When I was a kid, our next-door neighbor, Charles Coke told me when a person sneezed that opened the body to invasion by the Devil. Therefore, it was not only polite but an act of faith to say “God bless you” or “bless you” to ward off evil.

I say it automatically anytime I hear a sneeze, even if I don’t actually know who sneezed.

Adding to what Mr. Coke told me, a 2009 article in National Geographic claimed that during the plague of 590 AD, “Pope Gregory I ordered unceasing prayer for divine intercession. Part of his command was that anyone sneezing be blessed immediately (“God bless you”), since sneezing was often the first sign that someone was falling ill with the plague.”

But now even publicly ‘blessing’ someone is politically incorrect as the Dyersburg, Tennessee ‘State Gazette,’ reports: “The incident involved 17-year-old Kendra Turner, a senior at the high school. Turner was in class on Monday morning and said ‘bless you’ after a fellow classmate sneezed. The phrase was listed on the chalkboard as one of several students were not supposed to say during class, according to Turner.”

Evidently, the phrase is one of several that the ‘respected’ 40-year veteran teacher doesn’t allow spoken in her classroom. This list also includes “my bad,” ”hang out,” ”dumb,” ”stupid” and “stuff.”

Turner may have broken the ‘rules,’ but I think was she being polite out of habit not being disobedient towards the teacher or her classmates. I think this is why it is up to parents to teach their kids ‘good manners’ and not leave it up to school teachers.

Let me jus’ put it out there – the media in this country is neither fair, impartial nor ethical. It’s full of bigoted people whose points of view are continually on display, corrupting the truth.

An unarmed Michael Brown, a Black 18-year-old died Saturday, August 9th after being shot by Darren Wilson, a white police officer with the Ferguson Missouri Police Department.  Two day’s later FOX News 13 in Utah reported the same thing happened on Monday, August 11th:

“A man is dead after an officer-involved shooting in South Salt Lake Monday night, according to Salt Lake City Police. Relatives of 20-year-old Dillon Taylor, the man who was shot, said he wasn’t armed.”

Seems as if we’ve all heard this before – but there’s a twist according to the Deseret News:

 “(Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank) also addressed speculation about the ethnicity of the officer who shot Taylor, saying the officer is not white.”

Grainy video released by Salt Lake’s KUTV shows what appears to be a Black officer confronting Taylor and two other’s jus’ seconds before the shooting happened.

So, a Black police officer shoots and kills an unarmed while man and no one comes to the defense of the dead man. Where are Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, attorney Benjamin Crump, the rioters and the looters?

They’re where the camera’s are, that’s where. Unfortunately, those same cameras ought not to be in Ferguson unless they’re also willing to report on what is happening in Salt Lake City too.

But since it doesn’t fit the national media’s progressive agenda, there isn’t one camera from ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX or NBC focusing on the Dillon Taylor case. After all, whoever heard of a white man falling victim to the racial prejudice of a Black man?

Recently I heard a news story about how the ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man who kicked a squirrel off the edge of the Grand Canyon in a video that has gone viral.

Its acts of cruelty like this that make me think there’s no hope for the human race. There is a difference between killing for food and simply killing for pleasure.

When I was nine-years-old I threw a frog as hard as I could against a board all because a friend ‘dared’ me too. Afterwards I told myself I never do such a cruel thing to another living thing jus’ because someone said to do it.

Later while in high school and heading home on the school bus I thought it would be funny to place a sharpened pencil behind a guy as he was leaning forward so he could lean back and poked by it. My immature brain didn’t see how the pencil could have easily pierced his skin and damaged an organ.

Fortunately, the guy next to me thrust his hand between the pencil tip and the other guy’s back preventing a severe injury from occurring. To this day I’m embarrassed and ashamed of myself every time I think about that incident.

My sleep is often interrupted by jagged nightmares about the men I’ve killed in combat. Yes, though they tried to kill me, I still feel horrible for having taken their lives.

When I think about these three situations taken from my life, I wonder – when it comes to having a conscience – am I the acceptation or the rule. It scares me to think I could be part of the minority in this case.

“A 22-year-old man on Friday was sentenced to life without parole for killing his brothel boss in December 2010,” reads the lead sentence of the story from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

They are writing about my friend Keon Park who pleaded guilty in May to first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and other charges for killing Young Park and burning her body.  The two are not related.

It seems so cut and dry – the way the sentence reads — matter of fact and without emotion, exactly like a good news story should begin. But since I was present in the courtroom and was one of several people who for Keon, it is so much more emotional for me.

Here’s what I had to say:

“Thank you Your Honor for allowing me the opportunity to speak before this court on behalf of Keon Park. I have known Keon since 2006.

While I was his cross-country coach at Excel Christian High School in the Reno/Sparks area in 2007, I met Keon earlier through my son, who attended the same school.  He was welcomed and came to our home on several occasions.

As with most young men his age, Keon was interested in girls, money and especially cars — and we spent a lot of time talking about these three subjects as well as his home life, which left him unhappy.  While he looked up to both his father and his uncle, he left me with the impression that he was under a terrible strain to be perfect.

