In writing this blog for nearly two years I have attracted many comments; some very complementary and others not so kind. That is very acceptable since the purpose of a blog is to produce my opinion which hopefully may or may not generate lively discussion in responses.
Unfortunately the blog does attract some misguided individuals who want to write the blog for me (for a fee naturally) or wish I would include videos or graphics to “spice it up a little.”
Forgive me but I enjoy the freedom of writing whatever I like and when I like without interference from a meddling editor. Furthermore, a blog is not intended to be a comic or a glossy magazine, so I will not be changing the style and format any time soon.
Moving on, the New Year may very well be in its infancy but it has already attracted its fair share of bizarre stories:
In metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County parents and activists have blasted the school district’s response following reports that students at a Norcross elementary school received a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in word problems
“Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”
The most recent accountability report for the school, which has an enrollment of about 1,200 students, shows that 62 percent of the students are Hispanic or Latino, 24 percent are black or African-American, and 5 percent are white, with 87 percent of the students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
Maybe the poor teacher who wrote the worksheet was caught up in preparing the free lunches for 87% of the students and envisioned herself as a slave to her students. She also had a boyfriend called Frederick who regularly beat her and she was facing her own demons through work. I am at a loss in explaining the oranges.
At a breakfast event in Nashua, Republican candidate Mitt Romney told an audience that his health care plan would allow them to dismiss insurers and health care providers. “If you don’t like what they do, you can fire them,” he said. “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.” Is Mitt his real name or is he trying to be hip to belie his boring and stiff personality? In fact his name is Willard Mitt Romney. So there!
Is Atlanta’s rainbow fading? The Advocate magazine’s annual ranking of gayest cities in America is out and Atlanta has been knocked down to No. 9 from 2010’s No 1 Ranking. America’s new gay Mecca? Salt Lake City, Utah. Should we heterosexuals in Atlanta be relieved that our city has lost its No.1 status as the gayest city in America or should we bemoan the passing of a tourist attraction?
Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow and the biblical verse John 3:16 have long been entwined. It appears that the evangelical Christian– whose dramatic sideline praying on one knee has spawned the phrase “tebowing” — churned out some timely 3-16s in his team’s big playoff win over Pittsburgh last Sunday night.
Most notable, Tebow threw for a season-high 316 yards and set an NFL record with 31.6 yards per completion. The QB, who sent fans into a frenzy after he capped off his work on the Lord’s day by tossing the winning TD on the first play in overtime, routinely wrote the numbers “3:16” in black under his eyes during his collegiate years. The NFL, however, banned the practice of daubing such personal messages.
John 3:16 is one of the most quoted verses from the Bible: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
The poor guy has been pilloried in the media for having the audacity of publicly displaying his Christian beliefs. Yet nothing is ever said about hundreds of other sports stars routinely crossing themselves when they score a goal or hit a home run or merely run onto the field. I wonder if Tebow would have received this vitriol if he was a Muslim.
