The Sneakers Return

Hey,

This weekend was the 2nd Annual WCF Spring Sneak Retreat. For those of you that have no clue what that means, it is a retreat where a group of people, in this case the graduating students, plan a retreat and the participants don't know where they are going. On the way down the sneakers participated in a photo scavenger hunt of random stuff. Links to the pics will be coming soon. Anyway, since I'm gradauting I was in charge of planning and running the show. I think everything went well, the weather was beautiful, the food was great, and everyone seemed to have a great time camping at Laura S. Walker State Park in Waycross. Ok that's enough typing for now since I'm tired from driving and doing stuff so if I get inspired later I'll write some more. I'll leave you with this:

Going to Carolina in my mind?

Hey,

Got back from UNC yesterday after a long weekend up there for open house. It was kind of strange since I'm actually one of the youngest propspective students. Out of approximately 50 people there were only about 10 that are still in school or just graduated last spring. I haven't made up my mind where I'm going but I'm definitely leaning towards Carolina.




On other fronts, not much time left in the semester and too much work to do. Hopefully I get some motivation to make some major progress. We had our first Wallflowers vball game last night and we won! Well the other team didn't show up but it's still a victory, and hopefully it won't be our own. Opening night of Wallabies softball is tonight so we'll see how that goes this year, I definitely think it should be better than last springs seasons. We have much better team work and experience since most everyone is back this season.

"The disarmament of Iraq has begun" -- Ari Fleischer

I just turned off the TV at 1:02 am on Thursday morning after watching the beginnings of the military action in Iraq for several hours. As Katie put it in her blog we were too young to really understand the first Persian Gulf War. As a 5th grader I collected Gulf War cards, kind of like baseball cards, but with military apparati and leaders, as some of you know I have the George Bush and Saddam Hussein cards and as I write this I also remember that I have a Peace card with a dove and I think the UN logo in the background.

Where am I going with this? Twelve years later and now a senior in college, the gravity of the situation really starts to set in. A majority of the soldiers being interviewed on tv are several years younger than me but probably more mature than I'll be for many years to come. The experiences they have had and will have will most likely far surpass anything I'll ever do. As for my opinion on the war I'm still forming it. My mom asked me tonight and I said I don't have enough information and she said she knew that's what I'd say. I guess with my public policy training I've learned to be diplomatic and cautious in my statements, but I think it is also important to have an opinion. Forming opionion on controversial topics is a subject I've been striving to improve on the past year or so, hopefully this situation and the constitutional issues class with its challenging topics will help in this area. It's just difficult to form a concrete opinion about something when it doesn't directly affect oneself. However, it must be done. So...after much contemplation I think I've come to terms with the military action in Iraq. Sadaam is a bad person that should not be in power and it appears that force is the only way to reckon with him at this point. Does that make me a war monger? I don't think so. As Bonhofer professed, it's something you have to do when the result of inaction would be far worse than the sins of the action. I think we've come to the point where inaction would lead to terrible outcomes. Hopefully, and that's a big hopefully, the outcome of this war will be what the U.S. and the supporting coalition intends and it won't turn into another Vietnam. The people of Iraq and the Middle East seem to want free societies and as it did in the U.S. it might be costly but well worth it in the end.

Contemplating

As I have been pondering the seemingly emminent war individually and in Bible study I have realized that it is imperative that one should try to analyze situations from multiple angles. By avoiding ethnocentric views it is easier to attempt to understand the stances taken by others. Although this task is difficult and inperfect a disregard of its usefulness would be a travisty. By approaching political and other decisions from the other parties' perspective a tanglble understanding can be gleaned from their perspective. My thoughts on this stem from my PST 2068 class, even though it may sound like I liked it PST is not fun, anyway. According to John Rawls one should approach policy and decision making behind a veil of ignorance. Basically requiring decision makers to place themselves in a status-free world, one in which they do not know their state in life and with that knowledge they must make their decisions. This scenario, though ideal and unrealistic, remains useful in an everyday context of attempting to understand how leaders may be making or possibly should be making their decisions (though I believe it rarely happens as Rawls would have it). In conclusion, remember your perspective and then conduct a thought experiment, what would you be thinking if you were an Iraqi nomad or a soldier in the U.S. military.

