.:<3_Joe_<3:.’s Neighborhood

From childhood 'til now... What's the best Christmas present you've ever received?

Hands down my iPOD. No question about it.

The title of this post basically sums up my mood and attitude towards school right now. High school is...I don't know.The best word I can thing of is ugh.I'm just so over it.There's nothing new or exciting; even the daily routine from last year is better than what I'm dealing with right now. Now I totally see why people will say high school can either be the best 4 years of your life or the worst.As of right now I'm definitely leaning towards the latter one.I've been in school for like 2 or 3 months, but it feels like it's been an entire year.I'm not even half way to the summer. It doesn't help either that I'm not firends with certain people anymore. It just worries me to think I'm stuck there for 4 more years, and if I stay in this rut I'm going to be miserable.Then there's the possiblity that I feel like this because I'm a freshman and everyone knows freshman year sucks. Plus things in my social life aren't going as planned either so that doesn't make me any happier. Now let's leave the pessimism and look at the brighter side.One of the peoples I've met this year, Madison, is totally cool.She's really funny and she livens class up.But she always finds a way to distract and I'm finishing my work in a hurry.Well this felt good letting everything out. I'm glad that it's almost Turkey Day.Hopefully it'll be cold.I'm tired of this heat.Were in the fall now not the summer.Well I have to go finish homework.

This is really interesting and illuminating.  We take God out of everything and then we wonder why many people in our country act so GODLESS?  

OUR REAL ROOTS:              

Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of The Declaration of Independence were orthodox, deeply committed Christians? The other three all believed in the Bible as the divine truth, the God of scripture, and His personal intervention.

It is the same congress that formed the American Bible Society. Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of scripture for the people of this nation.

Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still remembered for his words, "Give me liberty or give me death." But in current textbooks the context of these words is deleted. Here is what he said:  An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle sir, is not of the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."

These sentences have been erased from our textbooks.

Was Patrick Henry a Christian? The following year, 1776, he wrote this "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."

Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote on the front of his well-worn bible: "I am a Christian, that is to say a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator and, I hope, to the pure doctrine of Jesus also."

Consider these words from George Washington, the Father of our Nation, in his farewell speech on September 19, 1796:

"It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are the indispensable supporters. Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that our national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

Was George Washington a Christian? Consider these words from his personal prayer book: "Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the lamb and purge my heart by the Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of thy son, Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of thy son, Jesus Christ."

Consider these words by John Adams, our second president, who also served as chairman of the American Bible Society.

In an address to military leaders he said, "We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

How about our first Court Justice, John Jay?  

He stated that when we select our national leaders, if we are to preserve our Nation, we must select Christians. " Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."  

John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, was the sixth U.S. President.

He was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role. On July 4, 1821, President Adams said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President of the United States reaffirmed this truth when he wrote, "The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country."

In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."

William Holmes McGuffey is the author of the McGuffey Reader, which was used for over 100 years in our public schools with over 125 million copies sold until it was stopped in 1963. President Lincoln called him the "Schoolmaster of the Nation."

Listen to these words of Mr. McGuffey: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our notions on character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions. From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible I make no apology."                              

Of the first 108 universities founded in America , 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first.

Harvard University, chartered in 1636. In the original Harvard Student Handbook rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the scriptures:  

"Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him

(Proverbs 2:3)."

For over 100 years, more than 50% of all Harvard graduates were pastors!

It is clear from history that the Bible and the Christian faith, were foundational in our educational and judicial system. However in 1947, there was a radical change of direction in the Supreme Court. 

Here is the prayer that was banished:  

"Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee. We beg Thy blessings upon us and our parents and our teachers and our country. Amen."  

  In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled that Bible reading was outlawed as unconstitutional in the public school system. The court offered this justification: "If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could and have been psychologically harmful to children."  

Bible reading was now unconstitutional , though the Bible was quoted 94 percent of the time by those who wrote our constitution and shaped our Nation and its system of education and justice and government.  

In 1965, the Courts denied as unconstitutional the rights of a student in the public school cafeteria to bow his head and pray audibly for his food.  

