MLK Quote's and Advantages

http://joryhouser.blogspot.com/2011/01/quotes-by-great-mlk-after-reading-his.html

Above I have added the link to my mlk blog i put up in 2011. I have done this each MLK day. In addition, this year I watched 12 year slave and the help. Both are fantastic must-see movies that bring up important facts that should not be ignored. As a white male I understand that I have been allowed particular advantages because of my ancestors advanatages. I began life a step above others because of the advantages my ancestors have. It is a sad truth. I hope that my life helps others a step up in life in order to even the playing feild and allow a more diverse, full, interconnected life.
Please read through the quotes i found while reading MLK's autobiography and contemplate there insight aligned with his honorable and indistinguishable life.

MLK reading

MLK Blog by Jory

I have begun to repost this blog each MLK day each year.  I make sure i read through some great quotes by MLK and revisit his historical and monumental life.  Take some time out of your day to give honor to those who deserve it.  Click the link above, even better get his autobiography or greatest essays and read it!!!!  It is not a waste of time and you will be impressed.

My view on Guns currently

Guns: May i begin by saying that i have waited to make my stance on a few of these issues. I have randomly commented on peoples posts in order to make them think about their stance, but never have had immense feelings one way or another. Secondly, I must ask my family and friends who are reading this to keep an open mind and do not inflict negative energy towards me because of my stance on a few of these issues. It will be neither you nor I who decide these things regardless of our ranting and raving or our posts and links on facebook.
 That being said here is my stance:

I understand that people want to protect themselves, collect, and hunt with guns. I understand the immediate response to school tragedies to be shove a few police men at the doors and patrolling them and have them armed and ready to go.  Will that help?   WHen i ask myself these types of questions i put myself in the killers shoes and I observe what FBI knows about the killers. They know they are never random (they go to great lengths to destroy evidence, write notes, observe the area, prepare enough ammunition, buy ammunition and guns in a stealthy way in order to not be traced).  I think it is safe to conclude that they prepare themselves physically and mentally ( i wont go into it here but i do believe the main area that needs change is mental health and america-----coming from someone who works alongside mental health counselors everyday and has taken graduate classes with them for two years, discussing these instances often with research). Back to the discussion, if i was the planning killer how would i plan for cops in the school system?  I would most likely visit, get to know them. The sandy hook killer went to elementary there and could have told the front cops that and visited multiple times.  Obviously, the columbine killers went to school there, meaning a cop would not have stopped them from going in.  I doubt our budget in america would allow for more than one or two cops,  most likely one cop in many schools. After a few years he would probably just be sitting at the front in a desk reading  a book, checking individuals in. If the killer knew the cop, he would probably say hello to the guard  walk past him turning to shoot him in the back of the head. That is what i would do.
In conclusion, i think you would need much more than one cop at the front entrance  and i believe the killer could access at least one entrance rather easily. Especially in an affluent area where crime is obsolete. In addition, since the discussion is about the sandy hook shooting, he did not go through an entrance but through a window, a armed guard would have had to beat him to the classrooms.
There is one area that i believe an armed guard or two would help is if he did go through a window as in Sandy Hook, the guard could have potentially slowed him down when attempting to go to other classrooms. Judging by the types of guns Adam was wielding, it would be difficult for a cop with a pistol to take him down, but you never know.
Overall, i believe this is not the answer, i'm not about to say i know what the answer is. I do not think everybody should turn their guns in and not be allowed to own a gun or that we need military in each school.
As stated earlier, i do know americas ability to understand and treat mental health needs more attention, funding, and discussion given to it.

I will leave you with this article by NPR about Australia and America's similarities and the 1996 Catastrophe that happened in Australia  NPR looks at Australia's response and explains the data on the implications of their laws.  I understand that its difficult to compare countries because of size etc, but i believe it is still worth a look.
""The facts are you are 15 times more likely to be shot dead per capita in the U.S.A. than here in Australia.""
Click below for article:
Australia Article for NPR

Interesting article below from an interview by NPR  Click below.
Guns: what we know and what we do not know.

Now a look at is it becoming more commonplace?
Click below for article:
Is it more commonplace?
click below for article:
More common 2

I'll be the first to admit that i  know little about guns though almost every one of my friends and family owns at least one gun, many owning multiple.  I have researched guns and had lively discussions with each side.  I have studied political philosophy and philosophy of law. I am not entirely ignorant on the subject.

Present, Past, Present, Future, Present

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” 
― Mother Teresa

“The future depends on what you do today.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.” 
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

This post is not to say that the past nor the future are obsolete. I am not implying we should forget about everything and merely live for the moment, resulting in fatalistic movements and choices. This is more of a post about a realization of our memories, thoughts, and experiences.

When I reminisce about my past it normally has a footing in the here and now. An object whirls me back to a different time and i relive that moment in my mind. I hear a song and I am reminded of a darker time. I see a house, a robust smell, a vivid jolt of deja vu. These things all have a foundation, a stem, in the present.

When you think of a loved one that is gone are you living in the past or are you rather surviving the here and now? Aren't you lonely now which causes you to think of a different time, meaning your past thought stems from the present. 

What of the future? Ah yes, it too has it's root in the present. When we contemplate the future we normally have a pressing issue in the present that forces us to attempt to transcend time and interpret the future. We decide to go to college in order to have a more lucrative employment later in life. The reason we thought about the more lucrative employment is because the choice was at hand in the present. This does not take away from the importance of that future or the importance of the college choice. 

Comments And The Current Election

All of the attention being given to the comments that were made on each parties view on women has begun to get old.  I will point out that the Obama administration has separated itself from Hilary Rosen and her comment.  I will also point out that after that spectacle came an attack on Mitt Romney and his comments about women some time ago. 

            Honestly, I believe the attention should not be on whether the candidates respect stay-at-home moms or single mothers.  I do not think the attention should be on their respect for stay-at home dads or single dads. I think the attention should be on the laws they support that could affect stay-at home mothers and fathers and single mother and fathers. Which laws affect these individuals? I will allow your own discernment to lead you to that answer, but I assure you there is one candidate whose laws affect them more than others in most cases.

            If people are so upset about one parties potential lack of respect for these groups of people then shouldn’t they pay more attention to the actual laws and rights that affect these individuals. 

Republicans, Immigration, Mr. Colbert

Republican Potentials and Immigration

Despite what many Americans want to believe, this issue continues to manifest and pertain to them in increasing measures each year. The previous link expresses this thought in regards to the upcoming republican candidate choice.  Below i have a link of Stephen Colbert in an actual congress discussing immigration issues.  Partially for humor and partially for the validity of his points i bring up his statements made in congress in relation to this article. Enjoy.

Colbert in Congress 

MLK

Temporal and Eternal: Quotes by the great MLK after reading his Autobiog...: ReBlogging a previous blog i had back in January after reading MLK's autobiography.

