Wynn's World

You never know what you'll find when you go searching...

2006-06-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

So - I'm participating in starting up an interfaith coalition in my area of the world... so, I get a charge from my cousin to go looking for contact information for various religious groups in the area, so that we can contact them and invite them to "join in the fun"...

So - I do a Google search on "Wicca Delaware" to try and find any covens in the area for the contact list...

And... I do find the contact information... but, I also get a link to a MD/DE Baptist group...

I click on it, wondering what they might have on their site about "Wicca Delaware" - and come up with the following article:

Wicca: What You Should Know about Witchcraft
From September/October 2004 Facts and Trends
September 13, 2004 4:19 PM

Halloween -- All Hallow Even, All Saints’ Eve -- is Oct. 31. Stores are full of candy, cards and costumes. It’s also a sacred day for witches.

Surveys indicate that only 13 percent of pastors are familiar with Wicca -- witchcraft, a modern neo-pagan movement -- that is enticing a growing number of people.

Wicca has gone from underground to mainstream. No longer a secretive cult for loners and disaffected kids, witchcraft and neo-paganism have become “cool.”

In general, today’s devotees discover Wicca themselves. They aren’t involved because their parents brought them up in it. But that won’t be the case soon. After all, young Wiccans today will be Wiccan parents raising Wiccan children in 20 years.

Not only is witchcraft considered cool; it is big. While no reliable statistics are available on the number of practicing Wiccans, a search on Google’s Internet browser brought up more than a million Wiccan sites.

Neo-Pagan Ethics
Wiccans follow a creed called “the Rede” that states: “An harm ye none, do what ye will” or stated more simply: “As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, do what you want.” The Rede sounds nice, but Christians are called to do a lot more than just not hurt anyone.

Many neo-pagans also believe in the “Law of Three” or the “Law of Return,” an idea that is similar to karma in Buddhism: “For good or for ill, shall be returned to us threefold.” Sounds almost like a biblical idea, doesn’t it? The Bible says, “For whatever a man sows he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7, HCSB). The difference is that, according to Scripture, the consequences come from God, not nature.

Feminine Deity and Feminism
A man, Gerald Gardner, founded Wicca, but most practitioners are women. Wiccans usually speak of the goddess rather than god, or sometimes “the goddess and the god.”

Neo-Pagan Worship
One thing most neo-pagans, especially Wiccans, have in common is their reverence for nature. They are looking for harmony with nature rather than dominion over it. In fact, Wiccans believe that to the extent there is a god or goddess above everything, that god(dess) is in everything.

Sexual License
One aspect of neo-paganism is “no rules” sexuality. Wren Walker, a prominent Wiccan said, “We have no rules which prohibit homosexuality, nudity or pre-marital sex. Sex as the generative force in nature is seen by most pagans as something utterly sacred. We feel that the physical act of love is to be approached with great respect and responsibility.”

Satanism and the New Age Movement
Wiccans, by definition, do not believe in Satan since they reject most traditional Christian teachings. Wiccans and pagans would not deny being occultic (having secret, mystical teachings and practices), but they reject the worship of evil, animal sacrifices and anything else associated with harming others.

Witnessing to Wiccans
Wiccans need God. They aren’t any farther away from Him than other lost people and are no less valuable in the eyes of God. They need a saving relationship with Him, as do adulterers, thieves, football players, businessmen and sweet, elderly ladies.

Keep these tips in mind when sharing with Wiccans:
1. Christians do have common ground with Wiccans, but not a common faith. Wiccans and Christians value creation and strive to preserve human life. That’s a starting place. Talk to Wiccans and then take the discussion to the gospel. Be prepared with both Scripture and logical arguments.

2. Know that Christians have a lot of historical “baggage” to overcome when it comes to loving witches. Often, what has been done to some individuals in the name of God -- the Salem witch trials, for example -- has been cruel and evil. Don’t try to explain or defend what Christians have done in Jesus’ name. Instead, recognize wrong for what it was and what it is.

3. Understand the outcast. They often are drawn to alternative religions and lifestyles because they feel rejected by mainstream culture. Befriend the lonely and even the strange. Some followers may choose Wicca because they are accepted there, and for them, it may be their last resort. Recognize interest in Wicca as a cry for help.

4. Make “deposits” into a bank of trust. Show Wiccans that you care about them. Build trust by sincere acts of kindness, friendship and honesty. Listen, even when what you are hearing doesn’t make sense.

5. Ultimately, understand that the gospel is a challenge and a confrontation. Don’t be surprised if your witch friend isn’t friendly when it comes to Jesus. Receiving Jesus is liberating, but it comes at a great cost. The gospel doesn’t need to be watered down. Just speak honestly from the heart.

As Wicca and neo-paganism become more popular, Christians need to be better informed and more vigilant. Wicca is becoming a more mainstream part of American culture, which means Christianity is becoming less so. However, Wiccans aren’t the enemy. Satan, the liar, is the real enemy.

This article was adapted from a story in HomeLife magazine and authored by William Wells, a former youth minister and editor of Challengers resources for the North American Mission Board.

Definitions

Wicca: The craft of the wise. “Wicca” and “witch” are derived from old words meaning “wise.” Wicca, a modern form of witchcraft, is based on teachings of nature worship and “magick.” Gerald Gardner founded the Wiccan movement in the 1950s as a modern reinvention of witchcraft.

Witch: A Wiccan, or practitioner of Wicca. Wiccans believe nature can be manipulated to make life better for people. A witch may be female or male.

Coven: A gathering of witches. A coven can be four, seven, 12, 13, or any other number, though “magickal numbers” are believed to hold more power.

Passing over (crossing): Pagan funeral rites for one who has died.

Druidism: Paganism of ancient Wales and Britain. Many modern American Wiccan traditions are based on Druidic teachings and Welsh witchcraft. Many of the non-Christian traditions associated with Halloween come from Druidism.

Neo-pagan: Literally “new pagan,” this refers to the modern forms of pagan teachings. Neo-pagans include modern witches (Wiccans) and modern-day Druids as well. Pagan usually refers to followers of ancient or primitive religions.

Magic vs. Magick: According to neo-pagans, magic is just tricks and sleight of hand, what many people call illusions. Magick, on the other hand, is tapping into the powers within the universe and manipulating natural laws through spells.

Handfasting: Pagan wedding ceremony where the hands of lovers are joined in a bond. Wiccans don’t get married; they become handfasted.

Once-born: A derogatory term for someone who hasn’t accepted the teachings of neo-paganism.

Wow! I realize this is from back in 2004... but it still shocks me...

Especially bothersome to me is the last "definition" - I have never heard any of my Wiccan friends refer to anyone else as "once-born" - even folks who would really deserve to be called names... I'm very certain that this is not a term that is in regular use among Wiccan circles, and was most likely added to make the Wiccan path seem derogatory of others (and therefore deserving of being "targeted" for witnessing)...

Comments?

-Emily

Interesting juxtaposition...

2006-06-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

From:
Mom Fights to Keep Baby on Life Support

"Under a Texas law signed by then-Gov. George W. Bush in 1999, hospitals don't have to continue life support more than 10 days after their ethics board decides lifesaving measures are pointless. Families, however, have the right to look for a facility that will continue treatment."

And yet, in March of 2005, Dubya fights against terminating life support for Terry Schiavo...

Things that make you go hmmm...

Pledge Protection Day

2006-06-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Concerned Women for America is taking part in a press conference today to protect the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Read more about the story here:

“As Americans commemorate Flag Day, it is also appropriate to remember the importance of keeping God in our Pledge. CWA strongly supports the mention of God in our nation’s oath in keeping with our constitutional freedoms. We are free from an established religion and free to worship as we choose. Our country’s founding fathers were men of faith who intentionally included the phrase ‘under God’ in an oath that serves as a symbol of loyalty and patriotism to our great country.

“The Pledge Protection Act would uphold and protect the sanctity of our age-old Pledge. Children across the country must continue to have the right to recite our Pledge day in and day out. The words ‘under God’ make the Pledge not only a patriotic oath, but a public prayer for our country.”

As I, and NJDC's Rebecca Murow, noticed - Ummm, sorry to break it to you CWA, but the Pledge was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy for a public school celebration of Columbus Day. It was amended in 1954 to add the phrase "under God". I seriously doubt our founding fathers had much to do with the writing of the Pledge...

One actual fact that the speaker got right is that "the words ‘under God’ make the Pledge not only a patriotic oath, but a public prayer for our country." Exactly what was intended by the Knights of Columbus when they petitioned Congress to have "under God" added to the Pledge.

Original Article:
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/21961329.html

Hat Tip to Rebecca at NJDC's blog:
http://njdc.typepad.com/njdcs_blog/2006/06/happy_flag_day.html

Real People - Real Commentary

2006-06-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

3 women on the salad bar line at a local restaurant…

Female #1 makes the comment that the TV show “Commander in Chief” is the “liberal media’s” way of “softening us up” for having Hilary as president…

Female #2 says "Oh, yes" they’re trying to get us “used to the idea of a female president”…

Female #1 says she doesn't like the idea of a female president at all

Female #2 felt that a female president would be okay, just not Hillary

Female #3 said she didn’t like the idea of “that actress” as president, and wouldn't vote for her… she continued with comments about how "actresses can’t become president, they don’t have the skills"…

Ummm - first - are we forgetting about Ronald Regan, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Bono, or Arnold? (or perhaps the idea was more that actresses don't have the ability, but actors do...)

Second - From the way she talked, it sounded like she was thinking Geena Davis was going to run for President... Are we confusing fantasy & reality people? (The third woman honestly seemed to think that Geena Davis is playing herself, as compared to a character…)

Third - I am constantly surprised by women who think that women have less skills and abilities as men... I just don't get the psychology of thinking of yourself as "lesser" of a person, especially based upon your gender, as compared to your skills...

I can say that I'm a poor soccer player compared to my husband, because I'm not that good at playing soccer, and he used to coach a soccer team... but I would find it difficult to claim I was a poor soccer player simply because I am a girl...

Does anyone know of any sources where I can research self-hate of this sort?

-Emily, perplexed

What’s the difference?

2006-06-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

Geno’s Steaks vs Christian Shops
A Double Standard

Geno’s Steaks in Philly has garnered recent attention for a sign on their property that states, “This is America… When Ordering, Speak English”.

Read the whole story here…

Now, I could delve into the controversy, talking about how Geno’s is free to have such a sign, but that they might consider taking it down to avoid offending people… etc. etc. But, lots of people are debating those points. I’m more interested in the following:

According to the complaint, which was served on Geno's yesterday afternoon, the restaurant is in violation of two sections of the city's antidiscrimination laws: denying service to someone because of his or her national origin, and having printed material making certain groups of people feel their patronage is unwelcome.

In particular, I want to focus on the “having printed material making certain groups of people feel their patronage is unwelcome” part.

It should be readily apparent why the “speak English” sign could make some people feel “unwelcome”, but I don’t see why the Commission on Human Relations doesn’t crack down on the stores in Philadelphia with religious signage…

I’m not talking about stores selling religious goods – like Christian bookshops, or Kosher & Halal Butchers. I am talking about the plumbing supply shop that has a “Jesus Fish” on its marquee, or the clothing store that posts a daily bible verse in the window – presumably secular stores that are claiming a religious affiliation.

It has been documented that “non-white” ethnic groups (Blacks especially, but also Asians and Latinos, and I’m sure many other groups) feel particularly uncomfortable shopping in stores where the sales staff, mannequins, and advertising is made up entirely of white people. Customers of these ethnic groups don’t necessarily feel directly discriminated against, but they distinctly get the feeling that they are not wanted and definitely not valued as customers.

That’s the same way I feel about secular industries proclaiming a religious affiliation… I get the feeling that as a Jew, I’m being subtly informed that I’m not a “preferred customer”.

I don’t mind if the folks who run the store are persons of deep faith, or if they give all their profits to their church. I just want to be comfortable in my shopping experience.

I’ve been told that many of these business owners are trying to proclaim that they are “Christian Businesses” because that means something about how ethical they are – that they abide by biblical principles in their business practices – and therefore want to advertise this fact so that others will know they are trustworthy.
That may work within the Christian community – in which case – advertise through your Churches… The Jewish community has been doing that for years…
Your public proclamation of “Christian Business Ethics” does nothing to improve my opinion of your trustworthiness… I will still need to hear a recommendation from a friend or neighbor, or I will try you out, and you can earn your trust with me… I don't see how a proclamation of Christian Business Ethics works for anyone of any other faith other than Christianity... (I can say I have a Jewish business, but I think the only people who would beat a path to my door based on that criteria, would be folks I know from synagogue or the JCC...)
Therefore, it seems that if you are a secular business, proclaiming Christian Business Ethics is the same as saying you are looking to be a Christian business, and serve the Christian community exclusively.

