Month: July 2014

 

Bad Parenting or Nosy Good Samaritan?

As I was reading through my bookmarks, as I do every day, I came across an article about a parent that got arrested and their children were taken away for something that shocked me. So, I found some articles from the Washington Post and will share some amazing reasons that parents were considered bad and on “bad behavior”.

o   The first case comes from South Carolina where a mother, Debra, allowed her daughter to play at the park near where she worked at McDonalds. She gave her a cellphone for emergencies and noticed that at any one given time, there were usually near 40 children playing in the park at a time. It was the second day when an adult asked her where her mom was. When the girl told her that her mom was working, the adults called the cops and was arrested for “abandonment” of a child.

o   Another story involves a mother named Kim that went to the store. As she left home, her four-year old child insisted on going with her for the quick errand. When they arrived the child refused to go into the store. Since it was a mild and overcast day of near 50 degrees, the mother allowed the child to stay in the vehicle. Another adult saw her leave the child and recorded it all on a cell phone and called the police and she was arrested.

We all know of stories that have turned out poorly and this appears to be on the mind of the “good Samaritans” that phone the police. But do they know the whole story? Did the parents do irresponsible things? Are they guilty of bad behavior as parents?

Bradley Balko of the Washington Post writes about:

 “increasing criminalization of just about everything and the use of the criminal justice system to address problems that were once (and better) handled by families, friends, communities and other institutions.”

In the book called The Quest for Community by Robert Nisbet, he states that a society without private associations will find the state taking their place. He wrote:

 “It is hard to overlook the fact that the State and politics have become suffused by qualities formerly inherent only in the family or the church.”

In this world, the term “nanny state” takes on a very literal meaning.

A father named Jeffrey from Ohio had the police show up at his front door and arrested him in front of this entire family because one of his sons skipped church. He now faces six months in jail. Here is the story:

o   The local Woodville Baptist Church sends a van to his neighborhood twice a week to offer free transportation to those interested in attending services. Williamson’s children ride the van regularly on Wednesdays and Sundays. This morning was no different, as his eight-year-old son Justin and siblings said goodbye to their father and left their house to board the van. One problem: Justin skipped church and went to play instead. The young boy stayed in the neighborhood to play with friends and then later ended up at the local Family Dollar store down the road. After police officers were called to the store by a customer who recognized Justin, they took him back to his neighborhood where they proceeded to arrest his father for child endangerment.

We now see the breakdown in modern American community—without a sense of communal closeness or responsibility, we act as bystanders rather than as stewards. We warn kids of “stranger danger”, we put guidance system on them, and we lock our doors because the neighborhood is not as safe as it once was.

What is sad in this is that parents are no longer supported by their community. What ever happened to calling the parent first or walking to the McDonalds and checking out the story. Possibly, not sticking our nose into someone’s business with our cellphone video. Society today wants to be police, judge and jury from their seat and not truly be the Good Samaritan of the olden days.

Remember the “it takes a village” cry? Now it seems to be “every man for himself”.

 

The opinions in this blog are those of Tom Knuppel

 

         

 

Legacy- What Are You Leaving Behind?

We all want to be liked. We all want to be remembered. We want people to have nice things to say when we are gone. What are they going to say about you?

First, I got to thinking about this word a few weeks ago when I congratulated a Facebook friend on the retirement of her father and mentioned he was going to leave a lasting legacy and she should be proud. Then my thoughts turned to what that means to ‘leave a legacy” and does it have to be good.

Without looking the word up in a dictionary, I am just going to use my thought about what the word means in most cases. Legacy is what people will remember you for. So without getting all personal and analyzing myself, I am going to attempt to pen some stages of legacy. I envision that not everybody will share the same legacy about the same person. It will hinge on their personal relationship and results they shared with the person.

What is the best we can hope for? There is a story at GetMoreStrength that discusses a man that was about to die and his wife, daughters and son-in-laws all were by his bedside during his last moments. One of his daughters wrote to a family friend and stated:

“Our world has lost a righteous man, and in this world, that’s no small thing.”

