R.I.P. Grandpa

Early this morning, my grandpa died.

This hurts. However, the circumstances behind the hurt are unusual. When I was too young to remember, my parents decided to divorce after several years of marriage. Do I believe that they should have divorced? Heck yes. While I don't condone divorce and wish the term never existed (along with marriages that begin for poor reasons), there are times when it should absolutely be allowed. But it still doesn't mask the pain of losing an immediate family member. After all, if my grandpa had never existed, neither would have my father and, in turn, my sister and I.

Divorce carries with it many myths, one of them being the following:

Myth #1 - Divorce only affects the former husband and wife.

ABSOLUTELY WRONG, especially if children are involved. And it is in that case which I have struggled for a long time. I do sincerely believe that my parent's divorce was a necessity. However, their following actions were not. I wouldn't have cared that they hated each other so much if it weren't for the fact that their despisement of each other resulted in two children never getting to know their biological father. This was not the fault of one parent, but of both.

On tuesday, I will have attended three funerals on my dad's side of the family. For the preceeding two, my mourning for the loss of my family members was overwhelmed by not a mourning of death, but the mourning of a life that I had never really known and never will. Sure, my dad's family (who I only reconnected with after his own funeral) can tell me stories about how my grandparents and my dad were, how they loved me and how they wish they could have seen me grow up and then attend my upcoming wedding. But stories and "what if's" are a poor and incomparable substitute for a genuine relationship.

This coming July I will make a vow to share the remainder of my life with and marry the man of my dreams. And when the words, "for better or worse" are spoken, they will be MEANT and (with God's help alone) acted upon. For my sake, my fiance's sake and for our future children's sake.

This funeral on Tuesday will be the absolute last time I mourn out of guilt for a life never known, and not for a person's precious life.

The Definition of Terrorism

Chris Matthews recently interviewed someone for their opinion on the new nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. He asked if this particular nominee could withstand the "terrorism of the anti-abortion activitists". He later then restated his thought by saying, "verbal terrorism". If you click on the title of this post you can video of his Freudian slip.

During Dubya's Administration it was at one point determined that "Weapons of Mass Destruction" was the most overused phrase of the year. The incident proved that when people overuse words it strips away its meaning and effectiveness. Fast-forward and now Democrats have claimed the word "terrorism" as their own and have completedly voided its meaning by using it to describe anyone who disagrees with a liberal viewpoint.

When 9/11 happened we rarely heard the word "terrorism". I never especially thought that it would become applicable to our country. Televised color-coded security ratings? Forget about it. In the aftermath of 9/11 news anchors were talking about the probability of success with hiding explosives in candy. Yes, we (and when I say, "we", I mean primetime news "reporters") did go overboard with speculation and everyone took the word "terrorism" too seriously. U.S. citizens believed that their lives were in constant risk of being taken by the terrorist who supposedly lives down the street or in the same apartment complex you do.

But 9/11 happened eight years ago. Now the word "terrorism" is a Democratic synonym for "intolerance". If you believe that marriage should be only between one man and one woman, that unborn babies should have a chance for life outside of the womb and that conservative values do not translate into being "old-fashioned" but rather as totally relevant to today's culture, then you are deemed a "terrorist".

Never mind the actual terrorists who we are currently fighting and seeking to destroy us. Never mind the persons behind the four airplanes that were taken hostage and crashed into two national landmarks and a field in Pennsylvania. Never mind those who cheered and danced in the streets when over 4,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks. And never mind the people who routinely videotape themselves threatening the United States, desiring a complete massacre of the entire Western civilization. Those people don't matter. To the Democrats, the people who actually desire a chance to save unborn lives are actual terrorists.

The likes of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Katie Couric, Barbara Walters and all other liberal "journalists" need a new dictionary and thesaurus.