All a mess...
Today my news readings included-
that Bales could potentially get the death penalty for the 17 Afghan killings
a psychologist informed Penn State that Sandusky was likely a pedophile in 1998
some updates on the Trayvon Martin situation
Seriously... I'm not exactly sure where to go with any of this. My feelings and opinions on our occupying Afghan villages are obviously going to be skewed by the media, despite my efforts to read articles through as many different outlets as I can. I just try to imagine my life in Moore, OK if we were occupied by military from another country and that largely effects my opinions on our being stationed elsewhere. If I regularly saw forces from, let's say Scotland for fun, driving up and down my street, hanging around everywhere I was, it would make me uncomfortable. I relate it to when my uncle lived with us for a couple of years when I was in high school. He slept on our couch and it was still my home, but I never really felt comfortable in my own home. I think of it this way and it influences my opinion. I think we have no business being in other countries... I think a lot of our military budget is wasted keeping us in places where we are just pissing people off. I think we should have a much higher education budget. This could be an entire series of blogs... Particularly concerning this situation, however, I did read that this was Bales third time in Iraq and that he had suffered traumatic injuries in previous tours. Having recently been slightly exposed to a sweet family dealing with PTSD, I can only imagine that Bales likely needed a lot of love and support around him and perhaps should not have been overseas again. Still more info. needs to come out though...
The Penn State thing... Lord, help me on this one. I am not one who says pedophiles should be castrated or anything like that... but based on my life experience I know the severe harm and trauma that can result from children being exposed to very adult things early in life. I am highly disappointed in the elevated and God-like status we give to people in athletics... nothing matters as long as the team wins. Think of all the scandals that come out years later that only have to do with illegal financial actions or recruiting... we hide all so that our precious teams win. We lay down our sacrifices (including our children) at the feet of the NCAA idols. That's really all this situation has taught me. We have created huge idols out of sporting events. I will leave this at that.
The Trayvon Martin situation... I am hoping for more information to come out on this... having worked at an inner city, low income middle school, I have seen the profiling and felt the stereotypes. Stereotypes so ingrained that many students just assumed I had them without really knowing me. I don't have much to offer on this situation as far as my opinion goes, because I feel there hasn't been enough information released yet.
It's easy to look at just these three instances and blink a few times and sigh and wonder where Jesus fits into all of this. I am clinging to the hope of one day that this will all be restored to what God truly intended for it to be... a world without war, without PTDS, without the idolization of a game, without children being used for what they should never be used for, without stereotypes and racism...
I have to cling to this hope.
that Bales could potentially get the death penalty for the 17 Afghan killings
a psychologist informed Penn State that Sandusky was likely a pedophile in 1998
some updates on the Trayvon Martin situation
Seriously... I'm not exactly sure where to go with any of this. My feelings and opinions on our occupying Afghan villages are obviously going to be skewed by the media, despite my efforts to read articles through as many different outlets as I can. I just try to imagine my life in Moore, OK if we were occupied by military from another country and that largely effects my opinions on our being stationed elsewhere. If I regularly saw forces from, let's say Scotland for fun, driving up and down my street, hanging around everywhere I was, it would make me uncomfortable. I relate it to when my uncle lived with us for a couple of years when I was in high school. He slept on our couch and it was still my home, but I never really felt comfortable in my own home. I think of it this way and it influences my opinion. I think we have no business being in other countries... I think a lot of our military budget is wasted keeping us in places where we are just pissing people off. I think we should have a much higher education budget. This could be an entire series of blogs... Particularly concerning this situation, however, I did read that this was Bales third time in Iraq and that he had suffered traumatic injuries in previous tours. Having recently been slightly exposed to a sweet family dealing with PTSD, I can only imagine that Bales likely needed a lot of love and support around him and perhaps should not have been overseas again. Still more info. needs to come out though...
The Penn State thing... Lord, help me on this one. I am not one who says pedophiles should be castrated or anything like that... but based on my life experience I know the severe harm and trauma that can result from children being exposed to very adult things early in life. I am highly disappointed in the elevated and God-like status we give to people in athletics... nothing matters as long as the team wins. Think of all the scandals that come out years later that only have to do with illegal financial actions or recruiting... we hide all so that our precious teams win. We lay down our sacrifices (including our children) at the feet of the NCAA idols. That's really all this situation has taught me. We have created huge idols out of sporting events. I will leave this at that.
The Trayvon Martin situation... I am hoping for more information to come out on this... having worked at an inner city, low income middle school, I have seen the profiling and felt the stereotypes. Stereotypes so ingrained that many students just assumed I had them without really knowing me. I don't have much to offer on this situation as far as my opinion goes, because I feel there hasn't been enough information released yet.
It's easy to look at just these three instances and blink a few times and sigh and wonder where Jesus fits into all of this. I am clinging to the hope of one day that this will all be restored to what God truly intended for it to be... a world without war, without PTDS, without the idolization of a game, without children being used for what they should never be used for, without stereotypes and racism...
I have to cling to this hope.
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