Generalizing in Politics

Here recently I've decided to become less opinionated. At least in the political department anyways. I haven't always given my opinion freely, but sometime after I graduated college, I started to become more passionate about what I believed.

As I scroll through my facebook timeline and twitter feed on a regular basis, I observe a varying amount of different opinions, which is good, but at the same time, here lately I've started to feel like I've been lumped into belonging to a certain group, whether that be political or not. In the upcoming elections, a hot button issue that is at hand is the vote for OR against Amendment 1, which is the marriage amendment.

According to Amendment 1: The measure would define marriage in the state as between one man and one woman.[1][2] Same-sex marriage is already banned in the state of North Carolina. The proposed measure, however, would add the ban to the state constitution.[3]

No matter where you stand on this issue, your stance should be respected. Every single one of us has our own certain set of beliefs when it comes to politics. One thing I've noticed is that if you are a registered Republican, you are automatically assumed to be FOR this amendment, when is most certainly not true. I happen to be a registered Republican, but that does not mean I always vote that way, or believe what my fellow republican politicians believe. The same could be said about Democrats. Just because you are a registered Democrat by no means defines you as a person and in what you believe.

We're all different.

For me personally, I do tend to be more conservative than anything else, but that doesn't mean I'm always going to vote that way, or believe everything a Republican politician believes.

Unfortunately, our country has become a country of double standards, but that's a whole other topic which I may or may not dive into one day.

It just kills me when I see groups or facebook pages such as Crusaders Against Republicans (or vice versa). When did we all become politicians and stop being Americans? This country needs to come together and try to reach a middle ground before it's doomed. Right now, it seems we just keep heading further down a path of division, instead of unity. I'm not naive enough to realize there will probably never be true unity in Washington, but if we keep becoming divided by issues such as same-sex marriage or whether or not we should pray in public meetings or not, we're never going to get anything real accomplished. These issues are certainly of importance, but our country has far more important issues at stake.

I guess what I'm really trying to ask, is to be more open-minded when you go to the polls. Both sides of the political spectrum could use some sound level-headed advice.

Understanding Tebow mania

Tim Tebow, now currently quarterbacking the Denver Broncos to playoff wins, has always stood out. He's often been perceived by his naysayers as the "chosen one" who can do no wrong. Tebow is very forthcoming, but not "pushy" about his Christian faith. He's always been a great example as what Christians should be. This bothers some people.

 The problem with Tebow is the media has placed him on a pedestal, for which he did not ask to be placed on. Tebow has only went out and did his job. As a sports fan and Christian, I am a big Tebow supporter. But I'm also realistic, and know he's not your prototypical style quarterback. He may not ever be the greatest there ever was and he may be. I personally don't feel he'll ever be an elite quarterback, but I feel he will win a lot of ballgames.

 He has a good defense on his side this year, and that has helped, but the guy just knows how to win. He and the Denver Broncos beat a good Steelers team in overtime. Yes, the Steelers were banged up and missing their starting running back and one of their top defensive players, and I can recognize that, but the Broncos did what they had to do. But back to Tebow. Like him, love him, or hate him, you have to admit, you won't find a better role model for young people.

The guy doesn't sell drugs, doesn't have 15 children with 7 other women, and he doesn't play dirty. He is who he is, and he's not going to pretend to be anything else to better suit our politically correct society. That's why he relates so well with so many Christians. He doesn't push his faith in your face, but he will talk about it openly when asked, and he will show the Lord's love through his actions. What else do you want the guy to do? I suppose if suddenly one day, it came out of the woodwork that he had done something bad, he would become more relatable to some people. But that day has yet to happen. The media does overhype him, unfortunately. They criticize his every pass and run. Whether he should've done this or that, or he's just really not that good.

When someone hears his name every day, naturally they're going to tire of hearing it, just like anything else. Tebow can't help what the media says or writes about him. All his concern is going out and trying to be the best player he can be for the Denver Broncos. But to some people, he'll never be good enough.

I suppose if his career fizzles out, and he ends up having a nice, but not special tenure in the NFL over a 10-15 year period, and he never has a pro bowl season, or wins an NFC Championship game or a Superbowl, his naysayers will be right that he was never anything special. And you know what? As long as Tebow does what he does, and continues to be himself, I think he'd be alright with that. But I believe bigger things are in store for Tim.

