Maybe That's Why I'm Posting So Often

By: Unknown

92 comments

It might be because of the New Year.

You see, I've been on a sort of kick, if you will, of self-improvement. I've been practicing guitar (I suck) and trumpet (my embouchure sucks, but that's about it. I'm pretty good otherwise), and, oddly enough, I've been practicing art, which is something I've traditionally been very bad at, and rather dismissive toward. As I explain on one of my postings at the aforelinked site, while I'm quite skilled at describing an imagined scene, I'd like to be able to draw it.

I think people are far too content to maintain their own status quo. I've certainly been guilty of it for the past, oh, twenty years or so (and I'm sure I'll fall into that pattern again in the future, but I'll try to avoid it). After all, reaching too far is uncomfortable, even if it increases our flexibility.

But I think it is important to try new things and to learn new skills. I suppose it's a question of whether one wishes to be a Renaissance man or a specialist, but I still don't think that's really the case. After all, a specialist is focused in one area, but cannot study it all the time. It is possible, and maybe necessary, to have hobbies that are enjoyable and build new skills even if one is a specialist.

So, I've resolved to build my skills in the arts and music. I've been trying to push myself by drawing difficult subjects (faces, for instance, are bloody hard to draw), for instance, and I find I'm quite enjoying how quickly I've improved. I think I also need to push myself to exercise on some kind of regular schedule, especially since I no longer have a gym class, though I've never liked how slowly physical improvement happens.

Dear readers, treat yourself to something new. Pick up a guitar, or write a glowing description of a beautiful scene in excruciating detail, or craft as fine a poem as you can make, or make a difficult drawing as well as you can, or come up with puns about random words, or think of all the words that rhyme with a random word: all of these train several useful skills (especially musical training). You don't have to show anyone your work: tear the drawings to pieces if you're not proud of it, though you might want to think twice about that, because keeping past work is good way to see how much you've improved.

I think we really ought to learn something new every day.

By my hand,
~Michael Akerman

You've Got a Friend in Me

By: Unknown

2 comments

I feel like making a post.

And something has bugged me since I first came to college, so I'll do that (especially since it's a short topic).

What on Earth possesses people to collude such digital collections as a network of 200 friends on a site such as Facebook?

For anyone to whom that statement seems to oddly resemble themselves, let me ask you something. If I were to show you pictures, randomly selected, of the people who are among your 200 friends, could you identify them? Even first name only? What do you know about those people, without looking? Do you know their majors, their hometowns, or at least why you know them?

Can you truly call even half of them friends?

I could understand it, to some extent, if the vast majority of the culprits were female. Humanity developed around a matriarchal home life, with the mother left to care for the children. It is reasonable that, due to the necessity of cooperation with a large number of people, women have a genetic tendency toward friendliness and a drive to build a large social network. However, while most of the offenders have a vagina, a very large number of the shadows that offend me are of the more penis-toting variety.

Even if it were the case that only women collected friends, it would still be highly illogical. A social network is only as useful as it is trustworthy, and a virtual stranger is only slightly more trustworthy than a veritable stranger.

I must admit that it's just a word, friend. It shouldn't bother me. So many other words in the English language are abused to a much larger degree, and "friend" is still at least retaining its basic meaning in the form of a social relationship.

But it does bother me.

Because "friend" is (or "was," but in both cases, "should be") a special word, ranking at the worst just barely below "love." Friendships are the very network that builds communities. Friendships provide the people that found and form a cohesive, effective country. In the pinnacle of friendship's many forms, it is the idea that forms families, once one is so lucky as to find his true best friend.

So, in some ways, friendship is love. Friends should be people that can be counted on to aid you when you need aid, to soothe you when you need soothing, and to save you when they can. Yet, we are flippant. Someone can so easily be "just a friend," people are somehow not able to find time for their friends, and now we steadfastly decay into accepting any minor acquaintance as a friend, when we will surely turn around and forget him.

(It occurs to me that Facebook should add an "Acquaintance" designation, which would act like Friends, without watering down a word that so has past so wholly defined the deepest relationships of society)

So, stop it. Vow to only accept people whom you can actually count as true friends. Don't troll, as the kiddies say, for "friends" among random hot women or men. Because no one is impressed by the number of false friends you have acquired. No one is intrigued by a person who seems so desperately lonely that they have to surround themselves with a shroud of seeming popularity. The only man with true happiness is one who has true friends.

