A Moment of Wisdom: Quotes from Gandhi

With all the craziness going on in the world, and as it seems her in the good ol' USA especially, I felt a need for reason and sanity. I have always admired Mahatma Gandhi, for his non-violent approach, his reason, and his wisdom. And lord knows we are in desperate need of that now. Here are some of my favorite and, I feel, very time-appropriate quotes.

Action expresses priorities.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

Be the change that you want to see in the world.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

The Non-Dreamer's Poem

False alarms and
Good luck charms
Don’t mean that much
To me
In this world of make believe
The real is what you see

The New Face of the Teaparty

On July 5, Mail Online posted an article about David Duke contemplating a run for the Republican nomination for President. Like most of the contenders in that race, he is truly delusional that he even has a chance. Hell, he can't even run. Did he forget that he was convicted of tax charges and mail fraud in 2005? Or is he conveniently leaving that fact out when courting the Tea Party voters who may not even remember or know about his inability to run.

In 1990 David Duke came to speak at our university. He was invited by the school's Young Republicans. When there was a major outcry over his appearance, they just couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. And even though an overwhelming majority of the student body demanded they find another speaker, (this was Louisiana, there was no shortage of Republicans to choose from), they stood by there decision.

The students government put together their own event to take place at the same time as Duke's speech, a tolerance rally. There were a number speakers that represented diversity in gender, ethnicity, religion, and even sexual orientation., and the speeches were about overcoming prejudices. It was standing room only for those who were lucky enough to get in.

The next day in the paper there spoke about Duke's speech. He referred to out rally as a protest, which I found amusing since he was barely mentioned at all. The other interesting point they made was that the audience that attended were all older members of the community.

I noticed at the time that his handlers always tried to play down his past. But everyone knew his time in the KKK and that he is a holocaust denier. We knew that then, and we haven't forgotten now.

Emotions, Justice, and a Little Girl

Today on FaceBook I was invited to "attend" A day of silence/support for Caylee Anthony on her birthday. I accepted and will do so not just for Caylee, but for all the other children that have been victims as well.

I have read many people today say that justice was not served today, that our judicial system is broken. These are emotional statements, and I completely understand the emotion behind them. I understand how it fuels them. I understand and feel as well the outrage of the violent loss of a life barely begun. But there is a time and place for emotional response, and the justice system is NOT that place.

I will be the first person to tell you that our justice system is not perfect. Nor can it be. It was created by imperfect beings. (I think even atheist would agree that as a species, we are far from perfect.) NO SYSTEM OF JUSTICE CREATED BY MAN WILL BE 100%! Our founding fathers knew this to be true, and in knowing this set out to not make a perfect system, but the best one that could exist. They created a system that put the emphasis on protecting the innocent over punishing the guilty. The whole basis of the system is, "innocent until proven guilty." The burden of that proof lies with the prosecution, not the defense, and must be done beyond the shadow of a doubt. Everyone has a right to legal representation, and to be tried before a jury of your peers.

I do not envy the prosecution team in this trial. From the last sighting of Caylee to the police being called to investigate, there was a 30 day gap. One month is a long time when attempting to secure indisputable evidence. It's even less help when her remains were not found for 6 months, and then after whether & animals had taken their toll. Yet with what they had to go on, the DA's Office put together a better case than anyone could have hoped for, and for that I admire them greatly. It was to the point, concise, logical and compelling. What they could not make it was iron clad, which is what it needed to be.

I do not envy the jury that served on this trial. The rules of deciding a verdict are set in stone. They must look at all the evidence from both sides, then ask themselves one question, "does it prove beyond a shadow of a doubt they did it?" It is a question that is based on facts and the facts only. There is no place for emotions & gut feelings. It would seem simple enough, but those jurors are mere morals. Though it may not have been the popular decision, it was the one they needed to make according to the laws of the land.

As a people, we desire fairness in life. A 2 year old girl is no longer with us, and the person responsible must be appropriately punished. But the world doesn't always work the way we want. Finding Casey guilty today would serve more to feed our sense of an eye for an eye.

