The Great Debaters

I went and saw this movie back when it was in theaters and really enjoyed it so I bought it earlier and just got done watching it. I know in an earlier post I put it as I think my number 3 favorite movie of 2007, but it could be even higher. It is not as artistic as Juno or Atonement, but it delivers a message that makes you feel. I think it tells a story that needs to be heard by everyone. I know that there will be some that obviously will not or have not enjoyed it as much as I have and will continue to do but I strongly encourage everyone to see it.


It involves two things that will forever be linked to my heart. The first as the title gives away debate. I will admit that in high school I was on the debate team, and for a year I helped run the team with our coach Shulz. Now I know what you are thinking......Nerd Alert Nerd Alert..... which is only slightly true. I do play and watch about every sport there is, but I think it is that I like organized competition and debate introduced me to a new type of competition that required me to do more than physically outlast my oponent. In debate I had to out think, be able to come up with a quote from Locke, Rousseau, Thoreau, Shakespeare, Gandhi, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Mandela, Dr. King, Helen Keller or Mark Twain at any given moment with an accompanying historically or personally true story to equate with the quote and relate both to the topic assigned and be able to speak on that topic for five to ten minutes without any notes. It was a rush of adrenaline for me, it felt the same as standing across the net waiting for my opponent to serve the tennis ball at me, or to be tossed the basketball and have to take it down the court and initiate a play, or waiting for my turn to begin a tumbling pass. It has helped me not to be afraid to stand up in front of a large crowd and give a speech and it has helped me to control my nerves because it was easier to see I was nervous while giving a speech than returning a serve or a myriad of other sport analagies I could use. I am really glad I took the class and am glad that there is finally a movie that sheds some light on what is done in debate.


Second reason why I love this movie, and much more important, it is a movie about racial equality. For those of you who know me you most likely know how important this issue is for me. I believe that everyone on this planet is a child of God and that God is no respector of persons. This means that God does not care what the color of your skin is and therefore no one else should either. I do not think that any anyone is better than anyone else because they have lighter or darker skin than I do. I hate racist stereotypes, racial jokes, and any derrogatory term given to a racial group. I believe that race is a social concept created by man out of greed and laziness. It was a way to establish that one group of people were inferior to another and therefore deserved less. I hate it when someone is describing someone else and the second thing they refer to after their gender is generally their race. I hate living in a world where race is so central to everyone. Me being the race I am does not define who I am or the moral fortitude that I have or how I should treat anyone else. I get tired of people who say: why does there need to be a black history month because there is no such thing as a white history month. To this I say, you are taught white history, almost always from a white perspective, for every history class you have from kindergarten up. That is why you do not learn about the genocide of American Indians, the true horror of slavery and the continued shady treatment blacks receive today, or internment of Japanese Americans or the horrible treatment of Mexicans in the Southwest, in any depth whatsoever. You learn that the United States had slavery, but that thanks to Abraham Lincoln you don't anymore. Sometimes you will hear a little about Harriet Tubman and the undergroud railroad, but again no depth. You are taught that Manifest Destiny is a great and noble idea and that American expansionism west was great but you do not hear about what the cost was to American Indians. Sorry I could go on this for a very long time, it is just a topic that makes me a little irate. Racism just makes me a little sick.

My Bleeding Heart.............bleeds for everyone.

This is a post that was meant to be written back in February but never was and I have been thinking about it a lot lately. Also here is an apology to all those that have been coming to my page to see something new but haven't for well over two weeks now....Sorry! My school work has been way too hectic lately but I finally have a minute to write a post. So here it goes. Warning this one involves political theory, and may be boring to some and very entertaining/irritating to others. Read at your own risk, I am very open to comments.


Back on Valentines Day my friend Christa sent me this E-Valentine Card:

Now this was meant to be a funny joke from the grand old party about the ridiculousness of liberal compassionism, but what is meant to be an insult, to me, is a compliment. Inside liberal compassionism you find the essence of the statement in the Preamble to the Constitution, "To promote the general welfare." This unique phrase is mentioned one more time in the Constitution in Article I Section 8, where it outlines the role of Congress. It says, "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare." After saying that it outlines the duties and rights of Congress. Under this part of the Constitution it tells Congress that they are to provide for the general welfare of the country, and in my mind (which is generally always correct) the adage is and should be defined as securing the basic rights of the individuals who reside under the jurisdiction of the Constitution.

Now this is where the real debate comes in to play between conservatives and liberals, what basic rights should the government provide? I believe that the government should make sure that no child, being defined as anyone under the age of eighteen, should go without: clothing, food, shelter, healthcare, education, and the ability to achieve the Pursuit of Happiness. Children should not be held responsible for being victims of circumstance. No one chooses what circumstances that they are born into, if they did, Bill Gates would have many more children. Therefore in order to ensure that children have these basic human rights there are little things called welfare, medicaid, and social security that have been created to......well for lack of a better phrase, to promote the general welfare of the country. In order for this to happen the money, verizon card, etc. must go to the parent or guardian of that child. And I know that sometimes this will get abused. That is a risk that I am willing to take even at a personal cost to me. I believe that this should also apply to the elderly, the handicapped, and all those who cannot provide a suitable living for themselves with times of temporary assistance to those who have fallen into the depths of poverty.

Now in most debatable topics I discuss I generally think that my argument itself is compelling enough for all to fall in line with agreeance, but if not let us look at the Republican counterpart to liberal compassionism. Normally I would use a lambasting but somewhat funny word to describe the err that is Reaganomics or Trickle Down, but I think that calling it those two things does it well enough, without any sarcastic retort of my own. Through the counterpart to what I believe we have the tax cuts for the wealthy and to businesses. By granting them access to more money the theory believes they will invest it and expand businesses hence creating more jobs and more cash flow. There is one major default in this theory, it does not look at the naturalistic human trait of greed. Now I know that this can also be an argument against what I believe, so let me elaborate. I believe that there is a fundamental difference between the greed of those who have nothing versus the greed of those who have much. One comes from a sense of a need to survive whereas the other comes from the need to make him/herself better than those around him/her. To prove this point I will submit Enron, for validation. I am sure that the tax cuts granted to this company were put into great use.

For those who argue that it costs so much more to provide all of the governmental assistance programs, you are wrong. It is a fact that out of the last four presidents it is three Republicans who have put our country almost eight trillion dollars more into debt, compared to the one trillion under President Clinton. It is also important to note that Clinton's last year reported an actual surplus, not a deficict. Also after each of the three Reps the country sank into a recession........whereas the Clinton years-generally economic bliss.

As you can tell this is one issue that I am a little too zealous about, but don't worry my bleeding heart bleeds for everyone, conservatives included. That is the great thing about liberal compassionism it benifits everyone.......not just a few.