And where is the Commission on Human Relations on this? Am I the only one who feels unwelcome by secular stores’ proclamations of faith?

Maybe the Commission just hasn't caught up... or, once again it seems that religious discrimination is the last bastion of allowable prejudice…

-Emily

Some questions I've been asked...

2006-06-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Since I don't know how to edit comments and then publish them (I think we get "publish" or "reject" options only here...) - I'm responding to some folks' comments to me in this forum...

Apparently you know you've made it when you start to get hate mail... {smiles ruefully}

I've gotten a few choice comments to my "A question of morals" piece which I refuse to publish on grounds of abusive language.

However, some of the questions (or, more accurately, accusations) are valid ones, and I wish to respond. I list below edited versions of these questions, and my answers:

How can you support the lies they spew at Talk2Action?

The obvious disclaimer is that I don't always agree 100% with everything that everyone says on the site. That should be apparent to anyone who has participated in a public forum.
I do however agree with T2A's site guidelines, and the general theme of the site.
I know - because I have personally experienced it - that there are Dominionist Christians** in this world that are spreading hate in the visage of religiosity.

**Please note that my use of the term Christian here is not to be confused with your regular Christian folks, evangelical or otherwise, who are perfectly happy letting the rest of the world live as they wish. Dominionist Christianity is an extreme form of the religion (and many would claim that it is expressely NOT Christian because it is so warped) that intends to remake the world as a theocracy and disallow conflicting religious thought and enforce this using extreme measures, including death to heretics...

Why do you hate/fear Christians so much?

As I said above, I think we are probably using two different definitions of Christian here... You're talking about mainstream Christianity, and I'm talking about Dominionism...
Being Jewish, I'm obviously going to fear someone who is actively out to make my religion illegal to practice, or worse, kill me and my family...
I'll also restate a quip I made before - I hate hate... If you're in the business of rousing support for inequality or intolerance, then yes, I hate that... I can't say I hate you - that's such a strong thing to say about someone you've never met... but I can say that I hate what you stand for...

I think I might have to also start explaining more about where I'm coming from in the world. (Future Blog entries forthcoming...) For someone raised in this era, and especially in the greater Northeast of this country, I have personally experienced a lot of prejudice, especially as a child. I think that this has made me extremely sensitive to what it is like to be in the minority.

Why aren't you posting my comments?

I'm not trying to stifle "free speech" here - but I also am not about to post a comment that is actively bashing me on an ad hominem basis... also, I will not post foul language!

If/when you can speak normally and respectfully, I will, in fact, post comments that are "challenging" and in disagreement with me.

Otherwise - I'm stuck doing what I'm doing now...

Thanks for listening,
-Emily

Old Joke Revisited

2006-06-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

I received this joke from a friend back in February... I thought about it recently after the announcement that we have successfully "taken out" Al-Zarqawi...

Thought we could all use a laugh:

After numerous rounds of "We don't even know if Osama is still alive," on TV, Osama himself decided to send George Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was still in the game.

Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a single line of coded message:
370HSSV 0773H

Bush was baffled, so he e-mailed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides had not a clue either, so they sent it to the FBI. No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NASA.

Eventually they asked Britain's MI-6 for help. Within a minute MI-6 cabled the White House with this reply: "Tell the President he's simply holding the message upside down."

Enjoy!

A good quote is hard to find - 6/8/06

2006-06-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

I thought these were good ones:

"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Those who study history are doomed to know it's repeating."

"I truly believe that those of us who study history should make 'Sometimes, the jokes just write themselves' our unofficial motto. "

Thanks to Alice Venturi & Frank Frey at T2A!

A question of morals

2006-06-06T00:19:00.000-07:00

I must admit I am perplexed. I’ve been called a lot of things in life, but this has got to be a first… someone called me a bigot. Part of me is shocked… the other part finds this hilarious. It’s so obvious that this person doesn’t know me – because I know all of my friends are laughing…

According to the American Heritage Dictionary a bigot is “One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.”

You can read my foray into an attempt at logical discussion here:http://christiancadre.blogspot.com/2006/06/truth-about-left-behind-video-game.html

Which is a response to an article on Talk2Action, here:http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/6/1/82458/92817

(Tip: read the T2A article first, then the cadre site… just to keep the logical flow)

In all seriousness, my friend Turtle figures that my rhetorical opponent threw out the word so that any logical argumentation would be stopped. In the parlance of the BITE model (cult awareness), it’s a “thought stopping cliché”. Anyone who dare question his point of view must be intolerant and therefore a bigot. End of discussion.

To be honest though – I am intolerant - - of intolerance!
I have a deep-seated hatred of hatred!

And so I ponder the question – if someone desires to be tolerant, does this mean they must also tolerate intolerance?

This is a question that often trips up those opposed to hatred and hate speech. In specific, the Religious Right has figured out that this is a great way to shut down opposing voices calling them intolerant: No, you’re the one being intolerant – this is our religion. You are denigrating Christianity!

First, this argument is using the fallacy of equivocation– which is using the same word with two different meanings in an argument. In this case, the word Christianity is being used to describe both mainstream Christian theology, and dominionism. It’s a logically unsound argument, and I’m just not going to give it any more time.

I’m more interested in dealing with the morality of intolerance.

In a future post, (working on it at the moment) I will explain the existence of universal moral laws, and how intolerance, such as espoused by the Religious Right, is immoral, because it is based on factual inaccuracies in their arguments.

Stay tuned!

(BTW – I’ve stopped posting on the cadre thread – once someone starts pulling Holocaust rhetoric… That’s a hot button for me – I didn’t feel I could continue.)

-Emily

An e-mail in response to the dream...

2006-06-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

A visitor who wishes to remain anonymous wrote:

Hello

I have a question about your prophetic dream about Bush.

When you see your prophetic dreams, does it come true 100% the same way you dream it?
The dream sounds a lot like a video game, called Shattered Union.
You should look at this, it parallels your dream almost exactly.
http://www.2kgames.com/shatteredunion/home.php

What or who do you think is the source of your prophetic dream?

_____________________________________________________

Hi - thanks for the question.

My "prophetic dreams" rarely play out 100% the same way I dream it... it is usually the themes and concepts in my dream that happen - not the exact context that the "movie in my brain" is playing out... I will often have recurring episodes of the dream where some details change, but the main ideas stay the same...

For instance with the description of the dream I have posted - I've had followup dreams about my friend who is arrested... with additional and different details about why she was arrested and what happened to her during her incarceration...

I don't actually think she herself would be arrested and held indefinitely like in my dream - but she is politically active, and I know that my dream indicates a concern for consequences of her involvement - but also that her character is a "representative figure" - standing in for others who might be in that situation... my mind wanted to express the turmoil of having an activist friend or family member in this situation, and therefore chose the most likely "victim" in my own personal circle...

I interpret the dream as my mind saying that it thinks there could be a time coming in the future where political activists (who act against the majority thought) are considered risks to our country's leadership, and are therefore subject to harassment and civil rights abuses... (In fact, some would argue this is already happening)

And this gets into the "source" of the dreams... As I said in my post - I don't believe these to be anything "supernatural" or otherwise unusual... I probably shouldn't even term them prophetic, but that's what several friends of mine call them, and I've picked up the term. (I suppose I think of it as poetic :)

I know that my mind is wired in such a way as to be overly sensitive to minutiae - subtle body language, trends and patterns, etc... Just as dreams for everyone else are the result of their brains processing thoughts and actions from their waking lives - and their resulting dreams may hold insights, warnings, or conclusions based on things going on in their lives... my brain is just sorting through the minutiae data I have picked up on... Eventually, my mind concieves of a pattern to this input, and it comes out as a dream that has implications in the real world...

Thanks for the link - I look forward to taking a look at the site when I get a moment... I wouldn't be at all surprised that someone else has come up with the same or similar "pattern recognition" as I have... as I said - I believe I'm only reading and interpreting the "handwriting on the wall"... others could also be doing the same - and I wonder if the creation of the video game is not similar to the writing of the book 1984 - meant to express fears of a negative future, so that it can be avoided...

-Emily

Yeah, I'm still alive...

2006-05-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Unlike the "small hiaitus" - this is the "larger hiaitus"...

Life is crazy at the moment... got a reorganization at work, and trying to just organize my personal life... haven't had a lot of free time to write...

When I do get a moment - I promise the wait will be worthwhile!

-Emily

Stranger than Fiction...

2006-03-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

I heard it through the grapevine...

A friend of mine thought she heard a news story on the radio this morning that was talking about a Pagan family that was forced to sell their home and move to another neighborhood due to harassment by the civic association where they lived...

She remembered the post about my weird dream that included a scene of us having to move out because our civic association had barred non-Christians from living in our neighborhood...

She thought that she had heard that the civic association in this town was trying to promote the local "city of character" program, and was therefore targeting residents who were not supportive of the religious nature of the program.

She said she listened to the news on and off this morning, and heard nothing else about it.

I have spent some time today doing web searches on keywords that would probably be in the report, and have not found anything.

Did anyone else out there in the blogosphere hear anything about it, or do you think my friend imagined the story? (Sorry sweetie - but you suggested it first :)

-Emily

Sound Bite

2006-03-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

"People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution. They don't put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible." -- Jamie Raskin

[To read more about the genesis of this quote - pun intended (I know, groan)- see this article on Talk2Action: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/3/16/01942/8991]

Great Minds Think Alike

2006-03-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."

While I was thinking it, he was writing it...

http://ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=7057

Thanks to Brian Kaylor for a great article...

...and for saving me the trouble of writing just about the same thing.
=o)

-Emily

Weird Dream...

2006-03-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

I sometimes have prophetic dreams. This is not something supernatural – but yes, go ahead and call me weird, I’m used to it… I generally have very vivid dreams, and remember them after waking up. I have a friend who says I am “lucid dreaming” because I am aware of the fact that I am dreaming, and have control over what’s going on, and my reactions to my dream environment. Regardless of how I dream, the important part is what I dream. My brain is wired in such a way that I pick up on subtle environmental clues – what people usually call “the handwriting on the wall” – and my subconscious processes it every night when I’m sleeping. So – the context and action in my dreams usually are caused by my brain making connections between disparate clues that I pick up on during the day.

This means that on a fairly regular basis, when I wake up I have an insight about something going on in my life, or in the world around me… and that on a fairly regular basis, some of these insights turn out to be right…

For those Harry Potter fans – it’s like having a pensieve.

So – for what it’s worth – I share with you the unusual dream I had last night…

It started out with me reading the newspaper while watching the TV. My house had some significant changes in décor, which indicated to me that it was a future location. Also – the newspaper said it was November of 2006. The TV news is covering a story about terrorist action in the US – there were no specifics about the action – in other words, it wasn’t an attack like 9/11, the news people were talking about how a terrorist ring had been infiltrated and a huge plan was foiled. They were showing on the news, video of suspects being arrested and carried off in police vans. An unusual element is that the majority of the suspects in this terrorist ring were not of Middle-East descent, the majority of them looked “American”.

There was an abrupt change of venue, and I’m sitting at dinner at my sister’s place, watching the election returns. My brother-in-law ranting about how the Democrats hadn’t made enough inroads this election, and my husband saying it was because everyone was so proud of the Bush administration having busted the terrorist ring. The Northeast and California generally elected Democrats, ousting incumbent republicans (Santorum was ousted at least! J), but the GOP gained additional seats in the South and Central states.

Another abrupt change of venue, and I’m getting a call from a friend’s mother, telling me that my friend, who is a political activist, was arrested under suspicion of being part of a terrorist cell, and that I needed to go to court to appear on my friend’s behalf as a character witness. She was apparently in D.C. at a protest (that I was supposed to be at too, but couldn’t get off from work) when a group she was with got arrested when they were having lunch at the Hard Rock Café nearby the Mall.

Yet another abrupt switch, and I’m attending a protest with my husband in tow, and my friend’s husband, protesting her and others’, arrests, the fact that they are being held indefinitely with no specific charges, and that friends and family of these “suspects” have been subject to extensive investigation by law enforcement.