 One more note I want to hit on before I sign off: Tebowing. Yes, the new craze sweeping the nation. Before games, Tebow prays silently to himself on the sideline, and gets down on one knee to do so. Apparently everyone from 11 year old boys, to 38 year old men have taken to emulating Tebow in his praying stance, and dubbed it "Tebowing." Very catchy I might add, and at first I thought it was funny. But after a while, I got to thinking (which is always dangerous), and the more I saw it, the more it bothered me. As a Christian, I am lucky to live in a country where I can pray and practice the religion that I was raised. I also supposed I could be overreacting to it bothering me, but then again, am I? Mocking one's faith is never cool in my book. And I may get in trouble for saying this, but I'm gonna say it anyways. If Tebow were a Jew or Muslim, and his praying were mocked on the sidelines, the world as we know it would be in a huge uproar. Religious leaders from around the world be calling for justice to be done on anyone mocking their faith. But I know, as Christains, we're just supposed to laugh and shrug it off as nothing, which we have. In reality, it's really NOT a big deal, even though it is getting a bit old. But I can live with it. I respect others religions and the way they want to practice their religion. Is it too much to ask for others to do the same?

 If you've stuck with my ramblings for this long, you must enjoy my writing, or you must like me. I welcome any civil discussion, and I'm always willing to look at things through different lenses. But for now, I can't wait to see what Tebow does next. And you shouldn't either.

Hectic life is the good life

The past month has been crazy for me. I've been extremely busy with lots of different things going on. On one hand, most of these things are very stressful, and on the other I wouldn't have it any other way.

 I do like to have times when I'm not so busy, because I do want to slow down and enjoy life, but I also feel like these times are necessary as well. With my job keeping me busy, doing various things for my church, and getting things together for my cousin's wedding next weekend in Florida, life has been a bit hectic. It's times like these that I stop and think about when I first graduated college and was absolutely bored out of my mind with seemingly no purpose or direction in life that I appreciate that my hands are not idle.

 It's a blessing really.

A busy blessing, but a blessing nonetheless. I try to balance out busy weeks with 'chill' weekends, which definitely helps, and I also take the time each day to just sit down and watch some television, have a beer or... *gulps* maybe one of these days... read a book. So with that, I'll leave you. Oh yeah, I changed the title of my blog (for now) to Sechler's [Pronounced Seck-LUR] Stance. No particular reason. It was Nicki Waycaster's idea, and I liked it. So there.

Blacksburg Black N Blues

So my first trip to watch Appalachian take on one of the big boys of college football didn't go as well as I had hoped. To say we were soundly beaten would not be an accurate statement. (66-13 cough cough) We got our you know what's kicked. VaTech obviously was not gonna let us sneak up on them much like James Madison did the year before (to them), and much like we had done to Michigan back in 2007. They came to play today. I had a feeling right from the onset that they were not playing around.

They had obviously prepared for this game much like they would an ACC Championship game, or an ACC opponent. Which gives me some solace in the fact that they had that respect for ASU, and what they had accomplished in the past.

The game was over very quickly. ASU turned it over on their very first possession and the Hokies took over from there.

It was a little disheartening. I mean, I had no expectations to win at all, but I had hoped to see some positive play from the Mountaineers, which I didn't see much at all, besides Sam Martin's punting yardage, and a few other things here and there.

I'm still glad I went to experience gameday at Lane Stadium. Enter Sandman (when Tech runs out on the field) is even more awesome in person. The fans are very loud, and most of them were very nice. We apparently were sitting on half a seat that wasn't ours, and a rude lady bluntly said to me that I was gonna have to move over. I guess the word please and excuse me aren't used by some folks these days. After the game, I also had a fan tell me that I must be a true fan to stick it out the whole game. Not only was App getting drilled, but it was miserably hot. One lady came up to me and shook my hand, telling me she was thankful that we had beaten Michigan in 2007 because she (insert expletive) hated Michigan. She apparently was from Michigan and went to school at Eastern Michigan University. Go figure.

So, although my Mountaineers didn't play particularly well, and were completely outmatched, it was still an enjoyable experience. And I would do it again.

End of times? Doubtful

I won't make this post too long, because honestly I don't have much to say. When I first heard of this Harold Camping character's predictions that Jesus would return on May 21, 2011, I didn't think much of it. I mean how can you take someone seriously who claims he can predict the exact date and time of Christ's return (See 1994), when clearly the Bible states in Matthew 24:36, 'Of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.'

That is pretty clear cut, and we're supposed to believe he can figure it out through long division? Come on dude. I don't know what grounds of credibility he stands on because I'm pretty sure we as Christians know this old goon is off his rocker. You know the big guy upstairs is probably chuckling a little bit.

I'm just saying.

