Making It Count

I am in awe of how quickly time escapes me and each year I feel pulled into a vortex where time only accelerates. It’s true: time is precious. In my humble opinion, it is one of the most precious and rare gifts we have from God because you can’t own it, manipulate it, make or buy more of it, so you have to wisely choose how it is spent as you can only do so much with the time you’re given.

That has left me pondering the age-old question: so what do you do with the time you have?

The key I’ve found (at least in my own life) is in focusing on the bigger picture instead of always looking internally. I discover more about myself (good and bad) when I look beyond my own life to recognize and care about the needs of others. Whenever I ponder purpose, it always ends up coming back to the same principle: leaving a legacy, something behind on this Earth bigger and better than myself. As a Christian, I’m not taking about money or businesses or even necessarily government as much as I mean sharing the love and word of God with others through serving and living a life of conviction and values. Much, much easier said than done. That being said, I’m not alone in that sentiment. Doing a bit of Googling, I found (on Nationalservice.gov) that more people volunteer through religious based organizations than through any other type of organization. Furthermore, youth volunteering is on the rise, particularly through educational and youth service organizations. These factors all contribute to the fact that volunteering is the highest it has been in the last 30 years.

Interesting Facts I Dug Up:
(Research data from NationalService.org)

• The number of college students who volunteer is up
  by approximately 20 percent from 2002 to 2005
  n The number of college students volunteering grew
  by 600,000 from 2.7 million in 2002 to 3.3 million in
  2005.
• The growth rate of college student volunteers
  (approximately 20%) is more than double the growth
  rate of all adult volunteers (9%).
  n In 2005, approximately 30.2 percent of college
  students volunteered, exceeding the volunteer rate
  for the general adult population of 28.8 percent.
  The growth in college volunteering has been generated
  primarily by youth who attended high school or
  were first-year college students during the terrorist
  attacks of 9/11
• The vast majority (84%) of current college student
  volunteers were of high-school age (14 to 18 years old)
  in 2001.
• Since September 2001, the overall percent of college
  students who volunteer has increased from 27.1 percent
  to 30.2 percent.
  
  I have been and still am generally concerned about the shortcomings I feel my generation possesses in terms of eroding values, however, what I am about to address is something I find extremely promising and encouraging about my generation across the board in America. I know this flies in the face of the whole Generation X aka “Generation Me,” “iGeneration,” or “Entitlement Generation” theory as I was reading about today, but I’ve noticed when you look into the heart of my generation you do find a lot of young adults who not only recognize the need for change, but desire a better, more peaceful world politically, environmentally and socially and who aren’t content with merely sending checks, but are willing to get their hands dirty when they believe in a cause.
  
  I can find laziness and discontent all over the place in youth when I look for it, but I have also found hope and promise in the most surprising places. I have seen my peers blossom by finding purpose in helping others, ditching high-powered careers for ones where they can impact more than the business world or the economy but give back in the areas of education, healthcare and non-profit. I have noticed and been inspired by individuals in my life who spent university breaks picking up after disasters like Hurricane Katrina or working at medical clinics in Uganda, friends teaching English overseas or taking a detour for a few months from a corporate career to help out orphaned kids in Ethiopia. I cannot tell you how many friends I have- well-educated, intelligent, capable individuals who have forgone high-paying corporate jobs to work for non-profits such as world relief organizations or Christian ministries where they make a pittance but make a difference, or friends who graduated from top-tier universities, with honors, only to become military officers or travel overseas to do missions or charity work afterward in order to give back. That is a VERY overlooked but poignant part of my generation.
  
  Those in my generation do dream a lot, A LOT, but I also see them dreaming of a better world and in so many ways, making that happen. Despite all our shortcomings, I would dare to say we are the most ambitious, well-traveled, technologically well-connected generation so far and have in many ways been the most highly exposed to the rest of world around us, possibilities, failings and all.
  
  As Jean Twenge, PhD., author of Generation Me explains about Generation X: “…they expect to go to college, to make lots of money, and perhaps even to be famous. Yet this generation enters a world in which college admissions are increasingly competitive, good jobs are hard to find and harder to keep, and basic necessities like housing and healthcare have skyrocketed in price. This is a time of soaring expectations and crushing realities.”
  
