I didn’t actually get to sleep last night. I had too much caffeine and I finally started drifting to sleep around 4:30 or 5 when I was awakened by a warm and wet feeling. Cullen had left me a present and I was covered with cat excrement (both kinds). I screamed for Jon and attempted to figure out exactly how I was going to deal with this given that I had to get the comforter and sheets off the bed, get some pet stain stuff on the mattress before it dried, get me cleaned up, and get the room deodorized. The comforter is sitting in a garbage bag and will be washed excessively when Jon gets home from church. The sheets went into the washer on “hot” — something I regretted when I tried to take a shower and got cold water. (There is almost nothing worse than an ice cold shower when you’re already shivering.) I did manage to get showered with a fair amount of whining and screaming (as I’m not a very sweet person on no sleep) and Jon offered to let me stay home and sleep this morning. Given that I was at the point of ripping the throat out of the first person to ask me how I was, I thought that might be a good thing (I’m sweeter now but not wanting to deal with people in any way/shape/form) and I got stuff prepped for Jon to take to church (tithe, receipts for mileage, a to-do list of what I need from my confirmands). I’m currently blogging until Jon is out of the shower and I can put the sheets through again on “hot” and curl up on the futon to go to sleep.
Author Archives: Jen
A Letter to Dr. Michael Newdow
I wrote this as a sermonette for blogs4God. (It will be posted tomorrow morning.) For those of you who aren’t members of the portal or read the site frequently, feel free to let me know your thoughts here.
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Dr. Newdow:
I have read your website, heard all your arguments, and read quite a bit on your drive to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Having grown up as a northern Californian in an atmosphere that was much more progressive than other parts of the country, I knew from an early age that I had the right not to recite the pledge — I could even name the Supreme Court ruling that gave me that right. I knew that I had the right to not say the words “under God” if I didn’t happen to believe it; but that didn’t stop me from saying it, even in the days before I actually believed in God. Even as an elementary school student, I understood that my saying of the words “under God” was not a tacit endorsement for any specific deity or even that one existed. Becoming a Christian in my teen years did not add or subtract from any feeling I had about those words in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was something con safos that we just didn’t question because we knew that we could just not say it if we had a problem with it.
As I learned more about my First Amendment right to freedom of religion, I started seeing why a lot of Christians were up in arms with the ACLU. Other faiths had the right to practice and have their symbols displayed, but my Christian holidays and symbols were banned. Prayer was not allowed in school because it might offend someone (something I did understand because I had friends of different faiths) but most people who prayer was supposed to offend were very gracious about those times when it did exist because they understood that it really meant something to some of us. I had teachers who decried the teaching of creationism in school and voraciously pursued the teaching of the theory of evolution instead. They still respected my right to believe in Genesis as long as I could understand their viewpoint and repeat it back to them on a test. In my government class, I sought to understand how the Bill of Rights affected me and how it could be used in legal decisions. I pondered a career in law but decided in favor of medicine with another switch to religious studies two years later. In Religious Studies, I looked at how religion is something that is intertwined in every aspect of our lives from our language to the way we interpret the world. One cannot merely separate themselves from religion — it is a part of our every day lives.
Having studied religion as it relates to politics and ideology, I cringed when I heard about the lunacy of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals when they sided 2-1 in your favor. It wasn’t surprising that they decided in your favor — they are overturned more frequently than any appeals court in the nation, but the decision sparked a debate over the place of those words in the Pledge of Allegiance. Democrats and Republicans were tripping over themselves to be the first to denounce the decision in a show of unity only seen before after the 9/11 attacks. That alone should have shown you the power of the change you wanted to make. Most thought that your case wouldn’t make it to the Supreme Court and would simply be overturned. I guess we underestimated your tenacity.
You have stated that “[you] have the right to be able to have my child in public school without her being indoctrinated with religious belief” and “this is supposed to be a public school and supposed to be religion-free.” I ask you then how you will handle your daughter reading the following works in her English classes:
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Billy Budd by Herman Melville
The Chronicles of Narina by C.S. Lewis (the series)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Alfred Tennyson
the poetry of Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson
All of the above works of literature contain allusions to religion in some way/shape/form.
How will you handle your daughter’s world history classes as they discuss medieval Europe, a period heavily influenced by Catholicism? What about any Asian history which would cover Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese religions? Are you going to request that she be excused from class as they discuss the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment? What about her government class as they discuss the bases for our laws: the Ten Commandments, Englightenment and Deist principles (as these Framers you so adore quoting were Deists)?
You seem to be fond of science. What do you plan to do when discussing the origins of the world and she asks what came before the Big Bang (if you subscribe to the theory)? How will you handle it when she asks about the naming of the planets and moons as those come from various ancient mythologies? As I stated earlier, religion is entwined in everything we do. The words “good bye” are an abbreviated form of “God be with you”. Our days of the week are named for Norse gods. There is nothing you can do to escape mention of religion or some type of deity.
Another issue that has arisen from your lawsuit is the demand that “[you] want [your] belief system to be given the same weight” as other belief systems that profess faith in a deity. Did you ever consider that doing so would limit the belief systems of others? I’m not going to claim that atheism isn’t a belief system because it is: you have to be resolute in the belief that there is no deity and no higher power, making it a religion of sorts. You believe that all references to God should be removed because you do not happen to believe in one. What about the other 265 million of us who do? Do we not have a right to include words regarding our deity in our public expressions of patriotism? You can exercise your freedom of religion by not saying the Pledge and by not participating in civic events where prayers are said. You have filed lawsuits alleging that the government will not hire atheist chaplains, but you have not managed to prove that such people could exist, let alone serve the needs of the other 90% of our population who are not atheists like yourself.