There was a brief interlude where it was obvious that I was working for some campaign – though it wasn’t clear who the candidate was, or what office this person was seeking. I was talking with some random campaign worker – we were watching the debates on TV and rejoicing that the Democrats had finally found a voice after all of the GOP’s scratching away at our civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

The next scene was very disturbing, with me rushing to pick up my niece and nephew from daycare, because we don’t know where my sister and brother-in-law are. I had gotten a call from the daycare saying that the kids were still there after 6pm, and that no one had come for them, and that they couldn’t get a hold of mom & dad at any phone number. I ran up to get them and took them back to their house, and was watching TV while making dinner for the kids. There were terrorist attacks happening at multiple targets across the US. I went into another room to call my husband to tell him that we didn’t know where my siblings were, but that I had gotten the kids home and they were eating. I was trying to hide from them that we were worried about their parents. I spent a long time watching the TV coverage, which surprisingly, held no interest for the two munchkins, who kept playing on the floor, absolutely oblivious to what was going on. My dream was not specific as to what the “targets” were – but it was enough that traffic was snarled everywhere, and there were widespread panic. From my perspective it felt like the action was everywhere. The TV kept reporting new attacks every 20 minutes or so, and there were cities that hadn’t been attacked, but the panic level got so high, that riots broke out. The TV showed pictures of looting and gangs of people swarming the streets. After what seemed like several hours, my sister and brother-in-law got home – they had been swept up in terrible traffic, but were safe. After the panic and traffic had subsided in our area, my husband came over, and we spent the night at my sister’s – it made us all feel safer to be together.

The previous scene had apparently occurred about 1 week before Election Day, because this next venue was still at my sister’s home, but we were now all together watching the TV in absolute shock and horror. The government had decided to postpone the 2008 election, due to the widespread damage and panic of the recent terrorist attacks. The problem was not the delay – since it was generally agreed upon that many polling places were not in any state to organize and complete voting… The problem was that an alternative date was not set – the postponement was “indefinite”. We watched as the government also announced that in an emergency session they had repealed term limits so that we would be able to re-elect Bush to a third term. This was due to a “sense of urgency felt around the country” that we shouldn’t abruptly change leadership in the middle of this crisis. And, since the “crisis” might take a while to “abate”, we needed to allow for our governmental officials to remain in place, but an election to also take place at the same time (“we are still a democracy after all”).

The next scene was at my friend’s home – she apparently was let out of jail at some point, but my dream did not explain how or when. This was a political rally at her home the night of the 2008 elections – that ended up being held in January of 2009. We were watching with dismay Bush squeaking out a win by a very tiny margin in many key states. Bush wins, but at the same time there are tons of news stories about voting irregularities – and most of the election is considered contested until multiple recounts are completed.

An abrupt change of scene – we’re at my sister’s house again, and watching the news. It’s been several months past the election and the news is talking about new programs that the 3rd Bush administration is putting together. Despite the hotly contested election, and that may candidates, including the presidential opponent, have NOT conceded the race, the government is still operating as if Bush was the clear winner – swearing him in and all despite protests by election officials.

Another change of scene – and my husband and I are moving out of our house and onto a small farm we bought that is just outside of town. Apparently we were forced out of our neighborhood because of new programs that allow civic associations to choose who is allowed to live in a neighborhood… all in the name of creating a “community of character”. The associations are not allowed to discriminate on race – but they can discriminate on “lifestyle”, since the whole point is to gather a wholesome community and get rid of those who would not respect the desired character of the neighborhood. Our religious choices (being Jewish) put us in conflict with the stated ideals of the community. We purchased some land – an old farm that the owner didn’t want developed, and so only would sell to someone who promised to live there and keep it a farm. We couldn’t afford the entire parcel – so he was willing to sell us several acres of the property around the house and barn, and we would keep that as a small farm, and the rest he would sell to the University, and they would be using it to expand the campus.

A few months later – we’re welcoming my sister and her family onto the farm. The same thing happened to them in their community, and they had no place to go, since by that time, they could not find any neighborhood that would allow them to live there. They moved into our home, and we started construction on a separate house for them on the property, so that they would have their own space.

Comments?

-Emily

From behind enemy lines... 3/6/06

2006-03-07T00:09:00.000-08:00

Support the Marriage Protection Amendment
March 6, 2006 Refer a Friend

To date voters in 19 states have acted to protect marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The message to the rest of the country and to our U.S. Senators is clear: citizens everywhere are in strong support of this most sacred institution. Despite this progress, the courts still pose a direct threat to the democratic process. Consider Nebraska.
Nebraska was one of the first states in 2000 not only to protect marriage, but also to do so in its state constitution. While over 70 percent of Nebraska voters approved amending the constitution, a single federal judge overturned everything Nebraskans worked so hard to accomplish. The judge's decision makes a mockery of the phrase "We the People" that begins the U.S. Constitution.
President Bush, affirming his support for the Marriage Protection Amendment, said, "After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization." An amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the only way to curb permanently the power and ambition of judges, who discard the work of our Founders and the will of most Americans.
The vote in the U.S. Senate is currently scheduled for the week of June 5, 2006. We have time to make a difference - and we must. Please sign this petition in support of the Marriage Protection Amendment. We will deliver these petitions to your Senator prior to the vote. Let your voice be heard.
Without this amendment, liberal courts are likely to mandate homosexual "marriage." When that occurs, every institution in American society will be pressured to change and to accept, even honor, this new civil right. Churches will be harassed. Schools will be infused with literature and history textbooks that praise homosexuality and insist it is normative. Our already eroding culture will accelerate its decline. Marriage will ultimately be abolished. The lessons from overseas are clear.
The time to act is now - while we have time. I ask you, from the bottom of my heart, to sign our petition and to join with tens of thousands of your fellow Americans who are responding when their country needs them. It does no good to defend our civilization in foreign lands only to lose it here at home. Please do your part, and may God bless you and your family.

Petition to U.S. Senators for Preserving Traditional One-Man/One-Woman Marriage in America

Sincerely,
Tony Perkins
President
P.S. It's essential that we have a massive show of support for the Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Please sign our petition to the U.S. Senate and forward this message, today, to your friends. When our voices are heard, Congress will act.

“Without this amendment, liberal courts are likely to mandate homosexual "marriage." When that occurs, every institution in American society will be pressured to change and to accept, even honor, this new civil right. Churches will be harassed. Schools will be infused with literature and history textbooks that praise homosexuality and insist it is normative. Our already eroding culture will accelerate its decline. Marriage will ultimately be abolished. The lessons from overseas are clear.”

Isn’t this the same argument that was used against integration? That one day society would be forced to accept that Blacks are equal?

I really doubt that marriage will be abolished – especially since that’s what the homosexual community is after…

And… umm… excuse my ignorance… but, what are “the lessons from overseas”?

-Emily

Serious Education Needed!

2006-03-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

Apparently the reason that more people aren't outraged by our current state of governmental affairs is that they don't know that they should be outraged...

Are we all forgetting what we learned in grade-school civics class? Or are schools these days not teaching civics anymore?

Perhaps our popular culture has become the "opiate of the masses", such that people are only interested in what goes on in their own circle of influence.

Regardless of where this ignorance comes from - we have a big job ahead of us to educate everyone first, and then get them to take action.

-Emily
__________________________________________________
Study: Few Americans Know 1st Amendment
By Anna Johnson, Associated Press Writer
3/1/06

CHICAGO - Americans apparently know more about "The Simpsons" than they do about the First Amendment.

Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half can name at least two members of the cartoon family, according to a survey.

The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

Joe Madeira, director of exhibitions at the museum, said he was surprised by the results.

"Part of the survey really shows there are misconceptions, and part of our mission is to clear up these misconceptions," said Madeira, whose museum will be dedicated to helping visitors understand the First Amendment when it opens in April. "It means we have our job cut out for us."

The survey found more people could name the three "American Idol" judges than identify three First Amendment rights. They were also more likely to remember popular advertising slogans.
It also showed that people misidentified First Amendment rights. About one in five people thought the right to own a pet was protected, and 38 percent said they believed the right against self-incrimination contained in the Fifth Amendment was a First Amendment right, the survey found.

The telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted Jan. 20-22 by the research firm Synovate and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Things that make you go hmm....

2006-02-28T17:56:00.000-08:00

From Yahoo News:

Bush says bin Laden tape aided re-election: report
Tue Feb 28, 9:47 AM ET

U.S. President George W. Bush said his 2004 re-election victory over Sen. John Kerry was inadvertently aided by Osama bin Laden, who issued a taped diatribe against him the Friday before Americans went to the polls, The Examiner newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Bush said there were "enormous amounts of discussion" inside his campaign about the 15-minute tape, which he called "an interesting entry by our enemy" into the presidential race.

Bush's comments in the Washington newspaper were excerpts from the new book "Strategery" by Bill Sammon, a long-time White House correspondent.

"What does it mean? Is it going to help? Is it going to hurt?" Bush told Sammon of the bin Laden tapes. "Anything that drops in at the end of a campaign that is not already decided creates all kinds of anxieties, because you're not sure of the effect.

"I thought it was going to help," Bush said. "I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn't want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush."

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Proposed Democratic Platform

2006-02-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

I came across this quote a while back, and thought it was really neat then – but I wasn’t blogging yet, so I never got to share it. Since it came back up in discussion lately – why not share it now?

I’m on the Progressive Delaware Democrats mailing list – and Tom Vincent posted it again as follows:

And I *still* think the Democratic Party should adopt FDR's proposed Second Bill of Rights as their official platform:

·The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation.
·The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.
·The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.
·The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.
·The right of every family to a decent home.
·The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.
·The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.
·The right to a good education.

I totally agree. The democrats should adopt this long-waiting promise as their platform… “The Promise for the Future”, maybe?

Whatever you want to call it, we need to use this to reframe the political arguments in this country.

The current administration has lost sight of the individual American; Her hopes and dreams, his needs and wants. It is up to the Democrats to use this time in our political history to lay claim to the values of the everyday American.

There is a great interchange in one of my favorite movies – The American President – where the president is talking to one of his staff, and they are arguing over the American populace looking for leadership. They use the imagery of an oasis. The staff member says that the people are so thirsty for leadership that in its absence they will come to an oasis and drink the sand. The president replies that they don’t drink the sand because they are thirsty – they drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.

The Values Voters are voting for Republicans because the Republicans have defined for our country what “values” the average American should have.

We need to redefine what real American values are – and lead the charge on behalf of the NEW Values Voters!

-Emily

From behind enemy lines…

2006-02-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

Okay – so, I’m on the e-mail list of the Family Research Council… no, I haven’t suddenly gone insane… I’m actually on the mailing lists for a number of groups that would surprise you… it happens when you want to view some report on their website and they require you to register to be able to view it…

So – I wanted to view the FRC’s congressional scorecard – and, because I had to give them an e-mail address to register, I ended up on their mailing list.

Interesting vitriol from time to time – so I decided not to unsubscribe… It is sometimes important to know what the enemy are coming up with before the “fit hits the sham” as they say…

So – In an e-mail dated 2/10/06, Tony Perkins has a little write-up about the relaxed guidelines for religious observance at the Air Force Academy:

A Wing and a Prayer

The U.S. Air Force has relaxed its guidelines on prayer. No longer will Christians who serve as Air Force chaplains be cautioned against praying in the name of Jesus at military ceremonies. (Praying in Jesus' name at military worship services had never been affected.) The latest guidelines continue to urge commanders to be "sensitive to the potential" that personal statements of faith may be interpreted as government endorsement of religion. The new guidelines affirm the Constitution's free exercise and free speech guarantees and advance the idea that expressions of faith--barring any evidence of coercion--are fully protected. The Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), welcomed the new Air Force guidelines. Dr. Haggard's New Life Church is a neighbor to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Dr. Haggard sees the new Air Force policy as fully respectful of minority rights while not infringing on the rights of majorities. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), however, said the Air Force needs to move further to assure that chaplains can pray in the name of Jesus. Air Force Academy graduate Mikey Weinstein is not happy. He said the requirement that senior officers must make it "reasonably clear" they are not coercing their subordinates when they share their personal faith does not go far enough. "Get out of my face, sir, is not an option," Weinstein said. Mr. Weinstein, a lawyer, is suing the Air Force. That is his right. But we will continue to defend our rights. And praying in the name of Jesus is surely one of them.

Additional Resources
Air Force Revises Guidelines on Religion

For those of you who need a little backgrounder on the issue – check out Talk2Action’s Lorie Johnson, and an early diary of hers.

What really bothers me is a quote from Ted Haggard:

"Dr. Haggard sees the new Air Force policy as fully respectful of minority rights while not infringing on the rights of majorities."

Umm… the majority and minority have different rights in this country??

And here I thought I lived in America, where everyone has equal rights…

-Emily

The Quotable Emily

2006-02-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

The Ubiquitous Flying Blue Blog - one of my new favorite writers...

Les Aaron has a great response to all this domestic spying nonsense:
http://lesaaron.blogspot.com/2006/02/cranking-up-lying-machine.html

My brief response:

It's a rule of thumb. In anything, if you have to make an argument that the ends justify the means, then you definitely are not taking the moral high ground.

-Emily

Cool Website

2006-02-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

I found this randomly while looking for something totally different... but isn't it cool?

http://extrasolar.spaceart.org

Thought I would share...

