Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Homeless Resource Day Slides
The HometownAnnapolis.com had a slide show from the Ann Arundel County Homeless Resource Day some of us went. Here is the actual link in case you can't watch it properly...[ HomeTownAnnapolis.com ]
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
3 yrs old's logic
"Papa, I promise I'll keep my bed dry tonight"
This is what my 3 yrs old told me as I was brushing his teeth to put him to sleep. I was so proud with his strong words and the look of determination...
few hours later
I found him sleeping on his carpeted floor
son.... please go wet your sheets... it's so much easier to clean...
This is what my 3 yrs old told me as I was brushing his teeth to put him to sleep. I was so proud with his strong words and the look of determination...
few hours later
I found him sleeping on his carpeted floor
son.... please go wet your sheets... it's so much easier to clean...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Amazing Grace
I used this clip as the opener for our community service discussion meeting... the movie has so many wonderful quotes I don't know which one to showcase... this is a must watch if you are a person of faith who are passionate about social change. Forget those institutions that think staying away from our civic duty is a good idea!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
I found this image in one of my favorite blog site.Love to know what series of unfortunate events happened to get into this situation [click to enlarge]
ETHICS? What ethics?
I did a quick search on the definition.. type "define: ethics" on google and you will get:
# ethical motive: motivation based on ideas of right and wrong
# the philosophical study of moral values and rules
The reason I bring this up is because lately I have been listening to a lot of conversation about corporate-ethics, finance-ethics and bio-ethics and all sorts of 'ethic-tists' on NPR [National Public Radio]. It appears that a lot of people are finally realizing that we are in the mess that we are in because our 'lack of ethics' or 'lack of morals'.
So in order to FIX the situation, many universities are trying to incorporate more ethics classes in their curriculum, corporations are holding mandatory ethics awareness....but I just have to go back to the fundamental questions.
1) Exactly how does anyone know what is right and what is wrong? and
2) Who/What defines the moral values and rules?
In this country which have lost its founding value, with leaders who are afraid of invoking the name of God (afraid only for political reason, mind you), how can it possibly answer those two questions? Without moral baseline, how can you EVER define ethics?
It was fun and sad in the same time listening to these shows on NPR; discussing ethics without any baseline. Some of the guests had difficulties answering why it is wrong to torture animals, mutate a chicken for fun or even explaining why these corporate CEOs were wrong! No wonder we are in the mess we are...
And by the way, for those who think that us human can determine the rights and wrongs by how we 'feel', should study the history of humanity.
# ethical motive: motivation based on ideas of right and wrong
# the philosophical study of moral values and rules
The reason I bring this up is because lately I have been listening to a lot of conversation about corporate-ethics, finance-ethics and bio-ethics and all sorts of 'ethic-tists' on NPR [National Public Radio]. It appears that a lot of people are finally realizing that we are in the mess that we are in because our 'lack of ethics' or 'lack of morals'.
So in order to FIX the situation, many universities are trying to incorporate more ethics classes in their curriculum, corporations are holding mandatory ethics awareness....but I just have to go back to the fundamental questions.
1) Exactly how does anyone know what is right and what is wrong? and
2) Who/What defines the moral values and rules?
In this country which have lost its founding value, with leaders who are afraid of invoking the name of God (afraid only for political reason, mind you), how can it possibly answer those two questions? Without moral baseline, how can you EVER define ethics?
It was fun and sad in the same time listening to these shows on NPR; discussing ethics without any baseline. Some of the guests had difficulties answering why it is wrong to torture animals, mutate a chicken for fun or even explaining why these corporate CEOs were wrong! No wonder we are in the mess we are...
And by the way, for those who think that us human can determine the rights and wrongs by how we 'feel', should study the history of humanity.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The best 'short end' of the stick
Last year the Anne Arundel county hosted an event called 'Homeless Resource Day'. This came out from the office of county executive John Leopold to offer medical resources, personal hygiene assistance, job resources, and housing information to the people experiencing homelessness in the AA county. Last year I was in Thailand when this happened, but I was fortunate this time to be around to participate in the 2nd Homeless Resource Day.
They changed the venue to a middle school, more local and national organizations were involved and everything seemed fairly well planned. Majority of the volunteers served as a 'guide'. You are assigned one client at a time, and you are his/her advocate. Your job is to figure out this person's need, then take him/her to the right location for the service they needed.
I was assigned to an elderly lady, who as she got assigned to me goes 'WHO are you and WHAT do you want'... excellent. Let's just say she was a fire cracker; constantly lit, constantly going. At some point, people who were there last year came up to me and apologized to me for 'getting me the short end of the stick'... so you get the picture.
