The Strength of Any Nation is Rooted in the Walls of its Homes

On September 23, 1995 "The Family" was proclaimed to the world by Gordon B. Hinckley. This came at the end of an address to the world's largest organization of women, the Relief Society. He followed the reading of this inspired document with the statement, "The strength of any nation is rooted within the walls of its homes," which I chose to title this post. These ideas are not new, but they are forgotten by many. Listening to Pres. Obama's state of the union address one would think that the strength of the nation is dependent on the wealth of both individuals and families. Of the several times Obama mentioned families, only once was it not in reference to their financial standing, If the nation is in distress, it is not (only) a policy problem, but I'm willing to bet it's a problem in following the Lord's commands. And the root of a generation forgetting how merciful the Lord hath been can be found in errant families. Fathers and mothers not fulfilling their responsibilities, young children not being taught, the youth of a nation not being held accountable--these are the events which lead to national tribulation. They are what lead us to make those policy decisions and sleazy business moves. If we were a stronger nation, we would be more concerned about what happens in the walls of the home. And I don't know about you, but I'm all for making 'Merca a stronger country. I have included the proclamation at the end of my post because it is always a good idea to review the truths taught therein.

That's me at six weeks. From my very birth I was part of a family. That alone is a blessing that is all to often taken for granted. I was born within the bonds of matrimony to a father and mother who followed the tenets of this proclamation before it was even issued (Then again, nothing much had changed in 1995 as far as church doctrine goes, it was simply necessary to send this message to the world to warn all of the eternal nature of and responsibilities of members in families in order to protect from the ensuing onslaught of offenses to the idea of family, which we have witnessed at various times, in various ways over the past 15 years). I owe who I am today to the parents who fulfilled their divine calling as father and mother and provided me with opportunities to learn about the gospel and choose for myself my path in life.

A little over two years ago I got married in a ceremony binding me, Courtney and our future children together for all time and eternity. This week we celebrate that long awaited time when the 'future' becomes 'now' Our little girl was born a day before Thanksgiving, healthy and happy. This past week has opened my eyes to my new role as a father. The first night I waltzed around the hospital room bouncing my baby to get her to go to sleep I looked at her small face and I thought about the potential she has. One day she will have all the opportunities her mother and I have had, but only if we respect the responsibility of parenthood given us, just as our parents before us. I really believe that it is the family that keeps communities and nations going. When the family loses sight of its purposes and responsibilities, the children don't become the upstanding citizens this country (or any country, for that matter) needs--or in certain circumstances, there are no children at all! I just don't understand that. Having our little girl stare back into my eyes I can't think of why anyone wouldn't want to bring one of God's spirit children into this beautiful world. And now we'll do the best we can to raise her up right and prepare her to be a good mother that she may experience the lasting joy a family brings, just like we have.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

"We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

“In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally. UAdd a Note

“The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

“We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.

“Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. ‘Children are an heritage of the Lord’ (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

“The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.

“We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

“We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

Holidays and Hospitals

For those of you who didn't know, last Christmas didn't go too well. The greatest Christmas gift we recieved was an answer for the week and a half of supersonic migraines Courtney was having. Unfortunately the answer itself was viral meningitis, as we found out when the meninges-swelling symptoms peaked the night before Christmas, and Courtney and I spent the next day and a half in a Twin Falls hospital room. But that all ended and we were in good shape after that.
This Thanksgiving we celebrate yet another holiday from the confines of a hospital-this time in the maternity ward. Our little girl was born the day before Thanksgiving, and we're all in here until after dinner (only because we'd rather not leave at 4:00AM Friday morning, when our time is up). She is adorable. We are so thankful for our family and for the fine health care professionals who spend their holidays in hospitals to make things better for people like us. And we are thankful for our bundle of Thanksgiving joy (and that she does not look like a turkey like my brother did when he was born on Thanksgiving Day 20 years ago).

Boo!

So last month my friends and I were watching a couple of youtube videos by a group called mega64 including this and this. We came up with the idea that for Halloween we should be the ghosts from Mario and follow people around on campus, hiding our faces when they looked at us. Steve, Hyrum and I brainstormed about it and Steve and I worked on the boxes from Wednesday to Friday morning, and they looked awesome. We went all over campus, including the law library, Wilkinson center, and the Eyring, Clyde and Benson buildings. Here's a look at what went down.

