Are Values bemused with Rights?

Last month, a 13-year old, Middle School student in Germantown, Maryland, was sent to counselor’s office for refusing to stand during the pledge of Allegiance. Her parents asked the teacher to apologize for doing so. Later on, because of lawyer’s involvement on the students’ side, ACLU stepped into the matter and asked the teacher to apologize to the student. Out of political pressure, the teacher might apologize but is it not something wrong in this whole picture? While I do agree that the teacher should not have taken such extreme actions on the student and that no one can be forced to participate in a pledge of Allegiance against one’s will and in something that one does not believe in, is there not something called ‘Respect’?


Inculcating good manners should be a part of our schooling systems in addition to teaching the curriculum. Part of it is showing respect to others. While the whole class was standing and saying the pledge out of respect, the girl could have simply stood up rather than sitting. Coming from the land of values – India, I stand quietly whenever any National Anthem is played in a function or gathering. It is out of respect that one shows to their country or belief. The girl could have shown her respect for the country if she is an American and that she would have her say in the near future in a few years down the road. If not, she could have shown respect because America is giving her the opportunity to be in this country and for parting education to her to be a better person. In either case, she has the reason to show her respect for her country.


Honestly I did not comprehend the reasons behind why that student would not stand up or show respect during the pledge. Not wanting to do is one thing but when the entire class is standing up out of respect or out of fear, the one who is not is forced to stand up anyways. Out of political pressure, the teacher might be made to apologize in public but is it not life lessons for the student to show respect – no matter what? Was she trying to stand out, to say that she is cool with not doing what everybody does? Whatever the reason, it still does not warrant an excuse. It might be old fashion to show respect in public but coming from a family where respect is the prime objective, this whole scenario seems to be odd.

Name of the Game

After seeing so much snow on the ground, I could not help but wonder how these Olympians (since they are participating in Winter Olympics, they become Olympians, right?) perform in such cold conditions. Even when I am watching the games with my blanket over me, I would feel the cold breeze and the chillness from the Cypress Mountain. That being said, the winter Olympics is on and is going to end in a week or so. While USA is participating and is on top of the medal counts, NBC is the only channel airing the winter Olympic Games from Vancouver. Even with that, NBC is airing the games only during primetime and not at the time that the game is actually held. Come on, I can understand why the games are aired after the fact, if the games are held in China like in 2008. But people on the West Coast are on the same time zone as Vancouver and yet they watch the games after it has happened. We on the East Coast are also watching the limited coverage that NBC is offering.


So, why all this prejudice in airing Winter Olympic Games when compared to the regular Olympics? Simple reason is that most of the games in Winter Olympics is not really followed by most viewers here and also the participants in those games are not as popular as those in regular Olympics. When I say Phelps, you know exactly who I am talking about but if I say Mancuso, you would be like man, who? Moreover, the news that is aired on TV or radio starts off with the mention of whether USA is in the lead on medal counts or whether US bagged another Gold medal versus the actual sports itself.


Many who follow the winter Olympics do complain about it. The best coverage that the NBC could offer was the accidental death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, Luger, during his trial run. NBC was airing that video quite often and news was read covering different angles and sentiments. In fact, many had complained about the video clip and NBC had to take the video off the air. But ABC took up on the news and is airing it and they have it on their official site as well. Obviously that is what is bound to happen because that is where the money is. Ever since Lindsey Vonn won the Gold in Downhill, she has been the prime focus on the slope events for women. Mancuso is all but forgotten even after her two Silver wins. Next coverage is on Apollo Ohno – how many medals is he going to bag for USA and what his total career medal count going to be? The news and coverage on television is better when the Americans are doing well and are winning medals in the events. When Shawn White won his Gold on Half Pipe, I could see the repeating news and clips being aired even after the game were over. But do we hear about other Gold medal winners from other countries? Maybe their country is airing their videos repeatedly just like we are for our winners. That is the name of the game in the Entertainment world where TRP (target rating point) is the decider of what or who gets coverage.

