Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences 
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For myself, it is not anger or hatred or any other baser concern that fuels my concern over references to God in situations related to federal government. It is the gradual blurring of the line between church and state. From the influence that the evangelical movement is trying to exert on politics and the statements from U.S. Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia that he does not consider separation of church and state a fundamental principle of the Constitution, I feel that we could end up with a state-sponsored form of worship. The bedrock of this nation has been religious freedom. Some of the earliest settlers in this land were tying to escape religious persecution. The potential for widespread religious discrimination is evident throughout history, from the atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition and the slaughter of Catholics under Henry VIII when he formed the Church of England, to name a few. If the public could be whipped into hysteria over fears of creeping immorality, Jerry Falwell would only be too happy to fill McCarthy’s shoes. It does not have to amount to torture and slaughter to inflict damage to our society and the American way of life, if our government institutions begin discriminating on the basis of people’s religious views. People of all faiths should be concerned, because their particular faith may be the one censured. For example, it may not be enough to consider yourself Christian if the Baptists are holding the power and start leaning on the Methodists.
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Name : Chris Bruk, City : Kemah, State : TX, Country : United States,It may not be related directly to money. It might be the nature of the position. Since you are a clerk, providing them with service, then they are the boss. It follows that they feel that they must be superior to you in some way, since they are calling the shots. A lot of people assume that those in subordinate positions are less intelligent. Wait until you get a job working for someone like that. If you show them that you are smarter than them, often they will feel threatened and make the situation difficult for you. You have to spot these people early, and act no smarter than you have to be, until you can be promoted or find another job. Its even worse if they have that attitude and they are right. I worked for a 28 year old man who had aquired bachelor’s degrees in mechanical and electrical simultaneously, in 5 years. He was one the most intelligent people you could meet, but he was an insufferable jerk. It is a skill to be developed, if you plan on being in a supervisory position, at any point. You have to be the boss, and your employees have to follow direction, but it is a poor supervisor who can only maintain authority by diminishing their subbordinates. It limits the group effort by limiting the input from employees lower in the company structure. A different way of looking at it is that wealth is an easy evaluation point for first impressions. We are no longer suppose to judge people on the basis of race, religion, gender or any of the other traditional bases for discrimination, so a lot of people assume there is something wrong with you if you don’t have money. A miniminum wage job doesn’t exactly scream wealth, so in the absence of any visual cues, they just assume that you are stupid. Maybe you can work at giving the impression that you are independently wealthy, but work in a video store to maintain the common touch. On another note, just be glad you don’t have a thick foreign accent giving people the reason to talk to you a lot slower and louder.
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Name : Chris Bruk, City : Kemah, State : TX, Country : United States,It does not pay to underestimate the evangelical movement, not necessarily the congregation, but the leadership. The evangelical movement is the perfect societal complement to the corporate influence on our government. Both are inclined to expand, seeking greater influence and wealth. I mean no offense to evangelicals, but here in Houston, Lakewood Church bought the Compaq Center, a basketball arena, for $85 million. How big do they have to get before they start ministering to the sick and needy? It strikes me as expansion for the sake of power on the part of the church leaders. I contend that when churches get that big, it is not so much about faith or worship, but the expansion of a business. These are the forces I see at work behind the ‘moral’ influences appealing to our federal overnment. I don’t think that most people would object if they thought it would stop with simple gestures, like printing ‘God’ on money, or in the Pledge of Allegiance, but, to me, it seems the most prominent proponents for the Ten Commandments in our courthouses and other elements are motivated primarily by a personal quest for greater wealth and influence, using peoples’ religion as tool by which they can accomplish these goals. It is difficult to impugn these spokesmen because they are quick to turn any attack on themselves as attacks on that form of worship. You have to catch them in a hotel room with a hooker for them to lose favor, and I think the smart ones have learned that lesson. Whew! You asked. I’ll save my argument for why smaller is better for another post.
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Name : Chris Bruk, City : Kemah, State : TX, Country : United States,The single greatest reason that large families would encounter petty derision and witless remarks is that it is fairly unusual to see large families. People are not considering the advantages or disadvantages of large families, they merely see something different from the current average. A lot of people make noise about valuing diversity in th U.S. but all it takes to be buried with derision is to be different or unusual in some aspect. It has nothing to do with you personally, but if you are not in lock step with the herd, the herd will try make sure you know about it.
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Name : Chris Bruk, City : Kemah, State : TX, Country : United States,I read somewhere that the I.Q. of a group of people is the inverse of the accumulated total I.Q. sum of the group. The last week’s basket ball fight provides a pretty firm example of that theory. When you deal with groupthink, all you can expect is thoughtlessness (Is that a word; it doesn’t look like a word). If you browse the AOL message boards, you will still find people who believe that Iraq had WMD, and that they were linked to 9/11. A lot of people seize onto the simplest basis for their attitudes and responses. They don’t have to think. In your situation, they see a brown skin, and react in a negative fashion with precision and very little effort.
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Name : Chris Bruk, City : Kemah, State : TX, Country : United States,A certain amount of the lessened drive for education comes from an inability to to perceive the value of education in a meaningful fashion. Having limited contact with people who experienced success through education, (the first thing people do is move to a better neighborhood when they achieve success), they are not aware of the various occupations much less connect them to a particular set of qualifications. It makes for a certain amount of resentment because having no familiarity with the process, they assume it is easy and that they should be entitled to the same opportunities or at least the same stuff. I hesitate to keep saying ‘they’, but I have met a lot of people like this. I have only an associate’s degree, and I could not be more alien to them if I had antennae and a tail. A certain amount of that thinking is simply an under stimulated intellect. One job I had we communicated with walkie-talkies, and our crew always had some kind of debate or discussion going, kind of like a greek forum. When a man came on our shift from another, his contributions to the conversation were limited to ‘What ever you say’ or ‘I don’t know anything about that’. It took about six weeks before he had broadened his perspective enough to think up something to say. He was not unintelligent, just not used to considering matters with imagination. When I had opportunity to work with his old crew, I found out why. They were dullards, all of them, talking only about matters no larger than what they had for lunch or what their dog had done that morning. I guess you could consider it rigid thinking formed by the company you keep.
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Name : Chris Bruk, City : Kemah, State : TX, Country : United States,
