my positive view of liberalism

I think I've zeroed in on the passage from Al Franken's book that most positively affected me in the direction towards liberalism. I'll quote (and cite-I don't want to get in trouble(it's not illegal if you dont try to make money off it, is it?)) it:
"We love America just as much as [conservatives] do. But in a different way. You see, they love America the way a four-year-old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world.
That's why we liberals want America to do the right thing. We know America is the hope of the world, and we love it and want it to do well. We also want it to do good." (Al Franken, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Dutton, 2003), 24)
This passage articulated for me the difference between conservatives and liberals that I had felt before reading this. (Warning:disclaimer coming) This is not to say that I completely agree with Al Franken or that I actually believe that all conservatives are like "four-year-olds." Rather it just helped me to understand what being a liberal means for me. I hope I have not seriously offended those friends of mine who lean to the right, but I felt that I needed to elaborate some on last night's comments.

materialism: he's got the urge...to buy stuff

so in my first blog ever, I mentioned an urge to do what other people around you are doing (basically to want to be involved in fads and even fashion). wow, it's amazing to think back over all of the fads that I got involved in (some good/some "bad"(ie not worthwhile)) I'll try to list the major or most memorable ones. The first thing I remember claiming as a favorite anything is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (and rightly so), but I don't believe other kids influenced me into liking them. The next that I can remember is Power Rangers. Agh. That was not beneficial. It was a rather uncool (compared to tmnt) show from the start, and now that it has been rehashed so many times... The only reason I got involved with the power rangers was because of the hype over it at school. Everyone else seemed to be watching it, and I had never heard of it before. I had picture some sort of western cowboy theme before i actually got the chance to see the show. and once I discovered my misinterpretation of the name, I readily dismissed the fact and accepted the show as my new favorite because my friends liked it. simply because they did, i did. next came star wars cards. now those were cool. and they still are. i plan to keep them as collectors items, but more just for my personal enjoyment (yes, I am a fan of Star Wars (but not the newer ones, not really)) everyone around me was also interested in the star wars cards, but so was I, genuinely. then came yomega yoyos. those were fun, until my classmates perverted it by trying to rent their own yoyos out to make a profit off the fad themselves. then pokemon. this was the first time i was able to step back and watch myself fall into the fad. it was a waste of money, and it was a waste of time. but all of my friends were doing it. and the profit seekers were their, too. my best card got stolen by a kid in the neighborhood (i was unbelievably gullible and trusting in that moment as a result of trying to look cool with my collection of cards). then came scooters. I got one. I rode it around for maybe a week. now it just sits in my basement. I probably wont use it again, unless I get a job at Google or some awesome work place like that. I cant think of more recent big fads, but they are probably everywhere in highschool, and I'm probably constantly falling for them. oh, heres one. i joined the circus club and asked for and received a diabolo for christmas. its pretty much the same idea as the yomega yoyo before. it is a really cool toy, but the only reason i wanted one was because other people in the circus club already had them.
I guess all of this is a rant (however mild in form) against capitalism and materialism. our country's economy is powered by the desires of children and adult children for stuff and the peer pressure that spreads those desires around, which I think is rather sick. money can be used for corruption so easily that it is often immediately associated with evil, which is not always the case. money can be used for good. i just cant think of any good examples right now.

being liberal

I just started to read the Al Franken book, Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them. I believe just reading the first 10 or so chapters somehow had a significant effect on me (of which im not yet sure whether the effect is positive or negative). On my website, under the politics heading, I formerly proclaimed myself to be moderately liberal, which, I felt, adequately represented my views. Upon beginning to read the book, I developed the urge to delete the word "moderately", which I have just done. Somehow, by reading the book, I was pushed over the edge to clearly see that I am, in fact, rather liberal instead of only moderately liberal. I feel, as a result, as though I am suddenly more confident, my opinions are much stronger or more solid. I feel like I have a knot of energy in the middle of my chest. I believe all of this is because I just also clearly defined an enemy, the conservatives. I do not wish to create enemies. Doing so is a fault derived from original sin and is against true human nature. I have many conservative friends, and I don't want to suddenly only see them as conservative enemies or opponents. Somehow, I need to be able to be comfortable with my views (especially when they are strongly liberal) and not judge those around me because of differing views. I think just stating that helps.

