Life After Death

A few weeks ago, some dear friends of mine passed their little 3 year-old boy into his Heavenly Father's arms after a battle with leukemia. I had heard something the week before indicating he was really not doing well, and wondered if it might only be a matter of time. I still wasn't prepared for it when I heard that he had passed, it wasn't a surprise, but it still gave me some shock. Because my mom is the funeral coordinator for the ward I was involved in getting ready for the luncheon. I was busy enough that it didn't really sink in for the first few days.

I never cry at funerals. I think I may have forced tears at my great-grandmother's funeral, but I was still kind of young. I didn't think that I would be crying at this one at all and didn't have any Kleenex, which ended up being a mistake. I was getting choked up during the opening hymn, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” (#136 in the LDS hymnbook), The message was just so beautiful. It is sad that he did not get to live a long, full life. But it is such a blessing to know that he will live again, and that his parents will have the opportunity to raise him. I could also barely sing the closing hymn, “Families Can Be Together Forever” (#300) It's sad that his sisters won't grow up with him, and I know that they miss him, but it is a comfort to know that they can be with him eternally after this life.

It is such a blessing to know that he is no longer suffering, and has, as the hospice nurse quoted him as saying, “no more owies.” That family will have a little angel watching over them. His father miraculously was able to speak at the funeral, and said that he believes that little children like that volunteered to have a 'broken body' and go through all that suffering, and are too pure to stay on the earth. Honestly, that family is such a strength to me. I can't, and don't want to, imagine what they must be going through right now. They are carrying through with so much courage, and I know it is the Lord that holds them up. The mother was telling a group I was in a story about how she had to comfort someone she had told about her son. They know that they have an eternal family, and that they will be able to raise their son during the millennium. This is one of the many things that brings them strength.

It is quite interesting having this happen during the Easter season. It has given me a real reason to rejoice in the reason for the holiday. I mean, it was still applicable before, but I can really see now how much comfort the message brings now. The miracle of the resurrection, and the hope for a better life in the hereafter. So many times when I have thought of the resurrection I have thought of this little boy and his family. The passing of a child really makes you wake up to an eternal perspective.

I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that because he lives this little boy, and everyone else, can live again. Death is not the end, it is merely a step in the process to Eternal Life. Families can be together forever. I know that God has plans for each of us. I know that He loves each and every one of us, and knows us by name. I know that He cares, and will give us those things that we need. I know that if we are faithful we can be like Him someday. I say these things in the name of my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, amen.

'Tis a Gift to Be Simple

Every week my family attends a class about an hour and a half away. The past few weeks I have been taking a laptop to work on assignments during the drive. I didn't have anything due this time, just a book to finish for class next week. I read that on the way to class while it was still daylight, but it was dark when we left so I was not able to read the last six pages. I'll finish it when I'm done here :-). I was going to pull out the laptop so I could do some pleasure writing (like, my blog!), but my mom suggested that since we were in a more rural area I look at the stars until we got back to the city area and couldn't see them anymore. I agreed with her and did some stargazing from our van.

It is amazing how beautiful little white dots on a dark background are. I have always loved the stars, but don't normally get to see them for all the light pollution where I live. At girls' camp I have never missed a stargazing night, even though you only have to go during your fourth year. The first time I went the person teaching did such an awesome job, and knew so much, that I was hooked. While in the car I didn't recognize any constellations besides Orion, (I really only know summer constellations from camp) it was still amazing to see how many stars I could see just outside my window. My younger sister was looking too and said that she saw a bunny in the stars, after she said that I happened to see a cluster that resembled a carrot.

Looking at the stars reminded me of one of my family's favorite scenes from a movie:

" Pumbaa: Timon?
Timon:     Yeah?
Pumbaa: Ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?
Timon:     Pumbaa. I don't wonder; I know.
Pumbaa: Oh. What are they?
Timon:     They're fireflies. Fireflies that uh... got stuck up on that big... bluish-black... thing.
Pumbaa: Oh. Gee. I always thought that they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.
Timon:     Pumbaa, wit' you, everything's gas."1 

It's amazing to think about how little things, like stargazing, will bring up memories. Just sitting there, enjoying the stars and the dark, hilly scenery left me with lots of time to think. My mom had just put in our Sting album (the British singer), and the song "When We Dance" started playing. Because we hadn't played that CD since our vacation to California a few months ago, my mind went back to the last specific time I remember hearing it, which was when we were either at, or headed to the beach for the first time for my siblings and I. I think that I am going to correlate that song with the beach for a long time. The funny thing is, if you had asked me what we were listening to when we went there, I probably couldn't have told you, but music tends to stir up memories and emotions that may have been sitting stagnant for a while.

