Why Are Some Lessons So Hard To Learn

There is an old saying, “you can lead a mule to water, but you can’t make him drink”, more and more, I am seeing that in our society.  Everyday people tell us things and we should be able to listen and learn from what they are telling us … but then just hours after hearing it, we turn around and do the same thing in hopes of either the same results or same results.  For example, a cop in hot water for shooting an unarmed teen in Ferguson, Mississippi, but didn’t he have an example to go by when he seen how much trouble George Zimmerman got into for shooting Trevon Martin?  These are both very publicized stories and one should have learned from the other, but yet Officer Wilson in Ferguson must have been thinking he was going to get the same results as Zimmerman in Florida.  Zimmerman after a very long trial was acquitted of the charges … but that doesn’t mean that Wilson will be.  When we hear stories in the news, our thoughts should be how would I have handled the situation differently?  Isn’t our goal to better ourselves, well in order to better ourselves, we have to learn the lessons that are taught to us on a daily basis.

The last thing I want to do is have someone get arrested when I know that there is another way to resolve the issues at hand, but last night, even after telling these guys numerous times to take their “conversation” somewhere else, they insisted on continuing it on the hotel premises.  The law was called and only then did they decide to try to take somewhere else … but by then it was too late.  I left it in the officers hands and as a result one of them went to jail.  All these guys had to do was listen to my instructions, but they thought they had a better way of handling it. 

One of my friends on Facebook made a brilliant statement on here post last night and I don’t even think she realizes how brilliant it was.  She said, “I just finished reading through some of my journals from last year and I realized that I am having some of the same struggles that I had at that time, but I am handling them differently now”, that was brilliant.  That is exactly what we all should be striving for.  When we hear a story in the news, our thoughts should go to what we could do differently that those people didn’t do … we shouldn’t aim to do the same thing and hope for a different result.  Aim to do better and be better than those that traveled this road before you.  

ISIS Beheads Another Hostage

Ok, so ISIS has beheaded another hostage ... I have a lot of questions about these videos.

1.)  Is it just me, or do these victims not seem to be seated in the same exact position with the same exact expression their faces.  The videos are taken at a distance.  The only time you seem to get a close up is when the Grim Reaper is talking.  If this was me, I know I am going to die anyways, I would not just be sitting there and letting him get what he wants to say out.  I would be screaming, jumping up and down, or something ... but you can bet he would have a hard time doing the video with my shenanigans.

2.)  Just who are these hostages?  It seems like the only time you hear that there are even people that are missing or that are possible hostages is when another video has been posted.  Exactly how many hostages do they have or do we even know?

Honestly, I have a ton more, but these are enough to chew on for a moment.  The more I hear about ISIS, the more worried I get.  I agree that we need to go in and dismantle and destroy them, but are we even sure we know where all they are?  I would hate for us to rise up against them because we think they are in this particular place and only after attacking them in that place do we realize just how many countries they are actually in and they retaliate on those countries that went in to get them.  If they have a hostage for every country that has spoke out against them, are we really stupid enough to think they are not already in those countries?  Really?  I sure hope we think twice about this.

What's Wrong With Our Justice System?

Lately, we are seeing a lot of people that should be inspirational role models become nothing but criminals:  Ray Rice, Running Back for the Ravens, beat his wife to the point of unconsciousness; Oscar Pistorius, the first Olympic double Amputee to win a medal, killed his girlfriend by shooting her when she got up to go to the restroom that night; Michael Vick, probably one of the greatest Quarter Backs the Falcons ever had, was using his dogs to dog fight and killing the weaker ones … then I look at the ones we convicted and the ones that got off.  These were just 3 of the many.  Then I ask, what is wrong with our justice system?

Has our society really gotten to the point that we value our games more than moral values?  We have high schools that are breaking not only the school rules but also laws in order to build the best teams out there … but what are we teaching our kids?  Isn’t the more valuable lesson to teach going to be to our next generation?  If we teach them that this person or that person shouldn’t be convicted for his crimes because he is so good at what he does, what is he going to take into his adult career with him and in what way should we expect him to treat such crimes?  In what way will this help us to grow past our history and become a better nation?  The generations that we are bringing up are the ones that will one day lead this nation and vote on the political realm to make the laws and amendments, why would we want to affect them in this way?  We owe them more than that.  We owe ourselves more than that. 

The other day, my son and I was discussing Ray Rice and what should be done about his crime (and yes, it was a crime); my son said “they can’t do too much to him because he is too good of a running back to do much to him” … “WHAT”.  I couldn’t believe my ears.  Much less, I couldn’t believe someone I raised honestly believed that this guy shouldn’t be punished.  That is what we are teaching our next generation people.  I have always taught both my boys that I better never hear that they hit their girlfriends or wives because this woman would beat them when I did hear about it.  It is never alright to beat a woman.  My son went on to explain that at the end of the day, the NFL was a big money corporation and they had to keep the money coming in and they couldn’t do that by getting rid of someone as good as Rice.  I feel that we can always give another college student the chance to take his place that won’t beat women … we don’t need wife beaters and people that can’t control their temper as our football players. 

Now, in the Rice situation, I truly believed they done the right thing.  But let’s say for argument sake that they went with my son’s opinion, exactly where should we draw the line at what was “ok” and what was not?  This guy obviously has a temper problem, so when he got upset with his manager or other bosses, would it then be alright for him to beat them?  I mean, he was mad with his fiancé, so he was given permission to beat her … why should any of his other superiors be any different?  After all, they are the ones that write his checks and decided that it was ok to beat his fiancé.  We done exactly what we needed to, we drew the line at the beginning.  If we nip it in the bud, we won’t have any repercussions from it.  My son is still in the belief that he is going to be able to overcome this … I truly hope that the NFL teaches my son a lesson that I will never be able to.