-Emily

Alito Confirmed...

2006-01-31T09:50:00.000-08:00

In the immortal words of Charlie Brown - Good Grief!

Oh - I am sooooo pissed off right now... (the PMS isn't helping either :)

I've got lots to say on the topic - but right now I'm coming off like a gibbering idiot, I'm just feeling so frustrated and angry... so I'm gonna simmer down for the moment and come back and talk when I can sound reasonable to the world...

Oh - and Tom Carper voting for Cloture? You're on my naughty list next election!

Oy!

-Emily

From behind enemy lines - 1/30/06

2006-01-30T20:30:00.000-08:00

From the FRC e-news:

“Ronald Reagan used to say he wouldn't go over the cliff with flags flying--just to prove a point. Those wise words seem wasted on Senate Democrats these days. Liberal advocacy groups are pulling out all the stops. Die in the ditch, jump off the cliff, throw a tantrum, how many ways can we describe their futile filibuster plans? Not all Democrats buy into this strategy. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) says that his party needs "to do a much better job in making the case [to Americans] on these issues." It will be interesting to see if Obama sticks with these commonsense observations--or will they be taken to the liberal woodshed by left-wing bloggers? This entire discreditable episode shows Americans a party captive to its far-left fringe.”

“Captive to its far-left fringe”?? How about the GOP being captive to its far-right fringe… but that’s okay huh? Because that’s what the average everyday American wants... right?

-Emily

Small Hiaitus...

2006-01-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

Hello loyal readers, who have probably been wondering if I've fallen off the face of the earth...

Nope - still here... just having a busy life....

There is a lot to catch up on - and hopefully I'll be able to do that soon, but in the meantime, I'm working on the following:

A work project that was supposed to take 2+ months that we were told to complete in 2 weeks, so I've been working late every night...

My sister having false labor every few days, so we have to run to take care of my niece while mom and dad are at the hospital... (no new nephew yet... frustrating for everyone, especially mom!)...

My surprise birthday party - which included friends and family staying at our house...

My stepsister having a baby - which is a whole family to-do, with everyone stressed - get to more about this later...

Grand-parental illness...

So - let's just say, I'm busy...

Talk soon - hopefully!

-Emily

A good quote is hard to find – 1/22/06

2006-01-22T23:32:00.000-08:00

This quote was on the bottom of an acquaintance’s e-mail message – I like it, and so I’m sharing it.

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference." – Elie Wiesel

Two “corollaries” to make you think:

Hate is extreme fear of losing something you love

Indifference = Apathy

"Entry Level" light bulb

2006-01-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

I had a "light bulb moment" during a car drive this evening!

In my big "turning 30" rant, I spoke about how at work I was dissapointed that I'm considered "entry level" even with my many years of relevant work experience...

Several people, including my husband, have told me not to let it bother me... if even though I'm considered "entry level" they still have me being a project manager and paying me well - then that's still good, and I shouldn't be troubled by it...

Intellectually, I understood what they meant... that as long as it didn't mean I was being demoted, losing pay, or anything like that, it's not a big deal... especially, as my hubby pointed out, meant that if I did my normally wonderful job at work, then I was exceeding expectations, and would be eligible for a promotion - which might not be the case if I'm at a higher level - I'd have a higher bar to work towards for a promotion...

But it still bothered me... and, I finally figured out why!

There was one of those commercials on the radio about getting a "certificate degree" at one of those franchise technical schools... Well, one of the lines in the commercial is - "With a certificate from [insert name of school], you'll be eligible for an exciting entry level position in one of the following fields..."

"exciting entry level position"... and it doesn't even need a college degree... or even an associate degree... just a certificate....

I'm pissed about the label... if those of us at the "entry level" position are called that - the outside world makes a certain assumption about our skills, education, and years of experience... which in the case of my workplace - would be completely off-base...

I think that a lot of folks in my office - including me - would be very happy if they just renamed the "entry level" position something different... so instead of "Analyst - Entry Level", it would be "Analyst I"...

"Analyst I" implies a lower level - but makes no inherent assumptions about what level of skill, education, or years of experience needed to get the job...

I'm going to have to remember to tell our HR folks this suggestion...

-Emily

Update on the personal life...

2006-01-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

Oh well... not pregnant...

Got my cycle this week - and it's not that light "spotting" that you could call a "maybe"...

Turns out all the stomach issues and other weird health bits were because I was coming down with some virus that went through my workplace...
Hubby had the exact same symptoms one week later...

I feel a bit sheepish - that I was sooo convinced I was pregnant... on the other hand though, I feel good about the mistake - because I was excited... it proved to me that I am really ready to have a baby... I had been concerned that I wanted a baby more because it was expected of me, than me wanting one... but the fact that I didn't get scared or concerned about being pregnant - but instead was really happy about it - proved to me that this is something I want... and if it coincides with what everyone else wants for me too... oh well...

(I just DO NOT want to hear from my grandmother-in-law that we decided to have a child _because she said so_!)

I'm still trying to work out why my abdominal muscles felt so odd though... that's one I'm having trouble working out... I wonder if it has anything to do with going off birth control pills... perhaps the resumption of a full complement of natural hormones does something? Or I could have been PMSing for 3 weeks???
Never said my body was normal...

Well - I can at least look forward to trying again... and again... ;>

-Emily

A liberal Rabbi speaks up

2006-01-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

If you are interested, Beliefnet has an interesting piece by a liberal Rabbi speaking about the Religious Right.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/182/story_18230_1.html

"We're People of Faith, Too
A liberal religious Jew speaks to the Religious Right about what it means to be a believer in America." By Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie

It's a good article - and the links to other past articles are also an interesting read... expecially the inherent timeline... you can see how the writing moves from "Jewish - Evangelical Christian relations" to "trouble with the Religious Right" over time...

Finally, more Jews are waking up to the trouble brewing from the RR...

-Emily

Everyone Hates Barbie...

2006-01-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

This is ridiculous… can Barbie never get it right?

The liberals criticize her for promoting stereotypical female gender roles, such as being obsessed with appearance (to attract male interest), promoting that having material goods equals happiness, and in the past, showing traditionally female career choices and interests (remember the “math is hard” recording for a talking Barbie?)…

The conservatives criticize her for the exact opposite – that Barbie is too worldly, too risqué, and doesn’t promote a traditional female role model!

Certainly, there is plenty of fodder to criticize… I myself take issue with the Chickenpox Kelly doll – making a plaything out of a serious disease… IMHO they would have been better off having Kelly going to Dr Barbie for a well-child checkup… much more of a positive message, and educational, in the sense that children should know about going for an annual checkup, and feel comfortable at the doctor’s office….

But I digress…

The conservatives have the complaint this time… saying that Barbie and Mattel are promoting a homosexual agenda because a survey on their website gives three options for a question response:

Are you a:
Girl
Boy
I don’t know

Mattel execs say the “I don’t know” option was default text that should have been rewritten to state “I don’t want to say”, as that is always an option with their surveys. Conservative activists claim it was a deliberate attempt to portray homosexuality as acceptable to young children.

And, of course, Barbie gets criticized again – now for steering girls away from the Christian ideal of womanhood…

I’d say she was a born loser – except she’s just so popular…

-Emily

On turning 30

2006-01-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer – this is a “girl thing”… I’m venting… really not looking for solutions to my issues – since mostly they are just that – my issues – totally attitude related, and there aren’t any “real” solutions other than to just get over it… I’m really quite clear in my mind that this is totally my own ego trip and intellectually I know it has no bearing on the truth of my life… on the other hand, I’m still bummed about it… so I’m hoping that writing about it will make me feel better…

So – I’m turning 30 in a few weeks…

And I can’t help but feel like somewhat of a failure… I’m comparing my current self to the “future self” I envisioned when I was in high school… and I’m not totally happy with what I see…

Let’s go back to my high school years for a brief moment, simply to explain that I was the total outcast… I was bullied and picked on every day of my high school career, except for the last week of my senior year, when miraculously, just about everyone except for the “cool crowd” (read in – the bystanders who ignored me like I was invisible and let me be bullied instead of stepping in) expressed regret that they never got to know me better… they thought I was really a worthwhile person and was sorry we hadn’t been friends… thanks a lot… too little, too late… how much I would have enjoyed having at least 1 friend last week…

I was the “Hermione type” too… real high achiever, one of the top GPAs in my year, and about a dozen extracurriculars… awards and honors out the ying-yang… that was good for me – kept me having some sort of self-esteem (everyone might hate me, but look at how well I’m doing), but I’m sure it didn’t help me win friends and influence people…

I remember one guy told me that I was ugly and would never have a boyfriend… and I told him that I might be ugly, but I was certainly smarter than him and his friends… and he said that it didn’t matter if I was smarter than Einstein – his spit was still worth more than I was…

So – let’s just say that I left high school with a burning desire to return to my 10 year reunion as the next Bill Gates of the world…

Hasn’t happened…

Well – not entirely at least…

College was great… I went from outcast to social butterfly… I was a geek, but I was still popular… Geekiness was “in” at my college… I had a large social network, a fraternity, a few really close friends, I networked with the faculty, staff, and administration, and, best of all… I had a boyfriend (now husband)!

I had shown up all of my detractors in high school…

I’d never be socially accepted? Wrong – I was one of the 25 finalists for homecoming court! I wasn’t voted homecoming queen – nor was one of the 4 homecoming court couples… but that didn’t matter to me… the simple fact that I was one of the top choices of the entire student body at my college?!? Me? The ugly social reject? I will forever remember the fact that I had enough votes to be in the top 25…

I’d never have a boyfriend? Hah! I had a boyfriend from the first evening of orientation! In fact, I had 2 guys fighting over me the first week! And by October of my freshman year, I was dating who would become my husband 7 years later…

And college was the same as high school – academic honors and tons of activities… awards and honors…

I went back to my 5 year high school reunion armed with my fiancé, and stories of my success… But no one from the “cool crowd” was there… in fact, hardly anyone was there at all… I had no one to whom I could prove I wasn’t a reject, that they were wrong and I was right all along…

So, I went back home and started my life, thinking about how in another 5 years I’d have racked up another ton of “honors” and “successes” to be able to prove myself better than my nemeses… and, at that point I could point out my “husband”, as compared to my “fiancé”…

But, I think I peaked in college…

I started working at a university, thinking that I would work while getting more advanced degrees – but that didn’t work out… so, I took a glamorous “consulting” gig, that had me living in a hotel in NY for 3 months, before coming back to my area of the world… but that dot.com went dot.bust, and I was back on the job market…

I was disillusioned with the corporate world, especially the “we own your life” mentality that went along with trying to get ahead in corporate ladder-climbing games… In college I had come to value my social life and having hobbies and things to do besides work, so I wanted somewhere to work where I was happy, but also didn’t require me to give up my life to the bottom line…

I also wanted to “make a difference” and “change the world” – my idealistic side coming out… I should have a job that does more than just pay the bills… So, I ended up in public service – government stuff… doing computers for public health…

Pay wasn’t great – but it made ends meet, I enjoyed my work, and I had the time I valued…

But – I couldn’t help feeling like I had “settled”… working in government you realize that at least among the non-management types, government is the location where the mediocre come to work… good enough that they accomplish the job, but not good enough to make it in the corporate world… These are the workers that wouldn’t make it anywhere more challenging… Though – if you were management… you were idealistic, intelligent, and the corporate world could really use you, but you won’t work there because you value your soul… and I was management…

The problem is – that in my experience, many people don’t see that insider’s view… the fact that management folks in government are excellent workers is missed by the public, and the public view is that “you couldn’t make it in the real world, so you’re working in government”…. I’m appreciated by my co-workers and my boss and the government officials… but going back to my 10 year reunion – would anyone be impressed by this? Would this be considered success? Especially since the folks doing the judging would have cushy executive jobs at their parents’ businesses…

I missed my 10 year reunion… but from the article summarizing the event, it was exactly what I thought… the “cool crowd” had mainly been in attendance here (where they were absent at the 5 year – go figure), and they all did have impressive sounding jobs at top firms – mostly where their parents or their parents’ contacts could place them… and they all had a lot of money to burn… I decided that I’m glad I didn’t go – since I couldn’t have competed… I had the husband, and a good responsible job… but it had been 5+ years since college, and talking about how I was in the top 25 for homecoming queen doesn’t quite compare to a 6-figure salary, corner office, and a corporate jet…

I also decided that it was silly to try and keep competing with people who intellectually I couldn’t care less what they thought of me. Yes – I still would love to have the opportunity to hurt them like they hurt me… but would that really make me feel better about myself? Not really… so I told myself that they were not the competition – since they didn’t have to work to get the cushy jobs they hold… and besides – they can’t possibly be as happy as I am – since their lives would be devoid of real meaning…

So – after 7+ years in public health, I’m now working for a non-profit agency in health promotion… higher salary… but…

When I was hired I thought I was being hired at a particular level of job… you know – with almost 8 years of experience in my last job, and another 4 years before that – I figured that meant I was moving up in the world… and my new job, when I was hired they talked about how they were really impressed with my experience… and I’m in charge of some major projects here…

But we started this new performance plan thing for next year… and it turns out that my position is considered “entry level”…

At this point in my life I’m still only considered entry level material?

