poly- ticks

I know you might not realize this, but I don't like politics much. In fact, I might even hate politics. I don't want to ever talk about politics, but sometimes it's necessary.

This week, the Senate Judicial Committee held hearings for the confirmation of Judge Sonya Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. The hearings were a ridiculous waste of time. I've been listening to clips all week. It was as if the senators didn't really have anything to ask the judge, but they felt that they had to fill some time with questions. They asked some of the stupidest questions I've ever heard.

Anyway, in honor of politicians being idiots most of the time, I've decided to raise my voice on three issues that I think need to be dealt with. I have some questions, and also some opinions. I have lots of opinions.

Issue 1: Hate crimes legislation
So this week Congress dug up the old hate crimes bill. Originally designed with racial minorities in mind, this bill has now become a rallying point for the LGBT community and they've wanted in on it for years. Their sample case has been the murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was tortured and killed several years ago because of his sexual orientation.
Now here's the thing: hate crimes legislation only qualifies for violent acts.
That's right. Only crimes which are already criminal acts can be classed as hate crimes.
Congress now wants to change the hate crimes law so that it includes "crimes committed on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity". There are 2 major problems with this that I can see:
First, I don't think we realize how many crimes this would encompass. Under this new definition, every single rape, sexual assault, and spousal abuse case would have to be considered a hate crime. But is this going to happen? Probably not.

Second, hate crime legislation is inherently flawed in that it judges people for their motives, and this isn't the kind of country where those things are done. See, when someone is convicted of a hate crime, it's not the act of violence but rather the reason that the person committed the crime that is being condemned. Imagine, if you will, that we created something called "anger legislation" and criminalized acts that were committed in anger. Now say a man beats his wife. If he beat her because he was angry at her, he would fall under this new "anger legislation" and get extra years in prison. But if he beat her because he was depressed and frustrated from having just lost his job, then he would be immune from the anger legislation. How is this justice?

So here's the bottom line: we don't need hate crimes laws. Hate crimes are ALREADY crimes! Malicious intent is already a felony! We don't need more laws cluttering up our legal system. Just prosecute people for what they DO, not what they THINK!!!!

Issue 2: Sex Offender Maps
This issue is a few years old now, but it needs to be talked about. It's this idea of providing the addresses of sex offenders as public information online or wherever. I hate this idea, because it goes against the very grain of what the United States is about. The reason it's a dangerous practice is that it's so disgustingly unjust.
Sex crimes are rather nebulously defined, ranging all the way from urinating in public to child pornography. But the Sex Offender Maps don't differentiate. They don't tell you what the person did, just where they live.
On the other hand, you could have an axe murderer living next door and you'd never know it.
Sex offenders who have been declared rehabilitated should never be listed. Nor should one-time offenders. ONLY repeat offenders should have their addresses given to the general public, if we're going to be continuing this practice.
And if we do continue it, then we need to include ALL felonies on our lists.
But we should stop this practice. It implies a distrust in our legal system and, quite frankly, it's unconstitutional. The US Constitution promises us due process of law, no cruel and unusual punishment, and protection from double jeopardy. When we list sex offenders' addresses, we are continually punishing them for their crimes. Crimes, I might add, for which they have already served time and fulfilled their sentence.
In our pledge of allegiance, we proclaim "liberty and justice for all". For rehabilitated sex offenders, there is no such thing.

Issue 3: Teachers, Unions, and Merit Pay
Now, teachers are grossly underpaid. For a society that values education as much as we say we do, we pay our teachers close to nothing.
Because they were being abused in their jobs, teachers joined unions. Unions were very useful at the turn of the 20th century when they were established to protect workers from being victimized by their bosses, but they've somewhat lost their lustre. They are becoming dangerous.
President Obama had the audacity to suggest more than once that teachers should be paid based on performance (what he calls "merit pay"). The teachers' unions almost violently revolted against this. They called it "union-busting" and said they'd never put up with the idea of merit pay.
Do you know what this means?
It means that these teachers like their unions more than they like teaching!!!!!
I know, shocking, right?
They would rather stick with the unions which pay them for years of experience than actually try to be better teachers.
Let's apply this to other jobs. ALL other jobs. In ANY occupation, you are paid and/or promoted based on your performance. How good are you at your job? If you're the best in the industry, then you're probably the best-paid as well. It even works for politicians. If the people don't like they way a politican votes, they won't re-elect him. He loses his job.
Shouldn't it be the same with teachers? Shouldn't the people who mold our children be paid according to how well they do so?
Now, of course we're not going to base teacher pay solely on test results-- I think we learned our lesson about that from No Child Left Behind. However, we can establish a set of criteria-- say level of student improvement in certain areas-- by which we can judge how well our teachers are doing.
It's for the kids.

