YEAH!!!

MY BROTHER GOT A JOB AT LAW FIRM!!!! HE'S A LAWYER!!!!!

He won't ever read this...but I am so proud of him!

To Teddy DePrince...

Today Cherry Hill mourns the loss of Teddy DePrince...who, while I did not know him that well personally (as in, I probably only met him once or twice), I've never been able to forget him. He and his younger brother, Cubby (who I knew in 2nd grade and will always remember him singing the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" theme song on the bus), both contracted HIV from blood transfusions ( I think they were both hemophiliacs). This was during the Ryan White years, so we all sorta knew what AIDS and HIV was and learned very easily, from real life examples, what the disease was all about. Cubby, who was, I think, the same age as me, died some years ago. Teddy lived on, was very active in high school and for some reason left a very lasting impression on me (and I am sure everyone else who came in contact with him). He always had a smile on his face and was extremely outgoing. He was the kind of kid who, when you saw him in the hallway, you were automatically happy for that moment...eventhough you didn't even really know him. He was a role-model for people who wanted to know how to love life, because you could just tell how much he appreciated what he had left of his.

Ben Abo had this away message up tonight...it is a message we've all heard a million times, but it can never be reitterated enough.

"I have learned from a great friend that life is but a limited time on earth and to enjoy life to it's fullest for ourselves and others. While that friend physically may be gone, his life & his lessons live on deep within our hearts. You will always be with us, Teddy "

I finally realized....

Last week, as I sat listening to the first press conference Bush gave after he was elected, something clicked in me regarding what my problem has been with this whole war situation for the past 2 years. As Bush was giving his usual schpiel about spreading freedom and what not, I began thinking about all the other free and democratic nations in this world, and how their democracy came to be, ours being a prime example. There are these things called civil wars and revolutions...many countries have had them. It's when the citizens of a country get together, decide they want some change and fight like mad for it. In France, during the French Revolution, the common folk rose up against the monarchy, and eventually those common folk had overthrown their government and started anew...the way that they wanted. Sure, it took about 10 years and a lot of people died, but these people really wanted to be free, so they kept at it. I don't know if anyone paid attention in elementary school history class, but our country did the same damn thing.
I know that Saddam Hussein was a bad, bad man, but what gives us the right to invade that country, topple its leader and impose our way of living on their people? Fear of an attack? Sorry, not good enough. Put yourself in an Iraqi's shoes. You live in Baghdad. You have a family and own a little shop down the street. You're not living in the lap of luxary, but you're happy and things are going fine. Suddenly, the most powerful army in the world starts bombing your city. Your home and business is destroyed. How are you feeling right now? You're probably pretty pissed. You want to fight back. You want to defend your country from these invaders. Now, according to us, you are an insurgent. You're not a simple man who is trying to defend his homeland, but you're an evil terrorist trying to stop the spread of freedom. This morning I was listening to an anecdote being told by an American citizen, who was around our age, about the time he recently spent in Iraq. What he saw was pretty terrible. He described meeting various Iraqi militants whose story was similar to the fake person I described above; regular men who were just trying to protect their families and their land against an invading army.
Don't get me wrong, I am all about human rights. I agree with the lot of us that think everyone in the world deserves to be free. However, changing the societal structure of an entire nation is something that should happen on that country's own terms, in their own time. If they decide they really want to fight for their freedom and call on us for help, then fine, send troops (remember how France and Germany (well, Prussia...) helped us win our freedom?). But, until then, leave societies to their own and work on improving freedom in our own country.

post-election mourning...

Well, it's all over. My anger and sadness has considerably subsided throughout today (I think I am out of my crying phase, although who knows what could happen as I think myself to sleep tonight), but I still remain baffled by the choice a little more than half this country made (and I can't see that confusion going away anytime soon).
I absolutely cannot believe that the most important issue on the minds of so many voters dealt with morality. This man (Bush) sent our troops to pre-emptively strike Iraq without telling us, the citizens paying for it, the plain truth about it. He then arrogantly claimed victory in that war, even though it was not really over and is still going on right now (and will continue to go on for much longer than we were ever led to believe). They voted for this guy because they don't think gay people should be allowed the RIGHT to get married and they don't believe a woman has the RIGHT to get an abortion.
I will never be able to stop thinking how completely absurd that is. Ok, so I'm not, in any way, saying that anyone who believes in religion is brainwashed, but if there are this many people in our country that are so firmly against something that their personal beliefs recognize as wrong, that they would put other citizens' freedoms in jeopardy, then there are certainly some circuits that have gone haywire in their minds. I have yet to hear or read one (or even half of one) a good reason why America, as a political entity, needs to ban gay marriage and abortion. Sure, you may not believe that gay marriage is right...but that doesn't mean your opinion is right for everyone else. Two gay men or women getting married does not and will never affect you, so don't worry about it! And, sure, you may believe that abortion is morally wrong, but it will never effect you if you don't want it to. The beauty about the abortion thing is that it is something that occurs within your own body. So, unless you are kidnapped and forced to have an abortion, you have a choice regarding what you want to do. If you believe abortion is wrong, than don't get one! What is wrong, however, is imposing this view upon another woman (who maybe was raped and impregnated, or is addicted to heroine and knows that she would not be able to provide proper care to this baby) as a law forbidding her from making her own decision about what to do about the fetus growing inside her own body.
I think this country is at a point where religion has become somewhat of a road block in progress. We are moving backwards in the areas of women's rights and gay rights. I am not saying, at all, that religion is bad and that politicians shouldn't be religious people; however, once it becomes a top-3 selling point for a candidate and his/her decisions negatively effect some citizens of this country, they've taken it just a little too far.

This says it all...

Should Bush win, as is projected....

From a comments page on BBC News.com
"What's funny, except for America, Kerry would certainly have won an election anywhere else in the world."
HA Qureshi, Islamabad, Pakistan


That's pretty damn scary that the only people in the world who support George Bush are half of America and a bunch of international government guys.