Fuel for the debate

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."   -Theodore Roosevelt

      For the most part I share these sentiments. I am not opposed to learning second languages, like Spanish, but I am a firm believer that we should possess one common civic language.  Other languages are learned with two goals in mind, communicating with those who speak a different language (NO DUH!) and assimilating those who do into the United States with a better understanding of English.  If second language issues were not challenge enough, the use of Internet verbiage is polluting the language as well. We all naively hoped that the increased use of keyboards would make us better typists.  LOL! It has opened new doors to laziness and expediency which is a strange pairing in Internet useage.

Our dilemma

Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better. - Sydney J. Harris
       Two for today, since I was a distracted slacker yesterday.  I could ramble on about this quote for a long time.  My experiences over the last few years make me realize just how true this statement is for the vast majority of us. I am sure I fall into this way of thinking more than I realize.

Transformation

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. -Margaret Fuller
       Forgot to put up a quote yesterday, too many distractions and a bit too much tension on the personal side of life. While the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly is wondrous, most of us don't experience anything nearly that dramatic. It is a much slower process, and at times the transformation is barely discernible. While I would hope that it would keep us humble, I fear that most find it boring. The Church latched on to this imagery early on in trying to help us grasp what the Resurrection would be like. Death and Resurrection are the most profound changes we will face in life.

Growing in wisdom

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.
-Charles Caleb Colton

Bonus Quote - The men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.
-President Theodore Roosevelt, "The Man In The Arena"  Speech at the Sorbonne.  Paris, France  April 23, 1910

Something silly for Monday

If you go through a lot of hammers each month, I don't think it necessarily means you're a hard worker. It may just mean that you have a lot to learn about proper hammer maintenance.
-Jack Handey Deep Thoughts

More on optimism

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. -Harry S Truman