When you wish upon a star

"A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you can lose your heartache
Whatever you wish for, you keep

Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

- Disney's Cinderella

Having never been male, I can't tell you any of the common themes that guys dream about. I can, however, give you some idea of what women dream about. Not all the time, mind you, but here's one example of a common female dream; I call it "The Wedding".

While the circumstances can vary, nearly every woman I've ever talked to (about dreams) has had at least one dream about getting married. And a thread runs along these: usually the face of the bridegroom is fuzzy, or blank. Or you just can't remember it when you wake up.

In the Christian community, there's so much emphasis on "the one" person that you're supposed to marry, that this dream drives us nuts, since we assume the person in the dream is "the one" and that we'll know who he is when we meet him, or when God reveals him.

I don't buy into "the one" theory very much. There are too many holes in it for me to believe it in any sense but the loosest.

Last night I had a wedding dream. Now, this one was different from most since I was being coerced into marriage by some "bad guys". The details here are not clear, but let me just say that Ron, Hermione, and I somehow realized that the bad guys would stop chasing me if I got married.

So somehow I managed to pull a fancy wedding out of nowhere, with all the relevant guests there. I was getting married to my latest ex, and we got to the "I Do's". When the minister turned to me and asked me if I Did I realized that I Couldn't. I said so, and he left peaceably, which in turn left me still needing someone to marry. So I texted a friend and he rather helpfully came by to save my skin. However, we had only known each other for a couple of months, so he was feeling reasonably awkward about the arrangement to which he had just agreed.

The difference between this and every other wedding dream I've ever had is that I knew who it was I was marrying. There was no blanked-out face. It was someone that I recently met.

When I realized he was unsure about the arrangement, I gave a speech that I know I would probably never give in real life because it expressed far more self-esteem than I have ever conjured up. I think I can remember it verbatim:

"Look, I know you are not sure about this. We barely know each other. But from the moment I saw you, I knew that you were the only one for me. You are kind and intelligent. You are caring and funny. You love Jesus. I've loved you from the second we met. And I promise, I pledge ot you that I will make you happy. You're going to love being married to me. It won't always be easy or fun, but I know that we will be happy for the rest of our lives because God put us together."

Now, I have serious doubts about my ability to make someone happy for a long period of time. And I don't think I could ever tell someone that I knew about him form the moment I saw him, even if it was true. As the dream went on, though, it did become true and I had my happily ever after.

Too bad it was only a dream. Everyone knows dreams don't come true.

I make no sense

I think it's strange that one of the attractive features about a man to me is how he acts with kids even though I feel that to spend my life raising children of my own would be to enslave myself to a life apart from that which I was meant to live.

Tennis and Jesus

I love tennis.
It's a fabulous sport. I grew to love it living here in Kenya, where we don't get NFL. Because if we did get NFL, I probably would never have taken up watching tennis.
Kenya is a soccer country. That probably doesn't mean much. I mean, pretty much ever country outside the US is a soccer country. This means everyone in Kenya has a team, which usually belongs to the UK. Arsenal. Manchester United. Chelsea. Whenever a game is on, we hear people cheering in the neighborhood.
And kids want to be soccer players when they grow up. When I was teaching, there were so many who wanted to be “a famous footballer”.
But something about tennis caught my fancy. When I was in high school, my dad would pick me up from school and I would go with him to the community college where he was taking aviation classes. I would sit around outside and do my homework. There were tennis courts, so I would sit and watch people play. I love the way it's played. And the rules. And the sounds that the players make. To me, it's like a ballet. I would love to be good at tennis. Which is a fanciful flight at best, because I've never played.
That's right, I have never, not once in my life, played tennis.
The closest I've gotten is the intense rule-heavy badminton that we play here on the compound. I used to be good at that, but I'm out of practice.

