Rights to Life

In Roland Martin's CNN article (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/05/martin.profile/index.html) he makes some interesting points, the most important being: pro-Life means more then supporting an embryo's right to life; it also means supporting the embryo-turned-child throughout life. Sure Martin is actually pro-choice and who can deny a woman's right to commit legal murder, he would rather they choose to other wise. I think it is important to support someone's right to make choices, but it is also important to support every child throughout life so they can make these choices in health and by being informed. Health care and education in the US needs to be equally applied across the economic/racial spectrum not as much as one is able to afford. At the same time, those who receive public support must be willing to make life-style choices that will allow them to get off public assistance. I have received food stamps and Medicaid as a young adult to support my children. I have also sought education and employment that will help end my personal economic station. This needs to be the desire of every person. When there are people in this nation who would restrict access to public funding regarding health and education, they need to consider whether or not they are truly pro-Life.

I am pro-choice, but recognize abortion ends an embryo's right to exist. I know some would-be mothers must choose this option; I just wish they recognized, apprehended, or chose other options. Every embryo has the right to become an infant and every infant/child has the right to grow in a world of opportunity instead of facing chains of prejudice based on economic/racial station.

1. Every embryo has the right to childhood.
2. Every child has the right to health.
3. Every child has the right to education.
4. Every child has the right to adulthood.
5. Every adult has the right to make choices not based economic/racial oppression

These are the two times when equality must be granted and where our society fails. Education fails when school districts are funded by property taxes. When this happens, districts with tax-bases with little property value are not able to fund properly the education of children equally. Children who live in the suburbs are able to receive better educations because property tax affords them this. This base inequality merits a method of federally managed school funding. If those who are affluent dispute this right of equality, then let their children continue to attend private schools.

If the property taxes collected nationwide were centrally managed, then the funds could be spent in a way that ensures equality in education.

Four Voices

the first is when
it passes overhead
or to the left
or to the right

the second when
it smashes, bangs
into concrete
unforgiving walls

the third is when
it whispers
into grass and weeds
lost and forgotten

the forth is when
it pierces the flesh
destroying structures
like a mushrooming bullet

Jurisdiction

While walking today, I started thinking about some of the problems that exist in the Society of Mormons. First, I say the Society of Mormons because this category describes those who are Utah Mormons, but not necessarily LDS. The compartmentalization that I'm talking about refers to how the Relief Society often does not assist single mothers with young children or how they never concern themselves with single fathers who have full custody of their children. I and two friends of mine with similar situations have yet to be visited by the Relief Society in our respective wards even though other families have been reached out to when they were having financial difficulties or problems with health or just need someone to watch their kids on occasion.

I know it might not be possible or comfortable for people to take an interest in others, but in the five years since my ex left me and my kids, no one other then the elder's quorum has ever inquired about us. No member of the bishopric or any other auxiliary. I haven’t often had callings since my ex left even though I do have a temple recommend and have always had one (sure, I might not have talents that can be used in my ward, but I can at least be the Sunday School Secretary or something). The young men's association and the young women's association often does not follow-up with my kids, inform them of activities, or just visit to see how they are doing. I do not know why, but I guess it is because for some reason my family has violated some type of boundary, someone’s idea of jurisdiction.

A similar issue exists with demographers: everyone must fit into some type of classification and that person's standing in society is based on this classification. People and society in general have picked up on this need to classify, to label, to positivize who and what a person is. And so people who do not fit easy descriptions, boundaries, or jurisdictions either do not exist, are lying in some way, or are simply not seen or perceived. This is a function of the Society of Mormons as opposed to the church. Mormons (LDS or not) need to classify and set boundaries like everyone else, but still it happens. This is simple function of society in general, but doesn't this behavior imply some type of reliance on the natural man, reliance of typical human behavior? Isn't this something the church has said that we are supposed to not do?

I wonder.

Why I Tipped the Night Clerk with a Maple Log

We don’t park before the waterfall
or above city cemetery overlooking the capitol—

we don’t have to: we’re the new epidemic’s poster kids
speeding to the motel from the pastry shop.

On the cheap sheets, food network on the TV,
she’s wearing her strawberry silk bra and my boxer’s are still on,

but we exchange butter croissants
dripping with marmalade gooped on with a plastic motel spoon.

Soon its chocolate chips with macadamia nuts
and oreos dipped in marshmallow fluff.

In each other’s arms, now covered in sugar glaze,
we look through doughnuts with pink frosting and pastel sprinkles.

We breath deep from our souls speaking of medieval bakeries;
the burps coming through chocolate milk moustaches.

After the cinnamon buns made an excited mess,
I lick the apple fritter frosting from her finger tips.

What I Do

Other then nothing, I am the Editor-in-Chief for UVSC's Touchstones Magaizine. I am the first repeat editor. I've been on staff for quite a while and my poetry has also appeared in the journal, but not since I took over as Editor-in-Chief. The last editor inserted a rule that staff members can not submit to the journal and I have continued the policy. I hope they do in the future.

Who Am I?

Did you see Napolean Dynamite? I'm the loser that moved from Oklahoma to Provo High School who made up stories about past girlfriends and was never willing to get close to anyone except a kid who committed suicide after highschool graduationl. BTW, have you ever wondered what Napolean did after he graduated from High School, he joined the army and got married before his twentieth birthday and had three kids by the time he turned twenty-three. Oh yeah, I danced like a freak too, but never in an assembly. Yep, just like Napolean or that other dance-freak in Hitch. I'm tall with red hair that sometimes curls up. What does Napolean look like at thirty-nine? He's a fat dude with a beard, wears shorts a lot, vans without socks and prefers plain colored t-shirts or a cool MASH t-shirt picked up at Wal-Mart on clearance. Education? Sure. English creative writing/tech writing at UVSC, but it has taken twenty years to only get as far as my junior year because life occured in the form of my wife leaving in 2002 with the three kids we had to pursue a life with someone who wasn't a carreer telemarketer. It may be possible for my kids to graduate from college before I do. Once a looser, always a looser right. Right, but with qualifications. Some of my poetry has been published and my oldest has committed to go on an LDS mission after fall semester also at UVSC where he's on the dean's list.