My Blah-Blah-Blog

I’m doing it again. I’m jumping on the bandwagon of the latest trending topic on Twitter: Pat Robertson. I should know better than to talk politics or religion, but I’m impacted by this story in two ways: one, I’ve been to Haiti and found the people there lovely and enchanting although living in extreme poverty. Two, I’m a Christian.

Let me stop there to say I am embarrassed by Robertson’s comments regarding Haiti. You know, if he’d been giving a history lesson and telling the story of this dude who wanted to save Haiti from Napoleon so he sold his soul to the devil and just left it at that, I’d be okay. I thought it was a rather interesting story, one akin to Icharus wanting wings or Zeus sleeping around on Hera. Well, wrong era wrong continent but go with me here. While he didn’t right out say it, it appears he’s intimating that Haiti is cursed (by God I’m guessing) and that this earthquake is a result of said curse.

Having been to Haiti, I can say that it would indeed be easy to say the country is “cursed” (and by that I do not mean on God’s list of countries to smite in 2010). The people are incredibly poor there. Poor isn’t even a good word to use! The country is brown and dusty – animals roam the streets, dirty water puddles on the corners tainted by urine and feces, and children play right.there. There’s no topsoil in Haiti, no system for water (it’s caught in cisterns when (if) it rains) and when we were there, electricity only existed for about two hours a day, IF you were lucky.

And, sure enough, an hour crossing the Haitian border to the Dominican Republic is like stepping through the looking-glass: suddenly there’s lush green foliage, plants, flowers, grass, waterfalls, it’s a veritable land of plenty.

But back to Robertson.

I’m a Christian. Have been my whole life. I remember my mom watching Robertson when I was younger. I never minded him much until my adult life when many Christian leaders had their own failings as humans: affairs, homosexual relationships, embezzelment, etc. Wow, these are people just like me, making mistakes. These same people who represented Christianity to the world because of their far reaching programs and television shows.

Here’s what it comes down to for ME, in my OWN personal opinion.

Pat Robertson should have used his airtime to encourage Christians, Bhuddists, Muslims, Athiests humans to pray for, help, donate, send aid to Haiti.

If Pat Robertson wants this earthquake to truly be a “blessing in disguise” then he needs to not make harsh comments.

Cause hey, I’m just SURE that the people of Haiti will be LINING UP and coming in DROVES to turn Christian and follow this God who smited them, killing men women and little babies. After all, who doesn’t want to follow THAT God?

*hem*

Dear Haitians et. al:

I’m sorry that Pat Robertson made comments that make the rest of us Christians appear to be simple-minded, hateful witch hunters. Apparently he forgot the words “God is loving, gracious, kind, slow to anger, patient, forgiving…” I’ll stop there cause you get the point. Please don’t judge the rest of us based on his personal opinions.  I’m pretty sure this earthquake was caused by this thing called a fault line.

So tired of people using religion to make other people feel bad about themselves, to scare others into believing in God. I get that we Christians beleive if you don’t believe in Jesus then you’re condemned to eternal damnation in hell (insert warm fuzzy feelings here)  but for the love of God – really – knock it the hell off. If we’d spend half the time helping others, showing true love and concern for our fellow humans then maybe people would think “Hey, Christians are pretty cool. They aren’t stuffy at all!”

I’m hoping to go on a mission trip to Haiti this summer, returning to the city I visited back in ’95 or ’96. I’m not going to do dramas in the street or preach to thousands hoping they will turn or burn.

Instead, I’m going to really do what Jesus would likely have done: get in with the people, the outcasts, the downtrodden, the hurting, the homeless, the orphaned, and I’m going to love them. Yep. Love love. Like, ooh here’s a hug. Or, hey, let me make dinner for this displaced family. How ’bout that?

And I’m not going to mention that these souls that they are cursed. I’m instead going to look at them like the people who were wonderfully and fearfully made. By God.

Now, make a comment, but BE NICE! If ya’ll start hatin then I’ma delete your comment. Or put a curse on you.

Another update:

Well, sad news. It’s been confirmed by the Brevard County Sheriff’s office that this little guy did indeed pass away. So if you want to help/can help this family, check out twitter feeds for more info, or go to: http://ilikeitfrantic.net/2009/12/prayers-and-hugs-for-the-ross-family/

UPDATE

Yeah, don’t be hating. Nothing wrong with wanting to help someone but checking it out first…

There’s NO local police reports, no local news story. I work for the media industry and there’s no way a story like this would go unreported. Seriously: mom alone, hubby overseas, baby dies?

I’m concerned. Super concerned. Not just because people are giving money to what*could* be a hoax (hey, I could be wrong) but because if this never happened, then a mother is speaking as though her son is dead. That’s terribly troubling. From a psychological standpoint, what does that say???

Original post:

Yes, I’m jumping on the bandwagon.

A few minutes ago I read a tweet by a kind person wishing well to someone who’d apparently lost a loved one. I clicked on the @name and discovered a few tweets by a lady whose son apparently drowned in Florida about 16 hours ago. Very sad, tragic, shocking indeed. But wait…something isn’t sitting right.

