Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Help a soldier in afghanistan

want to help a soldier and their bunk mates in Afghanistan?
just go to the web site...AnySoldier.com
you can scroll through specific request posted by troops in Afghanistan who are seeking everything from room freshener to candy and playing cards.
click "where to send"to read the latest postings.
Once you've chosen the soldier you'd like to help,simple request his/her mailing address and you can send your package directly.
Help a hero and make a difference in their daily lives.

Less Media Publicity For Killers

Several days ago,in Colorado, it came to light that at a midnight showing of a new batman movie, a person of evil decided to kill 12 innocent people and wound multiple others.
Since Saturday morning,the news media as been filled with this horrible act,not just about those who where the victims,but the shooter himself.
Today is now Tuesday and still this sick individual is the lead story in most news medias.
True what this person did was despicable and horrible and most of us can not even conceive how someone so intelligent,can be so mentally ill.
The problem in this country, is we spend way to much time making this person famous,we worry about what this person looks like,is he mentally ill,what was his childhood like,did he show signs to his neighbors and friends of this behavior and should we enact gun control.
All this does is feed the evil inside this person by giving him what he wants,notoriety.
When things like this happen,maybe we need to say his name once,then never again
No publicity for him,only his victims.
What this person did was wrong and to continually have the media try to search out his behavior only gives him what he craves,attention.
Evil abounds in the world and because of it we will never be safe.
Sick people do sick things but making him important does us as a society no justice.
Everyone is entitled to their day in court and a  good defense,but maybe we need to do it away from the spot light and universal media attention.
Back in the day of old,when someone committed an act of such evil,their name would be stricken off of  everything,as if they never had lived,there was no fame,you were considered evil and your punishment was to be forgotten.
Those who suffered in this tragedy deserve our compassion and concern,the person who performed the evil act needs to face his justice,but not through notoriety.
What he did should not make him greater,it should make him a lesser.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Giving Away Your Privacy

I'm not sure why so many people are willing, to give away their personal information to anyone in ear shot.
This morning while sitting at my local Honda Dealership,having my oil changed,I became privy to a woman personal conversation,while I and four other people were in the waiting room.
She revealed that she has been unemployed for 2 years,the different places she had applied to,where she worked previously ,what her phone number was, her address,house number,color and exact location on the street her house was located on.
I also know  what happened at her recent job interview,the position she applied for, why she turned down the job and her health issues.
Was I eavesdropping?
No I was actually trying to read a newspaper and avoid what she was saying,basically I was a captive audience,with no where to go.
Recently on T.V. there was a commercial for life lock security,a company to help keep your person information,and accounts from those who would try to steal your identity.They charge you a monthly fee and let you know when someone is trying to use your identity.
While listening to this woman conversation,which went on for over a half hour,it became clear to me that if your concerned about who is doing what with your personal information,maybe you need to be more careful about what you say and who is in ear shot.
If I had been an opportunist,with a shady background there was more volunteered information then I would have needed to know to rob your house,steal your identity and understand your lifestyle.
I'm not sure why people think ,when they are in a public place,everyone around them needs to know information, they would not even give to their closet friends.
Today while reading the newspaper there was an article stating that if you are  sitting in a bar  and have just made a phone call,there is a new app that allows anyone in that bar with you to tap into your face book account and find out all the personal information you  have on it.
Everything  about you can be given away,who you chat with,where you went to school and possibly where you live.All of it gone to a total stranger,with who knows what kind of criminal background.
Many  people today, talk about invasion of privacy but most do not even realize how much information is give away on a daily basis just because of  careless phone use in public places.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Church Change

