Magically relieved

A recent article in one of my wife’s magazines caught my eye and I wondered  how it would sound to other people who may have a different outlook. See what you think.

A woman who is a nurse in Midland Texas finds one of her daughter’s former teachers on her list of patients that night. The teacher had tyrannized and terrified her daughter at school and, even though she is very irritated over the years that her daughter suffered at the hands of this woman, the nurse decides to be professional and put on a false front as she makes her rounds. She enters the teacher’s room and instead of the monster she had envisioned all those years, she instead sees a frail, helpless woman who is lying curled up in bed, mumbling and stumbling over the words of the Lucky Charms jingle,"….pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green…green…green…"  The nurse walks over, grabs the woman’s hands and completes ‘…green clovers’, and then both of them say the remainder of the jingle together… “Hearts, stars, and horseshoes. Clovers and blue moons. Pots of gold and rainbows. And me red balloons. That's me Lucky Charms. They're magically delicious.".  All of a sudden, the years of bitterness and anger over the maltreatment of her daughter melt away due to the shared reciting of the words, and she feels better. The nurse realizes that ‘Leprechauns took it away with a simple jingle.

Does this sound reasonable and believable?

                Yet if the jingle is changed to the lord’s prayer, and leprechauns changed to god as is the case in the actual article, people believe it wholeheartedly. The nurse did.

What do leprechauns and god have in common? Think about it.

It doesn’t seem to dawn on this nurse that, maybe due to her training (which she learned herself; an invisible, imperceptible supernatural  being didn’t implant it into her) she felt compassion toward a sickly-looking patient who was dealing with remorse of some sort, or was looking for an answer to her condition. Because she was raised in a nation where christianity is the dominant religion, the teacher attempts to remember a christian prayer. Had she been born in Islamabad, she would have been groping for an islamic prayer; or in Bangkok, a buddhist one. The nurse, who is also from that christian-dominated nation,  knows the words, and using her training to bring comfort and care to patients, says them with the woman to ease her mind. How is this evidence that god took away her years of resentment? Does she believe that, had she been born in Islamabad or Bangkok, the prayer she recited WOULDN’T have made her feel better? Why not?

If praying is so powerful, why not pray that the woman be healed, seek out the nurse’s daughter, and ask to be forgiven for her prior transgressions against her? Why not use this powerful praying to heal everyone’s burden no matter who they are or where they are? The nurse can make all the claims she wants, but the story provides no evidence that an invisible, imperceptible supernatural  being did anything. She simply wants to believe it. Is this how we should approach all challenges, make something up. tell ourselves that we'll believe it, and then that faith will be justified because we choose to believe? 

Looks like these protesters had enough faith in a chainsaw to make their beliefs become a reality.

A hell of a thing for graduation...forays into stupidity by Oklahoma school officials

When I first read it, I thought ‘they’ve got to be joking’! Because the word ‘hell’ was used in a graduation speech last May, an Oklahoma high school valedictorian has had her diploma held for ransom.

Kaitlin Nootbaar (above at her graduation),  who maintained a 4.0 GPA at Prague High School was told by school officials that because she used the word ‘hell’ in her speech, she would not receive the diploma until she wrote an apology. Who this was supposed to assuage, they didn’t say. Nor does it appear anyone was offended by her remark. So whose feathers got ruffled and how will this make amends?

In her remarks to the assembly, which had been inspired by a comparable speech from "Eclipse: The Twilight Saga", Ms. Nootbaar described how annoying it was to be constantly asked what she wants to do after graduation. She then responded "How the hell do I know? I've changed my mind so many times."

In the version she submitted to the school for approval, "hell" was "heck." But at graduation, "hell" was the word that came out. And now, the school valedictorian is being chastised by school officials for simply stating how she felt.

What the hell?

Why was it so offensive, especially in the context with which she used it? Did she offend God by simply stating she didn’t know what ‘the hell’ she would do after graduation? Is saying hell considered blasphemous? Did a large segment of the audience gasp and walk out, or try to shout her down? Do you, the reader, feel offended, distressed and, maybe a little less faithful because she used a common word to indicate being a teen who is perplexed due to no clear picture of her future? How can people in the 21^st century be so narrow-minded, easily offended, and ignorant?

Naturally the school declined to comment on the matter, Prague schools Superintendent Rick Martin stating it was “confidential and we cannot publicly say anything about it,"  in a release to TV station KFOR.

For Rick Martin, I have this to ask, ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’

Pussy Riot are victims of the ghosts of the KGB

        I know very little about the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, but I know when they are being railroaded in a court. Hooliganism is one of those archaic terms the former KGB members across Russia still like to use to round up anyone who does something that displeases them, and it doesn't even have annoy them greatly. Pussy Riot lampooned the Russian Orthodox Church and juxtaposed political jibes at Vladimir Putin in the mix. While nothing was destroyed and services were conducted only minutes later. Pussy Riot is now facing possible several month long sentences for simply speaking their minds in a church about Putin.
      In the U.S. and Britain, bands have called for acts of violence against the 'man', 'the pigs', 'the establishment', 'the powers that be' and the military repeatedly, In Japan, Italy, and German...rock and even traditional native music bands have pushed the envelop to see how much influence their songs and words can have on the government and the secret police units that constantly watch them. But they are not being incarcerated over it.
      Pussy Riot shouldn't be either.Unless inciting violence, they should be given every right to perform their music...even if only a few like it. Caveat Emptor. Will they go free? I'll believe it when I see it.