Those words come from a daughter that admired her father. They are simple words but concise.

Our legacy shouldn’t include the education we received, the places we traveled, the cars we own, the money we made. What it should be about is our honesty, our love of our family, our compassion towards others and our faithfulness to God. William Shakespeare wrote, “No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

As Paul told the Philippians, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Hebrews 3:13-14).

It is not too late to build your legacy that will be a shining beacon to the people around you. We can build a legacy that is worth leaving behind but it has to be done through one decision at a time. Live this year to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

 

“Our days are numbered. One of the primary goals in our lives should be to prepare for our last day. The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations should we be making now? The greatest waste in all of our earth, which cannot be recycled or reclaimed, is our waste of the time that God has given us each day.”

― Billy Graham

The opinions in this blog belong to Tom Knuppel

 

 

The Lawsuit Epidemic

We are part of it. This country has become the lawsuit capital of the world. That is why there is a book published called Sue the Bastards! Let’s examine some numbers that are a few years old but give us a basis for talking about this epidemic.

From 1959-2009 tort related lawsuits (personal injury) has risen 800%. In 2009, a stunning $248.1 billion were paid out in the tort system which amounts to $808 per person. The United States has the highest number of lawyers per capita in the world. There are over 1.2 million attorneys which translates into one for every 254 American.

In 2011 there was a new lawsuit filed every 2 seconds in the USA.  That is one lawsuit for every 12 adults. Over 15 million were filed in the court system. The system has become so costly that it is easier to file a frivolous litigation in an attempt to settle out of court due to the costs of going to trial.

I don’t have an answer but I can tell you from personal experience in teaching for 34 years that the last 10 of them or so had an increased concern from administration due to it becoming a legalistic society. It was easy (no grey area) to enact zero tolerance policies that do the work to track down those guilty and those not guilty.

That is why they put into effect 24/7/365 Athletic Codes. The admins didn’t want any grey area and it made it easier to just declare all guilty and move on. That is a subject I will re-visit in the coming weeks as I am strongly opposed to the schools governing the athletes at all times.

 

The views in this blog are those of Tom Knuppel

 

Adolph Hitler Loved Snow White and Mickey Mouse

Strange to put these two in the same title but there is a connection between the two. In 1937, Hitler was in charge of the German government and held a Christmas party for his closest friends. It was at that party that he received seven gifts that had connections to Walt Disney. His comrades knew his affinity for Walt Disney and his cast of characters. It was at this party he received his copy of Snow White. Later it is reported that it became his favorite movie.

I just have to say that a visual of Hitler in Mickey Mouse ears is difficult to conjure up. But he admired Mickey and the many cartoon characters from Walt Disney Productions. We’re talking about one of the evilest people to have ever lived on this earth here. This is kind of a touchy subject, to say the least. So to think that he liked Disney stuff just as much as we do, if not more, may be an uncomfortable subject for some. Perhaps we can be resolute in the fact that Hitler failed as an artist outright. The Vienna Academy of Fine Arts thought that he was just terrible, so they rejected him — twice.

The world could have been a better place if he was a better artist. If the school would have accepted him then World War II would likely have not happened.

 

William Hakvaag, the director of a war museum in northern Norway, said he found the drawings hidden in a painting signed “A. Hitler” that he bought at an auction in Germany. The colored cartoons included sketches of characters from the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which were signed A.H., and an unsigned sketch of Pinocchio from the 1940 Disney film.

 

Here is an article from the New York Times about some of Hitler’s paintings being sold at auction in 2009.

