smokin' hot politics

i am becoming increasingly disillusioned with democracy.

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
-Winston Churchill

it seems as if the lines between parties are becoming increasingly blurry, as the ones you expect to be honorable are among the most dishonorable, and vice versa. yesterday, George Bush signed a bill that will triple the amount of funds the USA will give to fighting AIDS around the world, primarily in Africa. i think that is a beautiful and wonderful thing for him and his republican party to do. i have been on the opposite end of the spectrum for the rest of his presidency, ever since he stole it in 2000. but i cannot put down this move. it is beautiful and noble, and i am willing to say that George Bush did the right thing, no matter how often i have despised his moves in the past. another member of his party who is currently the republican nominee, John Mccain, is someone who i previously had much respect for. he is a hero of America. he wasn't content to just be a republican. in fact, he was despised by most other republicans and conservatives because he often stood against their immoral stances on things such as torture and unjust wars. but now, in the midst of political fever, he is slinging mud at the man who is putting a new and noble face on politics, Barack Obama. he is resorting to scare tactics (which aren't working by the way) and things that are beneath his previous noble stature. the problem is, the lines have become so blurry. let's move closer to home. the liberals were my party of choice for a long time because of their stances on social justice and making Canada a more multicultural and accepting, open place. but now, all i see is a liberal leader worried about staying in his place of power, which isn't much power at all, considering he is leader of the opposition. at several points over the last year and a half he could have voted against conservative bills he disagreed with, but chose not to do so, because to go to an election would mean he would lose, and in turn would not have a chance at the power of running the country. let's go even closer to home. saskatchewan. the home of...well...the rider's is about the best we got. for a long time, the NDP had been in power. the thing about being in power is that the longer you are there, the more people start to see your mistakes. and the provincial NDP government made many. come election time last september, they resorted to mud slinging and negative advertising because to scare people was the only chance they had at staying in power. and that didn't work. and i have lost my respect. i have lost my respect for politicians who are more concerned with saving their own jobs than with fighting for justice and doing what is right for our countries and the world at large. i am disillusioned.

my friend dave had the opportunity to see George Bush yesterday as his African Children's Choir were guests and entertainers at the event. and as much as i have spoken out against all the things he has done over the years, i am proud of George Bush for doing this. i will put down my defensive barrier and honor him for trying to help the world. the problem is we hide behind our party lines, and it seems like we are afraid to admit when the other side is right. democracy has become polluted to the point where it's all about image and saving face. whatever happened to the will of the people? when did it get to the point where one man or party has all the power and we are okay with that? just because 50.5% voted for this person, the other 49.5% have no say? how is that the best form of government we can come up with? and who are we to impose that on the rest of the world (ie. iraq, afghansitan, etc...)

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-C.S. Lewis

and whatever happened to the will of the people being honorable, noble and desiring to serve the least of these. when did we lose that? where was i when this happened? maybe we never had it. maybe it was just a dream i had.

"The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it."
-Edward Dowling

but our politicians need to change. the will of the people have to change. otherwise, we have no chance. we have no chance of being members of a greater, noble kingdom. is there any chance of this in the current political climate? right now it seems hopeless. but i am still willing to hope for something better.

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS."
-Mohondas K. Ghandi

can you connect the dots?

a couple interesting documentaries...

a little over-dramatic maybe...

but man, do i ever love the CFL!

since nobody wanted to tackle that last one...

i'm not bitter or anything. i just expected more discussion on that last one. i guess everyone is pretty content with their faith...ha.

so here's another one...

the rider's are 5-0. try explaining that one...i'm not saying i had something to do with it, but you know, give credit where it's due. i am, after all, the number one fan. it's been scientifically proven.

why believe?

i have been wrestling with my faith lately.

i don't have some big dramatic life crisis that has brought this about. it's more a state i've felt creeping in on me for a while now. i have a question for all of you. why believe? what is it that makes you believe in God? i have been having trouble answering that question for some time now. i mean, i am not giving up my faith, that will never happen as far as i'm concerned. i think what i'm feeling right now is a dryness. i am feeling parched for just a glimpse of God. it's not that i don't see him at work in my life. he has brought me through some amazing things and given me amazing opportunities, such as working with youth at Glen Elm church right now. such as people of God providing finances for my family when i had none, and had not advertised that fact. God has done amazing things in my life. and for that reason i feel weak. i feel as if i have every reason to believe, yet i am not seeing very clearly right now. and i am in desperate need of vision and eyes that can see. i am having trouble breaking through all the day to day nonsense of the world and being focused on what's truly important. there was a time in my life where i could genuinely look at every person i passed on the street and say that i loved them. that might sound weird, but i grew up being known as a person who cared deeply for people. and for some reason that has been a struggle as well lately. not that i don't love people, but i find myself less sympathetic towards others and more apathetic. and i think the two are intertwined. i know that God is love. and when i felt sure of that, it was easy to love people. now that i am struggling to see God's love in the world, it has become more difficult to love others. and i miss my old self. i feel like i am not who i am supposed to be at this moment. and it's breaking me up inside. i am still happy with my family, my friends, my work. but i feel like life is so much more than what it has been for me lately. i am weak. and i am wondering who out there believes in God, and why?