Great Quote

In a first world country, healthcare should be a right of all citizens, not a privilege of the fortunately employed and the wealthy.~unknown

Huh? OR Our Strange Attitudes When It Comes to Art

I cannot figure out for the life of me want determines what is okay to show on MTV as far as videos go, and what is not. There does not seem like there is a clear cut set of guidelines on what show or show not be shown on the station in regards to video content.

Allow me to present my argument.

Marilyn Manson released a video back in 2004 for his song "(S)aint". The video was directed by Asia Argento. Apparently the powers that be have not only decided that it was not appropriate for MTV, but the video was banned from the US entirely.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with not showing the video on MTV, but to ban the video entirely from the US is a bit extreme. Any adult over 21 should have the option to purchase and view the video if they wish. And the banned from MTV argument fall flat when you take into consideration of what they have shown. Case in point is The Prodigy video "Smack My Bitch Up". This video was shown for one week on MTV after 11pm, and with a warning that the video contained material that was adult in nature.Now, I have nothing against The Prodigy. I love them, and think the video is great. My problem is that the content is no better or worse the Marilyn Manson video.

Compounding my befuddlement is the fact that Madonna's "Justify My Love" video to this day has not ever been shown on MTV. And this video is a Disney special compared to the other two.

And it's not just MTV. Radio has been doing it as well.

I remember back in 1988, (or as my kids call it, "Back in the day for Mom."), there were certain songs that you just COULD NOT play on the radio, no matter what time of day it was. I worked at the time at the college radio station, of which the format was AOR. (Album Orientated Rock for those not familiar with the term, you young-ens. :P) On any album that had songs that had materials/words that were not permitted by the FCC, there was a label on them with a list of the songs not to play.

On the stations copy of Guns 'n Roses "Appetite for Destruction" the sticker listed the songs you COULD play. Of which there was 4. One of these no-play songs was "Mr. Brownstone". It was most definitely strictly forbidden. You were forever banned from the station if you played that song. Fast forward to 2011. Guess what I am constantly hearing played on the local classic rock station. That's right, that "forbidden" song.

Now, if anyone can explain this, I would love to hear your thoughts/opinions on the subject.

Wishing the world was as colorblind...Updated

I have recently been reminded of the fact that the world is not as colorblind as I am. And it is these moments that I feel so naive.

Basically, it all happened a few weeks ago. I was on my way home with some friends, (a married couple) we were discussing about some mutual co-workers and a recent party we all attended. The subject of spouses came up, and my guy friend pointed out that one of our male co-workers, a black gentleman, was married to a white woman. I blew off the comment until he asked why they would they do that. I was a little shocked by the comment. I responded by saying that love knows no color, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or gender. His response was, "Whatever. As long as they don't have kids together, I don't really care." I was very shocked at this point. I didn't even mention the 3 kids and the grandkid.

And it isn't just the subject of interracial marriage as of late. You would think that in the 21st century, the country would have no problem with having a president that is not white & not male. This should be a non issue. People should be debating whether or not the person holding the office is representing their interest, not whether or not he was born in this country, and if the above and beyond documentation he has shown us so far is enough or not.

I was never taught to hate. I was brought up to see that all people are equal, and no one is better that anyone else, especially over things that are "cosmetic". A true measure of a person is who they are, not the color of their skin, the deity they worship, their ethnic background, or their sexual orientation. I just don't understand prejudice. It baffles me.

Text Books & Character Flaws Revisited

It has been brought to my attention over the years that I am always defending my intelligence if I even perceive that someone might be attacking it. I admit, my guard always seems to be up. I guess when you’ve had to fight to prove your intelligence your whole life simply because people judge you on your gender, at some point your defenses go into auto drive. It’s the only explanation that seems logical. And it’s something that isn’t going to change overnight, but I am getting better at it as time goes by.