Make a difference! H2O

Please help me give water to ethiopia.  Here is website to donate!  water donation!

100% of donations go to the water, zero go to the organization
20 dollars can give one person water
An average water project costs $5,000 and can serve a community of 250+ people.
$20,000 can sponsor a water project and latrines at a school and serve up to 1,000 students, teachers and surrounding community members.
Many times donations are matched, mine was!


I first heard about this a year ago ( i think) listening to Rob Bell.  I remember wanting to start something then, but never did..
Well this is me starting something.  I do not have much money to give but decided i would see what me and you (my friends, family, and readers) could raise.  I sure hope we raise more than 200 dollars but either way i want to make some sort of contribution!  The website for  charity water is here...h20.  Feel free to give out my url to other people and have them donate, spread the word!  (www.mycharitywater.org/joryhouser)

Ever Wonder?

Compare Religions

I'm not going to lie this is pretty impressive little gadget.  I found this website Patheos through Kurt Willems's blog at Red Letter Christians website.  (that was a lot of shout outs)  Essentially what this search engine does is allows you to choose two religions and compare the basic's of them.  You can see when the religion was formed, who were its founders, some of their principal beliefs, where the religion originated, what influenced the religion to come about, etc.  It is very good for people who want a quick synopsis of what their religion stands for or has stood for in previous generations.  I know a few people who would really enjoy this device which is why i thought about throwing up a quick blog about it.

Also the blogs on the site are good too! 

Jesus, Bombs, & Ice Cream

Shane's New Blog

Intrigue is not a unfamiliar word to Shane Claiborne and with a  title like “Jesus, Bombs, & Ice Cream” it is certain that he will continue his trek of being incredibly intelligent and inspiring and also extremely entertaining (literally this guy can eat fire) Shane has more stories than your grandmother and his way with words let you relive the experience while he tells it (for reference, read his book Irresistible Revolution  or Jesus For President).  His time spent over in Baghdad and other numerous tumultuous areas give him much more credit than the next guy, which means listen up.  He has been to theses places, spent time with their people, their doctors, their dying, their needy, and has even spent time with our people who are stationed over there.  Shane’s ability to network never seems to grow weak.  He now has partnered with Ben of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and has created this amazing event named “Jesus, Bombs, & Ice Cream”.  If I did not have grad school and work then I would make the voyage to Philly and go to this event, but I cannot, but if there is anyway you can, I say go for it.  Here is a quick description of what will go down:

“A victim of 911 will share about why she has insisted that more violence will not cure the epidemic of hatred in the world.

A veteran from Iraq will speak about the collision he felt as a Christian trying to follow the nonviolent-enemy-love of Jesus on the cross… while carrying a gun.

A welder will tie an AK-47 in a knot and while a muralist paints something beautiful on stage.

We’re going to do a SKYPE call with Afghan youth working for peace, and hear their dreams for a world free of war and bombs and other ugly things.

I don’t want to give the whole thing away, but I will say we’ve got the world’s best juggler Josh Horton doing an original anti-violence routine… and we’ve got some of the finest musicians rocking out some old freedom songs.”

-Shane C

Overall, I think it is fascinating to see someone who goes at such a steady pace as Shane use all of his networks in such a positive way.  Its great to see him use all his means and mesh them into a public event that will give nonviolence a spotlight which is rare in America.  Plus who doesn’t want to see a AK-47 be welded into a knot in a artistic way.  Even if you do not go to the event, be brave and show the community you live within that we (whoever your we is, im meaning it in general, humans) have not loss our imagination.  As Shane says, interrupt injustice and build a world with fewer bombs and more ice cream.  Dream big and dream for others not yourself.  

Wisdom from neighbors

“I am still pro-Israel, but I’ve also become pro-Palestine. Pro-peace. Pro-justice. Pro-equality for Jews and Arabs living as neighbors in the Holy Land. And bottom line, pro-Jesus.”  –Lynne Hybels “My Search for the Truth about the middle east”

“I can’t say I’m overly religious. I get satisfaction from many different types of religions and philosophies.”   -Jon Huntsman (previous ambassador to China/republican candidate)

“We are taught to celebrate independence. But independence and individualism have come at a great price. In the wealthy and industrialized countries we have become the richest people in the world, but we also have some of the highest rates of loneliness, depression, and suicide. We are rich, sad, and lonely. We are living into patterns that not only leave much of the world hungry for bread and starved for justice but also leave us longing for the good life and for meaning and purpose beyond ourselves.”    ---shane Claiborne www.redletterchristians.org

 “And I don’t mean that he’s being hypocritical. I mean that if you live in a democratic society, it is a mix of what you think the voters want and what you think is doable.”

-       Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is gay, speaking about Obama not being lucid during the 2008 elections on gay marriage.  (Pretty much its sad but true, good quote though!)

Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering.....Dostoevsky Quotes!

These are quotes from the brothers karamazov by fydor dostoevsky.  If you do not know much about the book id say do a little research on the book before reading the quotes.  If you really want a fun challenge then go get the 800 page book and read it!  :)  It really was a fantastic book.  The characters are developed very well!  Well on with the quotes....

“As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naïve and simple-hearted than we suppose.  And we are too.”

 “No animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.” Pg238

“I think that if the devil does not exist, and man has therefore created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.” 239

“There is, of course, a beast hidden in every man, a beast of rage, a beast of sensual inflammability at the cries of the tormented victim, an unrestrained beast let off the chain, a beast of diseases acquired in debauchery” 242

"A socialist christian is more dangerous than a socialist atheist."

"But didst thou not know he would at last reject even thy image and thy truth, if he is weighed down with the fearful burden of free choice?"

Speaking about having power over all earth and nations when tempted the old man says...."Why didst thou reject the last gift....Thou wouldst have accomplished all that man seeks on earth--that is, Someone to worship, someone to keep his conscience, and some means of uniting all in one unanimous and harmonious anthill."

"Try to love your neighbors actively and tirelessly.  The more you succeed in loving, the more you'll be convinced of the existence of God and the immortality of your soul."

"Above all do not lie to yourself.  A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others."

"But let me tell thee that now, today people are more persuaded than ever that they have perfect freedom, yet they have brought their freedom to us.."

"Those who live in her (The Universal Church) are not those who come and go but those who persevere in rooted stability of their spirit."

"In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us 'make us your slaves, but feed us.'"

"Thou didst promise them the bread of Heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, ever sinful and ignoble race of man?  And if for the sake of the bread of Heaven thousands and tens of thousands shall follow Thee, what is to become of the millions and tens of thousands of millions of creatures who will not have the strength to forego the earthly bread for the sake of the heavenly."

"For the secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for."

"Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering."

"Entering upon a new, completely unknown path, again quite as lonely as before, having much hope, but not knowing for what, expecting much, too much, from life, but unable himself to define anything either in his expectations or even in his desires.”