Sometimes we chased friends

Sometimes we chased strangers

The Fire in the Dragon's Belly

I want to make sure everybody's aware of a great man who won the Nobel Peace Prize today for his outstanding fight for freedoms in a country hell-bent on keeping them from the people. This man would be Liu Xiaobo. He is preceded in winning this award by others like him who were defamed by their own country as terrorists and criminals (Yassar Arafat and Nelson Mandela). In 1989 he was in the United States when students began gathering at Tienanmen square. He decided to go back to join the movement. While in the airport a man asked him, "What do you think you'll do to help?" He didn't know, but he knew he had to go, and he came out of the incident as one of the leading figures of the movement, which earned him international acclaim but also a two year prison sentence. Nearly 20 years and two prison sentences later he authored Charter 08, which is a document addressing grievances to the Chinese government for human rights. This earned Liu an eleven year prison sentance, yet even greater international acclaim. I'm really happy he was honored as a Nobel Laureate today-I think it will make the human rights problems in China more of an issue on the international scale. Yet at the same time, the Dragon has become a monster of sorts. Their economic power has made them such a worldwide power player that other economies are dependent upon them to the point that there is no leverage that could pressure them to allow their people greater freedom. Whatever change occurs in China will have to be internal. Not some college professor at the University of Beijing, not some peasant's lawyer with a multi-billion dollar class action suit, and not religious following of a hundred million Chinese, but only a persuasive voice inside the party, that will only come to power, probably by Godfather-type action taken against the leaders of the party. Whatever does end up happening in the future, Liu Xiabo will be heralded as a hero for freedom.
On a separate not, when people like Liu win the award it really puts to shame certain laureates who win the award after doing jack squat for freedom, peace, or fraternity between nations (see 2007 and 2009).

Student Teaching

I'm two weeks into student teaching. I'm absolutely loving it. I teach two periods of junior high health alone and team teach another with another student teaching. At times I feel like I don't want to collaborate at all and I'd much rather just do the whole thing myself. But then I realize how blessed I am to have so much prep time and I think about what a different experience this is from other student teachers'.
First of all, my mentor teacher is great. She's been teaching for 12 years and never had a student teacher. For 11 years she taught science and has only taught health for 1 year, so she's just beginning to be a health teacher and is still open to new ideas. Lots of student teachers are stuck with mentor teachers who are totally stuck on doing things the same way they've been doing them for the past 25 years. My mentor teacher is awesome. She lets us come up with our own unit outlines and is fine with everything as long as we follow the state standards. It's really a liberating experience as opposed to what I've heard some of my friends going through. And even though we are her first student teachers, she's been a mentor teacher for quite some time, now, and is always willing to give advice and observe and help us become better teachers.
Second of all, It's SO NICE having so much time to prepare lessons, grade papers, evaluate how certain lessons went, and make the appropriate changes so I can do better next time (when I'm on my own). What this really feels like is a 'test run' sort of semester, where I have an idea of what I want to do as a teacher and I get to test it out in the classroom every day to see if it works. I feel like this should all be part of some grand thesis or disertation and that I should be collecting data and running regressions and getting a grad degree. To tell the truth, it's actually part of the only assignment that I have to turn in for the course, called the Teacher Work Sample. Basically I have to prove that I can do what I'm doing by putting it all on paper. I just happen to be in a position where I have the time and resources to put a lot of time into improving what I've done while bringing minimal work home. Quite the blessing, really.
Third, I'm not nearly as tired as I would be if I was standing up teaching 6 lessons a day. Wow, what a piece of work I'd be coming home from that. Instead, I'm teaching just half of that at the most, and I still have energy when I come home. That's really nice.
Lastly, my fellow student teacher has had different experiences and has different ideas than I do about how to teach. At some times, I feel like this is exactly why I don't want to team teach, but in all reality I should be greatful for the different ideas that she brings to the table. I'm only one man, and I'm willing to see good ideas of how I can help kids learn the material.
Other than those things, I really can't think of another reason I wouldn't want to do it myself. But if for nothing else, those four reasons are enough to make me grateful for the experience of team teaching. Overall I can't complain. I really enjoy all the free time, especially since I'll be needing it to study for my next two Praxis exams--Biology and Social Studies.

The Stole of Gratitude

I didn't even know this existed, and once I did know I didn't know what it was. When Courtney graduated she showed me this as she was buying her cap and gown:

"A stole is not a symbol of academic honor. It is an optional accessory that is worn during the commencement ceremony. After the ceremony, the new graduate presents the Stole of Gratitude to someone who provided extraordinary help or support, i.e. parents, relatives, or mentors who have helped with wisdom, words of support or financial assistance. Immediately after graduation, the graduate may take the stole from around his/her neck and place it around the neck of the recipient. More than one stole may be worn during commencement, symbolizing that there are multiple persons destined to receive a Stole of Gratitude."

She gave the stole to her father in a very emotional scene following the immensely boring graduation ceremony. Her father had a great deal to do with her academic pursuits and eventual graduation, and it was clear that before we knew what a Stole of Gratitude was, that he was destined to receive the Stole of Gratitude.

