Archive for the 'Fighting the Culture War' Category

Education and Belief in God Can Coexist by Ralph VanOrden

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

The importance of education needs new emphasis. Below is a link to a newspaper article about the impact of education. My Masters Degree in Educational Leadership was mentored by two very bright PhD’s from back on the East Coast, David Hagstrom and David Smith. Both were trained at IVY League Schools. They introduced me to [...]

EMBARRASSED TO BE HUMAN: Houston, San Antonio, and “THE OFFICE” by Jean Snow VanOrden

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Instead of heading to a tropical paradise or a desert golf resort for our escape-from-winter this January, we decided to go to Houston, Texas to visit our grandchildren. As luck would have it, we also brought a significant cold snap with us from Alaska. Temperatures plummeted to around freezing in the Houston area for much [...]

OBAMA’S WORLD: one nation under a secular paternal entity by Jean Snow VanOrden

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

In the late 90’s we lived for two years in the small village of Dryden N.Y.   Upstate New York was a great new school for our western sensibilities.  Unlike our ignorant vision of New York as a densely populated city of skyscrapers and concrete canyons,  upstate is a green velvet panorama of picturesque villages, orchards, [...]

REMEMBERING: our memories as scripture

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

I spent much of Memorial Day weekend remembering. I didn’t go to any cemeteries or monuments to our fallen heroes. I took a tour of my closet full of photos, family histories, old letters, and crumbling albums.  I dredged up piles of neglected family debris and started making sense of it.
I found faded letters from [...]

Basic number two: desire to believe by Jean Snow VanOrden

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Where to start?  Which came first the chicken or the egg, the acorn or the oak? The choice or the consequence?   A particle or a wave?
Basic number two: When faced with doubt choose belief.
Don’t get into all the what ifs and whys. Don’t make it into a federal case. Don’t write a doctoral dissertation on [...]

A BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR.DARWIN by Jean Snow VanOrden

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

An interesting quirk of history came together on February 12th of this year:  the 200th anniversary of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.  I was delightfully entertained by Lincoln in February and procrastinated addressing the worthy Mr. Charles Darwin.
Several years ago, while visiting The Museum of Natural History in New York City, I [...]

CHANGE IS PAINFUL: not to mention unlikely by Jean Snow VanOrden

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

“Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.“  Abraham Lincoln
My life experience and my brief study of psychology tells me that people will often stick with the pain they know rather than face the pain that real change requires.  We get comfortable with our problems and no matter how much we whine about our troubles [...]

WAITING UPON REDOUBT: hoping to be cozy at home by Jean Snow VanOrden

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Mt. Redoubt is rumbling and spouting and threatening to blow. We’ve spent the last week watching updates and praying that whatever comes from Redoubt comes while we’re at home or very close to home. The stores have been emptied of painting masks and I’m sure car airfilters are running low as well.  We don’t want [...]

THE HISTORIC AND THE HYSTERICAL: a fresh start for the nation and this humble blog by Jean Snow VanOrden

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

No, I’m not going to throw the ten billionth bouquet upon President Barak Obama’s heap. The poor man is literally smothering in them. His inauguration was a great day for America.  He will do some great things for the country.  By his election to the presidency he already has. His admirers will likely experience some [...]

BLACKLISTED: how do I feel about that by Jean Snow VanOrden

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Since the victory of Prop 8 in California, and the resulting analysis of the election statistics showing who was responsible  (which a rational analysis will show was not the small percentage of voters who are Mormons), I’ve seriously contemplated my status as a member of a “hateful” organization and group of people who bear the [...]