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…In a little school house in Georgia. These kids were so pissed off at their disciplinarian that they planned her kidnapping and murder to a T. It wasn’t just one child, not even two. But nine children were in on it. And boy were these kids prepared for their kiddy crime. Note, I did not say the children knew how to spell the names of the items they brought, but they sure were prepared. Just think about it. Their “materials” included a steak knife without the handle, duct tape to keep her quiet, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons (for her hair?), and…gasp…steel handcuffs.

As a teacher, it makes me wonder. If one student or possibly 2 plot against a teacher, something is seriously wrong with those students. But if almost an entire class plots her, I’d begin to wonder about the teacher. Could it be that she was way too extreme with her discipline? After all, this did take place in the south. It is important to look at this from that angle as well.

Oh Well, I thought teaching in the Bronx was bad enough.

I can remember way back when I was about 14, I needed to have corrective surgery. My then pastor told me that I had a choice. I could believe God to heal me or I could go to the doctor. Being “forced” to feel that I had to make such a choice was a bit traumatic. Admittedly, I did not have the faith my pastor possessed and ended up having the very sucessful surgery…THANK GOD! It was only years later that I learned I didn’t have to have that kind of faith in order to please God. With that said, how are we supposed to handle those types of situations? Why on earth do some people believe that medical professionals and God are mutually exclusive? Eleven year-old Madeline Neumann died as a result of such a doctrine. The poor girl had a treatable condition known as diabetic ketoacidosis. Yes, it was treatable. Instead, her parents decided that her treatment would come via prayer alone. Her parents are quoted in the article and I have to say, it provides a glimpse into the psyche of the doctrine:

“We stayed fast in prayer then. We believed that she would recover. We saw signs that to us, it looked like she was recovering.”

The young girl did not recover, but died anyway. Some may desperately argue that she was in fact healed (waiting, oh waiting for someone to bring in Isaiah 53:5 in attempt to refute my claim that it’s a false doctrine). That would be stretching things a mile more than they should be. There is no healing when you succumb to a disease. I’m not going to sit here and bash the parents since they were victims of a false doctrine as I was. But, they could have used what’s called Godly wisdom. Yes, God does give us good old plain common sense. But too many of us are looking for some spectacular sign. I can only hope that this doctrine and experience does not cause them to lose faith altogether. That’s where our firm foundations come in. These losses, as horrible as they are, can and should be used as learning experiences.

Apparently, the natives of a Devon city centre in England would like to. The BBC reports that there’s a pub (aka, a bar to us yanks) named after John Hawkins who used the worst type of violence you can think of to keep his slaves captive. But according to the locals, the evils of slavery are only a small part of what made Hawkins. They’re probably right. In fact, I’m sure you could find an SS officer for whom Nazism was only a small part of his being. As sarcastic as I am attempting to be, I’d have to side with the Caucasian owners of the pub. If Hawkins was a great historical figure for their country, not to mention the pub sits near his birthplace, why not name the pub after him? This is a PRIVATE business, correct? I’m quite sure that Esther Armah, a black British journalist and Thursday morning co-host of Wake Up Call on WBAI, would disagree with that. She implied that naming the pub after Hawkins is nothing more than blatant disrespect toward black people.

History shows us that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson slaves. Yet, there are plenty of public schools named after them. So I ask what’s the difference? Was not Queen Elizabeth I a horrid racist? Also, should we be seeking formal apologies from African governments since they were involved in the slave trade? Why not erase every Malcolm X or Marcus Garvey BLVD’s from every street corner where they exist? Get my drift? There is likely a lot of racism in Britain that should be fought against. Particularly those who want to make racism the dreaded law of the land like the BNP (which stands for British National Party). But the name of a pub is not one of them. So I’d say to the Plymouth Racial Equality Council to carefully pick your battles.

Or you could simply just apologize for something you didn’t do. One of John Hawkins’ descendants decided to go all the way to Africa in order to apologize for slavery. But there’s one missing…an apology from the Africans (which actually did occur btw), it has simply never been done formally. Is there anyone who would like to apologize to me personally?

With all of the misogynistic dogma and profanity present in today’s rap music, it’s refreshing to hear something positive. In addition to rappers like Common, there are also heroes of the past like Arrested Development, Queen Latifah, MC-Lyte, and Will Smith. It’s a shame that my list of rappers from the past is longer than any list I could create made up of modern rappers. Below is a rap video by a young Christian man who goes my the name Lacrae:

I remember when rap actually meant something such as this:

Those were the days…

Heart of Flesh has an eye opening post about Oprah’s views on religion.  Apparently, God is in everything and everyone. Does that mean God is in my cell phone? According to Oprah, perhaps.  I still like her, but the woman is deceived.

I’ve got one of the most stressful jobs you could imagine; I’m a public high school teacher. Sounds surprising to some since I can take the summer off and get about four scattered weeks during the year. But there’s a price for all that freedom…it’s called STRESS. Why is being a teacher so stressful? It’s being told to work miracles when it’s impossible for a teacher to do so. It’s being able to make students behave, but not succeed. With teenagers who are not your own, you cannot make them realize the importance of an education before it is too late. You can’t even get many of them to get off the path to destruction. In a few years, those same kids will be blaming “the man” for holding them back. If they’d only look in the mirror…

When you take a stressful job and add it to other stress triggers like health, family issues, and social pressure, life can become a shaken soda bottle if you get my drift. So what is one to do? Take time to quiet the mind. It is crucial to make other aspects of your life more exciting so that the stress drowns in the sea of forgetfulness. In other words, have fun. Fun for me is hanging out with friends, going to plays, laughing, and loving. I also find that pampering myself works wonders via regular manicures and visits to the hair salon. Of course, if there are stress triggers you can get rid of, by all means do so. Living life in spite of your circumstances beats stress. So get out there and live!

It never ceases to amaze me when the radical left draw “parallels” between America’s Christian Right and Islamofascists. Ayaan Hirsi Ali so eloquently explains that the dynamics of religion in the west are much more humane that what exists in the Middle East. Those living in nations with Christian influences are free to trash religion, promote and distribute degrading entertainment, have abortions, speak out against leadership, and in some cases, burn flags without the fear of prison or even death. That escapes Canadian documentary filmmaker, Avi Lewis.

According to Mr. Lewis, the people of the United States are under just as much oppression and strife as those living in the Muslim world. How can he or anyone else come to such a conclusion? Are things perfect here? No, they aren’t. But to believe that our country (or Canada) is in any way shape or form similar to a society under Islamic law is almost blatantly dishonest.

Build your metabolism through self-pleasuring  I’m completely flabbergasted! 

Should we not dialogue with people we disagree with?