As I prepare to walk across the stage and receive my empty diploma cover from an aged professor dressed in the robes of the false priesthood it is not as clear to me to whom I would bestow a Stole of Gratitude. There have been a number of people to whom I feel indebted for the contribution they have made to my education, and no clear recipient of the Stole. Since I cannot clearly determine who should receive a Stole and I have no intention of spending $19 each a stole for each person I think of, I thought of recognizing those who have given their wisdom and words of support. These include professors, family, and maybe a friend or two.

Ray Desagun--High school economics and government teacher. At this age I was naive enough to think Libertarianism was pretty cool and that I wanted to be a speechwriter. What I gained from that class was more than just TINSTAFL, supply and demand and that Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were both Jews, but I learned that I would enjoy teaching government.

Prof. Ray Christensen--Three years ago I was writing a personal statement in his PoliSci 200 class and he and I were discussing what subject I was passionate about in political science to figure out some topics I should write about, or what I would do after I graduated or something like that. I told him that I wasn't passionate about politics or the law, but about education. He then asked me why I was majoring in PS, and I said I was interested in politics and I liked learning about it, but that I didn't like writing about it (something I got over--but not easily). That discussion stuck with me as I continued to ponder on what I would ever do with my degree. I credit my decision to teach to this one conversation, to his questioning of my plans for the future.

Prof. Legrand Richards--I took the class "Foundations of Education" at the advice of my advisor when I told her I wanted to go into education. By luck of the draw, I picked this class. We read some excellent literature and related it to education, and more importantly, teaching. The elementary education majors in this class with me were less than interested in the material, but for me it made a great impact. After going through the weekly readings I absolutely fell in love with the idea of being an educator.

Cougar Hall--He's the advisor for school health education majors, and taught the first health class I took: Sexual Education in the Curriculum. It was in the practicum class, though, that I took from him I got really excited to teach. I will be forever grateful for being introduced to The Education of Little Bear, and for the example he showed of the excitement he had for teaching. Not long ago he was a high school health teacher, and I was recently told by one of the individuals responsible for hiring him at BYU that he was the best teacher the principal at Timp High had ever seen in his 30+ years of experience. That really isn't that hard to believe. I hope I can do somewhere near as good a job as he has done in my years ahead.

Coach--My first inspiration to teach came from my dad, who has taught math for just over 20 years now. His worthiness of the Stole can be traced to his simple instruction to me as a child, "Be smart, don't fart." Such wisdom cannot be found in the lines of textbooks or even scripture. He always showed interest in my college education when I was studying political science, but since my switch to education, I've really had some good discussions about the wants and needs of the system. He has brought up many things that I want to look at and evaluate on a policy level and he has helped me grow even more interested in my ventures into education.

Courtney--When I didn't get an internship with the Utah State Legislature I looked long and hard at what I was going to do with my life and degree. I wanted to go into education policy, but after I had taken The Sociology of Education, I decided that I couldn't do so without teaching. Courtney, who had changed her graduation plans to meet mine so we would be done at the same time, was very supportive and even found the shortest teaching major for me to complete. She has been hard at work for the past year, allowing me to go to school without necessarily needing to work, and take 51 credits over the last year. I am so grateful for Courtney's help in coming to where I am today.

I guess this really turned into a 'who influenced me to be a teacher,' but that has been the motive of my education for the last two years. The work I have done in school is directly related to me wanting to teach and improve education, so anyone who influenced me in my desire to go into education is hereby a recipient of this blogStole.

A Few Random Rants

This may seem a little out of place given the subjects of my previous posts, but these are some things I've thought quite a bit about recently and think they need to be said.

• Skinny Jeans--I hate skinny jeans. They aren't just unflattering (on everybody), they're absolutely disgusting. It's like girls spray paint their legs in blue denim (or purple or pink, the other two most popular colors) and walk outside. The worst part of this is that you can't tell people that they don't look good in skinny jeans because it will prompt the response, "You think my body's ugly?" like I'm telling Rosanne Barr to please not wear a halter top and low riders. It's totally different, your body is not ugly, I just don't want to see every nook and curve when I see people on the street. Seriously, it's like living in a nudist colony where people spray paint their body below their abdomens and wear really baggy shirts (who comes up with these trends, anyways?). And boys--No, I'm sick of not knowing your gender until I hear you talk, and even that's not a dead giveaway. This annoys me to no end. I've never anxiously awaited the next new fad as much as I do now.
• Frosted Shredded Wheat--for the record, I buy the Malt-O-Meal brand bag of Frosted Mini Scooters. I really like these things-possibly my favorite cereal. They're whole grain, they're fortified with vitamins, and one side of each mini is frosted so I feel at least half adult-half kid eating them. As you may have noticed, many products have gotten smaller over the years: McDonalds hamburgers the amount of frosting in an Oreo, and Beto's Burritto. Other products have gotten bigger: movie popcorn, pop cans, and a small order of french fries. The latter happened to frosted mini wheats. In the bag I just bought, they're all frosted like crazy! Before it was just a spattering of sugar, you know, where you can still see the wheat, but now it's fully loaded. This had terribly disrupted the half adult-half kid balance. I feel like I'm six again, drooling over a bowl of Lucky Charms or Cookie Crisp (which my mom would never buy me, and I've still never had. I think I like her cookies better anyways). It pains me to say that I may be in search of a new cereal...but there's no harm in trying one more bag.
• The three conditions of bike riders riding when they aren's supposed to--under these three conditions I feel like totally broad-siding the rider. Hope you're wearing a helmet.
  

