Tomorrow

Tomorrow a big choice will be made. One thing that is echoed through a writing sample that I had my students complete is the unrealistic demand for "give us tons of service while lowering the cost to me." It's not just my teenagers that feel this way. I feel that we are, unfortunately, too reliant on someone else (like the government) to provide for us while not being willing to understand the cost. I feel like we've lost pride in self-sufficiency, and we refuse to tighten the purse strings when we can't afford everything we want (just look at my finances, for ex). We live in a time where we have been provided so much without having to work for it - so we don't appreciate it. We take it for granted and demand more. We're not totally evil, though. We want everyone else to have everything, too. Unfortunately, we don't have the funds (to the amount of $16 trillion of debt - a number so big that we can't really wrap our minds around it). But, never mind that. We keep getting away with over-consuming, and we don't see the consequences of that, so why should our national over-spending be a problem? We'll keep spending and demanding more, and we'll let the government take care of it and find a small group (say 1%) to be angry at.

Tomorrow feels like a big deal to me because I feel like it will tell me if I am part of a traditional minority living in a too-quickly-approaching post-America society or if there are still those who believe in the American experiment and WASP-ish ideals.

And, by the way, I support Romney.

From Ricochet

Here's what somebody smarter than me has to say about the ruling on Prop 8.

Prop 8

In a way more disturbing ruling than the 1070 one I just posted about, a judge just ruled to overturn Prop 8 in California. He's using the 14th Amendment as his reasoning - the due process and equal protection clause - which has been used to justify a ton of court rulings; I even have a whole book about it. It seems to me like Prop 8 did go through due process. It was a measure that was presented to the people of California, and it was voted on by the people of California. Just as I said in the last post - minority ruling the majority.

More on 1070

So, you probably know that the judge blocked parts of SB1070 - last week, I think. Now we have to wait until November for the case to go to the 9th U.C. Circuit of Appeals. I was disappointed to hear about the parts of the bill that were blocked, which makes me even more annoyed that people are still so upset about the law. My dad and I were talking about things yesterday, and he believes that the majority of people are in favor of this law. In fact, I think I agree with him that the majority of people in the nation support what we should support and oppose what we should oppose, yet the people making the decisions that affect everyone are disregarding what the majority wants. I remember growing up hearing a lot about our country being a democracy: that's not really correct because the country has been set up as a democratic republic. Although we don't just all vote on every decision made in the country (and for good reason), we do vote for people to represent us, and it's so upsetting to me to feel like I am not being represented. Since when did the majority lose its voice?

Not Happy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_arizona_immigration

I don't look at this as a good sign. I will still be watching to see how the ruling comes down in the federal lawsuit against Arizona. I find myself becoming more and more sympathetic to Jefferson and state's rights as the federal government usurps more and more power.

Independence Day

12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.
13 And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.
14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise . . .
15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance . . .
16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.
17 And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.
18 And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle.
19 And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations. (1 Nephi 13)

I love these verses, written by a man who lived in the Americas 600 years B.C., close to 2000 years before Columbus was inspired to come to the Americas, and a few hundred more before the pilgrims came. I love the United States of America - I love the principles it was founded upon. I love those who fought for independence, and I love the Founding Fathers for all that they did, like writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Today we live in a time of apology for who we are and what we mean, which is absurd to me. Those who came before us tried a new and exciting - an inspired and well-thought-out and debated - experiment. It was an experiment that succeeded and brought hope to other people throughout the world. It gave a Dream to the world - a dream that I'm so grateful to be a part of. All of the success comes from the Lord and is really a part of His work. Our danger today is in forgetting - forgetting Him and forgetting what history teaches us; that this experiment really works. It works better than any other imperfect system I know of. God bless America, and may we put in the effort that we each need to in order to preserve this great experiment.

LAUSD and SB 1070, etc.

I just learned tonight that the Los Angeles Unified School District board recently voted to condemn Arizona's SB 1070 (which makes being in Arizona illegally a crime - something that seems kind of obvious to me. Illegal = crime in my mind.), as well as a bill that was passed that bans ethnic studies classes (Here is Arizona Superintendent Tom Horne's explanation about why he believed that such classes should not be taught. You will notice it was written several years back.). Additionally, they are asking the superintendent to look into making sure that the district is boycotting Arizona. Isn't that so thoughtful of the board members to be so concerned with Arizona and Arizona's decisions? Isn't it so thoughtful of them to condemn laws that, it seems to me, they perhaps haven't read? I just read the new parts of both bills - finally (I've been meaning to read 1070 for quite awhile). I find the claims of opponents to these laws to be ridiculous! I wanted to find LAUSD's press release but couldn't, so I'm giving you this link instead. The board believes that 1070 is un-American and wants it taught that way to students.

It's certainly entertaining (as well as frustrating) being a conservative and a Constitutionalist in the field of education. I try to not let my personal bias leak into my teaching. That's not totally possible, of course. I do try to help my students realize that there are other viewpoints out there besides what they normally get. I find it unacceptable that the Los Angeles School District can have its teachers discuss 1070 as an un-American law. If they want to read the law in class (which might not be a bad idea because then there would be more people in California actually reading it) and let the students debate it - fine.

Not swaying students' opinions/beliefs has become a huge deal - I even think it has gone too far. So interesting, though, that it seems to be okay as long as one promotes the viewpoints of the left.