Words versus Facts

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Themis, Greek goddess of proper order, by kiki1196

A few weeks ago an individual e-mailed me, excited to share new survey results regarding what people say they would do if faced with $100K in debts. The survey suggested people were inclined to be self-reliant, with women more likely than men to shoulder the burden responsibly. I looked at the link my correspondent had shared, as well as M* post that had inspired them to seek me out. But there was a problem.

Only 4% admitting they would tap parental help. But census results suggest ~23% of individuals aged 24-36 live with their mother, nearly double the percentage of adult children in this age range who lived with their mother in 2005. While surveys can be useful:

What people say they would do in a hypothetical situation is not the same as what they actually do in real situations When facts do not agree with assertion, facts should be preferred.

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Love Makes a Family and Other Lies

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This morning for our family devotional I felt prompted to take a slight detour from our regular Book of Mormon reading and read the Family Proclamation.  I found out a few days ago my older son was having a lesson on families today.  The school district we live in has partnered with a prominent LGBT activist group to teach “kindness, tolerance, and diversity”.  That’s not really their goal though.  Their goal is to introduce and normalize LGBT propaganda to young children.  There are plenty of programs out there that teach tolerance, kindness and diversity without an LGBT focus  I found out about this group and their program at the parent night which was held the first week of school.  As much as we all hate going to those things, it was a good thing I went, and noticed in the display of books on the teacher’s desk of the curriculum materials from this group.  Friends, pay attention, and be “that parent”.  I’ll share my experiences meeting with the superintendent of the school district about this program in a later post. Continue reading →

Fall of the Berlin Wall 30 Years Later

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Ten years ago today, I wrote my first post for The Millennial Star as a regular contributor. I wrote about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (see that post HERE).  Today is the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.  As I usually do on November 9th, I’ve spent some time thinking about that momentous event, and its impact on my life.  I’ve been thinking about my exchange-family and friends in Berlin.  We’ve sent messages this week celebrating, remembering, and giving thanks that, that wretched wall is gone.

As I wrote ten years ago, I served a full time mission behind the Iron Curtain in Bulgaria.  When I was there, the dreary grey of communism still stuck on all of the buildings.  People struggled to meet their most basic needs of feeding and clothing their family.  Sometimes basic food items like bread and meat were scarce. Inflation was rampant, sometimes the exchange rate even changed several times a day.  You didn’t change your American Dollars until the minute you needed to buy something it was so out of control.  With the rise of socialism’s popularity in this country, I find myself saying to anyone who promotes socialism to talk to me after they’ve waited in a bread line or 14 — believe me, it’s not as fun as you might think. Continue reading →