1. On campus during the ten minutes before the hour: I admit, this rule is not as known as it should be. I have seen people get ticketed, but I want to see more. People should know that if I ever, EVER, get hit by a cyclist on campus, I will take you out, then take off your front tire (as long as you have quick release locks) and throw it on the roof of the nearest building on campus (unless it's the SWKT, in which case I will roll it down the RB hill).
2. On the sidewalk: Taxpayers have paid for bike lanes or wide streets everywhere in this city. I know the hustle and bustle of traffic is tough, but if you'd like to use the sideWALK I suggest you WALK, not ride.
3. In the dark without a light: You know the worst part about this one? It's when people say excuse me to pass you on their bike on the sidewalk at night when there's a bike lane marked and you don't know they're even there because they don't have a light. And please make sure you have reflectors; I really don't want to run you over.

• Cell Phones going off in class--So yesterday this cell phone went off in my class and I thought it was right next to me, but no, it was all the way across the classroom, it was just so loud Gene Simmons would even ask him to turn it down a bit. I look across and it's the really annoying kid in the class who thinks he's the professor's favorite and going to Med school, yada yada yada. Well, not only does he take forever (because he's HUGE) to realize it's his phone and get up, but as he's walking to the back of the class, he ANSWERS HIS PHONE AND STARTS TALKING. I was so mad. If I was the girl who was making her presentation I would be so offended. Heck, I was offended and I wasn't even listening to the presentation. Then he comes back in the class and starts explaining to the professor what the phone call was about, which brings me to my next point-
• Useless comments in class--I absolutely hate this class because really annoying guy and a slew of others think that stories about exceptionalist chronic diseases in their families are important enough for the rest of the class to suffer through. If the doctor didn't have an answer, our professor likely won't either. So much time is wasted in this class, I feel like I'm in a Three Stooges cartoon with 37 stooges.
• Overtime in school--I love overtime in sports. Unlike most people I really don't mind overtime in sacrament meeting (shorter sharing time and singing time in primary). But school is no place for overtime. If you are giving a presentation, keep it to the time allotted for it. In the class with really annoying guy, we generally have four presentations a day (because the professor insists that someone else do her job). We are each allotted 5 minutes for our presentation. Each class how long do we spend on presentations? Close to an hour and a half. Needless to say, we are two class periods behind in material and only have three left.

That's all I'm going to write now because I have to go to a nutrition class where people make comments like unto those of RAG. Luckily I have a book to read.