  Despite tragedies like 9/11 or the London bombings, an increasingly competitive job market and economic hardship propelled by high housing prices and health care costs, in addition to the idea we are contributing to a social security system which threatens to run dry before we retire, I still see a resilience, optimism and resonating hope in the youth of today. I think that says a lot not only about our generation, but the parenting of our generation.
  
  My greatest hope is that in setting the bar high for ourselves spiritually, morally, educationally, politically, professionally, physically and in every way, that my generation would be challenged to not only better the quality of our own lives, but the lives of others here in America and all over the globe.
  
  
  
  
  

Morality for Sale?

I was on the Stairmaster at the gym watching the most peculiar story being reported on the news. A 22 year old female student from San Diego is auctioning off her virginity in order to fundraise for college. That baffles me. I feel troubled by the moral backsliding of our generation and more than that, the public acceptance and in some cases approval of scenarios such as this.

It is common knowledge that prostitution is the oldest profession for women. Sexuality was one of the very few things women could own and prostitution was one of the very few opportunities women had to get money other than through marriage. Women’s futures were ruled by men whether through prostitution, being financially taken care of by a male relative or getting married. There was little choice or opportunity for the female gender. With time, however, women in America and all over the world have fought for equality and won the right to vote, the right to own property, individual rights and liberties and yet I feel, women such as this one take giant steps backward in terms of progress for all womankind.

Let me interject: I AM NOT A LIBERAL FEMINIST, however, I do believe all women should be born with all the unalienable rights rightly bestowed on every American citizen and citizens of free, democratic countries. I believe in this individual’s right to choose what she does with her body in this circumstance as much as believe in my freedom of speech to write about it. Prostitution is legal in the part of Nevada where she plans to consummate her business transaction, so I can’t fault her in breaking the law. I believe it is important that our constitution gives people the freedom to make their own decisions and I’m not questioning that, I’m questioning the decaying moral fabric of our society and our increasingly accepting attitude toward less than ethical or moral ideals.

I wonder when women in certain countries around the globe are forced into prostitution as a means of survival, why on Earth would a free, educated, beautiful and capable woman choose to sell herself? What possesses this kind of woman with so many options and freedoms to cherish financial security over self-respect? Furthermore, what does it say about our society when so many men are actually bidding on her? How many women enslaved in prostitution as a result of their culture, social standing, gender or circumstance, would love to be in her shoes and have other options than prostitution-to be capable of choosing another destiny!


I read a moving article by Sue Ryan of the London Telegraph about the members of the Bedia tribe in India, which has a long tradition of caste-based prostitution due to the overwhelming poverty of that region. According to the article:


“Girls born here become prostitutes in a rite of passage into "adulthood" as routine as marriage is to the rest of Indian society.” Women typically fetch about 100 ruppees (roughly equivalent to less than $4) for a session, however, virgins as young as 12 and 13 are valued at a much higher rate and married, middle-class businessman are willing to pay a premium for them.


Ryan reports, “For this, the man can have access to the girl for as long as he likes- several hours, days, or even weeks. When he tires of her, there is a celebration. Because it is considered unlucky for a girl to keep the money from her first time, it is spent instead on an extravagant party. Jewellery is bought for her and for her relatives, goats are slaughtered and alcohol runs freely. There is dancing, and offerings are made to the gods. Once a girl has lost her virginity she cannot marry. The choice has been made and the community celebrates it - this is her non-wedding night.”


According to Ryan, “The prevalence of caste-based prostitution in certain tribes in the region - the Bawaria, Nuts, Bedias, Kanjars and Sansis - came to light after a raid on a brothel in Delhi. Now an attempt is being made to break the cycle by which the girls of each generation enter the trade. Many of the women said they did not wish their daughters to follow them into the trade. Ritu and Manju each have a daughter, whose fathers were clients. "My daughter will get educated, and not enter this profession," said Ritu. "I have seen what it is like. I don't want it for her."

In America, we’re not legally forced into slavery or arranged marriages, women are no longer dependent on men for survival, we have forms of government assistance to aid the disadvantaged, so why I’m asking, why would a woman enslave herself, degrade herself in exchange for any amount of money? I find that women who sell themselves short of all their potential are shackled and haunted by hollow choices that echo in their lives longer than the moment the decision is made.

As this woman explains in an article by Tina Molly Lang, "we live in a capitalist society. Why shouldn't I be able to capitalize on my virginity?” Lang goes on to state, “Her most important priority is financial stability. Although her mother and fourth-grade teacher disapprove of this project, the owner of the bidding venue approves. ‘Why lose it to some guy in a Toyota when you can use it to pay for your education?’”