You have stated with a smug and arrogant certainty that this will be a 8-0 decision in your favor. Given the statements of the judges regarding the frivolty of your claim, I wouldn’t put money on you having a victory in this case. You might think the Bill of Rights grants you freedom from religion, but you obviously mixed up your prepositions there because your freedom of religion is guaranteed for all of us.
Above all Mr. Newdow, you have failed to see that our government’s non-endorsement of a religion is the only reason you can practice yours. If we had a state church as some would like, you would likely not be allowed to profess your atheist beliefs and would likely be required to say the Pledge of Allegiance with the added words. If you want to keep your right to your beliefs, please refrain from abusing the legal system to infringe on my right to my beliefs.
C/S
The Best Move Ireland Has Ever Made
CNN.Com: Ireland bans smoking in workplaces
I think part of the reason I ended up with double-lung walking pneumonia when I was there 6 years ago is that I was forced to breathe all the cigarette smoke. It was so bad that there were times I couldn’t be in a place for more than 5 minutes before starting to smoke.
After living in California (which has very restrictive laws), it was strange to move to the Midwest where there are smoking and non-smoking sections of restaurants. The local places don’t really separate them well and I’m usually gasping for my inhaler after going out to dinner. There’s talk of a ban on smoking in public places in Minnesota and I am overwhelmingly for it. People can go outside if they want to smoke. The ventilation is better then anyway.
And yes, I do believe that “smoker’s rights” is an oxymoron. I’m asthmatic. Your filthy habit has the potential to send me to the E.R., so of course I’m going to support any ban of your habit in public places and throw overwhelming support behind any taxes on tobacco. Deal with it.
Spring Is Busting Out All Over!
It’s been pushing 70F here in western Minnesota. I haven’t gone for any walks because I’ve had indoor duties but I did take Edda and Freya out on their cat leashes to see the bird feeder and I washed and aired the two afghans I’ve been working on. The second still needs to be bordered but I need to wait to get the yarn for that. In the meantime, I’ve started my next project with some of the leftovers from the donor afghan. I’m working on squares and once I reach 64, I’m going to make them into a blanket. I haven’t quite decided the color scheme yet — all I know is that it will be a black and [insert color] checkerboard pattern. I’m leaning toward blue so that it matches our sheets. I’m also still working on squares for the exchange.
Tomorrow is supposed to be stormy but that gives me an excuse to work on my book (which is probably more interesting as a Silicon Valley native and UCSC alum because I get all the inside jokes) and make more squares. Sunday is church and the annual klub dinner for one of the churches. (Several members have explained to me that klub tastes like ham-flavored wallpaper paste but I’ll “like it once I acquire the taste”. Well… when they explain it so… interestingly…)
Testify!
Rice seeks another private meeting with commission
She has granted public interviews with dozens of papers including the Irish Times but she won’t testify publicly under oath to the commission. There is something not right about this. EVERYBODY including Rice and Dubya should be required to testify publicly under oath — no special treatment. If this is as heinous a crime as Dubya claims it is, shouldn’t he be the first to publicly testify about what he knew so that something like this doesn’t happen again?
Refusing to testify really gives the impression that they’re hiding something…
Oh yes… and in case anyone wants to complain that Clarke is dissing Bush to be partisan, the guy is a Republican. Hardly partisanship.
Cindy’s Friday Five
Heather is taking a break today so Cindy created her own.
1) What’s your favorite thing to do when it’s raining out?
Curl up with a book and a cat and watch the thunder and lightning.
2) How often do you go to the library?
Whenever I need a new book.
3) When was the last time you sent an actual letter or card via snail mail, and what was the occasion?
When I responded back to the letter a family friend sent me. (She writes me frequently to encourage me in my pastor’s wivery.)
4) What is your favorite radio station?
The local NPR one.
5) What is your favorite kind of hot tea?
Lipton Lemon n’ Honey!
Parenting Strategies
Chris blogs about parent-teacher conferences. I recommend reading the post — it illustrates everything I hate about many parents today who refuse to discipline their kids. They (or at least the ones I’ve been unfortunate enough to deal with) don’t discipline their kids because they don’t want their kids to hate them.
News flash: Most kids say “I hate you” because they don’t have the verbal skills to say “I am very frustrated with the approach you have taken to dealing with my behavioral infraction.” Your kids are not going to be your friends and they shouldn’t be. If you are relying on them to be your friends, you really need to get out of the house and develop relationships with people your own age.
I also get the “if my kid doesn’t want to do it, he doesn’t have to do it” with some of my Confirmation parents. I don’t give a rat’s butt if their kids don’t want to go to Confirmation or if they don’t want to go to church, acolyte, write their faith statement, do sermon notes, or take their Confirmation test — they’re going to do it if they’re in my Confirmation class. I would like to throttle these parents because all they’re doing is turning their kids into slackers who will never have decent employment because they’ll be fired the second they tell their boss that they “don’t feel like coming into work today so [they] shouldn’t have to.” I’ve already lost two kids in my first year Confirmation class because I refused to let them have that attitude. (They were already thinking of leaving the church anyway so it wasn’t much of a loss.) My second year kids whine at me plenty and they’ve learned that whining gets nowhere with me, mostly because I really don’t care if they’re unhappy because they have to do something. I’m not getting paid to teach them and their parents have given control of their religious education to me, so I can really do what I darn please.
I think the parents who have this lame attitude are the ones who never heard the word “no” as kids. From the 1960’s onward, there has been this movement to abolish the word “no” with regard to discipline. Apparently, there’s a misguided belief that giving kids limits stifles creativity. It doesn’t — it teaches them boundaries. This lack of boundaries has created an epidemic and it has made me much more aware of how I’m going to raise my kids when I have them. My kids will not get everything they ask for and they will not be raised in front of the TV. Some TV is OK — using it as an electronic babysitter is not.