Religion-Faith based nation or God-less America?

This past weekend was Easter Sunday, one of the most religious holidays of the year, probably the most religious Christian holiday next to Christmas. It was also Passover weekend for the Jewish community. Now, it seems the topic of religion has become a sticky subject in our nation in these times. We get people of faith like Gov. Mike Huckabee, Rev. Al Sharpton, Pastor Rick Warren telling us to keep our faith true to our hearts, and always believe in our Lord Almighty. Then there's indivduals like Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens who claimed that religion is a myth, a way to control the masses, and a worn out philosphy of fools and the un-educated.

Let me state, I'm not here to start a relion vs scientology argument. I respect both doctrines and believe there's place for both science and religion in our society. Yet, I'm here to place the role of religion in our society. For true believers, it seems to help build a spiritual and moral center for them. It fills a need for those who need to believe in something greater than themselves.

For non-believers, it seeems to be a hindrance and bothersome pain. They view religious followers as nothing more than a bunch of sheep following in a crowd instead of thinking for themselves. They are merciless in the tearing of religion. They point out how cause of religion, people have gone to war in the name of justice and righteousness, yet, it is war and their killing people. From the Crusades to the Inquisition, to cconverting natives to christianity when the Spanish first arrived in America, to current Islamic-Fundmentalism which has muslims suicide bomb themselves in the name of Allah. These are the cries by the anti-religious for an abolishment of religion.

The truth of the matter is that those who oppose religion are right. Religion has done a great deal of harm throughout histrory, but, they are only half-right. They mention a half-truth about religion which they have embraced all too dearly. The half of that truth is that religion has also done good for this world, as helped promote peace, brotherhood, and unity. It has inpired people to go on goodwill missions to help people in third world countries who are dying of hunger, disease, poverty, etc. It also has inspired artists, painters, writers to create amazing works of art and literature. From Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel, to Davinci's painting of the Last Supper, to even today with books like Angels & Demons, and movies like Cecille B Demille's the Ten Commandments, religion has played a great part in our culture for both good and bad.

While religion has been perverted for some harm against others and used to start wars in the name of God, it can't be abolished. That won't solve anything. Yes, it has been used for war and killing people, but, anything can be perverted into that. Take nationalism for example. One hundred years ago, nationalism was so misuesd & perverted that several nations felt they were superior to other nations and they were right in ruling over those other nations. That led to colonialism and eventually into World War I.

Several years later, some deranged Nazi maniac who looled like Charlie Chaplin's The Tramp used nationalism to convince the German people they were the Master Race and could rule over all of Europe. At the same time, a fascist disctator conviced Italy that it was the Roman Empire reborn and miliatants in Japan convinced the Japanese they were the Samurais reborn. Thes combinced actions led the nations and continents all around the world into WWII. So, anything can be perverted for evil purposes, not just religion, but, nationalism, ethnicity(thus we forget Bosnia genocidal ethnic cleansing or the holocaust), etc. So if religion was disspelled, hate-mongers and war-mongers would just find another thing to use as thier rallying cry.

Now, I can't prove whether there is a God, heaven or hell. I can't prove nor can I disprove it. But, I do believe religion plays a part in our culture. People fled to America originally to escape religious persecution. I do agree that religion should help govern our country. Seperation of chruch and state must be upheld like our founding fathers wanted. But, freedom of religion is one of the key princples in the first amendment alonside freedom of speech. And with that comes the freedom to choose any type of worship or the freedom to not worship any deity or religion at all.

The truth is that the worship of God or gods, or holy spirits, have been with us in one way or another. With billions of people devoted to one of the main religions of the world, it's hard to see it ever getting abolished. From the early pagan religions, to the ancient Greeks worshiping Zeus, Apollo, Ares and all the Gods of Mt. Olympus, to the ancinet Egyptians worhsippping the Sun god, Ra, to our current religions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, religion has always been a part of our culture and society, and it always figures to be a mainstay with us all for now and forever.

Taxes, Tea Bags, and the Media.

Yesterday was the famous tax day, April 15. The day when the deadline comes on filing your taxes. But, something extraordinary happened yesterday. All accross the country in countless number of cities, people in the thousands went out in every major city and protested about everything going on from taxes, to the stimulus, the bailouts, the pork & earmarks, to the growing and ever large and involving government, and donwright failure of our leaders in the Senate, Congress, and White House to bring about reasonable solutions to our nations' problems.

It was an amazing thing to watch. These were ordinary people who protested in a civilized manner who wanted the change they were promised. I wish I could've gone to one of these events. Instead, I watched it unfold in various cities on TV on Foxnews, which was the only network which covered it in full. It went almost unnoticed by the other networks. CNN almost ignored it and the one time it was covered by that network, a reporter Susan Roegen denigrated a man with a child whom she tried to interview, yet, put down. Claiming the event was an "Anti-Family, Anti-Gov't, Anti-CNN" movement promoted by the Fox network.