Ok enough with the philosophical talk. Here's what's been happening on the Brian front.
1. Friday and Saturday were spent scouting out the WCF Spring Sneak location and having a great time. I'd post pictures but then it would give away the "sneakret".
2. Sunday: church and some homework
3. Monday: Tons of homework I didn't do on Sunday, class, glasses broke hopefully I'll be able to get replacement frames or new ones ASAP as in before I leave on Thursday for the UNC Planning Open House. I also found out today I didn't get into Harvard, oh well, it was too expensive anyway.

That's it for tonight, hopefully you didn't fall asleep and drool on yourself and your keyboard while reading this.

Stuff

Hey,

Well got back into the swing of things after a too short spring break. Found out I did get a GRA to Tech which is really nice to know. Also found out I don't have Environmental Policy next Thursday which is good because I was going to miss it since I'm going to UNC that day, on the downside I found out I have a Business Law test that day at 4:30 hopefully the prof. will let me take it early. Another bonus yesterday is that I don't have to present my Enviro. paper until April 10, Katie got the first presentation day March 27 that stinks for her but at least she'll get it out of the way. Not much else going on except procratination and planning for the Spring Sneak, we now have reservations wooha. Later.


Say Goodbye
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Sunday Sunday Sunday

It was a beautiful day. For a song about beautiful days download New Man (Beautiful Day) by Matthew Kahler.

Went to church yesterday and there was a grand total of 6 folks in Sunday school but that was good because it made for a great discussion. We talked about a quote by Karl Barth that goes something like Christians should live their live with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. We discussed this in the context of the potential war. Evne though there were only 6 people in class there were 6 different opinions about the situation which were cool to hear. To further aid the discussion Thomas brought up Dietrich Bonhoeffer's doctrine that one should act in response to a situation when non-action would lead to a worse outcome even though acting is a sin itself. Where I stand on the issue is still up in the air given the many possible motivations for a war presented by the president. I think if the human rights violations are occuring as many people say then we should help do something about it but when it gets to the cusp of action and non-action I don't know how to determine this. Hopefully our leaders will be able to make this determination through their beliefs and their political knowledge. Furthermore, we should definitely seek further alliance with the UN though we may have to go out on our own to rectify the situations in Iraq and North Korea.

In closing I'll leave you with one final thought that kind of blows my mind. Since I live near Dobbins Air Reserve Base there occassionally military jets fly over my apartment. This morning I was thinking that it sure is nice to know that the jets are not dropping bombs as they fly overhead, I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be somewhere they are actually dropping bombs.

Several Days

Well I haven't started this thing off well skipping several days but here I am.

Wednesday:
Went running, then home.Got 2 e-mails from Tech about grad school, I got accepted in both but the first said I wouldn't receive a school funded GRA but the second said I would. Just like Tech to add further confusion to the grad school decision process.

Thursday:
Errand, errands, errands then back to ATL.

Friday:
Went running and fishing. Also went to the Wisechild, Clay Cook, and Pete Schmidt Band concert at Oglethorpe University. Wisechild was great as usual and showed off their massive chops at their intstruments. Clay Cook was much better than the first time I saw him at Eddie's Attic. If you're wondering who Clay Cook is he was in the Lo-Fi Masters with John Mayer and wrote some of the songs that John Mayer now performs. Last night was the first time I'd seen the Pete Schmidt Band, even though I have mp3s from a couple of years ago, and it was great show. The are kind of like a combination of DMB and John Mayer, the drummer had some chops as well. I'd suggest checking out all of the above groups, especially Wisechild.

Comments:

Dad ( / www.turbodata.net ) (IP: 66.190.170.227)
Hey I like your Web site. You didn't tell me about your acceptance into Tech's Grad school!? Congratulations!
Now decisions, decisions!
2003/03/09 @ 17:12:51

Hello World!

Hey,

Out of a lack of something profound to say, I want to welcome you to my journal. Most days it will probably be boring as junk to read, but others I may get creative and think of something good to write. Anyway, since I'm about to graduate I figured I'd jot down my thoughts as May 3 approaches. So if you're bored check out The Oxville Gazette to see what's up in my world.