I know this is getting long – so I’ll try to conclude here…

I think you get the idea where I’m going… I look in the mirror and think to myself “is this all there is”? If I had done something differently, could I have been more successful? But of course, I’d probably have had to work harder and longer hours – and probably have no personal life left… But I’d have the 6-figure salary and cushy job title? Who knows…

I just feel like I’m deserving of more? Or perhaps I still need to prove that I can accomplish more… I need to know that I’m not only successful to myself – but that someone in the “outside world” would also consider me successful…

Yeah, yeah, I can hear you now… the only one who knows if you are successful is yourself… but… I still feel the need for outside validation…

Would one of the “cool crowd” think I was a worthwhile person now? Would they envy me? Would they wish they had my life?

I suppose when I was younger I had all the accolades – those “awards and honors” – to let me know that I was doing a good job… It was outside validation of my success… you don’t have that as an adult out in the “real world”… awards and honors are rare… and so, I no longer have “bragging rights” so to speak, about how successful I am…(in the sense of, hey someone other than myself judged me as being special or above average in my success…)

So – all I have is the ability to compare myself to others who are about the same age as me, and see where they are in life compared to me… and unfortunately, those who I am comparing myself to are closer to Donald Trump than my end of the world… (or they are really fibbing everyone?)

I suppose it just comes down to – I’m turning 30 – and I can’t help feeling like I should be doing better than I am…
(So – I suppose I should be determining what I consider to be successful for me, and work towards it… but I’m having trouble with figuring out that too!)

-Emily

ADL's Foxman on Religion in America

2006-01-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

Religion In America

Thought this was an interesting talk to bring to your attention...

It is good to see that leaders within the American Jewish Community are finally realizing the threat of the Religious Right/Dominionist movement...

I'm also interested in looking at the 1994 study that Foxman refers to... I didn't see it when it was first published... get back to you on that one...

-Emily

Happy New Year!

2006-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

A Happy New Year to everyone...

My personal wish - as always - world peace

World Peace is defined by me as a world where everyone's needs for food, shelter, clothing, companionship, and meaningful work are met... where the world's nations* may not always be in agreement, but at least are working through diplomacy and mutual understanding to make the planet Earth a better place for everyone...

(*nations is understood not only as individual countries and municipalities, but also as groups of people, such as religious or cultural populations...)

A tall order yes... but hopefully possible...

-Emily

Interview Questions for the Religious Right…

2005-12-30T00:10:00.000-08:00

...that will probably never be answered.

1) You state that not being wished a “Merry Christmas” is persecution of Christianity. By the same logic, wouldn’t failing to wish a Jew “Happy Hannukah” be persecution of Judaism? And not wishing an African-American family “Happy Kwanzaa” be persecution of their culture? Wouldn’t it therefore be better to wish everyone the inclusive “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” and not persecute anyone?

2) You say that you are not interested in creating a theocracy, but are interested in creating a form of democracy where God is the supreme source of law. Given that the definition of the word theocracy is a form of government where the rule of law comes from God, how is your form of government not a theocracy? Also, if the US is to accept the rule of God – there are many forms of God worshipped in our country – how would you go about choosing which form of God should be in charge?

2b) Since there is no logical or objective basis with which to evaluate religious beliefs, do you have a plan to institute an evaluation process that the citizenry could agree on its use?

Diary of the Future... 12/21/06

2005-12-29T08:11:00.000-08:00

Interesting week:

Monday - checked in with Cori... turns out that her boss really wasn't angry with them, but had to "put on a show" for some guy who was hanging out in the store... it seems that a group of folks from the large fundamentalist church in town have decided they are the "morality police"... they are going around and encouraging boycotts and picketing of stores that don't meet their demands... for a small mom-and-pop book store like the Book Nook, that could spell disaster, especially in the middle of the holiday shopping season... So - her boss said that they would still take special orders of "unusual" books - but that they had to be careful to only take such special orders from people they know... since the Church threatened that they would "be watching" and might send in a spy or two to test that they are really complying with the Church's demands... Cori's glad that she still has her job - but she and the manager she works with is really upset that their boss would cave to the Church like that... I said that she might change her mind after the holidays... that the owner is afraid of any negative publicity in the middle of the holiday season that might cut into her holiday sales... perhaps she's giving in now, to keep the peace, and in January things will change... Cori hopes so, but in the meantime will have to spend some time this week removing the "objectionable" books to a storage room in the back, where they can refer their regluar customers...

Tuesday & Wednesday - Avani, Cori, and I approached Pat about the luminaries. We said that we were amenable to participating in having luminaries on our front curbs, but that since we did not celebrate Christmas, we were uncomfortable using the Christmas themed luminaries... we proposed that we could use only the white snowflake ones... She said she would think about it and get back to us... she specifically wanted to consult with the organizers of some of the other neighborhoods to see how they are handling similar concerns... Well, she got back to us and said that she called a few people, and that the first person she spoke to agreed with her that it would look "un-unified" to have only the snowflake luminaires out at our homes and that we should be like everyone else and use the entire pack, but then the town organizer for the event returned her call and said that they had made up special "non-Christian" packs of luminaries that had all white bags and an assortment of snowflake designs, and that he would send her a supply ASAP. She figures that means that it's "allowed", since the organizer said so, and she said she would drop off the snowflake-only luminary packs as soon as they arrive. I'm surprised that she gave in so easily... I'm curious what the organizer guy actually said to her that she would agree without trying to push us to use the Christmas themed ones... oh well - I suppose I'll say a blessing for him... :)

Today - I met Marcus at the bus stop and the minute the bus pulled away he starts crying... I had no idea what was wrong... I kept asking him if he was hurt, and was looking for an injury of some kind... he finally got around to pulling an envelope out of his bag... it was a note from his teacher attached to a note from the art activity instructor... The art instructor had given them a craft project to make a beaded necklace... the necklaces were in kits that contained different sized wooden beads of different shades of natural wood and a few colored ones, and a faux-leather lace... also included in the kit was a 2" high wooden cross... according to the note from the instructor Marcus refused to follow directions by not putting the cross on his necklace... the art instructor attached a ziplock bag with the necklace and the "missing" cross bead with instructions that Marcus was to complete the assignment correctly, or he would not be allowed to participate in art class the next time... His teacher attached a cover letter explaining that Marcus had told the art instructor he was Jewish and that he did not want to use the cross, but would make a necklace with the other beads... the teacher went on to say that the art instructor felt that this was an "excuse" and that he didn't have to keep the necklace after making it, that the point of the craft was not just to make the necklace, but to also follow the directions on how to make it... the teacher said that Marcus then made his necklace without the cross, and the art instructor punished him by having him stand in the corner... some of the other children then made fun of him the rest of the day, because they didn't understand what was going on... the teacher wrote that she tried to explain to the class, and to the art instructor that Marcus was not being bad, but she wasn't able to convince the instructor, and therefore, some of the children wouldn't believe her either... She went on to commend Marcus' behavior and attitude during the event - he had remained polite and made his point well, and said that she had made a copy of the art instructor's note and wrote a report to the administrative office... She said she could not countermand the instructor's "punishment", but that she was in total disagreement and hoped the administration would agree with her... she would let me know if anything happened... and in the meantime if I wanted to come in to chat with her about the incident, she would make herself available...

I think Marcus thought he was going to get in trouble because he brought home a note. I told him that the teacher was saying how good he was in class, and let him read the letter. After a while he finally calmed down and was able to tell me about what had happened... it pretty much sounded the same as in the teacher's letter... just with more details about how some of the other kids had picked on him... Luckily the kids picked on him for being "bad" and "mean to the teacher" and were not picking on him being Jewish - just being singled out for punishment, and by the art instructor yet - who isn't considered a "real" teacher... I suppose that's a good thing, that even if the teacher was acting bigoted, the kids were just being kids...

I'm going to meet with Marcus' teacher after school on Monday...

Is this an oxymoron?

2005-12-29T07:11:00.000-08:00

Okay - I just have to vent on this one...

In planning for a pregnancy (no official news yet - read on), because my husband and doctors all knew this was something that could be potentially difficult, I spoke with my OB/Gyn about pre-natal vitamins, and with my GP and Allergist about switching to pregnancy-safe medications for my Asthma and Allergies... so, at this point, I'm taking totally different meds than those I have been used to for years... I'm taking nothing for the allergies, but have 3 meds for my asthma...

And - this past weekend, I spent a day with family, and apparently I'm _really_ allergic to the long-haired cat....

So my asthma and allergies are having a field day....

I think I'm pregnant, and therefore my allergist won't prescribe me anything additional to deal with the symptoms (he did recommend increasing the dose on one of my meds, but that's not really taking care of the problem as much as keeping it from getting worse)...

So - I call my OB/Gyn's office to speak to the nurse....

I start with the "I think I might be pregnant" conversation.... and the response was that I should wait until after January 5th to take a home test, since anything earlier might give me a false negative... and a false negative is bad, because I might not take care of myself properly if I think I'm not pregnant....

Okay.... so now on to section 2 of the phone call "What is safe for me to take because of my allergies"?

The response - oh, take anything, it doesn't matter what you take until you get a positive pregnancy test....

Excuse me? Did I miss something here? I'm supposed to avoid a false negative so that I take good care of myself in case I am pregnant.... but then it's okay to do whatever with OTC meds because I don't have a positive test??

The nurse must have correctly interpreted the pause in our conversation, because she continued by recommending to me some OTC meds that are considered pregnancy safe....

I'm glad she's not my regular nurse (she's filling in temporarily in the absence of my regular nurse who is a real sweetie!)... I'm just shocked, because I'm usually so happy with everything and everyone at that office, that it's really surprising to me to have an issue there...

So there's the vent... thanks for listening...

More babywatch updates in January, unless something else comes up before then!

-Emily

Personal Question to the Blogosphere...

2005-12-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

Okay - for those of you asking for baby news... here's the bombshell of the year, I think I might be pregnant!

First - I don't want to get my hopes too far up... my first Gyn told me with my PCOS I was going to have lots of trouble getting pregnant... my current Gyn's opinion is that it should'nt be too hard - try for a few months first, and if it's not happening, we'll put you on some meds and that should take care of it... she's really of the opinion this is no big deal.... while my last Gyn basically gave me this "be finished with having children by the time you're 30 or else" mentality... So - basically, I'm still not sure who to believe... I doubt my original "doom and gloom" diagnosis is correct, but at the same time can it really be that easy?

So - we've been trying without meds for a little bit....

I need opinions from women who have been there... since the online resources for "extremely early pregnancy symptoms" are really a mixed bag...

So - all the sites say that the "first symptom you are likely to experience is a missed period".... sorry, but my monthly is not imminent, and I'm currently feeling like something different is going on... All of the sites seem to indicate that symptoms are not to be felt except for after you miss your period.... and some sites tell you that if you are experiencing early symptoms that it could all be in your head because you _want_ to be pregnant (or seriously _don't want_ to be). Not very helpful... thanks...

So - currently I could possibly be about 10 days pregnant... and I have been experiencing the following:

Day 4 & 5 - could not finish what for me would be a normal sized lunch... got disgusted with what I was eating half way through, and could not continue eating...

Also on Day 4 & 5 - experienced a random hour of nausea, which was made better by drinking peppermint tea...

Since day 4 - been disgusted with strong odors, which my husband finds amusing, since I suddenly do not like the smell of tuna fish - which is usually one of my favorite foods...

Since day 4 - feeling PMS-ish, bloated, and mild cramping (though my period is not due till after new year's)... usually my period-related cramps go from mild to severe really quickly, and have me reaching for my prescription pain meds... this time, they stayed non-painful... just achy for days.... went for 4 days straight and now they come and go randomly...

Since Day 6 - feeling like my lower abdominal muscles are doing exercises without me... happens on and off... less for the last 2 days....

Any opinions out there?

I can't bug my doctor about it, since she said you can't _really_ tell without an at-home pregnancy test first, and you can't take that until after you've already missed your period... so I'm anxiously waiting for week 2 of January next year so that I can see if the at-home test comes back positive, so then I can schedule an office visit with my doctor...

Has anyone "been there done that"??

