Welcome

Welcome to my blog http://www.skegley.blogspot.com/ . CAVEAT LECTOR- Let the reader beware. This is a Christian Conservative blog. It is not meant to offend anyone. Please feel free to ignore this blog, but also feel free to browse and comment on my posts! You may also scroll down to respond to any post.

For Christian American readers of this blog:


I wish to incite all Christians to rise up and take back the United States of America with all of God's manifold blessings. We want the free allowance of the Bible and prayers allowed again in schools, halls of justice, and all governing bodies. We don't seek a theocracy until Jesus returns to earth because all men are weak and power corrupts the very best of them.
We want to be a kinder and gentler people without slavery or condescension to any.

The world seems to be in a time of discontent among the populace. Christians should not fear. God is Love, shown best through Jesus Christ. God is still in control. All Glory to our Creator and to our God!


A favorite quote from my good friend, Jack Plymale, which I appreciate:

"Wars are planned by old men,in council rooms apart. They plan for greater armament, they map the battle chart, but: where sightless eyes stare out, beyond life's vanished joys, I've noticed,somehow, all the dead and mamed are hardly more than boys(Grantland Rice per our mutual friend, Sarah Rapp)."

Thanks Jack!

I must admit that I do not check authenticity of my posts. If anyone can tell me of a non-biased arbitrator, I will attempt to do so more regularly. I know of no such arbitrator for the internet.











Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Cal Thomas 6-5-13 Columbus Dispatch

Columbus, Ohio • Jun 05, 2013 • 80° Partly Cloudy

Cal Thomas commentary: Life lessons can be learned from watching the spelling bee

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Wednesday June 5, 2013 5:34 AM
 
The annual ritual known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee came and went last week with kids spelling words that, I suspect, many with graduate degrees couldn’t spell.
The winner was Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Bayside Hills, N.Y. Mahankali is the first boy to win the title since 2008.
There is a lesson to be learned from the success of these young people, including the ones who came close to winning but didn’t. It is the value of persistence. Mahankali won this year by spelling the German word knaidel. He lost the bee three times before and was eliminated from competition in 2011 and 2012 on German-derived words. Recognizing his weakness, Mahankali repaired his deficit. And his strategy succeeded.
History teaches the value of persistence. Abraham Lincoln lost several elections before winning the 1860 presidential race. He never gave up. Inventors of the telephone, airplane and motorcar refused to quit after repeated failures. Regardless of one’s background or circumstances, persistence can make any life better.
My favorite lesson on persistence comes from a 2006 film called Akeelah and the Bee.
The movie is about an 11-year-old girl (wonderfully played by Keke Palmer). Akeelah attends a middle school in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles. The school is a failure factory and so devoid of resources it can’t afford doors on bathroom stalls. Akeelah’s father was murdered; her mother (played by Angela Bassett), works as a nurse and struggles to raise her daughter and Akeelah’s brother, who keeps company with neighborhood hoodlums.
Akeelah has a gift for spelling. The school’s principal introduces her to a spelling coach, brilliantly played by Laurence Fishburne. Akeelah wins her school’s spelling bee and goes on to the next level, pitting her against children unlike herself and forcing her into an unfamiliar world. Many of Akeelah’s friends accuse her of being a “brainiac” which, along with the charge of “acting white,” discourages her from achieving her true potential.
Akeelah persists and, in the end, triumphs. The route she takes to get there is part of the incredible story. I’ve seen the film five times and tear up each time I watch it. It’s about overcoming, not settling.
Unfortunately, this film and the participants in the real-life spelling bee represent a disappearing America. We don’t want to persevere. We seldom teach it to our young. Persistence takes far too long. Instead, too many envy what others have and believe that the successful “owe” the unsuccessful. Far too many promote a culture that values greed and excess. Hard work, personal responsibility and persistence are vanishing faster than integrity in Washington.
And many politicians like it that way. They encourage government dependency because it sustains their careers. The more they’re thought to be needed, the likelier they are to be re-elected. We appear to have moved from “you can do it for yourself” to “you can’t do it without us” — “us” being the federal government.
A new Quinnipiac University Poll found that “only 3 percent of voters trust the federal government to do the right thing almost all the time, while 12 percent say they trust it most of the time; 47 percent say some of the time and 36 percent hardly ever.” That’s hardly a glowing endorsement.
Big government has become a modern “false god.” We bow in its direction while ignoring evidence that it is incapable of responding to our worship. The coming “train wreck” of Obamacare — Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus’ words, not mine — will be the next example.
It is only when we rediscover ancient virtues and apply them to today that we will see much more of the type of success experienced by Arvind Mahankali and others like him. He, not the latest video game or teen idol, should be the next generation’s role model.
Cal Thomas writes for Tribune Media Services.
tmseditors@tribune.com

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