By my hand,
~Michael Akerman

New Years

By: Unknown

0 comments

Today is January 1st, 2007.

Today is a day for celebration and consideration, mourning and meditation.

We should celebrate the arrival of the new year, which, in keeping with traditions, is a blank slate for our achievements and skills. We have a fresh year in which to further perfect ourselves, and I hope you all do.

We should mourn those lost in the last year and celebrate what they gave in life. Each person grants unique traits and skills to the world, and every person, from a bishop to a murderer, is loved by at least one person. It is something to be thankful for: the human species is hard pressed to totally abandon someone. Even without families, there are millions of regular people who gladly help those in need, through organized charity or good old-fashioned pleasantness.

We should mourn the continued presence of evil in the world, which seemingly cannot be erased from human nature. We should do our part, though, to try to stop it in ourselves and our neighbors. We must try to consider the full consequences of our actions, and not let our baser instincts guide our actions. We must pay attention to the needs and actions of our neighbors, so that crimes cannot go unseen. Knowing of abuse or rape or any other heinous act and ignoring it is as criminal as carrying out the action yourself.

We should celebrate the strength of the American economy, which has only failed in any real sense once and is strong in boom or recession. However, we should mourn the state of the impoverished and unemployed, and consider what we can do to help our downtrodden neighbors. Perhaps this means government intervention or perhaps the ultimate solution is lower taxes to create jobs: either way, we can't truly effect that change. What we can do is provide our time, energy, and money to others. Donate to charities, bring a nice dinner to a family pressed into hard times, or volunteer to work at a church daycare, and always remember that those you are helping are dignified brothers and sisters in mankind who deserve not our pity, but our aide. Help others and others will help you: that is the only way mankind has ever survived.

We should celebrate our American republic. Even if you think our rights have been attacked, or that the administration seeks empirical power, know that the checks and balances still work. The Congress has been pushed back to the Democratic party, the Supreme Court stands stalwart, with no apparent bias (regarding the court as a whole, not individual justices). Even the fear and stupidity over terrorism has died down. We traveled by air over Christmas break, and only had to wait about 10 minutes or less after checking our luggage to get to the gate.

As the number of casualties hits 3000 today, we should mourn the soldiers lost in the continuing war in Iraq. In doing so, we should celebrate their bold sacrifice to our country (though not precisely in defense of it). Volunteers all, our soldiers knew of the risks of their profession yet still were willing to risk it all in service. That is the definition of bravery.

And we should celebrate that the war has incurred so few casualties. After nearly four years, only 3000 of our soldiers have died. In the approximately four years of US involvement in World War II, some 407,000 soldiers died. Though each death is tragic, this war has represented a triumph of technology and battle strategy that has prevented unnecessary military deaths.

That said, we should mourn the extended nature of the war and the failed post-war strategy. The Iraq War was an effective war that failed to stick the landing, with the war administration, from the President to the generals, failing to plan for the unique challenges of nation-building. We should consider why, and how to fix it. The problem, as I see it, is one of training and effort. Our generals, brilliant though they be, are not trained for nation-building. Though they are great at strategy, they aren't practiced in peace, and few people possess the kind of genius that allows them to tackle a problem effectively with no prior experience. While the government is in the unique position of knowing how to run a nation, very little effort was put forth to enact that knowledge in Iraq. I believe that the solution to the Iraq problem lies in our experience politicians: the governors, senators, and representatives who have proven themselves brilliant in the administration of government, in the provision of services, and in the maintenance of an economy.

These should be the overarching resolutions for our government and ourselves in 2007. Each American who cares for his country should try to meet these ideals, regardless of what his other resolutions be.

But most importantly this year, take some time to laugh. Find activities that you enjoy doing, and spend some time doing them. Don't kill yourself with work or worry, because life is short already, and all of our earthly achievements are distressingly fleeting. So, enjoy yourselves and let others do the same by having fun while avoiding causing grief to your fellow man.

And have a happy 2007, dear readers. Regardless of the quantity or frequency of posts, IVIC will still be here as long as I can maintain it. Let this be a year of learning and growth, of happiness and laughter, and of achievement and pride for each of you!