I've been reading C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. It's probably the best book I've ever read on the topic, and quite the definitive work on what it means to be a Christian. It's changed the way I look at God and, more profoundly, myself.
There's one particular section where Lewis talks about Christian behavior. He likens the virtues we are to cultivate to a sports figure, which I find intensely appropriate.
So many times I have heard people harp about Christianity, complaining, “It's just a bunch of do's and don'ts. I thought being a Christian was supposed to free you. What are all these rules about?”
But rules are good-- not because they tell us what to do and not do, but because they help us to become the type of person God wants.
Let's say I decide today that I want to become a great tennis player. No matter how long I think about becoming a great tennis player, I never will be unless I do several things:
1- I need to know how to play the game. I can read the rule books. I can study the court schematics. I can watch lots of games of tennis played by professionals- people who are as good as I want to be. In fact, I can even learn from people who are not that good, because they're still more experienced than I am and I can learn from their mistakes as well. In order to be good, I need to know about the sport.
2- I need to have a coach. Without a coach I will never be a truly magnificent player. I need a coach who knows the game tons better than I do, and who is himself a good player. A coach will teach you how to do things the right way. Learning a move the wrong way will be disastrous to my skill, and will take infinitely more effort to correct once I recognize the error. A coach teaches you to do things the right way, keeps you going when you don't feel like continuing, and helps you to keep from getting hurt.
3- I need the right equipment. No matter how much effort I put into it, I will never be a great tennis player if I insist on using a baseball bat. Nor will I be great if I wear football pads. Or ice skates. I need tennis shoes. A tennis racket. A real court to play on. I'll never learn to be great at tennis if I play on gravel or wearing cleats.
4- I need to practice. As much as I learn about my sport, I will never get better if I don't apply the things I know. This might be the toughest part of all. I need thousands of hours using the right equipment, playing on a real court, making the right moves that my coach taught me, remembering the moves of experts. I need to practice following the rules. Serving. Acing. Returning. If I don't practice all these things, I might become a great server, but whenever my opponent scores a point and has to serve, I will lose the game because I didn't practice returning. In addition, I need to practice outside of matches, otherwise I will never get better. If the only time I ever play tennis is when I'm competing-- when it counts for me to play well, I'll quickly get discouraged, because I didn't put in the time when I wasn't getting tested.
Believe it or not, the same works in my Christian walk. I need all the same things in order to become the type of person that God wants me to be, and remember what Lewis tells us: “We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.”
When I read the books of Paul, or listen to good expository sermons, study the lives of heroes of the faith, and allow myself to be mentored by strong believers who have the skills I want to cultivate, I am learning about the game. I'm studying Christianity, finding its quirks and investigating the nuances that make it unique. I am familiarizing myself with the playing field, so that when the time comes for a match, I am well-prepared.
And by watching these players, I will begin to notice that they have certain qualities (equipment) that equip them uniquely for their service. Faith. Truth. Righteousness. Readiness. Peace. Scripture Knowledge. Compassion. Leadership. Hospitality. Each person has his strength, just as each tennis player has his unique specialty, but needs to be well-versed in all areas.
I play the guitar medially well. But I am not getting any better. This is because when I play, I stick to songs I know, and don't learn any new chords or strumming techniques or finger-picking patterns. I am comfortable with what I know. Learning new chords hurts my fingers, and stretches my brain more than I want when I am relaxing.
If, in my Christian walk, I want to become a better Christian, I need to stretch myself. I can't just stick to what I know. If I only keep focusing on building my Scripture knowledge but do not apply it and live in faith, truth, and righteousness, always “ready to give an answer”, I do myself only harm by creating a purely cerebral faith.
In this manner, the Holy Spirit guides me. I know what I'm good at. He tells me to practice the things I'm not so good at so that I become a whole Christian, not just one that does my service and goes to church, but cannot defend my faith from those who would attack it. The Holy Spirit is my coach: the counselor that Jesus refers to. He is what keeps me going when I don't want to, what helps me to do the right thing, and to keep doing the right thing even when it doesn't seem fun or useful. He corrects me, and sets me straight. If I continue to ask Him to help, and to thank Him whenever He does, it strengthens our relationship and brings us closer together, so that His ways become my ways.
And, most importantly, I need to practice my faith. Even when I'm alone, I should cultivate those actions which help me to be a better Christian. Sports coaches say it often takes 1,000 repetitions of doing a move right in order to correct one wrong move.
This is true in our walk also. If we do things wrong on our own, we don't help ourselves at all-- we do ourselves harm. In sports, performing an action even slightly wrong can lead to serious injury. How true also in our spiritual walk! Remember “the way is narrow”. One wrong step can (not always does) seriously damage our spirit. Which is not to say we can't make mistakes, but rather that we should not try to make them.
When the time comes to practice our faith, when Satan attacks us, or others make it their joy to trouble us, we will be ready, but only if we practice outside of those times. We cannot use the excuse that we are not gifted in certain areas, because it is all part of the game. One cannot avoid debate simply because she doesn't feel convincing enough. We are called to be ready for anything. Just like in tennis you can't be in a match and say you prefer not to serve. It's part of the game.
So, we must cultivate the virtues of wise living, self control, justice, and fortitude at all times. There is no time when we can choose not to be a Christian, just like a professional tennis player is rarely anything else. The skills we learn from Scripture, from other Christians, from practicing, and from communing with our Coach apply to every aspect of our lives, and there is no happier, nor more difficult life than that which strives always to be more like Christ.

