tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86934104635152744272024-02-08T07:15:06.035-06:00My Quest to Save the WorldMy original premise was to seek a light in the darkness. Then I realized that too many people spend too much time stumbling in the dark without realizing that they ARE the light they're looking for.
All material, unless otherwise noted, copyright Zach Hebert.Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-38754538823389039962009-01-15T08:37:00.000-06:002009-01-15T08:38:13.594-06:00The End is Nigh (Maybe)...My aunt, who teaches overseas and has for most of my life, spent a few years in the states recently. During that time, I had just finished college and was working an entry-level sales job at a local manufacturing company. Because we both had Saturdays off, and because my wife worked, I would go to breakfast every week at her home and she and I would talk about the world and, more often than not, religion. Though she probably didn’t realize it at the time, and to this day may not, our debates shaped and solidified many of my ideas about faith.<br /> I should explain that while she is a born again Christian, I consider myself less religious and more spiritual. That is to say, I believe in Christ as the son of God and I believe in the sacrifice He made for mankind. I don’t, however, believe that this removes all validity from the world’s other faiths. To me, spirituality is about fostering the divine spark in the human soul in order to bring ourselves closer to the peace and infinite wisdom that exists in our most perfect form. Where she and I have so often found ourselves at an impasse, however, is that I don’t believe that religion should ever eclipse faith.<br /> For instance, one morning, she and I sat across the table from one another in the kitchen lit only be the bright new sun, and the discussion turned to the Biblical Rapture. She commented that it would be a beautiful day when Christ came to take those who had been saved to Heaven before the seven years of hell on earth. I just shook my head and sighed, telling her that I wasn’t looking forward to that at all. When she asked why, genuinely puzzled, I told her that if Christ came to me tomorrow and said that the end had come, I would have to tell Him, with a heavier heart than I’ve ever had, thank you, but I would see Him when he returned, were I fortunate enough to survive the dark times ahead.<br /> My aunt was appalled. First, she told me that I couldn’t say no in His presence. It wouldn’t even occur to me. I told her that, no, it didn’t work that way. We are, first and foremost, creatures of free will. Then she responded by telling me that it would be terrible here and that she would be too afraid to stay. I knew that it would be the most horrifying experience of my life, but that was the reason I couldn’t leave. So many would be left behind, suffering, and had I reached a point where I was worthy of being taken to Heaven, I could not find it in myself to leave them alone were there any possibility that I could do something to alleviate that misery even the slightest. It is, after all, what Christ would have done.<br /> I look around at our world, and at the current fervor building in the Christian community for the coming of the end times, and it saddens me. By accepting these things as inevitable, this poverty, famine, violence and the unrepentant corruption, greed and fear which is edging us ever forward, we wash our hands of any responsibility for them. We are the hands of God in this world. It was entrusted to us as caretakers and we have a responsibility to it and to one another. The end times may well be upon us, but it is not for us to stand idly by and allow it to happen.<br /> As a good Christian, when someone asks why God allows children to starve, to be beaten or to die of terrible disease, the answer should not be anything but a simple, “Why do we?” Poverty and starvation exist because we allow it. Disease persists because it is more profitable to treat a disease than to cure it and children die every day because they cannot afford sufficient care because we are unwilling as a society to regulate and pay for an accessible healthcare system. The end, it is written, will come with a whisper. Now is the time to shout, then, to raise our voices and open our arms not only to those who share our views, but to all who need us, regardless of motive. It is, after all, what He would have done.Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-67344942536292738842008-09-10T17:52:00.003-05:002008-09-11T13:07:06.778-05:001. We need others to believe what we believe because we’re afraid to stand alone with our beliefs.<br />2. We need to believe that we’re the center of the universe, because otherwise we feel helpless, which we aren’t.<br />3. If semantics are the only things that you can argue, then you probably need to stop arguing.<br />4. There will not always be a tomorrow, at least not for us. Just because something beyond our control has always been, does not mean it will always be. So say what you need to say or do what you need to do, because you may not get the chance again.<br />5. Pay attention to the world around you and the effects your actions will have on others, or else you don’t get to be appalled when someone does something that hurts or inconveniences you without thinking.<br />6. Complaining about a bad situation doesn’t make it better. If you want to get out, you always have that choice. And suicide is very, very rarely the right choice. See number five.<br />7. Little things count. They count more than big things, because when you add them all up, you may do one or two truly big things in your life, but you’ll do billions of little things that you may or may not give a second thought.<br />8. Things will happen that will hurt. A lot. They will change you forever. But there is nothing in the world that you can’t move past, or at the very least learn to live around.<br />9. People will only have power over you as long as you allow them to do so. This extends from the closest interpersonal relationships to the highest levels of government.<br />10. A battle worth fighting is worth fighting, even if you know you’ll never completely win the war.<br />11. Before you go off on someone for something you think they’ve done wrong, take a step back, think about the situation and make sure that the fault really lies with them.<br />12. Religion is not worth hurting people over. There are no religions or philosophies whose actual doctrines call for the eradication or conversion of everyone else in the world. At the same time, if you haven’t got faith in something more, don’t be a hypocrite and try to tear down someone else’s, even if you don’t agree.<br />13. Just because you won’t be around to see the effect your actions have on someone else, or on the world as a whole, doesn’t give you the right to ignore it. I’m not saying you need to go out and hug a tree, but remember that if you cut it down and don’t replace it, your grandkids may never know what it was like to sit in the shade and listen to the rustle of the leaves.