Societal Divisions

This week we read in The Scarlet Letter about how society can be divided by something as simple as a letter stitched to someone's chest. If we stopped trying to separate ourselves from everyone else we could help foster peace throughout the earth. Remember when you were little and your parents told you that you were special?  They were separating you from society,  and creating an initial division. We always do those activities throughout school where the teacher says, "tell me one thing about you that is unique." THEY ARE ASKING US TO TELL THEM WHY WE ARE MORE SPECIAL THAN EVERYONE ELSE! The exact thing they teach us later, that everyone is equal, isn't even close to what they subliminally teach us. Then they wonder why we struggle to comprehend that we are equal with everyone, maybe that's because we have been told our entire life that yes, we are in fact above all others. In the ACT we took,  the prompt was regarding high school and "majors," but isn't this just another way to divide us? There is already so many rifts formed from all the cliques and clubs, do we really want another one? All this focus on what makes us special (or different) fosters a belief that we live in an "us against the the world" society.  If we stopped putting ourselves above others like Rat does in the comic we could accomplish more and have a more peaceful place to live.

Oh yeah and those of you that thought I might not rant this weekend, don't worry I snuck one in the middle there for you.

God: Destroyer of All...

This morning, I woke up and went to mass with my parents. As we sat and listened to the sermon I heard how God is compassionate and forgiving. The priest spoke about how God forgives sinners every day. Never once did the priest yell that God may, "destroy any wicked man," (Edwards 122) at any given moment. I strongly disliked having to read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, it felt as if my religion was being personally insulted. Now I understand that back in the time of 1741 catholic priests were trying to gain followers for their religion and such; but the sad perversion of facts and twisting of the message of the Bible was sickening. Comparing God to the Devil so easily is in it's own way a sin. God's wrath may be painful but it doesn't mean we are set to experience it from day 1.  It reminded me of how a politician of today's time will twist and contort facts to get the public to believe whatever the politician wants them to. In addition to going to church every Sunday I teach religious education classes to fourth graders on Sunday mornings and never in any of my time studying the catholic faith did I hear about God hanging a man, "over the pit of hell" (Edwards 122). This sermon we had to read was simply an inflammatory argument meant to scare Puritans into joining the church because it lacked true religious backgrounds and ideals. No true priest would use such harsh lies about God to "inspire" (and I use that term loosely) people to join the church.

Wrath in fire

Honoring Those Who Have Served

Flag at Maryland Football

During the past week we talked at length about war memorials and the ideas behind their architecture. We also observed 9-11 on Thursday. This is where my post for today picks up. While listening to the announcements Thursday morning the speakers in our classroom were crackling in and out. Several of the underclassmen in the room thought this was funny, not simply funny, they thought it was hilarious. They laughed throughout the announcement and the "Moment of Silence" How they can think that such a solemn topic is funny is sickening to me. This younger generation-the freshmen were born in 2000 - have no concept of how grave this day is. They have no respect for the people who have died at war willingly, or those who were slain innocently. I myself have two family members in the military and it makes me want to scream at them when they laugh during something so serious. The rest of the country has no problem honoring those who have fallen. This weekend at Maryland University before the football game they had a flag the size of the entire football field. When that flag was unfurled it was the loudest stadium I've ever heard through the TV. Teachers have said "I found that some don’t understand how you cannot support the war but still support our soldiers who are fighting." (Crabtree) This disrespect for those who willingly go into harm’s way to let you sit at that desk every day is disheartening. How can they not have respect? Maybe it's that these kids need to learn about what happened in school as kids in Carolina do. Maybe with a teacher explaining it to them the kids will learn it better, but if we don't educate our kids about this tragedy they will never learn the necessary respect for those who have served, and fallen.