Restoring Honor

Did anyone else watch today's Glenn Beck rally? I had two friends who attended it.  They said that the crowd was ridiculous.  It was impossible to see anything.

This entire experience brought on a huge amount of controversy in the media because of the anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech.  Beck held his rally in the same location. He claimed he didn't know.  Right...

The purpose was to "Restore Honor".

It was VERY God centered.  Very America centered.  Very Glenn Beck centered. I didn't feel like it was very restoring-honor centered.

The BEST part of the entire experience is that no news (other than CSPAN) covered the entire rally on television.  Almost all of them covered it online tho.  Facebook is where most Americans watched the UStream upload.

Under the stream, Beck's team allowed anyone watching to update their Facebook status.  I found this much more interesting than the event itself.

I've collected some of my favorites below, on both sides of the political spectrum.

NOTE: When you updated your status from the page, you had to check a box saying that you allowed the status to be shared with the public.  Because of this, I have not blurred out the name of those included.  You may disagree with this, but I've thought deeply about it.

If the slideshow goes too quickly, press stop and then use the arrows to read them all.

[slideshow]

-B

This is Impressive to Me

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YJ7Rugl3eI] BP destroyed faith in our oil drilling system.  That's a given.

But, we have all but stopped talking about the history-breaking spill in the gulf.

BP hasn't.  I think that's incredible. Speaks very highly of them.

They could have let the PR go with the news story.  But they didn't.

Very stand up.

-B

Judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character

My wife has begun a Gluten Free diet and so because of that, choosing meals and preparing them has become a whole new challenge.

Inevitably, we ran out of enough food to prepare anything for dinner, and of course, we didn't realize this until late in the evening. To her credit, she did try a gluten free pizza crust, but I can vouch for its disgustingness.

So, because we didn't want to spend the cost of gas to head to Harris Teeter (our equivalent of Publix, or as close as your can get) we headed to Food Lion right up the road. We drove up, parked, and walked toward the entrance. To the right of the entrance, there were three African American men and a White man sitting on some boxes outside the store.

I did what many privileged Americans do, tried not to make eye contact.

But I heard one of the guys scream "Hey Sir, I got a question!". I looked up and noticed that he was actually yelling toward a guy walking OUT of Food Lion. The guy immediately responded, "Sorry, I'm in a hurry".

To which the other guy responded. "Its just a second..." So the guy (probably good to mention that he was a young, white, college aged guy with his girlfriend) said, "Im in a hurry, but what?"

Now would be a proper time to explain that the guy sitting outside the Food Lion was what some refer to as...sketch. His friends didn't exactly look inviting and they were hanging out...outside a Food Lion.

So the (presumably homeless) guy responds by motioning toward himself and saying "come here!". You guessed it, the other guy wasn't budging. He just turned toward his car and repeated, "Sorry, I'm in a hurry". It was at this point that I became even more intrigued.

The (presumably homeless) guy said "Are you really that scared of me?" with a tone that would make the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up. Allison ran toward the entrance.

I think they exchanged some more words and the college guy walked off.

As we were checking out, two of the men that were hanging outside were inside the store, by the door...eyes bloodshot. It was really clear that they were looking and waiting for someone to leave. The cashier didn't say a word to them.

As you can imagine, Allie and I picked our exit carefully. We checked out, headed straight toward the car and tried not to look around.

Listen, I try not to judge by race. I really consider myself to be one who gives as many people a chance as possible. I give thanks to my parents, family, and friends for raising me to give people the benefit of the doubt and "judge by the content of character rather than the color of skin".

However, I cannot blame the guy who walked away AT ALL. When placing myself in the same situation, I wouldn't have even looked up. Was he really that scared? I'm not sure. Was I that scared? Yes. Was it the color of his skin? Maybe. Was it where he was? Yes. Was it an alarming of a situation to begin with? Yes. Was it the fact that he said couldn't ask the question from a distance, that he needed the other guy to come closer? Most definitely.

It reminded me of this.

It had What Would You Do? written all over it.

I was fine with the situation until the guy asked "Are you really that scared?". He had no right to say that. Was he playing the race/homeless card? I thought so.

I thought to myself, what would my grandfather have done? My grandfather is a very kind and loving man, but he looks upon other groups of people who aren't like him...differently than perhaps you and I do. Is this the type of attitude that leads to the homeless being looked down upon? Is this the type of attitude that just reenforces racism? Is this the kind of attitude (that of the homeless man) that leads to terrible, dumb, stupid emails spreading virally? I think so.