<br />14. The only person who can make you feel like less than you are is you.<br />15. Be aware of your limitations, change them if you can, accept them if you can’t, and don’t be jealous of someone else who doesn’t have them. Their limitations are somewhere else.<br />16. Help one another when you can, however you can.<br />17. Things, like experiences, aren’t worth having unless you can share them.<br />18. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.<br />19. Lying to spare someone’s feelings can be easier, but it’s rarely better.<br />20. It’s not always about you.<br />21. When you say to someone that you don’t trust other people around them, what you really mean is that you don’t trust them around other people.<br />22. No one deserves your respect if they’re disrespectful to you. This includes parents. But remember that when you’re a parent, because someday you may not have that respect either.<br />23. Try not to judge people based solely on hearsay, because a bias is always going to be there, one way or another. And remember that, too, when you’re describing someone else.<br />24. Don’t listen to society just because it’s the common view. It’s been wrong before, and is probably wrong now.<br />25. Fear is never a good enough reason, on its own, to make or break a decision.<br />26. “I don’t know,” is always a valid answer, but never a good enough reason to stop trying to find out.<br />27. No one is irreparable unless they allow themselves to be. At the same time, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.<br />28. The pursuit of happiness is worthless if you never stop to enjoy the happiness it’s already garnered.<br />29. Appearances fade. Look deeper.<br />30. Pain is pain, and no one else’s is any more or less than yours.<br />31. Sympathy and pity are not the same thing.<br />32. Forgiveness is probably the hardest and most valuable thing you’ll ever learn to give. And it’s something you should never put off. See rule four.<br />33. Your pride is never more valuable than someone else’s pain.<br />34. The only thing that gives you the right to hurt someone is if they’re hurting someone else.<br />35. Hate is useless.<br />36. No one has the right to walk all over you, no matter what they’ve done in the past. By the same token, though, you don’t have the right to walk all over anyone else.<br />37. You’re never a martyr if you declare yourself one.<br />38. Feeling inferior is no reason to act superior. You’re no better or worse than anyone else.Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-91174067443837252702008-08-22T11:06:00.000-05:002008-08-22T11:07:09.138-05:00The Fallacy of Human Nature: Part One<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span>Imagine standing alone on the edge of the ocean at dawn, watching the sunrise over water that expands into what seems like forever, sparkling with a myriad of colors warm and cold.<span style=""> </span>The sand beneath you, still cool, adjusts obligingly as you shift your weight unconsciously from one foot to the other, the gentle morning breeze carrying the salt smell of the seas to you.<span style=""> </span>It feels as though you stand at the edge of a precipice, at the end of the world sailor’s once feared.<span style=""> </span>The waves rise and fall, washing in and out, endlessly, as they have long before you were born and will long after our race is a memory on time.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span>To some, this image is beautiful, a powerful reminder that we are part of something perfect and balanced and immense.<span style=""> </span>To others, to many, it triggers a deeply ingrained terror at the sudden realization of how small we truly are in comparison to the world, how alone we can feel when not bolstered by the swells of population.<span style=""> </span>There is an old proverb that says we can truly measure the peace in our hearts by standing at the edge of something greater and being thankful for the reminder of our place in the world.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span>So what is our place in the world?<span style=""> </span>As a species, we have done all we can to convince ourselves that we are the rulers of the world, the top of the food chain.<span style=""> </span>Not only that, but we have taken on the mantle of lordship over all, subjugating what we can and attempting to destroy the rest.<span style=""> </span>Our ancestors would find this idea laughable.<span style=""> </span>A cog, after all, however integral to its function, does not solely drive the machine and, if removed, becomes useless and inert.<span style=""> </span>Frightening as it may be, the machine can go on without us.<span style=""> </span>Our spot at the top is not a permanent position for us any more so than it was for any species that came before.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span>We are, however, at the top now and we reap the benefits that are our due.<span style=""> </span>The problem, of course, is that we seek to shirk the responsibilities that come along with the rewards.<span style=""> </span>We call ourselves Kings because we are afraid to be what we truly are; Stewards, accountable for the well-being of the world over which we rule.<span style=""> </span>We have lingered in our youth too long, delaying the inevitable to the point of self-destruction.<span style=""> </span>It is time that we grow up.<span style=""> </span></p>Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-92051374440924262322008-08-21T17:57:00.001-05:002008-08-21T17:57:36.214-05:00The Fallacy of Human Nature: A Rough Thesis<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Human Nature is used to justify the atrocities of mankind, yet at the same time its inherent capability for higher reasoning disassociates itself from its surroundings.<span style=""> </span>In order to reap the privileges of civilization and station at the top of the world, humanity must also accept the responsibilities of that stewardship.</span>Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-51317120039752188112008-08-20T09:54:00.000-05:002008-08-20T09:55:28.590-05:00The Fallacy of Human Nature: An Introduction<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"><b style=""><u>The Fallacy of Human Nature</u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"><b style=""><u>Introduction:<br /></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span>Humanity is a strange creature.<span style=""> </span>When we began, we were like all the other inhabitants of the Earth, which is to say that we took a passive role in the eco-system, hunting what we needed, when we needed it, and moving to make sure that there was always food on the table enough for everyone.<span style=""> </span>We found our place in the world and accepted it.<span style=""> </span>After awhile, higher intellect took over and we started to wonder why we had to move around, following the food, when we could simply make the food stay in one place with a few simple structures.<span style=""> </span>Thus was the first major shift in mankind’s development; the agrarian revolution.