Election Year...Here We Go Again!

Originally posted on 10/17/08

Okay...So it has been...well...maybe just a bit too long to really be considered a blogging site by most...but I AM BACK! And honestly, it is not that I have had too little to say about a number of different events in life and regarding life. Rather, it has been more that after figuring out how to blog and set all this stuff up...to blog...I forgot my password andusername...Yes, yes, I realize that may sound a bit "airheaded," but with three kids and life happening faster than a speeding bullet...well...some brain cells have certainly been left behind, or killed altogether.

I will make this re-entry into the blogging world short...simply to tell you that I imagine in the next few weeks I may have much to say about this very political year. So as not to alienate anyone who might view things differently than me, I will say, God knows and is sovereign over all things...this election included, no matter who wins. With that said, I have got to simply wonder...how is it that so many Americans are not really really listening to what "spreading the wealth around" means? How is it that when a candidate says he will make tax cuts for 95% of Americans and yet approximately 40% of them don't pay income taxes, none of the mainstream media ask the pertinent questions that ought to be asked? Why are so many - and I mean MANY - details being left out of reports by mainstream media? Even your average JOE or JANE, is capable of determining for themselves what they believe when presented with objective facts. They need not be fed one-sided perspectives for fear of anyone voting contrary to their desires...and by "they" I mean mainstream media. I truly have come to believe that we are daily being insulted as Americans and our intellect has been assaulted by having been spoon-fed whatever has been selectively provided as "news" and "newsworthy" reporting. 

I have often said that college is really a place to sort through what one really believes. It is a time in life where if you don't learn to critically think for yourself, you are basically subject to the greatest external influences that you are exposed to most frequently. I recall a time when my brother, who much less naive than I, came to visit me at college and sat in on one of my classes. The class was called Socialism. When he and I had a chance to discuss what he had heard, his first question to me was, "What? Are all your professors Socialists?" Up until that point I tended to make gospel whatever my professors . I knew so much less that it was easy to load me up with all kinds of good notions and ideals. As a result of his question, however, I had an epiphany that changed my college career and way of thinking from that point forward. Fortunately, I was only a sophomore and had a little more time to develop additional critical thinking skills, which were thereafter used on every paper I wrote and not always to the welcomed reception of my professors.

The reason I bring all this up here is because it appears we have a youth culture today of post-modernists who tend to view truth as a non-absolute, who base their beliefs on their emotions and what feels right, and who have not learned to think critically for themselves. It is becoming increasingly evident today that the art of analytical and critical thinking has been lost. After having worked with youth for many years and from my vantage point, there seems to be a critical thinking crisis among the youth culture of today - and I guess at this stage in life I mean anyone under 40. Many young people have not learned to educate themselves but instead have developed a set of beliefs based on the media, the culture or their peer groups.

Many of these young people are casting votes and that concerns me. Don't get me wrong, I am concerned that young people are taking their responsibility to vote seriously, but rather that they are not educating themselves with all the relevant and pertinent information they can find for themselves. After all, as it has been said, every right implies responsibility, every opportunity implies an obligation, and every possession implies a duty.

Generally speaking, people tend to seek out information that supports their perspective, however they arrived at their perspective...intellectually or emotionally. Even the Word of God in II Timothy 4:3 says, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." As I find myself looking around our culture, it seems this manifestation of "itching ears" is so evident. But, maybe, it is not to everyone (Matthew 13). We have been given an intellect that is unique to humans alone, the ability to think and reason. When we allow others to do our thinking and reasoning for us, we are basically foregoing a basic freedom we have as Americans and inherently as individuals. We ought not allow ourselves to sit idly by while we are fed what we are to believe. We need to be active participants in the process.

I am concerned for my children and their futures. I pray daily that they will be leaders for their generation by exercising the intellect God has granted them in order to make this world a better place in their own spheres of influence. When we surround ourselves only with those who see things as we do, we alienate ourselves to the inquiries of others and become narrow minded. Believers are often quite guilty of this, and as a homeschooling mom who tries not to isolate my kids, I fear that many Christian kids may not be taught how to question and critically think through things for themselves. When they finally do decide to do so, it is often when they are free of any parental guidance and in college when ties that bind become dimly recalled in light of all the new intrigues of "freedom". What a huge responsibility we have to instruct and prepare our children for their future and then entrust them to God.And, whatever happened to hard work, competition and the rewards for the fruit of your labor? I just cannot believe that the components of what made this amazing country so great in its genesis - though far from perfect - are so obviously being eroded while we stand by scratching our heads and wondering why. As emigrants to America, both my parents had little education. My mother quit school upon coming to America when she found herself in a class of 13 year oldswhen she was nearly 16. She never really recovered from the insecurities related to her lack of education, and the only book I regularly saw her write in was the Bible in which she put many questions marks and in Greek, the word "here" to indicate where she had left off the day before. On the other hand, my father was an orphan who was discarded by his mother, and then, as all good Greek orphans do (because it was required) he went into the military. Upon coming to America with my mother, he was ridiculed, scoffed at, beat up among other things simply because of his ethnicity and his seemingly uneducated speaking abilities. And yet, as I was growing up, he had read and highlighted hundreds of books, certainly more of them than I had while in college and was often asked to publicly speak at various engagements. As both my parents are now deceased, (another story all together), I find that looking on the many life lessons they taught by example, many of them were clearly and intentionally rooted in the Word of God but also in the traditional values espoused by many Americans throughout the years - among them, hard work and the satisfaction and success that can come of it.

My father had a thick Greek accent, but if you ask anyone back in Fort Wayne how they would describe my dad, one of the most common adjectives you would hear is "Patriot." He had his Jeep Cherokee covered in patriotism from his license plate which read "BESTUSA" that hangs in my boys' room to the flags on both sides of his Jeep. This man LOVED America...but as he lay sick in his last days watching FOX news and knowing his end was eminent, he would repeatedly say, " I fear for you and your childrens' future." In some ways, I am glad he is not able to see the state of things today.

With the market in such fluctuation, fear is clearly wreaking havoc on our economy. In a sense, one might even say fear is currently controlling the market forces. It then stands to reason, if it can control an entire country's economy and impact the global economy to such a great extent, then fear is also effectively controlling the lives of many individuals, thanks in part to the rally cries of the media shouting, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" But let's all take heart and regroup. In a recent sermon I listened to by James McDonald (September 23, 2008), he addressed the matter of trust and anxiety in the midst of uncertain circumstances. As we face an uncertain future, no more or less in a good or bad economy, we have got to believe GOD has not been surprised by any of these national or global circumstances. For whatever the reason(s), this is our present situation. Asking why won't change anything, but asking ourselves what we ought to be learning through it all (as individuals and as a nation) would be a more productive use of our time. There is much to be learned and much wisdom to be gained. Perhaps the lessons that are being learned are being learned in a way few of us would choose to learn them. But perhaps, too, no other method of instruction would be as profound and effective for learning the very lessons we need to learn.

I have so many thoughts racing through my head, but I don't understand why at almost 3am I felt compelled to expound on any of them. Nevertheless, I did. I said I would be short, and well, I lied. Forgive me. I don't suspect my personal information was all that interesting for many. Perhaps, it was simply my way of organizing my thoughts and determining why these issues are so heavily pressed upon my heart. The thing is...there is a lot in here that I will likely spend more time delving into if I get back to write another blog anytime soon, particularly as the election draws nearer. As for now, I leave you with these thoughts and welcome your dialogue. Hope to hear from you soon! God bless, and Good Morning? Ah, well, yes, Good morning! It is indeed!