By my hand,
~Michael Akerman

HAX!!!

By: Unknown

79 comments

That, my friends, is what we call a "hack!"

Alright, comments on old posts should be Haloscan. New posts should be Blogger, assuming tags are given to the posts.

~Michael Akerman

Comments Test

By: Unknown

I broke something in the comments stuff making the last post.

I'm trying to fix it.

~Michael Akerman

Blogger Beta

By: Unknown

3 comments

Assuming you are not blind, you probably noticed that the site has changed rather drastically.

This is because we've moved to the new Blogger Beta and, with that, I've moved to a Blogger template to take advantage of the new features (movable widgets! Dynamic template changes! An easy way to change colors! New code tools! Tagging and categories! Weeeeee!).

The old HaloScan comments are still on the old posts (or should be. Drop me a comment on this post if they're not), but I'm going to try Blogger's commenting system (no idea what new stuff came in that with the Beta) for a while. If everyone vastly prefers HaloScan, I can easily move back to it.

Also, feel free to comment on which template you like better: the current one or the old one (which I, personally, thought was hideous). Or, if you like this one, but think it could be better, tell me that and how. I'll probably dig into some template editing anyway. The main bar is too squished. The footers of the posts wrap too much, and Smith's posts look even longer than usual.

Exam Time Again

It's exam time again at NCSU. I won't be detailed, since I've gone over this before, but I'll continue my lackluster campaign against final exams. They prove nothing, are too weighty in grade calculations and serve mainly as a massive stress producer for no clear purpose.

I'm going to try to post sometime this week when I'm not studying for or taking an exam. Maybe my new toys on the blog will entice me.

By my hand,
~Michael Akerman

Electoral Elucidations '06: David vs. Goliath

By: UnrepentantNewDealer

Well, I had intended to post on the midterm elections sometime before, you know, election day. But, honestly, I've been so busy out there in the trenches trying to overthrow the corrupt Republican regime in Congress, that I quite literally haven't had the time. I've been canvassing (that's the door-to-door form of voter harassment) and phone-banking (far more polite than anonymous robo-calls) practically every spare moment for the last few weeks. Just this morning, I got up before 5:30 in the morning to cast my ballot the minute the polls opened at 6:30 and then positioned myself 50 feet from the entrance to the elementary school polling place to hand out campaign literature.... in the cold and the pouring rain. I'm typing this between noonish classes afterwhich, it's back out into the trenches till polls close at 7:30 pm. I have so much to say about all this, my personal experiences with this campaign and my thoughts on the broader national picture, but it will have to wait until after the election.

I have just two things I'd like to bring up now: First, the candidate I've been helping out this semester is Larry Kissell. He worked in the textile mills for 27 years before getting his degree and becoming a high school social studies teacher. He threw his hat into the race this year to challenge incumbent Rep. Robin Hayes, depending on who you talk to, either the third or fourth-richest man in Congress, a man who got his wealth by marrying into the Cannon textile company--you know, the one that shipped all its jobs to China. Textiles were the mainstay of the 8th district and last year, when the Central American Free Trade Agreement came before Congress, Hayes told his constituents he was "flat out, completely, horizontally oppssed to CAFTA," which was "not in the best interests of the core constituency I represent," and he vowed "there is no way I could vote for CAFTA."

Funny thing happened on the way to the House floor. The bill came to the floor, Hayes voted no, and the bill lost by one vote. In a highly irregular move in violation of House procedures, the bill was kept on the floor late into the night anyway as the GOP leadership searched for one persuadable vote. Speaker of the House Denny Hastert sequestered Robin Hayes in his office. God only knows what Hastert threatened him with, but when Hayes came out, visibly shaken, he changed his vote, and voted for CAFTA, thus enabling it to pass.