worst dream ever

i laid in bed for half an hour angry beyond belief.

i had a dream that i missed the riders game this coming up saturday. and as i watched the highlights on TV, they lost and the TV announcer, probably warren wood that clown from global, said that they had been eliminated from the playoffs and therefore would play no more games this year. this came as quite a shock to me, as it was only their second home game, and i have season tickets. so i woke up and lay there mad as can be for about half an hour before i realized it was a dream. it was all just a bad dream. don't worry, blair, you get to go see the riders whoop montreal this saturday. and don't worry, because they won't miss the playoffs because as of right now they are the best team in the league. don't worry blair. it's all gonna be okay. GO RIDERS!

Game prediction-Riders 35 Alouettes 30

THIS IS NOT ANTI-AMERICAN!!!

i wanted to state that in the title because i don't want to have to continually preface my comments with that throughout.

a couple weeks ago, i went to a training session in saskatoon. it was for an organization called UPWARD, a christian group that offers training on sports camps and leagues and how to run them in your community through the church. anyway, so a group of pastors, associate pastors, youth leaders, and church volunteers met for this training session. before we started, there was the typical introductions and hello's over coffee. one of the leaders of UPWARD comes from the great state of South Carolina. upon realizing that, one of my young comrade associate pastors made a comment that really got me thinking...

"Well, at least in the USA, you guys have better morals that we do up here in Canada!"

i tend to disagree. this is not because i think all americans are immoral and canadians are moral. i mean, we are only separated by an imaginary line on a map, so i don't think our morals are that different. and i think there is much immorality in canada that far surpasses that of america. he wasn't talking about the american and canadian people. he was speaking of government policies. and this is where my strong disagreement comes in to play. he looks at legislation against homosexual marriage and attempts to block out abortion on part of the politicians, and assumes that is what makes a country moral. now, in canada, we allow gay marriage and in fact are even currently honoring dr. henry morgetaler, the man who most would say is responsible for making abortion legal in canada. so i guess if you only look at those two issues, and you are against both those things, america might be considered a more moral place than canada. but i tend to look beyond those things. i think morality is something that the church has put a stranglehold on and limited to these two issues. i don't think that is a surprise or a shocking statement to most out there. maybe you disagree. i do think that's changing, but that is the way it has been and currently is. to be moral in politics means to oppose gay marriage and abortion. but it's so much bigger than that.

in canada, we offer free health care to everyone. in america, the government does not. now, you can say whatever you want about the broken canadian system. and you are right, it does need to be overhauled and fixed in some way. but currently, anyone in canada who needs to see a doctor can do so, without paying bills, without worrying if their family will be able to eat because they went to get a check up, without dying on the streets for lack of an available doctor that's not going to charge them out their anus. anus...that's a funny word. i believe that is moral. free health care is something that everyone in the world should get, and our government has given that to us.

last month, i received money from the canadian government. i have two children, and so the government gives differing amounts of money based on your income to families with children. isn't that remarkable? maybe people without kids feel screwed because it's their tax money that supports programs like this, but i believe that caring for families with small children is a moral issue, and our government has done this. as far as i know, there are no similar programs in the USA. maybe i'm wrong.

for a long time, canadians have been embarrassed about their military. we have been seen as weaklings, only interested in peacekeeping, and not wanting to be directly involved in fighting wars, such as in iraq. i am proud of my military for this very same reason. why should we feel shame for being a nation of peacekeepers rather than a nation of war-mongers? now, this is a very moral issue. and i don't think canada is guilt free. i am not saying we have never done anything wrong on the military front. but our military should not be ashamed, nor should we be ashamed of them, for the role they play in keeping peace in the world.

