Freedom Rant

I will admit from the beginning this post and a couple to follow are just rants that have been brewing inside of me this morning. I guess you could say that the sermon this morning got me thinking - and if you know me you know that train never stopped all day long and made several stops along the way!

My freedom rant is this:

I still remember being in my College English 101 class and we had to write an argumentative paper. It could be on anything we wanted and we had to do student editing of it. So yes that's right we had to pair up and take turns editing each other's rough drafts. Now to give some of you a background my brother had just graduated Army Boot Camp earlier that year and was currently deployed in Iraq. And who do you think I get paired with The guy who wrote a paper on how dumb war is and how soldiers abandon their families. WOW! Really God?! I still wonder why to this day God let me read that boy's paper because I have NEVER come so close to literally slapping a guy in the face right in the middle of class! I won't go into every detail but let's say about a couple paragraphs into his paper I had to confront him about what he was writing because it was uneducated and unknown ramblings that he had no clue about! We ended up arguing and he is one of those boys that acts like he knows everything as total truth and smiles the whole time he debates like you are the idiot who doesn't know any better. UUUGGGGHHHH! Aggravating! Okay stick to the story - so he ends up insulting my family, I end up slamming my fist on the desk and getting the teachers attention in doing so. He quickly told us to finish the editing (leaving the verbal editing out) and just leave. I had to bite my lip the hardest I ever have to read that paper like I didn't care what the content was about and simply stick to literary elements, spelling, and strong vs. weak arguments. It was HORRID and as SOON as I shut that door I balled my eyes out the entire walk down to my truck.

To those of you who don't agree with war here is my encouragement: Please at least understand that war and these soldiers who risk their life is the SOLE reason you now have to freedom to speak out against it and them! They earned you your freedom of speech so don't slander the giver. I understand if you don't like war and don't want to fight - that's fine there are plenty who will do the dirty work but be gracious in your words and tactful when you speak your opinions.

My pastor gave an interesting illustration this morning of two men out on a boat. They drew a line down the middle and made an agreement that they would stay on their own side and could whatever they wanted with their side. When they got to the middle of the lake the one man got a drill out and began drilling holes in his side of the boat. The other man of course yelled out to him "What in the world are you doing, you can't do that!" To which the other man calmly replied, "This is my side of the boat, it's my RIGHT to drill holes if I want."

Freedom Rights.....hmm....interesting how ones freedom effects another isn't it?