From a Long Telegram to the Fall of the Wall

I just finished doing studying for the Cold War section of my foreign policy test. I missed the two class periods we talked about it, so I did a little extra research, and asides from learning that my professor took part of her power point presentation right off of a Wikipedia page, I found some rather interesting information from all the speeches and national security reports I read.
First of all, my generation really has no idea what life was like in the days of the Cold War. JFK's strategy included what is called Assured Destruction. This was a message sent to the USSR that if they ever ordered a nuclear attack on the States, we would still be able to retaliate with enough nuclear firepower to blow 50% of their industry and 25% of their population (50 million+) into the next life. The threat of nuclear warfare occurring in our own backyard was real like kids today have never known. The man who started it all--George Kennan, who wrote a telegram from Moscow in in 1946 cluing in America to what was going on in the Kremlin. His precise words, "If the adversary (of the USSR) has sufficient force and makes clear his readiness to use it, he rarely has to do so. If situations are properly handled there need be no prestige-engaging showdowns." In short, they aren't going to mess with a bigger dog, which advice drove up military spending, enlargement and engagement for years to come.
Kennan also gave some great advice for the American people in this telegram, namely that they remain calm and do not become emotionally unsettled, that they learn about the adversary, and that they cling to the values of society that we hold dear in America. Unfortunately the education most people received about the USSR actually turned out to be government-fed anti-communist propoganda that scared the crap out of people.
In the telegram he wrote, "It is not enough to urge people to develop political processes similar to our own." Kennan argued that many countries feel that security needs trumped the need of freedom and that thay could be wooed by the guidance Soviet offered unless the United States stepped in before them. This plan to intervene in order to contain the influence of the USSR came to define the overarching strategy of foreign policy over the next 40 years. The next year in an article titled The Sources of Soviet Conduct Kennan advised "a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counter-force at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon he interests of a peaceful and stable world." Looking back in history, we see that the United States did just that in places like Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
While battles and bloodshed occurred in these places, the Cold War was not about military influence, it was about political influence. Since the fall of the Soviet Union things have changed. Recent miltary campaigns the US has entered in have been humanitarian missions and based on the global war on terror. These wars have, in general, been met with disapproval from the public (Somalia, Haiti, Operation Iraqi Freedom), but imagine if they were part of the strategy of containment. The villains are the same, just not ones of global influence, which is a big turn-off for most people. But when you throw in the right propoganda, the wars become a lot more palatable to the American public. If we had feared Sadaam Hussain as much as communism no would care how long we stayed there to construct the new regime. Unfortunately the Bush administration couldn't paint that picture--the real foe existed in a man named Osama Bin Laden (who doesn't lead a state against which one can really wage war). Thanks to the SALT and ABM argreements that happened late in the Cold War the world is a safer place, and it's harder to strike as much fear into the American public as it was during the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
By no means do I disagree with Kennan, but I'm not sure everybody understood him. The arms race was a waste of time. Once Kennedy issued his Assured Destruction policy, we had really hit critical mass. Neither side could really justify further arming themselves, so by the time Nixon got around, he realized it was a waste and put an end to the race with the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty. We are lucky enough to live in a day when the threat of a nuclear armagedden is far from the forefront of anyone's mind. Containing the influence of the USSR through proxy wars was absolutely necessary to show them that we were committed to the cause and that they wouldn't be able to push around any larger nations without a formidable opposition. And just as Kennan said, the Soviets were driven back by force.
It's hard to say what exactly would have happened had the US approached the Soviet Union any other way. I can't honestly say I think the USSR would have fallen if not for a constant adversary, which would be why China has seen so much success with their totalitarian communist regime--they haven't had a consistant aggressor. Which brings up another question - if China really does surpass the US as the global superpower, will we have lost the Cold War? China broke relations with the USSR in the early 70s, but they still are a totalitarian government guilty of human rights violations and denying their own citizens freedoms we take for granted in the States. If that time comes, it's possible we will once again find ourselves asking, "Who lost China?" but that is a discussion for another time

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our traditions...

...ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

I went to an AA meeting as part of my Substance Abuse course. The title of this post is the 12th tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous. A good reminder to everyone that they are all alcoholics and they are all struggling, no matter how long they've been sober, whether it be 1 day, 1 week, 1 year, or 10 years. The only way to stay on the wagon is to stick with the program.

It was incredible. The part that hit me hardest, and really prepared me for what I was about to experience, was the very beginning. The moment of silence for those still struggling to tackle addiction alone really struck a chord. The people with me in the room had surrendered to the disease and were not alone on their road to recovery. I immediately thought of all the other alcoholics who were still battling their addiction alone, or maybe just succumbing to the pain of the disease, spiralling down to even lower lows. The appropriate tone was set for the rest of the meeting.

John, the meeting facilitator, had asked me before the meeting, not realizing it was my first or that I didn’t know whether or not I was an alcoholic, to read the opening statement. I gladly agreed and went ahead with the reading. I was recognized as a visitor with a few others and given a little card and a hug from the group secretary. The handing out of the chips was awesome. Another visitor who sat next to me got his 30-day chip. I thought that was really exciting. The beginning must be pretty tough, and he was really glad to have come that far. He was well dressed and carried with him a big binder of work documents, and on the outside mesh pocket, I could see more chips. This wasn’t his first thirty day chip, and it might not be his last, but every time must be a great success. The next was a six month chip to a guy my age. That was really exciting as well. Half a year—what a great accomplishment. The last chip was a one year mark by a wonderful woman who lost her children to child services a year ago when she was using cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. She got a place in drug court, started the AA program, and now she’s been sober for a year and just got custody of her kids back. This was really exciting. Most people there knew here and congratulated her on her great work. I felt so happy for her.