Hayes undoubtedly thought he could get away with promising not to vote for CAFTA and then turning around and voting for it anyway. After all, the D.C. Democrats would run some California liberal, as in the last several elections, and the voters in this conservative but still-majority Democratic district would again vote for Hayes. He thought wrong. The D.C. Dem. establishment candidate bowed out early and Kissell won the primary and set out winning the hearts and minds of NC-08 voters. I really don't have time to get into all the details now, but the gist is, this year, Hayes actually has a credible opponent. And judging by the polls, as well as the reaction I've gotten from voters today and in the last few weeks, Kissel is going to win, and win convincingly. Most tellingly, the Kissell campaign has volunteers at every precinct polling station in Meck and probably in the entire 8th district. I've been at two polling places today and no Hayes supporters have yet shown up. We're fired up and passionate about our candidate, enough to wait out in the cold pouring rain. Hayes' supporters.... well, I suppose you can't blame them; after all, it is raining.

While Hayes' supporters aren't out in evidence, Kissell voters sure are. Even with the rain, turnout seems to be far higher than normal in a midterm election, from every age group. And I've long since lost track of the number of voters who have come up to me and chewed Hayes out, asked me how good Kissell's chances are and thanked me for being out there, "fighting the good fight."

So, how is it that every news organization and political guru rates NC-08 a "solid Republican," or just in the last few days, "leaning Republican," race? Simple. Money talks. Hayes ended September with $1.2 million in his campaign war chest and the ability to self-finance with his estimated $100 fortune. Kissell ended it with $88.94, as he is dependent on small contributions from individual donors, rather than corporate donations, and has to spend every penny he gets almost as soon as he recieves it. When asked about it, Kissell replied that his campaign's bank statement looked a lot more like the average 8th district voter's than Hayes'. And amazingly, Kissell is tied or ahead of Hayes in the polls.

It has often been said that the system is too corrupt, that only candidates with tons of money can win. That's going to be proven wrong today here in southern NC, and probably throughout the nation. Think about it though: if a former mill worker with $88.93 can defeat an incumbent millionaire, that means that the American Dream is still alive, that Mr. Smith can indeed go to Washington, David can indeed defeat Goliath, that honesty and decency can trump the Almighty Dollar. That's an inspiring lesson, no matter what party you support.

There is a groundswell of support for Democrats in the 8th district and for Democrats nationally. Again, as with the NC-08 race, nationally, Republicans are favored by many to win because of their financial advantage, polls be damned. Barron's, for example, predicted that Republicans will keep control of both House and Senate because they have more money. They rated races, using only one tool: the amount of money each side has on hand. On the other extreme, the MSM, loving to gush over poll results, keeps nattering on about a Democratic landslide. There is no doubt in my mind that, if the system wasn't rigged by both parties to protect incumbents, there would be a Democratic landslide on the order of the "Republican Revolution" of '94. Since it is rigged (more on that in a later post), a landslide is unlikely.

I suppose I should go on the record before the polls close with my highly-unscientific predictions: Democrats need to pick up 15 seats to control the House, I'd say we pick up between 25-30 (my gut instinct is that it will be more than that, but I don't want to get overconfident and jinx it.) We need to pick up 6 to control the Senate. We've got Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Montana in the bag (yeah, I know the last two races have tightened recently, but I find the poll results here showing Lincoln Chafee and Conrad "Most Likely to be Indicted" Burns tied with their Democratic opponents a little hard to swallow). So, that leaves two seat that need to go our way out of these three: Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri. All are very close. Tennessee appears to be out of reach; what was once a tied race has turned into a sizable Republican lead, probably thank to the now-infamous Republican miscegenation ads (though I'd love to be proven wrong about this and Tennessee elect the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction). Virginia is very close too, but I think Jim Webb will pull an upset against George "Macaca" Allen. That leaves Missouri, and only a fool would try to predict the outcome of that one. If I had to say, I'd give the advantage to Jim Talent, as Missouri has traditionally been a very Republican state, but it's going to be extremely close. If I'm right, the Senate will again be split exactly 50-50 with Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote, as was the case during the first few months of Bush's first term. If I'm wrong and Talent loses, the Dems have both houses of Congress, unless they lose somewhere else. Should be an interesting night all around. Feel free to leave your own predictions in the comments box and we'll see who got the closest.

Now, back into the trenches,

Michael J. Smith

Wither IVIC?

