The Electoral College Could Just Bring Balance To The Force

I believe that the Constitution is an inspired document. The Electoral College is definitely a part of the Constitution, but the wisdom of it has come into question on both sides of the isle as close elections are turned into an attempted to call a victory a mandate not by popular vote but by the perception of the electoral colleges vote percentages.

It is funny how now the elections are over we tend to look for a scapegoat to blame for our loss. A common scapegoat over the past several election cycles seems to be the Electoral College. I am not super familiar with the history of the Electoral College, but I understand that the founding fathers put it in the Constitution and I do believe that it was there for a purpose, though I believe that the way it is applied now is not what they intended.
After this last election I was thinking about how many on both sides feel cheated by the system. States that are dominated by democrats or republicans are easily ignored by both candidates while certain states are given more attention than they should get.
In the mean time, we all realize that there is something very wrong when the popular vote can be so different from the Electoral College vote count. It discourages many from voting because it looks like their vote doesn't even count.
I could not find anywhere in the Constitution where it says that states have to comply to the winner takes all tradition, and it seems to me that it would be in the states interest to change the winner takes all rules.
Just think for a moment if we made it so that states voted for the president along congressional boundaries. Candidates would have to appeal to more than just swing states and city dwellers. Then what if the 2 extra votes per state were appointed by the states themselves. They might be appointed based upon over all popular vote for the state, or by state appointment via the legislature?
State representation might actually force our candidates to focus on more than just social and or popular issues. With potentially 100 votes at stake it might actually require them to address states issues. This would follow the spirit of The Great Compromise and represent us not only as individuals, but as a state as well.
What if the smaller states could band together and create a regional block of votes? This might change the political system all together.
Hmmm...Just something to think about.

The Role Of The Sentinel

The role of the Sentinel is not to appease and calm your fears. His is to illuminate you to the potential of danger, to heighten your sense of urgency. The sentinel is placed outside of town in a small fortress or a watch tower and their job is to keep their eyes open for the encroaching enemy. They are the key to our being prepared when the enemy enters. These soldiers are not set to tell you everything is okay, they are there to communicate the great dangers that are coming our way.

There was a day when the media use to be this sentinel they would expose corruption and show us where it was emanating from. They would hold people responsible for their actions. They were professional and competent. They asked the hard questions and demand the answers. They were for the most part unbiased, in that if they saw corruption they didn't ask which side it came from, at least that was what their stated goal was.

Somewhere along the way we lost our sentinels, the media lost its ability to stay neutral and our watch towers have been over run by the enemy. There are very few watch towers left, but there are a few. Those who remain are doing everything they can to get your attention, which sometimes can come across as annoying, and obnoxious, and in some cases arrogant, but they have to get our attention so they do what they can, because the enemy is has just passed their towers and is approaching the city parameters.

The job of the media to ask hard questions and to investigate corruption has been taken over by such organizations as The Drudge Report, Breitbart, The Blaze, and other such organizations. These organizations have seen the enemy coming and have tried to warn us. The problem as been that most of us have been taught to watch the towers that have been taken over. We see these others and we feel something is not right, but because of what we are taught we suppose that it is those who are trying to get our attention that are wrong, because our trusted sources are not giving us any reason to suspect anything is wrong. Our sources tell us all is well, all is well...

We cant afford to ignore those who are warning us. Get out of Debt, Get a Food Storage, and Get yourself right with God, because we are about to find out what it means to be in bondage if we don't. If we are prepared we have no reason to fear, but if we are not then fear will do us no good.

Watch for the sentinels signals, and if your watchtower is telling you all is well, then you better take a closer look. I do not like doomsayers, but that is what the sentinels job is they are our first line of defense.

There is a calling for others to calm our nerves as we prepare for battle, but we can not overlook the role of the sentinel without grave consequences. 

The Truth Always Brings Hope

Truth is not always pretty. Truth is, sometimes the truth is quite ugly, but until we learn to embrace the truth we will have no hope for peace. Hope comes by embracing the truth and dealing with it. The ugly truth tells us that hard times are going to happen. The battle between Good and Evil will have many casualties. Many will die, many will be wounded physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We will see family members seduced by the darkness. There will be times when we feel alone in our battle.
I imagine a great mist of darkness, made up of the filth and vulgar images and sounds that will blind us and make the truth hard to hear. I imagine that many of us will face our own demons in the darkness and will be tempted to shrink away, but if we understand the truth we will not. The beauty of truth is that we know who wins.