The rest of the meeting I really just felt happy. The reading from the big book was in chapter one, and then people shared their experiences with the group. Because the chapter focused on Bill W’s road to alcoholism, most people talked about how similar their own stories were to Bill’s. You just substitute their name with Bill’s or Manhattan on the rocks with bathtub gin and it was their story. One man was the designated driver for some friends of his, and they were going out that night and he told them, “I’ll catch up to you later, I think I can still catch a meeting.” What an awesome social network for people who need help. As I searched for a meeting to go to I found so many options, and I’m so glad I found the one I did and got to hear and meet the people I did.

John was the last one to share, and what he said was this: “Tomorrow would have been my five year mark. I got to that fourth year and thought it was going to be smooth sailing to five years. Relapse does happen.” I felt so badly for him. He was so disappointed with himself, it seemed like he was angry that he let himself relapse. It must be hard. One of the men there announced that he was three days sober, and we were as excited for him as we were for any of the people who just got a chip. Every day sober is a great achievement because the disease they carry has ravaged their entire life and they continually need support not to get caught up in their past.

I left feeling so happy for everyone there. I wanted to be a part of the group, I wanted to make the achievements they were making and support others who were progressing, but I know that I cannot. The time came when John asked for volunteers who have completed the twelve steps to raise their hands to show others who they can talk to about being a sponsor for their own recovery. I realized then that I could never be able to help the way they can help each other. I felt so good, yet sad that I could never go back. I don’t have anything that I can really share with them. I can’t help them, yet they make me feel so good. That night I prayed for each of the people I met by name and thanked God for the wonderful experience of having met them.

Len Bias

Many people today do not recognize the name Len Bias. When I say that, I mean most people who are younger than 40 and perhaps some of the people older than that who were old enough at the time to recognize what happened to him but have forgotten him over the years. I think it's enough to say that he has been generally forgotten, yet his impact as monumental as it can be as a college basketball player.

So who was Len Bias? Len Bias played basketball for the University of Maryland. In 1986 he won the ACC Male Athlete of the Year-an award won by Michael Jordon two years earlier. In fact, his name was often said in the name breath as MJ's (remember, Jordon was only a youngster, he wasn't yet what he is now). The fact is, though, he could have been.

Well, what happened, then? He was drafted by the Boston Celtics with the #2 overall pick. He was about to go play with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, Robert Parrish and an aging Bill Walton, who had just won the NBA finals, and would lose the next year to the Lakers. But two days after the draft he went out with some friends and never lived to see the next day.
The killer--cocaine. Today when we hear that someone OD'd on cocaine what do we say? "He had it coming to him," "Didn't he know that drugs kill," and "How irresponsible." Do you know why we say these things? Because of LEN BIAS.


Nobody knew how dangerous drugs were--or that they were even harmful, really--until Len Bias died. No one said "He had it coming to him," or "Didn't he know that drugs kill," or "How irresponsible," because no one was under the impression that drugs had that type of effect on the body. Until a perfectly healthy super-human athlete died people were unaware of how thin line drug abuse actually was to walk. The Celtics' GM said about drug use, "The dangers were not as clear then as they were the day after he died." The death of Len Bias revealed to the nation the dangers of cocaine, and the inquiry as to the dangers of other illicit drugs. This is the positive influence of his death. People began to realize that they couldn't play around with drug use, that it could kill you. As the graph shows, a spike appears in the years directly following Len Bias' death (1987-). Drug use significantly dropped as a result of a higher risk perception.

I don't know exactly why risk perception went down again and why drug use went up, but I do know that most children are educated that drugs are addictive, harmful to your health, and can ruin your life. This is at least partially a result of the aftermath of the death of Len Bias. I don't know, maybe the story no longer hits a soft spot in anyone today. Every drug related death we see we ask those quesions I posed earlier, and the people who still take the chance seem to believe that it could never happen to them. People are unsure as whether or not that was Len's first try at cocaine, but it's very likely that he had not used much before, and he most likely didn't remotely think he would be dead from using it that night. It's not just the heavy users that are at risk, it's the casual, social users, and it could even be the first timers.

Here's the link to the first youtube installment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHFUUkrg2VA

Why Avatar did not win Best Picture

I finally saw Avatar last weekend, and that is why this is not a very timely subject. If I would have seen Avatar in the theaters I would have titled this "Why Avatar will not win Best Picture."

