He is not a hero.

I saw a status update on facebook that was both disturbing and hilarious. The status read "(an ignorant person) wants to see the movie Che!" I'm not going to go into all the problems I have with this, just the main ones.

Ernesto Che Guevara is not a hero. He is not a symbol for freedom. He is not a symbol for positive change, revolution. He is all over t-shirts, posters, and banners. His face, not necessarily his name, is very recognizable in our culture. He is a communist. He is a murder. He is a villain. The bad guy.

The band Rage Against the Machine uses his face as a symbol. While I do like their music, I don't agree with their political stance, statements in their music, or the face of their name.

Most people want this thing called change. In the most recent election, one candidate in particular ran his campaign on the idea of change and hope. In fact, when I googled change, the first hit was Change.gov, the Obama-Biden transition. Most people don't understand what comes with change.

There has to be a catalyst for change. In Che's case, it was murder. It was guerrilla war. It was the revolution that caused middle class kids, that were my age, to leave college and bear arms for a revolution that didn't occur. It was a holocaust. It was the cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Pain, suffering, and death. No honor. No glory. No change. Death. The kind where you don't rise again.

Everyone talks about Darfur and the injustice of that hellish place. Rightfully so, but what about Latin America? What about the land south of the united states that's also connected to us?!?!

What will be the catalyst in the United States? I hope it's not the kind of change that occured in Cuba, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, etc..

The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster. Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favored a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the new Cuba. But Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his faction won. Che presided over the Cuban Revolution's first firing squads. He founded Cuba's "labor camp" system—the system that was eventually employed to incarcerate gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims. To get himself killed, and to get a lot of other people killed, was central to Che's imagination. In the famous essay in which he issued his ringing call for "two, three, many Vietnams," he also spoke about martyrdom and managed to compose a number of chilling phrases: "Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become …"— and so on. He was killed in Bolivia in 1967, leading a guerrilla movement that had failed to enlist a single Bolivian peasant.

To read the rest of the article, click the following link:
Should we love Che Guevara?

Viva la revolution?

Carnies and the Sketchy Ring of Fire

Isn't that random?

We dream of ways to break these iron bars

My intent, my purpose, my hope for the world has nothing to do with me. Why do the leaders and the people involved label me as someone with my own agenda? The people that truly know me know that my intentions are pure. That my heart is my calling and my calling is to worship. Worship everything; walking, gazing at the clouds, floating in the night sky, feeling the bass rumble in my chest or the music make my heart race. If Jesus tore down these walls, why did we build these iron bars?

...and all I can see tonight is the half moon shining through the grey sky. The light reflects off these iron bars like a mirror. The concrete is my warden. When can I walk in peace with my brothers? The smell of the wet grass; how I long to exist outside in the rain, running all night long until the fire in my legs forces my hand. How did I get here? How can these jailers watch me suffer with such disdain in their eyes and yet the name of Jesus Christ rolls off of their tongues so easily. They walk around and announce, "Behold, God's light shines through me." This place is so dark.

How far is too far?

Last night I went to the winter jam concert. I can honestly say that I will never go to one of those again. The only band I wanted to see was Skillet. They played 5 songs. They played 4 songs off of their newest album Comatose. I'm not really a fan of the album so I was a little disappointed. The other bands I didn't like and when they weren't playing people were trying to convince me that it was God's will that I give money to their cause.

I don't have a problem giving my money away to a good cause. I don't have a lot of money but if someone asks me if I could contribute to a worthy cause, I'll usually be down. When someone tells me that I can spare 5 dollars and it's God's will for me to give it to their organization, I get a little offended.

I've never been to winter jam before last night. I figured it would be a bunch of "contemporary christian music" meaning it would always be the same, and I would find myself wanting to run for the door every minute those bands were playing.

This year, however, I thought I'd give it chance. Skillet was going to be there. I thought I might get in to the music a little because after all, it was worship.