Three paintings attributed to Hitler sold for a total of $60,000 at Weidler’s auction house in Nuremberg, Germany, on Saturday, Reuters reported. The works, watercolor depictions of cottages, mills and churches nestled in rural landscapes are believed to date from the years around 1910 when Hitler was a struggling artist in Vienna. The auctioneer, Herbert Weidler, described them as “of rather modest quality.” Still, three separate phone bidders bought the paintings. “Weissenkirchen in der Wachau,” below (the name of a town in Austria), sold for about $34,000, “Zerschossene Mühle” (“Bullet-Riddled Mill”) for roughly $15,000, and “Haus mit Brücke am Fluss” (“House With Bridge on a River”) for almost $10,000. Weidler’s sold two other watercolors credited to Hitler this year for $45,530, according The Boston Globe, and in April 13 paintings attributed to him were sold for $143,000 at a British auction house. Though the authenticity of the many works associated with Hitler has been debated, experts estimate that about 720 of his paintings and sketches are in existence.

 

The opinions in this blog belong to Tom Knuppel

 

–Confessions of a Tired Grandpa-

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do.

“Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.”

– Alex Haley

Let me begin by saying that the grandchildren we watched these past 36 hours were good. Of course, there were moments but they exceeded my expectation. As grandparents over 60, we have now reached the point in our lives where we pretty much have a daily routine. Having two children, ages 15-months and 3 years of age, to babysit can present some additional challenges to us.

They are active. Jonah loves to jump from one activity to another. We would just get something out and a few minutes would be spent on it and off he goes to something else. This kept me hopping around. This is something I have done for quite awhile. I could the energy being sucked from my body. Did I tell you that they had been there for no more than an hour.

Persistence was another thing he did. I commend his memory as he never forgot if you said “we will later” and it was 30 seconds later or 5 hours later. Then he repeated it and repeated it time after time. Whew. My brain has heard that form a long time.

Youthful enthusiasm was a bright spot. He loves life and you can tell his parents have installed that love into him. He found something he liked and the smiles and songs broke out. He brought his bike that we bought for his birthday and he loves to ride it on the driveway. On his bike, he has a toolbox and in it was nothing. So I suggested we find some tools he could have because an empty toolbox is rather worthless.

He loved taking his screwdrivers, pliers and particularly his tarp strap and fixing things and tying thing together with his straps. He took his bike and hooked a toy mower behind it and rode around. He didn’t do that once or twice, he unhooked the straps and re-hooked the straps dozens of time just to say he did it. It was fun watching him.

“Please”. That is expected to make you change your mind. .. and if you say it five times quickly then they think that will change your mind to a yes. You know the drill, “please,please,please, please, please”….Hard to resist but sometimes you have to…..

…and now the WHY?

“Don’t do that”  “why”?

We are going to play with that ball” “why”?

“You are riding too close to your sister, you need to move away” “why”?

….and it goes on and on and on.

(sigh)

I heard it for everything I said. I tried to turn the tables on him and ask him why when he told me something and he just looked at me. That is probably the best strategy to use.

Now I don’t want to leave Paige, at 15-months of age, but it was rather anti-climactic for her. She doesn’t usually pay much attention to me and most of the time her grandma as she prefers the company of her mother. But she wasn’t around so Paige spent 90% of her time hanging with grandma which was a delight to her.

Ok, I may have exaggerated 457 times he asked “why”.

It was likely 657.

 

“What a bargain grandchildren are! I give them my loose change, and they give me a million dollars’ worth of pleasure.”  ~Gene Perret

 