Journal/opinions: um...God?

so im at a kind of interesting place in my life right now. I'm smack dab in the middle of my junior year, kind of the prime time of the high school experience. I'm doing pretty well in all my classes (I hope). I've got so many great friends (plenty for an introvert like me), none of which influence me negatively (or to be more optimistic, all have an overall positive influence on me-thanks guys!). I'm very blessed with my family: two parents that love me and each other very much and support me so much, and a brother that, in one word, hugs. Continuing with the family theme, I have three living grandparents who are also very loving and supporting (and, giving a shout out to Mawmaw and Pawpaw (even though they'll never read this), also very wacky), and I know that my grandpa is rooting for me from heaven, too. On top of all this familial bliss, there are still three aunts (well, one "great"-aunt;-), all three amazing women who are an important part of my life. and then, and this seems trivial (which, I suppose, it is), but as far as material possessions, there is little left that I really want (at least at this point in my life). I can't help but think of the proverb or saying or cliche, "to whom much is given, much is expected". From this point in my life, it seems to me, the possibilities are infinite. everything is possible. which to me is a little frightening (something like when school children are at recess-if there is a fence around the yard, they run to all corners of the yard, but if there is no fence, they stay close to the school). Since my possibilities appear to be limitless, I, of course, am led to think about God, the limitless. I've been watching Joan of Arcadia (friday nights, ch 4, 7pm, watch it...or tape it), in which God is basically giving Joan orders to follow (well, not orders of course...more like firm suggestions), and wonderful and mysterious things happen when she follows them. the show has opened my eyes to an aspect of God that I hadn't fully given thought to. Joan wasn't really religious before God started talking to her, and now that he has, Joan still doesn't go to church or anything like that, but rather simply goes along with Gods suggestions as they come. and then I think about my own actions, how my relationship with God works. yes, first off, I go to church. and youth group. outside of led activities, I'd say I pray every other night or so, and random times throughout the week. I've tried to develop my personality and behavior based on my Christian faith. but most of the time, I'd have to say that I'm not directly focused on God or God's will for me. sure I've kind of programmed myself for a kind of piety for God that, I'm afraid to say, in part, is for show. I mean, I think about mass, especially when I serve, especially the bowing, and the clothes. I mean, when I bow to the altar, I'm doing it more for respect of the rituals of the mass celebration than I am consciously thinking, I respect/revere/love you God. which i do (respect/revere/love), but that isn't how I would chose to show it. given my personality, I would prefer to simply think it. ok, so in the context of a community that has come together to celebrate the mass, public actions of otherwise internal ongoings are appropriate and called for, but I want such actions to be meaningful, and for me, if an action is going to be meaningful, it has to be my own, I need to own it, create it, give it, much like my mom does through her liturgical dance.
while talking about the mass, and the Church in general, hierarchies don't sit well with me. I'm fine with leaders, we need leaders, but leaders shouldn't be elevated to a class above the group of followers (which I'm not saying is the situation with all priest/congregation relationships, or even my own priest/congregation relationship or is the official view of the Church). when I think of Pope JPII (who is a wonderful leader and not someone who elevates himself above us, in my opinion(a little note right here, now that I see how this blog is turning out: all of this is my developing opinion which is apt to develop further as my understanding of the world, and specifically the Church, increases)), I automatically picture a hierarchal pyramid of the church, with the pope at the top and the laity at the bottom, suggesting, in my mind, a greater degree of closeness to God as one goes up the pyramid, which is certainly true in certain instances, but definitely not in every instance. now, nothing has directly provided me with this portrait of the hierarchy of the church, but it developed somehow. (another side note: seeing, again, how this is developing, I think I might just be trying to justify to God why I don't want to become a priest, if that be my vocation) oh, and I have mixed opinions about women becoming priests. To be honest, I'm totally for it (if God gave some women the tools required to be priest(-esses?), why would God not give them the privlege(?-right?) to be one, but, if I follow the church's reasoning properly, this is what trips me up: so priests are like Jesus' apostles, but His apostles were all men, but if I dismiss that because it would be counter-cultural for Jesus to have women apostles in His time, I then have to remember that being counter-cultural never slowed Jesus down, so there has to be some other reason why he didn't have women apostles, but what? so right now I have questions about God and the possible set roles of men and women (yes, I realize men and women are different, but different shouldn't mean unequal opportunities in my book) let's see, do I have any other issues I want to discuss about the church? (if you haven't realized it yet, I finally figured out what opinions to write about(if confused, see below), and I got tired of waiting for you to respond to my request(but the request still stands!)) oh, here's one. yeah, homosexuality: I mostly agree with the church (which basically says that homosexuals are to be respected and loved just like anyone else but the homosexual act is sinful and the state of being homosexual is a disordered state. that last part about being disordered is what troubles me. I don't know how to change it, but if I happened to be a homosexual Catholic, I would not want to be called disordered. I don't know. anyway, that's enough about the church.
so back to just me and God. so practically, if rituals such as those required while serving don't do it for me (i.e. get me closer to God), what ways can I explore to genuinely get in touch with God's will for me? what I've seem to have gathered as I've grown up is that, mostly, God doesn't talk to us directly as He (for lack of a better pronoun-I should try to alternate He with She, or should I just stick with God (but that makes for awkward sentences), ooo, maybe we can come up with a special pronoun just for God, like... ok I can't think of anything that doesn't sound ridiculous) does with Joan, but rather, we're supposed to kind of follow our instincts that we are to interpret as either hints from God or just our own desires (obviously following the hints from God;-) I don't know. what I really desire is a dynamic, imminent, personal, in-your-face, no piety (the type described above) cr*p, type of relationship with God (basically what Joan's got)
alright, so what have I accomplished in this journal. so I dislike the apparent divide that exists between the laity and the priesthood and would rather stay on this side. so now that I decide to get married some day instead of being open to becoming a priest, ignoring God's will, one way or the other, I want to have a closer relationship with God in which Her will is readily available to me. hmmm, contradiction? I think I need to stop trying to make things happen and go listen to God for a while.

