Speech manipulated for political reasons

Speech manipulated for political reasons

One idea of our nation is that of strong, harmonious communities in which each individual is has the opportunity to grow and flourish. The wellness of the community depends on the wellness of every individual within the community, for the whole is a reflection of its parts. Thus, to insure our safety, we know that we must insure the safety of others.


Another idea of our nation is that of a divided nation, full of fearful citizens threatened by a multitude of dangers. In our fear, we follow who ever has the most might, even when it means our bondage. Nowhere is safe, for the danger lies within us and we carry it wherever we go.


We make the world as we perceive it. History has demonstrated time and again that taking on extremist beliefs comes at a high personal and national price. Are we headed there once again, this time led by conservatives and liberals alike?


The world is our classroom. The fundamental truth we come to learn is that we are not separate. We cannot destroy the truth, but we can deny it.


COMMENT

Obviously, extremists of either persuasion will be followed by those who are not willing to study and form their own informed and educated opinion. I prefer to think that those who do care enough to study and participate in our government through citizen leadership are our best guarantee for the future of this country.

Change Your Attitude

Change Your Attitude

Unfortunately, the power of negative thoughts can be strong in times of uncertainty and strife. However, maintaining a negative attitude does more harm than good. Changing your attitude can truly change your life, and one of the easiest ways to change your attitude is through the power of prayer. Praying a short daily prayer or any of the common prayers on a regular basis will help to improve your attitude. Prayer allows for a new perspective and grants you the power to see what you can and cannot change.

In order to change your attitude, you must turn to scripture for a new perspective. In the bible, you are encouraged to "be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Negative thoughts seem to be a result of an attachment to the past and remaining in an unproductive frame of mind. This passage calls for a renewal of your mind and thinking. Rather than being caught up with what the world expects from you, you should remember what God wants for you. Evaluate the situations that are causing you stress, as well as your corresponding attitude. Use prayer to gain strength from God and renew your point of view.

Prayer also helps you realize what you can and cannot change. If you truly want to change your attitude, this realization is essential. Many find that the Serenity Prayer helps to do this. Reciting "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference" will help focus your mind on these issues. Most negative thinking stems from our inability to change our situations. By praying for clarity regarding these things, you will soon have a better idea of the power you personally hold. That way, you won't waste precious time with a negative attitude.

In order to change your attitude, you must make a conscious effort to use prayer on a regular basis. Prayer helps renew your point of view and realize what is or isn't in your hands. If you're looking for support with these issues, the house of prayer is a place of great strength.

Sensitivity to Others

Sensitivity to Others

1. Write four sentences on what you think sensitivity to others means.

2. What advantages are there to being sensitive to others' feelings and to what others think?
(Write at least four sentences.)

3. What do you think of people who "can't take a hint" and bother you even though you want
them to leave you alone? They are the same kind of people who follow you around even when
you don't want them to. (Again, write at least four sentences on what you think.)

4. What kinds of things happen to people who are not sensitive to other people's feelings?
5. Please write six sentences describing an example of being sensitive to others.

6. Is kicking, poking, hitting, tickling or touching other people being sensitive to them? Why or

why not?

7. If you ate what was left of a good dinner, even though one of the youth in your home had not

eaten, what are you not doing?

Why not?

8. Is letting someone borrow your pen show that you are sensitive to others? Why?

9. What does the saying "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" have to do with

being sensitive to others?

What Gives Us Happiness?

What Gives Us Happiness?

"Happiness is within us." This statement is very true. We can get up in the morning and thank God for another day that he has given us, or we can look at it and dread what we think that might happen. We have to expect for God to bless us and give us another day to celebrate life. If you expect that everything is going to be negative, then that is just what you probably will have.

Trust in the Lord to take care of problems and needs and do the very best you know how to do, and the positive things will happen. Being positive gives us strength to expand our inner self, and helps us achieve. This brings out our inner happiness, and our lives will be full of contentment.

Life is full of worries and problems, but we can not let them consume us. People will hurt us, and sometimes it is knowingly, and sometimes it is unknowingly, but we have to ask God to help us get past it, and be forgiving and go on. God has a way of taking care of people who do us wrong in His own time. Every day will not be easy, but we have a higher power that we can turn to, and he is greater than any opposition we can face.

We can lose a dear family member or friend, and we feel that life will not go on without them. Given time, we begin to see that we can make it without this person. We have to cling to our faith that someday we will again be reunited in a place where there will be no sadness and loneliness. Thinking positive brings confidence and happiness.

Being Joyful and Peaceful

Being Joyful and Peaceful

Many people today are looking for a peaceful and joyful life. Unfortunately, due to the busy schedules we all have, we sometimes forget to slow down and relax, therefore becoming stressed out and overwhelmed. This can often lead to physical and psychological problems. So how do we learn to find peace and joy in our lives?

