As I walk through society today, I am bombarded daily with messages subtle and overt that I should feel ashamed and evil, that my history is one of violence and oppression, that I am responsible for the ruining of lives. What is it that I have done, what great crime against humanity have I committed? I am that most evil of creatures, a white, Christian, straight, man who looks out at America and finds a country that he loves, and has always loved.

A stroll around the college culture of America today will find scholarships for African-Americans (never black by the way), Hispanics, Asians and every other minority that happens to pop up on the radar and yet I have yet to see a scholarship aimed a the promotion of students of European descent, why I wonder is that? I am subjected to hearing about all the atrocities of the white race and the advances given us by minorities. I appreciate their contributions, I truly do, George Washington Carver was a genius by all objective standards and I admire him for his dedication and effort. But I admire Edison for the same reasons. Why have we sunk to demonizing a race for its past? Dr. King I don’t think wanted to gain equality be degrading the white race but rather improving it and simultaneously encouraging blacks to improve, in a way that both races would be able to climb together to highs that neither had ever seen before. Segregation, internally or externally imposed is an ugly thing and the urge to judge and group people based on an easily identifiable physical feature is simplistic, animalistic and stupid. I am so tired of race being an issue period. But in the society of today it is and in some ways I am on both the right and the wrong side of the issue. Being white I am less likely to be judged as being a bad person based solely on my skin tone, being white I will never be someone who people will believe when I say that I was discriminated against because of my race. Being white I am someone less likely to get assistance in education, being white it is more likely that I will go anyway. On the issue of race I will never be able to be as cool I will never be given a additional assist from affirmative action, I will never be called a victim, I will never be given extra consideration because of the atrocities that occurred in my past, society will never go out of its way to assist me and in so doing it will ensure that I can live without it. Race can be a cause of great frustration for members of any race, how we each deal with that frustration is determined will determine if it hinders or helps us travel through life. So go ahead society condemn me for my skin, I don’t care and when I emerge it will be as a stronger person. I have no more white guilt.

Striding through borders recently I paused at the religion section to notice the disproportionate number of eastern and bizarre religions contained there, I was interested to see that the Christian section was actually smaller than that of the Islamic section and yet I fail to see many followers of Allah here in the valley. When portrayed on TV Christians are often shown to be judgmental (often valid) and bitter, angry, fundamentalist, simplistic and downright evil. Other religions are shown in more positive light but also often bashed and the most popular stance among the current crop of entertainers is that “I’m not religious I’m spiritual” What? What is that? That is the most gutless answer I’ve ever heard. I have more respect for an atheist then someone who just basically says “I think there’s something out there and there is a purpose in life but I’m not actively looking for it and I’m not sure what it is.” And these people look at us and say we’re close-minded? That answer is a block to every argument for or against faith I at least have the ability to debate the merits of my beliefs to look at someone else’s and logically see where my theology might by flawed, not these people. They wall themselves off from questions of the divine and focus on the here and now but unlike the atheist they don’t even commit to doing that, they are where they are and nothing can ever move them. As a Christian I stand for something I have told the world what I believe and what I aspire to be and the world may hold me accountable, what is so bad about that? I look to the word of Jesus and try to live as he instructs loving God and my neighbors. It is true that over the years of history, some who claimed to act in the name of Christ did not follow these two most invaluable commandments and in so doing presented a face to the world evil and sinister wrapped in the holier-than-thou attitude of arrogant piety. This false view of Christianity has done immeasurable damage to our cause and the judgmental attitude of many of today’s churches perpetuates society’s view of us as hypocrites. I am not a good Christian but I am striving to improve and while I may feel remorse for my own negative actions, for the things I’ve done to harm my fellow men, I refuse to feel guilty for the sins of others.