However as the day went by, I noticed that her attitude started to change (not towards others, mind you) She seemed to have accepted that I was there for her just simply to help... nothing more, nothing less. The biggest turn around came when we started to talk about prayers. As soon as I asked if she prayed, her face lit up and her eyes widen. It was like a little ray of light cutting through the dark clouds. Do you go to church, she asked, and went on to telling me that her greatest possession is this Christmas ornament that she got that she takes with her where-ever she goes, and reminds her to pray.
This day I saw something to remind me why I believe I believe. I saw the same smile that I saw when I talked to Christians in Thailand. We share a faith that can change life and give hope to the hopeless. We have a faith that can re-deem a broken soul. perhaps the person that I got was indeed the short end of the stick... but it was the best, God given short end of the stick I had ever seen.
They changed the venue to a middle school, more local and national organizations were involved and everything seemed fairly well planned. Majority of the volunteers served as a 'guide'. You are assigned one client at a time, and you are his/her advocate. Your job is to figure out this person's need, then take him/her to the right location for the service they needed.
I was assigned to an elderly lady, who as she got assigned to me goes 'WHO are you and WHAT do you want'... excellent. Let's just say she was a fire cracker; constantly lit, constantly going. At some point, people who were there last year came up to me and apologized to me for 'getting me the short end of the stick'... so you get the picture.
However as the day went by, I noticed that her attitude started to change (not towards others, mind you) She seemed to have accepted that I was there for her just simply to help... nothing more, nothing less. The biggest turn around came when we started to talk about prayers. As soon as I asked if she prayed, her face lit up and her eyes widen. It was like a little ray of light cutting through the dark clouds. Do you go to church, she asked, and went on to telling me that her greatest possession is this Christmas ornament that she got that she takes with her where-ever she goes, and reminds her to pray.
This day I saw something to remind me why I believe I believe. I saw the same smile that I saw when I talked to Christians in Thailand. We share a faith that can change life and give hope to the hopeless. We have a faith that can re-deem a broken soul. perhaps the person that I got was indeed the short end of the stick... but it was the best, God given short end of the stick I had ever seen.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The 'Be Heard' Project
There is about 7 more days left to be heard. This is far beyond pro-life or pro-choice issue, but rather about government telling you to do something you morally oppose.
Be Heard Project - A Special Message from Future Nurses of America from beheard on Vimeo.
Be Heard Project - A Special Message from Future Nurses of America from beheard on Vimeo.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Would you kill an US citizen if the governement tells you to?
So many people in the pro-life community is talking about the 'conscience clause', which the Obama administration has announced its plan to reverse. Now to be fair, (and something that the pro-life community doesn't say much) the administration is planning to only reverse what Bush administration added, not the original 'conscience clause'.
Having said that, what is the conscience clause? Basically it's a clause that allows a physician to say "I don't want to perform abortion because I don't want to kill a baby"... so this laws have existed for a while, like around 30 years, but what Bush administration did was to enforce it, by expanding it to all medical professionals.
So what do you think? I think the reversal that the Obama administration is trying to do is yet another 'slippery slope' in my opinion.
Let's say a guy that works in Walm@rt refuses to sell condoms because s/he doesn't think it's ethical, I think Walm@rt should have the ability to fire him. If a doctor in a private hospital refuses to perform abortion based on this belief, I think the hospital should have the ability to fire the person... then all the person have to do is to work at a private hospital or a pharmacy that supports his/her decision or open their own practice. BUT I DON'T WANT to live in a place where the government forces you to perform something that you believe is morally wrong.
sooo...what would you do if the government tell you that you will go to jail if you don't perform an abortion? Would you choose to kill the baby or go to jail? Unfortunately, I have a feeling many people will choose to kill, rather than go to jail, even if they knew they are committing murder. (think of Germany and Japan during WWII)
Want to do something about it? Go to www.Regulations.gov, and leave a comment! ... and if you can't find it search for "Ensuring that Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices In Violation of Federal Law"
Having said that, what is the conscience clause? Basically it's a clause that allows a physician to say "I don't want to perform abortion because I don't want to kill a baby"... so this laws have existed for a while, like around 30 years, but what Bush administration did was to enforce it, by expanding it to all medical professionals.
So what do you think? I think the reversal that the Obama administration is trying to do is yet another 'slippery slope' in my opinion.
