Enjoy the stupid!

*ahem*

So I had my students watch the Presidential debates and they had to write summaries and then follow up with their opinion. Some of the things they said were so entertaining. Clearly they were not watching the same debates I was. And clearly some of them are just stupid. Nonetheless I have decided that excerpts from their papers are too choice not to share so please enjoy the stupid!

It seemed like all McCain said the whole time was, “Thank you, thank you for that question. That was a good question. You are wonderful. America is great. I can do it. I have done things before and I can do this. I can do it. I will do it. Obama sucks. You guys are amazing.”
It was obvious that she totally owned Biden. It was a contest between a sharp “maverick” and a delusional madman.

I wasn’t really looking forward to watching the debates considering it overtook grey’s anatomy but I got over it.

I always considered Palin smart and witty, but after that comment, knowing that she must have been prepped on that part of Bidens life, I felt like she was being a b word that I shouldn’t write in this paper.

Biden disagrees that heterosexual marriages should be allowed.

It seemed like Palin was too busy slinging mud and talking about how she did things back in Alaska that she never really go the answer the questions…. Really how many Americans do you know that have been to Alaska?

In this debate we learned that Obama is a cheater because he would not stick to the time limits. Although McCain did not either, he at least attempted and did not just plain ignore them…. At the end of the debate, I felt like McCain ended up looking like the bigger man, and Obama ended up looking like a liar and a cheater.

Obama gave the appearance of a sleazy car salesman, someone who wanted to sell you something quick and didn’t want you to look to hard at the fine print or in this case his actual views of the topics. He uses a lot of rock bands and movie stars as a reference as to what a great guy he is, hoping to catch the eye of the young and uniformed voter as the “cool” choice. McCain has actual members of government and friends and family to back him up. McCain’s personal appearance was not one of a flashy, shiny toothed camera loving politician, but more of a humble guy who has experience and has been through a lot, and ACTUALLY CARES.

When I watched this it was very hard for me to follow along with what they were saying, probably because I didn’t care much for what they were saying. I am sure when I am older I will care but for now I have no idea what they are talking about. Overall I think John McCain won the debate because he was bringing out the truth about Barrack Obama. Obama has socialist views on health care and on the economy. If history has taught us anything, it is that Socialism does not work, for example look at the USSR and all the Eastern European countries during 1991. During this very crucial time in our nation’s history, we need a man with experience who can run our country into the right direction. Obama has no experience in Washington, nor has he ever worked with everyone in Congress. Obama is by far the most far left liberal and inexperienced candidate in our country’s history.
I do not enjoy watching these presidential debates at all. I find them extremely boring and hard to understand. After watching last wednesdays presidential debate I thought that McCain won overall because he taught me things about Barrack Obama that I never knew. I never knew that Obama was friends with communist people and that he has socialist views on certain things. Frankly I don’t like what he is all about and I don’t want a weirdo running our country, so if I were allowed to vote I would vote for McCain. I did like Barrack during the start of the campaign but now I have realized what he is all about. I don’t trust someone that is good friends with communists and socialists and they should be nowhere near having the job of protecting millions for American lives. Hopefully us, the American people make the right choice on who is to be our future president, whoever that is.

I think McCain needs to calm down he acted like a baby all through the presidential debates.
I really love McCain and think that he should win. He said a lot of comments that made Obama feel stupid…. All I know is that if I were able to vote, I would vote for McCain. I think he would be a better President. he would help America out a lot more than Obama would. So please vote for McCain Ms. Bastian.

I think Obama is a straight up lunatic who would do nothing but run the country down the toilet.
Once thing i noticed is how McCain would get very worked up over a subject and Obama would just kind of smile and act like McCain was an idiot.

S.

politics ruin my life...sort of

Being a government teacher at ye old semi-local high school during an election year trying to keep my personal political views as private as possible is not an easy task. I've kept up on both conventions and watched the "important" speeches each night and find myself at some points barely restraining objects flying from my hands toward the TV. At one point Drex offered me some Chinese candy to throw at the screen during certain speech. Some politicians remain on mute because they make me physically ill while I find myself drawn to the most unlikely of speeches.

It's so hard to remain politically neutral when I just want to yell, "CANDIDATE X IS CLEARLY THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR THE NATION!!!! ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN CAN SEE THAT!!!" I know that everyone has their agency and all that jazz, but sometimes, politics ruins my life. And I can't stand when my students blatantly disrespect either candidate. They both deserve some respect and I can't seem to beat that into their heads. Oh well...November isn't actually all that far away.

