All Things Hold Together

Here’s a quote from a University of Vermont student:

He has a right to be here, but I think it is a very limited First Amendment right.

Unbeknownst to me, the First Amendment contains a clause that limits the rights of those engaging in “diatribe,” subject to the opinion of the aforementioned college student, of course. I doubt this clause applies to the endless diatribe he encounters on campus aimed at the right.

Now, the back story.

The alternate title of this post was: Evangelism 101: How NOT to Share the Gospel.

This morning, The Burlington Free Press had a story about two evangelists from New Orleans who are traveling around to colleges calling for people to repent and be saved. The problem, in my opinion, is that they carry signs that read:

“Repent Sinner. Surrender all to Jesus.” On the flip side was written a laundry list of people to watch out for. Among them, “Jesus mockers, homos and lesbos, pornofreaks, drunkards and Muslims.”

Now I know that there are lots of different ways to share the Good News and that there are a multitude of interpretations of what not to do. I seriously do not think that I know everything, or even anything, for that matter, about the best way to do it. But, I think it goes without saying that the in your face tactics tend not to work.

Exhibit A: “We had one salvation in California,” Breaud said. (Okay, so they work a tiny fraction of the time.)

Worse yet, such tactics kind of hurt the efforts of the rest of us to share our faith, or even just to live with out being hated and harassed.

I’m just sayin’.

Back to the students. I didn’t realize that there was such a thing as limited First Amendment rights, as it applies to voicing a point of view. According to the article, the student in question “said he is all for free speech, but he draws the line at ‘bigoted nonsense’”

Um, with all due respect kiddo, free speech applies to bigoted nonsense, too. How else would the brilliant folks in the comments of the online article be able to compare peaceful evangelism with suicide bombing jihadists. Bigoted nonsense abounds in public discourse these days. There’s enough to go around. If we limit free speech on anyone, we limit it on everyone. This is so basic and fundamental, I feel like it needs no further elaboration.

What on earth are colleges teaching these kids?

That was rhetorical. I went to UVM. I know what they are teaching. The real question is, why are parents still paying for it?

This is a couple of days old, but I just had to comment on this New York Times Op-Ed piece by Linda Hirshman, titled ever so subtly, “Off to Work She Should Go.” Come on, tell us what you really think women should do with their own lives.

Basically, Hirshman was able to deny that more women wanted to stay at home to raise their children by convincing herself that it was only due to the recession. Now there is a study out showing that even though the recession is over, those women are still stay-at-homes.

In order to save herself from cognitive dissonance, she has invented a new explanation: women are not working because it would put their family into a higher tax bracket. Yeah. That’s it.

Her conclusion is a call to action:

Labor statistics are always couched in such dry language, but it reveals a powerful reality: working mothers, rich and poor, struggle with their competing commitments. Now that we have seen the reality, it is time to address it.

Interestingly, addressing it for her does not mean creating a world that supports a woman in the life that she chooses as best for herself and her family. In her mind, a woman only stays at home because the hurdles blocking her from what she really wants - to work - are too high.

I have to laugh at this. Just recently we were having a bit of a problem with our oldest son respecting my authority. He was challenging me when my husband was not home. Bob and I talked about what we were going to do if I could not regain control over him. He suggested that I to go to work so he can stay home. With the degree and skill set I have, and the drive, I could probably earn as much as he does, if I went back to work, he suggested. Although, we have no way to know if that is true.

The funny thing is, when I did start to get things back under control here at home, he let me know that the invitation is still open. He would not mind trying the homeschool dad role, while I go back to work. Here I have an open opportunity to get back into the working world, but I do not want any part of it.

One thing that struck me when I was reading this is that women who work actually need women who stay home. The quality of schools and child care programs is only as good as the parents who can volunteer to make them the best place possible.

That doesn’t really apply to me, obviously, since I homeschool.

I thought the Mommy Wars were supposed to be over. We women were supposed to respect each other’s choices.

I guess that only applies to those of us on the stay-at-home side.

There’s no respect in this line:

Should we care if women leave the work force? Yes, because participation in public life allows women to use their talents and to powerfully affect society.