Who tweets “Please pray, 2 year old fell in a pool” followed up by odd posts with pictures. She never really says the child died, but it’s assumed based on the comments (read here: http://twitter.com/military_mom). Plus it’s foggy out – likely chilly. I lived in Fort Myers: WE NEVER went swimming in December. But okay, maybe she lives farther south. Maybe it’s a heated pool. But what’s with the chickens?

Now mind you, if I was at the hospital and was trying to get some prayers, yeah I may twitter. There’s something about the camaraderie of your friends online – whether you’ve met face to face or not. I tweeted when a beloved friend died a few months ago. But my baby?

Fog rolls in. Hour later baby fell in pool. At what point between trying to get him out, calling 911, police, fire, medical rolling on scene, attempting CPR… at what point did she tweet this prayer request?

Something just doesn’t seem right. There are no news reports at all. The AP Florida Bureau has nothing. Google search has nothing with the mom’s name or the child’s name.

Here’s what I think. Sympathies to this mom if this happened. I hope she catches a break from the nasty comments putting blame on her. If tweeting brings you comfort and some therapeutic value, keep doing it.

However, as someone who has worked in Law Enforcement, I suggest someone pay this home a visit and check on mom and baby. It isn’t impossible that maybe she’s just overwhelmed and needs help (her hubby is deployed right now). This could be a little shout-out for someone to help her out. It may be a big fat red flag that something isn’t right.

Looks like this gal is heading up the research department: http://twitter.com/madisonmcgraw. She’s catching flack too, but she has a point: just verify the story. (Check out her blog here: http://girlarsonist.blogspot.com/ )

If it’s true, I’m sure LOADS of people will flock to assist this family right away.

Either way, this woman needs help pronto: either her son just died OR something else is going on and she feels the need to lie and say he did.

Comments welcome but BE NICE.

I wouldn’t think it was that difficult to mark a highway as NORTH or SOUTH bound, or EAST or WEST bound. But the confounded nincompoops that designed the beltline here in NC… well, I don’t know WHAT they were thinking.

What direction ARE you traveling in, exactly, when you are driving in a big circle? Make that two circles.

Today I found out that in Raleigh,  you can go east and west and south all at the same time. Let me explain:

My directions to get to point “A” were to go SOUTH on the highway. Got that?

When I get to said highway, the only two options I have are East or West. NOT South.  Sigh. I decided to take the “East” on-ramp, since the “to” city was the same as the directions.

I get on the highway with my intended exit in mind: 298A.  However, I see that I’m at exit 15. Then 16. Then 17. Crapola. Does this mean I’m going the wrong way? I can’t imagine driving allll the way to exit 298! If the numbers had been counting down, I’d have been okay with it!

Just before I decided to get off of my East-bound path from exit 20-something, the upcoming exit number is suddenly 300. Then 299. I was excited. However, the highway sign now said that I was driving WEST. Wait, what? Wasn’t I just driving East!?!?!? At no time do I recall making a 180 turn in the middle of the highway to switch directions!!!

A little annoyed, I kept on going. If I could just get to exit 298A, I’d be happy.  Success! I made it to my destination.

Now to get back home. I figured that since the original directions, which said “Go South (which is really East) meant that to get home, I’d go North, which should logically be West. However, since the highway I exited said I was driving West, I wondered if I should go East. Anyone following me? Yeah, the confused feeling you have is the same one I had.

I decided to take my chances and got on the Eastbound highway, which is where I started off on this crazy trip to begin with so it really SHOULDN’T have been right, but remember East is West is South is North. After all, the place where I’d driven to was located southwest of where I live. Made sense to me.

Didn’t work. I got on the highway from exit 298A hoping to see 299. To my dismay I saw that the upcoming exit was 297…296. Grr. Wrong way again!

I hopped off at the next exit, which was really a roundabout to get onto another highway… this time going South of course. Grr again. I drove about 3 miles before I was able to get off and turn around, going North back to the beltway. Grumble. Now which way did I just come from, was it East or West?

It didn’t matter, the exit signs that were upcoming were only for the Inner or Outer beltline. Not North, South, East OR West. GAH!!!

“A man must have designed this system” was the first thing to pop into my head, followed by a panic as I had about 30 seconds to pick which lane to get in! Inner or Outer!?

One of my options runs clockwise, or south-to-west, and the other runs counter-clockwise, or north-to-east. Or something like that.

I’m confused.

I picked the Inner beltline – innies always sound better than outies. I’m just sayin.

About a mile later, the entire road split – I could again go either North-East or North-West… I wasn’t sure exactly where I was located. Considering the fact that I was supposed to be on the same road I came in on, I don’t remember the road splitting at all! Thankfully, I stuck to the get-over-to-the-far-left lane and stayed on my highway. I think the other highway went to Alaska or something.
I finally made it home and checked out a map to see exactly what I did wrong. As far as I can tell, the roads I drove on today don’t even exist in this reality but rather some alternate universe that sucks in motorists unaware.