A spot for Bill to ponder some things, generally Christian in nature. Often about how Christians can and should relate to their friends and neighbors. But I may ponder about other things from time to time too.
I took a day off during Spring Break to hang out with the familia. We went to an outdoor mall and while the boys were playing a few video games, I snapped this pic on my cell phone. Not the greatest quality ever...
I'm proud to have young men and women like this in our Armed Forces.
Here's the words.
And she called...
Blacks, Whites...wait African Americans and Caucasians, Asians, excuse me. Vietnamese, Philipenes, Koreans and Jamaicans or Haitans, waitin' Hispanics y'all.
Please be paitent Mexican, Puerto Ricans, Venezualean, Cuban, Dominican, Panamanian Democrats I beg your pardon, you partied with the late, great Reagan? Republican, Independent, Christian, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, 7th Day Adventist, 5 Percenters, Hindu, Sunii Muslim, Brothers and Sisters who never seen the New York city skyline when the twin towers still existed.
But still She called.
From the bowels of Ground Zero she sent this 911 distress signal. Because She was in desperate need of a hero, and didn't have time to decipher what to call 'em, so she called 'em all Her children.
The children of the stars and bars who needed to know nothing more than the fact that she called. The fact that someone attempted to harm us this daughter who covered us all with her loving arms. And now these arms are sprawled across New York City streets.
A smoke filled lung, a silt covered faced, and a solitary tear poured out of her cheek. Her singed garments carpets Pennsylvania Avenue and the Pentagon was under her feet. As she began to talk, she began to cough up small particles of debris and said, "I am America, and I'm calling on the land of the free."
So they answered.
All personal differences set to the side because right now there was no time to decide which state building the Confederate flag should fly over, and which trimester the embryo is considered alive, or on our monetary units, and which God we should confide. You see, someone attempted to choke the voice of the one who gave us the right for choice, and now she was callin. And somebody had to answer. Who was going to answer?
So they did. Stern faces and chisled chins. Devoted women and disciplined men, who rose from the ashes like a phoenix and said "don't worry, we'll stand in your defense." They tightened up their bootlaces and said goodbye to loved ones, family and friends. They tried to bombard them with the "hold on", "wait-a-minute's", and "what-if's". And "Daddy, where you goin?". And, "Mommy, why you leavin?". And they merely kissed them on their foreheads and said "Don't worry, I have my reasons. You see, to this country I pledged my allegience to defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic. So as long as I'm breathin, I'll run though hell-fire, meet the enemy on the front lines, look him directly in his face, stare directly in his eyes and scream, "I AM AMERICA! WE WILL NOT BE TERRORIZED! WE WILL NOT BE TERRORIZED! I REFUSE TO BE AFRAID! I'LL FIGHT YOU ANY COUNTRY, ANY CONTINENT, ANY TERRAIN. I'LL FIGHT TO MY LAST BREATH!"
And if by chance death is my fate, pin my medals upon my chest, and throw Old Glory on my grave. But, don't y'all cry for me. You see, my Father's prepared a place. I'll be a part of his Holy army standing a watch at the Pearly Gates. Because freedom was never free. POW's, and fallen soldiers all paid the ultimate sacrafice along side veterans who put themselves in harms way. Risking their lives and limbs just to hold up democracy's weight, but still standing on them broken appendages anytime the National Anthem was played. You see, these were the brave warriors that gave me the right to say that I'm Black. Or white.
Or African American or Caucasian, I'm Asian, excuse me. I'm Vietnamese, Philipene, Korean, or Jamaican. I'm Haitan, Hispanic
Y'all, Please be paitent.
I'm Mexican, Puerto Rican, Venezualean, Cuban, Dominican, Panamanian, Democrat I beg your pardon, you see I partied with the late, great Reagan. I'm Republican, Independent, Christian, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, 7th Day Adventist, 5 Percenters, Hindu, Sunii Muslim,
Brothers and Sisters We're just Americans. So with that I say "Thank You" to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, for preserving my rights to live and die for this life and paying the ultimate price for me to be...FREE!
