Bishops Acknowledge Role in Crisis
It's good to see that, officially, Catholic leadership is taking some accountability. Which is only the first step on the long, painful road to recovery for all involved. My gut tells me to side with zero tolerance for priests proven guilty of abuse, but I think somehow that zero tolerance will ostracize them even further from the church, and that's the last thing the church should be gunning for. I understand that those proven guilty are not only guilty of betraying and misusing the trust of parishioners, but also sullying the witness and example of church leadership. But they're still people obviously in need of help, and the church, idealogically, is where they should find it. Anyway, that's my gut reaction, and a rather uneducated opinion. One gets a little nervous in a country where we publicly get our undies in a twist to crucify the next bad guy.
Ever feel like a fraud? Maybe it's because on one hand, you have people telling you what a good person you are, how special you are, etc. This is because you've had a fairly normal upbringing where some combination parents, friends, grandparents, schoolteachers, and mentors who've dedicated their lives to bringing the message of positive thinking to generations of people like you. Then, on the other hand, you have the rest of the silent world. They don't know you, they don't want to you know you, they don't want anything to do with you. They suspect you of bringing one of any number of harmful personal plagues; having no personality, an awful sense of humor, even worse, they might even suspect you of trying to sell something or take advantage.
So who's right? Who is really trying to pull one over on you? It makes you wonder, sometimes. How can you not feel like a fraud when you're getting two completely different messages from your environment?
A thought came to when I was sitting at my brother's high school graduation: why do parents get flowers for the graduates? Especially if their kid is a GUY. I had to break my parents (ok, my mom) of this habit pretty early on, through piano recitals, homecomings, proms, graduations and such. I can understand a girl maybe receiving flowers, but a guy? Think to yourself, when is a guy happy to get flowers? I can think of only 3 sitchy-ashuns:
So parents, please stop giving your sons flowers. Nothing good can possibly come out of it, unless it's a sneaky plot on your part to get some flowers for yourself.
Last thought before I fall asleep for a few hours and then go watch the US play Poland:
I think that auto manufacturers and local government are in cahoots milking a giant, secret cash cow. It dawned on me as I tailed some mentally impaired driver zigzagging his way across the Eisenhower. It dawned on me that local gov't sets the age limit for driving licences. The limit in most of this country is 16, which is an absurdly low number. Why 16? We're letting hormonally driven adolescents operate large, complicated machinery before legally letting them smoke or serve their country in the armed forces. But I digress.
It's easy to see how selling more cars helps the auto manufacturers make more money. But it helps local government because they recoup the cost in parking tickets and tow fees. But what about road repair and maintenance, you ask? Roadwork is a huge source of patronage jobs, and an easy labyrinth of line items and account balance sheets to hide a few extra bucks in. Like the $54 toilet seats Congress needed back in the '80s. So who ultimately pays the cost? The public, in the form of the aforementioned parking tickets, tow fees and car insurance, along with time spent in line at the DMV, and the myriad of near-death experiences on the road with incompetents.
I just realized the above sounds really serious, but I was actually laughing about it at the time. It totally works, ya know? If I'm not here tomorrow, you it's because some Mafia buttonman got to me. And it'll be the fault of one of the 5 of you who read this, damn you.
But at least you can hang out with the Lonely Astronaut if you read this blog.
It's good to see that, officially, Catholic leadership is taking some accountability. Which is only the first step on the long, painful road to recovery for all involved. My gut tells me to side with zero tolerance for priests proven guilty of abuse, but I think somehow that zero tolerance will ostracize them even further from the church, and that's the last thing the church should be gunning for. I understand that those proven guilty are not only guilty of betraying and misusing the trust of parishioners, but also sullying the witness and example of church leadership. But they're still people obviously in need of help, and the church, idealogically, is where they should find it. Anyway, that's my gut reaction, and a rather uneducated opinion. One gets a little nervous in a country where we publicly get our undies in a twist to crucify the next bad guy.
Ever feel like a fraud? Maybe it's because on one hand, you have people telling you what a good person you are, how special you are, etc. This is because you've had a fairly normal upbringing where some combination parents, friends, grandparents, schoolteachers, and mentors who've dedicated their lives to bringing the message of positive thinking to generations of people like you. Then, on the other hand, you have the rest of the silent world. They don't know you, they don't want to you know you, they don't want anything to do with you. They suspect you of bringing one of any number of harmful personal plagues; having no personality, an awful sense of humor, even worse, they might even suspect you of trying to sell something or take advantage.
So who's right? Who is really trying to pull one over on you? It makes you wonder, sometimes. How can you not feel like a fraud when you're getting two completely different messages from your environment?
A thought came to when I was sitting at my brother's high school graduation: why do parents get flowers for the graduates? Especially if their kid is a GUY. I had to break my parents (ok, my mom) of this habit pretty early on, through piano recitals, homecomings, proms, graduations and such. I can understand a girl maybe receiving flowers, but a guy? Think to yourself, when is a guy happy to get flowers? I can think of only 3 sitchy-ashuns:
- He is looking to get flowers for someone else. As in, if you give him some, he will not keep them, nor even briefly entertain the thought of keeping them for himself. This would not happen with if he was gifting, say, DVDs, or video games.
- He is a florist.
- "Flowers" are the last item on his scavenger hunt list.
So parents, please stop giving your sons flowers. Nothing good can possibly come out of it, unless it's a sneaky plot on your part to get some flowers for yourself.
Last thought before I fall asleep for a few hours and then go watch the US play Poland:
I think that auto manufacturers and local government are in cahoots milking a giant, secret cash cow. It dawned on me as I tailed some mentally impaired driver zigzagging his way across the Eisenhower. It dawned on me that local gov't sets the age limit for driving licences. The limit in most of this country is 16, which is an absurdly low number. Why 16? We're letting hormonally driven adolescents operate large, complicated machinery before legally letting them smoke or serve their country in the armed forces. But I digress.
It's easy to see how selling more cars helps the auto manufacturers make more money. But it helps local government because they recoup the cost in parking tickets and tow fees. But what about road repair and maintenance, you ask? Roadwork is a huge source of patronage jobs, and an easy labyrinth of line items and account balance sheets to hide a few extra bucks in. Like the $54 toilet seats Congress needed back in the '80s. So who ultimately pays the cost? The public, in the form of the aforementioned parking tickets, tow fees and car insurance, along with time spent in line at the DMV, and the myriad of near-death experiences on the road with incompetents.
I just realized the above sounds really serious, but I was actually laughing about it at the time. It totally works, ya know? If I'm not here tomorrow, you it's because some Mafia buttonman got to me. And it'll be the fault of one of the 5 of you who read this, damn you.
But at least you can hang out with the Lonely Astronaut if you read this blog.
posted by Mark Ahn at
4:15 AM