Thanks!

-Emily

Vacation...

2005-12-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

For my loyal readers - First of all - Thanks!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

I will be out of town throughout the holiday season and into next year... and where I am travelling may or may not come equipped with Internet access...

So - you may find a new post, or perhaps there will be new posts starting next year.

Just wanted to let you all know.

Thanks again, and see you on the other side!

-Emily

Reflections on Christmas Past

2005-12-21T05:20:00.000-08:00

I remember a year - I think I was in 6th grade... I was home alone with a friend of mine... and it was around Christmas...

Being a Jewish household, this meant that we did not have any Christmas decorations on our house...

We had this pair of missionaries stop at my door... my friend and I answered... and being young and too polite to say "no thank you" and close the door in their faces, we stood at the door and listened to them talk about God and the season of Christmas... One woman kept saying how it was so nice to find such polite young women at home, and that it was never too early to start thinking about God and our futures...

They had some brochures they left us with... one said he was going to give us "the good stuff", and pulled out a few of those cartoon tracts for us...

We said our goodbye and shut the door.... my friend and I looked at each other, and immediately got the giggles... we were just so struck by their earnestness and the emotion with which they spoke... we thought it was so over the top it was funny...

I should stop here and also say that my friend was Christian herself...

Now - we were not being disrespectful to the religion - just the people at our door... we talked about how we would have found it more interesting if they actually wanted to talk with us about some serious religious topic, rather than talk _at_ us about how important it was to have a personal relationship with Jesus...

We threw out the brochures, and then took a look at the cartoons, it being the first time that either of us had ever seen them...
I found them insulting and intolerant, and she kept saying how she thought her church wouldn't agree with them, and that she was going to ask her minister about it...
She took them and put them in her coat pocket to bring to church that Sunday...

We went back to playing and completely forgot about the visit until my mother came home and asked about the brochures in the trash... I decided to tell her that the missionaries had left them on our porch for us, rather than tell her I had actually opened the door and talked to them (we had had instructions not to open the door for strangers, but we both thought it had been my friend's mom and opened the door without looking first).

Later on, my friend's mom came over - they lived down the street - and my mom asked if she had seen the missionaries... my friend's mom said no, that she hadn't had them stop by... to which my mom concluded that they were probably targeting homes where there were no Christmas decorations...

From then on, I remember always feeling vulnerable around Christmas... that by not having Christmas decorations it made us a "target". That we were somehow in danger from some evil in the world because it was suddenly obvious to others we were Jewish.

I got over the fear and paranoia pretty quickly when I realized that our having a mezuzah on our door made it obvious all year round that we were Jewish... so we were not in any more or less "danger" during Christmas... but I never got rid of the overall worry that during the Christmas season not having decorations still somehow made you more vulnerable than at other times....

Each year the something "bad" did not occur made the worry less and less... It still was in the back of my mind, but I haven't really thought about it again until this year...

With all the "war on Christmas" nonsense, I keep fearing that someone is going to take personal offense with the fact that my family doesn't celebrate Christmas... especially since I know that many of our neighbors don't understand Judaism...

And yet - not unlike the Maccabees of old - somewhere in the back of my head, my inner voice says "bring it on!" Just let someone target my family, take offense with my traditions, try to stifle our celebration... they will feel the wrath of The Emily.... beware the Whomping of Wynn...

So - by realizing that I would rather fight than be threatened, I am no longer afraid of what the neighbors think, or what they might say or do...

But what about those people who live in places where they know they cannot fight and win?

I don’t want to be labeled a Dominionist!

2005-12-20T06:14:00.000-08:00

In preparing to become parents (no congratulations yet please, still firmly in the “trying” category) – my husband and I have been discussing childcare arrangements. For example, can we find good affordable childcare in our area, or would it be better for one of us to stay home with the baby and be a full-time parent?

Of course, as a woman, this decision comes fraught with all sorts of gender baggage… If we can’t afford childcare, because my husband makes significantly more money than I do – obviously I’d be the stay-at-home parent. Does this make it ridiculous that I have a college degree? Am I somehow damaging women’s rights by deciding to stay at home rather than forcing my corner the world to accommodate my motherhood? Will I be looked down upon as a woman because of my decision? Will people think I’m not intelligent or successful?

Putting aside this whole debate – I’m nowadays even more worried about people thinking that I’m “pro-traditional family”!

If my husband and I decide that it is in the best interest of our child for me to stay home to care for the little bundle of joy – it will be primarily a financial decision. Hubby makes 20K more than I am currently, so as much as he is willing to stay home (and probably would enjoy it too), we would better survive on his salary than mine.

The problem is – these days with dominionist thinking on the rise, I am truly concerned that someone is going to assume that I’m “submissive” to my husband, or a “traditional woman” because I’m at home raising the baby.

I’m also an educator by nature, and I have often thought about homeschooling my children, at least for the early primary years. The school systems are fair to poor in my area, and most families that can afford it, send their children to private school. Since, as you can see, finances are of concern to me, I was thinking that I could do a decent job teaching the kids in their early years, while we save up the cash to send them to private school when they are a little older…

So – I’ve got this whole “We’re going to look like a dominionist family” complex going – simply because I’ll probably end up as a stay-at-home mom, and might homeschool the kids…

And have you ever stopped to look at the resources available to stay-at-home moms and homeschooling families??

Unless you’re including all the internet sites and books that list ways to “make lots of money while staying home with the kids!” - the majority are very Conservative Christian, if not outright dominionist. There are very little neutral or “liberal” (put in quotes because to the dominionists, anything that isn’t the extreme right, is liberal, even if it’s neutral or centrist in nature) resources out there. And much of what you find that is more mainstream really makes assumptions that your choice to stay-at-home or homeschool was made because of “values”, as compared to financial needs or convenience.

So, on top of the fears of putting women’s rights back a few decades because I personally am choosing to be a full-time mom, I have to worry about my inadvertent support for dominionist culture because of my choice. Because that’s what I’m afraid will happen. I will stay home and raise my children, and homeschool them, and someone will look at our family and just assume that we are something we’re not.

I wonder sometimes if this is how some dominionist organizations get their high numbers of supporters… that in fact there are a whole bunch of liberal families that happen to be in the same position as my family, and because they look “traditional” from the superficial demographic information, that these orgs assume that these families are supportive of “traditional values”.

Diary of the Future... 12/12/06

2005-12-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

Well - Cori certainly had a bad day today...

She rode past the house this afternoon on her bike while I was attempting to cement back a piece of molding that had fallen off the side of the car. She asked me which pharmacy we used, as she was looking for a new one.

Something seemed to be bothering her, so, abandoning the adhesive that wasn't working well in the cold, I invited her in for some tea...

It seems that she had had a triple whammy day... First, one of her professors is upset with her... She is taking comparative religions, and he had assigned the class to write a report about the origin of Christmas. Cori wrote about the pagan roots of the holiday, and she got her report turned back with a nasty note about her "making false statements" about Christianity, and that she should check other sources and hand in a new "corrected" report... She is also worried that she is going to be fired from her part-time job at the Book Nook on Main St. The owner is upset with the manager because he allowed a special order of a book concerning the study of witchcraft... because Cori was the one who wrote up the order, and the manager approved it, the both of them are having a "meeting" tomorrow with the owner about the "incident".

Cori's really upset about the whole Book Nook thing too... She can deal with the professor - she's always known he was "an ass" as she put it, but she really likes working at the Book Nook, and especially likes how the store has always been willing to order _anything_ in the past (not to mention her generous employee discount)... Neither she nor the manager have any idea why the owner would be so upset over it... they've special ordered soft porn before... why is a Witchcraft book suddenly more controversial than that?

And, if that wasn't enough - she stopped at the pharmacy on the way home, and got told by the pharmacist that they wouldn't fill her birth control pill prescription, because it was immoral and against their religious beliefs! And she's not using the pills for contraception, but for a medical condition... the nerve! Ugh, I can't believe how fast our little corner of the world has changed since that "character restoration" referendum...

So I gave Cori the number for the Walgreen's, and she's had her doctor call in new prescriptions there... Oy! What a hassle!

As for my world - it was a normal week... at least as normal as you can get around here these days...

Christmas decorations everywhere... makes it really obvious who doesn't celebrate... and for the first time since I was a child, that makes me nervous...

Breaking News - HR 579 - Protect Christmas?!?!

2005-12-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

Thursday, December 15, 2005 - The US House of Representatives debates House Resolution 579 - "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected".

As per The National Jewish Democratic Council:

"This afternoon, 26 House Republicans -- together with the GOP leadership -- will be forcing the full House to vote on whether House members support the "symbols and traditions" of Christmas, and whether they disapprove of the utterly mythical "attempts to ban references to Christmas." Today's roll call vote comes on the heels of a House floor debate held last night regarding H. Res. 579, a resolution "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected." During the debate, Democratic members asked the Republican author of the resolution, Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), if she would permit the symbols of Chanukah and other holidays to be included in the protection of the resolution -- and she refused."

Further information about the text of the resolution appear at the Library of Congress - THOMAS system.

Ira Forman - Director of the NJDC had the following comment:
"In this case, House Republicans are adopting the talking points of the most extreme, most divisive far-right elements in today's society -- and making that agenda the work of the people's House. Aside from being a colossal waste of time, it's divisive, it excludes other practices and faiths, and it buys into the conservative fantasy that there's some war against the 95 percent of Americans (according to Gallup) who celebrate Christmas."

It surprises me that I have found no mainstream media coverage of this resolution and the resulting conversation in the House. (If someone has found one - please post!)
I would have thought that perhaps Fox News would have a feature on how the House has "finally dealt with the situation".

I think this has gone too far. It's one thing to clog the media with a debate on the "war against Christmas" - it's quite another to bother taking time from more important issues - like Iraq, the economy (anyone else smell a smokescreen?)- to make legislation protecting a religious holiday observance. Not to mention against the Bill of Rights!?!?! Have they not heard that they "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"?

Take a look at the listing of co-sponsors of this legislation. If you are from AR, CA, FL, GA, IN, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, OK, PA, SC, TX, or VA, call your elected representatives and tell them this isn't your idea of representative government!

-Emily

Cross-Posted at www.Talk2Action.org

Please leave a message after the beep

2005-12-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

Okay - I'm starting to feel a bit like Charlie Brown...
Maybe it's because I just watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on TV (yes, for all it's Christmasy-ness this Jewish girl still loves her Peanuts)...
I'm just feeling a bit depressed....
I'm not feeling the love here....

For all of my posts, both here and at Talk2Action - I'm not getting any response...

Is it me?

I _thought_ I was a pretty good writer - at least I've seen much worse... and I thought that my topics were thought provoking and interesting....

But no one seems to be reading, even with my attempts to shamelessly plug my site...

And I really feel awful about the whole Talk2Action site - I just posted what I thought was a really good diary entry there, and have gotten no comments back... but folks who posted after me have several...

I feel like I'm back in high school asking why everyone hates me... can y'all see I'm ugly from that side of the screen or something?

Perhaps you are just reading, and not sticking around to say anything...

So - before I pitch a fit and delete the whole damn thing - please leave a message here.... even if it's just to say "I was here"...

It would make me feel so much better just to know that I have _some_ readership - even if it's only one or two people...

Thanks in advance for making my day.

-Emily

Ignorant Bystanders

2005-12-06T19:44:00.000-08:00

Why the Christian Right is winning, and what to do about it

When one studies bullying, and effective strategies to put a stop to bullying behavior, special focus is given not to the bully and the victim, but to the bystanders. There are many bystanders, who witness the interchange between bully and victim, and may even witness physical violence, but take no action to intervene or get help. The effective strategy to end bullying is empowering those bystanders to take action. The bystanders must be taught that not only is bullying wrong, but that they have the power to stop it. If one bystander was to go get help from an authority – that is one way to stop it. But also, the action of one bystander standing up and speaking publicly, “No! You will not do this, it is wrong.” may stop the bully cold. Especially if, encouraged by the single bystander, other bystanders also stand up and agree - the bully gets the clear message that his/her actions will not be tolerated. When bystanders do nothing, they in effect condone the bully’s actions, even if the bystander personally disagrees with the bully.

The key to ending bullying is to make sure that the bystanders – the witnesses to the actions of the bully – know that the bully is wrong, and feel comfortable taking action either against the bully, or to support the victim. In the case of the Christian Right, the bullies and victims are less clear. This is certainly not to say that there are no bullies and no victims – but because everyone defines this differently, I will not try to defend a particular point of view, since it is not necessary to my argument. (My personal opinion – some of the Christian Right are clearly bullies, and I think others act like the bullies but don’t really mean to… and everyone is a victim, even if they refuse to claim that status.) What is clear is that a vast majority of the American populace are bystanders.

