Do you really believe you are right?

Debate has taken on a negative connotation. In the name of tolerance there can be no defense of principles that seeks conversion of others.

We have evolved into a society that embraces lukewarm dialogue, but rejects spirited debate. In the former, we are free to express personal opinions as long as we do not ascribe an exclusive rightness to our views. Any suggestion that others are wrong is labeled as bigoted, hateful, uncharitable, and even extremist. In contrast, debate requires a commitment to the veracity of our principles. We seek through reason to demonstrate the superiority of our position and persuade others to follow.

Read it all here. 

Why I include political information in my blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed

Lisa Hendey offers an interesting question at her blog: Should political engagement and social networking mix? It was a rough few months leading up to the presidential election and it hasn't exactly been easy since the election when it comes to social networking. I have not been shy about expressing my views though I have tried to avoid hysterics. I can't say I have always been successful. I know that some Facebook friends have blocked me or "unfriended" me because they did not want to face my opinionated posting. Sticking to food, kids, pets, and garden pictures is a much safer strategy if I am concerned about increasing the number of folks who check out my homepage. One of the commenters from Lisa's article says:

Unfortunately, I still need to unfriend people on social networks because of talking about politics and especially ‘the other side’, or because they find it necessary to post pictures of aborted fetuses, maltreated animals in my timeline. My policy is blocking all nastiness from my social networks, no matter how good the friend or how worthy the cause. I stopped watching the news for a reason and want to keep my social networks clean as well.

This commenter sounds a lot like blogger Jen Hatmaker did last summer when she suggested we all just go hang out in her basement until the political season passed. (I responded to that suggestion here.)

But the world I live in is messy. It is mean. Evil exists. It would be so much easier to just post about my unbelievably cute grandchildren, but I am worried about the world my grandchildren will inherit. I need to do what I can to make it better for them. So I pray. And I encourage you to pray with me. And then I pray some more. And then I act.

How can we band together to fight evil and bring goodness and holiness to our families, our communities, our countries, and our world if no one knows about the evil. It will not be reported in the press unless it conforms to the agenda the press is peddling. I know from firsthand experience this is true. When National Public Radio was looking for someone to do a radio interview on the HHS mandate they called a major pro-life organization that had issued a statement opposing the mandate. Since I had written quite a few articles addressing the mandate, the organization reached out to me to do the interview. When NPR found out they were going to have a female, Catholic, pro-life physician do the interview they backed out saying I did not fit their narrative. It is hard to push the misogynist "war on women" agenda when your opponent is a well-educated woman. My friend, Michelle, had a similar experience when reporting on the HPV vaccine.

So I speak out. I use this blog. I use Facebook. I use Twitter. Who would know about the horrors of the Gosnell abortion clinic if social media users and bloggers had not kept the story alive? How would we get the truth about Benghazi if alternatives to the mainstream media do not report what CNN, MSNBC, et al refuse to acknowledge for fear it will hurt the Obama agenda? Only after bloggers, tweeters, facebook users, etc refuse to let go of a story do major media outlets sometimes relent and and provide coverage. As David Burge tweeted today: "Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.”

So those who want their social networking space to be clean and free of the unpleasant intrusions of the world, block me now. Those who are at all interested in following what I think and what I find important and what I am worried about keep reading. And don't worry. I will still talk about my garden

my dogs

food

and my unbelievably cute grandchildren!

The fruits of complacency on marriage

My latest article on Zenit was published yesterday. It ended up being a sort of "part II" to last month's article. Last month I wrote about how the cultural forces seeking to redefine marriage are also redefining the relationship of parent and child. This month, I wrote about the advances in assisted reproductive technology that are doing much the same thing.

We currently find ourselves in a battle to preserve and protect the institution of marriage as a union of one man and one woman that brings forth the gift of life from that union. I was privileged to attend the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast yesterday morning.  Both Dr. Helen Alvare, law professor at George Mason University, and the Most Reverend Michael Sheridan, Bishop of Colorado Springs, focused on the defense of marriage in their addresses to the assembly. Their words were both insightful and informative. (Their remarks will be televised tomorrow morning at 10:30am ET on EWTN)

We all need to be engaged in the defense of marriage. The fact that we have progressed to the point that our culture now excludes children from the purpose of marriage and defines it as an entity that is independent of the gender and even the number of adult participants is the result of our failure to defend marriage from earlier  assaults.

From the time of Christ, there has been an attempt to pervert marriage from its original intent. The Jews questioned Jesus about divorce and his response left no question that the institution of marriage as God ordained was an unbreakable bond. The Anglicans separated procreation from marriage in 1930 when they accepted contraception within marriage. When the purpose of marriage became focused on adult pleasure then divorce seemed logical when the pleasure was gone. If marriage lacked permanence, then why bother with it? Cohabitation became the norm. And if marriage is only about the affection of adults, then why does the gender of these adults matter? And if the complementarity of the adults is not important, then the number of adults in the marriage is irrelevant as well. Do not think that the twisting of marriage will stop with same-sex relationships. Polyamory is the next permutation on the horizon.

