With the increasing growth of government and economic pressures impacting each of us, you will often hear a discussion or call for PRIVATIZATION of a particular business or program. In fact, there seems to be a power play or tug of war or sorts as to whether the government should run more businesses and social programs or whether more businesses and programs should be privatized. History does show that private operation of a business or program is most often more successful and even less expensive to operate. You likely have heard of the incredible prices the government pays for basic parts and labor, the many examples of government waste, or even the continuing financial losses with the U.S. Postal Service (leading to increasing costs, as we just realized again). Basic government programs that nearly all of us contribute to through taxes and payroll deductions or even depend on for survival, such as Social Security and Medicaid, are also in jeopardy of financial collapse. Is the answer PRIVATIZATION or is this the problem?

Mother’s Day is a great time to reflect on the blessings of motherhood and even, as able, to express thanks and appreciation to your own mother. Regardless of your own family situation, without your mother, you would not even exist! Likely, you are even who you are today, largely due to the work and influence of your mother. I know this is true for me and I am grateful to my mother for her godly influence in my own life. Motherhood is a basic foundational reality that we each must fully consider and better learn to appreciate. When we blur the lines between masculine and feminine, as is often the case promoted on our University campuses, we fail to properly appreciate and understand the importance of motherhood. Teaching women to be more like men or men to be more like women is a false unification or equality and in essence attacks the very foundations of our societal structure. If not properly understood and supported, the effect of this is an imminent societal collapse. It is not nice to mess with MOTHER NATURE!

One sure thing you will hear more about surrounding any Tragedy is PRAYER. Why is this so? Why will people who even often refuse to acknowledge God in their daily living suddenly talk about or even turn to praying when times become more challenging? The answer is somewhat obvious, yet it reveals a deeper need and an important lesson we all need to be careful to learn. I am writing this important blog article today as I am praying and thinking about my own situation and the National emphasis on prayer this week.

A very important life lesson and one especially needing to be learned in the aftermath of tragedy is HOW TO FORGIVE. Given the emotion tied to tragedy it is not likely that you will forget, so you particularly must choose to forgive, that is, if you can grant forgiveness (please read through to understand this). If you do not at least allow for forgiveness, you will compound any difficulty or problem and tragedy will be looming. What about the injustice? What about what was done to negatively impact you? What about those who by action or even inaction have brought pain into your life?

EARTH…the terrestrial frontier…These are the voyages of…WAIT!...That is another program track or trek. ;-) Today is indeed a special day; it is EARTH DAY! This day is fast becoming one of the biggest celebrations around the world! In fact, many groups and even big businesses are making the entire month of April a time of celebration for the incredible planet we live on--EARTH. Disney is also releasing a movie under this “EARTH” title. Did you know that despite what some science fiction stories say (it is “science fiction”) there is NO OTHER PLACE LIKE EARTH IN THE UNIVERSE! Earth is uniquely situated in space and the perfect distance from the sun to allow for life to be sustained. So, on this 39th celebration of Earth Day, why would I be relating it to tragedy?

I had the privilege of spending several hours on the Virginia Tech campus today. Many in the entire Blacksburg, Virginia community and others who are a part of the Hokie Nation spent the day reflecting and remembering. On campus, the day began with a 3.2 mile run in honor of the 32 victims. A special memorial service took place at noon and the day ended with a candlelight vigil. Just as I did last year (c.f. My 04-16-08 Blog and the poem coming from that day [found above] ), I learned from my time on campus. If we are to truly prevail, we must indeed learn how to run, walk and talk…

Believe it or not :-) this blog article will address the foundational issue to everything! Does that sound like a stretch? In order to understand all I am writing about on this website and in order to look beyond your own limited sight and better understand the world we live in, you must come to understand belief. Please read on and try to follow my reasoning here. This article is indeed quite appropriate on this most significant historical day—Easter or Resurrection Sunday! . . .

Closely related to my last blog article on the tragedy of not listening, comes this article on the Tragedy of NOT Looking. If you happened to have watched the news over the past few days, you likely have seen footage of circumstances surrounding several additional shootings. You may have seen pictures of the 3 policemen killed in Pittsburgh, or heard about the 4 who were just shot and killed in northern Alabama or even the 5 children in Washington State who were killed before the father shot himself. Do you see a pattern here? Do you see what is happening in many homes across our country? Now, I do not intend to take this article and discuss what needs to change in our homes (Lesson #3 in my Top Ten [tabbed above] will discuss this further). I do want to focus my attention here on sight and the tragedy that comes when we fail to look and thus see as we should.

I am compelled to write again today in response to recent news events, some of which you have likely heard about by now. Last evening, there was a shooting just across from Radford University (leading to a campus lockdown) where one was shot to death and the gunman still at large. Today, we hear of this shooting in Binghamton, New York (near campuses there too), where it is initially being reported that at least 13 have been killed in a hostage like situation. Last week, there were 8 shot to death in a North Carolina nursing home massacre. You may wish to also reference my 03-11-09 blog article about several other shootings in early March. (http://www.vtlessonstolearn.com/node/85). What is going on in America? Certainly, crimes take place every day in various locations, but why so many shootings and often multiple deaths? Are we learning? Are we listening?

Today is a quite appropriate day to talk about foolishness. After all, it is April 1st, or what is commonly celebrated in many areas around the world as April Fool’s Day. Regardless of how the particulars of this day originated, it is a day in which you might wish to be a bit more skeptical of things that people say or do. Practical jokes are commonly excused or more tolerated today, which does make it more interesting. Humor does have its place and is a very important part of life (see also my 07-03-08 Blog: “Humor Me” and/or the 12-05-08 Blog: “Humor, Humanity, and Tragedy”). There is another point here, however, that I have alluded to often and it is The Tragedy of Foolishness.