I am grateful to modern technology for allowing me the opportunity to express my opinions to the world. I am grateful to you, for taking the time to stop and read "My Thoughts."

While you may already have strong opinions on the subjects I am about to discuss, please try to keep an open mind. When you have finished reading this, take a moment or two, and think about the things I have said, because after all, what can it hurt just to think about it.

The internet and our home pages are a great opportunity for us to make a difference! If you have a homepage, I urge you to use it to reach out and try to improve this world we live in. A page full of useful links is nice, but isn't there something that you would like to say to the world, or even to just a few? If enough people start expressing their concerns for our society, then perhaps we can make a difference. : )

Racism - The notion that one's own ethnic stock is superior.
Race - A genealogical line. Humanity as a whole.

I can not understand how anyone can consider themselves to be racist, or to consider themselves to be of any race other than the human race. It seems that weather you believe in God or not, you must know that we all started from the same place and that makes us all the same race. We are taught that humans are suppose to be superior to other animals because we have the ability to think and reason. Yet sometimes it seems many humans lack this ability. I have seen racism from all sides of this issue and I would like to try to explain why racism does not make sense.

People have migrated from one country to another since the beginning of time and our family trees really can not be traced back very far. No one can be certain that the family records they can find, are 100% accurate, people do lie! So it is possible that the person you believe to be so different from you, might be a distant relative. The only correct statement that can be made as to a person's origin is that they are of the "Human Race."

It is a scientific fact that given enough time people acclimate to their environment. One example of this, is that people in the extreme northern regions of the world, tend to be short and store more body fat. These physical attributes help them to survive the long hard winters. Another example is the dark skin of people living near the equator. The sun's intense rays are less harmful to dark skin than to light skin. So while it is true that where a person lives may have a lot to do with how they look, it does not change the fact that they are of the human race!

Another fact to take into consideration is that racism is taught and not born into us. In a room full of small children you can see how true this is. Children will laugh and play as equals. It is only after being exposed to negative remarks from the adults close to them that they will begin to judge and hate for irrational reasons. While a child does feel more comfortable with what they are use to, be it people, customs, or even foods, they can adapt more readily than adults. Adults teach children to be racist by passing on their own fears and misunderstandings or dislikes to their children. In the movie, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Sidney Poitier told his father that racism would not die until his father and his father's whole generation had up and died, but he was wrong! As long as parents keep passing racism on to their children, it will never die!

Each person is an individual and should be judged as such and it is up to the parents to teach their children this. Have you never been mistaken for someone else? Everyone has someone somewhere that they resemble to a degree... How would you feel to be judged by that person's actions and not your own. Just think about how you would feel if people grabbed up their children and turn away from you with a look of disgust, because they mistook you for a child molester that you had the misfortune of resembling. You might not even know why they were acting that way toward you... For they would not stop long enough to tell you why and then what would you think and feel? Perhaps a bit resentful and bitter or even insecure?

No, where in the Bible does it mention the color of a person's skin when referring to race. Yet some people choose to believe that is what it means. Well, if that is what it means then why does it not say that? Also if you do believe in God and the Bible then there is no way you can be a racist, without being a hypocrite, because the Bible clearly says love thy brothers and sisters. If Adam and Eve were the parents of man kind, then we are indeed all brothers and sisters. We are all the same race!

The above statements are all common sense. I have to wonder if the real truth about racism might be, that it started out as an ego trip. Men have an idiotic need to feel superior to others, so they use anything they can to make themselves feel that they are better than someone else. When men make mistakes they often try to find someone else to blame and that is one of the main reasons racism has stayed strong for so long. How you look does not make you better than anyone else, because who you are, is what you do, and not how you look. Also, it does not matter who your great great grandparents were or what they did, because you are not them!!! I hope someday all of the racist and egotistical people will stop making such a big deal out of their selfish need to feel superior and start being human beings and learn to care about others.

The only way we can stop racism is to no longer divided people by how they look or the color of their skin. The question, 'what is your race,' is on just about every kind of form we fill out. The next time you see this question, below it write The Human Race. Write your State Legislator and Senator and tell them that you want that question to be abolished, as the only true purpose it serves is to keep racism alive.

More than likely, some of you will not want to read this, but I really hope you will, because it is something I feel needs to be said and thought about.

When I was growing up, we had censors. They were the people who guarded our morals. "What is a moral," some might ask... Precisely my point. A moral is a lesson that teaches right from wrong, what television shows and movies once taught us. Television shows and movies today, teach us things like, drug dealers make a lot of money, cops are really just justified murderers, and that things like rape, murder, and child abuse are normal types of behavior, after all everyone on TV is doing it.

"If you do not like it you do not have to watch it," some might say. Well, why would anyone like to watch people getting hurt and killed? Oh yes, they are only actors and it's just pretend... Well why would anyone want to see someone pretend to get hurt or killed, can you answer that? I could understand it if there was a moral to it, but most of these shows are just for so called 'entertainment' and have no morals. (An example - Friday the 13th)

Look at the crime rate for people under the age of 19 and ask yourself what kinds of morals are our children being taught? "Well that's not the 'Entertainment Industries' fault, parents should supervise what their children watch," or so I have been told. Have you taken a good look at the cartoons out now? They have stuff like Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead, Beetlejuice, and the Power Rangers, which all teach very high morals right? Yeah right and I have some ocean front property in Colorado, I would like to sell you. It is no longer safe to allow our young children to watch Saturday morning cartoons.
Then we have the prime time shows that have 'teenagers' running around in clothes that make them look anything but respectable. Drugs, sex, or abuse are the general subjects covered and the TV industry calls it entertainment. OK these things really do happen, so they should be addressed, but not by a bunch of teenagers that are dressed in such a way that promotes this type of activity. These shows sometimes even makes parents look like the bad guys, this of course must be reverse psychology, it is really meant to make kids respect their parents, right? But it's what the public wants, so it's what the public gets.

