God, the Devil, and Bob.
Today at the Northfield Center was the first meeting of the FCCLA 05-06 calendar year. I attended this meeting, more or less to get out of five of my seven classes. The meeting kicked off the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. Being one of three males in a room nearly full of females muttering in their high-pitched voices, my voice carried dominantly. I said my Pledge of Allegiance proudly, remembering the way that America is supposed to be, and knot what it has become. I was heard throughout the room until I fell silent during the words "Under God", to which everybody noticed and gave me the glare like I had just committed some atrocious act of treason.
Now these two words have stirred up controversy to a level that may end up in the Supreme Court. Are we, or are we knot a country under God? Constitutional or knot, what I hear from most people who support the Pledge in full is "Well if people don't like it, why don't they just knot say those two words? It isn't hard!". That is precisely what I did today, and I still get hectored for it.
Why can't these people be content? I have a right to knot acknowledge that we are a nation under God, just as I have a right to knot believe in God at all. And even when I settle for measures that you deem to be okay, it still isn't good enough!
I don't think that forcing every public high-school student in America to acknowledge the United States as a nation under God is constitutional in the least. But I was willing to settle for "just knot saying it", and I still get bullshit. Fuck! You! Fuck! You! Fuck! You!
Why do I claim to be Jewish? I'll tell everybody why! My best friend for over ten years passed away some time ago, and the only thing supernatural that I believe is the guidance and lessons of life she taught me. Everything that I am today is all a result of the way she touched my life. She was Jewish, and the only spiritual enlightenment of any kind that I ever had was when I stepped inside of the Temple to pay her respects. I claim Judaism spiritually for her...knot because some invisible man told me to.
Anyway, I ranted about this to my supervisor tonight and that led to some pretty profound conversation.
He has a pretty awful track record that involved drugs, drugs, and more drugs. I think that he was stoned the first time I ever had to work with him, so you could only imagine my first impression. We come from completely different backgrounds, live totally different day-to-day lives, and are about as stereotypically different as you could get (that would be...what, straight-edge and druggie?). But I'm beginning to wonder if he's such a bad guy... I don't normally hear much but grief from other people who have to work with him, but after some conversation tonight, I found that we seem to share a lot of the same ideals.
He wants to eventually join the Peace Corps so he can spend his life traveling the world on humanitarian missions. What the Peace Corps does for you is pay for your expenses in the median lifestyle of whichever country you're helping at the moment...if the people normally eat like kings, then so do you..however if the people eat shit, guess what's for dinner! Every two years you get sent home for a time of leave where they'll give you $6,000 to live off of...that's knot very much. He believes in egalitarian (and I stress that word) opportunities for all people and doesn't understand why people have become so hostile. And it's Springfield's hostility and monotone that drives us both insane.
I don't think I could ever be casual friends with him, but there are parts of him that I admire. And I think that it's healthy and important for me to acknowledge that.
Now these two words have stirred up controversy to a level that may end up in the Supreme Court. Are we, or are we knot a country under God? Constitutional or knot, what I hear from most people who support the Pledge in full is "Well if people don't like it, why don't they just knot say those two words? It isn't hard!". That is precisely what I did today, and I still get hectored for it.
Why can't these people be content? I have a right to knot acknowledge that we are a nation under God, just as I have a right to knot believe in God at all. And even when I settle for measures that you deem to be okay, it still isn't good enough!
I don't think that forcing every public high-school student in America to acknowledge the United States as a nation under God is constitutional in the least. But I was willing to settle for "just knot saying it", and I still get bullshit. Fuck! You! Fuck! You! Fuck! You!
Why do I claim to be Jewish? I'll tell everybody why! My best friend for over ten years passed away some time ago, and the only thing supernatural that I believe is the guidance and lessons of life she taught me. Everything that I am today is all a result of the way she touched my life. She was Jewish, and the only spiritual enlightenment of any kind that I ever had was when I stepped inside of the Temple to pay her respects. I claim Judaism spiritually for her...knot because some invisible man told me to.
Anyway, I ranted about this to my supervisor tonight and that led to some pretty profound conversation.
He has a pretty awful track record that involved drugs, drugs, and more drugs. I think that he was stoned the first time I ever had to work with him, so you could only imagine my first impression. We come from completely different backgrounds, live totally different day-to-day lives, and are about as stereotypically different as you could get (that would be...what, straight-edge and druggie?). But I'm beginning to wonder if he's such a bad guy... I don't normally hear much but grief from other people who have to work with him, but after some conversation tonight, I found that we seem to share a lot of the same ideals.
He wants to eventually join the Peace Corps so he can spend his life traveling the world on humanitarian missions. What the Peace Corps does for you is pay for your expenses in the median lifestyle of whichever country you're helping at the moment...if the people normally eat like kings, then so do you..however if the people eat shit, guess what's for dinner! Every two years you get sent home for a time of leave where they'll give you $6,000 to live off of...that's knot very much. He believes in egalitarian (and I stress that word) opportunities for all people and doesn't understand why people have become so hostile. And it's Springfield's hostility and monotone that drives us both insane.
I don't think I could ever be casual friends with him, but there are parts of him that I admire. And I think that it's healthy and important for me to acknowledge that.