After I finished reminiscing in my flashback, I got thinking about the stars again. I got thinking about how awesome it will be when I can make stars, constellations, and worlds. In my religion (the LDS or 'Mormon' religion) we believe that (in a nutshell) if we live the way we should, repent, get married in the temple and keep our marital covenants, and endure to the end, we will be able to become like God, live with Him again, and become gods and goddesses with the ability to create worlds. I think that is really cool, and I want to live my life in a way that I will be able to do that. One of my favorite scriptures is Psalms 82:6 which relates to that thought. I don't consider myself an extremely creative person, but I still like to create things.

I decided that I liked the feeling of riding in the car on a rural highway in the dark, it reminded me of childhood trips to my grandparent's house, which took three hours and was often in the dark. I began to ponder how amazing it is that we used to take trips like that a lot, and didn't have much to do, but were fine with the long drive (as long as we had a pit stop or two). Now I, and some of my family, had a hard time with this weekly drive we take. My brother kept bothering my mom to give him the iPad because he didn't have anything to do. I wanted to do stuff on the computer. I decided then that I would not pull out the laptop, and would contently look out the window.

Sometimes it is a good thing to be able to be amused or awed by the simple things in life, like the stars, a favorite quote from a movie, or recalling memories from small things. I think today we get so caught up in all this technology that we don't stop to think about the little things in life. We don't stop to smell the roses, we don't take the time to just find a book and read, we don't write a letter to a friend, we don't stop and dance when our favorite song is playing on the radio, we don't stop to take the time to write down our thoughts (I find myself kicking myself over this one a lot). There are so many small and simple ways that we could be taking a break and enjoying life, but we never stop in this ever moving world to take advantage of all the couple minute, or even second things that have the ability to refresh us.

I hope we all can find the time to take advantage of the simple things that make life pleasant. What are some of the simple things that make your life more enjoyable? Leave me a comment!

Resolutions

So, I should have written this post last month, but I didn't. There's a resolution I need to work on. I like the new way I'm doing resolutions this year. The past few years I've tried to review if I worked toward a resolution or not every so often, and this year I'm still doing that, but I'm also not setting as many goals to meet, but things to work on. At the end of the year I'll review, like I do every year, but instead of checking off whether I did it or not, I'll rate myself on how well I did it.

For instance, because right now I'm terrible about going to bed at a decent hour, I have a resolution to "Get on a better sleep schedule and keep it." If I start going to bed better and keep doing that, I'll give myself a 10. If I start doing that late in the year, I'll probably give myself a 9-7. If I start mid-year and stop in October, I'll give myself a 7-5. If I occasionally go to bed well throughout the year, I'll give myself a 4-2 for effort. If I fail epically, I give myself a 1 (lowest possible) and try again next year.

Using this format I can see how well I did things, and either congratulate myself, or determine I need to work on it again the next year. I did this rating system for last year's resolutions, and for the most part, if it was under 5 I put it back on my list, or decided that it wasn't really a priority anymore. Some resolutions I might have done 'well' on I revised and made more specific because I felt that resolution didn't help me as much as I had anticipated. I like this version much better than a check or X system because then I can recognize that I made an effort on that resolution, and if a resolution isn't exactly something that you can 'accomplish' then you can rate on how well you improved yourself.

For instance, last year I resolved to work on my writing skills. I didn't do much until after summer, when the classes I was taking required me to improve them, but in my mind they still improved immensely. I gave myself a 7 and decided that it didn't need to be a resolution again this year, I had done most of what I had intended to do. If anything I revised it and changed it this year to "Blog monthly (at least)." I gave myself a specific thing to do, not just a vague goal. Granted, I got off to a rocky start, but at least I can still aim for a 9 (because perfection is out of reach at this point) but I don't have to say 'Oh well, failed that one! Guess I won't even try anymore the rest of the year.' I can still try to achieve a high score, it just won't be perfect.

