Another Case for States' Rights

As I perused the newspaper today, a common hallmark of modern politics stood out to me.  People often complain that Washington is constantly waffling around and not addressing the pressing issues that confront our country, and in the rare instances when someone grows a backbone we only get half solutions that don't solve the problem, if they don't make them worse.  Why is this so?  I personally would like to think that at least half of the politicians in Washington aren't womanizers and sociopaths, all though I might be a little too optimistic, and that they are really trying to do what they feel is best for the country. 

The problem I believe is that our country as a whole has become so diverse and divided that effective compromise is unlikely.  The founders foresaw this, and that is the purpose of a federal-style government, divided into state and national authorities.  The original idea was that the national (Federal) government would assume control over issues that dealt with more than one state or the nation as a whole and that the state and local governments and the individuals would have control over all other issues.  In our current mess, the Federal government has assumed authority over an ever-expanding list of "national" issues, usually using the excuse of the interstate commerce clause. 

Due to this, states usually take a back seat to the Federal government and wait for them to solve problems.  On the other hand, if states were expected to solve more of the problems, then the presumably less diverse individual states would be able to come up with more effective and comprehensive solutions to the various problems that face our country.  Also, there would likely be a wide variety of solutions that each state would experiment with, and eventually each state could find a solution that met their needs, possibly from seeing what worked and didn't work in other states.  That was another purpose of having separate state governmental entities.  If each state could tackle problems like health care, immigration, medicaid and medicare, etc. it is likely that much more effective solutions would be reached.

Mediocrity

Earlier today I went over to the school and saw a 16 year old smoking on the back steps.  I told him that he needed to get rid of it.  He was a little defiant, but eventually complied.  I told him he shouldn't smoke.  He then excused his behavior in a way that has gotten me thinking, "It's hard not to when you don't have any parents."  This particular student is being cared for by his aunt and uncle.

I thought it was sad that he had been taught to justify any bad behavior by his difficult circumstances.  His circumstances are definitely more difficult than anything that I've experienced, and I'm sure he experiences grief that I don't understand.  However, his justification was sad because he is allowing his difficulties to determine who he will become.  Whoever first justified his actions and excused them because of his situation handicapped him.  He isn't opening the door to the possibility of becoming more than the average person in his same situation.  Why he is doing this, I will probably never know, but I think there's a lesson to be learned.

How often do I justify some bad behavior of my own because of my circumstances?  "I was mad, but it was because of..." or "Sure I did that, but it wasn't as bad as what so and so did to me."  We don't always have control over our circumstances.  In fact, most of the time we probably don't have control.  But, we can control our own responses to those.  I think this is the hardest part of life.  Adverse conditions don't justify misbehavior.  That is why we are all guilty and have need for repentance.  Otherwise, every one of us would be pure.  If we could justify our bad behavior based on our situations, then that would imply that we have no power to rise above those situations or improve ourselves.  How amazing it is to me that Heavenly Father prepared a way for us to not only rise above and improve ourselves, but to fully put off our past hurts, mistakes, and other baggage we carry that keeps us down.  "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

We are not always as different from the malefactor as we may think.  We may not always have the same struggles as another person, and we will probably never know what a person is going through.  But then again, it's not our place to know or judge.  Most likely, we are guilty of many of the same misdeeds.  Mediocrity is not failing to become great, but failing to become greater than we started.

The Healing Power of Music

Yesterday, my sister-in-law posted a blog about not being apologetic about who we are in our clothes we wear, movies we watch and music we listen to. Towards the beginning, she mentioned how several people had mentioned that classical music helps them to invite the Spirit. Yesterday, I made a similar re-discovery with myself.

In the hustle and bustle of life, I haven't turned on music to work to or just listen to in a long time. That's not to say I didn't often have a song that I was humming, whistling, or singing, as my co-workers and students could attest.

Over the past week and a half, though, I've been trying to get over a cold. It's been worse than most that I get, and I've been feeling a little rotten. Two days ago I showed my students a site that has a lot of non-copyrighted music for sound tracks, etc. We're making movies in Geography. In the process, I was re-introduced to classical music. I downloaded several tracks and began listening to them, and I have felt SO much better. It's probably partly me just getting over my cold, but psychologically I feel a lot more alive.