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span>Now that we’d settled down, we found a small measure more security than once we had.<span style=""> </span>Because of this, we found more time to develop other aspects of ourselves, as the basic needs were being met.<span style=""> </span>We started to question the world and our place within it.<span style=""> </span>Such is the burden of reason, after all, and mankind was blessed with more of this than any other creature.<span style=""> </span>We were not the strongest, the fiercest, or the most well-suited to our world, but we were, above all others, the most clever.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span>Over the years, we looked back at who we were before the revolution, when we moved from season to season to suit the whims of nature.<span style=""> </span>In the beginning, we were almost certainly wistful of that freedom.<span style=""> </span>Man is, after all, inherently prone to wander. This is true even today.<span style=""> </span>Think back to the college road trips that seemed like they would go on forever or the excitement of the annual family vacation.<span style=""> </span>But we put that aside in favor of better things.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">Then, perhaps because it is the way of children, and we, as a species, were children, we became resentful of the thing we felt we wanted but could no longer have.<span style=""> </span>So we told ourselves how much better off we were now, how hard it was then, and how this made us more than we had been.<span style=""> </span>We used fear to destroy our need for adventure.<span style=""> </span>This, too, is something we continue to do today.<span style=""> </span>When we graduate, we’re expected to relegate the road trips to the realm of fond memory, told that we must buckle down and put such childish things behind us, lest we risk our livelihood, our security.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">After awhile, we realized that things were easier if we lived together.<span style=""> </span>By being in easy reach of our neighbors, we could trade, allowing us to specialize in the things we enjoyed doing.<span style=""> </span>We created villages, then towns, then cities, areas of the world claimed by humanity for its sole usage.<span style=""> </span>Nature was pushed to the outskirts or built over as we created homes and markets and factories.<span style=""> </span>It, like the animals before, was put under control.<span style=""> </span>We figured out how to make complex irrigation systems, created tools to do more work with less energy, and the farm as we know it became the foundation of our world.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">Specialization and ingenuity led to industry, which not only pushed us further from the natural world, but began to abuse it.<span style=""> </span>We saw ourselves as completely separate now, lords over the lesser creatures.<span style=""> </span>We called the untamed parts of the world dangerous and, again, it came back to fear.<span style=""> </span>We taught our children that civilization was the only safe place, despite the starving masses that were the by-product of a culture built upon the ideals of industry.<span style=""> </span>We began to use our reason, our cleverness, to twist not only the world, but reality to our ends.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">Today, in the adolescence of our species, we are, like most adolescents, unsure of our place in the world and torn between what we feel is the truth deep in our bones and what we’re told is the truth by those we’ve always been taught know better.<span style=""> </span>So we wander through our lives, lost to the fact that we’re lost.<span style=""> </span>We have no compass save for a strange echo of who we once were.<span style=""> </span>We’ve spent so much time trying to carve out a place for ourselves in the world that we no longer know who we are as a species.<span style=""> </span>We try desperately to quell that voice inside that whispers that there is more to life than survival.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">Thousands of years after we began to whisper to our children that we must be separate, that we must rise higher than the world around us, we continue to do so.<span style=""> </span>Now, however, the world around us tends to be other people, so we try to push ourselves above them, hurting one another out of the ancient fear that we will be left behind, that we will lose our security.<span style=""> </span>The irony, of course, is that if we ceased trying to constantly best our fellow Man and push forward, there would be nothing to fear.<span style=""> </span>In the beginning, we understood that.<span style=""> </span>We worked together, symbiotic rather than the parasites we’ve become, feeding off not only the world, but also now our own species for fear that if we relent, if we stop for even a moment, we will become food for another.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">Thus we commit horrible atrocities in the name of countless twisted virtues and philosophies.<span style=""> </span>We allow fear to mutate, to fester and thrive.<span style=""> </span>It becomes anger, hatred, and all the darkest parts of humanity.<span style=""> </span>It tells us that it’s either us or them, and that it can never be both.<span style=""> </span>What’s more, fear has finally reached a point where it has overcome reason.<span style=""> </span>We stand on the brink of disaster, not only of our species, but of our world as a whole.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">Where do we go from here?<span style=""> </span>If we are to reach adulthood, as a species, we must use our singular talent, our intellect, for the greater good, rather than the personal good.<span style=""> </span>In order to do so, we must let go of much of what we believe about the world, turn and face our fears, many of which are real now solely as the result of our giving them life.<span style=""> </span>Finally, we must let them go and try to find a place again in the world.</p>Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-23778065001381740052008-04-24T07:57:00.001-05:002008-04-24T10:08:59.704-05:00Floridian Faith-based License Plates<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> state legislation announced this week that it has plans to begin producing vanity license plates featuring a large golden cross in front of a stained glass window with the words, “I Believe,” running across the bottom of the plate.<span style=""> </span>If it does so, it would be the first state to offer an option which features a specific religious faith.<span style=""> </span>This, of course, has many up in arms and will undoubtedly be met with some form of protest, at least, and a slew of anti-defamatory legal action.