Forgotten

Last summer our city got rocked by an epic flood.  Right after it, there was the expected "outpouring of service" and "display of the goodness of humanity."  I haven't heard jack about it since.

Something Not

At the beginning of the year in an AP class last year, there was a quiet, reserved kid who kept to himself except when it came to class discussions.  By the end of the year, I was convinced he had low self-esteem and was socially awkward but very bright.

This year, I've seen him hanging out with a lot of druggies and skateboarding in front of the school that he is slowly giving up the opportunity to excel in.  He's not a great skateboarder and he still has the same look in his eyes, but I'm willing to bet he smokes pot now and doesn't do well in school anymore.

I only realized today that I could have been him if I didn't have friends pushing me to make smart decisions last fall.

Crossroads

I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
Asked the Lord above, have mercy now,
Save poor Bob if you please

Standin' at the crossroads, tried to flag a ride
Whee-hee, I tried to flag a ride
Didn't nobody seem to know me, everybody pass me by

Standin' at the crossroads, risin' sun goin' down
Standin' at the crossroads baby, the risin' sun goin' down
I believe to my soul now, po' Bob is sinkin' down

You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown
You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown
That I got the crossroad blues this mornin',
Lord, baby I'm sinkin' down

I went to the crossroad, mama, I looked east and west
I went to the crossroad, babe, I looked east and west
Lord, I didn't have no sweet woman, ooh well,
Babe, in my distress

I don't think Robert Johnson can help me much here, but I thought of his song when formulating this post.

I'm currently at a real crossorads with my faith. I really don't know which side to choose. I've learned that its entirely possible for somebody to be a terrible person despite a belief in a higher power, and its entirely possible for a honorable person to lack such beliefs.

Reasons I might become a Christian:

• There is extreme social pressure for me to join a community of faith.
• It seems that Christians generally live better lives than non-believers.
• There will always be somebody for me.  Even after I die, even when I sin, even when I do not return the favor, God will love me.

Reasons I might become an Atheist:

• The rift between science and faith is one that cannot be denied.  I'm sorry, but they just don't mix.
• I don't know what the peers of my future will believe.
• I'm really not sure I've decided that there's a single thing that can be better explained through faith than otherwise.  Its very wishy-washy.
• My personal beliefs don't coincide with what I think God wants me to believe.

So for now, I'm a swing voter.

Pride In My State

Last week, in a supreme court decision I was happy to hear of, my state legalized gay marriage.  I think it is discrimination to bar homosexuals from civil marriage.  God seems to have mixed opinions about homosexuals, so I don't know about gay marriages in churches, but certainly, in a court of law, there is no reason to call gay marriage illegal.  Such relationships cannot biologically produce children, but gays are most certainly capable of being good parents, especially when compared to how disappointing some couples' (or single parents') parenting skills are nowadays.  In all honesty, I think its a bit weird for two members of the same gender to marry, but if two souls are in love, the church shouldn't keep them from marrying in a courthouse.

Dear Conservatives,

Two of the platforms of the RNC include being against abortion and in support of the death penalty.  Doesn't that seem contradictory to you?  If "respect for life" is one of the pillars of conservatism, shouldn't you respect all life?  One of my favorite pieces of pro-life propaganda references how murderers of pregnant women are only charged with taking one life, as if the law doesn't believe a fetus is a human.  I haven't read up on this, but I'm willing to bet a limb or two that killing somebody on death row is still some form of murder.

So you'll fight so vehemently against the government for allowing women to take the lives of the unborn but you're totally cool with the government taking lives of the living?

What do they say at criminals' funerals?

Do they say "he was a good man, and he didn't mean to do what he did" because you can't speak poorly of a dead person?  Do they just ignore the wrongs of their lives?  Do they downplays their sins?  Do they ever say that they are terrible people, or just people that did terrible things?

Do they have funerals?

Dear Liberals,

I'm very proud of those left of me for fighting for basic human rights, like a court decision a few months ago that made it more difficult for war criminals to be held in prison without charges being brought against them, gay rights, and minority rights.  It really is honorable and gives me a moderate faith in the goodness of humanity as a whole.  What I really can't get my head around is that you'll fight for the all these human rights but you'll still let the unborn die.  Isn't that a violation of human rights to some degree?

Maybe I'm missing something.