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What the American people can learn form the Amish

Over the past few weeks we have again seen the horrible events unfolding in our schools where children were taken hostage, attacked and murdered. But in these latest attacks in Pennsylvania in an Amish school, we have actually been shown that something good can come out of these horrors. The Amish people have shown how compassion and forgiveness can turn a terrible action into something the American people can learn from.

Over the past 5 years after the attacks on September 11, we have been a nation under siege from fear, hatred and intolerance. We hate the people who attacked us, we hate the people that support the Terrorists and most of all we don’t trust each other anymore. You may be asking yourself right now, what in the hell does this have to do with the school children being attacked and murdered? Well, if we were to take a lesson from how the Amish reacted to these events I think it would be that people can forgive even the most heinous acts. I’m not saying that we should not find the people that attacked us and bring them to justice or kill them if they refuse or send people to jail for their illegal acts. But we must stop vilifying people for a stereotype or because a political leader says another group of people are bad, wrong or even evil. We must also remember that forgiveness does have a powerful effect on the human psyche. When we forgive a spouse, family member, friend or even a complete stranger for a wrong we usually feel better immediately afterwards and that person takes responsibility for the action they took. We can then forgive them and move on without a lingering memory of the event that occurred. This is something the American people have all but forgotten. When we see a Muslim woman dressed in the full we stare and in some cases we wonder if that person is one of the people who support terrorism or even if they are a terrorist. I say this because I have observed people do this exact thing.

Forgiveness is something that has a strength that is even greater in my opinion than retribution. When we lash out against someone who has wronged us we dip into an unconscious emotion or maybe one of our primitive emotions. When we forgive we use a different emotion, something that we as a species have developed only in our recent history which denotes that this is an evolved emotion which is called morals. If the point of a species is to advance, shouldn’t we try and use our new found set of morals? Or is there no point and if that is the case then why evolve at all? I am going to quote something out of the Christian bible “Forgiveness means that we are not going to allow the experiences of the past to dominate our future". If this is a Christian belief then why doesn’t the dominant religion in our country practice this? I am not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, but for the people that are religious I ask this question; if you believe in your spiritual leaders, but do not question them when they do not adhere to the beliefs of that religion then how can you say that you are truly enlightened by your religion? If you read what your scripture tells you then why are you not questioning the death penalty or other acts that go directly against what your book tells you? The Amish people have taken that book and are true believers in the words of that book. They do not deviate or make up meanings that better fit their worldly wants. But above all they have found it in their hearts to not hate, but rather forgive. I’m sure that they mourn the death of their children and they will have sadness in their hearts, but they showed a greater strength in their acts after these attacks.

What they have taught me is that I need to remember that forgiveness is a much more powerful tool than revenge and retribution. Forgiveness can set our hearts and minds free of a heavy weight. Forgiveness can allow us to be truthful with one another without being afraid of our actions. It can also remind us that we all have differences; but that it doesn’t mean that we should be intolerant or disrespectful of another group of people’s beliefs. Forgiveness can in essence be a tool that can teach the world to live without violence, but it takes everyone to be mindful of our actions and how they affect other people.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Arrrrr....

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Flint

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky.
Arr! So remember, don't forget to celebrate talk like a pirate day or else ye may be sent to the crushing depths that is Davey Jones locker...

So don't forget to get YOUR pirate name....arrrrrrrrrrrr.....

Texas update

Ok, so I am obviously not all that great on keeping this site updated, but hell it's mine...

Here's some pictures of the new truck...live in Texas - get a truck...

Big Truck...













Don't know why, but blogger doesn't want to let me upload more pictures...pissing me off...

Austin post

So I'm here and working now. Work is pretty good, although I've only been here for 2 days now. But so far it's everything that I was expecting. I haven't gone downtown yet, but I have driven around enough to know that this place has everything that San Jose has, just cheaper. Anyway, here's some more pictures...

Coming in on 290 to Austin on Saturday morning


Busting arse through Johnson city about 30 minutes outside of Austin


The 4Runner hitting 100K on the odometer in New Mexico


Some pictures of a pond outside of the office


More pictures of the pond


Not to make anyone cringe, but you can get a house like this for 600K. This house is on the very top of a hill in a gated community. A house like this in San Jose will go for more than 1.5M...ouch...