I Don't Believe in Fairy Tales

We went to see "Slumdog Millionaire" last night. It was one of the best films I've ever seen, and completely fantastic. I mean fantastic in that it was a fantasy-- a sequence of events that would never happen.
A young man, brought up among the very poorest in India, makes his way onto a reality show to find the woman he loves.
It is his deep, fierce, passionate love that breaks my heart, and is the most imaginary aspect of all. It breaks my heart that I will never experience love like that.
See, only beautiful people in movies get that kind of love. The kind that grabs onto you and never lets go. The kind that makes you risk life and limb to be with that one person.
I have honestly never met anyone that much in love. Because that kind of love does not exist.
I run all over the world. I purposely dramatize my life. I create crises, hoping that someday I'll feel that deep-rooted longing, that intense crash of emotion.
But I never will.
I am doomed to live a life dreaming of fairy tales which will never come true.
I truly am content to be single, and I will be single until someone loves me with that kind of love.
Until someone would risk everything for me, I am content with no one.
I hear the lie telling me that the reason I haven't been loved is because I don't deserve it, but that's not true.
The reason no one has love me so violently is that such love does not exist.
I refuse to be like everyone I know-- marrying because it is the next logical step in life.
And so, alone I remain.

Can I mention that I'm saying this in love?

Correct me if I'm wrong but in my experience, when someone says, “I'm saying this in love,” they almost never are.

Having dealt with people in all ranges of maturity it seems to me that when someone gets angry or hurt, and then they think about it, work through the trampled feelings, and decide the best course is to confront the person responsible, they never say, “I am saying this in love,” because they don't feel the need to convince anyone. Their words and actions are enough without having to cushion the blow.

People say, “I'm saying this in love” for one reason: To make it sound like they are not hurt or angry, but rather looking out for YOUR best interests. They just want you to know that maybe your attitude is not the best. Or that sometimes you need to watch what you say and maybe be a bit more thoughtful toward other people's feelings. They want to sound like the bigger person when, in fact, they are just lashing back at you for stepping on their pride.

So they say something “in love” in order to hide their own wounded emotions. Which is a bunch of bull if you ask me. If you're hurt, just say you're hurt. Don't try to cushion it. Don't pretend you love me when really, you're mad at me right now.

If you actually ARE saying it in love, then your words and actions will show your loving heart and you won't have to reassure me that you are, indeed, being loving.

Reminding me that you're speaking in love just makes you a Pharisee. It's not any different than when they would fast and walk around with drawn cheeks, misery written on their faces, saying “Woe is me! I'm fasting! Pity me!”

When you say, “I'm saying this in love,” what you're really telling me is, “I am being the bigger person here. Look! Watch me be the bigger person! I'm hurt and I'm speaking in love! Pity me! Apologize to me! Make me feel better! You are the one that hurt me and now I'm getting back at you by not lashing out directly but rather passive-aggressively making you feel exactly the way I felt! Yay for me!!!!!”

Which, I'm sure, is exactly what Jesus would do.

Something I'm incredibly proud of

I was bored so I made these. They are backgrounds. Feel free to use them. I call them, "People Jesus Loves"