The Politics of Life

I know it has been a very long time since I last wrote, and for that I am sorry. My life has been following the path of general exhaustion for the past few weeks so in my free time I have been anything but inclined to sit down and enlighten the world. So now I am. I will go into some more details on my life and such and tell you more about what is going on here in Miami, but first I'm going to talk about something else - politics. Cringe if you want, but please read on. It's going to be a long post.

What prompted this political conversation I actually happened upon last night; it was for the sake of calm and collected writing that I waited. I was so angered by what I saw and so upset that I "enjoyed" a fitful night of sleep in order to spare any readers of an emotional outburst.

I assume many of you know my political sway - I am a proud democrat, but I have indeed voted for a Republican or two in my life. Ususally, though, I do side with the more socially progressive candidates. This year I am supporting Barack Obama to be president. I did not start with him in the primary but have found him to be a worthy and a dedicatd servant to this country that has given us all so much.

Now, I understand that this is a very controversial presidential race, and for a vast number of reasons. The Bush Legacy, left to be cleaned up by a new president. The wars going on in the Middle East. Our role in peacekeeping around the world. The economy, gas prices, etc etc etc. And yet there also are more cosmetic issues - Obama is black, McCain is Old, McCain is "experienced" and Obama is relatively new to national politics.

Throughout this campaign (as with many others) I have been disappointed by many of the ads run. Some disappointment comes from the attacks made and how deeply saddened that makes me, and other disappointment comes from the nature of the ads - that they are poor quality. Take for example a recent ad by the GOP - it said Obama has no executive experience and talked about how he would make his first executive decisions from the chair in the oval office. Well, DUH, of course he would! But so would McCain! Neither of them have been president before so neither of them have executive experience and neither of them have sat in that chair as POTUS! In ads like this I am less upset over the content and more dismayed at the stupidity of the idea.

Recently, I have been very proud of ads Obama has put forth. Calmly discussing his plans and his ideas on how to implement them, reassuring the voters that things will get better and yet also calling us to accountability - he said in a recent ad for education that it is up to the parents to "turn off the tv" and read to the kids, etc for not only their future but ours. I really like these ads. They encourage us to get involved not only in politics, but in our lives. I do understand that Obama does have his own share of negative ads running out there, but I have found them to be much less offensive and even less negative "sounding" (music, narration) than McCain's.

The real thing that upset me the most and caused me to go on this particular topic was a late night tour of the internet. I, as many members of the worldly society do, love Facebook. Last night I was doing my usual updating and such on facebook when I decided to pop on over to my favorite app- Pieces of Flair. It's a fun little application in which you can get buttons and display them - buttons on anything, and I mean anything. I have cartoons, buttons from my favorite tv shows, some made for me by my friends with our pictures on them and more. I also have a few political ones. I have the popular red and blue drawing of Obama's face and I have one I find to be funny - a picture of McCain with a red "no" circle across it and the words "No Country for Old Men." Now I realize that this is slightly offensive and it mocks McCain's age. But let's face it, he's very old so far as presidents come. If he was a two term president he'd be 80 when he left office. But I also (incorrect as it may be) believe a general mock of McCain's age to be much less offensive than a mock of Obama's race. To know that at McCain and Palin rallies across the country people have shouted things like "off with his head" and "kill obama", and have these things met with small, sly smiles by the candidates on the stage disgusts me. I have learned more in this election than in others that there are people who truly HATE. I came across this on the facebook application last night.

I, looking for more "pro-Obama" flair, typed in "obama" in the search box. I found a few pro-Obama ones and many anti-Obama. Granted, the anti-Obama ones on the first page were usually more funny to me than not. There was a button with the word "Socialism" written on it with the O being the Obama logo. There was one saying "Obama/Marx" as if Obama was running with our favorite communist. And then there was one with Obama's face imposed on the movie cover of The 40-Year Old Virgin... but they added "political" before the word virgin.

Okay, so none of these bothered me too much. But then as I clicked through the pages I began to sense something completely different.

666 - on a piece of flair, the obama logo being used in the rounded part of each 6
Obama isn't the messiah he's the 12th Imam
Give Al-Qaeda A chance - Vote Barack Obama!
Buck Ofama
The only difference between Osama and Obama is BS
A picture of Obama in a darth vader suit - don't be seduced by the dark side
and the one that made me stop - A picture of a sonogram and the words in cold red: OBAMA HATES ME

I was so angered, so disgusted, so upset that I literally kicked my chair back and paced my room. There are anti McCain buttons of course but they are usually going after his choice of Palin as VP, his age or his funny faces that he makes. But none are nearly so offensive as these against Obama.

So what if he's black? And he's not that young! He's 48! He's intelligent, and he worked himself up from the bottom. Barack Obama is the epitome of the American Dream. He is someone I'm proud to vote for.

I was so shocked at seeing hatred so blatant and so alive in such a medium! Facebook applications? Honestly?

I know this kind of hatred exists and I've come across it before. I was just so saddened to see it here, now, in this way. I am praying for both our candidates to find a way whether they win or lose to bring this country together and heal the wounds that we have created. We need someone to help us and teach us how to stop destroying ourselves; because right now, we've set ourselves on self destruct and nobody even knows it. We have hate, greed, jealousy and overwhelming fear of all things different. We're so used to being in control and being the "big one" in the world that we can't even cope with the idea that other countries, other races, other people have worthy ideas and ways to help this great earth. We need someone to help us, and we need someone to lead. And for that, I'm choosing Barack Obama.

Now that my political rant if you will is over, I'll provide an update on the ongoings in my life.