Life will bring you many misfortunes, but through them you will be happy, and you will bless life and cause others to bless it—which is the most important thing” -285

“There was so much of God’s glory around me: birds, trees, meadows, sky, and I alone lived in shame, I alone dishonored everything, and did not notice the beauty and glory of it all.”  -289

“But from a very bad family, too, one can keep precious memories, if only one’s soul knows how to seek out what is precious.” 290

“In order to make the world over anew, people themselves must turn onto a different path psychically.  Until one has indeed become the brother of all, there will be no brotherhood.” 303

“Everywhere now the human mind has begun laughably not to understand that a man’s true security lies not in his own solitary effort, but in the general wholeness of humanity.” 304

“He is isolated, and what does he care about the whole?  They have succeeded in amassing more and more things, but have less and less joy.”  -314

“For every hour and every moment thousands of people leave their life on this earth, and their souls come before the Lord—and os many of them part with the earth in isolation, unknown to anyone, in sadness and sorrow that no one will mourn for them, or even know whether they have lived or not.” -318

“Work tirelessly.  If, as you are going to sleep at night, you remember: “I did not do what I ought to have done,” arise at once and do it.” 321

“the time will come for an intelligent man to be reasonable, but if at such an exceptional moment there is no love to be found in a young man’s heart, then when will it come?” -340

“I believed, I believe, and I want to believe, and I will believe, and what more do you want,”  -341

“I do not rebel against my God, I simply do not accept his world,” -341

"Capable of containing all possible opposites and of contemplating both abysses at once, the abyss above us, an abyss of lofty ideals, and the abyss beneath us, an abyss of the lowest and foulest degradation."

Tid Bit Love

A bit on love

The above link is written by Andrew marin who is the president and founder of the Martin Foundation.  (Martin foundation)  This is just a very good/short blog discussing and questioning what exactly is love.  Below is a good quote from this blog....

"Who is our brother?

Other believers? Those who go to church like us? Look like us? Think like us? Act like us?

If someone from ‘the other’ isn’t a part of what you’re doing you’re not building a bridge toward the Kingdom you’re building an army here on earth.

Anyone can build an army. Takes no faith. No guts. No love.

No Jesus."

Just a nice tid bit to read and chew on this saturday afternoon...

Buscemi and Cyrus say no.

Steve Says No!

Amid self conceited stars desiring the world to bow down to them and likewise, the world expecting these stars to be the ideal person in every shape and form, it is wonderful to see some famous folk digging their heels in and saying no to conformity.  I do not know enough about these stars to know whether they conform in other regards of their lives, I'm sure they do, but this is about the teeth! :)  I think its great that Steve Buscemi and Miley Cyrus choose to not attempt to be the perfect image that society tells them to be but instead finds perfection in their imperfection. I find it intriguing that Steve says he would not have gotten the roles he got if he had fixed his teeth.  Also intriguing is the fact that Kirsten Dunst claims that she finds "messed up teeth sexy.  I have not heard many women make this claim.  I really enjoy hearing stories purely for the lack of coverage.  Moral stars are not as interesting as the crazy ones that party i guess.  :)

Red Guilt

 i wrote this sept 2006, i changed it around a bit, i am sure there is alot more that i could change to make it better but this is good enough for now. Hope its somewhat enjoyable.  

Red guilt


Damp rainfall was swarmming through the thick air. Spring was elapsed by summer. Mac sternly took the hand of his latest victim and violently led her through the forest. Gagged, blindfolded, and bound by the hands the young girl had no way of communicating with the world.  Putrid sounds filled her ears as her eyelids flickered with bright tricks in her new dark world.  Mac thought to himself of how perfect the weather was for digging. All his precious spots were secluded. What better place than a forest to place bodies. The human race has all but forgotten the forest.  Scurrying to their suburbian safe houses, all the better for Mac.  No soul sees the dark forest.  None of their pitty secluded souls come outside when the sun goes down.  An hour before, Mac had snuck up on this blonde woman while she was getting into her car in a dark parking lot. She had golden blonde hair, enticing eyes, and baby smooth skin. She stood about 5'5. Mac hated blondes and their sameness.  Maybe better words are  similar properties.  Characteristics give them too much credit as a human.  According to him, they were less than normal humans. They were dull witted and inescapably beautiful. Blonde's used deception in horrific ways. Mac wore no mask.  He wanted them to see his face. Mac had dark complexion and eyes that made onlookers feel as if they were staring into an abyss. He was tall, about 6'3. He was well built. If she had seen him on the streets she would have been attracted to him but instead she was staring at his face with a  deep onset cringe. Fear so great it clouded her thoughts of the treacherys he was going to do to her.
Mac took her to the forest and began to undress her. It was easy to see that the young girl thought she was about to be raped. So when Mac took off her clothes and then began to dig a 4 foot hole in the middle of the forest she was releaved, untill it dawned on her that he had allowed her to see his face.  No killer would let their victim live after seeing their face.  She knew she was going to die.   Many would ask why he would do this. Why not rape the beautiful young woman? After digging the hole he threw the girl he had bound at the nearest oak tree into the hole. He then began to shovel the dirt back into the hole.
"Stupid whore," said Mac.
"You deserve this and much more,"
Just as the dirt was about to cover her up he pulled out his gun and fired a shot into her breast. Once the dirt was covered he then pulled out the rose. The rose was his mark, and killing the young girl was his job and this job was much more than ordinary, it was an obligation. The rose was important. This was so Cam would know. So that Mac would be able to arrange a meeting for the two of them. He placed the rose so that it was protruding out of the ground. Oh how he had waited for that day. The day he could come face to face with the man he had been in the shadow of for so long.

Cam was the Commanding Officer of the Washington Dc Homicide Task Force.  It was his job to put the murderers behind bars, to figure out complex cases and track down serial killers. Cam recetnly discovered the serial killers latest bodies, which always puzzled his fellow task force officers. Victim number four was found at 6am eastern time. Ghastly, yet beautiful, decadent yet appauling, the rose was waiting.  The killer left his mark.  Cam and his team dug four feet down and found her.  Blonde, pretty, the usual.  Images of the ex wife burn into Cams vision as he viewed the young girl.  Memories flashed, a squint and he pushed them back.  He needed to leave.  At the office guilt was bubbling in his heart.  Looking to the picture on his desk of his little daughter it deepened. He had no time for that now; he had a case to solve. He had seen the victim before, in his dreams. He always dreamt of the killers victims. His dreams never are directly about the victim, but he always saw their face somewhere within the dream and the location of the dream was the crime spot.  Not that it made it easy to find, it was either a forest or a room. There were usually many people in his dreams, but the victims were easy to point out and remember. They always had a scared expression on there face as if they were dying on the inside and had no way of stopping it.

