By now many of you know that I am in South Korea for my CCS trip. I am having a lot of fun and the entire trip so far has been eye opening. My group is very different and I find myself floating around between the different people depending on the mood that I am in.
Last night my group and I went to Nanta. There is no way to really describe it. I personally think that it is a cross between the Blue Man Group and Stomp, but that may not be an accurate description seeing as I never seen the Blue Man Group.
America's 2008 presidential elections have always had clear front-runners. This year is something totally different. The Republican Party battled it out with Senator John McCain becoming the victor for his party. For a while I thought both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee had a chance but I guess America was clear who it wanted to run for the Republican Party. To be honest, I thought it would be cool to say, "Hello President Huckabee, how ya doin" but then again all of his values and goals for the United States really did not line up with mine. But still it would have been nice to say "Hey Huckabee."
Now the Democrats, on the other hand, have been in an all-out blood battle between Barcak Obama and Hilary Clinton. Neither will falter nor give in to the other candidate. As of right now Obama has 243 super delegates and Clinton has 263 of the super delegates. In pledge delegates Obama has 1,498 and Clinton has 1,333. This all means this election can be swayed in any way. Lets remember that the super delegates that have pledged their loyalty to either Obama or Clinton are not tied down. So these special super delegates will basically shatter the democratic process.
This battle can drag out all summer with primaries in May and June. Is this a battle for who will be the best person to lead our country or who will be the first to make history? There is no denying both of the Democratic candidates have the passion for the United States but the real question is who has the most honorable intentions.
Obama has published two books: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream and Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. He put everything out there for the future voters to consume. Clinton published her own autobiography, Living History. She, on the other hand, lived in the public eye for as long as I have been alive and she has made some idiotic moves in her campaign to make even the most optimistic Democrat question why she wants to be in office.
Obama and Clinton are resorting to dragging each other through the mud. The last debate was as if they were saying my policy is better than yours and my supporters are cooler than yours because they are younger and a part of a progressive movement that wants to see the nation move into a positive future.
Both Clinton and Obama still have something to prove. They both sound like smooth-talking preachers on their soap-boxes trying to out do each other. I feel it is time to move past the shouting and get down to what the U.S. citizens want for their country and stop letting a selected few decide who will run the country. Obama's booming voice for change and Clinton speeches have gone for what is best for our country to both of them blaming and responding to what the other candidate said. Just think they are two alley cats battling it out for the last scrap of food in the garbage can. When will the democrats stop fighting with one another and focus on their real enemy, McCain?
The time for change has come and Obama is the beacon of hope for our country; well that's what the majority of my college friends think anyway. I dub them Obamites who follow the messiah figure that is Obama. Barack Obama fills stadiums full of adoring supporters who come from everywhere to hear him speak. His supports come in droves with
Now this Obama movement has been around for a while, simmering in Illinois but it exploded in 2004. He dazzled as a powerful speaker who was formally introduced at the 2004 DNC while endorsing John Kerry. Now years later Obama and his followers the Obamites are combining forces to make him America's 44th president.
Who can blame the Obamites for following him and craving the change that he says will come if he takes office. My generation has matured while the Bush administration has been in office and refuses to fall for the same old crap and rallied around a man that promises to bring change to America he is inaugurated into office.
The Obamites are everywhere; they are the supermarket workers who bag your groceries, the executives in Manhattan offices and the college students sitting in the corner office who are wondering how they will pay for school the up coming year. The Obamites connect with him because he is their messiah, the man who will bring our country out of the recession, bring the U.S. troops back home from Iraq and create jobs for the jobless.
Now Obama did not make himself out to be this messiah figure but I highly doubt that his forgiving nature, dramatic speech and past can inevitably intertwine with the Christian messiah. The Obamites follow him because his change is clearer to them then the other presidential candidates.
In the end Obama has a young following that will come out in droves to the polls and vote for him. No hanging chads or out-of-order electronic voting machines will hold the Obamites back because they are eager for the change that he will bring to the nation if he is elected.
Lets make one thing clear I am not apart of the Scientology movement.
It has been a while sense I wrote here but it was for good reason. I simply had nothing to say. And today I do. As many of my readers many know I write for my school publication.
I wrote an article about Scientology and the persecution that they were receiving because of their religion. The thing is I don’t agree with their religion at all, but at the same time I do not condone bulling and terror at any cost.
Every main stream religion has gotten persecuted. Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc; do I really need to go on how people were/are being persecuted.
But in reality I have never hear of a religion that has copyrighted their text. I know that certain versions of the Bible have been copyrighted but secret text, and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach a higher level of your ‘own’ faith is ridiculous.
I am sorry that they are getting treating calls and being harassed but in reality their ‘church’ constitutes a cult. I do not condone harassment but what I am learning from people, read in the media, and journals this is not a religion that is healthy.
So for everyone who has e-mailed me or had questions about what the article actually said here it is along with other articles that have been written.
Anonymous terror against Scientology: unnamed group seeks to destroy the church of Scientology
Here are some other articles that have been written about the different things that have been happening.
These are articles that have been published by ABC News.
Hackers Hit Scientology With Online Attack
Scientology's Anonymous Critics: Who Are They?
Don't get me wrong I would love if you have questions or knowledge to share with me. I always encourage decent conversation.
For the last couple of weeks the Editor-in-Chief, Aaron has been traveling around Germany on his Cross Cultural and I have been doing what he has been doing for the Crusader for the last couple of weeks.
