I’ve yet to understand why interracial dating/marriages/cohabitation are considered unethical and immoral to some people. Statistics show that as the years pass it’s becoming more widely accepted. 3/10 people say that it’s wrong to mix races. According to consensus in 2005 it’s estimated that seven percent of Americans were in interracial marriages.

Is it or is it not a sin? I’m not the most religious person so I can’t say for sure what the Bible says about it. However, I think the Bible is much like a poem, there are many ways to intemperate it. Miscegenation can cause problems because loved ones may not support the couple, society may frown upon it, and future children will be subject to teasing. Does this make it wrong? I don’t think so! I feel strongly about this subject. I’ve not married or dated out side of my race but that’s probably due to lack of opportunity. I grew up in a pretty much all white community so I’m amazed by my lack of racism.

Regardless of race we all have a heart, feelings, independent thinking, and a personality of our own. So why do some people act as though it’s equal as a human fornicating with an animal? I’m dumbfounded by the amount of disgust some people have over this topic. No matter what color skin we don we are make up of the same things on the inside. We all bleed red. It is true that you can’t help who you love and people are being punished for loving someone that others don’t find acceptable. I’m not sure what we can do to stop this except for education ourselves.

In my opinion I think stereotypes play a huge part in the negative connotations. Some people think black people are “ghetto” so that would make them an unacceptable suitor. I disagree. Because of what you hear about Detroit and New York city does not mean that these crimes and gangs are composed of a race other than whites. New York alone has estimated 2.8 million blacks and 12.5 million whites. Sounds like to me that the majority of violence there has to be from white folks. The majority of serial killers are white men from 20-30 years old. Sounds like to me that whites should be stereotyped as murders if blacks are thugs. Taking a look at some of the most famous serial killers just to prove my point. Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein, Fritz Harrmann, Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, H.H. Holmes, Jack the Ripper, Zodiac killer, Albert Fish, and even one named Michael Swango (yes, I’m some how related).

I just wish that some day all racism would cease and the world could be much happier. Why can’t we learn to accept people for who they are? If a white woman dating a black man is wrong then is a German and American just as wrong? What about a brunette and a blonde? However, when celebrities do it we tend to over look it a little more. Seal married Heidi Klum and Tiger Woods is married to model Elin Nordegren and both couples have children together. If you were blind you would see past the color, sometimes I think our ability becomes our disability. I love people from all ethnic back grounds. I love whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asian, etc. On the inside we are all one person.

Iraq

Not all people in Iraq are bad. We must remember that.

WE LIVE IN A BUBBLE

For those who believe in god and those who don’t I believe the faith that you do have is often tested. Sometimes the tests are simple and other times they are quite complex. I imagine an eight year old trying to solve quadratic equations. Sure it can be done but it will be nearly impossible. My family has recently been faced with one of those insanely hard tests. Due to everything that seems to go on in the world I’m starting to view life as a rubrics cube. Very few people actually solve it and the rest of us keep trying and a few simply give up.

A month ago one of the greatest, kindest, gentlest persons imaginable was in a car wreck on Turkey Knob. Seems like if you’re going to wreck in Powell County, that’s where it always happens. It was a freak accident. My uncle was driving and all of the sudden drove straight into the rock hill side. He was air lifted to U.K. Hospital. We all know that it’s got to be something serious if you were lucky enough to bypass Clark County Regional. My uncle was evaluated and many hours later he was finally released. No broken bones, just some contusions. While waiting in the parking lot for the car to arrive to shuttle the lucky man back home he suddenly without notice went into a seizure.

After being rushed back into the hospital and observed for many more hours a tumor was found on the brain scan. Apparently a seizure is what caused the wreck in the first place, which later turns out to be a blessing. A week later the tumor was removed and declared non-cancerous. We were all relieved. After further study the family found themselves in the heart of their greatest challenge. The tumor turns out to be one of the most aggressive tumors that a person can have. It’s complicated and it’s medical so I’m not going into detail but the outlook is grim. Average lifespan with someone of this kind of tumor is less than two years. More along the lines of 13 months with treatment. I have a strong family and we are all there for my uncle and his wife of 33 years.

I did not write this to depress anyone or to teach you about faith. There is a moral to my story. Don’t take your time with your friends and family for granted. A perfectly healthy person on the outside can be quickly or slowly dying on the inside without a hint of existence. I never knew how much my uncle meant to me until this happened. I wish that at the family gatherings I spent more time getting to know him, I wish that I would have told him how much he matters to me more. Luckily I still have time to do these things, it’s just a shame that it takes a terrible tragedy for me to wake up to reality.