We are here because of our complacency. Pope Paul VI promulgated Humanae Vitae in 1968. It was a hard teaching during the time of a cultural sexual revolution. We did not want to offend or appear judgmental or seem backwards so we did not speak up on the immorality of contraception. When I say, "we", I mean Catholic clergy and laity alike. Our Catholic friends got divorced and when they remarried outside of the Church, we attended their weddings and celebrated with nary a thought to the sin of adultery being committed. We did not recognize or acknowledge that when our friends lived together before getting married they were making a mockery of the institution of marriage.  And now, because we have been so cavalier with the institution of marriage, we are facing its destruction. These are the fruits of our complacency.

The pastor at our parish has instituted a policy that cohabitating couples cannot be married with all the frills and flourishes of a big wedding. No wedding gown. No special music. No procession of bridesmaids. No Nuptial Mass. They may have a simple ceremony, attended by friends where they exchange vows. I am sure he has taken heat for this stand. But imagine if more priests had respected the sacrament of matrimony as much as my pastor does. We might have done a much better job of preserving the sanctity of marriage.

Likewise, I know of parents who told their daughters that if they choose to cohabitate, they will not provide a big wedding and reception. The celebration is supposed to mark the inauguration of a sacramental life together. If they choose to treat a wedding as a mere formality or an excuse for a party instead of the holy sacrament it is, then they forfeit all the trappings of a traditional wedding. How many mothers and fathers today are willing to look their children in the eye and deny them their dream wedding in defense of the institution of marriage? I am immersed in the planning of my daughter's upcoming wedding and I know how painful such a decision would be. I am very grateful that my daughter and her fiance have not made me make that choice.

But it is exactly these kinds of choices that are all the more urgently needed now. We have to defend marriage from the assaults of same-sex relationships and from polyamory as well as from the more subtle but equally damaging affronts that trivialize children as a primary purpose of marriage. Contraception, abortion, divorce, and cohabitation are also attacks on marriage. Complacency on any of these issues is no longer an option.

Tell me a story

I am told that when my husband was a child, he used to study and memorize all the specifications data of military aircraft. He loved the numbers. As we raised our children, he and the three boys loved to sit at the dinner table and discuss military strategy. They would replay and analyze great battles from ancient wars through more modern conflicts. My daughter and I listened politely, but we did not have the same love of military history. In fact, I have always struggled to learn history of any kind. I can recall the tiniest minutiae of the life sciences, but names, dates, and random events do not stick in my brain.

However, I am discovering that the problem is most of my formal education in history has been taught as a time line. I don't want a time line. I want a story. When I was in high school, if they had shown me Downton Abbey and then explained all the historical details surrounding the story, I would have devoured history. Tell me about the political strife that triggered the riot where Sybil was injured. Tell me about the conflict between Ireland and England that embroiled Tom Branson.  Last night I watched the first episode of The Bletchley Circle on PBS and found myself drawn to the story of the Bletchley Park code breakers and the role they played in World War II.

What I like is reading a good story and learning about the historical context surrounding it. This is different than reading historical fiction. The problem with much historical fiction is that is sometimes difficult to distinguish where the history ends and the fiction begins.

When I was about thirteen the women's rights movement was gaining traction. I was incensed that anyone would suggest that I could not have a profession because I was female. I decided right then and there I would be a lawyer or a doctor. Someone told me that to be a lawyer I would have to study history. That made my decision. I would became a doctor. Such is the thinking of a thirteen-year-old.  I certainly do not regret my decision to become a physician. But I no longer run away from the subject of history. I just look for the story.

The charade of public education

There is a serious indictment of public education written by Steven Johathan Rummelsburg and published by Crisis Magazine. In his essay, The Empress is Naked, Mr. Rummelsburg claims that many of the successes touted by educators are more a manipulation of standards to make results look good.

Public education has taken on a life of its own.  She has a specific character and a predictable personality.  I contend she is animated by the father of lies. We will call her the Empress. The Emperor’s invisible clothes in the tale can be likened to the programs the Empress uses to clothe her massive body of schools.  Just like the Emperor, the Empress is “so excessively fond of clothes” that she spends all her money on them.  These outward signs of vanity are garments woven from invisible threads invented by the swindlers we know as “educational experts.” 

The Empress adorns herself with new and ever-changing signs of achievement.  One hour she shows off higher test scores, the next she touts diminishing dropout rates, after that she struts diversity, and then she puts on higher literacy rates. The higher test scores are generally an arbitrary measure of a lowered standard. The diminishing dropout rate is a narrower re-definition of the word dropout. Her claims to diversity are couched in the most rigid uniformity.  The higher literacy rates possess almost no similarity to what an ancient grammarian would call literate.  And yet still, the public applauds these invisible successes as if they were real.