Cam thought about what had happened earlier at the crime scene.  In the memory, Detective Cam sat on the edge of the dirt hole and stared at the blank look on the naked girl face staring back at him. A shot right into the breast.  Cam didn’t need to ask forensics, he knew there was no sexual intercorse preformed on the women.
Just as he was thinking this his cell phone rang. It was his mother.
"Are you going to go to see your daughter's grave sight in a few days," she asked.
"Mother I've been there once and I couldn't take it, I don't know if it is a good idea,"
"You must face your fears before your fears face you," she said as if reading a fortune cookie. Cam hung up the phone and decided to head back to his office.
After revwing the memory Cam pulled out the waterized ziplocked backs and viewed the different roses they had recovered. Cam knew there was a reason the killer used a rose, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.  Cam would think about this for hours, feeling so close to the answer. After an hour of staring at the same pictures of the same naked women and making no progress he decided to head home. Once home he had a fast spagettio supper and decided to go to bed. But first he went into his daughter's old room. This was Jayde's room. This is where he went to think and figure out things. It was his secret room that was always kept locked. This case had made him think about his daughter a lot. The rose was meaningful to him. As he walked into her room he looked all around. The walls were a soft pink and had a trim of roses across it. Rose pictures hung around the room. Bed sheets, pillow cases, all pink with vibrant red roses plastered onto the fabric. She had loved that flower.  Noone outside of the family knew about Jayde and her obsession with the rose.  Did the killer know?  How?  Jayde had died with him controlling it all.  She died and he survived. His wife had left him three years before. Cam was on his way back from picking Jayde up from his wife's house. The divorce was her doing, Brooke.   She told him he had to choose his job or his family. He told her he didn't see why he couldn't have both. She said she didn't care if they were poor that they would at least be together. He wanted a better life for his daughter and his wife than the one he had had. America was becoming rotten and he could help, and the only way to survive was to succumb to the working class and make a difference.  He did that so when Jayde was older she could have a future. He had never had that growing up. He missed Jayde everyday yet he never was able to show her the loving father that he really was inside. While she was alive he was spending every moment they were together either sleeping or telling her he would take her here and there another day.  His wife told him to get therapy but he didn't believe in that stuff.  That is all he needed, a overpaid talking know-it-all siding with his wife. She was the crazy one for leaving him and creating their daughters death. Cam hadn't talked to his ex-wife since Jayde's funeral. Oh how he missed Jayde. Since he was unable to think of anything other than his daughter and his ex-wife he decided to go to bed with gin and tonic.

Mac knew Cam had been asleep for three hours, call it intuition.  Ensured, Mac awoke alert, head on a swivil, mind racing. This was his time. Time to set things right in the world, show Cam that justice can prevail.  Get rid of another girl who didn't deserve to live.
"Cam," he said out loud in a seductive way. He had known Cam for a very long time. Living in the shadows of Cam, watched Cam’s every move, waiting for his time to strike. Mac knew how he operated, he knew his secrets. He knew why he had hidden anger. He knew Cam better than Cam knew himself, or so he liked to think. It was time.  The meeting needed to occur.  It was time to lure poor detective in.
"It is time," Mac said.
As Mac was driving through the city, he noticed a young woman with a tight yellow shirt on and a man arguing.  The shirt looked a size too small for the woman and her breasts.  He pulled to the side and listened. They were in the midst of a break up, or so he assumed.  She wore her blonde hair in a tight bundle not allowing Mac to see the length of her hair.  The two argued for some time until she got into her car and sped away. The man was left with an emotion of sadness on his face. Mac realized he was holding his breathe, he wanted the man to get better.  How can he help him?  He can’t, he cannot undo what that bitch has done.  For a split second Mac thought that it may be the mans fault also, but looking into the mans downtrodden face he swept that instantaenous thought away.  He kept a one to two car separation between them. He was very good at this; he was use to following people in the darkness.

The two soon arrived in the garage of Autumn Apartments in lower Washington D.C.  For most cities, adding the word “lower” usually implies poorer, but in Washington D.C “lower” indicates higher middle-class. He followed her into the parking garage. The poorly illuminated yellow bulbs provided more shelter for the shadows than providing light for the young woman.  Mac crept along the vast amount of shadows.  Winding with the womans car He positioned himself behind the much to large black hummer.  As the woman began to get out of the car the radio continued to blare some incoherent rock album which peirced Macs ears.  Using the radio and the car ding Mac quickly unlocked the vehicle just as she was locking the car, voiding her attempt to lock the vehicle. Proceeding to the apartment entrence, loud clicks verberated off of the walls from the young womans heels.  The tight yellow shirt barely able to contain the two moving breasts within her shirts.  The noise of the heels ensured Mac that noone else was present with them in the garage.  No mask, no need. She was a car from him; he could hear the footsteps deepening. The annoying click as if someone was persistently knocking on his door and the sound went straight to his ears. Mac threw his hand over her soft mouth and took her to the ground. She went down easy. She was in good shape lacked in strength. He handcuffed her and then put the clorophorm gag in her mouth, causing the entire body to slowly hunch.  The yellow shirt pulled upwards showing the fake tan heart that stamp americas daughters. Hotwiring the Hummer the two of them drove off, one alert and aware of the glorious fullfilling night ahead, the other lost in deep sleep only to awake to a dark and twisted nightmare that leads to death.           

They drove to the outskirts of D.C.  Luckily the outskirts of D.C have only slightly been touched by the greedy souls. A beautiful forest once outside of its metropolis; large oak trees, thick forest, all of this perfect for his deed to preform. He had to choose a place Cam would look.  The outskirts of D.C are vast enough that if he wanted, he could find a unique burial place and keep it hidden for as long as he pleased.  But he wanted to be discovered, discovered by one man.  He was thinking of something significant to leave for his Detective. Just enough information to make the detective get an idea that he is onto something, but not enough to blow Macs cover, not yet.  This was yet another stepping stone leading to the island of meeting for the two of them.  Mac shuddered with excitement at the thought.  How many stones were needed for the detective to get to Mac?  Mac realized he was coming upon an area that was 15 miles from his previous location.  “Too close?”, he asked himself. Even though it was near his old burying place, the forest was full of green vegetation. The spring had treated the plants well, causing various green bushes to sprout in random assortments making most parts of the forest floor incapable of visibility.  Yellow shirt had just become alert and was beginning the scream routine.  The girl was trying everything to scream, but all that was coming out was muffled sounds of anguish.  A quick smile spread across Mac’s face.  Justice coming atlast. One less woman to worry about. Mac got out of the Hummer thinking to himself “what a wonderful vehicle for this project.  Fittingly black to belnd into the night.”.  Mac thought to himself that he may buy one of these in the future.. He then began to dig the hole. This will be number five that he would allow the detective to find. Once the hole was dug he went to the Hummer and retrieved the woman. He stripped her naked. He looked at her body in lust.  Beautiful, that's what she wanted him to think. She wanted him to lust.  But he was strong willed and above her.
"You women are strong when you're naked. Well you will die weak in your strength.”
He threw her into the pit. She stared up at him with an appalling look as he laughed at her. He then did his usual routine and began to throw dirt back into the hole. He saw the usual horror on her face as she realized she was being buried alive. Just as she was close to being covered he pulled out his gun and fired the shot. The shot into her breast, the shot into the object that entraps so many men into a dreamy state of weakness. How many men had she used those to entrap he wondered. It didn't matter. Mac jumped into the pit as blood ran down her breast. Oh how innocent she appeared, appear being the important distinction between being and faking. He looked at the glazed over crystal blue eyes. He then took out a needle and drained some blood from the victim. He put the blood into two vials. He had done this every time and yet still the detective hadn't noticed.
"A gift for you my friend" Mac said.

