This movie as been out for a little bit now but I just recently saw it. Going into this movie one of my fears would be, that it would make a similar mistake to most movies dealing with the topic of racism. For example, Remember the Titans was a great movie but with one fallacy. The correct way in many situations in the movie was the "black" way, while the "white" way predominantly failed. Equality among races is not a competition between who's way is right, this is really just another form of racism. True peace and equality between ANY group of people comes through teamwork and discussion resulting in a plan involving many different ideas forming the best plan. Remember the Titans was all about picking plan A or plan B, when the two great coaches should have made an even better plan C incorporating the best of both plans.
Invictus does not fall into this trap instead incorporating whites and blacks who have a generally equal opinion of each other, those who have some mistrust of the other race, and finally, those people, on both sides, whom completely hate the other side. The movie, without spoiling it, is about Mandala's quest to unify the country without continuing the culture of hate through revenge on the white race. He understood that bringing revenge and oppression would create a cycle destroying the country. Invictus is an excellant movie demonstrating the evil of racism and revenge, and the power of forgiveness through the simple game of Rugby. Go see this movie if you haven't already.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
A 32 hour day in the life....
Last Friday: The Plan
Work in the morning and leave Carolina between 12 and 1.
Arrive in W. Michigan around 1 to 2 AM.
What actually happened:
I jeft right on schedule knowing about a winter storm headed into the area. I also knew that it wasn't going to be a standard southern winter storm. With this in mind I started the roadtrip at around 12:45 thinking it would be enough time to get through Virginia and W. Virginia before the worst of the storm.....but complications set it. Early in the storm several big rigs had major problems on 77N near Wytheville, VA closing down the highway. I was told this happened at three or four oclock. I arrived at the backup around 5:00. And waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. I didn't move for three hours. Eventually myself and several others determined that highway 81 was accessible up to the first exit (81 was also closed) and made our way into Wytheville, VA where many got hotel rooms, stayed at gas stations, and in their cars. I briefly considered the hotel option but a desire to get to Michigan and the lack of any available rooms (thanks to my parents who searched all the hotel rooms online) led me to attempt to skip the 77 backup via highway 52. I knew this could be an interesting decision since the storm was now and had been at full force for a few hours, and highway 52 is a road that cuts over the mountain. 52N out of Wythville ended up being plowed pretty good but I made things more interesting when I decided to take 717 (an even more backwoods highway) as a shortcut to get back to 77. I was doing fine on the unplowed road until I caught up with other travelers with the same idea as me. One of which was stuck and receiving from another couple. I pulled the shoval out of my car (yes I keep a shovel in my car) and started digging her out, and we successfully got her back on the road. She immediately........got stuck again. We dug her out again.....and she slid off the road again. By this time I realized I found a bad snow driver. To make things more interesting two other cars pulled up and helped as well. At first it made things easier, I led the group and they pushed but included in the group was another bad snow driver who got his car stuck too. And wanted our help too. We pushed him out, and he got stuck again. I was annoyed, thankgoodness a couple trucks had passed us making a nice two track that I was able to use to get by the bad drivers. I did feel kinda bad but I knew we were making no progress and I had been there for an hour, I did more than enough. Once past them I had no problem making to 77 and was home free! WRONG! I reached the second backup at Bluefield, WV at around midnight with no options. I was stuck on the highway, not moving once, for FOUR hours! I slept for about two hours but eventually walked around and found a spot where trucks had used to get to the other side of the highway. There was no way my car would make it but I grabbed my shovel and dug out a two track to 77S and got onto 77S where I took the next exit. I attempted to get gas at the first gas station that was open on 52N but they, unfortunately, were out. Getting out of the parking lot was interesting. It hadn't been plowed and I couldn't use my entrance point so I had to dig a path and plow through it. Unfortunately I overheated in the process. No worries though, when I got to the top of the mountain I sat for 15 minutes and put more coolant in the reservoir. Then I started down the unplowed mountain road, during a winter storm, in a car. Thank goodness trucks had gone before me. I managed to get down the mountain pretty well with the exception in one spot in which the two-track was somehow too small (maybe due to how the previous trucks moved the snow) and I had to dig to get my car through that very small section. All-in-All it only took' me thirty minutes to get to Bluefield. I was then able to take 460 to Princeton, grab some breakfast, and get on 77. I had to wait till about 8 AM and most were warning not to drive but I ignored the warning and got out of dodge. It is a good thing I did too, because it seemed like the backup was two hours behind me. 77N closed again around 10, and the West Virginia Turnpike closed at around 12. I was long gone. The funny part is, while in Bluefield, I asked a few people what the best way, besides 77, was to get north. They all said, wait till 77 is open and added, "Whatever you do don't take 52 over the mountain." Ummm already did......