Mr. Rummelsburg bases his assertion on his twenty years of teaching in the public schools. I have been teaching at the local community college for the last three years. I cannot verify that Mr. Rummelsburg's analysis is correct, but I can tell you that our public education system is broken. Students are graduating from our public high schools and they need remedial math and remedial English instruction before they can continue with college level work. This is not the exception. This is the norm.

For example, my presentation on the skeleton begins with a picture of a man holding a skull and is captioned, "Alas, poor Yorick". If I am lucky, one of the 24 students in the class might recognize this as Shakespeare. It is rare that anyone can state that it is from Hamlet. But perhaps reading the works of Dead White Males is not necessary for  future success in anatomy and physiology. The ability to read and comprehend the text book is, however, critical. Words like subsequent, contiguous, and superficial are foreign to their vocabularies. When I give the instructions, "List in decreasing order of complexity," most of my students do not know whether to put the most complex or the least complex first.

Math skills are even worse. When studying the heart, we use the equation:

Cardiac output (CO)  = Stroke Volume (SV) x Heart Rate (HR)

When I write this equation on the board, there is panic. Oh, no! We are going to do math! If I give the students two of the variables, they cannot solve for the third. They do not know now to manipulate the units of the variables. They cannot change liters to milliliters. They are not even aware that the units on both sides of the equation should match. And the mere thought of multiplying or dividing fractions sends them into a tailspin. I found out that my students do not know that miles per gallon or MPG is a mathematical ratio. They have no idea how to calculate it. They think MPG is just a ranking system like 4-stars or 5-stars. Bigger is better.

The root of this problem is multifactorial. It begins at home with the breakdown of family life. Parents, rich and poor alike, are so busy with their own lives that they make little or no time to engender and share in the educational process. Schools are all too often more concerned with social engineering and indoctrination than with teaching foundational academics like math, language, history, and basic economics. Reading lists are purged of classic literature and replaced with selections from Oprah's Book Club in the name of diversity. We have developed a culture that is so focused on self-esteem that our children do not understand failure is a possibility. We hesitate to celebrate academic excellence because it might make the average student feel uncomfortable. Everyone gets a participation trophy because actual performance is irrelevant. After having four children graduate from a public high school my assessment is that if you are in an AP or honors classroom, there is a chance--not a guarantee-- you will be educated in the subject. If you are in a general education  classroom, it is more likely that the teacher will pencil-whip the grades and you will move on whether you learned anything or not. 

I do not know the complete answer to this dilemma. However, I do know that the problem does not stem from lack of funding. We have poured millions and maybe billions of tax dollars down the black hole of public education for decades and have nothing to show for it. National standards and oversight are not the answer. It is time to fire the Department of Education and give control of education back to local communities. They cannot do any worse.

The redefinition of marriage

My latest HLI article is up at Zenit.org:

The state has no compelling interest to recognize the mutual affection of adults. The state interest in the legal recognition of marriage has been the acknowledgement of the uniqueness of the union of one man and one woman. Children born of such a union must be protected and the connection to their parents must be preserved. While it is true that not every relationship between a man and a woman will involve children, the union of one man and one woman is the only kind of relationship that can produce children. It is biologically impossible for the union of two men or two women to procreate. While men may have deep feelings and even love for other men and women may have deep feelings and love for other women, their relationships will always be barren unless they go outside the relationship for children. That is one reason it is impossible to equate same-sex relationships with the relationship between one man and one woman.

Please read the whole article here.

Feeling the earth beneath my feet and between my fingers

Spring has been a long time coming here in Northern Virginia. Finally, finally it has arrived. Took a trip out to the Cherry Blossom festival on Monday. The blooms were not quite peaking but were still gorgeous.

I've also been enjoying getting a good dose of Vitamin D while playing in my garden. Not a lot of planting going on. Just weeding and weeding as I coax along my perennials. It is a good year for daffodils. In the pictures you might even see a tulip. I often don't get many pictures of tulips since the deer like to chomp the blossoms as if they were lollipops.

 These are annuals that I used for an indoor Easter arrangement. Now they are enjoying having their roots in the earth and the sun on their leaves and blossoms.

 This is my bulb garden around my mailbox. I am so happy the tulips survived.

 It has been a wonderful year for daffodils. There are a few hyacinths in the foreground

 The peonies are sprouting. It won't be too long now.

                              The bleeding hearts are getting ready to bloom as well.

The wisteria is budding. Soon the fragrance will fill the air.

Spring is always such a hopeful time. It feels like New Year's with a fresh start and a bright outlook. Time to take a deep breath, regroup, and renew.