         The following afternoon Cam was staring at the pictures forensics gave back to him. The body looked just like the others.
"What do you want from me?" asked Cam out loud. The vile report forensics had gave him was worthless. He decided to call it a night and go home. Once at home Cam went to lie down on his big bed. It was very big for just one man. Cam put his boots under his bed when he felt something. It was a picture of his ex-wife Stephanie. When had he put that down there? He looked at her blonde hair, her high cheek bones that showed off her Indian side. A blonde Indian, somehow she had acquired blonde hair. Every victim had reminded him of his ex wife. He had always been so angry at her but he would never kill her. How could a man do this to a woman? Cam could only think of it for so long on account of his tiredness. He had gone to bed every night at 8 or 9 and still was unbelievable tired. Cam slowly drifted off into slumber. The sweet serenity of sleep. He had come to love sleep, the one place he could leave the troubles of the world and be apart of silent bliss. The only thing was that lately he had been attacked in his dreams. He would walk precariously around knowing that one of the ladies in his dream would wind up at the bottom of a muddy pit the next day. Once into his sleep Cam began to have a dream unlike his past dreams. This dream was not real-like. This dream was fuzzy and dark. A man about the age of 30 came up to him. Cam tried to focus his eyes on the man but then realized that the man was grasping a mirror. The mirror instantly caught his eye. Cam heard the intense roar of a lion and then the notorious laugh of a hyena. This caught Cam off guard but he still was unable to quit staring at the man. Something flashed from the mans pocket, it was a silver pistol. Cam stared into the mirror and saw a word. The word was out of focus. Beneath the words in the mirror something was coming out of the glass. It was a rose. A vibrant deep red rose fell briskly out of the mirror and into the black nothing that was surrounding Cam and the man. Immediately but slowly everything started to spin around him and then he was in his daughters room. He was lying in a pile of roses in his daughter's room staring at the ceiling. On the ceiling was the mirror that the man had held. He tried to get up but couldn't. He saw the ceiling closing in on him and he began to be able to read the letters. The letters spelt out "Mac".
With a wince Cam woke up with sweat dripping off of his face. His heart was beating a mile a minute. It sounded like a drumline was playing on his insides. He slowly drifted off back into sleep waking every few minutes because he was afraid to get too far into another dangerous dream.
"Mac," asked Cam out loud. Cam sat in his cubicle later on the next day not knowing what went on the night before. Trying to figure out what was going on. He had all the pictures, he had a paper with Mac wrote on it. He decided to go home because he was sitting there unable to think of an answer. Once he was at home he began to think about all that had happened in the dream with the mirror and Jayde's room. Cam decided to go into his daughter's room to possibly clear his mind and think about things. This is where the dream had ended. He sat in Jayde's room and began to stare around the room. It was such a wonderful 8 year old child's room. He looked wall to wall thinking of Jayde when something caught his eye. A red piercing illumination was coming from a slit in the closet door. Cam made his way to the closet door staring into the dark corner chamber of the room. He opened the door and looked inside. The illumination came from above in the closet. He got a chair and climbed atop it. While he was climbing he looked down and noticed wood shavings. Immediately his head jerked towards the door and there engraved into the door was the name "Mac".  He looked around and that is when he saw the mirror on the opposite door of the closet. In the mirror was the opposing door. But what he saw awestruck him. His name was staring back at him mocking him with all it had. It was Mac in the mirror, only it read Cam. Trying to comprehend the meaning of this, he looked up. There, along the shelf were five viles. Each of them filled with a red liquid.
"Blood," Cam said out loud. At the moment his Heart began to ache. How could this be in his little girl's room? He felt guilty for even seeing it. He was unable to breathe and became light headed, and collapsed hitting his head on a metal case that held all the pictures of his daughter. Everything went black around him. Cam drifted off into a dream.
Cam appeared in a zoo. He awoke to the monstrous roar of the lion and the laugh of the hyena mocking him. He remembered the noises from his previous dream. His eyes began to stare in a clockwise motion around his setting. This was the zoo that Jayde had tried to convince him to come to almost everyday. She loved the animals and the flowers at the zoo. This is where Jayde had received her first rose from her father. They had gone only once and he had always promised they would go again. Once again there was the man standing in front of him only this time he held a pistol. Cam was standing across the man holding a gun also.
"Have you figured it out yet," asked the man with a seductive grin.
"Well I take it your name is Mac." Cam said as his head started to swarm with everything he had encountered in the last hour.
"You are the killer. You are the one killing those girls. You are the evil I have been tracking."
"Evil? What have women ever done for you? Brought you sorrow, brought you pain, left you, abandoned you, nagged you, expected of you. There evil and they need to be taught a lesson," Mac said with a cocky smile to accent his happiness on the subject.
"You're apart of me, aren't you," said Cam with a gasp of air as he choked down a swallow of understanding. Everything was falling into place.
"You are me. Yet you are not. I'm crazy," said Cam with a laugh. "Well, you can't kill me. Evil cannot live alone without any good. That much I know. You will not," boomed Cam with power. Mac began to pull the trigger of the pistol when all of the sudden a little girl came out from behind the vent. Cam saw the girl and so did Mac. They stared at the little girl for an instant. They both knew who she was. She was little Jayde, his daughter, their daughter. Jayde was holding a rose. Jayde was staring at the man when suddenly the rose turned solid. She threw the rose at the man and it stuck right in his heart. The man fell to the ground. As he wiggled around the rose turned black and spread throughout his body. The veins of Mac were turning black as coal, spreading throughout his whole body. As this was taking place a crevasse came about in the earth swallowing up Mac. The hole closed up as fast as it had appeared.  In an instant Mac was gone. The black rose popped up out of the ground and turned its natural beautiful red color. Cam could feel himself relieved. But at the same time he could feel the guilt. Cam couldn't believe it. Little Jayde had saved his life. But how? She was dead. He was in the car crash with her and had seen her poor little body as he screamed at the heavens asking why.
Cam was staring there looking at his dead daughter. A light from the sky above came upon him. He thought he heard a voice when he noticed it was his daughter speaking. "So I had to be the one to bring you to the zoo daddy? Daddy where were you." She said in a sweet innocent voice. Cam face was stricken with shock. He could feel guilt being fed, growing as large as the hungry lion's roar was loud. She pulled out a gun and pointed it at her father.
A neighbor heard glass break and came to Cam's aid. Viles broke all over the closet floor. Random blood splotches were found on the carpet within the glass. When Cam fell he hit his head. The neighbor had Cam's head on a pillow while blood began to soak the pillow. Just as paramedics made their way into the room where the two were at, Cam began to breathe deeper. Just as Cam exalted his last breathe a rose rolled from a shelf atop the closet and fell into his hands. Guilt had made his last few years horrible. It had stopped him from moving on with his life, and now guilt would take his life from him.

