Bold? Yes! Disagree? Good!

This is me. These are my thoughts. Just wanted to preface that. Disagree if you want, I don't really care. I thought I'd try this blogging thing out for a little while. Mostly to get my thoughts out there through this vehicle so that I didn't have to verbally complain in front of people. I guess the format I will follow will be a highlighted topic followed by my thoughts about each. By the way, this idea was inspired by my boy 1maddskillz simply because I see this guy blog all the time about sports, while throwing in life situations in the mix every now and then.

Lakers
After witnessing that loss by 20 points to the Bobcats I am a little worried for Laker fans. I mean granted there is only 1 other team that has the Lakers' number, they have no business beating a team that has been slated to win another championship before Phil Jackson retires. In 13 games, the Bobcats of Charlotte have beaten the premiere Los Angeles team a total of 8 times, and 8 out of the last 10 times. Boston is the only other team that has beaten the Lakers more times than the Lakers have beaten them. They will do enough to make the playoffs in my opinion, obviously, but I'm thinking they will get a number 3 or 4 seed. This means they will end up playing a more-than-decent team early, and have to work uphill from there. They have all the talent necessary to win the championship again, and folks are high-spirited in saying "they will turn it on in the playoffs," but I feel like they are blindly hoping for something to keep them sane with all the madness occurring.

Los Angeles
I speak of the madness because this city is not what it was cracked up to be when I was growing up. The few times I visited I was in the good parts of the city. But now that I have lived here for 2 years I can without hesitation say that I am done. Where are all the black people? Skid row! Everybody knows this, but every time I bring it up I get the "Oh yea, huh," response. Describe Downtown LA in 5 words or less...filth, vomit and urine. But that's where you can see everybody during the work week I guess. This is supposed to be one of the most diverse cities in the country. It is, however the set up of the city is more like a zoo exhibit. If you want to see the Koreans, you go to Koreatown. If you want to see the Armenians you go to Little Armenia. The lack of integration is something I never knew existed because I grew up in a city, and went to schools where diversity was integrated (except for college where there were nothing but white people). If you're only exposed to rap music, how are you going to know anything else if nobody tells you or you seek it out yourself? Just like the people who grow up and only know violence because that was all they were exposed to.

Violence
I'm not going to talk about the obvious violence that our world is faced with, because enough people (who are not succeeding in ending it) are talking about it. Instead I want to go along the road less traveled. Just came off a excellent retreat (well half for me) with our high school students about violence. I wonder how many people out there are realizing the things going on in society but actually have conversations about them. The cases of violence keep increasing these days. Either we are lacking in anger management with our youth, or (I'm going to be bold) the technology that exists invites more violence. Almost everybody has Facebook these days--almost everybody has access to each other's identities. We now have a method of fostering a hostile environment in the most friendly of places. Disrespect is so easy now because we can hide in front of a screen. Whether it's with texting (when we can decide when WE want to respond), or Facebook, we rely too heavily on electronic devices to communicate. This is now another reason why we are forgetting how to be "human." When people lose words, or are backed into a corner (when they feel threatened), they feel their only option is to resort to violence.

I typed all of this waiting for my lunch for the week to finish cooking and I'm slighly tipsy from the beers I had earlier. But man it felt good to get that all out. I have a lot on my mind, and I'm glad I now have this to express my thoughts

If you don't understand me that's good! But it also might mean that you're thinking too hard. If you do understand me that's even better!! My life is Easily Difficult.