overcoming average(?)

it got way crazier than i expected on facebook the other day. (you can see for yourself here.) as most people know, i am for universal health care. i don’t believe in socialism, fascism, communism, capitalism, or too many other “-ism’s” for that matter. ferris bueller taught me that. the only beliefs i truly regard and try to follow are those passed down throughout the bible; specifically, what Jesus taught about loving God the Father and loving our neighbor as ourselves. after reading through the currently 46 comments, i thought i should maybe take the time to explain the reasons about why i’m so vocal about this issue.

i had health insurance as a kid, and like most kids, never really thought about it. then i turned 18 and was no longer under my mom’s coverage unless i currently lived with them and was in school. that only lasted a year. my mom and her new husband moved and i made a very difficult decision to stay in riverside despite not having a car that worked, a consistently paying job, or a place to live. i was a homeless college dropout for precisely one week. i also for the first time realized that i had almost literally no safety net. if i got sick, i couldn’t afford to get help. because i was technically self-employed i couldn’t qualify for low-income care either. fortunately, i’m a relatively healthy person overall and nothing really happened. during the two and a half years between then and when i got married, that was my situation. i got married and my wife happened to be going to a medical school. she had great coverage simply by being a student, but student’s spouses aren’t covered by that. we made just enough money to get by and there was definitely no room in our budget for me to buy health insurance. one day, i got sick. it was different than any other kind of sickness i’d ever dealt with, and i was scared. after a couple days, we made the hard decision to go to the emergency room. my poor wife was so scared and worried about what it was going to cost us. we were just hoping and praying that it wasn’t something worse than it was for the sake of my well-being and eventually our finances. in the end, the virus of whatever it was ended up lasting about five days and i’m no worse for the wear. after a 20 minute doctor visit and a quick lab test, it actually only cost us about $150. it was a ton of money to us at the time, but we were able to pay it eventually. i can’t help but think about what might have happened if it would have been something worse though. it would have put us so deep into a financial hole that, between student loan payments and the the current economic climate, i don’t know we would have been able to get out of for quite some time.

i’m not for universal health care because i so strongly believe that wealthy people need to share. i think they should though, and hope that were i in their position would hold to that value. i honestly don’t care about the particulars of one reform plan versus another. also, the more i think about it, the more i become convicted that i shouldn’t care if illegal immigrants get health care or not. that last one is a struggle for me. my true honest belief that is the one that makes me think that health care for all should be a reality is that according to the Christian faith, money is not something to be withheld to the detriment of others. believe me, as far as political ideologies are concerned, i am for as little government as possible. our government is going to take our money anyway, and if they’re going to take it and use it for something like universal health care, then i’m much more ok with that than the myriad other uses of tax dollars.

i also feel the need to be completely open about the fact this isn’t some conviction i’ve decided upon a whim either. i struggle with this. like i said already, i’m not a fan of big government or even necessarily higher taxes. also, i periodically have to truly check my motives, more so if i’m bringing my religious convictions into play. i truly believe that every human being is a child of God whether they acknowledge that or not. we could very well be spending eternity with those souls our greed and selfishness has caused us to turn our backs on. most of my life i’ve felt like i didn’t totally agree with the idea of “christians are by default aligned with the republican right,” and a lot of the time feel like i’m fighting against a stereotype. if there’s one thing i’ve learned though, it’s that “fighting against” something is rarely, if ever, a better idea than fighting for something.

i don’t expect to have changed anyone’s mind with writing this. the most i’m really hoping is for whoever reads this to have a better understanding about where i’m coming from with this. in the meantime, let’s keep challenging each other. please, let’s all be checking our motives though, especially those of us who are called to have more eternally minded motives

can someone tell me what’s wrong with free health care in the u.s.? especially if you’re a christian? i honestly don’t understand what the resistance is to it. is it because we’re collectively scared of the word “socialism?” as a christian, why do we even seem scared of socialism? because of evil dictatorships in the first half of the 20th century? read matthew 25:34-46, then tell me what’s more evil: a system that feeds greed and ego, or one that steals from the rich to give to the poor? right now, i’m young and woefully ignorant, so please educate me. i’m probably not seeing every angle and i’d like to. so, what are your thoughts, and how do those align with what Jesus has taught us?

the year is just about over. just shy of three hours from now until it’s officially 2009. looking back on the year, it’s hard for me not to be pessimistic about what 2009 has to offer. 2008 started off so well and then began a slow decline, and so far, this night seems to be a very fitting end to cap it off with. the biggest thing I’m struggling with is in terms of my career. I’m one of many I’m sure, but this is a new thing for me and I’m kind of starting to really freak out about it. and now that I’ve written about the more depressing parts, I can try to focus on the good things that happened this year. most importantly, I can take solace in the fact that I have a clearer idea of who God is which I think will lead to a closer and more meaningful relationship. secondly, I think that me and my wife have built an even firmer foundation for our marriage, and that we’re understanding each other much more clearly. and lastly, I’m really enjoying the friendships I’ve recently made or grown at my church. it’s nice to know that my church has a lot of quality people there and that there’s more I haven’t even met yet. so, 2008, you weren’t exactly a banner year for me, but once again I’m going to let hope be a deciding factor about 2009

seriously. i really do. i was about 19 when i decided to stop shaving. luckily it has grown in a little thicker since then and has stopped looking like i just have a dirty face from stage. i’ve been keeping it a little shorter lately since i lost a little weight and cut my hair much shorter, but here’s a couple examples of me at my furriest:

and i love this one of me and amanda (and the beard):

sadly, i’m probably going to have to shave it all off very soon. as some of you might know, my band has not been terribly busy lately. with the holidays coming up it looks like i might have to go back to my old seasonal job. normally my beard isn’t a problem even though it’s against the rules because my manager was super cool about it. unfortunately, she doesn’t work there anymore and the new lady is apparently quite a stickler about things. so i thought i’d take a quick survey on here. i go back to that job in about a month and i’m pondering just not even trimming this mess until the last possible second, or periodically trimming it shorter and shorter until it’s gone as to maybe not get so bummed about it. what do you think?

just a quick question for California lawmakers: why is it perfectly legal for me to type this on my iphone while driving, but I’ll get pulled over if I start talking to someone? I realize neither option is all that safe, but why not go after the lesser of two evils?