@copyright threestrikesproduction

VanderPlaats Strikes Iowas Image Yet Again, YAY!

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/slavery-language-removed-group-marriage-pledge-candidates-160133885.html


First off, i do not pretend to be up to date on every political move, nor do i attempt to understand all the corners of the political world, for that please reference (http://www.politico.com/, http://www.caucusoutsider.com/,  or http://patshocker.blogspot.com)  That being said, (please click on the article above, this is quite ridiculous that this sort of language makes it into any sort of governmental document of any kind at the present age.  Lucky for America and Iowa in particular Mr. Bob VanderPlaats was " a fail for GOP gubernatorial candidate".  Nonetheless, Mr. Bob VanderPlaats was the instigator behind the unprecedented vote to remove three Iowa Supreme Court justices who were part of the unanimous decision that legalized same-sex marriages in the state.  I just wonder if those who supported Mr. VanderPlaats are proud of what he is saying/doing.  Sure makes me glad to know a fellow Iowan is fighting for the freedom of all and securing the rights of Americans with each document he sets forth.  Thanks Mr. VanderPlaats for screwing over people and wasting time/money/your life.
Sorry for the extreme language within this article.  I am merely voicing my opinion on a man and what he does with his life, that is all. 

Thankful For My Job And Education

Today while in my work meeting at Community Neuro Rehab i realized how thankful i should be for the experience and education i am getting at CNR.  I also thought how nice it was that i was using my college education in the real world.  I may not always be in brain injury but cognitive psychology and psychology type jobs but those were two disciplines i studied in college.  After going to a coffee shop and meditate on the thought, i thought it was pretty interesting that not too long ago my job did not exist and certainly not for someone right out of college.  Most of them were kept for doctors and people of that sort.  I found this describing when brain injury started to come into the rehabilitation era....


Facilities dedicated to TBI rehabilitation were probably first established during World War I.^[122] Explosives used in World War I caused many blast injuries; the large number of TBIs that resulted allowed researchers to learn about localization of brain functions.^[132] Blast-related injuries are now common problems in returning veterans from Iraq & Afghanistan; research shows the symptoms of such TBI's are largely the same as for TBI's involving a physical blow to the head.^[133]


Overall, it was just a wake up call.  A wake up call reminding me not to follow into the everyday customs of going with the flow and complaining about different things when i have so much to be thankful for.  It is so easy to get bogged down from boredom or other simple (in retrospect non-devastating) hinderances in our lives.  If i sit down and recall where i was in the job word 7 months ago, a year ago, two years ago, i will quickly become extremely pleased with where i am at the moment and the experience and life skills learnt at CNR.  I think this goes for many people who are working right out of college and even people who are in jobs that are particularly not as useful to their overall resume.  We learn no matter where we are, we meet friends and benefit in unseen and unknown ways just for spending continual time with particular people and regularly being available in continuous locations.  Just a thought...... 

First Man "Functionally cured" of HIV using Stem Cell Transplant

First man "Functionally cured" of HIV

This is very promising news for the medical world.  It is ironic considering the Des Moines Register which is the local newspaper in my town just did a piece entitled "As AIDS turns 30, many fear a dimming spotlight".  The link is Des Moines Register AIDS article.  Which i am not saying is a bad article or wrong, merely saying it is ironic that both were produced at the same time.

The way the scientist did this miraculous endeavor was through stem cell research. Here is a main excerpt from the article: "Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago.).  "

I thought it was very interesting that 1 percent of caucasians are immune to the trait.  I had never heard of this, it highly intrigued me.  The article is quick to say that this procedure can be fatal, and Timothy does suffer some neurological problems from the operation, nonetheless, he and doctors agree it is a great miracle for his body to be eliminated of the HIV replicating virus.  It is also a great window into the possibilities of stem cell research and shows that if given the time, research, and chance, stem cell's could battle some of our toughest ailments.  

Love Wins, Rob Bell loses (according to whom? Public/"established traditional" opinion or God?)

I must confess i am in love with "Love Wins", Rob Bell's new controversial new book that deals with a variety of what he thinks are common perceptual misconceptions about what image the bible is portraying. Mainly these misconceptions come from, in his view, from our cultural language and perceptions.  I must confess again that I love the fact that he boldly says this in this book, but this is not his first time saying these things.  He says it in each of his other books, especially "Jesus wants to save Christians too".  I think he has hit the nail on the head.  Even if you disagree with his book you cannot ignore some of the things he says within the pages of this book.  I for one, am not entirely bought on his theological conclusion (if he positively does make one, this i am not entirely sure), but i am exceptionally pleased with his use of dialogue, cultural separateness (particularly american), debate, questioning, and looking at the entire picture and comparing what is being said and to whom.  Before i dare discuss anything about this book with anyone i ensure they have read it because most people get their information on the buzz on the web which has caused many people to talk about the book when they are the type of people who "think they can discuss and debate a book without reading it and just go off of the "i heard my grandma tell my mother that this book says this which she got from a one-sided website that was on wikipedia".  I will later blog some of my favorite discussions within the book and some of my favorite lines but the book is being borrowed by many people at the moment.  Nonetheless, if you have read the book and want to have a good ol'' intelligent lively loving discussion call/text/coffee me and we can discuss this all.

I will say one thing about his book.............Its difficult to be angry at him and say "why would you say such things blah blah blah"  "i sure hope your wrong"...........because if you do think/say these things, it may be time for you to take a step back and look at the way you live/think/and interact with others and the world around you because i think Jesus was a tad bit more like Rob Bell than you sir/mam.  

The Essential Gandhi

These are quotes from the book "Essential Gandhi" which i just finished reading.  It took me a while to get through this book because of all the journaling it made me do.  If you want to have one book force you to rethink how you see the world around you and the world you never come in contact with, then read this book!  Actually, read anything by Gandhi and i promise it will force you to think about things you have never thought about before.  He had a amazing way of putting his beliefs into practice, that which rarely is attained by most human beings.  Gandhi more than anyone else, has made me contemplate the way i think, the way i say things, the way i spend my time, and the way i think of others.  Very inspirational.  Here are just a select few quotes i have picked from this one book......