</p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"></p><a href="http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c350/Bardryn/?action=view&current=20080424071009990001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c350/Bardryn/20080424071009990001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>As it stands, the state currently offers more than a hundred license plates supporting everything from universities to sports teams to any of the numerous leisure activities for which it is known.<span style=""> </span>To add one more which lets a devout member of a given faith to display that devotion seems a small allowance.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Before taking up arms against this oppressive gesture, or against those opposed to it, however, we must ask ourselves why it is that this is such a hot-button issue, even in its conceptual stages.<span style=""> </span>We are a country built upon notions of freedom of religion and freedom of expression, two ideals which this plate solidly represents.<span style=""> </span>Given that, there is no reason why it should be offensive to anyone.<span style=""> </span>It does not seek to proselytize and if your faith is weak enough that you feel that you will be converted by the image of the symbol of another’s faith, then you ought to spend less time protesting what amounts to a logo and more time figuring out where you lost your way.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Where it does break down, though, is that it calls only for the creation of a Christian plate, rather than a religious line of plates.<span style=""> </span>The country has shown a recent trend of religious intolerance when it comes to governmental processes and procedures, such as a last year’s denial by the military to allow pagan soldiers who were killed in Iraq to have a pentacle on their memorial headstones amongst the crosses and stars of David.<span style=""> </span>Were the <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> government to make this small amendment, all would be well and they would have little solid ground on which to form a protest.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>The irony, of course, is that those Christians who would stand up in support of this plate, forming the inevitable counter-protest, are also those most likely to stand against the inclusion of other religions.<span style=""> </span>There is a need amongst humans to belong to something larger than we are.<span style=""> </span>What we have lost sight of, or perhaps what we have never truly understood, is that we do not have to define our unity with the exclusion of others, be it when talking about something as powerful as a chosen faith or as a simple as a license plate.</p>Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-53065973445663990972008-04-09T11:19:00.000-05:002008-04-09T11:20:09.622-05:00When My Child Grows Up...<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>There was a time when an American parent’s greatest hope for a child was that he, or she, would grow up to become president.<span style=""> </span>As a young man entering the latter part of my twenties, with the prospect of having children of my own edging closer by the day, I wonder if that’s true anymore.<span style=""> </span>Would I want my child to grow up to be the kind of person who is capable of succeeding in the American political system?<span style=""> </span>The fact that I hesitate to say yes, even for a second, raises uncomfortable feelings in my gut as the next major election looms around the corner.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>To begin with, I have to look at the attributes I would wish to encourage in my own progeny.<span style=""> </span>Like most parents, or the good ones, at least, I would like my child to be honest, kind, a hard worker who understands the nature of sacrifice and the pride of having done goodness for the sake of the work itself.<span style=""> </span>I would like my child to be intelligent, clever, and wise enough to know the difference.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Ideally, I would like a child who is tolerant not because he fears how society will view him, but because he is self-reflective enough to realize that he carries the prejudices of experience that we all accumulate along the road of life.<span style=""> </span>Most of all, I want a child who is happy and proud of who he is and has been and realizes that it is those things which will make him the person he will be later in life.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>When I list out the qualities I would wish to see in my own children, then take a step back and look objectively at his chances for the presidency, I realize that were he to become the man I hope he does, he would never stand a chance of wading through the murky waters of American politics.<span style=""> </span>He would either be torn apart by the media, who ironically seem to distrust anyone on whom they are incapable of finding a shred of dirt, or, and my heart freezes for a moment at this dreadful thought, he would find a bullet in his heart, put there by another victim of our country’s increasingly fatal divisiveness.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Why, then, if these traits are those which we would consider a blessing on our own lives, do we not expect them of our leaders?<span style=""> </span>Why do we, in fact, seem to go out of our way to make certain that they are not present?<span style=""> </span>If a child is truly the reflection of its parents, then a nation’s leaders are the reflection of its people.<span style=""> </span>As we enter an economic recession and the fifth year of a war driven by greed and fueled by fear, why haven’t we stopped bickering with one another long enough to realize that the child birthed by our forefathers more than two hundred years ago is slowly dying.</p>Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-2851604156340098612008-03-03T08:51:00.000-06:002008-03-03T08:52:40.614-06:00Inadequate National Progress: A Good Idea Gone Bad<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""></span> All partisan politics aside, the idea of No Child Left Behind was sound.<span style=""> </span>That we should, as a country, take responsibility for the fact that we are slipping behind the rest of the first world (and a fair bit of the developing world’s up-and-comers) in just about every important way possible is a huge step forward.<span style=""> </span>Our competent literacy rate is falling.<span style=""> </span>Scientifically, we are in the last legs of the race towards progress.<span style=""> </span>The blame for this has fallen solely where it should: our lacking educational system.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>How is it in a place where every child can use a computer virtually from birth, allowing access to the boundless knowledge and international connectivity of the internet, that we are creating generations of people for whom reading is a trial and math beyond basic arithmetic is viewed with core-deep anxiety?<span style=""> </span>Surely something must be wrong.<span style=""> </span>We’ve ceased seeing scholastic achievement as a goal unto itself.