Participation Proclamation

The stuff I ramble about actually does not fall on deaf ears! Keith Mo, made it onto page 10 of the Metro today! Very well done Keith! Great message too! If you'll also notice, the newspaper contrasted Keith's letter with the one right below it. A very balanced approach, which you'll see I am also quite fond of.

Be My Guest, Be My Guest

Remember a while ago, how I wanted some guest bloggers to help with maintaining a steady stream of content on this site? Well a few stepped up to the plate, but not as many as I would have liked. To be honest, I would have preferred a permanent solution, but we don't always get what we ask for. I've also wanted to change the site around, perhaps hosting it somewhere else (where I could post pictures, etc) and have more flexibility with the site design. Unfortunately I'm cheap and having the Pyra's Blogger tools makes it easier for others to blog independently. But a very annoying thing that I discovered a few months ago was that Blogger.com no longer supported the "&" symbol in the URL. As a result, I can't make changes to anything on the site without getting a new URL first. I modified the Title a bit, as you may have noticed, but that was just a temporary hack. So if I want to begin making changes around here, I have to change my URL....which screws things up. But at some point in the (near, hopefully) future I will have the time and resources to start anew. Anyway, enough technical stuff.

The first person on my wish list has agreed to become a guest blogger! And although I did not intend to start having guest bloggers with this old site, an opportunity has presented itself.

An Introduction:
I've known this individual since middle school. He used to live just around the corner from me and we spent countless hours at his place playing ping poing, video games and watching sports and movies. He is very intelligent and articulate - which will become obvious in his writings - and not surprisingly, he is in the prestigious Arts & Science program at MacMaster University. But most importantly, we are best of friends.

Oh yeah, one more thing...when I told him I was going to introduce him on this site, there was one personal characteristic he demanded be made clearly known. He actually made it sound like it was his defining personality trait. Because it is so important to him, I will bold it and and also reveal his name in the following sentence. This way, whenever you think of this person, you will link it with this defining trait. Tim Ho is a huge Philidelphia sports fan. He likes all the teams from Philly. He is an absolute diehard fan of the Philidelphia Eagles. In fact, he was heart broken as recently as two months ago, when his beloved Eagles was eliminated from the playoffs. He is also a noted 76er, Phillies and Flyer fan.

The real reason Tim is making his appearance today is because he has some thoughts on the recent posts about the war. I highly respect his opinions and am proud to have them here. I especially like the quote at the end. And notice how much better he writes than myself. That, my friends, is the difference between an arts student and an engineer. Without further ado:

I got the idea to write something while reading Blogs,
such as Matt’s and Nelson’s… I really should be doing
work, but I felt like saying something. I know you
guys are busy, but if you wanted something quick to
read, feel free. If not, I’m sorry for jamming up your
mailboxes.

I look around Mac, and I see students camping out
in the student centre for peace. I look around the
nation, and I see emotions running high, people booing
the Star Spangled Banner, for instance. I look around
the world, and I see people blatantly protesting the
war – even (especially) in countries that are currently
fighting it, namely the US, Britain, Australia.
There’s something disturbing in these protests that I
want to share with you guys.

While I may be the most unabashedly pro-American
in our little group of Bananas, I did not want to see a
war start, nor did I think one was justified. Well,
whatever, war has started anyways, and it did so
against my wishes, but hey, we don’t always get what we
want. My point to all these people STILL protesting,
STILL camping out for peace, STILL trying to subvert
the war is that, war has started, and they have lost
their case. Move on from it. Before the war started,
they had a legitimate right to protest and let their
voices be heard, but now it’s clear that Bush and his
administration aren’t going to listen anyways.
But by protesting now, debating whether or not the
U.S. SHOULD HAVE gone to war, I believe they risk
deligitimizing the entire process altogether. True,
the process may not be entirely legitimate to begin
with, but there are 250 000 US soldiers and 40 000
British soldiers SUFFERING and DYING out there, along
with untold millions of Iraqi soldiers and civilians.
Now is not the time to be debating whether we SHOULD
continue the war or not. Now is not the time to be
trivializing the deaths that are currently happening.
War has started, it’s a given, and now it just needs to
be drawn to its final conclusion. What we need is a
little respect for the killing that is going on. The
average American or British soldier is no older, and in
many ways, no different from any of us. He’s not out
there trying to grab Iraqi oil, or kill as many Muslims
as he possibly can. The average soldier just wants to
go home to his wife and kids as quickly as possible.
But what happens when that soldier returns to his ungrateful
nation angry with its leadership, and unaware of the
profound sacrifices he has made? What will his best
friends have died for?

I don’t think there’s anyone I admire more than a
soldier. I personally could never become one. But a
soldier is willing to give up everything he can – after
all, what more can we ask from him than his life – for
the rest of us. And the scary part is that the average
soldier out there on the battlefields is truly no
different from any of us. I truly believe that we need
to show some respect to these boys. Silence and
reverence for the dead – on both sides – is all I can
think of. Don't boo their national anthem. It's
disrespecful to the dead and those that will die.

Basically, my point is, the world doesn’t need any
more armchair politicians. I’ve done a lot of debating
this year across many Ontario universities, and
invariably, the things we debate all come down to
issues on the geopolitical scale. While it’s important
to be informed, I question how qualified we are to be
debating these issues. I feel that endlessly immersing
ourselves in these geopolitical issues takes away from
what can really be done, and distracts us from the
immediacy of global events – people getting killed, for
instance. Thus, unless one of us goes into the US
state department one day, our lives will not revolve
around US – Middle East relations. My personal
challenge, and my motivation for keeping up to date
with global politics is not Reach for the Top anymore
(lame joke, I know), nor is it the hope that I will
somehow influence Bush’s mind. The goal in educating
myself is that hopefully I can learn some lessons from
the world around me and apply it to my own life – and
by doing this, strive to be a better person. I feel
that self-improvement is all I can achieve as an
individual. I really don’t care all that much about
debating politics or the war – to be perfectly honest;
those are things beyond my control. But what is in our
control? Depending on your religious convictions, we
can pray for peace and understanding; if not, there’s
one thing in our control: ourselves. We can strive to
be a better person to those around us. As we get a
little older, we can strive to be a better person in
our own little sphere of influence – our family, our
workplace. It’s my firm belief that whether you’re the
president of the United States or a janitor in some
school, you have the power to make a difference and to
make the world a better place. Maybe one day, one of
us will study hard and get into a position where we can
make big, global decisions. But until then I think
I’ve had enough debating on the war – what should be
done, what shouldn’t be done, who’s the good guy, who’s
the bad guy. Let’s remember people out there are dying
– some no different from us. And remember that there’s
something firmly in our control, something that we have
the power to change. Here’s my favourite quote:

.” When I was young and free and my imagination had no
limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew
older and wiser, I discovered the world would not
change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided
to change only my country. But it, too, seemed
immovable. As I grew into my twilight years, in one
desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my
family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have
none of it. And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly
realize if only I had changed myself first, then by
example I would have changed my family. From their
inspiration and encouragement, I would have been able
to better my country and, who knows, I may have even
changed the world. —Anonymous epitaph written on a tomb
at Westminster Abbey

I absolutely loved the closing quote. Something that I've tried adhering to for a while now.

Just to get more balance, I would like to link to an article with an opposing view on wartime expression, even though this was only one of the major points Tim was bringing up.

--Nelson

PS i'll blog about different media sources tomorrow...