In 1865, the Civil War had ended and the North defeated the South and slavery was officially abolished. The hardcore Southerners were rumored to yell the words, “the South shall Rise Again” to anyone that wanted to listen.
Did the South rise again?
I believe it took just less than 100 years for the South to begin their rising action. In was in 1964 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Now this didn’t come easy and certainly had many detractors attached to its defeat. First let’s look at what this act did:
It outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. It forbade the unequal application of voter registration requirements, such as literacy tests, and it banned racial segregation in schools, workplaces, and places of public accommodation, such as hotels, theaters, and restaurants.
Tracing through the history of the bill we find that President Kennedy gave a speech on June 11, 1963 about this topic and then sent legislation to the House where it went to the Judiciary Committee. There is was strengthen by Emmanuel Celler , from Brooklyn, who was its chairman and they passed it on in November 1963.
Now it begins to get bogged down as the Rules Committee was led by Howard Smith from Virginia. He was a diehard segregationist and he allowed it to die there. It was November 22, 1963 that President Kennedy was assassinated and things changed. Johnson then told Congress that the best way to honor the late President was to pass a civil rights bill that he had fought to get passed.
It was there that Celler filed a discharge petition that required a majority of the House to sign it and that was a hefty task. After the Christmas recess, it was noted that the North favored this bill and it passed out of the Rules Committee.
Now a bill is expected to go to the senate Judiciary Committee but Senate Majority leader pull a fast one and the bill went directly to the floor. It was still a longshot at this time. The Southern senators launched a filibuster and it last for 57 days. Then a weaker bill was introduced and it received the votes for cloture and the filibuster ended.
The bill passed the Senate 73 to 27 and it became the law of the land.
It is at this point that the South began to see a resurgence in political power that it hadn’t seen since the days before the close of the Civil War. The southern economy was to see a marked effect. With the South being largely agricultural before the Civil war and after, it saw a marked increase in major factories and tech center that took advantage of the mild, short winters. The South also had low-cost non-union jobs and low taxes.
This in turn produced greatly increased the South’s political power. In 1964, the 11 states of the old Confederacy had only 128 electoral votes among them. Today they have 160, a 25 percent increase, and the trend will likely continue.
Unlike so many major pieces of legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had almost all positive effects and made this a much better country, one that more closely lived up to its ideals. Even its unintended consequences were positive. Not the least of those was that it allowed the South to rise again.

 

The opinions in this blog are those of Tom Knuppel.

 

 Ok, if religious talk and conversations make you feel uncomfortable then this blog is not for you. What I am about to write is a discussion and not a topic I totally agree about it. In fact, my answer to this will be found near the bottom of the blog. I ‘m not sure I want to know the answer as it may make me feel uncomfortable.

One issue I have is that I believe there is not a one-size-fits-all answer to this question. It may only be answered through prayer and personal conviction. But I trudge on.

There are a couple of books that I have avoided reading because they may not be sending the message that I want to hear or currently fits my lifestyle. Francis Chan wrote Crazy Love and David Platt authored Radical to get us thinking about our lifestyle.

Chew your cud on this for a moment. Jesus told someone to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. Was that a one-time suggestion?

There are terrible things going on in the world. Things like slavery, oppression, starvation and wars. These are the things Christian are to stand up against, aren’t they? Do you think we will be held accountable for every cents spent on sports and for every minute watching it? Things can also be tied to things like cable TV or internet or satellite radio. Vices like tobacco fall into that category.

 

In an article in Relevant Magazine the following question was asked:

Will I get a pass on this at Judgment Day? Will Jesus say, “You spent more money on football tickets than 3 billion of my children lived on in one year, but I understand, those games sure were exciting, well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Karl Marx once said that “religion is the opiate of the masses.  Does God really care about sports and who wins or who loses? Despite God’s probable indifference to competitive sports, there is a biblical principle that dominates life in general. The Apostle Paul said “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). So, although God probably doesn’t care whether a certain team win football games, He does care that people fulfill the two great commandments—to love God and love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). Because of God’s great works on our behalf, we are told to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” and “give thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15).

 

While God may or may not care about who wins a football game, one thing is true—everyone is talking about the God. When Tebow is involved in a miraculous play and he gives glory to God, God is acknowledged. When the Bronco’s lose, mocking commences and some suggest that God has withdrawn his hand of blessing over “his man” Tebow. But did you notice that no matter how the game ends, we’re still talking about God?

 

There are no limits to what God will use to draw man unto himself, including football. The fact that Tim Tebow bows in humility to his Lord after a great play in a game doesn’t necessitate that he believes God is rooting for the Broncos. And I don’t believe God is rooting for the Broncos. What I do believe is that God wants to draw attention to himself and to his mission. Tebow is a missionary on the football field. We can be a missionary in the stands, at the sports bar watching sports and various other aspects related to sports.