I like to be somewhat specific in my resolutions, and I'm learning when it needs to be more specific. What does 'Get organized' mean? Use 'organize/clean ___name of location___' instead, it will be easier to measure. Put the name of a room or a specific shelf, not 'the house,' start with small chunks and as you get better you can make bigger goals without totally overwhelming yourself. For several years I've resolved to "Write in journal regularly," but found that evidently 'regularly' was equating to once a month. I still technically was doing it, but it defeated the point. This year I finally woke up and changed it to "Write in journal weekly (at least)" and have managed to stick to it so far.

This year I actually have the least amount of resolutions that I have since I started. I decided I was going to work on fewer things a little harder. I have 9 this year, last year I had 16 (17 if you count the "Survive Dec 21st" one I jokingly made). I think it makes it a little more achievable, and you have less to try to focus on. I also prioritize my resolutions and then (try to) run through them in my head every night and see how I did on each of them that day. Because I go in order of priority, if I fall asleep before I make it through the list I at least reviewed on how I did on the most important ones (which sometimes equates to "go to bed better, nope! Zzzz).

If you haven't made any resolutions for this year you still can, only two months have passed so far, that still leaves 10 months in the year, why wait that long to make goals to improve yourself? If you need to, resolve to write next year's resolutions in December, I've done that before, and the knowledge that I resolved to do that helped me make sure I got some written the next year. I've gotten to the point I don't need that anymore, but it made sure I kept going and made it so I had to remember what I had resolved. Oh, and make sure you write them down and put them in a place you will remember where they are, you won't remember them otherwise. It took me a few weeks to memorize my list, (I wasn't working on it that hard) and I find every now and then that I wasn't remembering exactly what I wrote down, I was changing the words so it meant something slightly different.

If anyone has more tips on resolutions, please post them in the comments! (because I have so many people reading my blog :-P)

Happy resolution keeping!

The Thought-Provoking Sherlock Holmes

Last Sunday I watched the last episode of season 2 of the BBC Masterpiece series Sherlock. It is a modern day Sherlock Holmes, which makes it extremely interesting. At the end of the episode, Sherlock's life is at stake to save his friends. (Sorry to those of you whom that last sentence was a shock in any way) It ended so dramatically, and there was such a mystery at the end, I was excited for days about it. I was thinking about the amazing acting, the mystery, why I only watch British television, how they don't start filming for next season until January (so I've heard), and why people will risk their lives for different things.

That last thought was actually the first one that came to mind. For some reason this thought keeps coming back to me over and over again. I can think of it in many different ways: bravery, self-sacrifice, and courage in the face of death. Why will people risk their lives for something? I can think of several examples.

A while ago I had the opportunity to see the opera The Magic Flute, at one point, Tamino, one of the main characters, has to be blindfolded to start a series of unknown trials in order to marry the girl he loves. His new-found friend, Papageno, is terrified and tries (unsuccessfully) to resist. The actor who portrayed Tamino stood there, waiting to be blindfolded. There was fear in his eyes. (Kudos to the actor for great acting!) That struck something in me, and it keeps coming up every now and then. There are several examples in the scriptures of this same thing, being willing to go through something that might involve death. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego and the fiery furnace, Daniel and the lions' den, Abinadi and king Noah and his priests, Alma and Amulek preaching to the people of Ammonihah, Joseph Smith, and many others. Sherlock Holmes even risks his life several times in the original cases. I'm going to read The Final Problem today, and wanted to post beforehand, so I didn't have something else to think about, as I know the basic idea of what happens at the end, but not the details. I don't know why I keep thinking about this, I'm just glad I have an eternal perspective and know there is life after death. I know this is one reason the people in the scriptures were able to do what they did, which makes me wonder what the fictional characters would be thinking.

I went to a cemetery where my great-grandparents are buried on Monday, and had some interesting thoughts. It didn't seem creepy like people normally picture cemeteries, it was peaceful, and almost, happy. I was talking about it with my parents afterwords, and they said it was because I had an eternal perspective, and I have more friends than enemies there. I also thought it was odd that even though I was standing at my great-grandparents' grave, I didn't feel connected there. I figured out later that it is also because I have an eternal perspective, and even though their bodies are there, their spirits aren't necessarily.