<span style=""> </span>Rather, we choose now to view it as simply a stepping stone to a greater purpose, the pursuit of the crumbling American dream of wealth and happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>The purpose of NCLB, then, was ostensibly to refocus the American viewpoint onto the education system that was churning out year after year of graduating seniors who could barely read past a sixth grade level.<span style=""> </span>It created a long-term plan for the bettering of the American education system by gradually increasing the standards to be met each year.<span style=""> </span>The accountability to which teachers and administrators once held themselves was now coming from an outside source.<span style=""> </span>There were real stakes, everything from the loss of already insufficient funding to the outright loss of employment, threats veiled thinly behind the word “restructuring.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>The idea, that if teachers and administrators were held responsible for the failings of their students academic careers, was a good one.<span style=""> </span>But, as with many of the government’s ideas, insight faltered as it made the transition from inspiration to implementation.<span style=""> </span>Rather than creating a truly innovative, fresh way of approaching the problem, the administration chose instead to recycle old ideas in an attempt to squeeze from fruit which had already proven to be rotten fresh juice.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>Though the Constitution lays the responsibility for the funding of public education on the shoulders of the individual states, the federal government has long since has a financial stake, if arguably a shamefully small one, in the system.<span style=""> </span>Of course, as with all things political, the agenda of each regime is definitely reflected in the strings attached to this money, but that’s a different essay altogether.<span style=""> </span>The problem here with NCLB is that it seeks increased accountability from the schools without giving them the two things which would all but guarantee the program’s success.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>First, the only incentive educators have to meet the criteria is that if they do, they won’t lose money or employment.<span style=""> </span>And before you say that it’s the nature of the job, that the well-being of the students should be enough, when was the last time you put in extra effort every day at your job with no prospect for a reward.<span style=""> </span>There is no hope in the program that, should a school succeed, they will receive a larger portion of the government’s pie.<span style=""> </span>No, that sort of incentive is reserved for military and petroleum contractors, not educators.<span style=""> </span>Instead, they are told they must make do with the same budget they’ve always had, or less, as has been the recent trend, and make more from it.<span style=""> </span>As any teacher will happily point out, you can want two and two to make five all day, but it never will.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>Second, the measurement of success itself is gauged by one of the most notoriously inaccurate assessment methods in education: standardized testing.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Having been assailed since it began to see widespread use for everything from racism to sexism to simple inability to accurately measure the abilities of those it seeks to measure, standardized testing is, as a whole, an archaic means of determining the relative achievement levels and progress of students.<span style=""> </span>Think back to your own ACT or SAT experience and how little of what was really important to your college experience it took into account.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>So why do we continue to rely so heavily on these tests?<span style=""> </span>The reason, as always, is almost purely financial.<span style=""> </span>Standardized testing is cheap, fast, and a fairly accurate way to create some really nice-looking, if ineffectual, statistics to placate voters and taxpayers.<span style=""> </span>The problem, though, is that it fails to measure the most important factor in a child’s future success, the ability to think.<span style=""> </span>Standardized testing measures the child’s grasp of facts and his or her ability to regurgitate them upon command in an atmosphere so fraught with anxiety that it’s been known to induce vomiting and panic attacks in fourth graders.<span style=""> </span>It fails to take into account any of the higher order thinking skills which any educator will agree are the true foundations of progress and the hallmarks of a real education.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>In the light of all this, where does the solution lie?<span style=""> </span>How do we remain competitive in a world we no longer dominate?<span style=""> </span>It’s actually easier than it seems.<span style=""> </span>Rather than dictating the standards which a school must meet and expecting it to do so with no incentive, we provide incentive.<span style=""> </span>The sum total of what we gave Halliburton alone last year in defense contracts could easily put the American education system not only in the running with other nations, but help us very quickly re-take our status as first of the first world nations.<span style=""> </span>The priorities of the country must, if we are to survive as a nation, shift from making the next dollar to making the next generation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>Finally, we must learn to let go of our personal political stances in favor of the bigger picture.<span style=""> </span>The future of this country is something which impacts each and every one of us, and it will only be a bright one if we all take some responsibility for the direction in which it’s headed.<span style=""> </span>It’s all fine and good to write your representatives in government, but if you really want to make a stand for our children, our future, get out there and make a difference.<span style=""> </span>Vote, make yourselves heard where it counts to those at the top.<span style=""> </span>Show them that teachers are not the only ones who should be held accountable for the horrendous state of the American education system.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style=""> </span>After that, take a good hard look at what you do to help your children learn to value education (every time you scoff at the idea of reading a book, you teach your child that reading is not of any real value) or how much you’ve done to help the schools in your district.<span style=""> </span>The future, as always, will be determined by the actions of those living in the present.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-34676406149717590972008-01-30T09:04:00.000-06:002008-01-30T09:08:30.047-06:00Connections - An Open Letter<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Connections.<span style=""> </span>That’s the word that lies at the heart of it all.