"There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything, I feel it though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules or why and how He rules and yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules. In my tour last year in Mysore I met many poor villagers and I found upon inquiry that they did not know who ruled Mysore. They simply said some God ruled it. If the knowledge of these poor people was so limited about their ruler I who am infinitely lesser in respect to God than they to their ruler need not be surprised if I do not realize the presence of God - the King of Kings. Nevertheless, I do feel, as the poor villagers felt about Mysore, that there is orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is not a blind law, for no blind law can govern the conduct of living being and thanks to the marvelous researches of Sir J. C. Bose it can now be proved that even matter is life. That law then which governs all life is God. Law and the law-giver are one. I may not deny the law or the law-giver because I know so little about it or Him. Just as my denial or ignorance of the existence of an earthly power will avail me nothing even so my denial of God and His law will not liberate me from its operation, whereas humble and mute acceptance of divine authority makes life's journey easier even as the acceptance of earthly rule makes life under it easier. I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves and recreates. That informing power of spirit is God, and since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He alone is. And is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent, for I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, and light. He is love. He is the supreme Good. But He is no God who merely satisfies the intellect, if He ever does. God to be God must rule the heart and transform it.”

“(The temple) never appealed to me.  I did not like its glitter and pomp…”

“Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man and silence is necessary in order to surmount it.  “

Gandhi speaking of nursing…”Such service can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it.”  When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion it stunts the man and crushes his spirit.  Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.  But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.”

“…Men, in the selfishness that blinds their reason, may think to score by injustice and oppression.”

“Only he who has mastered the art of obedience to law knows the art of disobedience to law”

“…..I do want to attain Moksha (Salvation, merging with God).  I do not want to be reborn.  But if I have to be reborn, I should be born an untouchable so that I may share their sorrows, sufferings and the affronts leveled at them in order that I may endeavor to free myself and them from that miserable condition….”

“…..I must refuse to insult the naked by giving them clothes they do not need instead of giving them work which they sorely need.  I will not commit the sin of becoming their patron but on learning that I had assisted in impoverishing them I would give them a privileged position and give them neither crumbs nor cast-off clothing but the best of my food and clothes and associate myself with them in work. “

“…..I am proud to think that I have numerous readers among farmers and workers.  They make India.  Their poverty is India’s curse and crime.  Their prosperity alone can make India a fit country to live in…..”

“Pure motives can never justify impure or violent actions.”

“The spirit of punishment is a sign of weakness..”

“…..We must have the liberty to do evil before we learn to do good.”

“In India it must be held to be a crime to spend money on dinner and marriage parties…and other luxuries so long as millions of people are starving.  We would not have a feast in a family if a member was about to die of starvation.”

“If India makes violence her creed and I have survived I would not care to live in India.  She will cease to evoke any pride in  me….”

“Every good deed is its own advertisement”

“…To surrender is not to confer favor.  Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.  What a lover gives transcends justice.  And yet it is always less than he wishes to give because he is anxious to give more and frets that he has nothing left…”

“Love never claims, it ever gives.”

“A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.”

“The law of love governs the world.  Life persists in the face of death.  The universe continues in spite of destruction incessantly going on.  Truth triumphs over untruth.  Love conquers hate”

“If I love merely Hindus and Moslems because their ways are on the whole pleasing to me, I shall soon begin to hate them when their ways displease me, as they may well do any moment.  A love that is based on the goodness of those whom you love is a mercenary affair.”

“We must measure people with their own measure and see how far they come up to it.”

“I remain loyal to an institution so long as that institution conduces to my growth, to the growth of the nation.”

“If I have to make the choice between counting beads or turning the wheel, I would certainly decide in favor of the wheel, making it my rosary, so long as I found poverty and starvation stalking the land…”

“No man of God can consider another man as inferior to himself.  He must consider every man as his blood brother.  It is the cardinal principal of every religion.

“It is not enough for you to hold the belief passively that untouchability is a crime.  He who is a passive spectator of crime is really, and in law, an active participator in it…(without action).”

(Gandhi went to Buckingham Palace to have tea with King George V and Queen Mary.  On the eve of the event, all England was agog over what he would wear.  He wore a loincloth, sandals, a shawl and his dangling watch.  Later someone asked Gandhi whether he had had enough on.  “The King, (Gandhi replied) had enough on for both of us”

“….The word “criminal” should be taboo from our dictionary.  Or we are all criminals.  ‘Those of you that are without sin cast the first stone.’…..As a jailer once said, all are criminals in secret…Let them therefore be good companions.  I know this is easier said than done.”

“….There is a need for reform in the administration of prisons.  A prison should be a house of correction and not punishment.  (why?)  should a forger have fetters on his legs in prison?  The fetters will not improve his character.”

“ ‘Harijans’---children of God, which is the name Gandhi gave to the sixty million untouchables.”

“There is no inherent merit in mortification of the flesh”

“…..My trust is solely in God.  And I trust men only because I trust God.”

“Blind adoration in the age of action is perfectly valueless, is often embarrassing and equally, often painful.”

“I can truthfully say I am slow to see the blemishes of fellow beings, being myself full of them and therefore being in need of their charity.  I have learnt not to judge any one harshly and to make allowances for defects that I may detect.”

“This is enough for the man who is true to himself:  Do not undertake anything beyond your capacity and at the same time do not harbor the wish to do less than you can.  One who takes up tasks beyond his powers is proud and attached; on the other hand one who does less than he can is a thief.  If we keep a time-table we can save ourselves from this last mentioned sin indulged in even unconsciously…”

“If I had no sense of humor I should long ago have committed suicide.”

“It is nonsense for you to talk of old age so long as you outrun young men in the race for service and in the midst of anxious times fill rooms with your laughter and inspire youth with hope when they are on the brink of despair.”

“My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my success and my talents….Why should He have chosen me, an imperfect instrument, for such a mighty experiment?  I think he deliberately did so. He had to serve the poor dumb ignorant millions.  A perfect man might have been their despair.  When they found that one with their failings was marching on towards Ahimsa (the practice of love) they too had confidence in their own capacity.”

“All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family

"All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul."

"It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business."

“Brute force will avail against brute force only when it is proved that darkness can dispel darkness.”

“…Physical Force is wrongly considered to be used to protect the weak.  As a matter of fact, it still further weakens the weak, it makes them dependent upon their so called defenders or protectors…”
“Man and his deed are two distinct things.  Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity, as the case may be.  ‘Hate the sin not the sinner’ is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.”

“Moksha (salvation, merging with God)”

“It is a million times better to appear untrue before the world than to be untrue to ourselves.”
“…A government that is evil has no room for good men and women except in its prisons.”

“…I cannot possibly go wrong so long as I do not harm other nations in the act of serving my country.”

“If man, no matter what pigment he wears, will realize his status, he will discover that it is possible for him to stand erect before a whole world in opposition.”

“Man does not live by bread alone.  Many prefer self-respect to food.”

