Does the Common Man Actually Have a Voice Now?

I have not been religious about following every update out of the Iranian elections since the vote took place, but over the last 48 hours I have been shocked by reports coming out of Iran. This has nothing to do with the fact that they are protesting or even what they are protesting. The shock value for me comes from how I am able to get up to the minute updates on the current situation. I will check out Google News, the AP, CNN, and FoxNews, all online, and think that I am getting the latest. Then I search #IranElection on twitter and realize that the major news networks are far behind what is going on over there.

The only thing I know about this whole situation is that Ahmadinejad has not exactly made friends with the US. I don't know enough about Ahmadinejad or Mousavi and their campaign to be President of Iran. I really haven't done enough homework into the conflicts to give an educated opinion. So, I will talk about one thing I have noticed in all this.

It is very common for us as Americans to cry out against the government for pushing our values on other countries. Iran is not a European country where the government and religious ideals are like ours. Free speech is not something that the people are used to even if it is a "right" to the people on paper. Iran tried to shut down blogs during this time of protest. Fortunately, for the Iranians, they forgot to shut down Twitter and Facebook.
The beauty in this situation is we are not pushing our ideals on them nor are they asking to be more like the US. The free speech and protests (our right of assembly) has been natural. The Iranians are doing it on their own. Again, I am not advocating forcing our way of life on other countries. But the argument of our ideals not being for everyone are falling by the wayside in the gutters of Tehran.

Check out these pictures from supporters and opposition to Ahmadinejad's victory. The pictures show bravery, community standing up for one another, and the ugliness of protesting.

An aside to this: A few days ago CNN got blasted on their website for not having anything about the Iran elections on the main page. Twitter members started including the tag #CNNfail in their tweets. Today, they have a special Iran Updates section right on their main page. In the years I have been to their website I have never seen them do anything like that. I'm not endorsing CNN here so don't go there just take my word for it.

Look at the power and voice of the common man. In one instance Twitter decided to postpone scheduled maintenance and in another it affected a major news organization's web site. Could this be the way the silent majority finally is heard?

Grace - Explained by someone smarter than me

I'd like to say that recently I have been struggling with the idea of grace. To be perfectly honest I can't say in the dozen or so years I have known Jesus that I have ever been comfortable with grace. I just flat out don't get it. I am sure there is some kind of psycho analysis that tells me why this is, but for the time being I cannot wrap my arms around it. As you can see over the last few sentences I am not good about explaining myself, so I am going to let a someone else explain what I feel.

Donald Miller has been one of my favorite authors since I first read his "Blue Like Jazz" book back in 2005. He seems to be able to capture Christianity in a way I see it but cannot explain it. So instead of fumbling around my thoughts on grace I am going to copy his words. When I read this excerpt this morning it jumped out at me and I read it a number of times to make sure it said exactly how I feel.

Rick is described in the book as Miller's pastor and one of his best friends. When Rick had just become a Christian at 19 years of age he was struggling with the idea of being given this new life and "yet couldn't obey Jesus in return." After telling God how sorry he was and how he wished he could be obedient Rick then tried to overdose on muscle relaxers. [to be clear I am not in any way saying that I am considering Rick's options to get away from my anguish of not being obedient to God]

This is Donald Miller's explanation, from "Blue Like Jazz", of how Rick saw grace:

"Rick tells me, looking back, that he was too proud to receive free grace from God. He didn't know how to live within a system where nobody owes anybody else anything. And the harder it was for Rick to pay God back, the more he wanted to hide. God was his loan shark, so to speak. Though he understood that God wanted nothing in return, his mind could not communicate this fact to his heart, so his life was something like torture."

Sorry to completely rip off someone else to explain my view of grace, but he says it so well. It is torture to know that someone can give me a gift and there is no way for me to pay it back. Miller struggled with grace as well until his heart was open to the idea at a grocery store of all places. When will my enlightenment come?

Miller goes on after the grocery store/grace enlightenment occurrence and says, "I love to give charity, but I don't want to be charity. This is why I have so much trouble with grace." There it is. I am given way more than I deserve already: family that care about me, friends that invite me to eat dinner or watch TV or go to their farm/lake house/skiing lodge for the weekend, a construction job in an economy where the industry has never been worse (and this is the short list). What I shouldn't need is God, on top of all the aforementioned blessings, to forgive me of my disobedience to Him.

But he does.

He did yesterday.

He does today,

And He will tomorrow. (ssshhhh...don't tell anyone, but it's true...I am going to commit some sort of sins sometime after today)

And I just don't get it.

I know that only a couple people read this, but I really would like to hear of other people's views on grace. Maybe by God's direction He will send someone to this post with insight. How did you realize to just accept it? Do you totally disagree with me? Maybe you don't believe in grace or Jesus for that matter. What are your thoughts?

Like I was saying...

Read my previous post on IRS problems (I know, it's my only other post) and then read a letter to the editor that was reprinted on Neal Boortz's wed site. I don't prescribe to everything posted on Boortz's site, but this is good.

Where are the checks and balances?

I realize that in the world of news by the nanosecond this is old news by now. For a couple weeks now I have been shaking my head about the three cabinet selections by President Obama that owe the federal government taxes from years before 2008. I have been waiting for the news giants to pound Obama on this, but it is just not happening. Why am I forced to pay taxes when no one forces our elected officials to do the same?

Tim Geithner is Obama's selection for treasury secretary. As you know the Treasury Secretary takes care of the financial aspects of our country. Geithner owed $34,000 in taxes. This means that at minimum he had $100,000 of income that he did not report on his taxes. Geithner is touted as the best man for the job. That's fine, but he has already proven he will cheat the government given a chance. What are the odds it happens again?

Tom Daschle owes $140,000 to the US government! That is maybe $450,000 of income that he did not disclose. In case you didn't know, Daschle is a senator in the United States Congress. To me this is a lack of respect, not only to our country, but to the people that elected him that pay their own income taxes.

Ron Kirk is the latest to come out. He ONLY owes $10,000. If you didn't pay your taxes the last couple years what would you be able to do with that money? It would make it a lot easier to get through this economy. I wish I had that option.

Why can we not get the media to take Obama to task on this? It shouldn't be a liberal bias, because ultimately these people are cheating the citizens of this country.