February 25th - Moving Right Along

Growing up at the turn of the century and the turn of the millennium has put my generation at something of a crossroads. We are the first generation to have easy access to the immense technological advancements of the late 2000s and the early 2010s.

One of the most meaningful pieces of social advancement in recent memory is not only the creation of social media tools, but the use of those media to discuss, analyze, and, in many cases, expose social issues and conflicts. Facebook is covered in links to blogs and articles, each one addressing a different issue. Comments spark debate and get some traction on the world’s feed.

It isn’t, as some may believe, that the world is a more screwed up or confused place than it has been in the past. There is, though, evidence that we are advancing too rapidly to actually come up with solutions to the issues that plague our society. Instead of finding ways to fix these problems, we all-too-often put band-aids over the issues.

A perfect example of this is our education system. Education in America is a hugely divergent resource, in that the product that a student from one school receives is quite different from the one from a different school. Not all high school diplomas are created equal. This is especially true in many urban areas, especially those environments with ethnic minorities. To attempt to provide a level playing field for all public school students in the United States, there have been many attempts to get better teachers into environments without good educators. There have also been attempts to use government funding to create charter schools, which have received equal amounts of praise and disdain.

Do either of these solutions solve the problem? Definitely not. In fact, according to some, we aren’t even sure that it is making any difference at all. That doesn’t mean, though, that we shouldn't keep trying to come up with something that does work.

This challenge is not unique to the education issue. We, as Americans, are confronting more social issues at one time than almost any other time in US history. Sexual orientation, disability awareness, poverty, race, the list goes on and on.We are constantly bombarded by the pet projects of our friends and colleagues. It can be next to impossible to actually do anything, rather than just taking it all in.

The challenge has three major solutions, none of which are easy. First, we need to develop some level of focus. Not everything can get solved in one lifetime by one individual. I find myself struggling to decide which issues I want to dedicate my time, energy, and attention to. I can blog about many of these concepts, but if I want to actually help to tackle one or two, I need to narrow my focus. At first, this sounds terrible. Why can’t I do everything I can to fix as much as I can?

This leads to my second call to action: we need to be more creative when evaluating the social and economic challenges of today’s world. In many cases, these issues are arising because of the changing times. Homesexuality wasn’t an issue that was discussed in the 1950s, or at least not very much. It is the confrontation between what is now and what we want the future to look like that causes these dilemmas. Why do we continue to look for past or even current solutions? The simple answer is that we lack the creativity to think outside of the context of the way society is currently. We are afraid of the discomfort that comes with leaving the perspective or context we are familiar with, in favor of one that will make the world better. Sometimes we don’t even realize how suffocating the social laws and rules we have created are. To actually go about making things better, we need to be able to think in new and different ways. If there was a solution using “conventional” methods, we most likely would have found it by now.

The final step is that we need to listen. We need to be willing to hear the ideas of others and share our own. We need to engage in dialog to attempt to figure things out.

The world is a complicated and often frustrating place. We are constantly bombarded with different issues and social conflicts that beg for our attention. We, as citizens of the world, have to confront how we will handle each of these issues. WIth a little bit of focus, creativity, and willingness to listen, we have a fighting chance of actually making our society just a little better.

February 17th - The Streets of Heaven

Just over a year and a half ago, a man walked into a movie theater and opened fire. Five months later, it was an elementary school. Since then, it seems as though every few weeks we hear about another gun being drawn and used to cause terror, pain, and, all too often, death.

At the 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama made a bold statement that something had to be done to prevent this kind of violence from tearing the country apart. He punctuated his speech by inviting the families of shooting victims to the speech and honoring the memories of those whose lives were cut so mercilessly short.

It turns out, one year later, Obama’s bark was worse than his bite. Congress did little to nothing to prevent such acts of violence, and killings didn’t stop. This year alone, in 48 days alone, there have already been several incidences of killings at the hands of gunmen. In fact, the number and frequency of public gun violence has increased, rather than decreasing the past year.

And Obama relented. Little to nothing was discussed during this year’s State of the Union to address the growing issue. Obama asked for legislation, Congress said no, and Obama backed off. A year after his initial call to action, Barack Obama’s second State of the Union of his second term barely confronted the notion of any form of gun control. It just didn’t make the list of things to discuss that night.

Here is the scary thought: maybe the violence is perpetuating itself. Copycats see others successfully (or at least what they believe to be successful) spread fear and create havoc. Some even may look at the attention a killer “earns” in a glorified way. All of a sudden, the notion of using violence may be implanted in the mind of someone who otherwise would never have considered it.

Although I don’t encourage the ownership of guns, I do understand the notion that the government shouldn’t be able to tell me what I can and cannot own. The arguments in defense of the second amendment grow more tired, though.

