The Way I See It

I’m tired of the debate about this word. I never even knew the word existed until I was in high school. My parents never used it. No one we associated with used it.

No one needs to use it.

I’ve heard both sides of the issue about why it should not be used and why some rappers and comedians use it. It’s something about claiming the word and using it takes the power of the word away. And somehow that empowers those the word is intended to hurt.

That’s fine if those using it lived in a vacuum. They do not. They live in a world where small children will surely hear that word, unaware of the history of it or its insulting connotations. That creates even more problems. I know this first hand.

Two of my sons have had black friends. They were all frequent visitors here. My youngest son, Levi, was quite young at the time and like any kid that age was like a sponge, soaking up everything he heard and saw. And naturally, he adored his older brothers and their friends.

And so, when these black kids used the “N” word, I would cringe, knowing Levi was nearby and listening. I knew the debate; I knew that this white woman’s opinion might not be welcome. But it was my house, after all. And it was my kid being affected.

And then it happened. My little Levi, barely 3 years old, said the “N” word in front of a couple of Jesse’s friends. They stopped in mid sentence, unable to speak. They weren’t angry at Levi; they knew exactly where he’d heard that word. They knew that they had been this child’s teachers.

I never heard the boys using that word after that. I didn’t have to address the issue, either. Those 18 year old boys had been given a valuable lesson from a 3 year old child. They got to see how their words are important, how their words do impact those around them.

And that is why I believe there is no appropriate time nor place for that word. If you don’t want to teach it to the next generation, don’t use it. Even a small child can understand that.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Ah, the Second Amendment. Once again the debate arises. Once again the gun control folks don’t get it. And amazingly, the anti-gun control folks don’t get it either.

The Second Amendment isn’t about hunting. It isn’t about protecting your home, family or property from criminals. It isn’t about protecting our country from foreign invaders.

The Second Amendment is about protecting ourselves from our own government. Period.

Remember that we had to battle the British Army to break away from their control. Had we not had weapons at least equal to that of the British, we would have remained subject to their tyranny.

Our government is the people. Anything the government has, we have a right to have. Like it or not, physical strength is power. Weapons are power. If we relinquish our weapons, or stength, to the government, we relinquish power. We will no longer be the government.

Rather than looking at Virginia Tech as an example of why we need more gun control, go back several decades. Look instead at Kent State in Ohio in 1970. The Ohio National Guard opened fire on college students during protests against our involvement in Viet Nam. The nation was outraged. Songs were written about it, movies were made. People stood up and the outcry became even louder. And Nixon began pulling troops out; by 1973 most American troops had left Viet Nam.

Without the Second Amendment and our right to govern ourselves, things could have been much different. The Kent State tragedy could have been just one of several such incidents from a too-powerful government. In fact, some would argue that other incidents, such as Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidians, are leanings in just that direction. I say that as long as we hold our Second Amendment rights dear, these examples of government missteps will remain widely spaced and the exception rather than the rule.

I realize the events at Virginia Tech recently and Columbine (and other schools) previously are tragic. We are all outraged at this kind of evil and we all want to fix it. Destroying our Second Amendment rights, though, will not fix it but rather will create an entirely new set of problems. And these new problems will be even more tragic as we lose our right to govern ourselves, if not in my lifetime then surely in my granddaughter’s.

We must never allow fear to motivate us to give up our rights. That is a form of terrorism.

We all know them. They’re the people who, no matter the story you tell, can do you one better. They don’t add to the conversation so much as control it. If you tell them your car get 30 mpg, theirs gets 35. If you tell them about being homecoming queen, they claim to have been that as well as Prom Queen and voted Most Likely to Succeed. If you’ve broken your ankle twice, they’ve broken their three times and dislocated a shoulder, too.

Those aren’t the kind of people I like to be around. And you know, for all their competitiveness, they’re really not very successful.

I was thinking of that today when contemplating my friend, Colleen, who some would describe as being competitive. Yes, I suppose she is but not in the way you would think. Colleen is competitive in a very healthy way. She doesn’t try to outdo everyone around her. Rather, she challenges herself to do better. She sets goals for herself then works toward achieving them.

Today Colleen became the first PayPerPost Blogger, or “Postie,” to earn $10,000. She had been the first to earn $1000 several months ago and at that time set a goal for herself. She decided then to earn $10,000 by July 5, 2007, her one year anniversary with PayPerPost.