So does God care about football? I believe he does…and I believe we can make this affirmation without risk to the reverence required by God.  But no matter what Tebow accomplishes on the field, he is getting people to talk about God.

My personal thoughts are irrelevant but I will express them. If you live by the words from I Corinthians and Matthew then you are on the right path. I believe Tim Tebow had it right. Play the game, see the game, spend money on the game but give your praise to God.

 

Do you remember, as a child in grade school, being told that America was “the great Melting Pot of the World”? Does this still hold true today?

Are people still coming to America in droves? Look at this article from the USCIS website:

o   U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Acting Director Lori Scialabba will help USCIS celebrate our nation’s 238th birthday as the agency welcomes approximately 9,000 new U.S. citizens during more than 100 naturalization ceremonies across the country from June 30 to July 4^th.

Where do all these people come from?

According to the U.S. News:

o   In 2009, about 38 percent of foreign-born people in the United States were from Mexico or Central America; the next-largest group came from Asia and accounted for 27 percent of the total foreign-born population.

o   About one-fifth of naturalized U.S. citizens were from Mexico or Central America; more than one-third were from Asia. About half of the noncitizens living in the United States in 2009 were from Mexico or Central America, and about one-fifth were from Asia. An estimated 62 percent of noncitizens unauthorized to live in the United States were from Mexico.

o   From 2000 to 2009, more than 10 million people were granted legal permanent resident (LPR) status in the United States. Legal permanent residents are permitted to live, work, and study in the United States. Over the past two centuries, the main areas of origin of legal permanent residents in the United States have changed from primarily Europe and Canada to Asia, Mexico, and Central America.

E Pluribus Unum (From Many, One)

Many communities are feeling the effect of immigration and the strain and drain of resources. Can the United States sustain this? The largest number of immigrants is found in California, Texas, Arizona, Florida and New York. Lately it appears it is not the melting pot that is transforming our new citizens but rather it is they who are transforming us.

America had become irresistible but now the immigrants resist. What has caused that to happen? I am going to use the word assimilation from here on out. Dictionary Online states the definition is, the merging of cultural traits from previously distinct cultural groups, not involving biological amalgamation.

Assimilation used to mean that the immigrants were to conform to the Anglo way of thinking and that doesn’t seem to be happening anymore and isn’t a positive experience for the immigrant (my thoughts here are “tough toenails” to them). In the world today, we are forcing our society into ethnicity and diversity and that makes it a whole bunch easier for the immigrant to avoid the melting pot. Sadly, today the words “melting pot” and been replaced with “mosaic” and “salad”. Does this mean they are wanting the establishment to change to meet their ideals?

This assimilation can’t go both ways. Resentment appears to be coming from the native-born Americans about this process that is playing itself out on the American scene. With the large influx of Mexicans and from South American countries we are finding they are binding together to create their own culture and not needing any help from the mainstream. The 29 million Hispanics, mostly from Mexico, has become a brewing concern in this country.

In many places, new Hispanic immigrants have tended to cluster in “niche” occupations, live in segregated neighborhoods and worship in separate churches. In this behavior they are much like previous groups of immigrants. But their heavy concentrations in certain parts of the country, their relatively close proximity to their native lands and their sheer numbers give this wave of immigrants an unprecedented potential to change the way the melting pot traditionally has worked.

 

Tomorrow’s Blog- Does God Care About Football?

The opinions in this blog belong to Tom Knuppel

 

Three things that are certain in this world: death, taxes & Joey Chestnut winning the July 4th hot dog eating contest.

According to Wikipedia, a hot dog is a cooked sausage, traditionally grilled or steamed and served in a sliced bun as a sandwich.

I want to make this disclaimer right now, I like hot dogs and eat them particularly at cookouts and ballgames (9 percent of all hot dogs purchased are bought at baseball stadiums). The U.S. population consumes about 20 billion hot dogs a year, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. That works out to about 70 hot dogs per person, per year. And, an estimated 95 percent of U.S. homes serve hot dogs at one meal or another.

In case you missed my blogs last week and want to take a peek at them here they are.