We all wake up and go to bed in a bubble of our own image of life. We don’t realize how much people mean to us and what can happy any minute. Right now as I write this someone is being diagnosed with AIDs, a child is being abused, a best friend dies in a car crash, and a spouse finds out that their life is a time bomb ticking away.

Please, go tell everyone that you know that you love them. Let them know how much you care for them. Don’t let a tragic event force you to show them how much they matter. Don’t wait until it’s to late.

Deployment Sucks!

I think that it's really hard for people to understand what a spouse of a deployed soldier goes through; the trials, tribulations, and temptations. It’s not nearly as easy as you could imagine. It all begins from the day you find out that your spouse will be going over seas to do the dirty work of our “great” and I say that sarcastically, president George Bush. You go through a great sadness and start thinking of all the bad things that could happen to your spouse. What’s he going to be like when he comes home? How will he be changed? Will our marriage suffer from spending a year apart? What will if my spouse comes back wheel-chair bound, what if he doesn’t come back at all? That’s not even half of the scenarios that goes through your head but pretty much the basic ones that we all tend to think about.


Once you’re over the shock of the expected deployment you then begin to condition yourself to prepare for deployment. Decide if you’re going to move back to your home town, how the bills are going to be taken care of, think of any major decisions that might have to be made. You have to make sure the will is taken care of and power of attorney is in order. Oh my gosh, you wouldn’t believe what hard work that is sitting in the JAG office forever then discussing with the paralegal what will happen if your spouse doesn’t come back.


Deployment day arrives, you try to hold back the tears and put on your strongest face. The last thing you want to do is make deployment any harder for your soldier and children. It feel as though you could hug your arms around his neck forever. One last kiss just isn’t enough. You try to make the best of your last bit of time with him worth while all while he’s scrambling around trying to make sure he has his duffel bags, assault pack, and ruck sack all ready to go. Then without any notice your spouse is called to formation and you must leave at once. You get one last kiss, hug, and good bye and that’s it your on your way home alone. That’s when the reality of what’s happening hits you. It’s the start of a new life for the next year.


So now you’re not only the mommy who’s responsible for cooking and cleaning but you have to fill the void in your child’s life from your missing spouse. You play catch, give piggy back rides, discipline your child without any support, and make sure they know that mommy and daddy loves them. If that’s not hard enough you take your shower and go to your room. You look at the bed where your lover once laid and the bed is still made up on his side. You crawl into the cool sheets and miss the warm body you’re use to snuggling up to and the tender lips you’re so use to kissing good night.


During this time you must find time to email your soldier, send packages and letters, and make sure the phone is never out of ear shot. The worst thing is thinking that you could miss a call from your spouse. At first you freak out every time you hear about a soldier getting killed in Iraq but you quickly learn that it’s a reality and you must go on as though it never happened and just know inside your heart that your spouse is fine. You jump at every knock on the door praying to a higher power that it’s not a soldier in a class A uniform (that’s how they inform you of a death). When it gets dark at night and you are frightened you have to remember that you’re also the daddy and be brave even if that means putting your children in bed with you and huddling close.


So this is what I go through on a normal day. I’ll find anything to do to make the time pass by faster. I’ll push mow the lawn when it would be easier to use the riding mower, I walk the dogs when they already have a huge lawn to play in, and I talk to my friends and remember the good times I’ve had with my spouse and dream of the times to come.


Being a military wife is hard but I couldn’t imagine what my hero goes through each day being a soldier in the army. For that I look up to him, I trust him with my life, and would give the world for him. He’s my spouse, he’s my soldier, he’s my hero!

...there's no place like home...there's no place like home...

Okay, so I guess since I've not posted on here in about a year, or so it seems, I'll be writing this to myself. Beats talking to myself.

I'm really excited to be breaking free of my mother's wing once again and moving out on my own. The origional plan was that during deployment I would move in with my parents so they could help take care of Reilly and I could take some really hard classes. Well, I have a 4.0 right now for this semester if that says anything (I didn't take the really hard classes) so I'm off to Kansas to wait for my husband to return to me in either September or December. Whenever Bush decides to stop being a dick and let my husband come home.

I'm just 8 days away from having to order new checks, change my address, and live on my own. Yippy!