By: UnrepentantNewDealer

For your Halloween pleasure, a morbid parody (all apologies to Monty Python):

The Dead Blog Collector: Bring out yer dead! Bring out yer dead!
Large Man with Dead Blog: Here's one. [placing it on the cart]
The Dead Blog Collector: That'll be ninepence.
IVIC: I'm not dead.
Blog Collector (BC): What?
Large Man (LM): Nothing. There's your ninepence.
IVIC: I'm not dead.
BC: 'Ere, it says it's not dead.
LM: Yes, it is.
IVIC: I'm not.
BC: It isn't.
LM: Well, it will be soon. It's very ill. No one has posted on it in more than 3 months!
IVIC: I'm getting better.
LM: No, you're not, you'll be stone dead inactive in a moment.
BC: Well, I can't take it like that. It's against blogosphere regulations.
IVIC: I don't want to go on the cart.
LM: Oh, don't be such a baby!
BC: I can't take it.
IVIC: I feel fine.
LM: Oh, do me a favor!
BC: I can't.
LM: Will you hang around for a couple of minutes? It won't be long.
BC: I promised to be over at MySpace. They've lost nine today. [mutters] Bloody format, it's no wonder--
LM: Well, when is your next round?
BC: Thursday.
IVIC: I think I'll go for a walk.
LM: You're not fooling anyone, you know? Is there anything you could do?
IVIC: I feel happy. I feel happy.

[BC glances up and down the street furtively, then whacks IVIC with a club.]

LM: Ah, thank you very much.
BC: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
LM: Right.

The End of IVIC?

Wow. It has been a long time since I or anyone else has posted on this blog. As you can see by scrolling down, Akerman last posted in July, myself at the end of June, and Ed not since March. Thus far this year, we have posted 3, 7, and 3 times each, respectively, for a grand total of 13 posts, thus far this year. Contrast that with last year's total of 19, 23, and 9, respectively, for a grand total of 51 posts, concentrated in the first half of that year; 2004: 32, 19, 11, respectively, 62 total, concentrated in the second half of that year; 2003 (which Akerman only started the blog in August of that year): 19, 3, 4, respectively, 26 total. (I think I did that counting right; higher math's never been one of my strong suits.)

Why? Why the drop-off? I can only speak for myself. I have been busy, to be sure, but somehow I was able to make time before. Recently, that's not been the case.

I believe this blog originally grew out of the deep (and not-so-deep) conversations between Ed Snyder, Michael Akerman, and myself at the lunch table freshman year of high school. When Akerman founded this blog at the beginning of senior year, it duplicated our conversations at school, providing another forum for them. Perhaps for this reason, I didn't really feel the need to blog much senior year; if I had a thought or witticism I wanted to share, I could tell Akerman or Snyder at school. This state of affairs changed after graduation; I wound up contributing to the blog again after a long absense, really in order to maintain the old friendships from high school, as well as to provide an outlet for my thoughts, now that those daily in-person conversations were gone.

The "Golden Age" of IVIC thus began, lasting from roughly August 2004-April 2005. This was the period of maximum blogging by all parties, as well as maximum commenting by non-IVIC bloggers, mainly fellow classmates from Ragsdale's class of '04. Then, starting in May 2005, a long, slow die-off, the EKG readings spiking briefly, every now and then, but with decreasing frequency. The yearly totals tell the sad tale: 26, 62, 51, 13.

Again, why has this happened? I can only speak for myself, but it is not that I have not had killer ideas for posts in recent months. No, it is simply that I find myself deriving less and less pleasure from blogging. I derive some pleasure from crafting a well-written, well-reasoned blog post, but I derive more pleasure from the spirited give-and-take in the comments from fellow IVIC bloggers, as well as other bloggers. During its "Golden Age," IVIC provided a forum, not just for Snyder, Akerman, and myself, but also, through comments, for old friends from the Ragsdale diaspora: Kristen, Angela, Philip, Adam, Maggie, etc.) as well as for various "others" (namely Scott and "Man from the Mountain"). And of course, we commented on their blogs. I guess what I'm getting at here is that there was a sense of community then on IVIC, a community broader than IVIC itself, a community of friends and acquaintances from high school held together by exchanging ideas and sometimes insults on this blog. I am coming to realize that the loss of this community has not only harmed this blog, it impoverished my own life immeasurably.