now, these are simply a few issues. my point is not that canada is better than america. like i said before, there is just a stupid imaginary line that separates the two. their shortcomings are our own. our shortcomings belong to them as well. we are the west. we are together. my point is not political. my point is that the church needs to start evaluating what they consider to be moral issues. i know it was just one young man's comment at some meaningless group meeting, but i believe his comment is common thinking among christians in canada and the USA, that gay marriage and abortion define what is moral and what is not. we need to broaden our definitions. we need to see morality as something bigger than hot button issues. where does caring for the poor fit in? where does violence and hatred fit in? how about divorce within our churches? we let slide the things that are uncomfortable for us to confront, and we attack the things that are foreign to us. that's the way we have always worked. we need a seismic shift in our thinking if we want this world to change. i suppose the problem is that most christians don't want the world to change. most christians want the world to fall apart so that Jesus will come back with his sword on a cloud of glory. end times theology aside, these are simply the ramblings of a young man trying to figure out what the point is of living as a christian in the world if we are only known as bigots and pro-lifers. i'm not saying we need to change our convictions. i am pro-life. but i am also pro-all-of-life. and i have met people who believe being gay is a sin and we shouldn't allow them to marry, but they approach it in a way that is loving towards everyone they meet. it's okay to disagree. it's not okay to hate our brothers and sisters.

i don't want imaginary lines to get in the way of loving brothers and sisters. and i won't let them. but we need to radically change our way of thinking within the church. we need to quit promoting these imaginary lines within the church that prevent people from coming to know God. i'd rather be known by what i am for than what i am against.

a tale of two friends

today, i am thinking of two dear friends, kayla and ryan.

it's kayla's birthday today. she is one of those kids in my youth group that reminds me why i do what i do. when i first met kayla, i had her written off. i don't know if i ever told her this or not, so sorry kayla if this is a surprise! but i figured her for one of those popular kids. and not just a nice polite popular kid. but one that eats you up and spits you out before you have even said hello. like the mean cheerleaders in high school. or the football jocks. or kyle clement...curse you kyle clement!!! (not actual person) anyway, she has shocked me by not fitting into my pigeon hold. she has turned out to be a nice, decent human being. she is not mean or cruel in anyway. although, she does pick on me for having long arm hair...i cry myself to sleep every night. in fact, she is the opposite of what i thought. she turned out to be loving, caring, kind and thoughtful. she is very willing to go against the flow, which many kids aren't. she is willing to step out on a limb and be different from the rest. right now, she is struggling to be a christian amidst friends who do not understand and are not trying to understand. and she has stood strong. i would have caved like an ant vs. a bear in a knife fight. but she is going against the flow, trying to figure out what it means to live the christian faith in an age where it is often seen as only homophobia and anti-abortion. i am proud of her. she inspires me. i often tell the kids in my youth group that i believe they can change the world, and i really believe that. and the reason i do is because of young people like kayla.

my second friend is ryan goodwin. many of you will know this old scamp. he is a man among men, and a leafs fan going against the flow. when everything in the world is telling him that his hockey team sucks, he still stands strong in the midst of persecution and 41 years of no stanley cup...ha, anyway, now that i have angered him, i will flatter him. most people who know me would refer to me as a liberal. i think most people who know ryan would classify him as a conservative. i know those are just dumb labels, but they make the most sense of where we stand on our thoughts and issues. but here's the problem. ryan challenges those labels for me. i can't just slap the conservative label on him. because when i think of conservative, usually my stomach turns a bit and i think of rush limbaugh, stephen harper, and george bush. and those names often make me want to offer up the latest food i have eaten for all to see. but ryan doesn't fit this label. i often use this label to define people who are satisfied with the status quo and not willing to move an inch. yet ryan is an honorable man, much better than myself. and he is willing to move. he is willing to move forward and become a better human being. i am more content, often, to simply sit and do nothing and suffer through the status quo. i guess my labels have turned on me. maybe i'm the conservative. but ryan hates gun control. he hates michael moore (or at least fahrenheit 9/11). he doesn't like the liberal or ndp government. these are all things that i generally approve of! we are complete opposites in many ways and in many of our political stances. but ryan is still willing to accept me as a friend and engage me in intense discussion. not only that, but he is willing to move past discussion and examine his own life. he is willing to not stand on the party lines and set up a defense system, which i am often prone to do. he is willing to break down these barriers. and so even though he thinks some different things politically, i cannot call him my conservative friend anymore, because he challenges me to progress in my thinking and move beyond petty differences. this is my friend ryan. he is so much more than a political view. and i am so thankful that he is willing to put up with my "liberal" arrogance.

these are my two friends. my only two. will someone else be my friend?