Update...

I know I haven't updated in a while, but I figured since I am home sick I would take the opportunity to do so. I am attempting to keep down some orange juice for the first time, so I may have to run to the bathroom during the course of writing this post.

First off, I am graduating on December 16th and am quite excited about this. The day I thought would never arrive is now less than a month away. I will still have grad school once I am out of here, but this is quite an accomplishment for me. But, as Mr. Eager says, "They never like to let you leave... be wary for obstacles this last semester." His last semester at WMU, he was enrolled in some recreational classes to meet those requirements (bowling, swimming, etc) and he happened to sprain his ankle during the middle of the semester. I'm only weeks away, but I'm watching for any such roadblocks that may fall before my path...

Secondly, I think WMU has one of the greatest collegiate presidents ever. Now, with Judy Bailey gone, we have Dr. Haenicke returning to the post he held for several years not too long ago. This is a wise man who all of my professors say they hold the deepest and utmost respect for this intellectual genius. I was not surprised when I logged into the GoWMU portal to check on my class assignments and happened to see that he had made a statement about diversity on the campus. When I read it, I realized that this man not only knows what he is talking about, but he knows how to say it so as not to offend those on any side of the issue. Without further ado, here it is:

Statement by President Diether Haenicke

Nov. 17, 2006

The passage of Proposal 2 in the recent election could present new challenges to our campus but will not change our core values.

While we study carefully if any of our practices may be affected by the changes in our state constitution, and while we will, of course, obey the laws of the State of Michigan, I want to assure the campus community that our commitment to diversity on campus will not change.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that we deeply appreciate the value of diversity in our student body, in our faculty, and in our staff. Our different backgrounds reflect the modern world in which we all live. It is our firm belief that a solid diversity of race, gender, and ethnic background, together with a diversity of opinions, thoughts, and lifestyles are essential to complement and enrich the academic education of our students. We will, therefore, continue to welcome on our campus all persons who contribute to the diversity we all desire. We will, as members of our university, continue our efforts to achieve and protect the diversity of our campus.

That's all from me... hopefully I will feel better soon and be able to get up and do things. But, for now, I go back to bed. This took a lot out of me. Take care.

Love,
David

Proposal 2 passed... but it's NOT over yet.

Affirmative Action has been in place for over 300 years, since the very birth of this nation... however, until a mere 30 years ago, it favored the whites in America. Therefore, the obvious differencial treatment based on race was not up for contention... or maybe it was, but the voices were not heard because of the corruption in the system. The playing field has not leveled out yet.

I'm still astounded that this passed... Dick DeVos' daughter even said that *HE* voted against it. Perhaps he noticed the economic trend that followed California's passage of similar legislation several years ago.

Affirmative Action has its flaws and there are some who abuse it, as is the case with EVERY law ever created, but that does NOT mean that we need to revoke it. That's simply bad logic.

That's my two cents... Peace. =)

Love,
David

Do you Facebook much? Have you voted? If so, come join my group: "Hooray for democracy! I just voted!"

Today is the day! If you know anybody who has not already cast their ballots, remind them that the future depends on the decisions we make today. We need to show our leaders that our generation is a generation that does care about the future.

I also want to take the time to thank each of you for helping fuel our democracy. We must remember that each individual vote holds the same weight, whether cast by the President of the United States or by the single mother working two jobs to try to make a living. Our voice can be heard, but only if we speak up and make a decision on this pivotal day.

Let us turn this election around from the current trend and give our age-bracket the highest voting turnout in the history of the United States of America.

Get the word out. Your vote DOES count.

Happy democracy. =)

-David Filkins

"Everyone says that Karl Rove is a genius. Yeah, right. So are cigarette companies."

Thomas L. Friedman... what a guy.

Insulting Our Troops, and Our Intelligence

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld think you’re stupid. Yes, they do.

They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry — a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service — and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.

Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I hope you will say to yourself, “They must think I’m stupid.” Because they surely do.

They think that they can get you to overlook all of the Bush team’s real and deadly insults to the U.S. military over the past six years by hyping and exaggerating Mr. Kerry’s mangled gibe at the president.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men — to launch an invasion of a foreign country not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What could be a bigger insult than that?

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than sending them off to war without the proper equipment, so that some soldiers in the field were left to buy their own body armor and to retrofit their own jeeps with scrap metal so that roadside bombs in Iraq would only maim them for life and not kill them? And what could be more injurious and insulting than Don Rumsfeld’s response to criticism that he sent our troops off in haste and unprepared: Hey, you go to war with the army you’ve got — get over it.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than to send them off to war in Iraq without any coherent postwar plan for political reconstruction there, so that the U.S. military has had to assume not only security responsibilities for all of Iraq but the political rebuilding as well? The Bush team has created a veritable library of military histories — from “Cobra II” to “Fiasco” to “State of Denial” — all of which contain the same damning conclusion offered by the very soldiers and officers who fought this war: This administration never had a plan for the morning after, and we’ve been making it up — and paying the price — ever since.

And what could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in Iraq than to send them off to war and then go out and finance the very people they’re fighting against with our gluttonous consumption of oil? Sure, George Bush told us we’re addicted to oil, but he has not done one single significant thing — demanded higher mileage standards from Detroit, imposed a gasoline tax or even used the bully pulpit of the White House to drive conservation — to end that addiction. So we continue to finance the U.S. military with our tax dollars, while we finance Iran, Syria, Wahhabi mosques and Al Qaeda madrassas with our energy purchases.

Everyone says that Karl Rove is a genius. Yeah, right. So are cigarette companies. They get you to buy cigarettes even though we know they cause cancer. That is the kind of genius Karl Rove is. He is not a man who has designed a strategy to reunite our country around an agenda of renewal for the 21st century — to bring out the best in us. His “genius” is taking some irrelevant aside by John Kerry and twisting it to bring out the worst in us, so you will ignore the mess that the Bush team has visited on this country.

And Karl Rove has succeeded at that in the past because he was sure that he could sell just enough Bush cigarettes, even though people knew they caused cancer. Please, please, for our country’s health, prove him wrong this time.

Let Karl know that you’re not stupid. Let him know that you know that the most patriotic thing to do in this election is to vote against an administration that has — through sheer incompetence — brought us to a point in Iraq that was not inevitable but is now unwinnable.

Let Karl know that you think this is a critical election, because you know as a citizen that if the Bush team can behave with the level of deadly incompetence it has exhibited in Iraq — and then get away with it by holding on to the House and the Senate — it means our country has become a banana republic. It means our democracy is in tatters because it is so gerrymandered, so polluted by money, and so divided by professional political hacks that we can no longer hold the ruling party to account.

It means we’re as stupid as Karl thinks we are.

I, for one, don’t think we’re that stupid. Next Tuesday we’ll see.

U2 and Green Day // "The Saints Are Coming"

"How long now?"