My wonderful friend Kaylen is coordinating a project to fill backpacks with supplies and give them to kids in need! These kids should be able to start off the school year with all the opportunities to succeed, which includes the tools required to learn. If you would like to donate, head over to Kaylen's blog. Every little bit helps!
I personally cannot wait to fill up those backpacks so that they can hand them out! She's gotten a lot of donations, but we are still in need for more so that every child in the program can get one. I can't even imagine trying to start the new school year as a child and not having the necessary school supplies. Kids are already nervous about friends, possibly a new school, and their classes, but then to have to wonder how you will hold all of your stuff with a ripped back pack or without a notebook is just too much.
-I just saw a commercial for life insurance that said "If you are between the ages of 0 and 85 call now." Really? Did they really think the zero was necessary? Yeah, I know that all the little toddlers I know were watching and wondering if they could call and right when that zero popped up they ran to the phone and dialed with their little stubby toddler fingers to get life insurance. Strange.
-I finally figured out how to use the Google Reader thing so I can keep up with all of your wonderful blogs! I am slightly addicted to it now and love that I can stay updated and see when everyone posts new things. Yay Google Reader!
-I am so happy that the courts ruled proposition 8 unconstitutional! Although it probably won't help much of anything, I'm just glad that it is being talked about again. Just as I said it my last post, a person is a person and we are all equal whether gay, straight, bisexual, black, white, asian, greek, hispanic, seventy, thirty, or twenty. Equal rights aren't something that people should still have to fight for, they should just be there to begin with.
-Am I the only one that gets infuriated when I hear Sarah Palin talk? The other day I heard a clip of her talking about the new "grizzly moms" or whatever she is starting up and talking about how women are qualified to hold political office because they have motherly hunches. How about the fact that they are smart? How about the fact that they are passionate? How about, oh say, anything else that talks about equality with men. Every time she uses the term "Obama care" I feel like she is questioning my intelligence. Does she really think that I am SO DUMB that using terms such as that are going to make me look over how she twists the truth and tries to scare the public? Blech. I can't stand that people have said that she is a role model for women. She is the opposite of a role model. She gets support by lying when she knows that it will scare people and scared people look for a leader to "save" them. She is very obviously trying to manipulate people. If she were to get by on her merits and ideas, I wouldn't mind her, but she doesn't and that really bothers me. I should stop because I could go on forever.
Let me begin this post by saying that I 100% feel that the events that occurred on September 11th, 2001 were tragic and that those that perpetrated the mass murders were completely at fault. Those who died that day were innocent victims of an unimaginable and horrible crime.
That being said, this whole argument about the mosque and community center that is set to be built a couple blocks from Ground Zero is absolutely insensible. The reason those people died on 9/11 is because of the terrorists' intolerance of those that were different than themselves. They didn't see other human beings as the same as them and equal to them. They didn't see mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and friends- they saw "the others." If 9/11 showed us anything, it showed us that we must all learn to accept our differences and respect each other.
I often hear people tout how America is the freest (and also the "greatest," but that is a topic for a whole different blog) country in the world. We always hear that America is a "melting pot," that anyone can go to America without fear of persecution or ridicule and have an equal shot at living their "dream," but from what I am seeing lately, none of that is even close to true. I understand that emotions run high on this topic, and I believe rightfully so, but to fight a mosque being built because those that would go there believe in the same religion as those that murdered thousands isn't right. How many crimes have been committed by Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, Agnostics, etc? This isn't a case of a "type" of people being bad, this is a case of "othering."
There are extremists of every type. If the terrorists had been Christians (I pick this religion only because it is the most popular one in America), would people stop a church from being built at this location? No, they wouldn't. The terrorists were extremists, just like there are extremists that don’t represent the majority in any belief system. A life is a life. A person is a person. Why is it that we, as citizens of this world, must try to put ourselves above others? Yes, I'm an American. Yes, I appreciate and am grateful for my freedom and the opportunities that I get that so many others do not. Do I go around saying that this country is "better" than other countries? No. Do I sit here and think that those innocent lives that are being lost in the war aren't as important because they are not American? No. We hear the count of Americans that die on the news all the time whether it be in the war, a natural disaster, a plane crash, etc, but what about the other people?
I really hope that the mosque gets built there because not only do I feel that it is right, but contrary to what I've heard others argue, if anything will say "we have beat the terrorists," it's showing that no matter how much hatred they may hold in their hearts, they cannot take away my belief that all people are created equal and that as long as you are a good person, I don't care what "God" you believe in, if any, I see you as an equal and a life that is worthy of respect.