BIG DISCLAIMER: Of the 50 award winning films for best picter since 1960, I have seen just 12. That's 24%, not a lot. I have seen just 52 of the ~250 nominated films, verifying that I have seen about 20% of the best films of the past 50 years. This also discounts my ability as a film critic, so don't take this as some professional opinion, it's just my uninformed opinion.
Like I was saying, Avatar was never in position to win Best picture. I liked the movie, I liked the premise, the politicalization of the film, cinematography, whatever, it was a good movie. As I left the theater, though, I realized that I had seen this movie before. In fact, the movie that Avatar mirrors won the Academy Award for best picture back in 1990-Dances With Wolves. Let's compare the two


Avatar
-Man goes to a faraway planet to take a job
-Man befriends the native people, is loved by them and pairs off with one of them
-The people the man works for decide to destroy the natives' home and the man is seen as having betrayed his own people
-Man leads redemption attack against his people and wins
-Lives forever as leader of the natives on the faraway planet





Dances With Wolves
-Man is stationed in the middle of nowhere as a fort for the Union
-Man is lonely, befriends the natives, becomes one of them and pairs off with one of them
-While he is living with them the Union comes to his fort and expand operations; in a return visit he is taken prisoner
-Natives attack the Union wagon transporting the man and free him
-Lives on the run because, as we know, the natives got kicked around for years until we found the most desolate parts of the nation to send them there to build casinos.

Another movie built on this same premise wasn't even nominated for Best Picture (The Last Samurai, 2003), but thanks to James Cameron, blue people and not hiring Tom Cruise, Avatar was nominated. I actually like The Last Samurai better than Avatar, and I liked DWW better than the both of them. You know why? For the same reason DWW won and Avatar did not- the guy you root for--the one who is superiorly overmatched by the antagonist--loses. Think DWW. Think Rocky. If your hero loses, yet lives, and you leave the theater in tears, then you've really done something there, and that's what we're talking about in in those two examples. With Avatar, though, the impropable had to happen in order to make the movie worth it, because if the blue people would have lost, I probably would have thought, "Well, they didn't really have a chance because you don't mess with Stephen Lang, I mean, did you see him as Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals?" This was a fantasy movie, and fantasy doesn't win unless it features hairy feet and a Dick Cheney look-alike (See LOTR-2003). So that's my reason. It was based on an old theme but adjusted for the audience to see the good guys win even though they had absolutely no chance.

Drug Court

The Utah justice system has an arrangement called drug court that acts as a substitution for probation and prison time. The program takes one year and the individuals go through detoxification, substance abuse programs, drug education classes, community service and continual drug testing. If at any point the defendant tests positive for drugs preceding a regular court date they will be removed from the program and placed in prison. The defendants could also face minimal prison time for failing to report for work diversion or not finding work while in the program. The program is a huge success, boasting just a 10% recidivism rate of those who graduate, compared to 70% of drug offenders outside the program.
I know all this because I am in a substance use and addictive behavior class right now. As a requirement for a 'field experiment' half the class went to drug court today. I'll tell you what, I didn't think I'd see a couple people I actually knew. First my uncle came in escorting the chain gang from Bluffdale (The defendant sitting behind me said that he was a pretty cool guy, but that his partner was a goon). Three walked in, one got released, yet three still left. One of the defendants failed his drug test, and was sentanced. Go to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. These people walk a thin line, but for anyone who has felt the strong arms of addiction, it's all part of the game.
Leaders in the church do a great job at describing addiction. James E Faust said, "Some addictions can control us to the point where they take away our God-given agency. One of Satan’s great tools is to find ways to control us. Consequently, we should abstain from anything that would keep us from fulfilling the Lord’s purposes for us, whereby the blessings of eternity may hang in jeopardy. We are in this life for the spirit to gain control over the body rather than the other way around." Addictive behavior changes the way the body functions by creating a chemical imbalance in and structurally changing the brain. The effects of this create a dependency on the drug not just to experience a high, but to support normal body function. In effect, living by someone else's rules is no new thing for addicts, they are controlled by drugs just as much as by the justice system.
The other person I knew there was the brother of a friend of mine. I had met him only a couple of times and he's a nice kid, but he made some bad decisions, as you probably guessed when I mentioned that I saw him at drug court. His was the first case to be heard. I recognized his name when it was called and watched as the judge applauded his good efforts and sent him on his way. Many others went up and tested negative for drugs for the week, so they were given some praise, words of encouragement and another court date. It's good to see that people are progressing, that they're taking the right steps. I know his brother cares for him and wants him to make better choices with his life. It's gotta be hard to see someone you love fall to addictive behavior and have such a tough time getting out. Words from President Faust, "Any kind of addiction inflicts a terrible price in pain and suffering, and it can even affect us spiritually. However, there is hope because most addictions can over time be overcome. We can change, but it will be difficult." The road is not easy and it cannot be trekked alone. Outside the church they refer to it as a Higher Power, but in the church's 12-step program, it specifically says you need faith in Jesus Christ to help you overcome the bonds of addiction.
I'm glad that the justice system has found a way to increase successful rehabilitation of drug offenders and I hope its success (particularly in the recidivism department) will influence lawmakers to throw a little more money in that direction. It's an investment worth making.