Again, why couldn't he just ask his question from a distance?

It was a daunting experience, and I doubt that we will ever return to Food Lion because of it.

To add to the night, we had one more experience that just rounded it out. On the way home, we dropped by Wendy's because Food Lion had nothing Allie was interested in. The lady that took the drive-thru order, Hispanic who barely spoke English. Making the whole ordering process rather difficult. The man who gave us the food was from somewhere in the middle east with a rough accent that made it very hard to understand when he tried to explain something. Not to mention, we got off without straws or spoons.

I try very hard not to judge based on race. But situations like this make it hard. I mean, I can see where the extreme racists get it. It's not fair either. Its not fair to the country, it's not fair to the people, it's not fair to the culture.

People who are different than us scare us. People who make situations difficult just because they are trying and cant keep up make it frustrating. People who use the fact that they've been treated differently to be a martyr in a new situation make it darn near impossible.

I guess it has to call on us all a little more to try a little harder.

-B

Pawn Stars

For anyone who watches the History Channel's hit series, you might be interested to know that Corey Harrison finally accepted my friend request on Facebook. It's legit him too. I think. Because our cable is out and I've been missing the modern day phenomenon, Shark Week, I was forced to watch some episodes of Pawn Stars that I had TiVo'd from previous weeks.

It got me thinking about the Pawn industry.

First of all, the show is awesome.  It features the patriarch of a family, his son, and his grandson owning and running a pawn shop in Las Vegas.  Rick is the "main character" and though the family owns the shop, it's clear that anything bought or sold has to make Rick happy or he isn't happy.

In other words, if Rick ain't happy, ain't nobody happy  and you lose your job.

For those who haven't seen it, the show is simple.  Ordinary people bring in items that they either don't want anymore or don't know what they are.  I'd say that 95% of them come in wanting to sell their merchandise to the store.  As with all of the pawn industry, the shop then turns around and sells it to a customer (could be a collector, hobbyist) for a profit.  Sometimes a small profit, sometimes a large profit. If you lose money, Rick doesn't make money.  And we're back at the beginning.

It's a good show because you never know what might walk in the door.  Some of it is really historical stuff (war bonds from the Revolutionary War) and sometimes it's weird stuff (like a key that also functions as a gun). Now, Rick knows a lot about a lot of stuff, but he doesn't know everything.  So, they bring in an expert to tell them what the object is, it's significance, and sometimes-the value. Often, an item is in need of restoring, and so Rick takes it to a shop to have it restored.  If you do the math, he has to sell the item for his cost + restoration fee + some in order to make a profit.  And...he doesn't know how long it will sit on the shelves before it sells.

Of course, it is a typical pawn shop, people can pawn their stuff to gain some cash, and if they want their stuff back, they pay back the money in 120 days with interest.  You can see how a shop like this might work really well in Vegas.  People pawn their jewelry and gamble their money away in hopes of winning enough to make a profit.

If you haven't seen the show, here's a little taste:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrJWv-o2f4s]

Pawn shops have been around for years.  It's an interesting business model to say the least.  Rick won't pay anywhere near what he thinks he can sell it for.  And he is strict about it too, if he can't make money, he doesn't buy it. Rick has often said, "A pawn dealer with a heart is a pawn dealer out of business".

What I find so intriguing is the phrasing behind the business model. When someone wants to sell something, Rick is very frank and says "I can't give you what it's worth because I have to make a profit."  So, depending on the seller's emotional attachment to the item and his/her need for immediate cash, they decide whether or not they want to do business.  It's like a perfect mixture of an open market (giving someone a place to sell their things), a Walmart (they only way he can stay in business is by buying and selling a large assortment of items), and a bank or mortgage firm (loaning money to an individual with a bit of collateral).

Back to the phrasing.  I grew up, like many Americans, constantly hearing "If you work hard, you'll make money, you'll be ok." And for some reason, I always equated that to physical labor. Put in a lot of effort, and you'll make the money.

I had no idea how messed up my thinking was.  Think of those that you know who work ridiculously hard at physical work. How much money do they make?  Think of those that don't work as hard in terms of actual labor, but use their brains and wits to make deals, secure profits, and move money around. How much do they make?

Exactly.

It begs the question, which is worth more: Labor and effort, or brains and education?

I think we have answered this already.

