My Facebook Thoughts

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Influential Hogwash!

This morning on the news there was one of those headlines that makes you say, "WHAT?"

Apparently, Time magazine is getting ready for their "TIME Person of the Year 2010".

Currently there is a list of 25 people that we the voting public can choose from to help determine the "TIME Person of the Year 2010". Some names, I'll be honest, I had never heard of. Some names I recognized and can see being included in such an event. However, one name made my wife and I say, "WHAT?"

Lebron James

My wife was very quick to point out that James' major contribution to 2010 was basically moving. And when you trim away all the fat from the Lebron James Decision fiasco, all he did was move from Cleveland to Miami. That's it, nothing more nothing less.

Then we imagined what if another type of person, famous for moving, had the same type of fanfare Lebron James had. The U.S. soldier.

Imagine, if you will, a U.S. soldier, Private Dusty Banks. Private Banks has just completed basic training. His unit has finished with the highest honors possible. With that honor Banks can choose his first deployment. The nation has caught wind of his story and waits with baited breath as to where he will go.

Private Banks decides to team up with QVC to broadcast his "decision", LIVE! QVC hires Andy Rooney to "interview" Private Banks about his choice.

For months rumors fly around anticipating where he'll choose. Finally, the big night arrives. The lights go on, we're LIVE.

Andy Rooney: I'm not really sure why I'm here, but at my age it's good to be anywhere. I'm here to listen to where Private Dusty Banks has decided to go. Of course in my youth nobody cared where I was going just that I be home on time. Things are very different nowadays....

(Camera switches to Private Banks )

Private Banks: Thanks Mr. Rooney. These past few months have been wonderful. I've gotten many requests to join my fellow soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Korea and even Hawaii. All are great locations. But, I've decided to join my boys at Thule Air Base in Greenland.

AR: ...clearly they've never used or seen a typewriter.

(Fade to QVC Jewelry segment)

Obviously, this scenario would never happen. It's just confusing why TIME would include James on such a list. The list contains 23 other amazing people. (I'm not counting Lady Gaga either)
I would suggest you look the list over and decide for yourself who deserves the "honor".

Personally, I can think of 25 more deserving people. Where are the educators, the volunteers that went to Haiti or other areas of strife, nurses, foster parents, animal welfare workers, school volunteers, bloggers or jugglers?

The world is a fascinating place. I think it is important to honor those who actually make a difference. When you honor somebody it is important to put them in distinguished company. For the record, Lebron James agreed he does not belong on the TIME list. TIME might end up on the list of Top 25 Dumbest Lists Lists.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Truth?

I was thinking about something this week. There has been a lot of talk back and forth since the Mid-Term elections as to who won and who lost. I'm not going to rehash the arguments, but I want to discuss truth. The pundits have declared the Republicans the winners on Tuesday and statistics and numbers will confirm that Republicans did win.

But, I want to go deeper. I have, as I am prone to do, been involved with some online debating as to whether or not the Democrats & Obama are destroying our country. As you can imagine the battle lines were drawn and everybody stayed true to their side of each argument. But, somewhere deep down there has to be a truth. How do we get there?

Some media outlets that lean to the Right were pushing a story about a very expensive trip President Obama was taking to India. Then reports came out that the story may not have been credible. Well, many still believed the story and many did not despite common sense saying the story was false. Somewhere there is a truth about this story. There has to be truth in everything, right?

Why are we as a society so reluctant to know the truth? It goes beyond politics. You can see truth reluctance in many areas.

Lets take womans clothing. What the hell is a size 1?
How about college football. The BCS ignores teams that are undefeated as #1.
Kid's sports. Why play a game with scoring if you're not going to declare a winner?

Political Correctness.
Individuals that can't walk are physically challenged. I can't walk, no challenge.
Christmas time has to be called Holiday time. This is so not to offend non-Christians who generally participate and benefit from Christmas.
Indians were never from India so they are renamed Native-Americans. Which makes it difficult what to actually call an individual from India. They must be India-Indians or Dell Customer support.

Historically, when men or women have gone looking for the truth many might be directed to read the Bible. The Bible or good book is supposed to contain the word of God. By reading the Bible we should find what God would expect from us. This is good. We have a manual to follow. But, what happened during the Civil War? Both the North and South felt the Bible was telling them they were correct in fighting each other. Again, truth denied.

If you recall, earlier this week I received an email from my wife Donna's cousin Marian. There was a sentence full of truth,

"I have breast cancer & I am having surgery in December."

There is no hiding from that truth. Many of us, too many, of us have people in our lives that are dealing with cancer or some other type of debilitating disease. There are times I'm sure these folks would like to hide from their truth, but they don't. Another line from Marian's email said,

"I have great doctors & I know I will be fine."

That says to me Marian plans to fight her cancer with a positive mental attitude. That's truth. Many of my family and friends have sent their prayers for Marian. Many have never met her and don't know her, yet they are praying for her health. That truth.

When you scrape away all the nonsense we surround ourselves with people will help other people. We know that helping others is truly the right thing to do.

So when I go looking for truth I need only to look to my friends and family. Together we may not know the truth, but I know with each other's help we'll find it.