That accounts for why it has been so long since I posted. The community spirit is gone, as is even the give-and-take in response to posts. In truth, I do blog for my own sanity and enjoyment, but at the same time, blogging without getting any kind of a response from readers feels pointless and depressing. As I pointed out in January, "It gets really discouraging when you post an entry and... you get no comment. So, then you post another entry and... you still get no comments. When this continues for month after month, it really gets depressing.... This long-running conversation--really going on since the lunch table freshman year at RHS--has fallen silent."

Honestly, I'm at a loss for what to do. I do enjoy blogging, but only if there is a discussion going on, rather than a rambling monologue, which would bore me as much as it would bore you. I want that old IVIC community spirit to return, but I know not how to achieve that, nor even if it is possible at this point. I once contemplated creating a separate blog of my own, and my thoughts return to it now. Perhaps on it, I could at least release my thoughts and clear my mind.

While I am not willing to give up on IVIC just yet, we need to find a way to resuscitate it, to revive it. Again, speaking only for myself, I am open to any and all suggestions from any and all comers. I will do my part over the next week by posting at least one post on the upcoming midterm elections. The last election did wonders for this blog's activity and traffic; perhaps it can again. Only time (which, of course, does not exist!) will tell.

In Peace,

Michael J. Smith

Call Them on Your (Stem) Cell

By: Unknown

(EDITED on 7/21/06 to clarify some biology in the sixth paragraph)

First off, I'm trying to muster up the desire to finish Bear (Bear? What's he talking about? Oh, right, the "short" story), but I know how it ends, so it's kind of boring to write. I'll get to it eventually.

---

It's Just a Bill

After passing in the Senate by darn close to a super-majority, the most recent important stem cell bill now sits on the desk of the President of the United States. Bush is, of course, likely to veto it, in following with his firm stance against destructive stem cell research (which is currently the only way to obtain new cell lines).

I, in my arrogance and by vastly over-reaching the influence of this blog, would caution the President against vetoing such a bill. The vast majority of his voting base approves of stem cell research, including the much-maligned "Christian Right" (by which the Democratic pundits and bloggers really mean the Christian nutjobs, which is an entirely different set of people. Rather, perhaps, a crazed subset of ignorant fools in the larger group of Republican Christians). But, that's merely a political reason, and it shouldn't convince anyone, politician or not, that stem cell research is the right thing to do.

Bush, in his zeal to prevent any approximation of "playing God," seems to have missed some important lessons on modern stem cell research (and the research this bill would allow). Stem cell research, in the current sense, uses the embryos left over from in-vitro fertilization, since dozens are produced and, unless a couple wants to have dozens of children, only a few are implanted. So, thousands (tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Doesn't really matter) of embryos are left over, frozen for a few months to a few years before finally being destroyed.

The last few words of that sentence were key. Bush does not want life to be destroyed to give life, but these are doomed embryos, to put it darkly. They will be destroyed. They have been part of the noble quest to let a loving pair in mankind's great family create new life, and they should be used in their finality to help some ailing member of the great family to retain life.

And it is important to use as many embryos as possible. Indeed, scientists already are with private and Californian funding. You see, with all the versatility that stem cells likely have, they still have mostly-immutable DNA. The human body tends to reject foreign DNA, with the likelihood of rejection rising with the difference of the foreign DNA (EDIT: To clarify, the body does not reject DNA directly. Rather, it rejects the proteins on the surface of the cells, which are produced based on the cell's DNA. This is why O-type blood, which has none of the A-B identifier proteins on the surface of the cells, is compatible with all blood types, while AB-type blood, which has both A and B identifier proteins, is only compatible with AB blood types). This is why it's always vitally important to get a "compatible" kidney for transplants. One too differing from the patients own kidney will be attacked and destroyed.

If many cell lines are produced, the likelihood of there being at least one line that is very similar to a patient's DNA is vastly improved. This is, I should note, the argument for therapeutic cloning, which is another bag of worms entirely. In TC, the patient is cloned in an egg, and that egg developed into an embryo, before harvesting those stem cells. This virtually guarantees that the inducted cells will not be rejected, but it means producing human embryos (whether they are persons at the embryonic stage or not is a matter of belief) purely to destroy them, which is rather more irksome than using pre-extant embryos that must be destroyed.

However, it is clear that the chance to treat diseases ranging from heart disease to Alzheimer's vastly outweighs the evil of destroying already-doomed embryos. Indeed, it is clear that it is evil not to use these embryos to support life if we can. Life is a terrible thing to waste when it can so easily help others.

