Through the Grapevine...

The friendly Elder's Quorum came over to my house to do some yard work as part of their Saturday service project. While chatting with them, one of the brothers commented on the fact that I have a Ph.D. Wow! If that is the kind of rumor that is going around, please spread some more rumors about me....like the fact that I am happily married and am a size four. :-)

Thought for the Day

"You cannot defect from an insight.  You cannot unsee what you have seen."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thought for the Day--From Kare Anderson

When love is gone we turn to justice.
When justice is gone we turn to power.
When power is gone we turn to violence.


Have convictions.
Make your choices based on them.
Recognize how every choice shapes you and every interaction leaves its mark on you.
It is equally important to BE good while doing the right thing as it is to actually do the right thing.
Look to someone's highest side, especially when disagreeing with them.
Remain constant in your loving.

The Source

Have you ever received one of those emails? You know...the ones from an acquaintance or distant relative that is a nicely packaged message full of fear and half-truths? Whether they are addressing the removal of the Ten Commandments from our courthouses or extolling the non-virtues of Muslims, they are all based in the same belief: fear. Fear that someone is going to take away something from us...fear that a "vast conspiracy" is at work. As I have reflected on this, I cringe at the times when I bought into these fears or mistakenly and naively perpetuated them.

I believe that most of us carry around these fears and prejudices because we learned them....from parents, teachers, friends, the media...and we never learned to question if those teachings were true or not.

So, I ask...

What type of messages have you received about the following "groups", where did the messages come from, how can you learn the truth about these "groups"...how can you go to the source?

Lesbians
Homosexuals
Hispanics
Jews
Muslims
Women
Children
Single Mothers
Teenagers
Men
Catholics
Divorced Dads
Mormons
Hindus
Asian
African-Americans
Republicans
Democrats
Christians
Southern Baptists
Career Women
Farmers
Teen Parents
Yankees
Southerners
People with Disabilities
Rednecks
Yuppies
New Yorkers
Illegal Immigrants
Taliban
Iraqi's
People with AIDS

What categories would you add to the list? What are your thoughts?