Snowy Frenzy

Many are chanting the mantra “How long this snow is going to linger on?” We have had a week of no snow storms in the D.C. metro area but we are facing massive obstruction of mammoth snow piles everywhere on any direction that you can lay your eyes on. The two storms that hit us a week and a half ago dumped about two and a half feet of snow on an average and people are stilling plowing their way through the snow. Schools and government offices had been closed for more than a week because snow clearing had become close to impossible. Traffic has become a nightmare (or should I say daymare? Come on, I had to make that up) with the number of lanes reduced to half of what was available to commuters on a normal day. Parking lots for vehicles have become the home for snow piles where all you can see are mounds of snow taking up more than half of the parking spaces.


While the pristine snow covered grounds, trees and houses were soothing to my mind a week back when the snow was still falling and fresh, it has built in anger and frustration into many who have to deal with the aftermath of snow by hauling the snow out of their driveways and parking lots and off of streets and roads. One problem is where do we put the snow that is plowed? Result being, building heaps of snow piles along the roads and along driveways. Drivers at the intersection can hardly see the on coming traffic before making those turns leading to accidents. Now that schools are open, many students are forced to walk on snow covered pathways to get to their schools. Refreezing of melted snow is turning to ice leading to many falls for those who walk on it. Cars are getting stuck on side streets that are barely passable.


Just like the question as to ‘here to dump all this snow’ many are trying to answer the question, ‘how do I show my anger and frustration of this snow’? Case in point is the incident in Loudoun County where one neighbors’ anger pouted on to his street. In Longhouse place in Leesburg (residential street), a Good Samaritan was helping a woman to get her car into her garage while the other cars was stopping behind. A car from the back just went past all the cars that were standing, barely missing the guy who was helping the woman. The driver, Craig Vandusseldorp, would have hit the man but missed him by inches. He was charged with felony assault and reckless driving. He just could not wait a few minutes for the car that was stuck to get off the street. By acting in a haphazard manner, what did he gain? a few tickets and points on his license, marring his driving record, insurance and employment opportunities? Was that worth it?


There were also cases where people are fighting over parking spots. Some people place a chair on the spot to reserve their parking spot and some wanted others to move out of their spot and hence are slicing the tires of the cars so they would move. Why all this rage? The snow will eventually melt and everything will be back to normal in a few days. Until such time, can we not live amicably? Maybe we have to leave a few minutes early to work to beat the traffic and come home a few minutes late after finding a parking spot to park your car. Like some one says, we are one day closer to where we want to be.

Hall of Fame, as easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6...

It is no surprise that old fashions and old rules become the new trend after years of disappearance. Now that Oscar best pictures nominees and other nominations were announced a while back and Oscar ballots will be counted on March 2nd and the results are to be announced/aired on March 7th, it is just a matter for the judges to vote on the different categories and have them counted for the final verdict. Where you surprised to see ten movies nominated for best picture? Till 1943, ten or twelve movies were nominated and seeing the amount of work involved in picking the best movie, they curtailed the selection to five for years to come… hm… only till now when the selection is again stretched out to ten movies. The idea behind doing so is to get a variety of movies ranging from high/low budgets, animated movies, not-so-popular ones in the horizon for people to know what other movies are in existence other than the ones that you hear of being the blockbuster hit.


Variety is always good to experience has been the theme for this years Oscar selections for best picture. Different types of food, drinks, relationships and also a different variety of movies that were produced in a year. For this year – 2010 Oscars, the ten movies that were picked has variety in them; from low budget movie on Iraq war – ‘The Hurt Locker’ to animated comedy – ‘Up’, high budget blockbuster hit ‘Avatar’ and sci-fi hit ‘District 9’, get-to-learn movies like ‘Precious’, ‘An Education’ and ‘A Serious Man’, football drama ‘Blind Side’, recession tale ‘Up in the air’ and WW II saga ‘Inglourious Basterds’. Having seen most of these movies, do I qualify to speak about the Oscar selections? Certainly not! I don’t even know how some of these movies get selected for Oscar best pictures.


