Who you think you are, be really. Peace Love Compassion Anger Fear Judgment Basket Bucket Honor
Crime Rape Integrity Grace DisGrace Selfishness Us Them Mercy Rigidity
Now Now Black grey White (What do you think it means to Be Kind To Each Other?) Freedom versus Utopia
Good gray Evil Sacred grey Profane Peace gray Fear Asleep grey Awake Violence gray Understanding Pride grey Humility The Art of Rape Sacrifice Innocent Real gray Deception Gift grey Seduction
Truth Hope Love
"Obama’s Baffling Catholic Decision: Birth Control Trumps Religious Freedom
The administration claims its decision to force Catholic institutions to pay for insurance covering contraceptives is ‘balanced'—so why, when religious liberty was weighed against access to birth control, did freedom lose?"
So begins an editorial in The Daily Beast today addressing the issue recently shoved into the mainstream by the current U.S. administration: Shall the government interfere with the free exercise of religion?
I always thought this was an interesting topic since one's religion may ask for child sacrifice or multiple wives...
However, for a government to
specifically require a person or group to positively commit an act which the group has long considered immoral seems to go against the modern grain. I know workplaces that now allow for prayer facing towards Mecca 5 times a day. Kosher food is provided for those whose religion proscribes it (newt's smarmy lies regarding a Romney vote notwithstanding). Exemptions from many proscriptions are allowed for the Amish and the native American.
History, tradition, and common sense have played a role in exceptions.
My silly friend's "Church of the WALNUT" has a Don't Pay Taxes Rule that he will never get enforced...
But history, tradition and common sense are lately Out the Window, if you have not noticed, in a variety of areas.
Here is one fear:
Eradicating large swaths of culture, religious expression, and tradition can leave us barren as a society.
Granted, we must continue to improve, groom, evolve, strive. The immoral, such a slavery, ownership of wives, abuse of children, hateful behavior toward groups, etc etc must be replaced by the moral. We move from violence towards nonviolence, from brute force to compassion, from Grudge to Forgiveness.
But to try to forcefully eliminate ancient cultures' belief systems in the name of modernism is a bullying mistake at best, and a crazy grandiose power-grab which at worst is displayed throughout history in ugly violence we look back on now and examine with shaking heads.
I am reminded
of a Kurt Vonnegut short story about equality, where if memory serves, the beautiful must wear bags over their heads and
the fleet wear weights around their ankles, in order to eliminate individual differences... (Harrison Bergeron--1961
"THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General..."
But there is a bigger
issue/fear/sadness/factor here:
the value of life as a mystical, sacred, ineffable thing -- espoused by Buddhism, Christianity, and other traditions and religions-- is being lost in a dirty, watery, germy soup of politics, greed, powerlust, materialism and deception. I will express more about this tomorrow in PART II will link HERE
is life sacred? What if they told
you you had to club baby seals?
The Daily Beast column referenced above goes on to make a few points being widely discussed in media, in excerpts here:
"...It’s hard to escape the feeling that the Obama administration is trying to run America’s Catholic charities and institutions out of business. How else to explain the mean-spirited decision mandating that Catholic institutions be required to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives, and the “morning-after pill,” which violates their fundamental religious beliefs?
do you fight for your beliefs?
write letters? boycott? Vote?
... The administration
took religious liberty, a principle on which our country was founded, weighed it against access to contraception, and somehow in its bizarro math, religious freedom lost.
“The government knows that [most] employer-based insurance plans already cover these services,” Hannah Smith, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, tells me. “So it’s not about expanding contraceptive access. It’s about forcing religious-based organizations to provide this against their beliefs.”
The writer, Kirsten Powers, goes on to say, "I’m not Catholic. I support contraception. But this is madness. The administration wants to remind us of their benevolence: they are giving institutions with religious objections a whole year to implement a government rule that violates the core tenets of their faith. Gee, thanks!
“In effect, the president is saying
we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told The Washington Post....
The administration has to know this, so why would it force the hand of Catholic institutions that have traditionally filled in the gaps in social services that the government failed to provide? The people who will suffer if they close their doors are the poor, refugees, the homeless, orphans, and the elderly.
Smith points out that the administration has provided exemptions for the Amish and Native American tribes, so why not an exemption for Catholic institutions?
Regardless of how the courts rule, the administration has planted its flag on the wrong side of history on this issue. The government’s disregard for the fundamental right of freedom of religion is chilling and should cause all Americans concern...
There is a SafeHouse--Veronica's Voice-- for women who have been trafficked and are now away from that evil. The K-State Women's Center invited students to make valentines to send to the house. We are always touched by the care and kindness shown.
In fact, the staff at the table next to ours, from University Crossing Apartments, made valentines AND gave us muffins!
Thank you to all. click on pics to enlarge.
During the 35- hour Pre Superbowl TV Show, Coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success was mentioned several times by unrelated sources. That is rewarding since the media often tends to dwell on stories which denigrate rather than elevate.
(as an advocate for rape victims, for example,
it is head-exploding discouraging that every false report
or weird circumstances around a rape report are
blown up into major stories; but the everyday epidemic of sexual assaults of women, children, and men is barely noted in the news. -particularly since the fbi suggest that only around 4% of reports are probably false...)