Well, I do not want my children watching shows that glamorize drugs, sex, or cruelty of any kind. I believe a child is innocent and pure and I would like them to stay that way as long as possible. We complain about the high rate of crime among our youth and yet allow them to watch TV shows that teach everything but good morals. If you think it is acceptable for kids to watch this stuff, then do not complain if your child becomes one of the statistics.

If you think television doesn't affect children, then watch how a child acts after seeing a Power Ranger cartoon, he jumps up and starts kicking things and karate chopping everything in sight, then watch how the same child acts after watching one of the few non-violent shows such as Barney or Rug Rats, he starts singing and hugging stuffed animals or maybe even his parents (if there are no stuffed animals around). Which way would you prefer your child to act? Which one promotes kindness and which promotes violence?

Television has taken over most of our homes and is destroying our families, our health, and our values. The average family comes home from work or school and turns the TV on. Then they sit watching it, 'relaxing,' until they 'have' to get up and fix something to eat, usually a TV dinner or some other quick unhealthy food. The family then watches TV while they eat and the only thing they talk about is "the show." After dinner they do whatever they have to do to get ready for the next day, all the while taking little breaks to catch up with what is happening on the TV. Everyone gets in the bed later than they should because they just had to see how it ends. The family has shared no kind of meaningful conversation, had no kind of physical activity, and the food they had for dinner has given someone an upset stomach.

I don't have time to clean the house, I don't have time to mow the grass, I don't have time to read you a story, I will help you with your homework after this is over, have you ever said any of these things? The average person watches, I would say, at least two hours of TV a day. You have time to sit in front of a stupid box watching people you don't even know pretend to get hurt or killed, but you don't have time for the people that you do know, go figure!

I am not saying it is all bad. Television should be funny, or heartwarming, or at the very least have a moral. It should never be placed in front of family or responsibilities. If you see something often enough you become desensitized to it and violence is something we should never become desensitized to! If we aren't responsible enough or smart enough to know that the trash that is on TV is hurting us, then perhaps they need to bring back the censors of the days of shows like, Father Knows Best, Leave It To Beaver, and My Three Sons. There is enough evil in the world, stop allowing it to enter your home through TV.

Write to the TV stations and tell them you are sick of the trash they are putting on and that you want them to clean it up. Write to the Sponsors and tell them that you will no longer buy their products if they sponsor trashy shows. If enough people speak up we can make a difference!

 It makes me very sad to think about all of the people who have turned away from God just because of how rotten society has become. I know many people will not even read this part, just because they are afraid of feeling guilty about themselves. God is not mean and I do not believe you should be afraid of him and if you do feel guilt then perhaps you should turn towards him instead of away. I can promise you that you will feel better about yourself if you do.

On my family page, when I was telling you about my son Michael, I said that I do not go to church. I do feel that going to church is a good thing for those who have found a church that they can feel comfortable in. I however, have not yet found that church. Everyone must listen to their hearts and follow the religion that believes the way they believe. God is in our heart and if you follow your heart then it doesn't matter what religion you choose to follow, because God will be with you. A church is just a way of getting together with other people who believe as you do and a place where some people can feel closer to God and get the support they need to stay on the right path. Many people need to have a church to belong too. It helps them to be strong and stay close to God. Listen to your heart and God will guide you to do what is best for you.

I do not believe that you have to belong to a church to worship God. Nor do I believe that a church should make you feel as if you have to pay to be a member. Churches should never say that God wants you to give them money, that should be something a member wants to do, to help if they can.

I don't believe that God finds it important that people have a big fancy church to worship him in, while there are people starving and sleeping in cardboard boxes on the street! I believe he would rather his people came together in a field that he had created and worshipped him there and used the money to help those that really need it. Churches have a responsibility to help people and yet many churches are so busy helping themselves and not the community, that it is causing people to turn away from God. Do not let what a church or it's followers do, keep you from being close to God.

I believe that God is the parent of us all. He has given us life and only wants our love and respect in return. How could you watch a sunset or gaze up at the stars in the sky and doubt that he exists? How could you hear a bird singing or a baby laughing and doubt that he exists? How could you smell a fresh picked rose or a lemon and doubt that he exists? We can not understand why God allows certain things to happen, but we must know that there is a reason for everything.

God wants us to be good, caring, and happy people. I believe he wants us to enjoy the wonderful world he has created for us but not abuse it. I also believe that he wants us to love and help one another as any parents would want their own children to do.

God has always watched over me and he has never left me even when I left him. I love God with all my heart because I know now that no matter what lies in store for me, I have had the chance to live and to enjoy all the great things that he has given to all of us, his children. Listen to your conscience, it is God talking to you. He is there for you if you will just listen to him.

I am grateful to you for taking the time to read 'My Thoughts'. I hope that you will consider this page for what it was meant to be, a place to think about how we can use the 'net' to help make a better world for future generations. The true meaning of life is to strive for a perfect world by doing your part to make it a better place. If enough good people reach out for those who are on the tight wire, perhaps we can make a difference. I apologize for my poor writing skills. If you wish to write to me, you can send your comments to:

Get your own Free Home Page