I certainly did not know about most of the movies, except ‘Avatar’ and ‘Up’, thanks to my son who wanted me to send him to watch it with his friends and ‘Invictus’ (not an Oscar nominee for best picture) because it is about soccer and ‘Inglourious Basterds’, seen many ads of it, I had not heard about the other movies. Having a spectrum of movies listed in the Oscar not only gives information of other movies but also increases the number of viewers to watch Oscar presentations on television. Advertisements can be cramped during the Oscars show on television to make money as the number of viewers would have increased watching the Oscars. Do we need ten movies in the selection? If not for anything, certainly people will start renting these movies to see what had been done to get on the Oscar list. In addition to hit movies, people will see the movies that are not box office hits or never heard of movies. We will just have to wait till March 7th to see the results and make a dash to your nearest Blockbuster to rent them out.

When dreams fail to launch

So the shuttles will stop flying from the USA into space starting this September after it makes its four launches that were scheduled. While I agree that going into outer space and learning about the solar systems and other systems out there will teach a lot and one can relate all of that to mankind itself, it is not about time to give a little focus on earth before you can start to look up? What do I mean by it? As a result of budget policies for the coming year, Obama had cut funds for space programs for NASA and had told NASA to work with private sectors to do any research or launching into space. There are many research divisions, for example, medical science, who do their research not waiting for government to sponsor but depend on private sectors to do the funding so that they can carry out their research, which all told is for the betterment of human kind and to learn more about human existence.


Many who are supporters of space program will argue that what Obama did by halting the funding to NASA, to stop launches will stop them from learning about space and hence the human race. I do support exploration, whether it is space program or ocean research, but when the situation here in the US has come to a point where one has to wonder where the next paycheck is going to come from to pay for the expenses to run a household and when the country is at the brink of depression, when the job losses is at the highest ever – 10%, I would want Obama to funnel all funding to improve the economy here, rather than worry about sending people to moon or further away to Mars.


Sure, the government or the private sectors will speed up the launching if they know of oil deposits or Uranium deposits in Mars, but we don’t know anything of that sort. So until such time we are better off, if everyone starts to look down instead of looking up into space. There is nothing wrong with NASA working with private sectors to help build a taxi service to ferry astronauts into outer space or depend on Russian shuttle to hitch a ride into space. There are shuttles that were built for private parties for a considerable amount just so they can travel into space. There are people out there who have the money to name a star that is being discovered in their name or their bestest. They have the money to fund such programs and NASA can sure use their help to get into outer space for the time-being until we are able to stabilize ourselves in terms of economy here.


I have read about Mars colony project and many fictional stories/books about Mars colony. Even if the U.S. astronauts succeed in going to Mars and in setting up a colony there, they will be working next on stopping other countries from getting there as if Mars is owned by the U.S. If I try to look ahead into the future of this project, all I can see are missiles showering from the heavens above (Mars) when we are fighting down below in Afghanistan or Iraq or any place for that matter. Instead of having to plan for wars from land, sea or air, we would be planning war strategies from outer space as well. In addition to this, are we forgetting that most of U.S is owned by China now? Instead of worrying that if we work with others outside of our country, we will lose the brain power of space programs, let us also work on removing ‘Owned by China’ from the U.S. soil and accept the temporary situation of depending on private sectors and collaborating with other countries for space research.

The Seesaw Effect

With the massive storm that passed us last weekend and another tailing it right now as I speak (um.. write), many people are out of power, snowed in and immobilized. The snow from last week being wet and heavy had brought down many power lines cutting power from many households. Many trees have fallen down or on houses nearby or on power lines due to the weight of the snow. The new snow that is coming down today is adding to the effect. I saw in the news that thousands of people are out of power and power companies like Pepco, Dominion and NOVEC are working round the clock to restore power.

But what is frustrating people the most is the ‘not knowing’ when their power will be restored. When will people realize that the problem can be dealt with but ‘not knowing’ is the killer. They need to know when their power will be restored. They need answers, they need assurance. I saw on T.V. that the electric company trucks would go by on the streets and people would stop them and ask when their turn to be worked on is. There are families who had lost power on Saturday, this past weekend, and are still without power and heating. Some people have opened their hearts and doors of their home, literally, to friends and are allowing them to stay until their power is back.