Among the many football players and pundits chatting about honor and integrityduring the preshow, It was mentioned that later in life, Coach Wooden replaced Competative Greatness, at the top of the Pyramid, with Love. (beautiful pyramid at bottom of post)
What do you think of that! It is warm enough in Kansas to open the windows today; i am having flashbacks to Florida and the Football Fun I had there...
ribs and red wine, the sunday paper, sunny breeze, pets dancing around, and Lots of Tony Dungy. He seems to be the MAN today as Indianapolis loves him, and his Excellence becomes more apparent as time passes. We loved him in Florida but as Warren Sapp said, someone took his cake out of the oven...
After i check the Meat, i will add the warren sapp story (at bottom of this post).
Happy worshipping of superBaal, the altar of politically correct religion.
It Takes 10 Hands to make a basket...
monday june 7 2010...:UCLA basketball coach (for 27 years)--the legendary John Wooden died at Friday (June 4) of natural causes at the age of 99. He would have turned 100 on Oct. 14. This guy was known for authentic caring, integrity, and all the good stuff. Wooden was the first person (one of only two) inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. Everyone speaks of him in superlatives. (One person lamenting the loss on TV stated that he inspired greatness and was the very best "without every bullying or using filthy language." (The fact that this is mentioned tells of of the current state of things.)
I liked the comment one sportscaster made, that Coach Wooden's teams were the last which used the bank shot. You know I am a fan of the bank shot; it is the humble shot with the best mathematical probability.
In a statement from the university: "This is a sad day at UCLA," said Chancellor Gene Block. "Coach Wooden's legacy transcends athletics; what he did was produce leaders. But his influence has reached far beyond our campus and even our community. Through his work and his life, he imparted his phenomenal understanding of leadership and his unwavering sense of integrity to so many people. His 'Pyramid of Success' (see below) hangs in my office to remind me every day of what it takes to be an effective leader. He was truly a legend in his own time, and he will be a legend for generations to come."
Bill Walton said, " "The joy and happiness in Coach Wooden's life came from the success and accomplishments of others. He never let us forget what he learned from his two favorite teachers, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa, "that a life not lived for others is not a life."
an interesting site: http://ffbsccn.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/wisdom-from-coach-wooden-a-coach-is-someone-who-can-give-correction-without-creating-resentment/ (click to read more: Among the accolades :
"Coach Wooden never tired of telling us that once you become a good person, then you have a chance of becoming a good basketball player."
"He was known for reciting his father's "two sets of three" -- "never lie, never cheat, never steal" and "don't whine, don't complain, don't make excuses" -- and a "seven-point creed," also passed along by his father. The point Wooden used most in his coaching, he said, was "make each day your masterpiece." Still, Wooden was probably best known for his famed "Pyramid of Success," which he began developing in the 1930s. He said that it was "the only truly original thing I have ever done."
At the base of the five-level pyramid are industriousness, friendship, loyalty, cooperation and enthusiasm. The next levels up are self-control, alertness, initiative and intentness; condition, skill and team spirit; and poise and confidence. At the pinnacle is competitive greatness, which he defined as performing at one's best ability when one's best is required, which, he said, was "each day."
"Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable," Wooden once said in explaining the pyramid. Wooden also promoted his "12 Lessons in Leadership," including Lesson 11: Don't look at the scoreboard. But while Wooden was high-minded in his approach to coaching, he also was practical. He famously began each season with a coaching session on dressing properly that included showing his players how to put on their shoes and socks the right way.
"This is a game played on your feet," he said. "If you get blisters, you can't play the game."
click on pyramid to view entire picture enlarged:
12 lessons in leadership
Whenever a man of integrity leaves the planet, i always wonder if the balance is tipped too heavily; are there men of great humility, wisdom and integrity to take his place?
Godspeed.
Tony dungee fan- john gruden take out the cakewarren sapp story
So, The Warren Sapp/Tony Dungy Story. Dang! another walk in.
laaater....
OK.
So Tony Dungy, after a few years of team building, character-building, WINS, and all around Make Tampa Feel Good ness, is let go by the Glazers.
The next year, little Chuckie (Coach Gruden) gets the superbowl trip with the Bucs.
Warren Sapp is interviewed.
He says:
Tony was like the man who comes into a dirty filthy kitchen.
He cleans it all up, gets rid of all the spoiled food, makes everything clean and new, brings in all the good ingredients.
Makes a BEEOOUtiful Cake. a wonderful cake.
Puts the Cake in the oven--
An Dang if Gruden didn't come take that cake out of the oven....
Thinking of the astronomical (no pun intended) chances of Earth Being; the ancient Trade Winds; (travellers and explorers who found them, rode them); the Whales who surf the currents around this blue planet; the heartbreaking wonder of Bird migration; the impossibility of Butterfly migration; the need for us each to have a fellow traveler say "let me take you away .."
Here is the most beautiful song. I only have it on [the very rare1976 album, "To The Heart." Jon Mark and Johnny Almond met in the 60's when they played together in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.] - I need to get it onto a disc somehow.
When i listen to it 7 times in a row i become desirous/nostaligic/depressed/withdrawn/searching/elevated.
It is warm enough in Kansas to open the windows today; i am having flashbacks to Florida and the Football Fun I had there...
At the base of the five-level pyramid are industriousness, friendship, loyalty, cooperation and enthusiasm. The next levels up are self-control, alertness, initiative and intentness; condition, skill and team spirit; and poise and confidence. At the pinnacle is competitive greatness, which he defined as performing at one's best ability when one's best is required, which, he said, was "each day." 
