Permission To Think

In this election, the Democratic party is going to make history. The only uncertainty is just what kind of history it is going to make.

Hillary Clinton, if nominated, will become the first woman nominated for President by a major political party. If she succeeds, she will become the first woman to be President of the United States of America.

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There is no doubt that this is and would be significant. It would be viewed as a huge symbol of equality and forward thinking. There is no doubt that it is an important step for our country to take.

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There is just one problem: Hillary Clinton is not the best candidate.

Looking back through history, Barack Obama does not resemble a traditional U.S. President. But with the state of this country the way it is, this is a good thing.

You see, what Barack Obama represents is much bigger than who he is. With 90% of his campaign being financed by small contributions from citizens, as opposed to corporations or special interests, Obama really is a representative of the people, above the influence of campaign contributors who have anything but the best intentions of this country at heart.

Barack Obama matters because what he stands for is bigger than himself. What he represents is our nation’s need for hope. Hope that things can get better. Hope that people can be better. Hope that it is not too late to save the world.

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And those of us with that hope in our hearts are the only ones who can see it through. Don’t just feel it, live it.

Crime of the Century is a term you don’t hear very often. These days, the most sensational news is in reference to murder and political/celebrity scandal. Gone are the days of breaking into a bank vault, hijacking a train, or stealing the Mona Lisa.

No, the times have changed. While policies are put into place that reduce our rights to privacy even further, those in power do all they can to ensure that their crimes never see the light of day. There’s just one problem:

The Crime of the Century is occurring as we speak, and in plain view.

The Bush Administration has, for years, taken steps necessary to begin closing down our free society. And the truth is they are very, very close to doing it. Closer than most people would ever imagine.

I’ll start with the USA PATRIOT Act. No, those letters aren’t capitalized because I’m trying to make them stand out. They are capitlized because the name is an acronym. Yes, someone took the time to make sure they could name this act in such a way that it would spell out USA PATRIOT. This is what the act is called: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Catchy, huh?

This is an Act that can appear to have good intentions, but is extremely dangerous under the wrong control. Any Act that can be used improperly becomes useless. Gone, too, are the days when we trusted our political leaders. I will not go into details about what this Act does and does not do. There is plenty of explanation, discussion, criticism and praise of this document available on the Internet that there’s nothing about it I can say that hasn’t already been said. What I will emphasize is this: Policy that restricts liberty can not also protect it.

However, here we are 6 years later, and life goes on. It is my belief that the American people have not woken up to what is going on because, for most of us, our day to day life has not siginificantly changed. Sure, gas prices are the highest they’ve been, and for some reason you can’t bring a water bottle on an airplane unless it’s purchased after you get through security, where they can charge you a 3 dollar premium. But all in all, life has gone on. There haven’t been anymore attacks on American soil, so slowly we can begin to melt into the pop culture obsessed nation that we were on 9/10. The only problem is that our lives will change, and by the time they do, it may be too late to go back. How do I know this, you ask? Simple: S. 1959.

S. 1959 is the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007компютри втора употреба. Once again, the name sounds good, right? Who wouln’t want to prevent radical violence and homegrown terror? The only problem is that it violates the First Amendment. What you can not tell from the title alone is what counts as homegrown terror, and what counts as violence. You see, if I spoke negatively about, say, the President of the United States of America, I could be labeled a terrorist for my unpatriotic views. Aren’t we fighting a war right this second in a country whose former dictator was so evil that he murdered citizens who did not approve of him? Is this how that begins? And violence, as defined by this document, refers to ideological violence, otherwise known as bad thoughts.

This act is designed to punish thought and speech based on a subjective definition. Still think this is making us safer?

Surprisingly, this Act has already passed the House of Representatives, and is in the Senate right now. This is the beginning of the end of our free society.

If you’ve made it this far, perhaps you’ve already heard of Naomi Wolf. If you haven’t, you should check out this post by her documenting 10 Steps To Close Down an Open Society. Believe it or not, S. 1959 is step 9.

It is late in the game, but that does not mean too late. If we want change, we are going to need to do more than just read about the decline of our liberty. It is time to be involved. It is time to remind the government that they are in place to serve the people, not the other way around.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, the Crime of the Century is the theft of the freedom of every U.S. Citizen. We have the opportunity to catch the crime in action. We have the opportunity to stop it. We have the opportunity to be a truly free society.

BE STRONG. BE INVOLVED. TAKE BACK YOUR COUNTRY.

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Few things so entirely represent the power of our own minds than Stress.

While stress can refer to physical strain or auditory emphasis, the most common use of the word relates to the following definition: Importance or significance attached to a thing.

What is implied with that, and the point I’d like to stress (ha), is that the importance or significance attached to this “thing” is man made, and thus man controlled. Being that Stress is a mental occurrence with physical consequences, it stands to reason that being able to control that occurrence would be tremendously beneficial.

The good news? Controlling its occurrence is as simple as choosing not to let it happen.

Think about it. Most of the time that we experience stress, it is because we are worried. More specifically, we are worried about things that we feel like we can not control.

While we might be upset about not being in control of something in our own lives, we must also understand that allowing stress to make us sick about this fact is only adding to the problem. My favorite example regarding this has to do with being in an airport. When a flight is significantly delayed, the most common reaction to this news is stress. We worry about what time we will be home. Perhaps there were plans that relied on us being back by a certain time. All of this compounds together to “stress us out”. But my question is this: why?