Let's say a guy that works in Walm@rt refuses to sell condoms because s/he doesn't think it's ethical, I think Walm@rt should have the ability to fire him. If a doctor in a private hospital refuses to perform abortion based on this belief, I think the hospital should have the ability to fire the person... then all the person have to do is to work at a private hospital or a pharmacy that supports his/her decision or open their own practice. BUT I DON'T WANT to live in a place where the government forces you to perform something that you believe is morally wrong.
sooo...what would you do if the government tell you that you will go to jail if you don't perform an abortion? Would you choose to kill the baby or go to jail? Unfortunately, I have a feeling many people will choose to kill, rather than go to jail, even if they knew they are committing murder. (think of Germany and Japan during WWII)
Want to do something about it? Go to www.Regulations.gov, and leave a comment! ... and if you can't find it search for "Ensuring that Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices In Violation of Federal Law"
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
and here I thought we were trying to separate science and politics
This administration (and I'm talking about the US's Obama administration) told us that they were going to separate the science and the politics. Well, I'm still waiting for them to do something about this embryonic stem cells (ES) discussion that is still going around.
Previous administration banned the use of federal money (by the way, that's our money) to be used for creation of ES, since it destroys an embryo... and bunch of 'smart' people complained saying that the Bush administration brought morality into politics and then to science (and apparently that's bad). If you think about it, that is a rather 'not so smart' argument, since at the end of the day those people are just the same... they want to bring in their morality (or lack of it) in to politics and then to science.
Meanwhile, the world moves on with the iPS (or induced pluripotent stem cell). So far, a) I have not heard ANY argument opposing iPS based on moral argument, b) appears as flexible as the embryonic stem cells and c) even safer to use on human application. So WHY IS THE US STILL ARGUING ABOUT EMRYONICS STEMCELLS and using our money to fund it?
If this administration truly wants to separate politics and science, why are we still bickering about this issue, when we can put all funds to iPS research, which there is NO moral argument and all the same benefit? Based on their action, I have to assume that they are funding the ES research for one purpose only... to satisfy those who actually could care less about human life.
Previous administration banned the use of federal money (by the way, that's our money) to be used for creation of ES, since it destroys an embryo... and bunch of 'smart' people complained saying that the Bush administration brought morality into politics and then to science (and apparently that's bad). If you think about it, that is a rather 'not so smart' argument, since at the end of the day those people are just the same... they want to bring in their morality (or lack of it) in to politics and then to science.
Meanwhile, the world moves on with the iPS (or induced pluripotent stem cell). So far, a) I have not heard ANY argument opposing iPS based on moral argument, b) appears as flexible as the embryonic stem cells and c) even safer to use on human application. So WHY IS THE US STILL ARGUING ABOUT EMRYONICS STEMCELLS and using our money to fund it?
If this administration truly wants to separate politics and science, why are we still bickering about this issue, when we can put all funds to iPS research, which there is NO moral argument and all the same benefit? Based on their action, I have to assume that they are funding the ES research for one purpose only... to satisfy those who actually could care less about human life.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Who would give a piece of meat to a dog and expect it not to eat it?
So I stopped writing blogs in the One Ripple Ministries website since I didn't want my personal opinions to be reflected as one of the ministries... but yet, there are few things that I'm compelled to write.. about social justice issues and well, some personal issues if anyone would care to read it.
My question of the day is "Who would give a piece of meat to a street dog and expect it not to eat it?" and here, I'm talking about this AIG mess with the $160m+ bonuses that were funded via the 'stimulus' money. I was looking at CNN video, and everyone seem to be outraged about this... but how come people are not upset at the Government? Am I the only one that remembers that it was the Government that decided to give our money to these thieves and liars? We all knew, they had a problem, near majority of Americans didn't want bail out... yet in a panic mode the Government gave them the money (without thinking, I must say), then they are shocked that they are wasting the money? Give me a break! and how come the government is not being accountable for their lack of wisdom? bah!
My question of the day is "Who would give a piece of meat to a street dog and expect it not to eat it?" and here, I'm talking about this AIG mess with the $160m+ bonuses that were funded via the 'stimulus' money. I was looking at CNN video, and everyone seem to be outraged about this... but how come people are not upset at the Government? Am I the only one that remembers that it was the Government that decided to give our money to these thieves and liars? We all knew, they had a problem, near majority of Americans didn't want bail out... yet in a panic mode the Government gave them the money (without thinking, I must say), then they are shocked that they are wasting the money? Give me a break! and how come the government is not being accountable for their lack of wisdom? bah!
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