June 30	Does Political Correctness Trump Freedom of Speech?
July 1	Knowing the Right Thing to Do But…
July 2	Allow Kids to Be Kids- Don’t Specialize in One Sport
July 3	The Internet May Be Coming to an End
July 4	O Beautiful for Spacious Skies- Land of the Free and Home of the Brave
July 5	Why Didn’t John Dickinson Sign the Declaration of Independence?

 

 

But….. What is in a Hot Dog?

According to that same council:

“All hot dogs are cured and cooked sausages that consist of mainly pork, beef, chicken and turkey or a combination of meat and poultry. Meats used in hot dogs come from the muscle of the animal and looks much like what you buy in the grocer’s case. Other ingredients include water, curing agents and spices, such as garlic, salt, sugar, ground mustard, nutmeg, coriander and white pepper.”

Did you catch that word combination? “Variety meats,” which include things like liver, kidneys and hearts, may be used in processed meats like hot dogs, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that they be disclosed on the ingredient label as “with variety meats” or “with meat by-products.

So look for hot dogs that are packaged “all beef” or “all turkey”. If it is “all” anything it has to be labeled that way on the package.

Are they unhealthy?

Processed meats are linked to increased risks of cancer. Mainly, because of the additive included in it. Another issues is the sodium nitrate (preservatives, coloring and flavoring) that they contain.

If you are a hot dog fan, then you have some alternatives that are considered to be healthier for you. Look for nitrate-free or organic varieties.

 

Here are some interesting facts from the Hot Dog and Sausage Council:

In 2013, Americans ate enough hot dogs at major league ballparks to stretch from RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. to AT&T Park in San Francisco.

New Yorkers eat more hot dogs than any other city population (even Chicago, also known for its hot dogs).

Travelers at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport eat six times more hot dogs than travelers at Los Angeles International Airport and LaGuardia Airport combined.

Hot dog season — during which Americans eat 7 billion hot dogs — stretches from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Americans eat 150 million hot dogs on the fourth of July, alone

 

Tomorrow’s Blog-  America: The Melting Pot- Is It Really?

The opinions in this blog are those of Tom Knuppel

 

 

Why Didn’t John Dickinson Sign the Declaration of Independence?

Several months ago I read an article in the American Conservative magazine that lay this out to me and now I think is a good time to re-visit this topic. Dickinson is, for the most part, a forgotten man. This is chiefly due to his refusal to sign the paper. This was a Declaration that he worked on with the other architects of this historic document.

Who is John Dickinson?

He has some background to our country that shines brightly. One of his first duties took place in 1767 when he spoke out in response to the Townshend Duties. In that eloquent speech, he took the King and Parliament to tasks and explained how they, not the colonists, were breaking faith and imposing rules over the colonists. He worked tirelessly in the colonies, worked on the Revolution, was elected twice to political office and was a member of the Continental Congress. He helped draft the Articles of Confederation and was a member of the Continental Army. He was a distinguished gentleman. But he didn’t sign the Declaration of Independence.

He worked on this cause and was a proponent of independence from tyrannical Britain. But his refusal has shown historian, for the most part, have vilified him for his actions. Dickinson reflected on the enormity of the deed and he began his oration about the colonies declaring independence was a large price to pay and treading careful at that moment in history was the way to handle this situation. But who can doubt that he was justified in contending that, absent the intervention of France on the side of the revolutionaries—which was unlikely to occur in the near future, and quite possibly would never happen at all— this revolution could not be won, and the consequences of a succession of bloody and losing battles would be debilitating and long-lasting? Dickinson understood the implications of his refusal to vote stating, “My conduct this day, I expect will give the finishing blow to my once too great and, my integrity considered, now too diminished popularity.

How did he handle this? In stride and with character. He had no intention of defecting or going over to the side of the Loyalists. He stayed away from the final vote which is registered as a abstained ballot. Immediately, he left his work in Congress and joined the Continental Army. He was obligated, in his mind, to make it work.

 

The opinions in this blog are those of Tom Knuppel