<span style=""> </span>I recently put a call out to those around me asking what they thought was wrong with the world.<span style=""> </span>I’ve spent the last few months reading, cogitating, and trying my best to synthesize and summarize the responses I received.<span style=""> </span>Some of them gave me hope.<span style=""> </span>Others just flat out scared the hell out of me.<span style=""> </span>But every one, regardless of whether it left me hopeful or hollow, made me think and, when it came right down to it, that’s what I was really looking for.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Many of those I asked said nothing was wrong, that we were in fact in an unprecedented age of prosperity and intellectual growth.<span style=""> </span>They were right.<span style=""> </span>With the integration into the world of what a professor of mine once called the new technology, we are poised to herald in the greatest age of mankind.<span style=""> </span>Minds across the globe are able to compare notes with the ease of a few keystrokes and this has created unprecedented levels of collaboration that very well may have the ability to usher in a new renaissance.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>On the other end of the spectrum were those who said that everything was wrong simply because it was in the nature of Man to perpetrate upon one another the violent, callous atrocities which we as a species commit every day. <span style=""> </span>They claim that we are inherently selfish.<span style=""> </span>The rich stand on the backs of the poor because it is in their best interest to do so in order to maintain their place.<span style=""> </span>Put simply, the reason things are as they are is because it is who we are, who we have been, and who we will always will be, until everything collapses around us.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Falling in the middle, then, in the gray area between the blinding brilliance and the crushing darkness, are the ones like me, who see the world as it is, understand the world as it should be, and wish to make the two the same.<span style=""> </span>We recognize the potential for humanity, see the signs in the last century that point toward how amazing things could be, how much change is possible, but also see the obstacles standing in our way.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>In the first group of people, connection is what allows the flourish of possibility on a level unknown before now.<span style=""> </span>In the second, it is the lack of connection, of understanding, of empathy, that is laying the foundation for the destruction of everything we know, of not only our species, but our world.<span style=""> </span>Everything comes down to connections.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>So, rather than sitting around, waiting for someone else to make the connections, I thought I would give it a shot.<span style=""> </span>While I completely believe that no one man or woman can save the world, I do believe that the world can be saved if enough of us get together to try and do it.<span style=""> </span>The evidence for the overwhelming power of the human spirit is undeniable.<span style=""> </span>It lies in the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, the eradication of smallpox and, perhaps more importantly on a day to day level, the simple acts of kindness and generosity perpetrated by average men and women.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>So here’s my plan.<span style=""> </span>I’m going to send this letter to as many people as I can, ranging from the brightest minds in every field to those who have simply shown a propensity to change the world for the better, be it through action or example, in an attempt to try and see where we stand as a global society.<span style=""> </span>I want to diagnose the problems facing the world so that we can help to find solutions.<span style=""> </span>So here I am, sincerely asking for any help that you can offer.<span style=""> </span>I ask only for your time and your insight, though anything else you can offer to further this cause would not be turned away.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>With this help, I will chronicle those things I learn in order to try and tell not only my story, but the story of the world at the turn of the millennium, where so much hangs in the balance.<span style=""> </span>I hope to make this endeavor my life’s work, collecting, writing, and disseminating to the world what I can in order to leave as positive an imprint as I can. Where this will lead, if it even leads anywhere, is still unknown, but I cannot, will not, sit by and let the calling I feel to do this pass me by.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I am twenty-seven years old.<span style=""> </span>The most prominent sentiment of my generation seems to be hopelessness, the feeling that we cannot make a difference.<span style=""> </span>We are listless and apathetic because we know no other way.<span style=""> </span>I, for one, am tired of feeling that my destiny is beyond my control and I hope you will help me to try and reshape it, to speak for those who have forgotten, or who have never known, that they have a voice.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>Topics of Interest (Constantly growing and evolving)</u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Arts</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Culture & Intercultural Dynamics</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Civil Rights</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Economics & The Corporate Mentality</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Education</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Environmental Issues</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Equality: Race, Gender, and Lifestyle Issues</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Government & Politics</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Healthcare</p> <p class="MsoNormal">History</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Justice</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Overpopulation</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Poverty & Charity</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Sciences</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sex & Violence in Contemporary Cultures</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Technology and Innovation</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Theology & Philosophy</p> <span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><br /></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>The Ground Rules</u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Because every project needs some ground rules, these are the ones that I’ve come up with.<span style=""> </span>They’ve served me well thus far as a means of keeping the thoughts flowing in a positive, constructive direction and are based upon my own observations through the early legs of my journey.