Many are just snowed in, unable to take their cars out as the snow plows, in some cases, have piled snow on their driveways and around cars that are parked. In some cases, people have not seen plows come on to their streets for plowing. The streets are covered with snow or barely passable for driving. In some cases, neighbors are forming teams and helping each other to clear the snow and the streets so they can get out of the complex. Some are taking up this opportunity to show their good samaritan-ship by lending a helping hand to clear the snow. When I went for a walk this past Saturday, I had helped a few dig out their driveways but when I had written my blog, I didn’t mention it because I thought that that was the right thing to do to start with.

Last Friday, when the snow was starting to fall, I went to the nearby Shoppers, after work, to see how people were reacting to the snow. Many had shopped earlier on during the week or day and the store was empty of milk and bread. Of course, the salt was all gone which is understandable but to see a store like Shoppers Foodware mostly empty of groceries was quiet a view. How much were those people going to consume during the snow storm? To panic that they would be stranded for days together and hoarding on to the groceries is a bit too much. After all, with what is left in a house, can one not survive for a couple of days? Imagine what would happen – one does all that shopping to survive during the storm and the power and heating goes off, the fridge is not working anymore and all that you shopped for is a waste, only to be packed up to be thrown into the trash. Forget imagining, this is really happening to many families who have lost power now because of the storm. Does one have to shop before a storm to survive? Did we not learn anything from Bear Grylls that we cannot even endure a snow storm being in ones own home and comfort?

Want some Crib Notes with your Tea?

Was it just me who got caught during school exams with my cribnotes? Guess not. We have a bigger winner here. Ms. Palin. I am sure everyone who gives a public speech that is televised or in a meeting would use teleprompters or notes that one refers to during the speech. No one would be able to memorize the speech that lasts for an hour or more. So there is nothing wrong in using notes to refer to or teleprompters to get your speech across and to be effective. But Palin had a problem with that. She was accusing Mr. Obama using a teleprompter during his speeches. She accused him as 'a charismatic guy with a Teleprompter' in her speech in the tea party convention held last week.


But take a look at the picture that is posted along with this blog. Oh ya, its Palin's hand alright! I see words "Energy", "Tax," and "Lift Americans Spirits" scribbled in ink on the palm of her hand. Gotcha! Of course, she knew the speech for the tea party convention like the back of her hand. It is during the Q&A session that she needed the answer from the front of her hand. When she was asked the question as to what should be the top three things that a Republican majority in Congree would focus on and she forgets the answer and refers to her cribnotes on her palm during the meeting. How does one forget the main belief of what she is representing? To top it off, she accuses Obama for using a teleprompter in his speeches. He uses it for speeches and she uses it even for answering a core question? There is a saying that people living in glass houses should not throw stones at others. Does this not apply to her - You betcha!


I was a little relieved when McCain-Palin team did not win the elections in 2008. But my pulse is going a little higher when I heard that she would stand in elections in 2012 and that that is the right thing to do for the nation and the Palin family. Right for the nation - No. Right for the Palins - Maybe. She can start filling up her wardrobe again. The race in 2012 is not for the fashion industry nor for who can fill in their wardrobe. So Palin, you stay out of it. You can fill up the spot for soap in Fox, right a few books, give a few speeches with your talent of seeing your notes from the palm of your hand or attend a few tea party but running a nation is not your cup of tea. (pardon my pun)

It is B-E-A-utiful

No wonder the color white stands for peace in humanity. The pristine white blanket of snow everywhere calmed my mind when I went for a walk this afternoon. I woke up this morning and all I saw out my window was snow everywhere – on trees, on bushes and shrubs, on the street that I am on and on every thing that my eyes could lay it focus on. I went at 12 noon to shovel the driveway clean (hm.. these details should be on facebook? … nay… I will stick to this) and it took me two hours to clean the driveway on my van side and also to clean the snow that blocked my driveway as a result of snow plows blocking me in. At 2pm., I decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood since I was already geared up for the weather. I kept walking, one small step at a time on the icy, snowy roads, enjoying the serene beauty of the snow covered surroundings.