What purpose does the church have and what is its responsibility?
Should it change with the wind,whenever a more popular opinion comes along?or should it stay the course,standing firm in its beliefs, til the bitter end?
Who should point out what is wrong and what is right? the church,the people or society?
Being first Catholic and now Easter Orthodox as always led me to believe that although I may not always agree with the stance of my religion,I know that my faith and its leaders,understand that these are the teachings of Jesus Christ and can not be changed on a fashionable whim.
What happens when a religion chooses a more liberal path,like accepting and embracing say gay marriage,sex change or abortion,are they still in unison with the principles and teachings of God?
Back in the days of Moses,over one thousand laws,rules and regulations where laid out with the Ten Commandments being the most important.
When Jesus came to earth,he was to be the Shepard who brought the lost sheep back into the fold.
He said the rules where made for man,not man for the rules.
To many people where pushed out of the Jewish faith because it became more about the rules and less about the person being burdened.
Does this mean that rules are not important?I say no,but with that comes the understanding that we need to know what is right and wrong,and what is acceptable and not acceptable.
To many churches, now days follow the law of "lets not make people feel uncomfortable or they may leave."
But are people leaving really as important as saving their souls and bringing them to the understanding of God laws and principles.
Jesus himself tells the apostles,when he sends them out into the world,that if people don't want to hear what you have to say, then shake the sand from your sandals and walk away,for this town will be more damned then Saddam and Gomorrah.
The rules of the church should be the teachings of God himself.
Why is it important for the church to put the rules forward and stand behind them?
Back in the days of Moses,it was believed that that the Jewish race was a chosen people,set apart by God himself,to be a holy priesthood,different from the rest of the world.
Today this same principle holds true,we as Christians are chosen to be different,Jesus called us the light of the world and as such the rules hold true not only for we the parishioners,but more so for our Christian Leader, Chuirches and  Institutions.
Yes you must love the sinner,but you must also work with them to gain adulthood into the faith.
We,as individuals, understand where we stand in our faith walk and how and why we do what we do in our daily lives.
But the church can not be so broad,it can  not bend its teachings just to keep the faithful happy and sitting in the pews.
We are not a social club but a faith and to wash down the truth,needed to gain entrance into heaven is not an option for our church leaders.

Bread Of Faith

You never know what will pass through a person mind while sitting in a Church Service,at least that's my perspective.
Today bread filled my head.Not the smell,or the thoughts of eating it,but the loaf it self.
How simple is bread,made with the least,most basic ingredients,but in the end it can become the greatest part of a church service.
True it is the blessing of God and the hands of the Priest that turns the contents of this humble loaf into the body of God,but before that happens,it is constructed by the hands of a simple servant of faith mixing,kneading,cooking and praying through the process that brings about the first steps of its future destination.
Like the preparation of a sacrifice to be offered in the Temple of old,humble yet pure.
Through out the Bible,both old and new testaments,much is said about this product being important for not just life,but praise and thanksgiving.
Something as basic as flour,water,salt and leavening baked into a loaf,brought to a church,then raised up to the heavens in prayer,becomes the body of our dear Savior Jesus Christ.
How great is our Lord that all he ask from us is a product of the Earth,formed by the hands of a servant,offered by a priest,and accepted by the All Mighty.
In the end God created the earth,we produce and grow the products to be offered and glorified to and by God,in humble prayers and with pure gratitude.
Its not about gold or silver,things given to earthly kings,but lowly wheat,water,salt and leaven with and sincerity of heart.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Giving Up Before Even Starting