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><u>Rule Number One: Blame Solves Nothing<o:p></o:p></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>One of the most common problems I had when asking about the ills of the world was that while people were more than willing to volunteer what they felt was wrong at great length, many of them were not nearly as vocal about what could be done.<span style=""> </span>When asked to dig deeper, to find reasons for why things are as they are, I got, more than anything else, a great deal of finger-pointing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Some said that it was the fault of the generations that had come before for not laying the proper foundations.<span style=""> </span>Some said it was the fault of those who came after not holding up their end of the deal.<span style=""> </span>Others blamed politicians, the wealthy, the poor, the oil industry…The list goes on and on.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>The problem with blame, however, is that it solves nothing.<span style=""> </span>It is simply a way of delaying having to actually deal with a problem.<span style=""> </span>Are the oil companies, at least to some degree, to blame for the current state of the environment?<span style=""> </span>Probably so.<span style=""> </span>Problem solved, right?<span style=""> </span>Of course not.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Therein lies the difference between placing blame and finding a reason.<span style=""> </span>The act has been perpetrated.<span style=""> </span>It can’t be undone.<span style=""> </span>So put the energy you’re wasting pointing fingers and slinging accusations towards discerning and dealing with the problems.<span style=""> </span>To use the aforementioned problem of global warming, start to lobby effectively for change.<span style=""> </span>Carpool.<span style=""> </span>Live as close to a carbon neutral life as you can.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>In other words, find solutions rather than wasting time on making sure the finger doesn’t fall on you, because maybe it is the fault of someone else, but you’re still the one with the problem, so do something about it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><u>Rule Number Two: It’s Cause AND Effect, Not Cause OR Effect</u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>People, for whatever reason, have become more prone these days to forgetting that actions have consequences.<span style=""> </span>When you act like a stereotype, you lose the right to get angry at being thought of as a stereotype.<span style=""> </span>When choose not vote, you lose the right to complain about the person in office.<span style=""> </span>When you are not informed, you lose the right to an opinion.<span style=""> </span>Or, on a more personal level, the first time you cut someone off in traffic, or fail to use your blinker, you lose the right to complain when someone else does the same thing to you.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>This is perhaps the easiest of the rules to keep from breaking.<span style=""> </span>All you have to do is think.<span style=""> </span>Before you decide to drop twenty dollars on bottled water, consider the effects of that choice rather than, say, spending that money on a re-usable water filter which will produce the same results while saving the environment the cost of the creation of twenty plastic bottles.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>All actions have consequences.<span style=""> </span>Pure and simple.<span style=""> </span>Become more aware of those consequences after they happen and you are less likely to face them again because next time, you will know them BEFORE they do and be in a position to stop them.<span style=""> </span>Take control of your life and take responsibility for the things you say and do.<u><o:p></o:p></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><u><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><u>Rule Number Three: Not Knowing is Not a Good Enough Reason to Stop Looking</u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>This is a big one.<span style=""> </span>When people are forced to put aside blame and start to focus on the solutions, when they are asked what can you do to fix the problem, the most common response is, “I don’t know.”<span style=""> </span>That’s fine.<span style=""> </span>It’s a completely valid response, as long as it isn’t a terminal one.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Which leads me to rule number three, a phrase those around me are no doubt tired of hearing by now: I don’t know is a valid answer, but not a good enough reason to stop looking.<span style=""> </span>If anything, it is, or should be, a call to action.<span style=""> </span>Put it in perspective.<span style=""> </span>If you don’t know how to prepare the only food available to you, do you starve to death?<span style=""> </span>No, you figure out how to make it work.<span style=""> </span>Maybe it isn’t how it was intended to be used, but it gets the job done.<span style=""> </span>That’s called innovation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>When it comes to the world, the same rule applies.<span style=""> </span>Just because you don’t know how you can make a difference doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference.<span style=""> </span>Take a step back, look at the problem, and figure out a way to make things better.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><u>Rule Number Four: Fear is Never a Good Enough Reason, On Its Own, Not to Act</u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Change is scary.<span style=""> </span>It can be frightening as hell, but sometimes it’s necessary.<span style=""> </span>Imagine a world where the forefathers of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> had been too afraid to declare their independence, if those in the civil rights era had been too afraid to stand up for their rights.<span style=""> </span>Bravery is found not in a lack of fear, but rather in acting despite it.</p><p class="MsoNormal">So stand up and speak out.<span style=""> </span>Act.<span style=""> </span>Use your fear to drive you towards a solution, not away from it, because to cower means to have to linger in the presence of that which you fear all the longer.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><u>Rule Number Five: Change is Possible</u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>This is the single most important of all the ground rules for this project.<span style=""> </span>It is far too easy to give in to the “I can’t make a difference” mentality.<span style=""> </span>But change is possible, on every level.<span style=""> </span>If you are unhappy in your life, stop complaining about it and do something to make it better.<span style=""> </span>If you are upset with the injustice in the world, take action to change it.<span style=""> </span>Don’t let the idea that you can’t do it alone stop you from trying.<span style=""> </span>Because when one person stands, others will stand, when one voice is raised, it will be heard by someone.