True Racism

“Unfortunate” doesn’t begin to describe Trayvon’s death. Reportedly, Zimmerman did something even he regrets because his mind was in the wrong place. He should be held responsible. But haven’t we all done something similar?

How do we define “racism”? If we refer to the antiquated, overt prejudices of the South, drenched in a history of slavery and the passive superiority that Martin Luther King Jr. rebuked in his prison letter to the White American Church… well… then Zimmerman wasn’t racist. But how can that be?

From the 911 manuscript…

Dispatcher: Are you following him?

Zimmerman: Yeah.

Dispatcher: Ok, we don’t need you to do that.

…and Trayvon ends up dead. If you are being followed, the follower is obviously not “standing”. The martyr stood his own ground. Let’s all stand our ground for Trayvon.

…but stand against what?

A few days ago, President Obama asked the nation to reflect on why this sort of thing could happen.  · · · →

Asperger Talk

A friend with Asperger’s recently sat down with me to reflect his daily challenges. When he kept describing Asperger as a a “problem”, I finally explained a few things which left him happily speechless…

Asperger is not a problem. Rather, it’s one of God’s answer to many problems in the world. The unifying feature of the Asperger gift is that it comes with no “Off-switch”.

Most people have an Off-switch. If they are acting out of ordinary or dangerous, we might be able to say something and then the person will almost certainly stop. Asperger, however, doesn’t work that way. In a sense, a person with Asperger’s has an Off-switch, but the switch can only be operated by God.

Satan, of course, doesn’t like this. Neither do tyrants. This tends to attract unusual hatred—from some people, not all. Even the name “Israel” means “wrestles with God”. The Israeli nation, for millennia, has functioned—corporately—like one, large, national case of Asperger: Only God can tame them—Satan doesn’t stand a chance.  · · · →

To Wave or Not to Wave

An ancient Chinese proverb says that people who keep domestic peace and don’t make waves will be rich and prosperous.

The proverb is true most of the time and is usually misunderstood.

Life has its “no wake zones”. If you follow that rule, yes, things will go well with you.

But different people have different motives in regard to “no wake” policy. Do you avoid making waves because you know it is wise? Or are you one who dislikes wave makers because you don’t like your boat being rocked? How you answer could make all the difference in your floating world.

About once every three generations a tsunami “wave” sweeps through a culture, turning everything upside down. In such times, those who don’t like waves, typically, loose everything, while those who always make waves may advance—for a time. But, the people who selectively make waves—only on rare occasions—but also who don’t hate waves—they will always be ahead in any wave or tsunami scenario.  · · · →

Big Blogging Brother

Yes, it’s coming! Newspapers will want bloggers to “obey” the rules of the road. I finally read about this at the New York Times. Here’s the issue in a nutshell as I explained it to Congressman Dave Camp:

An issue is stirring among the blogosphere and Newspapers about intellectual property and plagiary. Newspapers are thinking about getting organized to bring standards that bloggers may need to comply with. There are MANY sides to this discussion.

Here is a hypothetical story:

John Doe has a simple website and wants people to read it. So, he sees an article at the Chicago Tribune website. It’s about the same topic his website fans are interested in. He copies and pastes article into his own website, so it looks like his work, but it’s not. He doesn’t see anything wrong with this and the Chicago Tribune may not be entirely angry.

Because Chicago Tribune readers read the paper newspaper at home, not so much online, JohnDoe.com’s

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