave some beef to the airy promises Trump made to bring back manufacturing, or would people just see him as a far out Jewish commie? If Hillary Clinton had not been Hillary Clinton and instead been a woman more in the mold of Elizabeth Warren, would poor white folks have given her more of a shot, or is the horrid sexism she endured a true barometer the attitudes towards women among the working class?

  And then there is the whole issue of the term itself. Working class. Working poor. White working class. Blue collar. While there are fairly clear indicators of where we all fall on this ladder based on income, the past few generations have indeed muddied the usage of the term in a variety of ways. One’s upbringing and exposure to media and education may preclude them to a different outlook than those they share an income bracket with. As a child of college educated socialists I certainly viewed politics through a different lens than an old carpenter I once worked with, who thought that global warming was a hoax to sell more textbooks and hated Hillary Clinton not on the basis of her corporate, imperialist worldview but because she had the gall to be an assertive first lady instead of “knowing her place”. And there are certainly those who argue that the working class doesn’t even really exist any more; in the same way that people talk about the vanishing middle class, the attacks on unions have all but eviscerated the ability of working people to organize for their mutual benefit, to the point where working poor is perhaps the only appropriate term.

  I am working poor. I live paycheck to paycheck and I was raised by a single mother who lived that way too. Under President Obama, I had health insurance, medicaid for sure but it was enough to get me to the dentist every once in awhile. I also had hope. Not hope in the utopian sense that was broadcast large back in 2008 but hope in a more cautious, realist sense. I have long understood that I was born into the later stages of a cancer. We are abusing the earth at an alarming rate, and the world cannot hold up under the excesses of capitalism for very much longer. I do believe that, for all of his drone strikes and fracking advances, President Obama understood this too. I felt some measure of comfort in the thought that at least he could pilot the sinking ship of neoliberalism with some care and perhaps mercy. For the next four years, I will abandon that hope as he hands the wheel over to a narcissist lunatic. But I will most certainly not give up.

    This Friday they will be installing the madman at the White House, and the following day, thousands will march on Washington to demand that their voices be heard above clamour of those who would normalize the denigration of women, the dehumanization of immigrants, and the destruction of resources for poor people the world over. In the coming years some of us may have to make difficult choices about putting our own privilege on the line to help stem the tide of abuse that will undoubtedly fall hardest upon our more vulnerable brothers and sisters. I was raised to think these kinds of actions can not only make a difference, but can be what makes us human. I can only hope that I will be able to find the courage and determination to see that through.

-JS

[kristinwaterbury]

8 years. in 8 years, i was a newly-minted college kid graduated college married my husband began working in the non-profit industry. a lot has happened in 8 years. when Obama first took office, i was a naive student thinking i knew everything. and by everything, i thought Democrats were evil, George W. Bush could do no wrong and Barack Hussein Obama was a Muslim with a fake birth certificate and not an American citizen. this is probably not surprising given that i was a Christian, surrounding myself with conservative and Republican individuals. Barack Obama's presidency first campaign was build built around hope, change and "yes we can's" so i suppose it is fitting (and ironic) that my biggest personal struggles and development came during these years. i distinctly remember the day after Obama was elected. i was sitting in my early morning English class, still a bit groggy and definitely unhappy that the Republican candidate had not won the night before. the world was probably going to end with Obama, right? life as i knew it was probably going to change because Democrats were evil and were now in control. but i remember my professors astonishment to the fact that the US had just elected its first African-American president. i recall my classmates excitement. yet i was too blinded by my own political ideology to realize the brevity of that momentous moment. at some point though, i began to watch Obama's speeches (but refused to admit it for a while because ego). i recall another conversation about the Middle East, of war, Europe and the United States with a classmate and the stories could go on and on. my outlook on life, religion and politics began to seismically shift during Obama's 8 years and the world became less black and white with every exchange or encounter. i followed what the President was saying, why he was saying it and what he was doing. did Obama make mistakes? of course but he is human. are there things he could have done better? yes, yes of course. he isn’t perfect and no president ever is (though i would argue some are better than others). last night as i caught bits and pieces of his farewell address, i got a little choked up. farewell to Obama, to me at least, signals the end of an era in my life. i will continue to learn and grow as an individual, but as we enter a new political era in America, i feel as though my role will look a little different. so, thanks Obama for 8 years of service to our country. 8 years ago, i couldn’t imagine myself typing a sentence like that. so thanks also for being part of the change that helped me to grow and learn and look beyond myself.