This internal void placed Keon, in my opinion, at a point where he was more willing to follow than to lead.  As his coach and later friend, I learned that Keon would do what was asked of him without question.

His ability to obey structured rules and direction was without question and he exhibited this feature on both the race course and in his personal life. Keon is also very intelligent, wise beyond his years in most cases and he knows and is known to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

When I heard Keon had been arrested for murder, aside from being heart-sick, I knew he had been lead into it. Furthermore, I knew it was in Keon’s nature to take responsibility for his actions no matter the outcome.

Keon has never been in trouble with the law until now. And knowing Keon as I have, he’ll take whatever punishment this court justly metes out — I just ask that you spare him from life without parole, allowing Keon to have a chance at becoming a productive citizen at some point in his future.

Again, thank you, Your Honor.”

When Judge Gonzalez handed down Keon’s sentence, everyone, including his defense team felt kicked in the gut. I’m not calling the judge’s decision into question – I’m jus’ saying I had never fully grasped what could happen until that very moment.

At present, my mind is a terrible tangle over what judgment is, what justice is and what mercy is. For now I’ll simply stay thankful that it was not death the judge imposed on Keon.

We think of our work lives as secular.
However or job environment is our ministry.
Everyday, every hour and every minute belongs to God.
Do everything for the glory of God, even the secular.
The secular is sacred if used to glorify God.
Culture is secular because is sin and man-made.
Meet sinners were they are.
Meet people where they are.
Engage culture through God.
Love culture through the Christ Jesus.
Rehabilitate culture through the Holy Spirit.

California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi directed more than a billion dollars in subsidies to a light rail project that benefitted a company her husband is a major investor in. ‘Salesforce’ paid $278 million for 14 acres in Mission Bay in 2010, from Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

Pelosi’s husband Paul’s holdings in ‘Salesforce’ amount to between $500,000 and $1 million.

Pelosi first purchased the stock in 2000. When it debuted on the market in 2004, it was worth $3.75 per share; this week, it was trading at just under $53.

But this isn’t the first time her congressional dealings have been called into question.

In March 2008 she sponsored a bill allowing HIV-positive patients who do not have AIDS to qualify for Medicaid. Her husband owns $250,000 worth of stocks in ‘Amgen,’ which makes the only AIDS drug covered, thus benefitting her husband.

She is as crooked as her face is surgically altered.

The death of Robin Williams surprised millions. The fact that he died at his own hand came as shock to thousands who have lived through such deaths of a loved one.

I am one of those and through Williams’ death I have found a cathartic healing and am suddenly able to see my brother’s problems in life in a better light.

You see, Adam had the cards stacked against him when he was a youngster. While it would be years before it was called ‘Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,’ or ADHD, Adam was labeled as hyper and medicated as a result.

This forever changed my brother’s personality. Not only did he become more aggressive as the years progressed, he was also open to experimenting with drugs and alcohol, where I wasn’t.

It was while serving in the Army in South Korea, Adam would find a drug, that I imagine replaced the medicated feelings of his youth. Heroin would rule a majority of his adult life until his death from a self-inflicted methadone patch overdose.

For the four years between his death and Robin Williams’ passing I’ve been angry in one form or another at my younger brother. I see now though, that my anger isn’t the answer – rather its my forgiveness.

Adam was brilliant, an intellectual and gifted human with a grand capacity to empathize with others. Perhaps that empathic quality is what got the better of him and thus he sought refuge from the immense pressure and pain this gift gave him.

I can only speculate on this now – and that would be a waste of time.

But what I can do is forgive him for turning off his light long before it was due to burn out. I can also forgive myself for not being the loving brother and understanding how difficult his life had been since early childhood.

And thank you Robin Williams, you brought an understanding to me far beyond any of the laughter you’ve left behind.

Doctor Ernest Fine bought one of the first automobiles in Del Norte County in 1905. It was a bright red single-seat Ford Roadster powered by a four-cylinder engine.

It’s the beginning of the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes where King Solomon notes: “Everything is meaningless.” This is not a happy statement.

First off, ‘Ecclesiastes,’ roughly translates as ‘teacher.’ And ‘meaningless,’ is more or less translated as ‘completely temporary.’

The Book of Ecclesiastes suggests that human wisdom has its limits. The King goes even further to list what he finds meaninglessness in: wisdom, pleasure, folly, toil and advancement.

In some ways it is encouraging to know that people of the tenth century before Christ were asking themselves questions like ‘Why am I here?” It’s a question much of society is still asking all these centuries later and with no clear answer still found.

Unfortunately, we tend to try to answer this question with stuff — money, vehicles, friends, lovers, power and position. The unfortunate part of this is that none of it is ever enough.

So if King Solomon found ‘everything under the sun’ ‘like chasing the wind,’ and ‘meaningless,’ I am not surprised to drawn the same conclusion. After all we each meet that same ending, which is physical death and no one truly knows if it is Heaven or Hell were he’ll repose.

I think best to devote everything to God and in the end he’ll give me meaning.

Stop running from your problems, instead face them head on.
There is no person in the world capable of handling every thing thrown at them.
We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems. That’s not how we’re made.
In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall.
Because that’s the whole purpose of living — to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time.
This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.
And no, it won’t be easy.