While walking I could not help but smile at those who were questioning about whether a snow storm this big would hit our region and questioning the reports that the weathermen gave. Wait… I am hearing something…. Maybe it is the standing ovation that those people are giving to the weather crew for being correct. Why could it not be possible? When people can expect an apology from the weathermen when a snow prediction or rather forecast does not happen the way the report said, why not the same people appreciate them when their forecast comes true? Based on the data that is gathered from the satellites, only so much can be inferred and forecast can be made. It is up to us to be prepared for a situation that the weather crew forecasts. If the weather does not turn out the way they predict, it is not their fault. Anything can happen up to the last minute. The storms can weaken in strength, the winds can shift direction, and the temperatures might not be low enough for the snow to accumulate or stick to the ground. Why is that, that we cannot take a forecast and act upon it to prevent any disasters and protect ourselves? We should be glad that we are getting any predictions at all to start with.


Based on the forecasts, airports had cancelled flights on Friday itself. Schools from all over the region had closed on Friday morning. Are all these agencies foolish to make such decisions based on simple forecasts? They all are preparing themselves in case something as big as this snow storm happens. Exactly! It is a forecast and it is a hit or miss situation. What about all those economists who worked on creating budgets for transportation department for snow preparation? Every single transportation department has already run over-budget because of all the storms that had pummeled us with snow this current fiscal year. Are they apologizing for their bad estimates? Or are they defending themselves saying that they had prepared the budget based on the data that they had and the models that they prepared. So why are they any different that the meteorologists who forecast based on whatever data that they have?


Anyways, with these thoughts cycling in my mind, I kept my pace in walking, enjoying the snow that is falling on my face. I slipped and fell down a couple of times (okay… more than five times) but even after the fall, it brought out laughs and the child within. Greeting a few that were to be seen on the roads, waving to the snow plows that passed by, watching the birds fly by in this cold weather, throwing a few snowballs at the trees, sitting for a few minutes on the snow embankment and enjoy the after noon of snow, I could not help but say to myself - ‘It is a beautiful day no matter what’.

On the Revolutionary Road

I do understand that it takes a lot of courage and will power to stand up for what you believe in. I have seen people who would talk to hearts content about doing something that they strongly believe in or want it dearly to happen but when it comes to reality they drop off the matter like hot potatoes. This being my experience I was pleasantly surprised when I read the news in Washington Post about Mike Mullen’s Stand in Capitol Hill. Mullen is the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and has been with the military for 42 years earning ribbons and medals for his achievements. In a meeting with Senate Armed Services committee, Mullen had spoken up for what he believed. He said that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the army. What does ones personal practices have to do with being in the military?


‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy among military personnels have let many gays to serve in the army but in a way they are not freely accepted. While the meeting among the Senate was also to repeal this law, Mullen came forward saying that whether this law is there or not, it should not make any difference for those people to serve for the nation. It is the ability of ones self in terms of performing their duties that should matter instead of trying to find out whether one is straight or not. The ability to shoot a gun does not depend on whether a person is gay or not. “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight”


While there are many laws in different states in the United States being passed about gay marriages and gay rights, I am not saying favorably or otherwise about it in one way or another. It is ones personal preference. But when it comes to performing a job, or any job for that matter, one should be judged based on whether one is capable of performing their duties, instead of seeing what their personal preferences are. If I am interviewed for a job, I want the interviewer to find out about me in terms of my abilities to do the job and not about whether I want to stay married or stay single or stay with a partner. That has nothing to do with me writing a code for the IT Company or preparing an estimate on a project.


There is no such problem (or at least that I am aware of) in the corporate sector in employing people from such groups. Why is this an issue when it comes to military? Even when you fill out any application form for a job, I don’t remember any question that says “sexual preference”. The most I have seen is “married or single”. Why is there so much importance about something that happens behind closed doors? I really applaud Mullens’ stand on this subject. It takes a lot of determination to stand up in public for what one believes in. It gives me hope that those people who backed out from doing that something that they believed in, will some day have the courage to really stand up to face the world.

Happiness a Choice

Having been told that I have no interests in anything, I was browsing around reading through some magazines and came across an article that precisely talked about the title in question for today. The article went on about saying that ‘Happiness is a choice’ and that one can choose to be happy in any given situation. While I was reading this article, my attention not being held on any topic wandered to apply the same to people who are going through the horrible disaster in Haiti. People in Haiti who have lost their family members, their homes, their every thing that they had been working on or had, would they make this choice? What would the rationale behind this choice be – that they are alive? I can understand to a certain extent that when anyone gets out of an accident or an horrible situation, and then realize that they are alive, they would be happy but when they come to know that everything else is gone or taken away from them, how long would that happiness remain?