So, Mr. President, sign this bill into law.

By my hand,

~Michael Akerman

Mission to Moss Point

By: UnrepentantNewDealer

Like most of you, I've been fairly busy: working, going on a mission trip (more on that in a minute) and taking a summer French course at A&T (can you say, "Parley vu Francaise?"). I've been meaning to post more often this summer, but a look at the calender shows that this is the last day of June and that if nothing is posted tonight, the IVIC archives will have an embarrassing gap. (So, you're welcome, Akerman!) It's late at night and I'm very tired, so excuse me if I become incoherent.

Mission to Moss Point

Last week, I went with my church on a mission trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to help the rebuilding efforts. My church had sent four previous mission teams down there starting last fall and established a fruitful relationship with a local church, Dantzler Memorial UMC in Moss Point, Mississippi, just north of Pascagoula. Sleeping in Sunday school rooms for a few hours each night, we woke up long before sunrise to do "reroofing" work on a local house. The heat and humidity were stifling even at 5 AM, and the work was difficult, more so than on any construction project I've worked on before. We found out the first day that it was useless even trying to get any work done past 2pm, the heat and humidity were so bad. I lost track of how many times I said, only half in jest, that I wished Katrina had hit cool Maine, instead of the sauna of Mississippi.

I went to Carolina Cross Connection, a construction mission and outreach trip, for four summers during high school. We helped build wheelchair ramps and did house painting and repair, lawnwork and coolsealing a roof for poor people and elderly shut-ins in the mountains of North Carolina. I thought I had seen devastation, the kind produced through the decades-long wearing down of communities and families by the perpetual tempest of poverty. It wasn't until I stood one evening on the beach in Biloxi and stared at the abosolute desolation around me that I truly understood devastation.

Actually, it defies comprehension. The area around Moss Point was hard hit, but there was very little visible damage left there. Along the beaches was another story. Almost everything was completely wiped out: trees, houses, gas stations, restaurants, hotels. Rubble littered the beaches where the 27-foot storm surge, the highest ever recorded, came ashore last August, with Katrina supposedly only a Category 3 storm at that time. I've seen the results of Cat 3 storms (Fran, for example, in 1996) and based on the Hurricane Hugo/Andrew-scale devastation, I strongly suspect the experts will soon posthumously correct it to at least a 4, as they corrected Andrew from a 4 to a 5 a full decade after it made landfall.

On Wednesday night, Dantzler Memorial invited all the volunteer groups staying at the church to a nighttime service. As the locals talked about what they had been through, they emphasized how grateful they were to their fellow Christians for helping them rebuild. New Orleans got all the attention, but the damage in Mississippi was at least as severe and, as numerous people said, the state and federal governments and Red Cross did nothing to help. The area is recovering due to the thousands of Christians across the country who have donated their time, their money, or their blood, sweat and tears.

The biggest sacrifices have been made by the locals who have opened their churches and their homes to the thousands of mission teams; the church we stayed at had even installed two makeshift showers after Katrina so that volunteers could rinse off the sweat after a hard day's work--this at a time when many church members were still waiting on their FEMA trailer and doing bucket duty every time it rained. Some of the older ladies of the church contributed by providing clean towels for the volunteers, which they washed at their own homes daily. The pastor told us of one church member, a 90-some-year old lady who got irate that no one had thought to ask her to wash towels; though she had bad arthritis and couldn't fold the towels, she could dump them in the washer.

This wasn't just about a bunch of Christians coming into an area and doing volunteer work; it was Christians from the area and from out of state working together to bring the Gulf Coast back on its feet. If there are those who are cynical and wonder what Christianity is all about, let them come to the Gulf Coast: it is there that the true meaning of Christianity can be found, not in any creed or article of faith, but in the actions of both the volunteers and the "victims," all slaving to help "the least of these." For truly, "faith without works is dead."

If anyone reading this can help out in any way, though your time or your money, please do so. Contact your church to find out what you can do to help. Katrina may have hit almost a year ago, but the Gulf Coast will be needing all the Christian charity it can get for many years to come.

Go forth into the world in peace,

Michael J. Smith