Tim Bosma

I knew Tim Bosma. His father and my father worked together for more than 20 years and when I was 16 I started spending my summers working with them. In the last few years I was there Tim began working there the same way I did. The company (although had many ups and downs) was one that fostered family and in every part of it there were brothers, cousins, fathers & sons, husbands & wives. working together. I can only imagine how all those men and women feel right now.

When I knew Tim our entire lives were ahead of us. The idea that my memories of him then – tall and blond and free, could end this way in such a senseless and horrific way is incomprehensible.

This case has taken me to a time of my own innocence when my dear father was alive and I yearn to share in this and console him as I know he would be heartbroken by this. “He was a good fella, a real good guy” is what my dad would say about Tim. And he would be right.

As time goes on Tim Bosma’s life will continue and will represent the Everyman. He is all of us – Trusting, caring and family oriented and those qualities are what he should be remembered for. They were exploited by sick and selfish people for their own gain.

For now though the focus should be on the life that was stolen from him and the loving family who has to make sense of this stupidity. Rest in peace Tim Bosma, you deserved so much better.

I love reading …

I love reading all these people professing their faith as if the country they were born in and the family for which they were raised had nothing to do with which religion they “just know” is the right one.  The same conversation is going on in Israel, Pakistan, India, and Korea except it is a different fairy tale with a different all knowing and loving ruler in charge waiting to punish those that do not bow before him.  

99.9999% percent of the world’s faithful have never considered any other religion and I can only presume they also think the beliefs of those faiths are completely unfounded and insane… much the way I do, except I think that way of all of them not just the arbitrary one of several thousands that have survived these past 5000 years.  Your religion was not a choice or a calling, it was a fluke of geography and if you were born somewhere else you would believe in another mythology than the one you do.

The shit that flows downhill

So here is the thing, I know that I am not living to my full capabilities.  I know that I can be fighting poverty, protesting war and trying to help feed the people that need food.  But I don’t and I wish I could and I wish I had the time and the energy and know-how to do it but what it comes down to is I have no time for myself as it is and I want to see every moment of every day that I can of my 2 beautiful children growing up.

So I have this guilt in me as my psyche tells me I am a hypocrite and that I am doing little more than contributing to the problem.  And it is most likely true.

What I do try to do is treat the people I do encounter on a daily basis with respect and bring some semblance of joy into their world.  I may fail with some or I may just look like a loser to others, but I do believe when I breathe my last breath there will be a very large number of people that will say that I made a positive impact on their life.

So I may not be able to take to the front lines right now or travel across the globe to evoke monumental societal change, but I do feel if I encounter the people that can do that I won’t ruin their day by treating them like shit and diverting them from their calling.  That is the best I can offer right now, but hopefully one day I will be able to bring on the revolution… until then watching Dora the Explorer with my kids and my beautiful wife is what I have to offer.

Censorship

I have basically been censored from CNN.com

At present I have an account that allows me to make comments on their comment board, but nothing I write ever gets posted any longer.  I make no inflammatory comments, I use no abusive language I simply state my opinions which are most often based on the absurdity of organized religion.

If little old me gets censored, what do you think is happening to the information that is being brought to the world through CNN and the rest of their big business cohorts?