-B

Dear Leader

I have only been acutely aware of North Korea throughout my lifetime. I know very little about the society and even less about the one we all hate/make fun of, Kim Jong-il.

Tonight, Lisa Ling was on Jimmy Kimmel Live discussing her book about the rescue of her sister by President Clinton.

She said a few things that I found interesting, and I became fascinated with North Korea and the things she was saying about Kim Jong-il.  Where did I go to find out some more info? Wikipedia, of course. I would imagine that Wikipedia might be the opposite of anything of any relation to North Korea.  Of course, they have their own media that is controlled by the government and tells the people what they need to hear, rather than the truth.  Input from outside sources would be...unwelcome...and I'd imagine pretty violently unwelcome at that.

Ling said a few things that blew my mind.

  • She said that cell phones are banned.  I guess I can see that, but it almost made me gasp.
  • She said that Kim Jong-il is considered a huge movie buff and owns over 20,000 titles.  Wow.  Can I borrow some?
  • She said that the media reports that Kim Jong-il shoots around a 27 on a normal round of golf.  How many hole-in-ones is that? How true can it be?
  • She said that she sat in a room there that had a bookshelf, with only books that the "Dear Leader"(Jong-il) had written.

It painted a picture for me that reminded me, of course, of Hitler and Nazi Germany.  I obviously had this picture before, but it's as if that picture had come to life.  Hitler has always been an interesting person for me to study because of his sheer brilliance in leadership.

Then she said something that nearly brought me to tears.

I don't know if she is right about this, I don't know if it's exaggerated.  I can't guarantee this story, but if it is true, it is incredible.

Kimmel asked Ling why it was that President Clinton was able to get the women back when others were unsuccessful getting through to the leader (and we are all very aware of the controversy of this).  Ling said this (my own paraphrase): When Kim Jong-il's father (Kim Il-sung-the founder of North Korea) passed away, Clinton was the first world leader to contact him to express his condolences. Even before many who were associated with the family in the country contacted him.  Ling said that that display of humanity (remember that) has stayed in Jong-il's mind to this day.

Humanity, eh?

Interesting.  I would argue that humane is not a good way to describe Jong-il.  If it was really that touching to him, would that have changed his actions since?  How can someone who does not display any sort of recognition of humanity actually recognize a humane act?  Was he only appreciative because it was a humane act toward him?  Were there selfish ambitions? If so, why would he have allowed the women to leave?  Leaving certainly didn't benefit him directly.

And...did anyone ever act in such a humane way to Adolf Hitler?

Interesting, at least to me, to say the least.

What's more, the official name of North Korea is "Democratic People's Republic of Korea"

Ha.

-B

UPDATE: Perhaps this says it better:

What Would You Do?

Before I moved from Lakeland, I found a show that had originally aired in May on my ABC app for iPad. It's called "What Would You Do?" The show is hosted by John Quinones (please forgive the lack of tilde over his name) and you can think of it as a societal experiment disguised as Candid Camera.  The idea is to create some awkward situations that would either require or call for input to resolve a situation from an outside source.  The show is mind-boggling.  I end up in tears every episode.

Typically the show covers both significant and seemingly insignificant situations.  Anything from an annoying cell phone user in a restaurant, to extreme racial profiling, to a cashier in a convenient store who lies to a customer who won the lottery just to pocket their winnings.  They do some interesting studies regarding how people react to different races and genders and then Quinones conducts an interview (often emotional) with the person who intervened to solve a problem.

Tonight, they opened up with a topic that I found extreme.  Polygamy.  They set up at a restaurant and had a family of actors to be the man and three of his wives.  They were all dressed in the typical conservative clothing you might expect from those involved in the Fundamental sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The catch to the situation is that there was another female at the table who made it clear that she was 15 and was to be married to the older man on the next day. The experiment was to see who in the restaurant might step in when the young girl makes it clear that she is not in support of the marriage

As someone who has visited the mainstream sites of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints in Utah, and someone who knows that Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states, it was hard to watch this...even knowing it was all fake.

The hardest part was seeing how many people did not speak up.  The family created a scene at the table as the girl began to cry because she "wasn't ready to be married at 15".  She was a minor, being forced into a polygamist lifestyle and how many people spoke up? 4.  Out of 100 who witnessed it over several days. 4% of witnesses did anything to try to rescue the girl.

However, with the ABC crew was a lady who left a polygamist sect after being married at 14.  The best part was seeing her interact with the people who did speak up after the fact.  Here was someone who had been in the very situation thanking those who she wished had stepped into her life. Enough to bring a grown man to tears.