Here’s an example of the crap I have had to put up with, an extreme one at that. It happened my freshman year of high school. I was accepted into the Pre-IB program at my school. (For those who do not know what that is, its programs that are modeled after educational systems from around the world, without being based on any particular one. It takes high marks to make it into the program. The program was TOUGH!) I was totally stoked. One of my favorite classes was World History. In this class I had this one guy, a sophomore at that, (World History was a sophomore level course in this school), who thought he’s was the man. He was always talking about how freaking smart he was, and how his intellect was so far and above everyone else’s. Whatever, I could have cared less, I was confident in my own abilities. As the weeks rolled by, he started noticing that the cute girl who sat in front of him was getting just as many A's in this class as he was. He could just not accept this. He would constantly say that the teacher missed something in grading my homework/tests. I blew him off. When we got our first quarter report cards, he was quick to let the whole class know that he had 2 honors course, of which he was maintaining a B average in. Then he grabbed mine, (because the concept of asking for it eluded him), to see that 5 or my 6 classes were honors, and pre-IB at that. (The 6th class was JROTC, and if they have honors for that, I would have been in that as well.) He told the whole class that they misprinted my report card. To the class credit, they saw him for the jerk he was.

His crowning moment was after the unit test. The class was divided into 3 units, and there was a test for each, as well as the mid-term, second term, and final exams. So, if you aced these 6 exams, you could do so-so the rest of the class and still pass. And these were not easy exams. Oh no no! These were essay exams, six questions, six pages, answers were a page each, grammar, spelling and punctuation count. A week later we got the results. As she was passing out the graded exams, she announced that one person scored a 96, the only A. Well, the idiot behind me proudly let everyone know that he had received an 89, one point shy of an A. At this point I was looking at my exam. I had received the 96. One of my classmates asked what I got, and I told them. Everyone in the class was congratulating me, except for Mr. Ego behind me. This was so unacceptable to him; he proceeded to whack me over the head with his history book. If anyone remembers their history books, they were not thin and light. My vision actually went blurry for a few seconds. The class, including the teacher, was completely shocked. Nowadays, he would have been expelled. When I was going to school, it was only a detention. It was a crushing blow to my self-esteem, no matter when it happened.

Like I said, it was one of the more extreme cases, but it was one of many that I’ve had to deal with over the years Yet it's not just men that assume things. Women do it to other women all the time. Should they know better, possibly even having it happen to them. Yes. Do they have the same preconceived notions. Absolutely. Is it just as annoying. No, it is more so, to the point of feeling like a betrayal.

In my mid-late 20's, I worked as a Assistant Store Manager for a major retail chain. There are two things you need to know for this tail. 1.) All the managers wore name tags that in large red capital letters said "MANAGER". Basically, we were very well identified. (And I admit that there were days I wanted to hide that name tag because it felt like a bulls-eye.) 2.) Only managers could process refunds.

One morning I was working with an older gentleman that was there part time for some extra spending money. (He used the money to take his girlfriend out on really nice dates over the weekend. I know it has nothing to do with the story. I just thought it was sweet and wanted to share.) He was running the register while I was behind the counter double checking the markdown list.

A woman comes up to the counter with an item she wishes to return. I go over and ask her what the reason is for the return. Without even acknowledging me, she proceeds to tell my co-worker why. He let her finish, then informed her he could not give her a refund. When she questioned him why, he told her that only a manager could do refunds. She looked at him with annoyance and said, "Yeah, so you are the manager. Just do it." He looked over at me, almost embarrassed, pointed at my name tag and said, 'No ma'am, she is."

Not once during the time I was taking care of her return did she apologize or even admit she was wrong. Quite frankly, I didn't care if she did or not. I did receive an apology though, from my co-worker. He felt bad about the incident, like it was his fault. I told him he did nothing to form her opinions, and she had already made up her mind before she spoke to either one of us who she believed was in authority.

Can I be overly sensitive to the point where an innocent comment is misinterpreted? Well, yeah. It’s a reflex reaction; I admit it and I’m working on it. Has it been easy? I had no illusions that it would be. And though my daughters face some of the same challenges that I did, it is getting better, as it seems to do with each new generation. I know that one day, we will get there.

My Cat Yuna

This is my furry baby, Yuna. Like all cats, she has her our unique personality. We like to call it part dog, part monkey, part human, and sometimes she remembers that she is a cat. She has been a part of our family for just over 4 years now. We cannot imagine what life would be without her. This is the story of how she came to be a part of our lives.