In Star Wars Anakin was a gifted child who served as a Jedi knight, but his ambitions to be the best led him to hope for more power, which the Sith Lord used to seduce him. Anakin lost everything he sought power to save. And while he gained great power, he lost all hope when in his final act as a Jedi he killed a Jedi master. Luke, the son of Anakin, on the other hand, carried inside of him the power of hope, and in the end the power of hope defeated the hope for power.

Lord of the Rings plays out a similar story of hoping against all hope, fighting a power that seems unbeatable relying upon the most unlikely of creatures to deliver that final blow to the Evil which ruled over the land without mercy. And again in the end the light purged the land of all evil.

It is easy to see who was right and who was wrong in the movies, but in real life we have feelings that are easily manipulated by those who are masters of manipulation. It becomes our responsibility to trust no one. Put not your trust in the arm of flesh, but trust in God, and in the end the light will prevail...

10 Years Ago...9-11

Ten years ago today I remember waking up hearing something about a plane that had flown into one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City. At the time they were not sure what size of plane nor if it was on purpose. I jumped out of bed and turned on the T.V. it wasn't more than a couple of minutes when the second plane flew into Tower number two... I remember feeling sick to my stomach wondering what just happened, but deep down knowing that something terrible was going on, this was no accident.
My eyes were peeled to the television as I got ready for work and then at work I watched as the evil fires of hatred brought down tower number one and then tower number two. That day is burned in my memory forever.
I remember the feeling of uncertainty, the over all feeling of uneasiness, some fear, some anger. That day we became a new country. That day we were the United States of America. We were all New Yorkers. We were all Americans. We set aside the petty political bickering and we prayed... We sang God bless America, and we meant it.
That day more than 3,000 people lost their lives at the hands of evil. 3,000 lives is hard to imagine when you are watching the metal and debris, but you don't see any bodies. It seems unreal...like a number is just a number. Your mind goes numb to the concept that in one fateful event so many innocent lives could be lost.

Oh, how our memories are so short. How easy it is to forget who the enemy really is.

Today we commemorated the 10th Anniversary of that fateful day.We as a family decided we should go to the Healing Fields in Sandy. There we began to understand what 3,000 lives really means. It was an emotional, spiritual experience. Flags were placed about 6 feet apart 28 wide and 110 deep, it was a quarter of a mile to walk from front to back. Each flag had a tag with a name and a brief story about the individuals who the flag represented. Many had tears in their eyes, including myself, as we read about those who lost their lives.

The world Changed 10 years ago. It will never be the same, but it is yet to be determined whether the world will be a better place or not...That is up to us.

I personally am grateful to know how the story ends... There is hope!

Freedom Is About Becoming Better

The Spirit of Freedom Is the Spirit of Christ...

As we celebrate the birth of the United States of America we must remind ourselves what freedom is. Freedom is the ability to discover right from wrong for ourselves. Freedom is the opportunity to discover consequences both good and bad for ourselves. It is the opportunity to serve others according to our means and learning to increase our means on our own. It is about learning to allow others to grow at their own pace and having tolerance toward those who are growing slower or faster than we are. It is about lifting others by our example and through sharing our own experiences. Freedom is about facing our fears and conquering them. It is about becoming better tomorrow than we were today and teaching our children to be better than us. It is about learning how to overcome our natural man and learning who we really are.

Freedom is a blessing to those who understand its purpose and utilize it for what it is. However, it is a curse to those who do not understand and refuse to recognize it for what it is. While freedom allows corruption to exist it promotes righteousness when we begin to measure our freedom on something greater than material possessions understanding that material possessions are merely a tool. Freedom is more about what we become in the process of getting than it is about getting.

What can we do to show our respect for those who have died that we may enjoy our freedoms? We can become a better person and teach our children to become better than we are. 

