Category Archives: Social Issues

Parenting and Family

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It’s Mother’s Day.  I am sitting on my screened porch listening to my seventeen year old son play the guitar.  My wife is preparing for a final exam in a subject she doesn’t like, so that she can get a certificate that might help her get a job to help our son pay for college.

My wife has been a “stay-at-home” mom for all of our son’s life.  Not to say she didn’t work outside the home, we simply arranged our schedules and finances so that we did not need others to help raise our child. 

We have known since he was born that he would go to college.  We probably could have done more to save money.  We could have a 529 plan, or a simple savings or investment account or educational IRA.  But we chose to plan to pay for college this way, because we did.  Part of the issue is simply that the cost of college education has risen faster than the cost of living every year since I graduated in 1985.  Part of the issue, is that we had to choose between private school education, having mom at home, having me work without regular travel, having vacations, having a reasonable retirement savings, and this is what we chose.  Like most American families, we can’t afford to have it all.  We have to choose. Continue reading →

Definition of Marriage

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Recently, the Barack Obama became the first sitting POTUS to endorse same sex “marriage”. Let me walk into the zone of controversy by stating my own personal moral convictions. I fully expect that anyone who reads this will be ticked off by something I say here.

First of all:

1) Homosexual intercourse is sin.

and lest you think that I am just opposed to homosexuality – let me share the rest of my list.

2) Fornication is sin. For those of you without a clue, this is sex outside of a marriage relationship.
3) Adultery (having sex with someone who is married to someone else, or conversely, having sex with someone who is not the one you are married to) is sin.
4) Masturbation is sin.
5) Lustful thinking is sin. Thinking about sex with someone other than your spouse is sin. (that makes the entire industry of pornography a sin)

This doesn’t prevent me from having friends who do these things. This doesn’t prevent me from caring about and for people who do these things. This doesn’t cause me to judge or condemn people for doing these things. Why, because at some point in my life, I, myself have done many of these things. I, like every other human currently on this planet, am a sinner. Continue reading →

Immigration Policy

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So everyone knows that the US has a goofy immigration policy. For centuries, people have been coming here from other parts of the world, because we have stood as an emblem of opportunity. People have said to themselves, “If I can get to America, I have a better chance of __________” – fill in the blank.

The slogan of the statue of liberty says “Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses…” America has always welcomed immigrants with open arms, recognizing that most of its residents came from once immigrant families. My own grandfather immigrated from Norway at the end of the 19th century, my mom’s sister has traced their mother’s lineage back to a German immigrant named George Rausch who came before the revolutionary war.

With the exception of the First American population, all of us are the descendants of immigrants, and if you go back far enough, the First Americans immigrated from Asia – so none of us are really “natives”. Continue reading →

Its A Small World After All

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This is a very personal story about how technology changes the way we live.  I wanted to share it because I find it instructive as technology continues to effectively shrink our world and reduce our man made boundaries.  These are changes that we should embrace, rather than fearing and resisting, because they will ultimately lead us to richness – not wealth, but fulfillment. Continue reading →

Self-Esteem, Competence, or Confidence

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In our US education system, we have become concerned with preserving or promoting the self-esteem of students. The educators who initiated this use the psychological definition of the term to mean a persons sense of self worth or personal value. As opposed to a merriam webster definition of self-esteem which is a confidence and satisfaction in oneself.

I would never say that it is not important for students to believe in themselves, to feel important or valuable. But it is the source and method of developing self-esteem that I have observed that I question. Students who gain competence, and through competence a sense of confidence, and finally a sense of value in their own capacity to accomplish – have a self-sustaining self-esteem. That is, it is natural and does not require outside assistance or bolstering. This is the state that we are striving to acheive in students. Continue reading →

Do Colleges Produce Value?

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Does our educational system, especially the university system, create value? Should it? If it does, what value does it create? If it should, what value should it create? My last two posts were about creating value and our relation to the value chain, and this is a continuation of the same line of thought. This is especially relevant, because my son is about to enter university, in Fall 2012.  While we are agonizing over the decision of where he should go, what he should study, and how we will fund this endeavor, my mind always wanders back to the question of value – “Why is he going in the first place?” Continue reading →

The Media: What to do?

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So everybody realizes that the syndication of media at a national or global level presents a challenge to the role of the media’s ability to hold our elected officials accountable. I have stated 5 issues or challenges surrounding our relationship with the media and media’s relationship with government below. But I want to start by saying what I think can be done about them.

Continue reading →