Demonizing Christians: The Oxymoron

So how mean can I get today. I just heard of the ACLU bringing a lawsuit and provoking criminal charges against two men and a woman who said a prayer at a private function held in a public place. What ever happened to freedom of speech; not to mention freedom of religion? Christianity is a culture among many in this nation. Do I care if you are a Christian, well it would not be the worst thing you could be, unless the ACLU found out. I might pray for you, but I would still like you if you chose Atheism, Agnosticism, Islam, Judaism, or Buddhism. That is what freedom and democracy is about. We can coexist (I see the bumper sticker all the time and I have to wonder if you mean it) without hating or hurting each other, or dragging each other into court. I like my faith and what it stands for. Bob Marley said it best "one love" (and he was Rastafarian). I love all of the people I come in contact with. I may not like some of the things people do, but I can understand some of it. I try to understand most of what people hold on to as a belief system, even if that is faith in only what you can see and touch. That is your right as an individual.
Sure, every faith system has a troubled past involving violence and intolerance. As an Atheist or Agnostic, do you want to add yourself to the list of faith based systems that has imprisoned or committed violence against a whole culture group? Even to be prejudiced against those who are of the faith based culture demonstrates a deeper hypocrisy than any that came before.
I do not understand what the problem is. Let me give you an example of one group of Christians that meets locally in my neighborhood. One family has adopted 22 special needs children that, under an Utilitarian ethic, could have been euthanised or aborted. Instead they are loved and contribute to their community by working and caring for others. When the family's van burned up this small faith based group of 120+ came together and bought them a new one. The government didn't have to spend a dime. When the tsunami hit Indonsia several years ago this same group helped rebuild one of the small towns by raising 10,000. among their own congregation without going into the community for donations. We have saved our, and other governments thousands upon thousands of dollars by taking care of our own and our community. A woman came to us once, and she was not a member of our congregation, but she had no food for the holidays. Members of this group contributed three turkeys and enough food to fill her pantry and refrigerator to overflowing. She never came back to attend church. We did not feel bad about that; we were happy to share. And listen up folks, that was one small group of 120 humane people. Imagine small and large groups across the country, and throughout the world, providing assistance and sustenance to those in need. Just think in terms of dollars, tax dollars. Do I deserve to go to jail because I give a prayer of gratitude for my meal in a restaurant? If so come get me now. I won't even put up a fight. I'll pray over my meal in jail, with gratitude. I'm so mean you cant' even kill me if you killed me. Some of you are mean enough to understand that. Some of you know about how those of faith feel in these perilous times.

Riding in the Jeep

I mean what else is there to do when you are broke. As a matter of fact Riding in the Jeep is one of the great things about being broke. We had a cool non-alcoholic beverage, and spoke with some gentlemen who are very educated in the school of life. They like to talk. They don't carry cell phones. They like true human communication, where you can look into each others' faces as you speak. You can see the lines, the gray, the longevity of learning. I think as a species we are moving into a dislocation of human contact. Here I am; you can see my rugged face in a photo, but I'm still something anonymous in my rambling. You don't have to feel responsible to these words, or even the picture you see. As far as I know you will never see these words, unless you just happen to stop by. But I will still come here and jot down my thoughts.
I ran across someone today who makes it difficult to know whether they are genuinely human or not. Can I trust them? They needed to talk on their cell phone. I got a quick hug and a good-bye, and please email me. Human disconnect. Should I feel mean, or am I just being too sensitive?

Movies and Music

Just saw UP and Ice Age 3. Both were very cool. Up was geared more for adults and young folk, while Ice Age was more for the younger ones.
Took the grandkids they loved both. Got to spend the summer with the girls, and the new boy in town.
As for music, hey I liked Kings of Leon before it was cool. I guess I can say that about a lot of things as I have walked this earth a while now. Just had to be a bit mean.

