"To find the divine and the helpful in the mean and familiar, to find religion without the aid of any supernatural machinery, to see the spiritual, the eternal life in and through the life that now is—in short, to see the rude, prosy earth as a star in the heavens, like the rest, is indeed the lesson of all others the hardest to learn."

Re: The Power of Rhetoric

This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote for my AP Government class in late 2010. The topic was to compare and contrast Senate candidates John McCain and JD Hayworth, and come to a conclusion about which was the better candidate. (This isn’t really a part of this paragraph, but I figured that would probably be something that could be considered relevant.)

The content source links out to a Christian Science Monitor Article which was my main source for this particular paragraph. I highly reccomend that you read it, as it relates to the highly venomous political world that is evolving right before our eyes. 

The message here is that words have meaning, impact, and can change history forever.

In 1896, an election was held in Wilmington, North Carolina. At this time, Wilmington was a progressive city, with a political culture described as “inclusive [and] interracial” by journalist Walter Rodgers.  The losers of the election, White Democrats, were resentful that they lost. “Take back the state” became the equivalent of a campaign slogan. They drafted a White Declaration of Independence which was issued on November 9, stating “‘that [they would] no longer be ruled… by men of African origin’”. The following day they forcibly took control of the city, removing city leaders, burning buildings and shooting blacks. Incomplete records do not allow for a specific death toll, but estimates range from 6 to 100, with all of those who died being African-Africans. As a consequence, racial relations in this city are stressed even today. This is still the only time a municipal government has been overthrown in the US.

(Source: csmonitor.com)

Ignorance is Pathetic.

This is a comment that was left on this article relating to the DREAM Act currently in Congress: http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_16821325?nclick_check=1 by a Facebook user named “Mario Bro”:

“American people WAKE UP !!!!!!…..this is part of the Mexican invasion agenda set up many years ago….the best decision is the right decision…if they want to live in this country ,they have to obey by the AMERICAN rules and Laws .I understand the poor kids don’t have any choice but to keep sucking blood out of our system first ,they will probably want grants, second financial aid, third scholarships ; then they will take our best jobs of course they know more than one language…But what about my kids … or your kids the ones that are suffering throughout this whole ordeal going to schools full of students talking in languages different than English…this kids unable to assimilate are imposing a life style completely different that our own …those are the kids we are going to reward ….pls ….WAKE UP !!!! i don’t want to imagine how are country is going to be in 20 to 30 years from now….pls kill the cancer before spreads…the government shouldn’t have to take the guilty trip that this people are imposing on us …we didn’t fail on them …AMERICA..didn’t fail them …they FAIL THEMSELFS …AND THE COUNTRY WHERE THEY CAME FROM…..if they want to live in this country there are civilized ways to do so not by invasion not by imposing ….this behaviors are repudiated by the American people and never believed in .. And will not be tolerate it….this is the land of the FREE but not the land of the FREELOADERS……AMERICA PLS……WAKE UP!!!!…before is too late.”

Dear Mario Bro,

 I imagine that within the next twenty or thirty years, legislation such as the DREAM Act will encourage more young people to attend college. They will probably be able to leave comments on articles that consist of intelligent thoughts, not fear mongering sentiments plagued with pathetic grammatical and spelling errors.

Love,

Reasonable people everywhere.