Is it "1984"?

Last night on the national news there were two stories that made me wonder if we're going to be living in Oceania in George Orwell's "1984". One was a mayor in California that has outlawed drive-throughs in any business in the city because he has decided that people are lazy and don't walk enough. I don't know about you but I don't imagine that getting out of your car and walking 17 steps into McDonald's to buy your Big Mac and large fries is going to do a lot of good. Remember being a lone mom or dad with two toddlers in car seats? Wouldn't you still like the option of driving through to get a few McNuggets to give a teething child?

Well, at least we can still order the food we want - or can we? The second story was about the fact that McDonald's is about to make a policy that Happy Meals will no longer come with a toy unless there is a salad or fruit in the meal. I guess that one won't kill anyone, but come on - taking away the choice of what to feed your child and let them have a toy at the same time? I suspect many parents will be buying TWO Happy Meals - one with a toy and then the one without.

Don't get me wrong, being a teacher in an elementary school where the majority of children qualify for free breakfasts and lunches - I am the first one to say we need to offer them much healthier food - not Pop-Tarts and sugar-laden muffins for breakfast and pizza for lunch. But they are children and we try to teach good healthy habits. The stories above are making decisions for adults. Is "Big Brother" going to censor our every move in the name of health.

I think just about every American knows how to be healthy. We all know what a healthy diet is, and we know we should exercise, but I doubt that we will make those choices because of efforts in that direction by government officials or large corporations.

Education and options are important in this free society, but micromanaging American citizens lives ? Not so much. I never go to McDonald's so it doesn't matter to me - but I'm just saying :)....

COEXIST - Science versus Beliefs

Today the Cleveland Plain Dealer included an article by Cornelia Dean of the New York Times entitled "On scientific issues, study finds belief gap among Americans." Interesting. The article starts out saying :

When it comes to climate change, the teaching of evolution and the state of the nation's research enterprise, there is a large gap between what scientists think and views of ordinary Americans, a new survey has found.

One of the findings was this:

Almost a third of ordinary Americans say human beings have existed in their current form since the beginning of time, a view held by only 2 percent of the scientists.

I was raised in a Christian church and I believed everything I was taught there. But I also went to public schools and recall believing what I was taught there as well. I might be a shallow thinker, but to me, there was never a big conflict. Science can be proven. Faith is something you believe without proof. I believe in both. I remember sitting in 9th grade biology and learning about evolution. I pondered it for a short time and decided that the notion of Adam and Eve was probably that they represented the first human beings as we know them today. I didn't disbelieve the Bible, but I could see the proof of evolution. Moreover, what's the difference? I trust that God created the world and all that lives in it in His time and within His plan. Learning about evolution did not hurt my faith at all.

I say - Science and Beliefs should COEXIST and we leave the rest up to God, and if you don't believe in God I guess you can prove where the universe came from in the first place, can't you?

To read the article in its entirety click HERE.

Childhood in Iraq

I don't usually do this but I'm going to use a newspaper article as the basis for my post today. It touched me and I wanted to share it. I will paraphrase from the Los Angeles Times article by Jeffrey Fleishman and Raheem Salman.

They describe two brothers Karrar 12, and Allawi, 10. The school year has started but these boys have never been to school because they must work to support their parents and eight children in the family. Their father is ill and has no job. Karrar says,

" I'd like to go to school. I've never been to one. Not a single day. My friends tell me school is very beautiful."

A man named Ali Rashed owns a muffler shop and gave the boys a job after seeing them collecting tin cans.

He says, "It is better for the boys here than in the streets where they face bombs and explosives. I don't think they will have a good future. They are not educated and their family can't help them. They sometimes don't have anything to eat. How can you have a future if you have nothing to eat?

These boys and hundreds of others have been "shaped by war, honed by poverty. They are witness to sectarian violence, Shiite militias, angry sermons echoing through mosques.....These children might not know grammar and punctuation, but they know what to do when the bullets come, how to take cover, to hide from the kidnappers, the militants and the soldiers."

A United Nations report found that 94 percent of boys in Iraq attend elementary school, but that drops to 44 % by high school. For girls, 81% start elementary school; 31% go on to high school.

Karrar says, "I would love to join the National Guard. When I see them , I love them. They are brave, and I love how they stand with their guns."

Children passed beyond the garage; a few had book bags and new clothes, or at least well-scrubbed clothes. Karrar's father, Abdul Bidan, who has stopped in to say hi to his sons, whispered, "He gets jealous when he sees kids with book bags."

Imagine.