Colleen set a goal for herself and then worked like mad to reach that goal. She succeeded ahead of schedule.

Yes, Colleen is competitive but in the healthiest of ways. She challenges herself while cheering on those around her. She’s ready to lend a helping hand and gives of herself; she advises and tutors. She has no problem with the success of others; her self-confidence is strong enough to allow her to be truly happy for those who also do well.

I’ve noticed some people are not comfortable with Colleen’s strong work ethic and go-getter attitude. Perhaps some are intimidated by her strength. I find it inspiring.

Colleen competes with herself. She keeps trying to do better today than she did yesterday. That is the secret of her success. She’s like a racehorse with blinders on; she only sees the goal in front of her as she races toward it.

Colleen is a lesson in how to succeed and I’m taking notes.

This blog may be new but it’s starting off the right way. I’ve already installed the DoFollow plugin that allows search engines to spider my comments. That means if you comment here, your links will get spidered! (What are you waiting for? Comment!)

Colleen from GeekySpeaky had this great idea to start a D-List (for do follow) so that we’d all know who uses the DoFollow plugin. My friend Jimi added my brand new blog to the list so now I’m going to add more DoFollow blogs and help this list to grow.

If you want added to the list, click on the links I add and comment there to ask to be added. Join in the fun! Follow!

***Begin to copy here***

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra link back.

2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.

3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.

4. Add at least 1 new blog that you KNOW us using the DO FOLLOW plugin to the list in the “My Adds” section. (Add no more than 5!) Let the people you’ve added know, so that they can keep the list going!

My Adds:

Life…Travel…Passion & More
Home Office Woman
Live Life_Organics And Your Health
Doris Goes Shopping

The Originals:
Karebear Central
Scribble on the Wall
Marisa Shreve
Jimi Morrison’s Head
Mr. Gary Lee
No Average Mom
My Single Mom Life
The Passionate Ailurophile
Thoughtprints
My thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings
CassKnits
Priori Incantatem
Just Julie
The Pond
Domestic Geek
GeekySpeaky
Simple Kind Of Life
3DayMom
BuyMeBlog
The Hockey Dad
Midlife Musings
Utterly Geek
Whatever I Feel Like
My Dandelion Patch
Surviving NJ
BizMark Tech
Two Dog Zoo
TDZ Travel
Body, Mind & Solar
Just Not Martha
Craftblog
Footprints On the Moon

***Quit Copying Here***

I hesitated to use my full name as a domain. Any anonymity that I’d enjoyed with my other domains is completely gone. Yet, here I am. I’m using it because it’s mine and I hate to not use it. Besides, anyone who wants to know who I am from my other sites could find my identity easily enough. I’m really not anonymous.

So now that you know my name, I suppose you want to know what I’m all about and what this blog is about. So here we go.

I’m 48 years old. I’m married and mother to five sons and one daughter. There are 18 years between my oldest and youngest kids. I have a granddaughter. I have an American Pit Bull Terrier, Belle, and I’m an opponent to Breed Specific Legislation (BSL). I’m an advocate for more and better drug rehab facilities for the common folk. I also support the decriminalization of marijuana and other drugs.

Politically, I’m a Libertarian. Both Conservatives and Liberals dislike my views. That makes me happy. And speaking of views, I have many. In fact, the purpose of this blog is to opine about anything that pops into my head. Sometimes I may blog about current events and other times I’ll blog about some mundane notion that occurred to me as I was driving or showering or something. Perhaps someone will actually read this and make some sense of my disjointed thoughts. Won’t that be interesting?

So, bookmark me, add me to your feeds, or link me on your blog. Leave a comment to let me know you wandered by here. And go ahead and disagree with me if you’d like. Just be nice.

No, not really.

I’ve been working my on this site and teaching Tammie, my neighbor, how to add an image to her posts. I’m such a multi tasker!

so, here’s another one

and antoher one

and more

yippee!

Is it long enough?

I think I like the way my site is looking. Yeah, I do. I like the simplicity of black and white.

But now I have to test to see how this site will look wiht actual posts. huh??? You mean it will eventually have content here? I know it’s been here forever with nothing to read.

so let’s see what happens if we make this post semi-long. Or medium length. Yeah, that’s it.

here’s line

And here I actually use capitalization.

What else?

More than one sentence? Yeah, I can do that.

Okay, I think it’s ready now.

Wheeeeeeeee!