I'd like to thank winter jam for not only making myself want to run out of the coliseum screaming "viva la revolution" but for trying to speak for God by telling me His will. I didn't know that those guys were into prophecy.

Dude.

I write really random things at 3:30 in the morning. I need to sleep more.

Sea Legs

I'm pretty sure that everybody would say that if they could they would want to relive at least one moment in their lives. Not always because of regret, everyone would change one detail about a moment in their life for many different reasons.

I would change a few. Nothing major. Just a few slips. Things I said and moments that I would handle a bit differently. Some place inside me thinks that it would make all the difference now... but in reality, it probably wouldn't mean a thing. I just hate spinning my wheels. Going nowhere fast. Doesn't seems like there's a whole lot I can do now. It's now a waiting game.

And if you don't remember anything about me, remember this: I am extremely impatient.

Waiting is not my friend. Time is definitely my enemy.

I just hate not knowing, either way. I'd really like to know and I'd really like it to go the way I want it to. I know God has His plan but I don't see how things can work out the way they do and not be pushing me in this direction... to feel this way.. want things this way.

I guess the waiting game begins.

As I float along, I'm beginning to see the need for sea legs. Can I borrow some from you?

Just A Phase

I often wonder if things really are just a phase.

Besides the clothes I wear, the things that I'm into, and the music I like, what else is a phase for me?

Is my major a phase? I'm pretty sure that my feelings towards some people can be summed up by phases.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I'm so sick of this inconsistency. Seems like every time I get things figured out, they get flipped around. Not that I don't enjoy the random change that seems to occur all the time but for once I'd like to be secure in the notion that things are ok.

One of my favorite songs ever is a song called Just A Phase by incubus... hence the topic of discussion because that song has been rattling around in my head for about 4 or 5 years and takes me back to the same thought every time I hear it.

It gives me hope and then it takes it away... and then it gives it right back. My favorite part is at the end of the chorus in the middle. There is this build that seems like it's going to really escalate into something loud... and then it doesn't. It goes right back into this really positive vibe. It's great. This song really gets me. Right before things seem to get to a breaking point, they calm back down a little so I can get a grip on reality... and then I get over it and move on. Seems like everything is a phase these days.

Except God. That's the one thing I can count on to be constant. People aren't so reliable but God is always. That fact seems more apparent everyday. I feel like I'm finally seeing answers to my prayers worked out before my eyes. Not quickly. Usually very slowly, but they happen in one way or another. Even the Bible seems to jump out at me. I read the first chapter of John the other day and it completely blew my mind. I've really prayed hard for a long time to have a closer relationship with God. It's finally starting to make some headway. I understand that relationships take work. Even with God. But I think that the most important part of growing in Christ is asking for it. I don't think I'd get as much out of everyday life if I didn't have my heart in it. Things seems very different and I really feel a change in myself coming about.

Anyway, I have to put my feelings somewhere so I guess this is the place.

I'm really disappointed in people lately. Seems like people are punking out on me all the time. I'm not really sure what that means. I don't think I'm an overly angry person. I guess it's just part of the random flipping of my life that seems to occur often.

I need to focus on things. I've finally started to decram my life and try to give myself some rest and time to prepare for what I really need to do.


Something so powerful,
this anxious feeling, channeling through my soul,
and now we are together, the unity of us all,
prepare the way (our hearts) and may we worship beyond our watery grave.

Everything is different now... will always be forever.
When I look back on this time, I will remember us all together.
Not me or what I was doing or the things that seemed at stake.
Standing in a room with brothers and sister of faith.

It took the lights to go out all day long,
For me to hear a different story.
When it's noisy out and all you hear is static,
And loud thoughts punching through the air...

And then a sudden gust of wind,
Turns to a flash, the rain is rising.
The crack of lightning running around in the sky.
Breaking through the fog of the day that begins.

And a voice whispers quietly...
Everything is different now.
What was safe and constant is changing,
And everything else breaks loose.
But it's ok because...
One thing will never change.