At its inception, the second amendment to the constitution was created for the purpose of allowing citizens to own muskets to maintain a militia in times of need. At the time, it was imperative for national security and defense.

Times have changed in the past 200 plus years, though. So too must our understanding of gun rights, and the right to bear arms. Those who use second amendment arguments fail to understand that the right to bear arms originates from the necessity to do so, which truly doesn’t exist. It is also important to note that very few people are arguing about the right to own a 18^th century musket. The weapons have grown far more terrifying.

This gets very well to the next argument which most gun carriers hold to: that carrying a gun makes one feel safer and allows for self-defense. There’s a fundamental error in logic. How can more weapons lead to less violence? Clearly people are still using their guns; it doesn’t appear as though concealed carry is being effectively used as a deterrent. And if you’re so worried about your safety, wouldn’t it be safer to eliminate the guns, rather than make everyone carry one?

I carry a pocket knife with me most of the time. I like having it with me. I use it to open boxes, cut through packaging, and other simple tasks. Could it be used as a weapon? Sure. But its purpose is to be used as a tool. The same cannot be said for a gun. The gun, especially the automatic weapon, was invented for the sole intent and purpose of killing. Even when used recreationally, it is still a killing tool. There is no ability to assume good will. A gun can be used for nothing but harm, or at the very least, intimidation and fear.

We had our chance to fix the problem. For 18 months, Congress has sat back and allowed things to continue with no significant gun control reform. But now, as each day of inaction passes, the blood is not only on the hands of the attackers, but also the bystanders. Congressmen and Senators are elected to serve the people of each state. They fail if their inaction leads to the unnecessary murder of those citizens.

We need to take away guns. We need to make them nearly impossible to buy. We need to make ammunition difficult to attain. We need to make things tough. I respected your right to carry a weapon right up until someone ruined it. And we ruin it when we continue to allow our peace of mind to lead to the destruction of human life.

The streets of heaven are too filled with angels. And we can keep those angels on earth. It’s our job to figure out how.

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February 9th - America the Beautiful

American politics are screwed up, and they aren’t getting better. Republicans don’t want to talk to Democrats, and, frankly, Democrats aren’t that interested in talking to Republicans. The government can’t seem to agree on anything, and it doesn’t look like the American people are getting along any better than their politicians.

On the other side of the world, though, something big is happening. 230 men and women are going to compete in the Olympic Games. They are doing so not as individuals, but as representatives of the United States of America.

This year’s games, taking place in Sochi, Russia, carry with them a significance far beyond simply athletic prowess. The post-USSR Russian government is not in a good place, using the guise of democracy to overshadow an inherently corrupt system. This might have gone unnoticed, until some logistical pieces of the games started to fall apart. Running “water” came out looking more like iced tea than anything else, doors wouldn’t open, rooms weren’t well put together. Overall, the accommodations were a mess.

That would have been bad enough, but things didn’t get any better when some reporters started doing some digging on other Russian behaviors. Like, the notion of putting men in jail for being homosexual. All of a sudden, protests were going up, calling for all sorts of action, from sanctions to boycotts, all attempting to boldly protest the crimes that Russia has committed against its people.

This isn’t the first time the Olympics have served as a staging ground for the world’s conflicts. The 1936 games were held in Berlin, Germany, at a time when Germany was well on its way to starting the most atrocious act of hate in recent history. The 1980 Olympics held in Lake Placid, New York featured the bitter rivalry between the United States and USSR, culminating in the “Miracle on Ice” hockey championship. In both cases, political situations almost led to boycotts of the games, and in both cases the Americans competed. The result? An African American man winning a gold medal in Hitler’s home and an band of Americans showing the Russians that they’re dominance will be short-lived.

For the next two weeks, Americans will once again be on foreign soil, competing for medals and the rights to claim athletic superiority. There is, though, so much more at stake than awards and accolades. The United States is defending a way of living, a freedom, and an idea. We are defending the right to freedom, the right to be a light unto the nations.

Americans are not unified. We don’t agree on a great many things. We don’t agree on the way we should run our government, or the line between where my liberties end and the liberties of another begin. We can’t seem to agree on much of anything. With one major exception: we live in a country that allows us to fight for what we believe. Our rights are defended, and there is a civilized way of fighting for what we want.

There are 230 Americans in Sochi. I don’t know what they believe about homosexuality, healthcare, government spending, or guns (well, maybe with the exception of the biathlon competitors). I don’t really care. What they’re doing there, what they’re saying by being there, is that America, the country they represent, is alive and well, and we are ready to be a presence on the global stage.

There is a difference between being an American and the idea of America. America is something we all believe in. America is an idea. And we have to come together, most especially for the next few weeks, to support America as it represents us, each and every one of us, on the world’s stage.