Why smokers feel persecuted

So It's been a year since I've played with this thing. I am still suffering from the budget crunch and have no permanent teaching position. So I am taking a step and getting my Masters in Education.
Now the mean one will rant and we will wonder, in the end, who really is mean (not in the nice way).
So besides the fact that I live in San Diego where two firestorms have ravaged homes, and killed human and animal, I still see cigarettes hanging out windows, and even being tossed from cars. Message to stupid people: If your car is too good to have smoke in it, don't smoke in it. It is highly illegal to even have a cigarette outside of your car, in your fingers, let alone tossed out. I write down the license plate # of every offending smoker I catch doing this, just in case the police want to know who started the latest brush fire. I also have the very intimate ear of several policemen who are quite fussy on the issue. If you are guilty, I so hope you get that very expensive ticket before you destroy anyone's home or heaven forbid kill people.
Now on to the real ugliness. I have two granddaughters with Cystic Fibrosis. It is a fatal disease. But if my girls can live longer if they suffer fewer lung infections; they can live into their 40's or 50's. So I'm out at the pool and there are "no smoking" signs everywhere. It's a community pool. On the 4th of July I have my family over and we decide to go for a swim. All is well, everyone is having fun when a woman (a supposedly more mature woman) lights a cigarette. I inform her nicely that if she smokes in the pool area I have to take my girls home. She walks over to a pot bellied man with "Ruiz" tattoed across his belly, among other things, and she quietly tells him what I said and steps back, still smoking mind you. Ruiz stands directly over the pool and lights a cigarette. He blows the smoke out over the pool, over my family as well as other children. I walk up and face him and explain that those little girls have Cystic Fibrosis and that cigarette smoke is poison to them. He states that it is for him as well. I explain that he is an adult and has a choice, while these little girls will be fortunate to live long enough to make adult decisions. He is still unconcerned. I tell him he is very fortunate to have healthy children, and he claims he is thankful every day. He is still blowing smoke over my girls. I tell the girls to get out of the pool, and as they are he tells the woman too bad if they are sick, they should go home. So rather than put his cigarette out, he deprived two terminally ill children of an hour in the pool. Oh by the way Ruiz, if you are wondering why the cops are hanging around the house, and your cars, well those little girls have a policeman for an uncle. And he has friends.
Just to show folks, you can't be nice to some people, and you never know who you are really messing with.
I know most smokers aren't like this man Ruiz. But you should not wonder why people think you stink when you smoke. It's just plain stupid, and you look real ugly when you do it. How's that for mean.

Still Looking

I am still looking for a job; something I really hate. But I have opted to substitute for the time being. I have been accepted to sub several places, but the one that sounds most interesting is the court and community schools. I like to work with students who are facing challenges. Maybe what they really haven't come to learn is that we all have challenges. I know some just have a rougher time of it. I can deal with my challenges to an extent, and then I guess I just get meaner.
We have a new grandson, Kai. he's a cutie pie. He shakes the old meanness right out of me.
I had a lot of fun with the girls. There are some cool pix of them on bluemarbleblog. I'm not sure how to find other blogs on this thing, but it's a photography blog and it's pretty cool. There are some real nice shots.
We saw the Dark Knight in IMAX. It was very cool, but not for the kidlets; 13 and up is probably rational.
Just purchased the 5,000 fingers of Dr. T, an old flick from the 50's. It features Hans Conreid, and it's a Dr. Seuss story. Very cool.
On the music front just purchased the new Jack Johnson and Duffy. Duffy is pretty cool, kind of reminds me of the 60's R&B girls. I did get the new Coldplay, very awesome.
Well, send out those good thoughts for the mean one. I really want to work.

Ouch goes the Meanie

Hey folks the mean one is recovering from spinal fusion and disc replacement, so maybe it was a good time to be laid off, if there is such a thing.
I am here hoping to have a job, waiting for a new grandson, and knowing I have tons of stuff to do and not wanting to do much of anything. The little girls are coming for the summer so I need to get my office/room that looks like a hurricane has just passed through it fixed up for them.
I have still been staying in pretty close contact with my former students. They have talked me into opening a MySpace page, and chaperoning their robotics fundraisers such as Activity night. They all get together, eat pizza, guzzle soda, play video games, watch silly movies, and just kick it together in general. They tend to complain that they aren't learning stuff like vocabulary, they don't like their new schools because they feel like outsiders, but the worst was when one of them said, "My new English teacher makes me feel small." Are there still teachers out there who fail to create a safe classroom where learning and the students are encouraged?! Please, it is time to retire. If you don't care anymore get out! I am dying to have your job!
On to something that won't raise my blood pressure. Went to see Ironman. Loved it. Going to see the Police with Elvis Costello this week, love that. Getting a new baby grandson any day now, really love that! The mean one strikes again, stay cool.

Out of a Job.

Hey there folks, here is the latest. My school closed at the end of the semester. Sure, the powers that be want higher test scores. My little school proved that this can be accomplished with smaller class size and access to technology. The problem is, that while smaller class size and higher test scores are desirable, no one can solve the ADA problem. Less students less money folks. No matter what the powers that be demand there is the catch-22. Do what we want, achieve these goals, but if you have too few students, you have too little money. Now the larger high school has some beautiful things, like a state of the art athletic field, a beautiful rubberized track, and 46 students to a classroom. How do they acheive the demand for smaller class size? Well they average the classes out. The resource class has 7 students, so if you average that out with an English class with 46 students you have an average class size of 26.5. Nice. And I thought I was mean. Life goes on, and I will probably substitute until I can find a job. Thanks to Arnold that will be a difficult proposition. Maybe I can get a job designing all of the new prisons we will be needing. See I still got it, mean as ever and a little angry, off I go to never, never land. See you when I land.