I learned that civil rights may have changed the world, however that doesn’t beat the iPod. While I love my iPod, I like equality more. I like that as a result of the Civil Rights movement, at least in the words of the law, we’re all equal. I like that I can marry my cliched soul mate now, which I wouldn’t have really been able to because he’s a different race. Though I would be in accurate to state we currently live in a world of true equality, at least we’re headed there soon. Hopefully.
Granted I say this, while away from my computer on my beloved smart-phone which probably wouldn’t exist without Jobs. But I love my Android more than I will ever love an iPhone, I love my iPod only because it’s better than the others, and I hate Pixar movies. I do appreciate Jobs art of not really creating anything new, but just making things a little bit better.
I didn’t mean this out of disrespect to someone who is a legend in his field, I meant this in awe of how we view importance in America. Personally I am more impressed by changes in our society that moves at a slower pace, than an impact on a field of technology that is in a constant state of change.
Today, reading the U.S.A Today I learned that the Tea Party and anything else political really makes me question ideals. Not just a little either, I really sit there wondering where people come up with some of this stuff.
Where do I even begin? It seems the Tea Party feels the government has too much control. They say the government over stepped its boundaries by mandating everyone has health insurance. As someone from Massachusetts, who has definitely felt the downside of this policy and doesn’t fully support it, I completely understand this. Then I’m stunned to learn most are Pro-life and seem to want to ban abortion. So, I try to talk myself through this. “The government can’t tell me to get health insurance, but abortion is a bad thing the government needs to ban”. Saying it aloud doesn’t make sense of it to me. So then I read most are against gay marriage. With that said, I can’t be told whether or not I have insurance but I can be told what to do if I’m pregnant and I can’t marry for love. Yup, I am sufficiently baffled.
Then I really read something that contorted my face into such a twist: there was a Tea Partier that felt we need to return back to the ideals of the constitution. Yes, I agree with you. Finally I found someone who made sense and they change my idea.of the tea party. Only then I read to a quote stating “no where does it say in the constitution that we need to separate church and state”. Really, no where?
I can forgive general hypocrisy of controlling citizens’ bodies. I can even forgive that they want to lessen government control and let states control their own education, but force schools to learn creationism alongside evolution. I can’t seem to ignore how the constitution doesn’t cause a separation between church and state. Unless I missed something in high school civics class, though I doubt I could even screw that up.
Something else I learned today: Being an American citizen that supports al-Qaeda is different from being a foreign grown one. In reading the Op-Ed section, one close to my heart because that and humorous columns were among my dream “to-do” list, I saw a reader comment on the American drone bombing of one of our own. He was angry that we decided to kill him without due process. He was an American, one of us. He deserved better. He deserves better than the other terrorists we stuff in camps to torture without due process? I remember people in an uproar when we started to try terrorists. I don’t understand the logic, at all.
The most important lesson I learned reading my complimentary copy of U.S.A today is why I avoid newspapers: Why I never read newspapers. I don’t think I learned anything of true value, except an incredible urge to become more cynical. That’s really what I needed, more reasons to feel cynical.