I also hate pot-shot politics from either side. Can't we just argue policies? Boo...hissssss

Now I'll leave it to Drex to get back to spirituality...

S.

e. holland: byu training

One thing that we thought we should bring up with Elder Holland was the lack of training for ecclesiastical leaders on a local level, especially at BYU. One of the big issues that I've seen, especially with new people entering the Mohosphere/social circles, is that reactions and receptions from bishops are varied, and it really seems like luck of the draw. I was a high school senior when I first told my bishop, and he was very open and understood the difference between temptation and sin. He did some research and got back to me with a "Well, there's not really any Church literature provided for people who haven't sinned, so just keep on doing what you've been doing." I told my stake presidency member during my pre-mission interview, and his only advice was not to tell any of my companions. I told my bishop when Salad and I got engaged, and while he was (and is) one of my favorite bishops ever, he really didn't get it, and told me as I focused on Salad, it would go away (haha). And when I talked with Salad's bishop when we got engaged, he pulled out the Evergreen monthly bulletin thing, and had all manner of resources that he knew of. It's really a mixed bag. Many people have had much worse experiences than I have.

While a widespread training protocol for bishops and stake presidencies everywhere would be difficult to compile, let alone implement, more training for BYU bishops and stake presidencies would be much more doable. With the concentration of young single adults, the number of people impacted would also be higher. Elder Holland agreed, and said that it might be very beneficial to do some additional training for the leaders. He pointed out the difficulty of reaching individual bishops in more remote locales, and pointed out that not all bishops will encounted the issue, but that the concentration of people at BYU would make it a good place for training, and could possibly lead to ways that more generalized training could be done. No promises were made, but it seems like this was a good idea that might bear fruit.

an afternoon with elder holland

So I was interested in what sorts of questions you all would ask because I wanted to get a feel for where other people view things as being. I know where I am in life and where I stand, but a slightly more generalized overview would be advantageous going in. Last Wednesday Salad and I drove up to Salt Lake to meet with Elder Holland. We had spoken with him for about 15 minutes on the phone before, but he wanted to meet us in person and have time to actually sit down and talk.

We got there about 15 minutes early, and waited about 20 minutes before we were shown in. Elder Holland apologized profusely for running late. Hah, 5 minutes. My family runs about 45 minutes late. :P We were nervous before going in, but as soon as we saw him and shook his hands, all nervousness vanished. He shook my hand, then took Salad by the cheeks and exclaimed "Oh, how wonderfully rosy your cheeks are!"

We talked for about half an hour, then he had to take an international conference call - but he wanted more than just the 25 minutes or so with us, so he asked us to stick around until he was done, and we could continue our conversation. All told, we spent about 45 minutes in his office speaking with him.

I don't want to go into the entire meeting all in one post - having this up here will help me remember that I have to post. :P So I'll continue on later with some of the things we talked about. One question in particular that I raised was posed by a friend. He wanted to know whether supporting gay marriage issues would be grounds for taking away one's temple recommend. Elder Holland was quite clear on this point - that is not grounds for losing a recommend, nor, he hopes, will it ever be. Political opinions of such a nature have no bearing on temple worthiness. If ever it were to be such an issue, a statement would have to be issued directly from the First Presidency, and it would likely become one of the temple recommend questions. He cited the ministry of President Heber J. Grant. He was president of the church when prohibition was first instated, through the entire time it was in effect, and when Utah was the state that cast the deciding vote, ending prohibition in the United States. He was horribly distraught over it, especially after urging the members to work towards it, but it never became a point of temple worthiness.

--drex

quick questions, due wednesday morning

Are there any specific SSA-related questions that you have for the Church that have not been satisfactorily answered?

What aspects of Church teachings or practice drive you away from attendance/feeling included/whatever?

If you were in charge, what would you do to increase understanding or help the situation?

Whoopsie...!

I guess we should give up our exhibitionist ways...

Awesome article

Anyone who wants to help us pay for indulgences should make checks payable to salad and drex :D

-S.

And now for the Juniors

So my Juniors were assigned the task of assembling a portfolio on WWII. While their grammatical errors were not as profuse as my seniors' (figure that one out) they did have some pretty humorous things to say, so I thought I would share:

“Our nation is like a heavy weight boxer. If we get punched in the mouth, you better expect to get knocked out.”

“Churchill and Roosevelt combined and destroyed all who stood in their way. Sort of like Batman and Robin, but without the cool suits that made it look like you had a six-pack.”