I go to work pretty early in the morning. The official military time that time of day is "O dark thirty." Basically that's so early it's still dark. I'm not complaining. I'm kind of a morning person and usually I get out of work a little earlier, so it's all good.
However, driving to work in the dark, at least in L.A., can be a bit frustrating. There are people in L.A. who drive around with their bright headlights on. Why? You don't need them in L.A., it's never really dark here. The city lights provide quite a bit of ambient lighting. And even if it was that dark here, you're on the freeway in L.A. The car in front of you is only a few feet away, you don't really need your high beam headlights on. And some folks don't stop there. They get those super bright, so bright they're blue, headlights. You know the ones, the lights that passenger jets use for their landing lights. They have roughly the same candle watt power as the Sun. Yea, those lights. And for some people, that's not even enough. They have their highbeams on, the super-bright-blue lights, AND they have their driving lights on. In California it's illegal to run brights and driving lights, so that means these folks went out of their way to change the wiring of the car to make this happen. Why? Are these folks so challenged to see in the dark that they need extra-ordinary amounts of lumens just to see? If so, I really want these people off the road!
I've been thinking about this for awhile and I'm sure there are many possible reasons for why people do this, but here are a few. 1) People are just clueless. I bet quite a few of those folks have no idea their highbeams are on and that they are blinding everyone else. 2) People just don't care. They know their highbeams are blinding everyone else, and they just don't care. They think it's their right to have their lights as bright as they want. I mean the car manufactures put the brights on the car for reason, right? 3) People are lazy. I'm betting some of the folks have burned out their low beams and have to drive around with their highbeams on, or they won't have any lights at all. It's easier for them to use their highbeams than it is to fix their lights. (You don't even want to know how many cars in L.A. are driving around with multiple idiot lights (warning indicators) flashing on their dashboards - but that's a different post.)
I suspect these three characteristics can be manifested in other areas of people's lives as well. Driving is just one indication of our over all care and concern for other people. Think about the people in your life at work, at school, in the neighborhood, etc. Are we clueless as to how they are doing? Do we not care? Are we just too lazy to do something about it? Those are hard questions we need to ask ourselves. While driving around L.A. with your highbeams on may not seem like the deepest social commentary ever, I do think that the lack of care we show other people in one area of our lives is likely to spill over into other areas of our lives. If we show no concern for others when we are driving, we probably will not show a lot of concern for people in other areas either.
What kind of care do you show for other people? When your driving and at other times too. That's worth pondering about...
I help a couple of non-profits with some advertising and community awareness events. I'm certainly not the biggest expert regarding marketing and advertising, but I do know this. If you are going to send out something to promote your organization - PROOF-READ IT! Fix all the spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. And if that's not your thing, find someone who can help.
That seems like common sense, right? Yet, I continue to receive substandard writing and grammar for advertising. Amazing. I'm not talking about an occasional typo or mistake, these are articles riddled with errors. I received something today to include in our church bulletin, and frankly it was embarrassingly bad. I wish they had asked for help from someone before they sent it out.
Is English that difficult? Ok, maybe it is. English has some really crazy rules. But this is a skill that we should be able to master. What I’m really wondering is, what does it say about our educational system if so many of us have not mastered basic language skills? I guess the real thing to ponder is, are we going to do anything about it? Are future generations doomed to have poor English skills? Is there something can be done? Does it matter that we can’t write proper English?
For those of you who are bilingual, do other languages have this same issue? Does the quality of writing seem to continually degenerate?
I took a day off during Spring Break to hang out with the familia. We went to an outdoor mall and while the boys were playing a few video games, I snapped this pic on my cell phone. Not the greatest quality ever...
I go to work pretty early in the morning. The official military time that time of day is "O dark thirty." Basically that's so early it's still dark. I'm not complaining. I'm kind of a morning person and usually I get out of work a little earlier, so it's all good. 