As I've been thinking, I started to wonder why it is I pretty much only watch British TV, I like some of the Masterpiece series, (others are just weird in my opinion) and I like Doctor Who. I know there is other British TV, but this is what I chose to watch through my PBS station. I think a lot of  it has to do with the values in the shows. In Doctor Who, the Doctor is always battling evil, in Sherlock, pretty much the same thing. (although for different reasons) They also are clean for the most part. (one of the Sherlock episodes was kind of iffy) They have a nice blend of  funny and serious. They also are not violent for the sake of being violent, they only fight when they have to. (which is one reason I heard Jackie Chan is retiring from action movies, but that's another story) They also are not very gory, Sherlock does have some blood, but I can't think of a time off the top of my head when Doctor Who does. Thinking about it further, they both have incredibly intelligent title characters, and their friends who try to keep up. I think another aspect of it is, I don't find the need to watch TV all the time, and so I pick and choose what I watch, and these are the shows I pick. I actually don't watch Doctor Who very much anymore because it is on at an inconvenient time.

I started reading the original cases after watching the show, partially to relieve my mind of the mystery left at the end of the show, but also because the show piqued my interest into the books. They are really quite interesting. I find it is kind of fun to find similarities between Holmes and I. Some I have noticed are: We both play violin, (although he plays much better than I do!) when we are busy, we don't eat until we are starving and really need something, or are forced to have a break, and evidently we both think it is handy to have a pistol in some situations. Funny story! I was getting ready to go on a hike, and as I was filling up a water bottle I was thinking: "What else should I grab to be prepared? Watson, would you grab a pistol? What?!?" I have no idea why I thought that I might need a pistol, I must have been reading too much Sherlock Holmes.

Something else I have noticed while reading is how much of the character of the language is seeping into how I write, think, and talk. I am glad is is more refined. I get excited whenever I need to pull out the dictionary to find out what an unfamiliar word means. I love to expand me vocabulary! It has really gotten me back into reading. I had hit a dearth and wasn't reading very much. The ironic thing is it was partially my schoolwork that was preventing me. I am really glad to be reading again!

Ah well, (there's that character seeping out!) I should stop rambling now and read. The first case I read today is supposedly the one that introduces Mycroft. I'm excited!

Higher Education

With graduation here, I'm getting some of the most annoying questions asked of me over and over again. "How do you graduate?" and "What are you doing for college?"

The problem here is there are so many options, I don't know!

The question that needs more answering here is the college question. Depending on that answer, we can continue onto the graduation question. I know it's kind of backwards, but that's how it has to be done because what you want to do later determines what you have to do now to get there.

Right now, I'm leaning towards not going to college and entering the workforce instead. This is a whole lot cheaper, and honestly, I don't know that college is worth it. That is a lot of time, energy, and money to spend. And what do you get for it? A piece of paper and facts pounded into your head. The question is, how much are those facts and piece of paper worth? I'm thinking, not as much as they cost. How far does a degree really get you now days? Unemployment among college graduates is rising. That makes it really difficult to pay off student debt.

How much of that information could you learn, filtering out the stuff you didn't want to learn, from reading? If you want to learn about something, I would like to re-write a common phrase: there's a BOOK for that! You know, those things with pages? That you turn, and the paper has words on it? Yeah, those things! You can learn so many things from books. You just need to know what ones to read, and how to read them. Fictional literature can be educational if you know how to read and apply it. Here are some things that can help in this endeavor:

A colloquium group helps you see things you may not have noticed or paid much attention to while reading, and helps you expand those ideas you had while reading. I started participating in a colloquium group with adults when I was twelve. It was an amazing thing. Even when we got off topic, there were still great thoughts being shared. I learned some things I would not have without doing that. A colloquium group is not the same as a book group. You discuss ideas from books or articles as opposed to story lines. You have a moderator that keeps the discussion moving, and talk about the how, the why, what the author was trying to get at, and other like minded things. I wish I had the opportunity to do this now that I'm more mature and understand things better.

A mentor is another useful resource. A mentor can guide you to what books you should read, ask you questions about what you are reading to get you thinking, give you assignments to apply what you are learning or to learn more, and be there to ask questions of to help you understand something you are not grasping.

Another thing I have found useful is writing. I have been enamored by something this past week and a half, (which I should be posting about tomorrow, or I will not be happy with myself!) and had just started writing in my journal again just before the inciting incident. It has been so useful to write down what I've been thinking and in so doing it has made me think more, and my thoughts have been more organized. It has also helped me think more critically, and has made me come to some realizations. I filled almost a quarter of my journal in a week with how much I have been writing in it. It is interesting because I have been reading an older English book, (about turn of the century) some of the characterization of the language has seeped into what I write. Because I think faster than I write, It makes me think more about what I am writing. Then of course sometimes I think much faster than I am writing, and leave out something, and then I have to add an addendum to what I wrote because it doesn't make sense without it. And then there are those times you leave what you are writing for a moment, but are still thinking about what you were writing, and then when you come back you can't remember what you decided as you were gone that you were going to write! Like right now. That is so annoying. Ah, that's what it was. Writing is also helpful because you keep a record of what you have learned and what you were thinking. Then you can come back to it at some later point.