In 1980, Stone vs. Graham outlawed the Ten Commandments in our public schools.

The Supreme Court said this: "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments were to have any effect at all, it would be to induce school children to read them. And if they read them, meditated upon them, and perhaps venerated and observed them, this is not a permissible objective."

Is it not a permissible objective to allow our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments?  

James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it.

We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."  

Today we are asking God to bless America....But how can He bless a Nation that has departed so far from Him?

Most of what you read in this article has been erased from our textbooks. Revisionists have rewritten history to remove the truth about our country's Christian roots. I, Mary Jones, the designer of this web page, encourage all who read and agree with the words herein, to share it with others, so that the truth of our nation's history may be told.

I got this in an email and I love it! I hoped you loved it too.

I got this in an email from one of my friends. Check it out it's very cool.
 

Only great minds can read this
This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it

Well lets see we've been in school for almost a month now, but it feels like so much more. My classes have been going good so far. I've get A's in english, biology, p.e., spanish. A B in history and lets not even discuss my math grade right now. My favorite class this year is definitely spanish because it's mellow and low-key. Plus having Janice in there doesn't hurt. After awhile I actually begin to miss her sassiness. Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Vega, but english is the class I dread going to. It's not because I don't like english, trust me it's my favorite subject still, but my teacher I do not like her at all. She has absoultely no problem embarrasing you in front of the whole class, it's like she prides herself on it. Also she's kind of a smart mouth adn sometimes she just comes across rude. She uses sarcasm like all the time. I really have no problem with it as along as you don't do it everytime you talk. I guess that's the danger teacher's talk about all the time when it comes to sarcasm.

The work load hasn't been too bad. But as of right now I'm really behind History. I have a lot to do this weekend concerning history. Tomorrow night will be fun since it's Janice's birthday we're going to freshman fun night before teh game, adn well saty fro the game. So it'll be fun celebrating for her. It's time to do homework. I guess I'l write sometime soon, hopefully.

If you could choose your own name, what would it be?

Hmm. I have a second cousin (I think I don't get the whole second, third, fourth, etc. cousin thing) that I love her name. I always have and I always will. It's Melinda. I love that name. I decided a long time ago that since my name wasn't Melinda I'm going to name my daughter that (if I have a girl). I love my name too, so I think I might just keep it. Yeah. Except the only problem is that there are two Abbies at my church. The other is a little baby girl and whenever someone says Abbie I'm like what? The only difference, other than age, is her name is spelled Abbie, and mine is Abby. Her name is actually Abigail you see and mine isn't, it's just Abby. Yeah I'm done now.

I'm there right now. I seriously have zero energy anymore. High school is fun, crazy, hilarious, but dead tiring especially if you are involved in sports. The first week was ok because it didn't require any thinking, but so boring I nearly fell asleep in history, which as of now is my favorite subject. Last week though, which was my second week, was brutal. I'm doing cross country which is the ultimate sport. It does a number on your body, not to mention you. We started "learning" this past week, and by learning I mean going over old news. History was review, but interesting review. Geometry was review, but yet again fun review. English. Just typing the word makes me hate it even more. (Sorry Mr. Vega.) We reviewed, and reviewed, and reviewed. It was so boring I nearly fell asleep two seconds into it. Normally I would be fine with reviewing, but my teacher would repeat stuff over and over again. He would also bird walk, but it wasn't interesting bird walks. I hate English so much this year because of his teaching technique. All my other classes were good though, at least kind of. Anyways I received homework from almost all my classes, and it wasn't 5 minute stuff, it was 30 minutes each piece. The worst part is that I have cross country practice right after school for an hour and a half. We usually do either terrible speed work or terrible long distance work, and by long distance I mean 6 or 5 miles. As soon as I get home I get to hit the books, and stay there until dinner or I'm done. By the time 8 o'clock comes round I'm ready for bed. Seriously. I'm sure if I was given one wish I would wish for 12 hours of restless sleep each and every night. That would be heaven. Of course I would miss some of my classes but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Lol. The worst part about cross country though is that I keep getting hurt. I've already had runner's knee, shin splints once, and am working on getting over shin splints again. I gotta say though I wouldn't stop running for all the money in the world. Wait... Yeah not at all because then I would have to deal with all the crap that comes with wealth. Well I've gotta go take care of those shins, so peace!

