Graduation

Well, graduation came and went, and now I'm sick from standing in the cold and SNOW, yes, SNOW, in the ASB parking lot waiting to walk into commencement. But on the bright side, I'm done. Yes, I will no longer have to shave so that I can take tests, I will never again spend countless hours in my hideaway in the SWKT studying political theory or writing papers about how I found a point of agreement with Rocky Anderson. I'm so excited to be done. Yet, at the same time, it's kind of sad. The BYU period of my life is done. Yeah, it was good while it lasted. Freshman year, hanging out with Rach, Pablo, and Rico, trying to decide on a major, and finding my political views a little left of most of the political science student body at the Y. All in the past. I now embark on a new part of my life... trying to figure out where I'm going to attend law school, where we will eventually end up, and what type of law I am going to pursue. So, I sit here on a Sunday afternoon, blogging and watching the NBA playoffs, and I keep thinking about what homework I should be doing instead. Oddly enough, there is none. There are, however, more than fifteen books sitting on my bookshelf that I can't wait to read and a date with Gold's Gym that I have been putting off two months too long. I'm still not sure if the fact that I have graduated has sunk in, but it will soon. I'll miss those good ol' days on campus, pulling all-nighters to get papers done, but I'm sure excited about being done and applying to law school. So long BYU!

FLDS Raid

For anyone who has turned on the news in the past 24 hours, I'm sure you have heard about the raid on the FLDS compound in ElDorado, Texas. While there may be some shady things going on in secret behind those walls, this abuse of executive police and judicial power is frightening. More than 400 people have been taken from their homes based on a ridiculously broad warrant based on a call from a young girl that the authorities cannot find or even identify. However, the tension here is much deeper than the overreaching police in Texas. There is an interesting tension here between the interests of society and the interests of the family and parents. On this end, we have children who grow up within a society in which they are not given free agency to act and interact with society. I would argue that society has an interest in raising children and helping those children to become responsible adults within society, rather than isolated within a religious compound. However, on the other end, when you take the rights of parents out of the mix, you get a situation like Lexington, Massachusetts where teachers at a public elementary school were teaching children that homosexuality was the norm without any obligation to notify the parents of what was going on. So, while in the case of the FLDS raid, society does have an interest in these children's lives, the right of the parent cannot be totally taken away. Where do you stand? Leave your comments.

It's been a while

So, it's been a while since my last post. I've been a little more than busy with work and school (which, by the way I'll be done with in 2 1/2 weeks). I'm not totally sure what my next post will be, but I will take suggestions. So, just add a comment with your proposition for my next post or wait for my next post idea within a few days or so.