School Spirit

As a new student at the University of Texas at Austin, I have something now that I didn’t have any of in high school: school spirit. Not the type of school spirit associated with sports, but just being proud of going to UT. UT is a great school, with great people, and in one of the best cities on the planet, Austin. I didn’t have that feeling when I went to Westlake high school; I would have and still would be more likely to talk about how bad it was than to bring up the good parts. I would not wear at Westlake shirt unless it was associated with something good such as choir. For UT I will.

This school spirit for UT doesn’t have anything to do with sports. I dislike how school spirit is linked to sports so much, especially football. I’ll watch an occasional game on TV, root for UT and get into it if it’s a good game (for example the game where UT football team won the championship), but nothing beyond that. School spirit isn’t about sports; it’s about being a great school.

Hook-em Horns.

Muslims in America

From a post of mine on Rightnation:

The funny thing is that America, which according to you all is weak and to lenient on radicals in America, doesn’t have a problem with homegrown Islamic radicals! How many American born Muslims do you see advocating for America to be an Islamic state? Next to none. It is precisely are openness and willingness to accept other cultures that makes Muslims feel welcome in this country and makes them want to integrate. The British attitude towards its Muslims isolates them and makes a large segment of them feel no loyalty to or identify with their country. Treating people like they don’t belong is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we accept Muslims and their culture in America, they accept us and our culture and feel like they have an American identity. They even adapt to our culture and become a part of it. Tolerance is a two way street.

Remember the idea that America is one great melting pot of different people’s and cultures? That is part of what makes America a great nation. This is something America is doing right, and we should keep doing what we are doing. The British should be following our model.

New Blog

I decided to start a blog to post thoughts on because I often have thoughts and feelings that I feel like sharing and this seems like a good way to do that.  Writing also seems like a good way to explore and clarify something I have been thinking about.   This blog will be anything I feel like posting on, whether that be political, religious, personal, musical, or just random.  It’s probably going to be more abstract, like political thoughts, because that is what I think about a lot and it’s not a good idea to post very personal issues publicly on the internet.