People may not always be joyful and peaceful; however, they know the best way to get those feelings is to count on God. They remember to thank the Lord every day for the blessings they have. They are grateful for the little things in life, such as the morning sun, the birds singing, their families, and their own lives. They think of each day as a gift. The act of being grateful can improve your happiness, therefore making life less stressful. Keep track of the things you should be grateful for in a journal, then look back on it and think of how fortunate you have been.

Remember to keep things simple; if we over think or try to make things greater than they should be, it causes a lot of extra effort and time. Look for the good things in all situations. Every cloud has a silver lining, we just need to look for it. Plan ahead and keep organized; if we make a schedule and know what we need to do, it will make us less anxious about our time. All these tips will eventually become a part of your daily routine and over time you will become a happier, healthier, more grateful individual, which will inevitably make you more joyful and peaceful.

Confidence Building Techniques

Confidence Building Techniques

Confidence building techniques are often overlooked, even though they can be vital to helping someone overcome confidence issues. Confidence problems can stem from many different places but a lot of them seem to be self-imposed judgments that lack any real substance.

The first thing a person needs to do to build confidence is recognize faults and insecurities, then accept them. Nobody is perfect and we all have faults. It is important to realize this and not let it affect how you look at yourself overall. Something as simple as calling them "quirks" instead of "faults" can help you to look at them as part of who you are, not what you are. If you have trouble getting past your problems, try to look at your successes instead.

Focusing on your successes in life can help you to move past insecurities. Look back at the past and the things you have accomplished. Don't take your accomplishments lightly, you did it and that is something to be proud of. It is easy to write off your past accomplishments but don't let yourself.

If someone gives you a compliment accept it. Assume that they mean it wholeheartedly or they wouldn't be saying it. Saying things like "Yeah right" will only alienate them and make them withhold compliments in the future. Let the compliments build up your confidence and thank them graciously.

Try new things and work on talents you have already developed. If you can improve your skills then it is likely to help build your confidence. Trying new things will help you to find new hobbies and perhaps something you are extraordinary at; you never know until you try it!

If all else fails you can pretend to be confident. This may sound silly, but if you pretend long enough you may convince yourself that it is the truth. Act as if you are the most confident person you can be, and see what happens; you may be pleasantly surprised. Positive thinking is an extremely effective way of building your self-confidence as well.

American values have been declining and continue to decline

American values have been declining and continue to decline

As entertainers, corporations, and even the government pander to the lowest common denominator, American life becomes increasingly vicarious, prefabricated, and bereft of meaning. Let us examines contemporary American consciousness, considering the factors that have driven society toward gossip and sensationalism at the cost of substance and depth.

Celebrity news, video games, cookie-cutter schools, and shopping, shopping, shopping.
We should be concerned with the growing epidemic of acrimony, superficiality, attention deficit disorder, and complaints of ennui. We should ask for the reasons why American children have expressed their confused rage with deadly weapons, why a president boasts that he earned Cs in college, and why society has drifted into craving entertainment laced with violence and cheap thrills. This is a provocative subject for concerned citizens, as well as for scholars and researchers involved with contemporary American culture and society.

A lot of deep thinkers believe that Americans have come loose from their moral underpinnings, and that our basic institutions - government, neighborhoods, civic associations, schools, and, most important, our families - are coming apart as a result.

Where on earth do these social scientists get the idea that things are going so wrong?

Well, in large part they get it from listening to Americans, 87 percent of whom in one recent poll said they fear there is something fundamentally wrong with America's moral condition.

And this is no short-term blip triggered by President Clinton's extramarital adventures. According to Daniel Yankelovich, an icon of American public opinion polling, huge majorities of Americans have for some time believed that the nation is ``in a long-term moral decline."

A widely held belief has emerged that this decline threatens democracy itself, since freedom without morality quickly deteriorates into a society filled with violence and perversion, which increasingly seems to be what we have.

The Civil Renewal council's Call, called for making divorces harder to get, giving benefits to parents who stay home with their children, making it easier for ``faith-based" organizations to provide social services, allowing tax credits for donations to social service agencies, ending state-sponsored gambling, providing more education about the arts and more choices for parents in selecting schools, not to mention curtailing sex and violence on television.

There's much in what he says. The Call's argument that freedom without morality inevitably becomes merely the liberty to perpetrate evil is complex and subtle.

America was losing ``the habits of the heart" that once protected the nation against the wretched excesses democracy might normally entail, such as the atomization of society into hedonistic individualism, or the tyranny of the majorities.

Our contention that today we may be forgetting those protective habits fits a lot of available evidence of civic and social decline, such as the drop in voter participation, the rise in divorce, and the surge in youth violence.

Overall, we found that Americans were doing less of just about everything together, and were, quite possibly as a result, becoming more distrustful of their government - and one another.

Former Judge Robert Bork takes perhaps the darkest view in Slouching Toward Gomorrah, contending that America's slide into the moral abyss is probably irreversible, and questioning the optimistic premise about the basic goodness of human beings on which the nation was founded.

All the indicators of social health continued to decline. I looked back and saw that they had been declining for thirty years or more, no matter what the economy was doing or who was president.