Ambivalence At Its Finest

I ran across this blog today.  This entry seemed profound to me, and I thought I would share.  I'm going to think on the offered question. 

Quote

If you could change just one thing

A friend and I were chatting on MSN Instant Messanger (I know I am such tool of the Gates World Order) a couple of days ago. The subject turned toward flaws and shortcomings-both physical and character. I posed the question to him without thinking about my own answer first. "What would you change, that you really can't today, about yourself?" Before he answered we discussed some parameters. You can't say "I want to be 20 pounds lighter" because that is something you could conceivabley accomplish on your own. We also ruled out surgical enhancements and repairs. The goal of the exercise was to find that one nagging imperfection in your life that holds you back from being the person you wish to be and have it excised.

My friend thought long and hard and hedged. "What would you change about you," he asked.

"Let me think," I typed and put some serious thought to it.

He finally came back with "I would want Self-Confidence."

I was surprised. In a wish where you could be taller, better looking, have more hair on the head, less from the ears, and other enhancements, he saw through the superficiallity of the narcissism pervading our society and picked something that could give him true aid. I applauded his choice. Naysayers in the reading population might argue that Self-Confidence can be learned, taught, incorporated into a psyche but I am not so sure. There is a calm surity in having an inbred gift than one that is absorbed by rote. The natural athlete can overcome many hurdles that the trained athlete cannot because of the belief in his invicibility in his gift.

End quote.  I didn't want to take Rick's entire entry.  Please click the link above to read the rest...he should get the page views.  Thanks.

Our Constitution and Bill of Rights make the US a wonderful country.  Our freedoms are without parallel.  But some like to push the bar...they're never satisfied.

Can you imagine freedoms without limits?  Society must have order...or face chaos.  The Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas was taught the limits to free speech this week when a jury awarded a marine's father $10.9 million in damages.  Albert Snyder's son was a marine...Westboro Baptist Church members picketed his funeral with signs saying, "Thank God for dead soldiers". 

If you are not familiar with this case or church, please read at this link - Westboro Baptist Church

Most First Amendment attorneys seem to think the ruling will be overturned.  I don't.  I appreciate our First Amendment right, of course, but as with other rights, there needs to be limits.  Had the WBC held a rally in a city park while holding a legal permit, I wouldn't have any problems with them.  I don't like their message, but I'd respect their right to speak.  This was a funeral, though.  There should have been respect shown.  But as with all hate groups, respect and intelligence go right out the window.  All hate groups are disgusting...and I am grateful for the limits placed on our freedoms. 

It's a fine line we walk with our freedoms, but what would we rather have?  A controlled set of rights within a democracy or anarchy or socialism?  

I wonder how many take notice of the small freedoms taken away from us.  Do we only notice when something dramatically affects our own lives?  Are we sensitive enough to take notice when it doesn't?

I know that many have taken notice of our privacy rights because of the Patriot Act.  That has been huge and all over the media.  Political pundits are fond of writing op/ed articles about it.  But what about controversial freedoms?

Take cigarette smoking.  How many take the time to analyze the right to smoke?  Most jump on the bandwagon of it being unhealthy and stinky.  Both are true, of course...but when you dig deeper, a larger problem appears.

Why doesn't the government make cigarette smoking illegal?  Why just continue the warnings by the US Surgeon General?  My state government continues to raise the tax of cigarettes.  Why not just make it illegal and be done with it?  Because the government doesn't really care, do they?  They just want more money in their coffers.  It's quite disgusting, really.

It is targeted discrimination.  The government can continue to get away with it, though, because the majority of people just don't care.  Target smokers...if they want to slowly kill themselves, why not make them pay in a big way for it? 

The day is coming where those same people that don't care for one minority group will feel similar pain, though.  Obesity is being targeted in the media.  Will fast food places survive the onslaught?  Will taxes be placed on unhealthy foods and raised over and over again? 

Whatever happened to our right to choose?  Whatever happened to the public recognizing the greed of the government? 

Should smoking be legal?  No.  But it is.  That doesn't make it right to penalize smokers with higher and higher taxes. 

Have you thought deeply enough about this and what an impact it is making on our small freedoms?  Are you able to put it into perspective without personal convictions blinding you?  The future is a scary place.  How do you feel about it?

The American Bar Association has called for a nationwide freeze on all executions.  There reasons are:

-  Spotty collection and preservation of DNA evidence, which has been used to exonerate more than 200 inmates

-  Misidentification by eyewitnesses

-  False confessions from defendants

-  Persistent racial disparities that make death sentences more likely when victims are white.

You can read more here.

The death penalty is something I struggle with.  In some cases, it doesn't bother me in the least to see someone sentenced to die...to hear of a completed execution.  On the other hand, the idea of some being put to death and then finding out they were innocent the entire time weighs on my conscience.

Have you heard of Innocence.org?  It is an organization "dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice".  Check out their Faces of Exoneration. 

What do you think about the death penalty?  Do you think a nationwide freeze on all executions is a good or bad thing?