No Social Freedom Without Financial Freedom

Some espouse the idea of total social freedom but they believe that wealth should be redistributed. Is this not a contradiction in and of itself? How can you enforce one morality while giving a pass to all others. Or how can you promote one immorality over another? What would happen to justice? At what point are Social and Financial  issues separate?
I may not like what someone does with their money, but when do I have the right to take it from them, because I feel they have abused their rights? Many people abuse their social rights and commit crimes doing it. Would we simply turn the other cheek and allow other social depravities to run rampant?
As a society we have laws that are suppose to protect our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And when someone breaks those laws they are suppose to be punished. To simply deem someone immoral or illegal because of their financial status is itself immoral. We can not deem someone immoral just because we think they are doing something wrong, otherwise we would have chaos.
You can not have social freedom without financial freedom. A man can not be forced to change his heart without the agency to do so. Whether that heart is bad socially or financially. Each man must work out his own salvation and if he tries to work out someone else's salvation he will lose his own. It is not our job to see that our brother does right, only that he has the opportunity to do so.

Japan An Example Of Moral Dignity

I do not think that we can see what has happened in Japan and not feel a sense of shock and trauma ourselves. I personally can not fathom just what has happened to them physically yet alone emotionally. However the more I see how they are reacting to the situation the more I realize that these people are special. They are showing the world an example of godliness.
Here in America, and elsewhere through out the world we have heard about the looting and chaos that ensues after a disaster. We have stories of compassion and heroisms as well. However, in Japan we hear only stories of compassion and unselfishness, of moral dignity. The lack of riots, and the lack of hostility one towards another should be more news worthy than the nuclear troubles they are having, not trying to minimize the dangers they face, but to magnify the godlike qualities of man
I believe it is this moral dignity that will be required if America is to restore itself to true greatness. May each of us resolve to remain morally dignified in the face of disaster. God bless the Japanese people.

I Believe in Americans

The United States of America has been blessed, not because of its government, but because of her people. We are not like any other nation. Some have called us cocky and arrogant, and in someways we are. However, we are also giving and caring. We have taken our place at the top of the world not by stepping on others so much as setting a standard for others to reach. We as a people are quick to help where help is needed. We the people of the United States of America, not the government, but we we the people have donated billions of dollars to nations who have suffered catastrophic disasters. We have donated food and supplies to others whose own governments had turned their backs on them. And when we have seen that our own government was not able to deliver goods to people in need we have found ways to do it ourselves.The scriptures tell us that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Freedom. This nation was founded on Freedom and its people will not allow those freedoms to be destroyed. Many have underestimated us, I pray that our Government does not. There is a voice that whispers to us that something is wrong. Our spirit is wrestless but we are unsure what we can do. Thus far we have not noticed the effects of our freedoms being stripped from us personally, and we have in the past been able to disregard those voices that have warned us, but instinctively we know it is coming. We know the scriptures and the prophets have predicted such a time, but we have always said, "not in my lifetime." Many of us have believed that the walls of Jericho could not come down. All is well in Zion, yet that nagging feeling continues to eat at us. It is time! we have been awoken. The alarm has gone off and the snooze has gone through its final cycle. It is time to look beyond the benefits of comfort and understand the difference between a right and a privilege. We must come to realize that we can not change the laws of nature. We can have compassion, but we must never place our responsibility on the government. What makes America great is that we come together to protect eachother with personal sacrifice. We can ignore the wealthy if they choose not to participate, it is their choice. We have placed so much emphasis on the value of money, when true value lies within us. It is knowing who we are, and knowing that we have the freedom to experiment with our talents. If money loses its value what can you trade for food, or housing, or whatever you need? Americans are resourceful. That is in our blood. That is who we are.Our ability to reason has come down to name calling if we can't explain our position logically. We have been dishonest with ourselves. We have allowed Congress to use their credit card and spend us beyond our credit limit. How is it that it is okay for Congress, yet if we do this it is bad? We as Americans can disagree, but unlike many parts of the world we do not have to have civil war in order to be heard. Thank God for the freedom of speech. We do not have to believe exactly the same to respect eachother. We can be wrong in our opinion and not be jailed. We were born to be free, but we must know what that means or we will follow natures trail of disintigration. The greatness of America is not in What her government does, it is in what her government does not do. It is not in what her people don't have to do, it is in what Her people do.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

This rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic is absolutely beautiful.
http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm