Governmental Holiday Issues

I should probably be spending my time studying for finals, but instead I’m writing this blog on an issue that I just saw on the news at dinner.

This past Monday the Capitol Building was decorated for the Holiday Season. For the past 20 years a 25 foot tall spruce tree has been set up, formally called the “Capitol Holiday Kids Tree”, which is sponsored by the Association of Washington Business. In 2006 a Jewish group sponsored a “Capitol Menorah” as a symbol of Hanukkah. In 2007 a “Capitol Nativity Scene” was proposed by a local real estate agent, Ron Wesselius. Wesselius was turned down with the excuse of “they didn’t have enough time to wade through issues of government religious endorsement”. Wesselius sued, and won his case. In 2007, and now again in 2008, a “Capitol Nativity Scene” is on display. (The Menorah was not displayed this year.)

This Monday three displays were installed; the “Capitol Holiday Kids Tree”, the “Capitol Nativity Scene”, and a new display sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The display is a placard that reads “At this season of the Winter Solstice may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Now, of course, issues ensue.

I pride myself on being a Christian. I will defend my religion to the death. However, I also pride myself on being an open-minded, loving person. I think that it is important to share my views on this issue, but I want to do it justice and make sure that it is very clear where I stand.
First, I would like to point out that a ‘Christmas Tree’ is not necessarily a Christian symbol. True, the Christmas holiday includes the tradition of a decorated tree surrounded by presents. However, the true meaning of Christmas has nothing to do with a tree. Christmas, from a Christian perspective, is about the birth of Jesus Christ. Santa Claus, Christmas Trees, and things of that nature can only be tied to Christianity, through the secular part of the Christmas Holiday celebration.

Second, if a Menorah, a clearly Jewish symbol, was displayed I’m not sure why a lawsuit was necessary to ensure that a Nativity Scene, a clearly Christian symbol, should also be displayed. However, the Nativity Scene is displayed so that is not the issue.

The 1st Amendment in the United States Constitution reads as follows “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

We live in a country that offers us a wonderful thing, Freedom of Religion. The thing people fail to recognize is that along with the Freedom to have whichever religion you may choose, this also means that anyone may choose not to have a religion, aka Atheism. If Christians are allowed their symbol to be displayed during this Holiday season, it is fitting that any other religious group should have the same privilege.

At the same time, I can understand how Christians, or any other religious group would be upset by this sign. After all, “Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds” is a very big put down to all religions. The Nativity Scene and the Menorah, for example, do not put down other religions, they merely show support for their own beliefs. So here is the issue. Atheism, as defined by Dictionary.com, is the doctrine or belief that there is no God. Basically, Atheism is the disbelief of any religion. Whether or not this sign was meant as a jab at religion, as many people may believe it is, they are merely stating their beliefs.

Now, for my view on the matter. I find it unfortunate that the Freedom From Religion Foundation could find no other way to display their beliefs, for example a symbol that would not blatantly stab at other religions. However, I believe that legally they have the right. Since I greatly value the rights that I have been given, the same rights that allow the Nativity Scene to be displayed at the Capitol Building, I do not believe it would be fair to strip these rights from another group simply because they oppose my beliefs.

Now for my last point, I find the most offensive thing on the Freedom From Religion Foundations’ sign to be that religion “hardens hearts and enslaves minds.” I cannot speak for any other religion than my own, but I know that Christians are taught to love one another. We are taught the importance of treating your neighbor as you wish to be treated and loving one another no matter the circumstance. Call me a romantic, but I think that love is always the answer. I resent that they believe that religion hardens hearts. As for enslaving minds I think this article that I have written should give some proof that my mind is not enslaved. I choose to believe in God, no one is forcing me to. I have made that choice as I make millions of other choices daily. No one has enslaved me.


wishing we could all just get along

Finals

So...it has been forever since I last posted...sorry.

This week is finals week. I just took my first final, I have one tomorrow (Tuesday) and two on Wednesday. The one I took today was for my ISS class. Every MSU student is required to take two ISS classes, a 200 level and a 300 level. They are semipointless classes that everyone dislikes. My class isn't too bad in general, the topic is Human Resource Management. However, it is a rather difficult class. Fortunately my professor realized that he makes it difficult so he takes our final grade and curves it. I think that at the moment, though I'm not positive because not everything has been graded...I believe I have a 2.5 or a 3.0 that should be curved at least .5 up from whichever it is.

Tomorrow at 10am I take my French final. I'm not too worried about it, at the moment I have either a 3.5 or a 4.0 in the class and I think that I will do well on the final, I will definitely be studying hard tonight to be sure I am fully prepared.

Wednesday at 10am I have my Intro to Hospitality Business final, which I expect to 4.0 so I'm not concerned, and then at 3pm I have my Statistics final, I hope to do well on that, I think I should. I expect a 3.5 in the class, so we'll see!

After my finals are over my dad is driving me home to good ol' PA! I'm excited!
I came home for Thanksgiving of course, and that was nice, but it was almost a tease going home for such a short time. I'm excited to live at home and see my family and all that funness. I'm also going to miss all my college friends while I'm gone though!