journal: my little corner in cyberspace

so while im waiting for people to, first, realize that I have a blog, and second, respond to my request for editorial topics, I guess I'll continue to journal. so yeah, here it goes. I've been able to spend a lot of time online lately because of a break from school because I just finished exams (a 5 day weekend to be exact), so I've been able to improve and fine tune my webpage to the point where I can't look at it anymore but am glad that other people might have the chance to enjoy it. I had been brainstorming ideas of how to improve it, resulting in the newly added "goals/dreams/aspirations" section under "personal info", but next I wanted to add a section devoted to my opinions on topics. I felt that a catagory of such size could not work in the format my webpage is currently in, not to mention the cumbersome process I need to go through in order to edit my page. Then last night/morning I remembered looking at the blogger site a couple weeks/months ago and thought that it would be cool to use that too. hey, its free like geocities, and a lot more conducive to the type of thing I was trying to do: post my opinions and thoughts as they come up. the only drawback/negative difference there is with blogging instead of using my webpage is that the opinions will be rather disorganized and randomly ordered because they will be presented in chronological order. I may be wrong, but i think that is one option that you cant control on blogger (overall, I'm very impressed with blogger. its very easy to use and very customizable, given a certain level of computer literacy) but I'll have to live with it, for now (or once I actually have opinions in my blog).

Journal

Alright. I think I got a handle on how this thing works (or at least how I can use it). Well, as stated above, this blog's purpose is to present my thoughts, opinions, and journals to the world. Well I'm gonna have to put the ball in your court. I need topics to discuss. Maybe it's just the mood I'm in, but I can't think of anything worthwhile to give my thoughts or opinions on. Journals on the other hand are pretty easy. I could call this right here a journal and that would be fine. In fact I'm going to go title this "Journal" right now. That was easy. Anyway, I need your help. I hereby proclaim that upon reading this journal, you are personally obligated to email me with a topic that you would like to see me comment on/give thought to/formulate an opinion about. I thank you in advance for contributing to this blog. I hope to hear from you soon!

So this is my first blog ever. I just felt the urge to join the craze that seems to be popping up all over the web. Maybe I'll talk about that type of urge later. Well, right now I guess I'm just seeing how this works. I'll come back later to do more.