During the time of the Roman Empire people became so dependent on those around them,like slaves  and their government,they forgot how to be strong and motivated.
Soon the strongest nation in the world was being conquered by a more brutal regime,and wondering what happened.
Today while at the gas station,a gentleman pumping gas was telling the man near him,"I don't know what is wrong with my 19 year old son,he is not even willing to learn how to drive a car and could care less if he ever does."
I hate to admit this but my own 22 year old nephew is feeling the same way,he works part time for Star Bucks and his parents take him  to  and from his place of employment, although he has tried several times to get his license,he seems very happy to not be saddled with this responsibility.
Funny back in the olden days,the mid 1970's,the very first thing I wanted in life was a drivers license.
For me it meant freedom and adulthood.
The idea comes to mind are we raising a group of adults who can't stand the thought of freedom and adulthood? People who feel dependency on their parents,is allot easier then dependency on themselves?
My mother used to say"you help your children,when they are trying to help themselves" but now days I see and hear people complaining about how hard life is and how their children can't possibly make it out there .
When my father was growing up,in the 1940's,he decided that high school was not his thing,so at 13 years of age,he quit school and got a job working in a factory.
Back in his day,growing up in a family of 10 children,there was not much to go around,and if you wanted things you worked at what ever job was given to you,for what ever amount of money your employer chose to pay you.
Then,as today,people from foreign lands, came here with little to no money in their pockets,happy to work at what ever they could get,many taking multiple jobs in order to establish themselves.
Young people now days, just don't want to start at the bottom,they want to educate themselves for years on end then feel they are entitled to the big dollars,even though they have no experience in their field.
Last month more people went on to disability,then jobs were created in the work force.
We will,sadly to say,soon be turning into ancient Rome.
No one wants to start at the bottom and work hard to become one of those so called 1%,its just to hard and we are just to unmotivated.
Instead of climbing the ladder,we are lowering the rungs.
Why pull yourself up,when you can just drag everyone else down.
It becomes a sad ordeal when young people would rather sit in their parents cellar playing video games for hours on end and not even try to be independent adults.
I know most people will say there are no jobs out there,well yes and no,there are jobs but they don't pay well,nor offer allot of hours and require you to do hard,possibly dirty work.
We are lazy and we are raising young adults who are uninspired with little to no work ethic.
People say that all the jobs are being given to seniors and not to young people,why you ask?Because they have a work ethic.
I am in my mid fifties and have come to the conclusion that if there is no more social security for me to retire on,it will be because the younger work force will still be sitting in their parents cellar playing video games,living on disability,because they are to depressed to go to work and someone needs to take care of them.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Economic Slowdown

The best place to find out how the economy is doing,is to stand in line at your local check out,in the grocery store.
Today this was my vantage on just how poor our economic growth,or lack there of,is taking us.
The women placing her goods on the cashiers check out belt,turned to me and said "I wish some one would come along and pay for my food,who can even afford to eat,but it will never be because I'm just not that lucky."
Wishing I had extra cash,to assist her with her unhappiness,but only have exactly enough for myself,I agreed that continually high prices,week after week,puts all of us in a position of just getting by,unable to budget form one week to the next.
The cashier,who was in her late fifties,went on to add,that she wishes she could take a vacation,but two years of unenployment and now only being able to get 20 hours of work a week,has left her only longing for,even just a weekend away.
The lady in front of me went on to add,how her husband,who has had triple bipass surgery,can only hope to get by"no welfare help or food stamps for us,we make to much money","To much money and look what little I can purchase,it's just not fair"she added.
The world is in a sorry state of affairs and has I listened to their stories,the show the Waltons came to mind.
Oh we are doing better then they did,at least we have unemployment and welfare,but the depression in peoples voices and lives is all pretty evident.
When it became my turn The cashier noticed I had bought 4 pies that were marked down,she asked about my pie consumtion,to which I laughed and told her it was for our church community meal,we have three thursdays a month at St. Micheal Church in Southbridge Mass,I invited her to come and join us for a free meal this thursday from 4:30 to 6:30 and meet more people in need of good conversation and a chance to just shoot the breeze.
Things are not good out there and the President insisting we all need social programs,is a waste of most peoples time.
Alot of folks just want to work and maybe have enough left over to get away for a weekend,some place quite to forget their desperate situations.
See the people this economy is hurting the most are the ones trying the hardest to get by and stay afloat.
Its not the 1% or those on welfare,its the underemployed desperately trying to make the house payment,buy food,get gas,go to work and pay all the taxes and bills,swamping them.
November is coming and hopefully people will take a long hard look at what they have and what they've lost and vote accordingly.
Is your situation better then 4 years ago? How about your friends and neighbors?
If your not sure spend some time in a grocery line or sitting in a mcDonalds,have a cup of coffee and just listen to the conversations around you.
Being in a position to not only hear,but realy pay attention to what is being said,is the greatest economic classroom you will every spend time in,and the best indicator of where our markets are headed.