Happiness is a state of mind and a lot of that depends on what goes on in that mind. People can be happy even if they don’t have worldly materials but what they sure need is peace and trust that their loved ones are around for them. When that trust is broken or when you come to know how loved ones stabbed your back or that your loves are not there anymore, then one cannot make that choice. Abraham Lincoln has said “A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be”. In this case, what are you going to feed your mind? Even though your trusted ones broke your trust, that everything is okay or maybe they did that for some good reason? Even when your loved ones are gone, that they are in some better place happy and that you don’t have to worry about them?


I am sure many have heard people say “Time heals” and in my earlier post on Haiti, I did mention about this phrase and I had told you all that I would bring it up later on. So here it is. Does time really heal anyone on any given situation? Take for instance, the same people in Haiti - the ones that have lost their loved ones. They don’t even have time to grieve their loss because they have to find a way to survive and find food and water for the living ones. Even after a couple of months or years later, would they be healed of this situation? Sure, they would have found a place to live in, job to work and feed themselves and some interests to work with (I am not in that list) and keep busy but that wound of losing their loved ones, will that be healed? I am sure some will say that it leaves a scar. But more than a scar, the wound is still there deep down. It is just scabbed with other worries like every day chores or another wound that is just around the corner in life.


People often have to make choices in their lives but making happiness a choice is an interesting concept. What if I am frustrated at a situation or frustrated with someone that I love and trust? I keep thinking about it to find a solution but I also do know that I am helpless to do anything about some situations. What can I do? According to what I read, I should not dwell on it once I have planned on how to deal with it. But most times, the problem is how to deal with it, what is the right course of action to deal with a situation. Once I have an answer to the situation, then it becomes easy to implement it but finding the right answer is the problem. While I know that I cannot control the circumstances, I hope that I can control my thoughts and make happiness my choice.

Where are you Mockers now?

So the Groundhog has spoken today. This morning in the dawn hours, the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog club in Pennsylvania, witnessed Phil seeing his shadow after he emerged from its hiding/hibernating burrow. It has been a German tradition that if a hibernating animal sees its shadow on February 2nd, which is a Christian holiday of Candlemas, then winter would last another six weeks. If the groundhog does not see its shadow then we would call it as six weeks of early spring.


This practice has been there since 1887, when people did not have advanced forecasting methodologies or weather reporters who would rely on modern-day satellites and equipments to make the forecasts. They would decide whether to plan for their gardening and other works during early spring, based on whether the Groundhog saw its shadow or not. These days, we have minute to minute forecast on weather and devices to track storms and how the storms are developing and what route it would take, dropping how much rain or snow on us.


I have heard people talk or rather read many blogs and reports where people would ridicule and pock fun at the weather channels when they would come up with their weather reports. Times when their prediction fails to a greater extent, people would say, ‘there was no need even to carry an umbrella but they made a big booboo on the forecast of snow’ or ‘we could depend on the Groundhog more than our weather channels’. Where are those people when the weather reporters reported about the snow storm during the week of Christmas, 2009? Where are those people, when the snowfall happened this past weekend according to what the reporters had predicted?


We or rather the weather channel can only use the data that they have in hand to make such forecasts to warn us ahead of time. If they keep quiet about it, you will point the fingers at them and say that they did not warn you of any storms. If they warn you and if it does not happen, then they would hear complains about ‘all that preparation is for nothing’. It is a catch-22 situation. At least they are doing their jobs in warning us as needed. It is up to you to be prepared for it or not. Better safe than sorry.


This winter there has been so much snow that the DC area (Virginia, Maryland and D.C.) has gone over budget in prepping for the storm (putting salt/sand on roads), cleaning the roads using snowplows, making sure that the roads are safe during and after storms. They are asking help from other departments and locals to cover the costs to prepare for the storms that are lined up ahead. There are calling in for more snow this evening and on Friday. While some will say that they do not want any more snow, they will be the ones who will become Baristas at home. So have fun while it lasts.