We can not control that the flight is delayed. We can not control that this has caused what ever problems that it has. This is also not something we could have prevented. It is simply a fact, not open to opinion.

The trick is to accept this situation as an unfortunate fact as quickly as possible, and then carry on with your life. The only thing being stressed about it will achieve is to make you uncomfortable, unfocused, sick, and ruin your centered state of mind. It will improve nothing.

Quite simply: Stress is useless. Remove it from your life.

It’s an amazing feeling realizing who you’re meant to be, and that you’re becoming that person. For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying my best to become a better person. In some ways, I’ve still got a lot of growth left, but in others, I’m learning that life is both too short and too pointless to fret about things too much. I mean, really, what is the point in the long run?

Ironically enough, my latest step towards enlightenment came from thinking about a certain video game. For any of you that know me well enough, you’ll know that one of my room mates and some of my other friends play the game World of Warcraft. Some argue that they play it too much, which I’ll get to in a second. My biggest issue with this game is that it has no real point. In most video games, you are striving for something. You want to rid the world of evil, save the princess, finish first. And that’s when the game ends. The game ends once you’ve finished the one goal you set out to complete. World of Warcraft is not like this. There are many, many tasks, but it never ends. There is a “boss” that is the hardest to beat, but the game does not end once you beat that character. Therefore, there is no point to the game, or at least, no climax. It struck me, that Warcraft, the thing that people argue is a waste of time, is much closer to real life than any other video game out there.

Stay with me on this one.

What is the point of life? We grow up, we go to school, to go to school, to go to school, to get a job, which will likely lead to others. Then we’ll retire, and just hang out until we die. The first 4-6 years are free. Then we spend at least the next 16 in school, then another 40 or 50 working. Then we’ll have just enough time to do everything we wanted to do, but without the energy to do it. Most of us will never be rich enough to have everything we want. Life is going to be hard work. And for what reason? To buy stuff? To buy things that we think will make us happy? Well they won’t. Life is more than things. Actually, that’s incorrect to say. Life isn’t more than things because life isn’t things in the first place.

You see, if this is the mentality that you have, then you will live a life exactly like someone playing World of Warcraft. You’ll spend countless hours and countless missed opportunities for something real in the hopes of getting all the items that you want that will make you complete. But when it’s all over, you’ll wake up and realize you have nothing real to show for your work. Nothing that means anything to anyone outside of your shallow world.

So what’s left? Accepting that we’ve only got one shot at this life, and we can either make it about ourselves, or make it about each other. Either way, you must ask yourself, on your death bed, what life do you want to flash before your eyes? And what regrets are you willing to die with?

(Also, be careful that your real life doesn’t follow this path before denouncing someone’s video game life, for which is the greater loss?)

Today, this site is a newborn.

I look forward to the future when this site becomes a catalyst for change.

I used to think that anyone that said they had a calling in life was a little bit crazy. I mean, how do you just feel pulled to do one thing. It seems so confining. I believed this, until I had my own.

Recently (and I say recently relatively, this has been for a year or two now), I had one of my own. Or I’m having one. However it works.

My calling? Do everything in my power to leave this world better than I entered it. Am i crazy? I hope not. Just optimistic.

Today I want to share with you my first major breakthrough: Everyone is capable of greatness if they just ignore their own excuses. It is my belief that every single person knows the right decision to make in every situation. So why are so many bad decisions made? Things like excuses, justifications, or compromises. We know the right answer, but it’s often hard, so we convince ourselves that that’s the wrong answer. We find a way to trick our mind to justify the easier choice. We make that the best choice, and we pay the consequences for that, whether those consequences are external or just in our minds (ie. guilt).

I speak from experience when I say that making the choice that you know is right is not only far more satisfying, but it becomes much easier to make the more you make it. Maybe it’s the high that’s associated with knowing that the choice you made has made you a better human being.

Why am I bringing this up now? Lately I’ve become more and more intolerant of people not living up to their potential.

THIS IS YOUR ONLY SHOT AT LIFE. EVERY DAY YOU DON’T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IS ONE LESS DAY TO BE TRULY HAPPY. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.

STOP WASTING TIME.

I wanted to share with you all an event that happened recently that made me smile. I was driving down Chapman Ave., on my way to work. The car in front of me started to change lanes to the right, completely oblivious of a car in the exact spot it was headed. The car honked, and the oblivious guy shot back into our lane.

At this point we had gotten ahead of the car that almost got hit, and I was thinking, oh man, when these two cars pass each other, this guy is going to flip him off big time. To my surprise, the motorist simply gave a friendly wave.

This made me really happy. This guy knew that the other car hadn’t done this on purpose. And, in fact, probably knew that we’ve all had close calls like that before, and not because we’re bad drivers, it just happens. This driver was wise enough to know that there was nothing to be gained by flipping the other guy off.

When we’re young, we’re taught forgiveness. Over time, we lose this ability, and start to hold grudges. But doing this has never helped any situation. If we can’t trust that people are ultimately good, and thus worthy of second chances, then why bother with creating friendships with anyone to begin with?

This man made me smile. His quick reaction of forgiveness gives me hope for the rest of us.