“We must rationalize our food consumption in order to feed you brave soldiers in the war.”

“Dwight worked for two years, and then went to apply to a Navel Academy.”

“…during this time is when he start build some of his Anti-Jew sediments.”

“I can’t believe that you have only been gone for a month and a half it seems like so much longer. I thought this may make your day happier to know that we are expecting our third child in eight months.”

Only one week left and then on to the blessed peace of summer vacation--I can hardly wait. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited than my students are, but they would beg to differ. Little do they know that it's much harder to be a teacher than it ever was to be a student.

-S.

My Current Struggle

Bet I caught your attention with that line, eh? Well I happen to teach government to high school seniors at a semi-local high school. Said high school is supposed to produce the "cream of the crop" if you will, and these students are the ones who are going to lead us to a better tomorrow. If that's the case then I'm genuinely scared for that tomorrow and I highly recommend that you all go out to your local hardware store and buy the necessary supplies to build a bunker to settle in for the long-haul. Either I was blessed with some real stupids or these kids are just trying their best to make my eyes bleed and make my life difficult.

We recently finished a section on the Civil Rights that included some landmark Supreme Court cases so I assigned a simple 2-page paper that was to encompass the entirety of the Civil Rights Movement--no big deal right? You'd think I had asked them to single-handedly save the world in 20 minutes. Over the course of a week I graded 120 CRAP papers and I thought I would regale you with some of the more *choice* sentences. I promise these are not taken out of context to make them sound worse. They are taken directly as I found them in the papers--grammar and spelling intact. Enjoy!

“When he was arrested and brought to court with Judge John Ferguson, he was made segregated. Even when he brought it to the Supreme Court they too ruled him segregated because he was 1/8 black.”

“This football team changed more than just the players lives it changed the countries lives in ways they probably never thought they would.”

“…they won that season all of their games.”

“Homer Plessy helped ignite a flame already burning through the African American community over separate but equal.”

“The reason that the schools were put together started with Plessy vs. Ferguson when they weren’t given any rights and then with Brown vs. the Board of Education where they were considered “separate but equal” but had to go to different schools.”

“Restaurants, theaters, restrooms, and public schools.”

“It was there that the question of ‘does Louisiana law violate the equal protection clause of the 14 amendment?’.”
“Shooting off of the Plessy case, comes the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955.”

“…in his home town of Louisiana…”

“During the time, hardly any blacks and whites communed with each other, because they didn’t want to.”

“The first scene of the school you see people protesting against the incorporation of the blacks, when the white football player introduced his white girl friend to the black teammate and she would not shake his hand, and arguments and disaster everywhere.”

“Although on paper the ruling made it illegal, at heart people were still segregated.”

“The origin of Civil Rights movement.”

“Not only did this Civil Rights Act prohibit segregation towards blacks, but many other things as well, such as no job discriminations towards anyone, no matter how old they may be, women’s rights, equal opportunity, responsibility, and/or pay.”

“Not only had their been segregation, but colors were denied their rights as well.”

“School, hospitals, bathrooms, drinking fountains, and even white people would never touch a Bible that a black man had touched.”

“Some children were asked between two dolls, one white and one black, which was better, smarter, or maybe even prettier. These children mostly answered with the white dolls. Other children had to walk at least 5 miles to get to the bus station or even the school.”

“The Plessy v. Ferguson case was a man Homer Plessy who was 7/8 black and 1/8 white.”

“The civil rights are the people that gave the blacks their freedom to be just like the whites.”

“With the ruling of the Plessy vs. Ferguson separate is equal school boards became separate.”

“One week after that tragedy the president signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and in 1991 Bush signs another Civil Rights Act strengthening the laws against discrimination.”

“The separate but equal ideas.”

“Integration in schools were a major thing during this.”

“The Brown vs. BOE Topeka, Ks, which show us the unfairness of times, back then.”

-S.

Only in Utah...

...will you hear a medely of Primary songs being played on a piano in the commons of a public high school.

I was walking back from the office when I noticed some distinctly familiar music coming from the commons. When I identified it I had to chuckle to myself at the culture that I'm stuck in. NEVER would I have dared play a church song at school for fear of being made fun of or some other juvenile reaction from my peers.

Sorry we've been gone forever...school is killing both of us, but the good news is that I'm finally getting caught up. I won't ever be ahead, that's for sure, but I'm nowhere near as far behind as I used to be.

S.