Well I've survived my first week of high school. Everything pretty much went fine; there really wasn't anything extraordinary about it, it really just was school. All I know for sure is that the first day was one big culture shock especially during passing period your walking in this big mess of 4000 plus people. It was just crazy, every time you would see new people.

I remember that towards the end of the school year everyone was just ready to leave UJHS, and go to UHS where that freedom we wanted so much would be there waiting for us. But now a lot of us kinda want to go back to UJHS where we knew what was going on, and that we hadn't have this pressure on us that the next 4 years will either make, or completely ruin our lives. A lot of us don't find this feeling of uncertainty and change comforting. Also so many of us miss not seeing the same people in our classes; almost everyone misses seeing Kelsey's(Blondie) bright yellow head in our classes. Turns out on the first day of school I found out that Josh was going to be in my science and p.e class, but he hadn't shown up, so I did some research of my own, and it just so happens that he went to a catholic school in La Verne. Yes, Josh was annoying at times, but he was the class clown in science, so I was hoping to have that fun again, but now everything is so much more serious. I don't really blame the teachers because this is a crucial period.

But all those thoughts aside my first week went good. I like all my teachers, and my history teacher does a really good job of keeping us going at the end of day when it's really hard to focus, and all that's on our mind is home. My favorite class so far is spanish because it's so mellow and easygoing; also because Janice is in there, and well any class with Janice is fun. I still haven't seen Blondie, I'll probably make it my goal to find her and say hi. Another plus is that every Wednesday is minimum day, so yay. I'm in a for a hell of a ride this year.

You never know how blind you are until you get glasses. Not too long ago I had to get my sports physical so that I could participate in school sports. I passed, but I also found out that I'm legally blind in my left eye. I knew my eyesight was getting worse this past school year, and I'm sure some of my teachers did too, and I told my mom. She said she would get me an appointment in a bit because I was working on getting my braces on and it costs a lot. When the eye exam came around I couldn't read any of the lines. Not even the big E. Everyone knows that each eye chart has a big E on top so I knew what it was, but I still couldn't read it. The school sent a paper to my mom telling her I need to get my eyes checked. It was spring by this time and we were busy so she said she would make me an appointment after school finished. I'm not a big complainer about things that have to do with me like I won't complain about pain in say my shins until I absolutely can't run. Yes I have had shin splints. Anyways I didn't complain about not seeing because I would just move up in class. I only needed to move up in 3 of my classes so I was fine. I didn't have to move up in English because for a good portion of the year my teacher had me up front in like the first desk (the one where he put all his junk on very, inconsiderately I might add). Lol. I couldn't help it Mr. Vega. Too easy, too easy. Where was I oh right. Well my mom totally forgot about getting me an eye appointment so I had to wait even longer. At my sports physical my mom finally saw how blind I was and got me an appointment (finally!). Oh my eyesight is now 50-200. Well I got my glasses last Friday and man do I love them. I can see so much better now I can't believe I survived before without them. I can't use them up close because I'm nearsighted and it takes my eyes a few seconds or so to focus.

I kind of wish my family didn't go on vacation for this past week. The reason why is because I was completely cut off from my computer. It's not what you think either, I'm not one of those people who sit in front of their computers every second of every day. It's just that I would've been able to do this post before I left on vacation. Well my family left last Saturday which was the day right after the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. Yeah I stayed up all night watching the opening ceremonies. Well not entirely I stayed up till the U.S. Olympians marched in, then I went to bed. I hated the march of the nations because it took so long, otherwise it was pretty cool. I loved the beginning it was awesome! I loved every second of it. I didn't miss a second of it. It so cool to see how they did everything with people and not machines. It was also very cool that they chose ordinary kids to be apart of the ceremony. I've never seen anything more amazing. But you know what was even more amazing than the performances? The fact that all of these different nations could get together to compete in games without fighting. I thought that was pretty cool too. It's hard not to love how the Olympics bring people together.