Really? I can think of no job that will allow me to more powerfully affect society than I can by raising the next generation with the values that are lacking in our society today.

But that’s just me.

Okay, I know I ditched the all-politics blog to focus on the more important things in life, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop linking to the Carnival of Principled Government.

I cannot believe this woman just had a baby and still finds the time to blog and blog well, at that.

Speaking of my all politics blog, I was checking my final site stats for She’s Right and I topped 31,000 hits (total). Not bad for a year old Vermont politics blog.

Boy, it sure is hard to go from that to a 10-readers-a-day new blog. Boo-hoo, right? I know, I know. Get over it. Hey, on the bright side, at least there are only like 10 people listening to me whine right now.

I was just reading this ridiculous story about employers praising the Me Generation workers in order to keep their self-esteem up. I don’t even know where to begin commenting on this. It is so unbelievably stupid.

I couldn’t even finish reading it. Once I got to this part, I had to stop.

Employers are finding ways to adjust. Sure, there are still plenty of surly managers who offer little or no positive feedback, but many withholders are now joining America’s praise parade to hold on to young workers. They’re being taught by employee-retention consultants such as Mark Holmes, who encourages employers to give away baseball bats with engravings (”Thanks for a home-run job”) or to write notes to employees’ kids (”Thanks for letting dad work here. He’s terrific!”)

My mind went off on a tangent of, If Bob’s employer ever did such an asinine thing as to actually encourage our children to think they are letting him work there, like they have any such control over our lives, he would have to quit, and I just called it quits on the article.

This reminded me of something that happened in the grocery store once with The D. He was really good, after a phase of being a pain in the store, so I said, You did a nice job behaving today. He replied, Can I get a candy bar, since I did such a nice job behaving today?

I said, No, we don’t deserve a reward for doing what we are supposed to do anyway. You did a nice job and I am proud of you for the improvement, but this is what you should have been doing all along. Rewards are for when you do something extra.

There was a woman standing behind us who looked aghast. Apparently, she did not agree with what I said. I just remember thinking, I hope she doesn’t have any kids.

One of my first lessons learned in homeschooling was that my children had had their self-esteem decimated by the over-praise of the public school. When they received praise that they did not deserve, it made them feel uncomfortable and less confident. Worse than that, they started having a problem believing anything good that was said about them, even when it was warranted.

I worry about what the future holds when we are now faced with young adults whose self-worth and psychological well-being depends on constant praise.

It’s a scary thought.

(Hat tip: Crunchy Con)

Man. I was just doing one of those stupid online quizzes and when I had to check off my age group, I had the unfortunate realization that, since my birthday was two weeks ago, I am no longer in the 25-30 age bracket. Ugh!

Sprittibee is hosting this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling. The theme? What else, bees!

Stop on over and check out the best posts the homeschool blogging community has to offer. It’s a great place to *meet* other homeschoolers and learn about what they are doing.

My podcast post is in there, too.

Many thanks to Sprittibee for such a beautiful job hosting.

Last Friday, on my cable access show, “She’s Right,” I discussed homeschooling as an educational alternative and went over the homeschooling laws in the state of Vermont.

You can listen to the podcast here. The program is just under 30 minutes.

I talk a little bit about the homeschooling movement in general and why people homeschool. Then, I move on to talk specifically about how to enroll in the home study program in Vermont, what the legal requirements are in the state.

I just listened to it. It’s not half bad. I do say “um” a lot, though.

Technorati tags: homeschooling, home school, homeschooling in Vermont

Last November, I posted in my old blog about a squirrel that came to our (second story) porch. We fed him a huge dried out sunflower head from our garden and he became our friend for life…or at least until the winter set in.

Our friend is back now. He came by today. I really think it is the same squirrel because he came right up to our open sliding glass door and was not afraid of us.

I tossed him a handful of walnuts. He loved them. He should have, they were organic and pricey.

Here are a couple of pictures.

A funny thing just happened. Little E was looking at the pictures in this post and he asked, “Is that the girl squirrel?” “How do you know it’s a girl,” I asked in return.

“Because when [the D] looked out there once, he saw where she milks her babies.”