Well worth the read, very, very well worth the read.

I think, that maybe, it's the reason behind the political inactivity of the youth population. No one does much for the War on Crime, the War on Drugs, the War on Cancer, or any other over-cliched and silly-named "war" on X thing here - sure they're bad, but not bad enough to get up and DO something about it. This is why no one's really getting up and DOING anything.

If anyone cared about stopped cancer, they'd donate to science, they'd learn the facts, they'd offer better medical care and support systems. If anyone really cared about terrorism they'd make an effort to stop racism, bigotry in any form - especially religious, and try and understand what causes other nations to hate us. But we really don't care. It's a distant, far off "war" because it's not tied to our personal daily lives, and things not tied to our personal daily lives just aren't taken into consideration.

Similarly, the fact that the War in Iraq is so distanced from the public and so glossed over by the media is discussed again on Reclusive Leftist - a good post to read. I caught part of the nightly news on this recent event in Iraq tonight and was slightly appalled at how quickly it was glossed over, how little the anchorman seemed to care, and how distance he was even from the story he was reporting. It made me realize another part of this apathy - the anchormen don't even care. Watch some old news footage of the real Big Names in Broadcasting reporting on Vietnam or anything - they are visably and audibly upset, angry, and appalled at what they're reporting - that sort of emotion carries through and gets the audience involved and emotional as well. Now though, they don't care, their audience doesn't care, and it's one more news story to be forgotten at the end of the week.

Until it really, honestly effects day to day American Life, people won't care. They'll brush it off, and move on, and hide behind reality television and candy coated news stories and be surprised when something big really does happen. Ignorance is bliss eh?

I've never ben a fan of labels. I've been called a lot of things over time, some of which are not really repeatable. Sometimes they're based on appearances, attitudes, or personal believes. Some labels are more accurate than eithers. Some labels were once accurate but they're not anymore. Words change, meanings and definitions change, and thus so do labels. Words are strongly influenced by actions. So a word that defines a group of people is defind by the actions of those people - and it changes as their actions change.

But there are soooo many silly labels abounding that using them just falls short.

( all about me (again!) )

There's something bittersweet about moving.

Granted, I've lived in the same house for all 21 years of my life. Campus dorms aren't really 'moving' because they are never ours, yet they are. I've had this same room for the past two years, and will have it next year as well. Moving in is satisfying, moving out is somewhat bittersweet.

I find the ultimate end is somewhat akin to death - and I'm not just being morbid. We move in, we settle, we unpack our things, we make it ours. We decorate the walls, we damage things, we leave our marks but they are small. But in the end, we pack it all back up, we clean it, and unless we've made some sort of major dent in the wall or the furniture, it's like we were never here at all.

I wonder what peice of furniture I'll break or leave my initials carved in by the time I die.

I've done a lot of walking and talking this semester. Most of it with Alicia. I like walking and talking and I believe I've mentioned it before, but long walks are great for talking and thinking. They're great for getting to know people. I was always jealous of a high school friend that had 2 friends and the Trio used to go on walks all the time in their neighborhood and talk - I had neither a neighborhood nor friends to do that with. Now I do.

I find that getting off the computer consciously does wonders for the spirit and the mind. Cutting the digital umbilical cord out generation draws its sustence for is refreshing. I'm semi-sad to be going home and losing the livliness of a college campus.

I also have no idea what I'm doing this summer, and for once, it's not bothering me. I did sign up with a temp-agency, but I don't know if they'll place me when I call this weekend. I am filling out volunteer paper work for WildWings, a bird of prey rescue center, and have plans to gut my room and really clean it. I'm moving on and it's time to toss a lot of sentimental things that aren't so sentimental anymore.

( Continue with this ramble )

I have a way of stumbling across things on the internet. Call it a bad addiction, but I'm a link-clicking whore. I find blogs by bouncing from one blog to another through links. Sometimes the name interests me, sometimes a post refers to another site and I get hooked. I read and I read and I read and hours go by and I realize I was skipping work I should have done in order to read all these pages full of opinions and news and stories.

Stories, that's just it. They're short little stories. Some are angry stories, some are happy stories, some are sad stories. They're real, nonfiction stories and they're not the kind that get published like fiction ones. And something about that interests me.

Anyways, Through my incessant link-clicking I stumbled upon this now-ended blog Utopian Hell - it was interesting - but what is most interesting is the story of the author and the site.

The closing line is what made me pause -

Heck, you might even remember what it is that you wanted before you hit puberty.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I wanted to do this summer on the basis that it would affect my whole life. I know it sounds silly but there's so much pressure put on the decision for internships and job experiences now-a-days that it's hard not feel as if the tiniest slip up now could mean a horrible awful job for the next X number of years and regret down the road. I wound up going back to the same addage - what did I want to do when I was a kid?

( Keep reading. )

I can't make up my mind about our generation. I'm begining to think that there are two parts to it.

One group is apathetic. No matter what happens, they don't get pissed off. They get annoyed at people trying to have sane, calm, and constructive conversations and debates to fix things. They just don't care, even when problems multiply in their face. They must hide under the modern rock - be it computers and videogames or something - and pretend that things will all be ok eventually. They're the first to deny any problems, and the last to act. They're always anxious to brush events under the rug and move on with day to day life.

The other group cares, a lot, but is impotent. The problem is they see too many problems, and they're so big its just overwhelming. They have ideas to tacakle the problems, but things just seem to grow worse and the tiny dents they make are so little. They're frustrated at their seeming lack of power to effect anything around them, but are unable to just turn away and hide in their personal lives.

Either way, we wind up with a generation that doesn't have a cause despite so many laying around to take up.

[This post was originally put up on Rekindling the Inner Fire, my attempt at a more serious, essay-type blog. It was a follow up rant to an initial posting on abortion. I prefer how the arguement was put forth in this part more than the first time and will probably not repost the first time]

I’m sick and tired of abortion being simplified into clichéd arguments. Abortion is about far, far more than a fetus or a baby, than life or death, than women’s rights and body rights, and more than morals. It’s an example of the idiocy in the world today, and it’s an example of how badly people will do anything to avoid responsibility for their decisions or anyone elses.

Abortion is about motherhood, raising children, and self responsibility and knowledge.

Motherhood is not about a ball of cells, it’s not about pregnancy. The fact that you are physically capable of having a child and getting pregnant does not make you a mother. Birthing a child does not make you a mother. Every damn animal on the planet can pop out kids, only humans truly have mothers.