One thing I think affects your learning is what music you listen to while you are reading/learning. I find listening to classical music helps me think, doesn't distract me, and keeps me from getting distracted form outside influences. When I listen to my pop music, (about 80s or older, I don't care for the stuff from this decade) I find it harder to concentrate. (So what does that indicate about my brother listening to "The Song that Doesn't End" while doing math?)

A combination of these things is what I think you need for a higher education. For some people, they can get this at a college, and it will be worth it to them. You need to prayerfully decide what is best for you. Right now, I think what is best for me is to work, use the resources I have listed above, and take some free courses from MIT as described here. I value learning and education, but I don't know that I need to spend thousands of dollars on expensive college classes. I can spend that money on other things, such as necessities and books, not get into deep debt, and do things for little or no cost.

Wedding Observations

I had the opportunity to attend a couple wedding receptions with some of my family this month. As both marriages were in an LDS temple, and both receptions were in a ward building, it was rather interesting to see the differences between the two.

The first one I went to was for a friend whom we met through political campaigns who is closer to thirty than to twenty. When we arrived, the first thing we saw was the car that had (of course) been vandalized. I was rather appalled at some of the things that had been written on it. One of the more tame things that was written on the car was "Guess what we're doing tonight?"
    When we got into the church, I was surprised at how low the ceiling in the cultural hall was. It turned out that there was material draped from the walls to the middle of the room. It looked rather nice actually, it was just weird at first glance. After we went through the reception line, we went to the refreshment tables. They had a lot of different options there. After we got our food, we sat at a table where there was room for us to sit. We didn't know anyone sitting there, and only talked to them a little bit. Everyone we knew was sitting at another table that was full.
    They had some music playing in the background, and it changed to a song I don't like, and got louder. They announced that it was time to throw the bouquet. My mom made me get up and go over. I was really uncomfortable because I didn't like the song that was playing, I didn't know the bride, and I didn't know any of the people who were going to try to catch it. Then, she ended up throwing it before I could get to where everyone was standing because someone was in the road trying to take a picture of their daughters. I was perfectly fine with that. Then the music changed to something that I didn't know, but I still didn't like because it sounded really suggestive. The bride sat down so the groom could get the guarder, that whole thing was not done very tastefully in my opinion. Shortly after was the send off for the couple with sparklers, and then most everybody left.

The second one I went to was for one of my homeschooled friends who is not much older than me. Opening the announcement was a shock to me!
    First thing we saw when we got there was a group of my friends standing outside chatting. We went through the reception line, chatting with both families. After the reception line, we went over to the dessert table, they had cheesecake with syrup on top. We didn't even sit down, we just stood while talking to some other friends.
    They cut the cake, (another cheesecake :-)) and then said they were going to toss the bouquet. My dad put his arms around me, preventing me from going for the moment. Then he let me go so I could join the group. After the toss, they announced that they were going to have a dance, first with the bride and her father, then the bride and groom. Then they opened it up to anyone who would like to dance. I talked to people some, I danced when I was asked to, I watched with the bride's roommate the little video that she had made for the reception.
    Eventually it came time to send off the couple, with bubbles. The theme of the marriage had been how the couple was becoming a king and queen in Zion. The car had a giant crown on the top of it. It was really fun, but they stopped after a few yards so they could clean off the windshield so the groom could see. The notes on the car were much cleaner than the ones at the previous reception. After they left, we chatted with some friends in the parking lot, then lots of people went inside to help clean up.

Some interesting things we observed between the two receptions:

• The first one almost seemed more for show than anything else, the second one was more of a celebration of the union between the two families.
• The music at the first one seemed to imply 'you're hot' while the music at the second one was more of a 'I really, truly love you'.
• The cars were obviously very different from each other. I decided that if my car had the things on it the first one did, I would not get in the car. The first one would have been easier to clean up, as the second one had Oreos, balloons, cardboard (which ended up falling off anyway), and maybe another thing or two besides the window marker and cans behind the car. I would prefer to get in the second car with all that then the first one with all the messages that were on it. Although, for my wedding, my dad is going to help us hide the car, and it will not be vandalized.
• The helpfulness of people afterwards said a lot about how much people cared about the families in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, the people in both couples are great people, it was just very interesting to see the differences between the two receptions.