An interesting addition to this long crazy story:
In the first backup I asked God to pick up my car and put me in W. Michigan. I then made it more reasonable and said, "Actually I'd be happy to get ahead of this pack of cars." I beat most of them to the next backup and was one of the first to make it to Princeton, WV. I also stayed ahead of the pack once through the backups. God also eventually put me right in W. Michigan. Don't we have an awesome God!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Finally A Post!
Hey everyone,
Sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks. Just haven't had much to say. I guess avoiding the news has made me less angry about certain current events eliminating political posts, as for the other varieties......Well just not much to say. I would like to comment a two bumper stickers I saw yesterday on the same vehicle. These made no sense whatsoever, I saw a van with an Obama sticker and next to it was one that said, "I am a constitution voter." Uhhh.....Message to Van Owner: Read the constitution and then read the legislation Obama has signed! This congress and administration may technically be following the constitution but listen carefully to their words and you can tell they are just trying to get around the constititution, not follow it.
Read this Interview President Obama gave:
If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I’d be OK
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
If we allow the government to do things for us it will result in a government that holds too much power and control over us. This document may have been written by human hands but it is very true. One of the first lines is: "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." If redistribution and government help was a right it would be "happiness, (no pursuit required)." As far as things like health care, etc. well, first it ain't going to be cheaper. Initial estimates say health care per American under a government plan is $600. I don't know about you but my fantastic private plan doesn't cost that much! (News and Observer, Thursday December 10th).
Well, its been good folks, sorry about the delay and I think I might have to avoid news more getting mad about government and politics isn't fun but I guess someones got to get mad and share the truth.
Sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks. Just haven't had much to say. I guess avoiding the news has made me less angry about certain current events eliminating political posts, as for the other varieties......Well just not much to say. I would like to comment a two bumper stickers I saw yesterday on the same vehicle. These made no sense whatsoever, I saw a van with an Obama sticker and next to it was one that said, "I am a constitution voter." Uhhh.....Message to Van Owner: Read the constitution and then read the legislation Obama has signed! This congress and administration may technically be following the constitution but listen carefully to their words and you can tell they are just trying to get around the constititution, not follow it.
Read this Interview President Obama gave:
If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I’d be OK
But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf.
And that hasn't shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
If we allow the government to do things for us it will result in a government that holds too much power and control over us. This document may have been written by human hands but it is very true. One of the first lines is: "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." If redistribution and government help was a right it would be "happiness, (no pursuit required)." As far as things like health care, etc. well, first it ain't going to be cheaper. Initial estimates say health care per American under a government plan is $600. I don't know about you but my fantastic private plan doesn't cost that much! (News and Observer, Thursday December 10th).
Well, its been good folks, sorry about the delay and I think I might have to avoid news more getting mad about government and politics isn't fun but I guess someones got to get mad and share the truth.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Just For Fun!
Engineers!
(Michigan Tech University fight song)
Fight Tech, fight Engineers.
For banners bright Engineers.
From Northern hills, we'll sound our cry,
We'll ring your praises to the sky!
Fight Tech, fight Engineers.
For right with might Engineers.
We'll win the game in the glorious name
Of the Michigan Michigan Michigan Engineers!
(Michigan Tech University fight song)
Fight Tech, fight Engineers.
For banners bright Engineers.
From Northern hills, we'll sound our cry,
We'll ring your praises to the sky!
Fight Tech, fight Engineers.
For right with might Engineers.
We'll win the game in the glorious name
Of the Michigan Michigan Michigan Engineers!
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