Eclipse of the Heart

On April 8, 2024, we had a solar eclipse.

It was weird because it was the first time I had been in a solar eclipse and in totality.

Totality is when the moon almost blocks out the sun and it gets nighttime dark where you are.

It was fun, interesting, bizarre, emotional, and I got to share it with my kids.

It felt weird because it made me get emotional, I mean, it's a scientific fact that eclipses will happen and have happened, they're not that big of a deal, but...

It made me feel small (in a good way) and I wondered what people a thousand years ago must have felt without the knowledge we have today.

But it has happened, it did happen, and will happen again in the future and it's not some cosmic special event, but it is something that showed the perfection and fine tuning of our world, of our universe, of our lives.

It was beautiful and humbling and if I am old enough again in 20 years, I am going to try and make it to totality again.

 

(above is 3:14 PM in the afternoon, just south of Brownstown Indiana)

Becoming Grandpa Hunter

I have become Gilbert Hunter, my grandfather. 

Grandpa Hunter worked through The Great Depression, survived World War II in Okinawa, then came home and in his final years, he did not recognize the country he grew up in.

Me, too Grandpa...me, too.

I see a country that has been held accountable for its past actions, and that is a good thing, but at some point we went past what was necessary and have become...blinded...or ignorant...or both.

It is funny.

Growing up, I always loved history and saw that there wasn't really anything going on that I remember reading about in the "old days" (I know now that not to be true).

I just never thought that I would live through all of that "old days" history in just a few short years.

From a pandemic (flu vs covid) to civil rights (60's vs. BLM) to blind following of a leader or belief system (Hitler vs. Trump and Hamas). 

I often wondered how such smart people could fall for such nonsense.

But I am seeing it in real time.

Maybe it's me and not everyone else, but...

I wonder what has happened to the country that I grew up in.

Now allow me to yell at these kids on my lawn...

Are We Going Mad or is it Just Me? Probably Just Me.

From my vantage point.

Choosing Jesus is possibly a bad thing, but justifying actual theocracies is ok.

The United States is bad, but countries that deal without 2% of what the USA does is great.

Walls are ok when it has to do with any other country, but not with the USA.

Anti-Israel Jews are heroes, but conservative African Americans are sell outs and black Americans are only allowed to think a certain way.

You can't define a woman, yet we have people in positions of power fighting for women's rights.

The police in the USA are evil, yet you will defend the "moral" police in other countries as part of their culture.

People here fight to keep the freedom we have and that's bad, but you celebrate that women can drive in a foreign country...I mean it is 2024.

Women's sports are good, yet you support it being infiltrated by non-biological women.

I was a pretty hardcore conservative in high school.

Then in my 20's I found some empathy in me and swung to the opposite end to the Left.

Then as I grew in my experiences and then my faith I straddled the middle of the political spectrum.

But what has happened in the last 8 years in something that my most ardent Liberal friends feel like they're being pulled to the middle and that is because the Left is moving even more to the Left.

So Bill Maher, Alan Dershowitz and other traditional Liberals are looking around and agreeing with many "conservatives" on many issues because as the Left moves further left, the center is moving towards them.

I hope for the sake of everyone that we look in the mirror and see what we're doing.

Because it makes little to no sense.

But maybe, just maybe it's because I am aging and..."hey kids! Get off my lawn!"

Teacher's Kids

Teaching is about relationships.

It probably always has been, but kids today need that relationship.

Teaching is getting the information across to the students.

It's not about lesson plans.

It's not about standards.

It's not about having the right signs up in your classroom.

It's not about using technology.

It's not about being deemed an effective teacher by someone who rarely comes into your class.

It's not about checking boxes.

It is about connecting with the students and hoping to inspire them to learn.

How do you measure that?

I don't know how you can officially do it with metrics and measurable data because a good teacher doesn't always have the best test scores.

All teachers can manipulate data to show that they have taught info by test scores, but that's not teaching either.

Teaching is about having kids in your classroom at the beginning of a school year, they learn, get smarter, but want to continue learning after they leave your class.

Want to see a good teacher?

Look at teacher's kids...how well do they do?

From my experiences, I can tell you it's not because of anything that happens in a building from 8 AM to 3 PM, but what happens in a building from 3 PM until the next day...in their homes.

The Outrageousness of Comparison

The Nazis and Adolph Hitler were able to come to power due to the ending of World War I.

What happened there directly led to Hitler taking power.

Let's look at some of the things that happened.

Germany, which did not start WWI but got involved due to the entangled treaty system, had to accept full responsibility for the war.

Germany had to give up land and economic areas to keep them weak both militarily and economically. 

They lost the Rhine land which was a huge loss economically.

Germans were living in Czechoslovakia and Austria.

Hitler and the Nazis took power with the argument to make Germany strong again.

Once these elected people took more power, they took back the Rhine land.

Once this elected and supported group took back that area, they invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia to unite the Germany people.

Under today's ideals, the Nazis were fighting back against colonialism and fighting to unite its people in a homeland that they had deserved and lived in for years.

From there, Hitler and the Nazis invaded Germany and spread out...they were not stopped, but appeased and their violence not only against all of Europe, but the Jews specifically could have possibly been stopped.

After WWII, Israel formed and the Jews said "never again!"

This is very similar to what Hamas has done in Palestine, except now, there is no appeasement.

War is terrible, but the blame must be put on who creates the violence.

It's not the country that has over and over given up land for peace with Jordan, Syria, Egypt and even Palestine.

That country has had to do extreme things to protect itself because every time it tries for peace, more violence is done against them.

The group that Israel is fighting today, if not stopped, wants the total annihilation of Israel.

You're either ok with that or you are not.

I am not.

And I hate that Hamas brought this upon the people in that region.

Good Guys?

It is unpopular to state anymore, but there are good guys in this world and there are bad guys.

And the good guys are not the perfect guys, but they're still the good guys.

Have you ever noticed that the people who want a democracy (50% + 1) are those that are in the majority?

Oh, yea...just watch when they're not in the majority and how much they call certain issues "unfair", "discriminatory" and any other bad name you can come up with.

Yea, a democracy is nice if you're in the majority, but thank God we live in a Constitutional Republic where the majority can control issues, but the minority has rights and can be heard and can, through elections in states, etc gain an advantage.

It does not happen in any other country that is not the USA, Western Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and maybe a few South American countries.

Those places are majority rule and it is done by force.

That does not exist here.

If you think it does, you should visit some place outside of your bubble and better  yet, go live there for awhile.

It's probably actually cheaper to do so.

Then come back.

And.

Kiss the ground that you live on where freedom actually means something.