Now – why did I title this piece “Ignorant Bystanders”? Because I feel that the reason that the vast majority of our population are bystanders is because the majority are ignorant. Please, please, please, do not equate ignorance with stupid! I think that, generally speaking, people are intelligent. Ignorant, however, means unaware or uninformed, lacking information on a subject. I believe that a majority of people in our country have never been exposed to study of comparative religion. I believe that some have not studied civics, or how our country came into being and how it is run, and many more have had poor general instruction in History. I believe that many have never found themselves being in a minority position, and therefore find it hard to empathize with someone struggling to have their voice heard.

Ignorance I have personally witnessed:
-College graduates who have never heard of the Holocaust, or McCarthyism
-A college student who made the claim that it was okay if women were paid less than men, because they will just quit their jobs to go have children. I questioned this young man about why he believed this, and found that he believed it was a fact that an infant would die if it was not breastfed by its own mother – and therefore he held the belief that it was a necessity for all women to quit their jobs to care for their infants – for the simple reason of keeping the child alive.
-A group of adults who believed that all religions (except pagan religions and native cultures) worshipped Jesus Christ, regardless of the details of the religion. For example, Jews call Jesus “Adonai” and Hanukkah is the name of the Jewish holiday to celebrate Jesus’ birth, Ganesh, or Shiva, are two of many ways Hindus say Jesus, Allah is the same as Jesus, same with Confucius and Buddha (though some argued that Confucius and Buddha were images of the Holy Ghost seen among the lands after Christ’s resurrection)…

This ignorance allows people to take on the assumption that the “majority rules” is okay in every situation, mostly because they cannot conceive of any situation where someone would logically disagree with them. Taking the example from above, if everyone believes in Jesus, then why would someone ever get upset with public acknowledgement of god? Is it because they want to hear the minority name of Jesus that their tradition uses? Why can’t they just be happy that it’s all the same, and we use Jesus instead of whatever name they use?

The lack of knowledge of religious diversity, coupled with the lack of experience of being a minority allows people to be comfortable with “majority rules”. Lack of knowledge of historical events where minorities were persecuted also means that people do not know the danger of “difference”. I believe that because of ignorance, people are comfortable with the Christian Right. They do not see a difference between their worldview and the dominionist worldview. Because the superficial values are the same, people who have not deeply examined the iceberg that is the Religious Right come to believe that everything else the Right believes they happen to agree too. They also do not see how the dominionist worldview could possibly harm anyone, because they themselves are not upset by what they have seen of it.

The way to combat the Religious Right is through awareness and education.

I have found that talking with others about why I believe, or don’t believe, in an issue is a great education for others (and of course, the same is true in reverse). The neighbor who doesn’t see a problem with sectarian prayer in school may in fact not understand that your child would be uncomfortable, and if they found that out, might change their position. In one of my comments to a previous diary entry by dogemperor, I stated that I had met someone who did not know that birth control pills could be used for the treatment of a medical condition. “That changes everything,” was the response when I explained that prescriptions can often be used for treating more than what they were invented to treat.

We must make sure that Americans all understand the existence of difference; different cultures, religions, and that ultimately, every religion is a minority, because there are so many that no one is really a majority.

Educate people about how and why our country was started – first by debunking the “Christian Nation” myth, second by making sure people understand the rights of minority voices to be heard and respected, and how those rights were codified in our country’s legislation.

Empathy for minority groups must be taught – yes, in a democracy often majority rules, but the majority has a responsibility to respect the minorities in their midst. Tolerance and respect must be our highest values.

And ultimately, we must energize the bystanders to notice the danger and to stand up against it.

We do this by not being afraid to stand up for ourselves. We do this by standing up for others when we get the chance. We do this by challenging the assumptions and beliefs of others when faced with those who “don’t get it”.

The Religious Right started out small – effecting change in small corners of the world – until the movement grew and kept growing to what we know today. We need to do the same thing. Start small. Talk to your neighbors. Create tolerance and respect in your own community. Just as the dominionists said – it might take a generation raised in our culture and with our beliefs to rise up and change the world… We can do the same thing – and I believe we won’t have to wait a generation. Our beliefs don’t need to be indoctrinated into children to have them survive. Thinking, rational adults can come to understand if they are given all the information.

Let’s fight the ignorance and beat the bullies!

Cross-posted at www.Talk2Action.org

Delawareliberal - a local soap box

2005-12-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

All about my backyard - politically speaking:

http://delawareliberal.blogspot.com/

Jason knows what he likes and what he doesn't, and isn't afraid to take the flak...

I Deserve It?

2005-12-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

A response to:
Onward Christian Soldiers: How minority faiths are treated in the US Military
By Lorie Johnson
Posted at www.Talk2Action.org

What strikes me about Lorie’s experience, as well as the experiences of those that replied to her article, is that the people persecuting those of a minority religion somehow feel that the target of their harassment deserves that kind of treatment. (It is very much like talking to bullies – they sometimes justify their actions by saying that their victims are “asking for it” by their behavior/attitudes/looks/mode of dress/etc.)

Growing up, I had a similar situation happen to my classmates and myself. We attended a Jewish Day School that was situated nearby a Christian school (don’t remember the denomination). We had co-existed well for many years, and did not have any problems until suddenly in the middle of the year a group of older students from the Christian school kept using their free periods to come over and harass some of the Jewish students during our recess…So as not to spend a lot of time detailing the harassment itself, I’ll just summarize by saying it was bad and got progressively worse, even though staff from both schools were working on the problem.

One day, the group of students from the Christian school got a hold of a first-grader from my school, and beat him. Teachers from my school responded to the incident by taking the Christian students in to our office and calling their school, and evidently their parents to come get them. One set of parents came in and told our staff that they saw nothing wrong with their child’s actions. They claimed that we deserved this treatment because we were children of Satan. They said that the only way we would learn that we needed to accept Jesus and be saved was if we were mistreated – because it gave us a taste of what our lives would be like as adults - because we would be hated world over for not being Christians – and because it would show us what Hell was like, because that was where we were headed without Christ.

I just don’t get this attitude, on so many different levels. Generally speaking, it is considered a bad thing to mistreat another person. So why is it okay for these so-called Christians to hurt people? They say that they feel we deserve punishment… But I suspect that they also feel that non-Christians are “non-persons” and therefore do not need to be treated equally.

Consider the concept that they are trying to show us what Hell is like, so that we don’t want to end up there. (ignoring the whole “if your religion doesn’t believe in Hell how does an argument saying you’ll end up there work on you” issue) If Satan is the tormentor of souls in Hell… what does that say about these Christians being the tormentors of souls on Earth?

And then of course, why in the world would any non-Christian find Christianity appealing if the way that you go about teaching people about needing a personal relationship with Jesus is by hurting them?

Sounds a lot to me like fraternity/sorority hazing… we’re going to treat you pledges horribly, and then when you get to be a real brother/sister you can have fun terrorizing the next group of recruits…

-Emily

Borrowing the Soap Box - AAAS issues warning to Pat Robertson

2005-11-29T06:57:00.000-08:00

From "Brad Ideas" - forwarded to the Delaware Valley Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State mailing list by Diane Kinney
Original at - http://ideas.4brad.com/node/303

AAAS issues warning to Pat Robertson -- You have turned away from science

Washington, DC: The American Association for the Advancement ofScience (AAAS) issued a stern warning today to Televangelist Pat Robertson. Robertson had recently condemned the citizens of Dover, PA to the wrath of God for not voting in a school board that would teach Intelligent Design in classes.

"We'd like to say to the good Reverend Robertson: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to Science, you just rejected it from your life," AAAS said on its daily television show broadcast from Washington, the 3.14159 Club.

"And don't wonder why it hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. We're not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just pushed science out of your life. And if that's the case, don't ask for its help because it might not be there," they said. "In particular, you won't have a phone to call the ambulance, and it won't exist even if you could call it. And even if the doctor lived next door and you could call her, she would only bleed you and put smelly poultices on your forehead to balance your humours. And she would be a guy."

"Actually, we're just kidding," the AAAS later corrected. "Science works whether you believe in it or not. That's what's really cool about it," they said.

"What they said," indicated Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in an independent statement.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

2005-11-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

Between a rock and a hard place:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/368121p-313173c.html

"I don't understand how a religion that prides itself on forgiving and on valuing life could terminate me because I'm pregnant and choosing to have this baby," said McCusker, "If I decided to abort the baby, the decision to fire me would not have been made because they would not have known."

Comments anyone?

-Emily

Christian Persecution?

2005-11-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

Replying To:
Reasonable Accomodation
By pastordan
on www.talk2action.org

A quote: "a distinction between the lack of a positive affirmation of religion and a restriction"

An attitude problem I am seeing from the Christian Right is that for them there is NO distinction between a neutral stance to religion (lack of positive affirmation of any religion) and a direct attack on their form of Christianity. Any organization that takes a neutral stance is automatically persecuting them. For them, the only acceptable reaction from the public square is to promote Christian values. Anything less is interpreted as an attack.

Take a look at the whole "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" debate in the news lately. All these Christian Right folks are boycotting stores that say "Happy Holidays" because they are not acknowledging Christmas. Who said anyone had to acknowledge a holiday? I don't get upset if someone doesn't wish me a happy Thanksgiving, or happy 4th of July... or what about National Pickle Day?

To them the acknowledgement of _all_ the holidays that fall at this season is somehow persecution against Christmas (and Christians)... But to me - doesn't "Happy Holidays" include Christmas? Or, if you will follow their own logic - not wishing someone a Happy Hanukkah would be persecution of Hannukah and the Jews....

That's why - whenever someone wishes me a "Merry Christmas" I'll respond with "and a Happy Hannukah to you!"

Borrowing the Soap Box - In Agreement...

2005-11-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

A Response to:
The Persecution Myth
By jasonpitzlwaters
at www.talk2action.org

I have for several years supported Christian friends in their efforts towards the "Keep Christ in Christmas" type campaigns. Even though I am not Christian, I am concerned when the holiday has become so secularized that the assumption is that everyone celebrates it. Ask recent immigrants to our country, and many think that Christmas is an "American" holiday - right up there with Thanksgiving and 4th of July. Some adopt traditions of putting up a tree and lights, and don't know why they do it, other than it makes them the same as their neighbors. And this type of behavior just makes it easier for people to look down upon those of us who know that the holiday is supposed to be an exclusively Christian one, and therefore do not celebrate it. I feel that the move to "enforce" (so to speak) the link between Christmas and Christ may help our communities to remember that this is a religious celebration, and that there are a variety of religious viewpoints among our citizenry as well.
As for the comment about "persecution" meaning "disagreement" to some - I have seen this in action. Some people, when confronted with a person who does not wish to celebrate the holiday, automatically get defensive and feel like that person's "opt out" mentality is actually a personal attack on their ability to celebrate. It amazes me how pervasive this attitude is of being "under attack". I am very concerned that this persecution concept may/will morph into an "us versus them" mentality - such that people who don't celebrate Christmas are automatically lumped into the "they persecute Christians" group. The jump from anger at people actively trying to remove or change public Christmas celebration, to anger at people who simply choose not to celebrate is worrying. Will this give rise to communities where non-Christians are persecuted by being labeled persecutors?

Announcing...

2005-11-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

www.Talk2Action.org

From the website:

About Talk to Action
What if there was a place you could go to talk about the religious right, whenever you had a question and needed an answer? What if there was a place you could increase your knowledge, hone your skills and network with concerned and knowledgeable people all over the United States? What if that place was not controlled by an organization with a narrow agenda? What if people of any religious or nonreligious orientation who share a concern about the rise of the dominionist movement in the Unites States were equally welcome, and their perspectives were respected and taken into account as strategy discussions took place? What if that place had an eclectic mix of people with considerable expertise as featured writers who you could read, and question and discuss with every day? And what if those same experts and all of the site participants shared a spirit of learning -- and learning in the open -- about things that could affect the outcome of the most important struggles of our time? What if the goal of the site were not just education and the expression of opinions, but to think about and encourage taking action?

Check it out!
I'm excited, are you?
-Emily

Diary of the Future... 12/4/06

2005-11-17T23:13:00.000-08:00

Luminaries...

effing luminaries...

Came home this evening to find a package on the doorstep from our civic association... Inside the small box was a kit for 6 luminaries - 6 colored bags, 6 notched cement blocks, and a cache of tealight candles. The letter accompanying all this explains that our neighborhood is participating with several other subdivisions in our community to sponsor luminary lights throughout the town on the 24th & 25th. They're even calling it the "Festival of Light"! The civic association would like everyone to place these luminaries on their curbs in front of their homes on the 23rd, and then light them on the nights of the 24th and 25th to celebrate Christmas. The postscript on the bottom of the page even says that if you're going to be away over the holiday, to just leave the luminaries out on the curb, and neighborhood representatives will come by and light them for you!