It’s a business transaction, her right, her body, call it what you’d like, make any excuse you’d like- it’s still prostitution. Why would a young woman living in a country full of opportunity and possessing a college degree, resort to an age-old tainted profession women are forced into because of a lack of opportunity? I would venture a guess that there would be more pride, sense of self-worth and accomplishment in working off her college debt over time than in selling herself as property online for a man’s pleasure. And the biggest question I must ask is: how far have we as women or even a society really come when free, “educated” women make decisions such as this?

America: Thinking Beyond the Here and Now

I was sitting in the guest lounge of a car dealership watching highlights of McCain and Palin’s speeches at the Republican Convention and had a giant reality check, not in terms of what I thought about the candidates, but the way the American public looks at politics. A middle-aged man with a thick, billowing accent from some Latin country insisted watching these hopefuls made him sick to his stomach and with a laugh said he couldn’t stomach anymore.

I am no stranger to the nausea invoked by the news barrage featuring never-ending political mud-slinging and false promises. I have traveled and lived abroad enough to have been harassed simply for being an American in a Bush presidency. I understand the habitual selfish ways and unnecessary drama surrounding American politics in general and the negative stigma surrounding the Republican party after eight years of the Bush administration in particular, but what I don’t understand is the attitude of some of the American people.

I come from a family of immigrants. All my grandparents came from other countries to the United States for two very simple but glorious ideals: freedom and opportunity. And that is what they have found here. They found a country free from religious persecution and tyranny. They found a home where any man or woman had the ability to accomplish his or her dreams if they were willing to work for it. The founding fathers of this great nation had such a clear vision that I know my family understood and valued because it meant a better life for them and their children. As I child I grew up listening to the love my grandparents and great-grandparents had for America because they were willing to leave everything but the clothes on their backs behind for the chance to pursue a better life, liberty and happiness.

The more I travel, the more I feel a childlike appreciation and awe for the simplicity and beauty of our constitution and the laws of my great country. I say great, not because it’s perfect or that no improvements need to be made, but because of anywhere in the world I know the laws of my nation enable me to have the many freedoms I enjoy and so many take for granted as American citizens. And I wonder as such a proud nation of immigrants, why so many transplant here from abroad for a better life, then complain about all America lacks and show more pride in their country of origin than their adoptive home. Furthermore, how many of these individuals actually do something to remedy the very issues they criticize about or to better their new home or community?

In my Generation Y, and more and more in Generation X and my parent’s baby boomer generation, I’m seeing a trend towards an egocentric sense of entitlement and an interest in the “now” over having the perspective or thoughtfulness of looking at the bigger picture of past, present AND future. As much as I think my grandparent’s generation is overly conservative, they are onto something.

Perhaps we can learn from all these generations and meet somewhere in the middle. I think the McCain/Palin ticket can bridge that gap between invaluable tradition and conservative legacy of old and the necessary progressive adaptation and advancement of our modern, changing world.

Studying history, we can learn from the failures and triumphs of the past and we can dream about the future in order to create a better country, but let us create a better nation not just for ourselves, but for future generations. With every advantage at our fingertips as part of one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on the planet, let us not be an island unto ourselves, let us continue to reach out and assist other countries in need, let us continue in our tradition of military strength, challenge ourselves in creating more advanced technology and pharmaceutical innovations, do our part in conserving the planet and very importantly to focus on the areas of our country which need improvement.

I may not agree with every single policy of McCain’s, but this is a man who gets it. He understands the meaning of democracy in its truest form: a government of the people, for the people. I believe him when he calls himself a public servant as a politician and not because I’m naïve or believe everything I see on TV, I think someone needs to earn trust and he has set a proven track record his entire military and political careers as someone committed to serving the greater good of America, even when it’s unpopular or at a great personal cost to himself. America needs more than change we can believe in, we need a candidate we can believe in and I believe that candidate is John McCain.

One opinion I do happen to share with Obama is that America is in desperate need of change, I just don’t agree with his solutions. My fellow Americans, especially my younger generation, let us look beyond ourselves and this present and dare to impact the world and our country for the better. Let us cease complaining about all that we lack or could improve on as a nation and let us unify as Americans to be the change we want to see in the world.