Congress shall make no law...

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

- The United States Constitution

For those of you that don't know, this is the First Amendment to the Constitution. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, that there are five different issues being addressed in this one sentence. If I gave my thoughts on all five issues in this post, it would take me weeks to write, and would probably be to long for any sane person to want to read. So, for the purpose of this post, I am going to share some thoughts the first issue, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, of prohibiting the free exercise thereof".

An establishment is an arranged social order or system. I don't understand why someone as simple as I am, can get this, but the Supreme Court and all the left wing nut jobs in this country can't. If my child prays at school, or if the Ten Commandments are posted in my local courthouse, it does not mean the Federal Government is endorsing or "respecting" any religion. We hear all the time about "Seperation of Church and State". You just read it for yourself. Does our Constitution mention anything about seperation of church and state? The answer is simple. NO!

Now, if the Supreme Court does not allow students, teachers or administrators to pray in school or talk about their faith, they are obviously violating the second part of this sentence. They are prohibiting these people the free exercise of their religion. The same applies to a judge or official that wants to place the Ten Commandments in their place of business. Just because that person may work for the government, and is a Christian and wishes to share their faith, just by displaying the Ten Commandments, it DOES NOT mean the government is endorsing it! We have let too many people try to tell us we should be ashamed of our faith, and tried to tell us we can only practice it in our homes or churches. The Constitution, clearly states that the Government will not prohibit our free exercise. Yet, it happens everyday!

So many peoples lives are affected on a daily basis by extreme decisions that have been made about a sentence that is sixteen words long. Most people don't even know what those sixteen words are. They have only been told that the Constitution demands seperation of church and state. When in fact is says nothing even close to that. This country was founded by; and our founding documents were written by; God fearing, moral and upright men. They simply did not want to be in a situation where the govenment said you HAVE attend this church, pray in this way or be told our "official" religion is, so and so.

One final thing, when ones ability to practice his religion is diminished, it also starts to violate their freedom of speech, which is the very next line of this article.

I encourage everyone to take the time to read the Constitution, find out what it says for yourself. You may be surprised to find, it may not say what you have always been told!

I look to the future...

I look to the future, because that is where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.

- George Burns

Not all quotes need a lot of explanation. This is one of those quotes. With nowhere to go but forward, we have no choice but to spend the rest of our life in the future.

I never realized, that George Burns was Mr. Obvious.

Happiness and moral duty...

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

- George Washington

The dictionary defines happiness as; "the quality or state of being happy", it goes on to say, "happiness results from the possession or attainment of what one considers good". That has a lot to say about what George Washington thought of moral duty. Moral Duty can be defined as "an action founded on the fundemental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom".

Let me say for the record, I have the upmost respect for our founding fathers. They took on a fight, against the tyranny in the world, that completly changed the world, all the while, maintaining their faith in God, faith in their fellow man, and performing their moral duty.

He is saying, that to be truly happy, one must fulfill their moral duty. They are eternally connected. You can not have one without the other. When the two definitions are combined, it says, "happiness results from the attainment (fullfilment) of a duty founded on the fundemental principle of right conduct".

With so much anger, hatred and apathy in the world today, so many people don't want to do what is right. All you have to do is watch TV for 30 minutes, and you will see an advertisement for at least one drug for depression. No one is happy! Why? No one takes the time to fulfill their moral duty. What has happened in the last 200 years, that we have lost the compassion for our fellow man?

Next time you are feeling a little down, do a little good for someone, fulfill your moral duty, you might just find a little happiness for yourself.

Success usually comes...

Success usually comes to those who are

too busy to be looking for it.

- Henry David Thoreau

Everybody whats to a rock star or a movie star or famous, anyway they can get it. The problem is, few people want to work for it. The work ethic in this country has just about reached the bottom. All you have to do is go to your nearest fast food restaurant, and the service is in the toilet. I worked in that industry when I was a teenager. If we had tried to get away with the way they do things today, we would have all been fired!

I believe success comes in all parts of your life, at your career, parenting, your marriage, friendships, anything you're involved in. So many people worry about being successful, trying to prove themselves, stressing over what everyone else thinks. All the time that is spent on the worry and the stressing take away from the true work.

Being a parent is hard. Being a husband or wife is hard. Careers are hard. Life is hard! So why do we spend most days making it harder? We get tied up trying to be the "Success" that we think everyone expects us to be. As I type this it reminds me of another quote that I love, by Steven Tyler. "Life's a journey, not a destination". We need to take the time and enjoy the journey, we WILL reach the destination. If we've worked hard and done our absolute best, when we reach our destination, we will look back and discover, that we were truly successful.