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.

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.

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"

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.

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!