Jogging through the channels recently and seeing queer eye for the straight guy, some gay thing on MTV (clarification this was a show on homosexuality not a show to be described by the 10^th grade slang “that’s gay” meaning something that is stupid, where I using that meaning I could describe every show on MTV) immediately followed by a fashion show where women parade around in front a panel of other women and gay men, the irony was just too much. The question that struck me during my frequency hopping jaunt was “why has society decided that it is so cool to be gay?” I don’t get it I personally as a Christian hate homosexuality (being a Christian however I strive at all times to love homosexuals, it is difficult but one can hate the action and love the person, I personally loath my own actions regularly however I strive at all times to continue to love myself) I don’t believe it is a condition that you are born with, I believe that is a result of something a disorder and I know that I sound terrible and cruel and judgmental when I say that but that’s is what I believe and I’m not pulling punches here. Society will not like what I’ve just said but I don’t care, I do not feel guilty for my beliefs; I believe that homosexuality is wrong, I also believe that stealing, lying, cheating, pornography and several other things that we all do occasionally are wrong and I aim to treat them in the same way hate that action which is wrong, and love the person who is doing it. It is difficult but it is Christian and that is what I aim to do.

Take a turn around a college campus and you are likely to find a women’s study center or women’s activities center but you not apt to find at these same institutions centers catering exclusively towards men. Why does a society that preaches equality and fairness allow this obvious sexism to take place in our institutions of higher learning? Is one kind of sexism politically correct and one considered evil? No I’m sure that couldn’t be, it’s not like we allow this to happen in other arena’s like race right? Society bashes men as brutish, stupid, weak minded and simple and somehow manages to do this universally as if the writings of Plato and Aristotle, Kant and Nietzsche had never existed, as if the advances brought to us by Einstein and Galileo had made no difference. How many times have we been told “men are pigs” in a broad generalization the actions of a minority of men contaminate the majority. Society is okay with that but the generalization that “women are bitches” is not so cavalierly met. In the end once again society will lend me no aid because of my gender and after I’m done being bitter, my determination to rise above this will leave better prepared to live my live depending on no one. I have absolutely no male guilt.

Sprinting through our society today is a feeling of American guilt, as we stand as the leaders of the free world there are many that balk at our actions, that take offense at our foundations, I once heard a sociology professor say that we should stop teaching constitutional history because it was a history written by dead white men. Excuse me? That is the history of our nation, a history of our people, of all people who came here bitten by the dream of opportunity, equality and the ability to start a new life. Unlike other nations we are not tied together by ancestry, we are not united in a common history of culture, we are bonded by a set of ideas, a code of ethics, a set of beliefs and in this time of diversity where all that divides us is being so emphatically pushed in our face, in this time of division I cling to that which unites us. White-Americans, black-Americans, Latin-Americans, Asian-Americans all of us, every man every woman has something in common we are all Americans. If we spent as much time looking at what comes after the hyphen as we do looking at what comes in front of it the community we might see would surprise us all. Our history has not always been perfect, in fact it has never been perfect but surveying the world today it seems like one of the best around and while there are some things this nation has done that regret I never regret supporting her and as we march on I long for a reawakening of patriotism, I wish that our flag might once again be seen a symbol of unity, morality and hope. Let us regain the path to prosperity as a unified nation, not the police of the world and not the uninvolved bystander, let us be a responsible member of the global community but us remember that we are Americans first.

As we walk through the journey that is life we are likely to encounter many thoughts and many writings of people who claim to know the answers to how to fix the wrongs in the world. Few contain validity and fewer are even close to being right. If you read this entire treatise you have way too much time on your hands and should get a life, regardless if you agreed with most of it, thank you and I apologize for that fact that it was so choppy and poorly written. It was nothing more than 2000 word rough drafting of my thoughts that I pounded out at 12:30am on a stressful night. If you disagreed with the majority of it, I thank you for your time and offer you the solace of know that these words are nothing more than the rantings of a twenty-one year old college student with few real life experiences who’s biggest daily problem usually consist of deciding what tee-shirt to wear, I believe that I am right, but really what do I know other than I don’t feel guilty for stuff that happened before I was born? If this writing at any time pissed you off, please chill out.

Jester