Well - the obvious trouble is that the luminaries come in a variety of Christmas patterns - 2 red bags, one with a candy cane outline the other with a santa face; 2 green bags, one with a tree and the other a sleigh; and 2 white bags, one with a snowflake, and the other a nativity scene...

Of course, I'd rather not have any luminaries... but I am not sure how that's going to play out... Avani from next door was at home when the packages were delivered, and when she tried to decline, the woman delivering them said that the civic association was "interested in 100% participation".

Maybe I can ask Pat if I am able to request 6 snowflake bags... that way, we still have the luminaries like everyone else, but we're not advertising Christmas... maybe if Avani and I ask together, we'd be able to do that... Pat would see that it's more than one family that is concerned about it.

Sam's calling - time for bed.
'Night

Diary of the Future... 11/29/06

2005-11-16T22:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know what I'm going to do about Betty and John next door... especially Betty - she's on the civic association, and causes so many headaches for me - and Avani and every other "different" family in the neighborhood...

Take Sukkot... every year she complains to the association that my Sukkah in the backyard is too much of a distraction, and takes away from the peacefulness of the neighborhood... especially when we have guests over and spend time in it.... we're "too noisy" or detract from the "peaceful setting" of our area.... luckily a few folks on the association ask her to compare what we are doing to anyone else's backyard pool parties or barbeques.... she doesn't generally have an answer to that other than to say that the Sukkah is over the top compared to just a "regular" party....

A few years back, she confronted me directly about it, and asked if it was possible for me to build the Sukkah inside our house, so it wouldn't be such a distraction.... I responded that the holiday specifically instructs the Sukkah to be built in the out-of-doors, and that I would never ask her to remove her Christmas lights indoors to keep down the light pollution.... I don't think she's properly spoken to me since....

Well - John's been suddenly active at Marcus' school, spending the afternoons putting together an after school bible study group.... and one of the things he did is order student study bibles from some internet Christian group that developed this curriculum for the after school groups...

So - what's this got to do with Betty? Avani told me that Betty got the idea from the same website that she should order family bibles for everyone in the neighborhood and give them out as holiday gifts! Of course, Avani, Cori from down the street, and even Mrs Gardner were shocked to hear about the plan to use our public funds for such a purpose, and tried to discourage her... but Pat thought the idea was great... so they're going to talk about the costs and decide at a "sub-committee meeting"...

Avani said that Mrs Gardner threatened to go to the ACLU about it - but that Pat threatened to throw her off the board if she did it...

Besides the bible issue - we're still trying to figure out what to do about the "godly neighborhood ordinance" as we're now calling it. Folks in our group are trying to lobby to delay (or perhaps even kill, we hope) plans to institute ordinances that would "guide behavior" on Sundays... right now, I'm more focused on our civic associations actions as well - since they are going ahead with pushing their own version of these ordinances as neighborhood guidelines for homeowners.

It's overwhelming...

DefCon Blog: "Season's Greetings"

2005-11-15T22:55:00.000-08:00

In the immortal words of Oscar the Grouch - I Hate Christmas!
It's not the holiday that is so bad - I actually enjoy spending time with Christian friends, and celebrating with them. It's a very nice holiday when done "correctly"... It's the whole "Christmas Season" that I have a problem with...
For example - when did Thanksgiving become an extension of Christmas? And why do we start with the decorations and celebrations right after (or in some places, even before!) Halloween? And of course, what comes along with this extended celebratory season is the assumption that everyone celebrates! That's what really gets to me.

Anyway - I don't have to say anything more... just read this:

http://defconblog.org/2005/11/seasons-greetings/

The comments at the bottom are great too. I was going to post a response, but then the post by John McGinn says everything I would have...

-Emily Wynn

Borrowing the Soap Box - On Kansas and ID

2005-11-13T00:18:00.000-08:00

Occasionally I will post a link to someone who's got something interesting to say... Here's one of those posts:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/shemchadash/187229.html

What aught to be an open letter to the Kansas School Board.

Also - have you checked out http://www.venganza.org? The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster... Another great response to the ID folks.

Signing off for today,
Emily Wynn

Diary of the Future... 11/20/06

2005-11-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

Dear Diary – I’m still shocked and dismayed… I can’t believe this happened. Remember when I wrote on Election Day that there was this referendum on the ballot that I didn’t realize was going to be there? And how no one else seemed to know about it either? And remember when I wrote about how the news only picked up on it after the elections were over?

I have spent the last few days in the company of a small group of protesters, trying to overturn the results of the election on this issue. At this point, our work has been to no avail. So, we are moving to try and raise awareness in the community to get people to fight against any weird laws that might be enacted due to the drastic political landscape change.

Unfortunately, it appears we will all need to come up with some community solutions to keep us all “legal” until we can figure out how to change things…

The local governmental officials who have just been elected want to “hit the ground running” even before they officially are sworn into office… they are pushing the current council to impose new laws based on the referendum by Christmas. The new head of city council wants this especially because he feels it would be a good morale booster ahead of the holiday – to get everyone “in the mood” to celebrate Christmas.

So – since we now are in a “godly community” according to the referendum – the first thing the new city council wants to do is to enforce “Sabbath Sunday” rules – like all businesses in the community being closed all day, and encouraging that all residents attend some kind of religious activity on Sunday mornings.

Oh My God (pun intended)!

I just can’t believe this… the president of our civic association is really pleased about all this. She wants to create a “neighborhood watch”… but the problem is, this watch group would not only watch the neighborhood, but also go door to door on Sundays to be sure that everyone was heading out to Church… at least once the new rules are in place…
I suppose I could enroll Talia in Hebrew School along with Marcus – she’s young, but they do have that new pre-k group… I was trying to save a bit of money by not sending her until she started school, but if spending the money means that our community is fooled into thinking we’re “going to church”, then so be it (I’d rather not get into the discussion with President Patricia that our Sabbath is on Saturday)… Sam and I will stay at morning minyan, and the kids will be in class… it’s a religious activity and on Sunday, so no one can complain… (hopefully!)

Anyway – it’s time for me to go to bed.
Goodnight

Ignorance = Bliss?

2005-10-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

My last post reminded me of a rant I went on some time back about people being ignorant and just plain idiotic for not examining their thinking.

The spark for that rant was a religious revival that some folks from my office had attended.

To summarize the revival:
There was some clergy person who gave a presentation that focused on a belief that any person who does not believe in Jesus Christ is in league with Satan, and is actively promoting evil in the world. The clergy-person went on to say that this did not mean that every non-Christian is an evil person – since those people who have not been shown the Gospel are just ignorant of its truth. This clergy-person then went on to explain that this why it is so important to evangelize, because you are saving all of these souls from being duped into evil purposes. He then spent a lot of time apparently explaining to attendees how to go about evangelizing people.
This group of my co-workers spend a lot of office time over the next week discussing how great this clergy-person’s presentation was, and how they totally agree with him.

To summarize my rant:
I am concerned that the clergy-person’s statement basically condemned those people who choose a non-Christian religion to being labeled “in league with Satan”. While apparently the clergy-person did not say this – a deduction you can make from his argument is that if someone is presented with the truth of the Gospel, and then chooses to reject it, in favor of their own religion, then they are “actively promoting evil in the world” – since they no longer fall into the single exception category of “ignorant”. (While someone could make the argument that this person is continuing to be ignorant, because of their refusal to believe, from my understanding of the clergy-person’s words, this was not what he meant.)
I am worried that following this logic, it does not take much to jump from a non-Christian promoting evil in the world, to a non-Christian being evil in and of him or herself.
I am concerned that the fact that my co-workers seem to love what this clergy-person had to say, means that they are okay with calling me an evil person…

Well – it turns out that they don’t think I’m evil, because they think I’m Christian… and yes, they all know that I’m Jewish…

Why am I suddenly two religions?

IGNORANCE

Apparently my co-workers need a course in comparative religion.

According to many of them, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and most other world religions (with the notable exceptions of pagan and native religions) believe in Jesus and just call him by other names, and have other holidays to celebrate him… For example:
· Ganesh is the way they say “Jesus” in India…
· Hannukah celebrates Jesus’ actual birthday, as compared to Christmas, which is the day we celebrate it on the calendar (like Martin Luther King Day is the Monday nearby his birthday)…
· Passover is another name for the Greek Orthodox Easter…

So – the only people who need to be evangelized, in the sense of needing to be exposed to the Gospel, are pagans and those of native cultures… and if those people reject Jesus, then they are really evil. (Of course, the Witches and poor and uneducated Native Americans).

I just can’t believe this anymore. The idiocy in the world never ceases to amaze me.

How someone can go through life not understanding that there are people that are different from your personal worldview?!? Are you all living under rocks people?!?

No wonder there are arguments about religion in public schools. People have grown up believing that everyone really is the same religion – and then are confused and angry when the “evil people” want to remove religion from their community. A simple education in religions diversity is what we all need. And then hopefully those people who have the capacity for putting themselves into someone else’s shoes will be able to understand why religion and the public sphere really shouldn’t mix.

The sum of silence

2005-07-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

I should have said something… anything…
I think I was just too shocked to react…

I was in a toy store today, looking over the “buy one, get one 50% off” sale items, just to see what was there. I have several children (not mine) that I could purchase items for, including myself, the perpetual 6-year-old at heart. A woman accompanying her grandchild started up a conversation with me. Being the extrovert I am, we began reminiscing about days gone by, when toys were much more affordable, and that summer sales meant that one could complete early holiday shopping chores at a deep discount. Being a youngster by comparison to the grandmother, I don’t have memories of shopping for others, but I did remember the days of the $3 toy bin at a local retailer, where my parents could look like the gods of the parenting world for less than ten bucks.

We were getting along fine until she decided to share her vision of why toys were so expensive nowadays… I suggested “the economy” with a shrug… she countered with “too many Jews looking for more money”…

My brain grinded to a halt, completely blank at the moment, I had no idea how to respond to the woman in front of me. And then, a flurry of thoughts:

· I have never until this moment actually heard anyone verbally link Jews to greed. Sure, I knew that people thought this, but the closest I had come before now was watching an old movie that had a character who said things like that.
· Well, this just proves that I don’t look Jewish…
· Which brings up the question – did she ever stop to think that perhaps she was speaking to a Jew?
· No, is the obvious answer, she didn’t think at all about what she said, or she might not have said it.
· I’m hoping this is just ignorance? Perhaps she doesn’t know any Jews?
· I have no idea how to respond to her. Certainly this deserves some response – but I don’t want to start a scene in the board game aisle…

I’m reminded of a middle school classmate of mine who, after learning I was Jewish, asked me why she couldn’t see my horns. After a short conversation about why she would ask such a question, during which she became hugely embarrassed, I learned that she wasn’t trying to be mean. Her grandfather had always told her stories that included a description that Jews had horns. She had never met anyone Jewish – or at least anyone she knew was Jewish – and so had never known that her grandfather was wrong, or that the horn thing was a hurtful anti-Semitic remark. She always thought it was just a fact, like an Aborigine has dark skin, some Irish folks have freckles, Asians have slanted eyes, and Jews have horns…

And so, I hoped in my mind that the woman I was speaking with has just never been exposed to anyone Jewish, and therefore held onto false beliefs that were fed to her by someone just as ignorant.

She was gone before I could think of something as a response. About 20 minutes after the fact, I came up with a whole host of witty responses:

Obviously I don’t look Jewish
Do you know a Jewish toy executive?
What about the Christians looking for more money?
I’m sure I must have misheard you…

Of course, my brain has always been slow on the response time to things like this, and I watch her walk away, wishing that I had come up with something to say…

I can’t help feeling that, by my lack of response, I have assisted in the continuation of Anti-Semitism in the world.

Yes – I know – it’s only one person… and, I was taken by surprise, so it’s not my fault. Don’t think I’m rolling in the guilt here – I’m really not feeling personally at fault…

However, it’s the sum of the silence that I’m thinking about.

How many other times have people heard this woman say something like this, and not responded to her?

And for that matter, how many other people say things like this and no one says anything to them?

There’s this poster that I’ve seen that shows the different patches that identified different groups prosecuted by the Nazis. There is a quote in the center of the poster, which I would completely destroy in attempting to quote it off the top of my head. I’ll describe it instead. The quote is from the point of view of a person who is describing how “they” came for members of these different groups, and that he did not speak up against it, because he was not a member of any of these groups… until they came for him – and no one was left to speak up.

I hope that there isn’t a next time. But, if there is, I need to remember to say something – anything. And I hope that you all reading this will remember to say something too.

It’s the only way to change the world.