<span style=""> </span>Just because you may not see the change that comes does not mean that it does not exist.</p>Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693410463515274427.post-86754487775729766752008-01-30T08:51:00.000-06:002008-01-30T08:59:37.511-06:00The Speaker<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span style=""> </span>“The world is being torn apart by nothing more than fear.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span> Those were the first words I ever heard him say.<span style=""> </span>I’ll never forget that day.<span style=""> </span>It was on my grandparents’ old TV, from my bedroom in the rundown little trailer park where I grew up.<span style=""> </span>I was supposed to be doing homework, but I was really just drifting off into one fantasy world or another, staring at the pages of my algebra book.<span style=""> </span>I was home alone, so I had the news on in the background because I was scared of the silence and the old set only caught the one channel.<span style=""> </span>I was only twelve years old, so I didn’t know what it was I was afraid I’d hear were it too quiet, but, like he said, fear is an irrational thing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span> He wasn’t much to look at; a small guy, not too thin, but you could tell he never played sports or anything.<span style=""> </span>And he was younger than you’d have thought, once he started talking.<span style=""> </span>His hair was a little unkempt and just a couple of shades too dark to be called mousy.<span style=""> </span>The one thing about him that stood out, though, was his eyes.<span style=""> </span>It wasn’t that they were a strange color or anything.<span style=""> </span>They were just that blue that looks like new denim.<span style=""> </span>But there was something in them that, when he spoke, held you there, almost like if you stared long enough or hard enough, you could see through them to a world that wasn’t as messed up as the one he was talking about.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span> His voice didn’t stand out much either.<span style=""> </span>He wasn’t what you’d have called a born public speaker.<span style=""> </span>He wasn’t a Kennedy, or even a Reagan.<span style=""> </span>It wasn’t a deep, resonating voice, which would have looked funny coming out of him anyway.<span style=""> </span>There was nothing special about it. <span style=""> </span>It wouldn’t have been one you would’ve picked out in a crowded restaurant.<span style=""> </span>But somehow the gravity of the things he said carried in that voice, in the sometimes halting way he said things, not with the calculated pauses of a politician, but the genuine loss of someone aware that he was trying to find a way to put words to something bigger than himself.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span> They asked people in my grandparents’ generation where they were when Kennedy was shot.<span style=""> </span>In my parents’, it was where they were when the towers fell.<span style=""> </span>Looking back now, to what seems like so long ago, I think that, should there ever be a question that defines our generation, it’ll be where we were the first time we heard him.<span style=""> </span>I was twelve, in the back bedroom of my mom’s old trailer, and I’ll never forget those words.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style=""> </span><i style=""> “The world is being torn apart by nothing more than fear.<span style=""> </span>Lots of people will tell you that fear isn’t as pressing a problem in the world as hate, or anger, or pride.<span style=""> </span>But those are all just symptoms of the greater ill.<span style=""> </span>We hate because we don’t understand, which scares us.<span style=""> </span>Sometimes, it’s because we do understand, and that understanding places what we fear too close to us.<span style=""> </span>Anger, righteous or not, is only the fear that something will happen, or happen again, that something we loved will be lost and that we will be left alone.<span style=""> </span>And pride…Pride is the most insidious of them.<span style=""> </span>Pride is the simple fear that we might be wrong, that we may face judgment in the eyes of others who have no right to pass it.<span style=""> </span>It is the fear that what we believe to be true will be made false and that we will have to start over again down a path which can never be finished.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><i style=""><span style=""> </span> “Fear is irrational.<span style=""> </span>It drives us, in any of its forms, like almost nothing else can.<span style=""> </span>It clouds our minds.<span style=""> </span>Nothing can exist in its presence. <span style=""> </span>It devours like a fierce flame, burning away things like reason, mercy, empathy, and understanding, all of which are the keys to its undoing.<span style=""> </span>We very often embrace it for that very reason, because it allows us to keep from feeling sadness, guilt, or pain, but forget that it also eats away at joy, love, and peace.<span style=""> </span>We wield the flame, lashing out with it, unaware that, when it fades, as it must, those dark things will still be there, compounded further by the atrocities of our actions.”<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;"><i style=""><span style=""> </span> “Think about how often, every day, you are faced with the choice to give in to fear and choose to willingly.<span style=""> </span>People rally in their homes against the oppression of things like churches, governments, and a corporate culture which grows fat on the suffering of those it claims to feed.<span style=""> </span>But when they walk out into the streets, their voices are quiet.<span style=""> </span>They watch as their rights are eroded away, as those around them are subjugated, mumbling that it isn’t their problem and pray that it never, and this is the greatest tool of those who would seek to oppress, falls on them to become the ones who must stand up for what is right.”<o:p></o:p></i><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;"><br />Those words reached out to me through that tinny speaker and held my heart tight long after they faded.<span style=""> </span>It felt like I was too young, too small too understand them.<span style=""> </span>It wasn’t until years later that I would realize that my age had nothing to do with it.<span style=""> </span>He was right.<span style=""> </span>Fear was how we were being kept in check.<span style=""> </span>Those in power, those truly in power, made every one of us feel the way I did that night, as I lay in the dark hours later, still dwelling on the things I’d heard.<span style=""> </span>The message was simple enough for a child to understand because it had to be.<span style=""> </span>We were all children, then, and it wasn’t until we were forced to face that fact that we could start to change it.</p>Zach Heberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045217214035561918noreply@blogger.com0