Music school is up and going strong. Our student base is growing and we're enjoying working together in learning music and growing in God. This has been the main reason I've been so busy lately.

Right now, CCDA (Christian Community Developers Association) is in town for their annual conference. They picked Miami this year and a local organization that two of my housemates work for has been heading up the local side of it. It's nice to see things finally going! It's been a long and difficult road to get this here but now it is and it's moving along nicely.

I'm facing a lot of tough decisions with the church I'm involved in at the music ministry. We're making lots of big choices right now and being new, I often feel like I am unworthy of input. But occasionally I feel God tugging at my heart and I speak up.

My parents are coming down soon for thanksgiving and I am quite excited to see them. It will be wonderful to have them around!

I've been able to spend more time with my aunt and uncle lately which has been great too.

In general, things have been moving along, quickly and crazily, but steadily as well. For this I am thankful.

Now, I really must get back to work. The band is playing tonight at CCDA and I've got a lot to do before taking off to pick up some of the musicians.

I hope you all have a wonderful day. God bless!

Cheers,
Em

Orlando

This weekend, God's been moving in my life. I know I already said a lot of this in a prior post but I'm including it again now as a way to show how God has been blessing me. I left around 12:30 Friday night/Saturday morning and Danielle (Drive band member) and I drove up to Orlando. Including the tolls and a stop at Starbucks in the middle of the night, we arrived sometime around 5am. By the time I got to my room, it was 5:30 and we had to be up at 7am. So I decided to forgo sleep and just spent some time alone. It was great. The hotel we have been at is the Holiday Inn on International Drive. There are a number of buildings on a lovely if not touristy campus. Our rooms have been in the "tower" which is a building 13 stories (though they say 14) tall with a completely open air atrium. The entrance is covered, but enter the center again and look up and you see the sky. It's wonderful. So I spent the rest of that morning sitting on a neat little couch, checking email and relishing the grotto-like waterfall and foliage.

While I was sitting on that comfy bench, I received a much anticipated email. I've been a member of an organization called CITA (Christians in Theatre Arts) for a year or so now and really love what they're doing. Every year they have an annual conference. A few days ago I was randomly on the CITA website and I came across preparations for this next conference, and it's going to be in Orlando. I sent off an email and phone message to those in charge of CITA and got my response yesterday morning. It was an email from the executive director of CITA. He said he had forgotten how close Miami is to Orlando, and that if I was in the Orlando area this weekend, he'd love to meet. Well, it just so happens I am! He's visiting this weekend for conference preparations so after a few phone calls and emails, yesterday afternoon I got to sit down an chat with him. We discussed many things, including the conference itself, involvement of people from the Music Ministry (in many ways) and gave me some helpful hints and even told me about something that could really help the ministry grow. It was a great meeting that really filled me with validation in what I'm doing. I feel so fortunate and give GLORY to GOD for this. :) He also visited with the band and listened to a rehearsal and he liked what he heard.

After a failed attempt at napping during the afternoon (maybe it was my excitement through the holy spirit) we had another worship session at night. (There's a total of four played this weekend.) During that worship, I saw God again. It was a moment I was not expecting. The worship service ended with an alter call. Now, I in my life have been very anti-alter call because of the implication of "saving". This is a subject I have trouble with. I believe we were "saved" when Jesus Christ died for us. So saying you were "saved" when you chose to follow God is a bad idea for me. Because I believe that we refocus ourselves on God many many times during our lives and it is not our saving of ourselves, but our renewed attention to God's love and His saving of us. So alter calls I think are self-serving and saying "I have now saved myself in Jesus Christ". But I'd never seen one in which things made sense. Last night, I saw one in which it was simply a call to repent and return to "our first love" as the preacher put it. I saw many young people refocusing themselves and saying they were sorry. I heard people say that they needed forgiveness. And it was great. I loved it. I felt like people were actually going to connect. Granted there were, as there always will be, those who went merely for show and for a public exhibition of their faith. But I pray that God will move in their hearts as well.

I've met a number of fun youth and young adults who truly seek God, and many who are still searching for everything they yearn to know about life and love. And I've also met those who don't know anything about God or faith and have simply come to learn or find out what this about. But no matter where they may be on their journey, I know God is walking with them, constantly encouraging them to learn, ask and grow in Him.

It's been a good week. And bonding has been going well. :)

I hope all of you take the time to find God in your life this week. Seek Him in all you do.

Cheers!
Em

Sleepless Nights - but not for stress!

So here I am, just before 5am in Orlando, FL. I just arrived and am all ready to begin a crazy weekend here working with the youth band at a conference at which they are playing. I left Miami around 12:30am (thankfully that early!) and drove about 4 hours to Orlando, then found our hotel. I went to my room but found some of the band girls there, asleep each in one of the two beds and with the tv on loudly. How they can sleep that way is beyond me. We may have to discuss that for this next night. I didn't want to wake them (since it's they that have to perform tomorrow!) or change their TV sleeping habits, and since it's 5am anyway and we START at 730am, I figured sleep would only make me groggy as I'm feeling rather perky and awake now. I'd rather take a long nap this afternoon while people are in session than pick up an hour of sleep now. Blech.
So now I'm sitting in the center grotto of the hotel we're staying at. We're at a very lovely Holiday Inn with many buildings and areas... it's a resort and conference center. Nice.

Hopefully I'll get some sleep today. Otherwise I'll be cranky. :) Or ineffective. Or whatever. I also need to shower. I feel gross.

Wish me luck this weekend! It's my first real trip with the youth band and I am hoping for some good bonding, good work and good fun.

Cheers!