Last semester I would complain and say that I didn’t have enough to do and that I wanted more. I think I learned my lesson. I am really grateful that I don’t have a J-term class because if I did there would be no way for me to do the things that I have been doing for the paper and work at the same time.
When I started doing things I thought ‘oh I can do this no problem’ well I know that I can do it now that I am holding my last meeting by myself. There was a lot of work but the staff that this years paper has is amazing. This year the atmosphere is amazing. I am not saying that past years were horrible, but they were just different.
I am still wet behind the ears but I know that I can do it. Finding stories for writers and getting them the information they need is the easy part. Saying what should and should not be in the paper for that issue is a little hard for me to do. I don’t want to not put in someone’s article when they have worked so hard. Making space and finding space, and publishing the ‘good articles’ and the timely articles are always important.
What I am trying to say is that being the Editor-in-Chief is a hard job. I only took over that role for a couple of weeks with the help of the entire Crusader staff.
Think of it this way:
The editors here will go to the line for all the writers, and believe in them and help them find their own voice. But what some writers forget that all the editors risk themselves every single time a story is published. The writer may get back lash about what they wrote but the editor will feel it as well.
Later for now...
Your Rebel Crusader
There are many things that I could easily point out about this day. For one thing it is starting out on a good note. I just had one of the most entertaining conversations with a friend in the library today. He is an amazing guy and I wonder where he will be in the next five years.
The conversation was nothing important really. But at the same time it was important. We were talking about what play we were going to see when the Crusader staff goes to New York for spring break.
Have you ever heard of the play called ‘Avenue Q’? I have never heard of it until a couple of days ago when he brought it up. I was a little hesitant about watching it when I heard some of the names of the songs that were on the list.
But on a different note:
Our 35th President of the United States John Fitzgerald Kennedy held his first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television.
I wonder what was going through his head when all of this was going on. He was perhaps one of the handsomest and youngest presidents that the United States has seen. If things keep going the way that they have he might not be the only one.
The second thing I like to bring up us that Alexander Graham Bell established transcontinental telephone service. Seriously I want you to think about that what would many of us do if there were no Internet or cell phones with e-mail capabilities. With everything that I do there is no way I can get it done as fast with a stamp and an envelope.
But on another note Spring Arbor University is on the tail end of the January Term of this academic year. I am thankful for the break that I got. I don’t think that I would be able to handle the Crusader along with a class during J-Term.
I know that it’s been a while my faithful readers but to be honest there is nothing much to report until the up coming semesters starts at the end of this month. SAU is in the middle of the January term where students take one class for three or four weeks for three hours a day and do about a weeks work in a day. It is a crazy time. I am just waiting for the panic attacks to start.
Although I am not taking a class I am working in the library a couple hours a day. It’s been cool but at the same time it’s starting to get to me. Unless someone needs help with the computers or printing I am on the internet or playing games the entire time.
Last semester I would check the lab about every half hour or so but now it’s almost every twenty minutes. I am about to go nuts but I thought about a couple of things through my facebook, cnn, and abcnews time that I should update my journal.
I did in fact get some cool books over Christmas and I am really excited about them. I did start writing a little during break. There were different things that I put down on paper. It started out a articles for the paper then I started writing essays and short stories. I don’t think that I have the confidence to write a novel yet. More importantly I have not started writing that great American novel that many writers seem to want to do.
I think that I have a lot of ideas but not enough time to expand on them. I would love to just sit down and write all day and night but the reality is that it is not going to happen.
But as for the Arbor all is quite on the home front and noting seems to be happening at all.
I do have an idea for all of my faithful readers...be yourself...it sounds stupid but it makes more sense then you will ever know. Being you is the best advice someone gave me. Trying to be someone that you are not will end up hurting you more than the person that you are trying to please.
I have on the other hand started getting into the elections and I think that this presidential election is not only ground breaking, and historical but also crucial for this nation. It is important that for people to understand that right now that the treats of a recession is becoming a reality. Our government is holding emergency meetings. And was I was the only one not surprised that the Dow Jones dropped 400 points in the first minutes.
I am not sure how ling people can keep going on as if nothing is happening and that everything is going to be okay. In my opinion I think that our country needs new eyes and perspectives on everything. Let’s just hope that this election will produce someone that is willing to make change for the better of our ENTIRE country.
Your Rebel Crusader
Last weekend I had the chance to go to the National Christian Multicultural Student Leadership Conference. While I was there I learned so much from people of a different culture than mine. When I sign up and said that I would go the one thing that I thought it was going to be was a race thing and black and white people were going to be fighting and telling each other about injustice that feel is happening because of their race or because of this or that. The conference was not like that at all.
There were students from South Korea, Afghanistan, and countries that I have never heard of. It was a time of reflection and understanding. I know that there is some much that is happening in the word today, and I know that is a even ground for the worlds next leaders. I am not saying that the people that I encountered are going to be the next president or political figure of their country but they will influence their nation in some way.
Diversity or Multiculturalism is always a scary word to dig deep in and figure out what it means, but any nation that will not except diversity or change for the greater good will crumble over time.
I had a chance to record a short video with a friend on what it means for me to be a black woman in the world and diversity. Some of it was cut off because of the video camera we were using.
I just wish that one day that the world can look past all the bull and see that change is going to come whether you want it or not. But we all must remember that if we don't embrace the good change that can occur than it is inevitable that the bad will over come the good that everyone has built.
Personally wish that people will be able to embrace each other. I wish I knew what road change will take in the future.
Here is the interview.
on The Democrats' Messiah?