She was not originally suppose to be with us. For years my kids had constantly asked for a kitty, and for reason that really don't matter now, I had to turn them down. Not that it was easy. I have been a cat lover all my life.

So, why all of a sudden did all of that change. The simple answer is I was conned.

I was having lunch with one of their grandmothers, and somehow I got talked into agreeing to at least look at some pets before I outright said no. We had had a big upheaval in our lives at the time, so it was easy to get me to agree because I was vulnerable. (Some of you are probably calling BS on that, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

I was at her mercy since we had come in her vehicle, so where did she decide to go to look at pets. To the Humane Society of course! Where better to take a bleeding heart like me. (There was the first strike against me.) They took us in back to the cat room, where I would say that they had about six in at the time.

One particular cat stood out. In the corner of the room I heard the more pitiful meowing ever. It was coming from a year old cat, and the meowing wasn't the only thing that was pitiful. She was missing about half of her fur, her whiskers had been cut and she also weighted half of what she was suppose to. She shook like crazy and was a bit skittish. Despite all this, she was so affectionate. The card on the cages said that she was called Milo, and that we shared the same birthday. (Yeah, strike two.)

We left the room to check out the dogs there, but as soon as we walked away from the cage, the cries began again. And as if that wasn't bad enough, you could still hear she throughout the building. It got so bad, I started crying and saying, "We can't just leave her here. We need to take her home." (Strike three, folks!)

She has been twisting me around her little paw ever since.

One of the first things we did after getting her home was to give her a new name. This was for a couple of reasons. 1.) We wanted to give her a completely new start. The name she had was from her previous life. 2.) When anyone heard her name, they assumed she was a male cat. Yeah, not cool.

So after running through a laundry list of names from cute to cool to silly, we settled on Yuna from a character in Final Fantasy X. She is the main female character who is beautiful, strong, brave and kind even knowing what her future holds. We felt it was perfect. (Now that we have gotten to know her personality better, she is more of a Yuffie from Final Fantasy VII, a mischievous ninja.)

In the months that followed, she put on the weight, grew all her fur back, and grew new whiskers. At first she would hide constantly, but slowly but surely, she started coming out. Soon she was hanging out with us.

You can say a pet belongs to someone, but the truth is that the pet picks you. Despite getting the kitty for my kids, Yuna has decided that she is my cat. And I'm okay with that.

I hope her story will encourage people to seek to adopt pets who truly need a loving home. You give them so much, but they give so much more back.

To Misquote the Bible, The Sequel

In my research of another subject, I found yet another quote that is attributed to the Bible, but it’s not in there. And this one is a shocker.

‘Hate the sin, love the sinner.”

Wow, did that just blow your mind or what? The originator of that quote is none other that the peace loving Mahatma Gandhi. Personally, I still feel he was a man we should try to model ourselves after. The man was the source of great advice to live by. (More great quotes from him can be found here.) But no, this did not come from the Bible.

The closest thing I have come to finding a similar quote is as follows. “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12: 9-21)

Pretty long, huh? This is probably why people decided to borrow Gandhi’s quote. And no wonder. It puts it in a nice package that gets straight to the point.

To Misquote the Bible...

The other day I got to be witness to, for better or worse, an argument about whether or not the quote "Spare the rod, spoil the child." was indeed in the Bible. Mostly out of curiosity, I decided to find out and put the matter to rest once and for all.

The fact is that the quote is NOT from the Bible. It from a poem called Hudibras by Samuel Butler written in the 17th Century. And...the line is actually a tongue in cheek reference to prevent conception. ( I bet you are all looking at this in a WHOLE new light, aren't you?)
The actual Bible quotes that this gets confused with are from Proverbs. "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." (Proverbs 13:24) "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death." (Proverbs 23:13-14)

I would also like to take this time to remind everyone that Proverbs is part of the Old Testament. When you are asking yourselves the question, "What would Jesus do?" I don't think the Prince of Peace would EVER hit a child.