And that was kind compared to MSNBC, which covered the event only to denigrate, put down, and make fun of these people, claiming these people are right-wing extremists promoting hate-mongering & put on display as some sort of twisted conspiracy plot by the Repeublican party. The way Ed Schulz, Rachael Maddow and Kieth Olberman bashed and insulted these people was despicable.

What the media and politicians failed to understand is that this protest wasn't against just taxes or Anti-Obama or Anti-CNN, it was anti-big government, anti-deficict, anti-spending, anti-stimulus, anti-bailout. These were simple quiet middle class families from all parts of life in this country who just seemed to see their gov't, first under the ineptness of former President Bush and now under President Obama, get out of hand in spending and control and they just said that enough is enough.

These people at those rallies were republicans, democrats, conservatives, moderates, independants, and all types of affiliations, except(and I'm only guessing and could be wrong here) liberals. These were ordinary moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, as well as, young folks, students, veterans, etc. who just want their leaders to be more responsible, have some common sense, and lead the nation to prosperity not its decline. They weren't protesting President Obama(well, not him drirectly), Californains were protesting in Sacramento against Governor Schwarzenegger and his tax increases he promised not to raise. They were protesting both Republicans and Democrats in both the Congress and Senate on all fronts, National, State, and City levels who they feel has failed them.

Now, it seems the Republicans are taking notice and trying to build upon this. They are eager to use this as a base to rebuild their party and re-organize. Then again, they are so desperate for anything to help them rebuild this should come as not surprise. But, if it gets them to listen to the people then I consider it a plus. What dicourages me is that some left-leaning democrats are ignoring this and disregarding this. Are they making the same mistake the GOP made when they felt invicible under Bush's presidency? If I were the dems and the gop, I listen to these people or if they might get booted out of office next election cycle. While I believe Obama will survie this and most likely get re-elected(I'll explain why I believe this in another upcoming post ), I would be very worried if I was Pelosi or Reid. If they disregard these protests like the biased media has, they may find themselves unemployed.

All I can say is that finally, and hopefully, the government on all levels will be truly held accountable for their actions by the people who voted the officials in. Better follow the will of the people or be voted out. At last, the people have spoken.

Bi-Partisanship. Is it just a myth??

When Senators John McCain and Barack Obama ran last year for the Presidency of the USA, they both promised that if elected, they would end the partisan bickering and work with both sides to get things done and accomplished. McCain and Obama claimed they both had a record of working with the opposite party to get things done and can reach out to both sides.

Well, Barack Obama won the election, was swore in, and to this day, I'm still waiting to see when this political infighting will stop and everyone in DC will start working together to fix our nations' problems. Instead the White House, The Congress and The Senate has become a game of "Red Light, Green Light." The dems saying it's go with their programs and spending and the gop acting like traffic cops and saying stop.

Right now, President Obama and the democratic majority seem determined to enact this overhwleming amount of spending on programs from healthcare, banks, energy, which many economists worry to bankrupt this nation. The GOP, on the other hand, is doing nothing to stop it.

It seems both parties have finally lived up to their animal symbols that represent then, that being an elephant for the republicans and a donkey for the democrats. What I mean by that is by the way both groups are acting. The republicans, like an elephant, are saying "Hey we're a bunch of lard-asses, just gonna sit here on our big, fat butts and do nothing." And the democrats as donkeys are saying "Hey, we're a bunch of jack-asses, gonna do all this crazy and insane spending we won't be able to pay off to go on our program and earmark shopping spree."

Is there no reasoning or rationale left in Washington, DC. It seems the working down the aisle together bi-partisanship we were promised by both sides was never meant to be. Or was always a myth and we've should've known better?

The Divided States of America??

It seems that there is a great divide these days in our nation. The United States of America doesn't feel so united. It seems that social, cultural, and political ideas have split us up into groups that seem unable or willing to co-exist. I hear and see it all the time on the news and media.

You are either a Republican or democrat, conservative or liberal, right=wing or leftist, red-state or blue state, traditionalists or progressive, pro-life or pro-choice, for certain things or against, etc. The lines have been drawn in the sand and it seems all sides believe they are right, the other side wrong, & there doesn't seem any room for compromise. We see it in all facets of our government as the dems and gop oppose each other in the Senate, Congress, and all throughout DC from everything from the President Obama's budget, to the Stimulus, foreign policies, etc. And it's not just our politicans, columnists and entertainers like Bill Maher, John Stewart, Sean Hannity, Keith Olberman, Michael Moore, Ann Coulter, Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh sway people one way and completly against the other way.

Now, I'm not saying I want a nation of robots where everyone thinks and feels the same thing. I do love the diversity and indiviuality that everyone in our country has. I'm just saying while we are all unique in our views, they shouldn't keep us from engaing one another and having civlized discussions about the issues without alienating each other. Unfortunately, it seems like it has.

Is there any way that our great nation of The United States of America will ever together in unity again? Or are we always now and forever gonna be a nation of 50 states divided and split by idealogies and beliefs? Will we ever come together as one nation ever again?