If you don't stand for the troops... stand in front of them!

So just about everyone in my family is in the military, everyone- because of this, I have extreme respect and I support the military big time.  I often hear that people don't support our military and that the war we are in is useless along with a lot of other things that I don't quite appreciate.  The military I feel is one of the best things in our country- they choose to fight for our freedom.  We are the land of the free because of the brave.  And we may be free, but freedom doesn't come free!  There is no such thing as peace if there isn't any fighting, and this is were I get irked with people.
I'm all for peace- don't get me wrong!  I hate that we have so many men and women over seas getting killed, and I would love for our country not to be at war, but that simply cannot be done.


I want to know how people can say such things!  How can we know what freedom is and appreciate such state when we don't have people fighting for us?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the world around us has managed to stray away from such things.  Less and less people appreciate the beauty in art and even literature now.  There were points in time that our country was centered upon things such as art, and now we can barely appreciate it, once someone is willing to give it a chance to appreciate it.

How do you think that the world around us has gotten to a point that we don't appreciate beauty as we used to?  Nothing ever seems to be good enough to people now...

Going back a bit..

From when we were talking about Biocentrism and things that it sparked in my mind.  It is such an interesting subject!  So many arguments are raised, and so many different points are raised as well.

Biocentrism states that humans are not superior to all other creatures on the face of the planet, yet why do we act like it is so?

Humans think they are better than any other creature, but really we all are equal.  We kill animals for food, we cut down trees to put up stores, and we even kill our own kind for no reason- I think we could be the worst creatures on the planet.

Why do you think that a human has more guilt killing an innocent animal with a car than we do killing something like a bug?  But aren't we supposed to think that all creatures are living?

What gives?!

Julia asked... "So, are you more likely to donate to a cause if you have been through such a situation yourself? Why does it always seem that though you may help others while they are in need, when the time comes for you to get help, no one will give it to you? Are you more likely to be more "charitable" after such a thing happens?"

 I personally feel that the most donations/volunteering come from a person who is closely attached to a certain charity; as Julia said, someone who had someone in their life (or even themselves) who was affected by cancer, they would be more inclined to donate to a cancer charity.  

   Reading her post made me think of some lyrics... "all gave some, but some gave all", and it made me think how the people who are better off usually give nothing, while the people who don't exactly have a lot generally are the ones who give the most.

But I really do believe that someone is more opt to give after a horrible thing happens to them-- such as being in a case of need and having no one there to help you.  Once you are in that situation and experience things that so many people do, you feel more obligated to help them to get out of that state- complete sympathy!!

What do you think drives people to donate their time and money?  Why should we bother helping those who are less fortunate and why don't we just let natural selection take care of them?

Responding to Kim...

Kim asked : "Why do people, like myself, enjoy looking and reading things about the supernatural even if they do not believe?"

Personally, I love ghost stories and pictures of ghosts, and I always have.  I believe that the house I spent nine years of my life in in Virginia was haunted by a ghost that my sister and I named Rose.  A lot of weird things happened in that house that we never could explain, and we often saw figures that weren't there- needless to say, I'm a believer!

As for why people get enjoyment out of reading about supernatural things that they may not particularly believe.. I think it is to seek the thrill.  Just thinking something like that could potentially happen and there is some "evidence" is bone-chilling in a sense.  Why do we enjoy reading fictional books or watching fictional movies?  It's all for the thrill and flat out entertainment.  Also, some people actually believe in things such as ghosts and other supernatural things, and the pictures and stories prose as some sort of evidence and possibly is reassuring in their mind that they aren't crazy.

Talking about ghosts make me think about superstitions; what truth do you think is behind superstitions?

Do I really care?

In high school I was very involved with student council and key club- I enjoyed helping others and helping out in my community.  My senior year I organized a book drive for Invisible Children (link to the website so I don't have to explain the organization).  
Yesterday morning before class I received a text message from my old student council adviser telling me to check out their website because they listen the top donating schools.  I checked out the site and was very happy to find that Greenfield High School was listed at #8 out of 100 high schools and universities across the country.  My small school of a little less than 500 total students raised over 2000 books for this drive that I organized with the help of my friends.

Knowing that I was a major factor in getting our school to that level put a smile on my face; something I did finally got recognition.  I was able to pull our community together for this organization and hoped to help out as much as I could- and I will never know the full impact of what I really did.

Am I wrong for feeling honored and good about myself for leading my school?  Did ruin the altruistic act because I feel great for helping to place my school at the high rank that it was placed?