The Real Blindside of Blindside

I recently saw the movie The Blindside and thought it was great. Loved the story, the football (the coaches, more specifically), loved it. Today in my professor's end of semester lecture she used a report on the real story of The Blindside to teach the importance of being resilient and dreaming big. When I saw this again, I really stopped to think about what really happened. A wealthy family saw a poor kid in their private school who had no parents or home and showed him the most Christlike love possible. This kid had a GPA of 0.4 when he was enrolled into the private school and could not participate in sports of any kind, much less feel competent enough to be at such a school.
What is the lesson that is being shown us in this movie? When we look past Sandra Bullock's blonde hair and the cute kid who portrays SJ we can see a bold reality in America's school system. Despite what the message of the movie seems to be, wealthy people want nothing to do with poor kids being in their schools. Lets face it, the really rich will put their kids in a private school protected from the children of parents of lesser socioeconomic status. Those who can't afford that make sure to buy a house in an affluent neighborhood where property taxes are good enough to make a school up to their standards. Those who can't afford such real estate settle for whatever they get.
There are other students like Michael. Maybe not all of them without a change of clothes, maybe not all of them homeless, maybe not all of them lacking parents or guardians, but they're still in rough shape and they're still in equally deserving need of love and kindness. They have just as much right to the opportunities a good education provides.
A more cynical account (my first reaction to this realization, actually) would remark that maybe if we put more poor/disadvantaged kids in private schools they could actually receive help from others, but until they are seen they do not exist. There is no more Christlike example of love than that which the Tuohy family exemplified in their kind gesture. What this movie tells me, however, is that no one will help if those needing help are not forced into their environment. And even then those who help will likely be ostracized/criticized/judged by others, just as Leigh Ann was in her lunch group. That's the cynical account.
I have calmed down since then, though, and found the root of the problem, and it's not in where we live. The wealthy can live in gated communities and send their kids to private schools, that's fine. The middle class can move into whatever subdivision/community they care for, that's fine. We can't go around blaming each other for the inequality and injustice that exists in the world/nation/education system--nobody feels good when they're being blamed for something and they're most likely to refuse to cooperate. The answer lies in how this movie made us feel and how the Tuohy's feel. Because this feeling about helping others is what lies beneath education policies and the people behind them.
Now don't get me wrong, there's not a policy in the world that will do what the Tuohy's did for Michael Oher--under these circumstances only the most charitable acts of kindness and love can resolve their unfortunate situation. In Michael's case, as in many others, what is needed most is a loving parent who cares for the child and motivates the child to excel in school and in life. Where parents are present but this attitude isn't, students are just as likely to fall through the cracks.
As you have probably correctly thought to yourself, What can we do to change a parent's attitude? Well, I'm sure programs are out there, and some of them may even work, but on the whole they probably aren't that effective. While I don't think we can make everyone's situation better overnight through education funding reform I do think that there are measures that can be taken to give children a less damning sentence when they walk into their first grade classroom. Say what you will, but funding for schools based on local property taxes has brought about 'Savage Inequalities" that are the "Shame of the Nation" to use the words of Jonathan Kozol. Starting kids off in low-quality schools represents a bleak future, no different than their situation at home, that will follow them for their entire life.
So yes, I'm calling for equal funding for schools on a state level. I know that the recipie for capitalism calls for some to win, some to lose, but must some be born to sing the blues? Blaming the parents gives us a scapegoat, but while goats make us feel more self-assured about ourselves the children remain disadvantaged. And a goat does nothing for a disadvantaged child.
I mentioned earlier that the answer lies in the way people felt as they watched the film. What people felt as they saw the kindness of the Tuohy's change Michael's life is not conducive to the founding priniciples of this country despite our open practice of capitalism and less-open history of corruption.
Giving children an equal shot at education certainly qualifies as an effort to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. 'We the people'-although written by the educated elite of a young America-does not strictly refer to them only. It refers to all of us and each other's posterity. It is unconcerned with the education level, socioeconomic status and first language of the parent. It is the root of the American Dream as first defined by James Truslow Adams as one's ability to succeed in "attaining the fullest stature of which (he) is innately capable, and be recognized for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous cirumstances of birth or position." This is the culture of America, and it is the driving force behind the idea of providing free, appropriate public education to every child in the nation. And if the government is going to provide a service to its people, it should do so if not with the intent of providing an equally good service to each individual, at least an equally funded one.
So there's the real Blindside. I enjoyed the beginning of the movie when Sandra Bullock walks you through LT ending Joe Theismann's career. Sooner or later the huge disparity in education is going to sack us, but who knows whent that will be. Until then we can look past it blaming the parents, teachers and curriculum.