Perhaps we should all think about stepping in while observing someone else's time of need.  It's a lesson that I need to learn for sure.

-B

UPDATE: To those who might like to learn more about the show and view episodes, you can do so here.

UPDATE #2: Thanks to Amanda Glickman, I now know that John Quinones is a Lambda Chi Alpha. I knew I liked him.

Capitalism and the Church

This is a long one, so buckle in. Tonight NBC aired a special Dateline hosted by Ann Curry about how the poor in our country have been affected by what they deemed "The Great Recession".  No matter what my parents say about Curry's reporting style, I do think she has a heart for the unmet needs of many in the world.  Besides, I really enjoy her photography.

If you have an opportunity, I would strongly encourage you to watch it or at least catch yourself up on the story (see link above).

I enjoy NBC news reporting because I think it's about the only thing that NBC has going for it nowadays, given current competition.

Curry made a good point in an interview about how much of the reporting on this recession has been about how the economy has affected both the middle class and upper class, but not much about how the recession has affected those in extreme poverty.  She also references a Duke University (Go Blue Devils!) study that 22% of American children are currently living in poverty.  That's up 5% over the last four years.

Watching it, I found myself thinking what many blessed, selfish Americans were thinking.  Many of the people she is interviewing don't seem educated.  They don't speak or present themselves in a manner that would make me say, "I need to hire you".  Many of them had an abundance of children.  One girl seemed like a talented singer, was a straight A student, but had given birth to two children before she dropped out of high school.  Curry asked her if they had taught her in high school about birth control. She said they had but that mistakes happen.

All this time, I had a flashback to Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story".  Say what you want about Moore, he hit the nail on the head with this film. More on the film in a second.

See, I grew up in a weird situation.  My family is relatively southern (I guess as southern as a Florida cracker can be), some of them are old fashioned, and a few of them are old mannered.  Some of them are even stuck in an old way of thinking.

I was taught from an early age to work hard, not give up, rely on my talents and abilities, and make the people you work for never regret a penny they paid (payed?) you. And I was blessed, I was given a great brain, some fantastic talents, and a family that nurtured me, encouraged me, and went extremely out of their way to make sure that I succeeded.  But I'm not like these people in this special.

Back to Capitalism.  Moore kept making the point throughout the film that Capitalism seemed to work throughout the mid 1900's.  We had won a gigantic war, our economy looked killer compared to Europe's and we kept being told this story that if we worked hard, we made the money, we could have a comfortable life. Steve Jobs explains the basic concept really well here. The best product wins.

Moore made the point that big companies got greedy.  Ruined the unions.  Outsourced jobs. Destroyed the economy.  This is all pretty true.

But, I come to the realization that Capitalism may not be working from another angle.

If the best product wins, then there has to be a loser.  For me to win, someone has to lose.  That's the way the world  and the market works.

And so, we end up with the uneducated, those who made bad decisions, those who didn't have natural talents, and those that haven't worked 100% all of the time being on the losing end of things.  They live in poverty.  And they have children.  And the children are like their parents. Because it becomes a fight to survive on a daily basis, very little innovation or dreaming gets done by them. The world progresses, and they don't.

America is faced with a situation that Capitalism didn't take care of. If we are humans, who have any sense of humanity, what do we do with those who lose?  What do we do with those who can't seem to get an upper hand?  Well, the government creates programs. But those are met with strong opposition.  Because the job market is so privatized, the jobs are extremely difficult to simply "create".  Those that "lost" have it worse than we thought.

My good friend  and one of the greatest talents of all time (at least I like to think of him as a good friend, because I think he would have been my friend if we had known each other, and it's the only way to bring me comfort to the fact that he is gone) Rich Mullins said this about the church and its relation to society (starting at 1:16 on the YouTube link):

I don't believe that God chose you and blessed you so that you could heap those blessings up upon yourself. I believe God chose you and you and you and every one of you others, because He wants to make a difference in this world. And you know what? What I think is scary about God is He didn't come up with any 'plan B.' That He left the church here, and the church is the only group of people and the church is the only institution in the world that can bring about a change. This government cannot do it, so stop depending on the government. Educational systems cannot do it, so stop trusting educational systems. The church was chosen by God to make a difference.

If the church that I'm a part of is not the church that he describes here, I don't want any part of it.

The church, all of us-as a whole, is for the losers.

-B