“I can no more teach non-violence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes.  Non-violence is the summit of bravery.”

“I object to violence because, when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.”

“It is nobler to try to change their spirit than to take their lives.”
“A man who is truthful will not believe charges even against his foes.  He will, however, try to understand the viewpoints of his opponents of serving his opponents.”
“Power is of two kinds.  One is obtained by fear of punishment, and the other by arts of love.  Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.”

Philly ex-con makes homemade jail to deter others

www.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110210/ap_on_re_us/us_homemade_jail


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110210/ap_on_re_us/us_homemade_jail

I will edit this later, i just wanted this guy to get noticed!  This is pretty amazing of him to do.  Good to see that he is doing something very creative and physical to deter the youth and others from jail.  This could make people think twice before making a decision.  

Quotes by the great MLK after reading his Autobiography

I just finished the MLK autobiography.  Great great great!!! Here are just a few of the quotes i have found in the pages of this book.



"I must be concerned about unemployment, slums, and economic insecurity.  I am a profound advocate of the social gospel."
"The kingdom of God is neither the thesis of individual enterprise nor the antithesis of collective enterprise, but a synthesis which reconciles the truths of both."
"I was occasionally shocked when my intellectual journey carried me through new and sometimes complex doctrinal lands, but the pilgrimage was always stimulating; it gave me a new appreciation for objective appraisal and critical analysis, and knocked me out of my dogmatic slumber."

King speaking of pros and cons of liberal and conservative views.
"Liberalism.........its refusal to abandon the best light of reason.  Its contribution to the philological-historical criticism of biblical literature has been of immeasurable value."

"Whenever the church, consciously or unconsciously, caters to one class it loses the spiritual force of the "whosoever will, let him come" doctrine, and is in danger of becoming little more than a social club with a thin veneer of religiosity."
"Through education we seek to change attitudes and internal feelings (prejudice, hate, etc.); through legislation and court orders we seek to regulate behavior."
"Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil.  The greatest way to do that is through love.  I believe firmly that love is a transforming power that can lift a whole community to new horizons of fair play, good will, and justice."

King speaking of the bus boycott...
"We came to see that, in the long run, it is more honorable to walk in dignity than to ride in humiliation.  So in a quiet dignified manner, we decided to substitute tired feet for tired souls, and walk the streets of Montgomery until the sagging walls of injustice had been crushed by the battering rams of surging justice."

"But if democracy is to live, segregation must die."
"O God, help me to see that where i stand today,  I stand because others helped me to stand there and because the forces of history projected me there."
"And i remembered that we spend more than a million dollars a day to store surplus food in this country. I said to myself, 'I know where we can store that food free of charge--in the wrinkled stomachs of the millions of people who go to bed hungry at night.' Maybe we spend too much of our national budget building military bases around the world rather than bases of genuine concern and understanding."

MLK speaking about India's independence and the breaking of the cast system.......
"Hundreds of millions of people who had never touched each other for two thousand years were now singing and praising all together."

"We protested with the ultimate aim of being reconciled with our white brothers."
"Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community."
"Jail is depressing because it shuts off the world.  It leaves one caught in the dull monotony of sameness. It is almost like being dead while one still lives.  To adjust to such a meaningless existence is not easy."
"Human beings with all their faults and strengths constitute the mechanism of a social movement."
"As Gandhi had said, no one can ride on the back of a man unless it is bent."

"I suggested that only a 'dry as dust' religion prompts a minister to extol the glories of heaven while ignoring the social conditions that cause men an earthly hell."

"Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood."

"I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all'"
"A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God."
"Any law that uplifts human personality is just.  Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.  All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.  It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority."

"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."
"Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively."
"So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be."
"I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities."
"So often the contemporary Church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound.  So often it is an arch-defender of the status quo.  Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are."

"Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad.  It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good."
"I always contended that we as a race must not seek to rise from a position of disadvantage to one of advantage, but to create a moral balance in society where democracy and brotherhood would be a reality for all men."

"How long?  Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
"HOwever, a mere condemnation of violence is empty without understanding the daily violence that our society inflicts upon many of its members.  The violence of poverty and humiliation hurts as intensely as the violence of the club."
"Los Angeles could have expected the holocaust when it officials tied up federal aid in political manipulation."
"At rock bottom we are neither poets, athletes, nor artists; our existence is centered in the fact that we are consumers, because we first must eat and have shelter to live."
"The phone rang daily with stories of the most drastic forms of man's inhumanity to man and I found myself fighting a daily battle against the depression and hopelessness which the heart of our cities pumps into the spiritual bloodstream of our lives."

"I am convinced that even violent temperaments can be channeled through nonviolent discipline, if they can act constructively and express through an effective channel their very legitimate anger."
"Bitterness has not the capacity to make the distinction between some and all."
"Like life, racial understanding is not something that we find but something that we must create."
"A productive and happy life is not something you find; it is something you make.  And so the ability of negroes and whites to work together, to understand each other, will not be found read-made; it must be created by the fact of contact."

"Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love."
"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.  Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."
"I refuse to determine what is right by taking a Gallup poll of the trends of time.  I imagine that there were leaders in Germany who sincerely opposed what Hitler was doing to the Jews."
"Hate is too great a burden to bear."
"It will be power infused with love and justice, that will change dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows, and lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope.  A dark, desperate, confused, and sin-sick world waits for this new kind of man and this new kind of power."

"Never again will i be silent on an issue that is destroying the soul of our nation and destroying thousands and thousands of little children in Vietnam." ....there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you."
"I had to disavow and dissociate myself from those who in the name of peace burn, maim, and kill."
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge, moments of great crisis and controversy."
"I do not believe our nation can be a moral leader of justice, equality, and democracy if it is trapped in the role of a self-appointed world policeman."

"Life is a continual story of shattered dreams.  Mahatma Gandhi labored for years and years for the independence of his people.  But Gandhi had to face the fact that he was assassinated and died with a broken heart, because that nation that he wanted to unite ended up being divided between India and Pakistan as a result of the conflict between the Hindus and the Moslems."

"In the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives.  In the final analysis, God knows that his children are weak and they are frail.  In the final analysis, what God requires is that your heart is right."
"Get somebody to say about you: 'he may not have reached the highest height, he may not have realized all of his dreams, but he tried.'  Isn't that a wonderful thing for somebody to say about you? 'He tried to be a good man.  He tried to be a just man.  He tried to be an honest man.  His heart was in the right place.'  And i can hear a voice saying, crying out through the eternities, 'I accept you.  You are a recipient of my grace because it was in your heart.  And it is so well that it was within thine heart.'"

"But i know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars."

...King talking about Bull Connor turning on the powerful fire-hoses on the nonviolent marchers and badly hurting them.........
"We had known water.  If we were Baptist or some other denomination, we had been immersed.  If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled--but we knew water.  That couldn't stop us."

"Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness."

"