Truth & Reconciliation

Before I say anything else, I'll tell you to be sure to go out and vote tomorrow. I'm not gonna be one of those "it doesn't matter who you vote for as long as you get out and do it" people. Fuck that. Vote John Kerry and let's have an end to the complete bullshit. It's the U.S....there's still gonna be injustice and inequity and partial bullshit, but seriously we should move up not down. I sent in my absentee ballot today and I'm gonna be watching the news tomorrow waiting for the verdict.

Also, thank you Eminem for preaching to the choir and, hopefully, getting lots of your fans to participate in the election. Hopefully everyone realizes they are a participant whether they like it or not.

Damn, this Education as a Moral Endeavor class is truly amazing. Every time I leave it makes me reflect on moral issues. Every time I'm in class I can relate the topics to some event in my life. Today we were talking about what is necessary for forgiveness (not completely certain what this has to do with education). We're using the idea of forgiveness for South African apartheid as an example, so imagine if someone victimized you in some way; imagine that someone did you wrong. In order to forgive there needs to be:

1) A face-to-face meeting - It's important to confront that person who dealt that pain.

2) truth & honesty - all of the information needs to be revealed. There must be total resolution. The Truth & Reconciliation Commission in South Africa sought to provide amnesty to criminals of apartheid in exchange for full, truthful disclosure. Knowing what happened is very important.

3) apology - the person seeking forgiveness has to accept responsibility for what occurred

And after all of that, the victim still must be capable of forgiving. It's not an easy thing, and from the stories we've read it seems like not everyone is able to do it. The forgiveness discussion was very timely for me because it is a huge issue in my life right now. Thankfully, it looks (and feels) like nearly all of the criteria for my forgiveness have been achieved, and I'm really close to that point of calm and resolution.

Right now some of you are like: "What the fuck kinda blog is this?!"