Journal Entry 2013

My heart was heavy with despair over the several weeks after the election.  The noble United States has been sinking into a quagmire of desecration for some time.  The great country which founded by men who were religious and believed in God.  They created a wonderful form of government that would  protect freedom of religion and speech.Which really put the government into the hands of the people.

What is even more alarming to me is the number of people that are proud to say they voted for Donald Trump.  These people completely ignore the deplorable actions this man has done in his life.  However, I would be saying similar things if Hillary had been elected.  All of the Hollywood types would have been declaring victory.  The fact that many of the rich and famous wanted Hillary to win should be a warning to anyone.

How did we get to this point where we were given the choice to pick to evil and wicked people as our leader.  Even more alarming is the realization that we are now treading in very dangerous water.  This is why I am alarmed; It is obvious the majority of people in our country are now choosing wickedness over righteousness.

The founders believed that the majority of people will choose the right.  That is why they set up the government in the way they did.  They did not want a small group of people with evil intentions to be running the country.  However, when the majority of people are evil they will choose evil leaders.  The evil leaders will corrupt the laws so that the wickedness will go unpunished and the righteous will be condemned for trying to do what is right.

Look at the laws of our country now.  Adultery may not be completely legal, but it is not punished.  Men can father children and completely walk away from that responsibility.  These things are devastating our society It is creating a giant class of single parent households. Most financial companies today are set up to take advantage of these poor, the uneducated and weak of society.  Basically, the poor, the widow and the fatherless.  Murder is not severely punished in this country.

People complain that religion is too restrictive and that they should not be constrained by principles that keep them from having a good time.  More and more people want to legalize and have less laws against addictive substances.  The irony about Alcohol, Tobacco and Marijuana is that once people are addicted to these substances they have given up the freedom they complained religion was denying them.  They cannot stop, they cannot give it up and they cannot quit paying for their slavery.

The truth of this matter is that the laws have not suddenly become corrupted.  This did not happen over the last four years or the last eight years.  This corrupting of our laws and standards has been happening for many years. It is just now alarmingly more obvious that majority of people in this once wonderful country are not choosing the right.

As prophecied by Mosiah, “And if the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.” (Mosiah 29:27)

I realize what I write is not going to make any difference because I am not someone that people listen to.  No one really reads this and no one probably ever will.  However, I am going to write it anyway.

The solution to this problem is choosing the right leader.  That leader is Jesus Christ.  We need to look to him for inspiration we need to more fully follow his example.

My belief is that all people know there is a God.  The reason they try and convince themselves that there is not a God is because if they believe  if there is no God then there are no rules.  They believe that if there are no rules they will be happy.  Happiness does not come from lack of rules.  Happiness does not come from lack of restraint.  Happiness does not come from anarchy.

Reality shows there are consequences to actions.  If you get addicted to substances it will severely limit your access to happiness. Interestingly enough,  Following the teachings of Jesus will keep us from the slavery of addiction.  Following the teachings of Jesus Christ will keep us from the devastating effects of heartache, sorrow and affliction that come from fornication and adultery.  Following the teachings of Jesus Christ will keep us from the isolation and paranoia that comes from greed.

People like to believe the lake of rules will make them happy.  It is easy to prove that having rules and living by those rules is what will bring real happiness.

We need to choose Jesus as our leader.  I will continue to choose him as my leader because I know in the end that is what is going to bring me real happiness.  And I know that is the real purpose to my life and to my  existence is to find the way to be the most happy.

http://climatenexus.org/net-metering-fight-understanding-latest-issue-nation%E2%80%99s-rapidly-changing-electricity-market

Education throughout the world is on the precipice of quantum leap in education.  We are starting to seeing the magma being spewed from the fiery depths of the volcano.  The earthquake has already happened the crashing waves of the internet have engulfed an already beleaguered education system.   As with all catastrophes there will be casualties, but more exciting is the great opportunity to reach out and help others and build a better and much more grand future.

Here is how I got started thinking about this;

I read an article today about a teacher feeling overwhelmed that there was never enough time, resources or help to get everything done that he needed.   I can understand the feeling.  Back a couple of years ago I taught a couple of college classes.  Both of them required me to teach them graphics arts software.   Just as the teacher in the article I felt I didn’t have the resources to give them the experience they were going to need in the real world.  I felt I was just barely staying ahead and felt I cold do a much better job.   Then I was given the opportunity to make a lot more money working for a company and so I didn’t get the opportunity to continue my teaching.  Then I got into an MBA program that was all online.   After going through that program I realized that there are tons and tons of resources that teachers can use to help each student have a better learning experience.

Instead of complaining that we don’t have enough we need to be looking to the resources that can give us a much better opportunity to learn than was ever available in the past.   There is way more than enough on the internet to go around.

The future is now.  The abundant education is upon us.  We need to be rejoicing because of the wonderful innovative age in which we live.

Here are a couple of examples of things that can help kids learn.

Free Classes from MIT

Free Technology Classes from Udacity

Learning about anything from Khan Academy

Here is the article. that started the discussion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-greene/the-hardest-part-teaching_b_5554448.html

Today is my one year anniversary of buying my Nissan Leaf. So I thought I would do some math to figure out how much money it cost me to drive this year with my EV.  On average it cost me about $0.84 cents a day to drive my car.  The gas price at 3.50 a gallon would have cost me $4.37 day.

It would be cool to get solar to power my car, but at $10,000 dollars it would take over 30 years to recoup the cost.

I read an extremely hopeless article today in the New York Times 50 Years Into the War on Poverty, Hardship Hits Back.  While reading the article I was thinking that education, and especially religious education will help change the lives of these people.

It was interesting to read a comment from an author titled “Scared Academic”  This person said they believed;

If the people of a region have nothing of value to trade, poverty reigns. Those that have the means to physically escape do so at the earliest opportunity; the rest engage in the only other means of escapism that is available to them – crime, drugs, alcohol, sex, hypersomnia, overeating, religious faith.

Subtly this person throughs “Religious Faith” in the list with crime, drugs, alcohol, sex and over eating.

They conclude with;

Education can in time eliminate ignorance and racism, however the gradual transfer of our nations wealth into the hands of the richest 1%, guarantee that these poor regions will not only remain poor, but that other regions will likewise suffer similar fates as they too are similarly robbed.

I believe Education is the key to overcoming poverty. However,  to  throw “Religious Faith” in with same categories of drugs, alcohol, sex and overeating?
Religion, and more specifically Christianity, are the principles for which the United States of America was built. Every large Christian organization encourages education. If people seek power they are going to discourage people to be educated, especially religious education. Look at all the people throughout the world, that are much worse off than the poorest of Americans, that live in countries that discourage education and freedom of religion.

Education is the difference between poverty and abundance. Freedom for religious education is one of the things that made the United States great and will keep people free, empowered and prosperous.