Rose (my college bff) and I had bought cards at Barnes and Noble and we wrote christmas cards to a bunch of the girls in our hall and a few other special people! I'll miss seeing them all month, but i'm really excited to see all my highschool friends, and to see my highschool. I plan on dropping in and saying hi to a few favorite teachers.

Anyways, I realized that I hadn't posted in a really long time so I thought I would tell all this now before I start studying again!


Each Day is a Petal from my Enchanted Rose

I love my job!

Now honestly how often do you hear people say that?

But right now I truly do love my job.

I know that I mentioned that I had gotten this job but I don't remember how much I said about it, so forgive me if this is repeat info.

I am working with a professor in the Hospitality school, Bonnie Knutson, who is doing research. I am her research assistant. I met with her at the beginning of the year and we talked about my interest in meeting and event planning. She decided to start me off working on a project called "Michigan Meetings" the goal is to determine why people are not holding meeting and conventions in Michigan, to determine how to attract people from in-state and out-of-state to hold meetings in Michigan. Bonnie is working on this project with another professor Jeff Beck. So they had me create a customer satisfaction profile to determine how to best measure customer satisfaction.

I began my work by meeting with a librarian who told me the best resources to use for my type of research and then I began reading a million articles on customer satisfaction and the new theory of customer delight, which is that customers who are satisfied are less likely to be loyal to a business than customers who are delighted by their experience. Thus it is best to measure customer delight to obtain customer loyalty.

So, on Wednesday I felt like I had done as much research on that topic as i could without making me pullout my hair... so I scheduled this meeting and Bonnie and Jeff and I decided we could all meet at Starbucks at 11 on Wednesday. So it was Monday and I was determining the best way to show all the information I had compiled. So...I made a PowerPoint. The PowerPoint was not very long, but it showed the most important parts of my research.

I got to Starbucks a bit early so I set up my computer and opened up my PowerPoint. Bonnie got there next and we chatted for a few minutes. Then we decided that we would go through the presentation twice. Once just for Bonnie and then i would do it again once Jeff arrived. I went through the PowerPoint feeling a bit nervous, I wasn't sure if what I came up with was good enough. Bonnie asked me a few questions throughout my PowerPoint all of which I could answer. She was thrilled. She told me that the work I had done was so much of a help and that it saved them so much time, and Jeff would be thrilled. Then Jeff came in, as if on cue and so he got a drink and then I went over my PowerPoint again.

They were so interested in my ideas and all that i had found out. Jeff said that he had had 'Broad Scholar Students' (that is the organization that I am in that has freshman and sophomore research assistants) before, but they had never done as much work the whole year as I had accomplished so far.

I was thrilled. I could not stop smiling. I had been apprehensive about my work, and I was told that it was exemplary. We discussed where we could go next with my work, what the next step would be. After discussing that Bonnie turned to Jeff and said "I think I found your new teaching assistant". Jeff teaches the Meeting and Event Planning class. It would be amazing to be his T.A. so I've arranged my schedule so I can enter the Hospitality school after my first semester of my sophomore year. That way I could take that class during spring of my sophomore year...and by doing that I can be a potential T.A. my junior year.

Bonnie and Jeff both said I'm not allowed to graduate because they love my research so I think that I'm pretty much going to be granted the T.A. position as long as I do well in the class and continue doing good research.

I was thrilled about this. So Wednesday was pretty much the greatest day ever, because I had coffee so I was wide awake and I had that meeting. I love my life sometimes.

"Don't think that I'm naive
Because even a person who's smart
Can listen to their heart"

Kappa Delta

So I should have posted this a while ago but hey, I'm in college now, I'm busy. So I went through sorority rush this fall...which in case you wanted to know is a semi-stressful, but very worthwhile process. And after attending many parties and dressing up and talking to lots of girls for hours on end. I have been accepted in Kappa Delta sorority.

For those of you who do not know Kappa Delta is the sorority that my mother was in as well as my one aunt. I was extremely happy to be accepted. Though I am not fully initiated yet. There is a several week long period during which we learn about the history of the sorority and attend meetings and rituals before we are fully initiated and can truly call ourselves KΔ's until then we are just KD's.

So I'm going through the very fun process of meeting the other Kappa Delta's and joining in with them. I LOVE it! I am going to have so much fun next year living in the Kappa Delta house.

So two really big things are coming up in sorority life. This Thursday is our Big Sis reveal. Every new girl is given an older girl as their big sister, and we become their little sister. They shower us with gifts that all say KΔ on them and we hang out with them lots and we become part of their family. So you then not only have a big sis but her big sis becomes your grand big...and then great grand big...and so on. It is a very exciting time!

Then on November 9th we will be initiated into the sorority!!

YAY!!!

"Because even a person who's smartCan listen to their heartCan listen and believeSo believe in what love can achieve"

Single

Jaime and I are no longer together...that is long story short. I refuse to tell the whole long hurtful story. A lot of people here at MSU know the story and I can't bring myself to tell it anymore. I'm glad it is almost the weekend because I am in great need of time to think. To think, to reflect, to cry.

He was such a good boyfriend. We really did love each other. Something went wrong though.

I need time.

Can a broken heart be repairedxoxo