When it comes to that time in my life, I would rather have a reception like the second one. Minus the car. It actually is the first reception I have been to that they have had dancing. And I have been to a fair amount of receptions. (Although, there is one I didn't make it to a while ago that I highly suspect had dancing, the parents of the bride there are very big into ballroom) I love ballroom dancing, and I think I would like to have that at my reception, but I might say in the announcement when the dancing starts.

Those are my thoughts on that subject. Hopefully I will post again soon, since it has been over two months since I last posted. I already have some thoughts in mind that I think I would like to share, albeit on very different subjects.

Education in Grassroots

We recently had our neighborhood caucuses for our state. My mother was precinct chair and spent a long time preparing for the caucus and meeting candidates. I was looking forward to caucus even though I am not old enough to participate. My brother and I spent a long time checking people in, there were a lot of people there.

The first election was the precinct chair. My mother ran for it again, and also the person who had been chair before her, who had told people last caucus to vote for my mom. It was mentioned that this position came with a state delegate position, so the question was asked who they would vote for at convention. My mom said that she didn't want our current senator back, he has been there long enough, and longer than the senator who was before him when he said the other senator had been there too long. She was leaning towards another candidate, but was still in the deciding process. The other person said they were not happy with all the out of state money that was trying to get our senator out, and that they supported the senator.

When the votes were tallied, my mom had lost by about 30 votes out of about 150. A lot of people had been getting phone calls saying to go support the senator at your caucus, and so lots of people did. After my mom said she didn't support the senator, many people would not vote for her for anything. She didn't get vice chair, which doesn't even have a state delegate spot, she didn't get any state delegate spot, in fact, we were surprised when another person who supported the same person my mom was leaning toward was elected a state delegate. My guess is that because they have served as a local leader in our church they were voted in. Somebody suggested that my mom be secretary, which she didn't want to do. The only thing she was elected to was a county delegate. We were depressed for several days after all the work we had gone through to make sure it ran smoothly and on getting the word out so people would get there, just to be pushed aside with no thought as to what we had done.

The main problem here is the people were not educated. They came not having a clue who was in any of the races other than our senator who they were told to support because lots of out of state money was being spent to get him out. The kicker is, the phone calls they were getting were paid for by an out of state organization that nobody knows who is behind it. Most of the people didn't take the time to research the candidates, most of them will believe anything the establishment tells them.

We have been getting mailers for and against the senator for several weeks, and it is interesting looking at the reasons that are being made. We got a large booklet from someone against the senator listing several things he has done, a little bit later we got another large booklet for the senator refuting what had been mentioned in the other booklet. The interesting thing I noticed was that the information could be twisted depending on how you look at it. For instance, it was said that the senator had voted for several things that were not good for the country, it was refuted that he did not vote for the final bill. His voting very well could have caused the bill to progress further in the earlier stages.

One thing that worries me is that the person who was elected chair did not know that the senator had voted for NDAA, nor did they even know what that was. For those of you that don't know, that act makes it possible for you to be arrested, and not charged with anything, totally taking away your Habeas Corpus rights. I admit I need to look into the bill a little further, and do some research of its constitutionality, but from what I can tell so far, it is not constitutional, and it worries me. I am so tired of the people in Washington D.C. trampling the constitution down over and over and over again. It bothers me that our president thinks that the constitution is obsolete. How is it obsolete!?! The principles it was founded on did not change!

What we need is educated voters. Educated on the candidates, educated on the issues, and most importantly, educated on the constitution. A few books I suggest are The 5000 Year Leap and The Making of America,  both by Cleon Skousen. I have learned so much from The Making of America. One thing I like about it is it takes the constitution in small chunks, and tells you what that part means, the discussion on it during the constitutional convention, and how it affects our country. I do have to give you fair warning though, the section on the 16th amendment is very depressing. It made me sick. Not because of what was said about it, (although, how it was said what it does was a rude awakening) but because of how it came about.

Wow, I had no idea where I would get here, I hope this was enlightening for you. This is an area I feel strongly about. Sometimes I want to give up on politics, but then I think, "If I leave this arena, who will be left?" The answer is not a pretty one; those that don't care, those who are uneducated, those who are indoctrinated, and those who are power-hungry.