Celebrating with dignity

As the news of Osama bin Laden's death began spreading like wildfire all over the globe through the social media world of Facebook and Twitter, everyone's immediate reaction was initially the same. Osama is dead! Yes! But after the dust settled a bit, the question raised was rather it was right to celebrate someone's death? While 99% of the time I would say absolutely not. This just may be the exception.

bin Laden was not just a bad guy. He was the most evil, pathetic, putrid of Satan's spawn that there is. He had thousands of people killed for radical reasons. He was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. You remember that, right? Imagine if your loved one had perished in one of the twin towers or in the plane that went down in that field in Pennsylvania. It is difficult to imagine the magnitude of losing a loved one that way, but try to do it just for one moment. If this were just any other "bad guy", I would completely agree that it would not be "right".

Although I for one did not go out and riot the streets, burning couches, and chanting rot in hell. I was not upset about the one's who did. The magnitude of this moment will be forever ingrained in our memories. Right now, we can't comprehend how big a deal this is that we finally found this rotten bastard. This guy was darn near impossible to find, elusively slithering from cave to cave. Our Navy Seals did the deed, and we should be eternally grateful for this.

I've noticed one particular quote and a few Bible verses floating around. The Martin Luther King quote which says, "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that" -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

I contend that Osama is more than an enemy, something more unimaginable that we as humans can't comprehend. How else can you explain all of the horrible things that he is responsible for? I bet Satan himself looked up to Osama. I do agree that returning hate for hate multiplies hate, but being happy for our country's tremendous victory is something entirely different.

I am sure in our lifetimes, we will never see anything like we saw Sunday night. I think the celebrations you saw throughout college campuses, including my alma mater, Appalachian State, was indicative of what happened on 9/11. Many of us were very young at the time, in middle or high school, and it will be something that we will never forget. It certainly hit home for me.

The Bible verse I saw was Ezekiel 18:23, which says, Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

Osama most definitely falls in the category of "wicked". I don't think there's any argument there, but here I feel the Lord is speaking of a human being who actually has a soul and conscience. I don't feel as though Osama was ever going to turn away from his wickedness. I know God loved him just the same as you and me, but I believe the Lord knew this 'man' was destined for hell in a hand basket. Sure, we would like to believe that maybe one day Osama would have turned from his wicked ways and became a humanitarian. But did anyone really believe that to be true?

I really enjoyed Mark Wineka's column in today's edition of the Salisbury Post talking about celebrating with dignity. It was just another day in Salisbury, and other cities in the United States. We didn't throw a parade, there wasn't t-shirts being made, we weren't storming the streets of Rowan County. We were simply proud for what our service men and women accomplished, and rightfully so.

I definitely didn't mind the celebrations in D.C. and in Times Square, and you shouldn't either. This was a HUGE moment in the history of our country and the world. I'm not ashamed to say, yes I wished this man dead. You have to throw political correctness and humanity out the door sometimes, or it'll eat you alive. Don't let anyone let you believe this man deserved a proper burial, ethical treatment, or a trial. I may sound a little harsh, but I for one cannot forget the kind of person he was.

Rot in hell Osama!

Now what?

Hear me out...

I feel like one of those baseball players who has just won the world series, and he is asked what are you going to do now? And the player usually responds, "I'm going to Disney World!"

Well, unfortunately for me, I didn't win anything and I am sure not planning on going to Disney anytime soon. If you haven't heard, I recently got out of a job in which I did not like. Covering school board, board of trustees meetings, and board of aldermen meetings was to say the least, not for me. I never really had an interest in those things, but I mean who would? I thought that over time I would be accustomed to covering them and it would be a nice experience until I found something better. Well, I just did not pan out for me, and now I find myself back at home.

Being away from home is not all it's cracked up to be. At least for me anyways. When I was in school in Boone, I didn't mind it. I guess it was because I really loved where I was and I actually had friends up there. This was the complete opposite in Burlington. The only people I knew were the people I worked with, but these were just work friends. Lots of my nights were very lonely, and no matter how long you spend on facebook or texting someone, it's just not the same. So in saying that, I am very happy to be back home. The downside of course now is that I don't have a job, and I really need a job. But this time before I take another position, I will be sure to make a good decision about whether I am going to enjoy doing this or not. If that answer is no, then I will simply decline. To me, it's not worth having a job that you hate doing. Some people can do it and just be happy to have a job, but I am not that person, and I never will be. I wear my heart on my sleeve (forgive me for the cliched saying), and if I'm not happy, you're generally going to know it.

I know in time, I WILL find something great. Sports are my passion, and although I don't want to directly get into game coverage, I think I have to find something sports-related. Maybe a public relations, media personnel, event coordinator for a local pro sports team? This is just my thought for now. I just hope that I can find another position in a somewhat timely manner. At least by the beginning of summer I hope. So with that said, I just continue to ask for your prayers and support. This has definitely not been an easy road for me, and God has brought me through this thus far.

So what am I going to do next? I do know I am not going to Disney World...