The Appeasement Plan

The Appeasement Plan

11/27/13

It is obvious that the majority of humans do not like surprises especially when it comes to major events that adversely affect their lives. Even though mankind has the capability of being mobile and fending off the aggressive natural circumstances, we still like to have a stable balance in our world so that our settings do not change much.  The true character of how humans react is then set into motion when these life changing events occur.  However, how comfortable do we have to get before we totally lose our edge in preparing for such an event? And will we ever regain this edge and ability to purge the darkness with the light of truth before the darkness strikes?

It has been noted throughout history that the people that live within the school district, city, state, nation, realm, etc that their actions reflect what they have been taught.  As with many other issues one can flip through a textbook and read about how the people conducted their daily business and the reader can get a general idea of what that society has taught the people.  These general standards of education were put in place and have been accepted as the norm throughout this country’s school systems, and have provided whoever desires to learn, a basic level of education that has the ability to get them by in life.  But what happens to the system if these standards are lower or directed in such a manner that the minds of the students are not challenged?  This represents an appeasement process that miscalculates the ability to seek out the heart of learning and focus it on subsidizing the student during their prime.

Most of you remember the movie called “Remember the Titans.”  This was an excellent movie on many accounts but basically was football and the race issue.  However, there was one scene in the movie that I found very interesting and the issue that was addressed is an issue that we are now beginning to see the result when students are not challenged.  All of you should know by now I do not have a racial bone in my body.  My parents taught me to treat everyone equally and accept them for who they are and to show them Jesus through my actions and not through the world standards.  The scene that I want to describe to you occurs when one of the white football coaches plays a bit of favoritism for some and not on the others.

It becomes clear that the white football coach is tough and that he understands the game of football very well.  He is however very uncomfortable with having to coach black players and to follow their movements on and off the field simply because he does not wish to upset the general population of the town.  The coach is very well known and respected and from the dialog in the movie one can gather that he has not been too kind to the black community on a regular basis.  A couple of his players that are white obviously are not giving their best and this coach pulls them aside and just reams them a new one.  Now, for anyone who has played the game of football understands that this setting is not uncommon and all of us have been yelled at for not giving it our 100% best on every play.

Within a few plays later it is obvious that some of the black players are not giving it their best either and this same coach pulls them aside and gently talks to them and ten lets them continue to play accordingly.  It is soon evident that the remaining players on the team pick this difference up and once again tensions rise on the practice field.  Later that day the two coaches are having a conversation with each other and the issue of treating everyone equal makes it rounds.  The head coach mentions to the assistant that his actions are damaging the future of the black players and that for them to be accepted in the world they must have the knowledge of how the world is going to treat them. The head coach stressed that if you do not treat everyone of the players equal that you are crippling the ones who you pull along and only harm not only on the playing field but also in their life as well.

Treating any person differently no matter what the setting may be harms them if the rules are not followed the same.  People are smart and they will figure things out when these types of occurrences present themselves.  It has always been a human way of trying to get away with things when that person does not want to deal with an issue.  It does not matter if the issue arises during a football game, at work or when a life threatening choice must be made, if the person has not been adequately trained in dealing with the hard times ability for that person to adjust diminishes greatly.

Appeasing the mind is a dangerous quality that one can offer to any person and it allows that person to fake their way into society.  There is no doubt that people will face some sort of trials in their life and it imperative that we have the know-how of how to deal with these circumstances.  It is not an “if” we have problems for it is only a matter of time until we do experience them.  How can a person be ready for life if they have not been prepared to face the trials and tribulations that life is going to hand them?  It is a must that we make sure that our children know how to think for them and to have the mental stability to adjust to what deals them.  Is a test accurate enough to honestly provide a person with the knowledge of expectancy for the future if the questions for the test are spelled out before the student begins the class?

When I was in my junior year in high school I was at a fairly decent academic school.  It was a large Texas high school and for the most part had high expectations for every student.  Texas as most of you know is a very fanatic state when it comes to football.  Football is its signature sport and it is expected that every high school football team do well each year.  The football programs for the schools draw in a very large sum of money for the district and are considered to be the defining sport of that school and how the year is going to be defined in each sporting category.  In other words, if the football team has a losing season then no matter well the basketball program does it will be compared to the football team for that year; they could even win a state title and be considered second class.  There are many people who disagree with this concept but it is in place and until things change, this attitude and belief will remain.  However, no matter how good of a team a school might have they were still graduating players that could not even balance a checkbook or even write a complete sentence and it was bringing national attention to the state.  So, something had to be done with the standards and a new plan was put into place; starting with the teachers.

The teachers of my high school had regular meetings, so when the first meeting of the second semester rolled around none of the students paid much attention to it.  But when the teachers came out of the meeting and went to their classrooms us students immediately knew something was wrong just by the look on their faces.  The teachers did not say much about things at first and the rumors began to fly around the school that some of the teachers were getting fired for various reasons.  Even though we had no clue what was said in the meeting our minds ran with many ideas concerning the matter.  Within a few hours the truth began to emerge and we understood that beginning next year the teachers were required to take an aptitude test in order to prove that they were competent to continue teaching. Seemed fair to us since they were the ones that continually gave us tests; right?

The remaining portion of the year was tense between the students and teachers but for the most part everything seemed to be normal.  The rumors about the tests and how difficult they were going to be flowed though the rank and file of the teachers worse than what the students could have done concerning a normal teenage issue.  As the school year ended all the students were joyous that another year had passed and that another year closer to graduation was at hand.  For me, the next year would be my senior year and I was looking forward to all of the “privileges” that this status posed.

The summer flew by and school was upon us once again and it was time for the teachers to find out when their test was going to be administered to them.  The tension did not quell over the summer and it was ever present on day one of the new school year.  When we asked the teachers about their summer the majority of tem stated that the main activity for the summer was to study for a test in which they had no idea what was going to be over but to us students this concept was not too difficult to comprehend since we dealt with it almost every week.  Soon after the beginning of school the teachers found out when the “D Day” was to happen as they put it.  It was going to be during Christmas break. 

As the time approached for the teachers testing to occur many of the teachers just simply stopped verbally communicating with each other and concentrated on teaching the subjects that they had been doing for quite some time.  Everyone in the school could feel the tension and it was reflected in many ways as time crept closer to the testing day.  Christmas break was upon us and the students were once again excited to be away from the responsibilities that school had over us.  As the last day before the break came I remember one of my teachers being so worried about the test that he actually said that he did not expect to be back after Christmas break and he even told us that it had been a pleasure to have the opportunity to teach us some things about life before we grew up.  Most of us blew this statement off but at the same time we did hear from reliable sources that the test would determine if teachers kept their jobs or not.

When school returned in January we all were wondering which teachers would still be with us and it soon became a joke amongst all of the student body.  When we walked into the school we went to our first period classrooms and waited for our teachers to show up.  And what do you know, every one of our teachers came back to work on that Monday morning and every one of them had a story to tell about their testing experience.  The common theme for each teacher was that they had no idea of what to study for since nothing was directly relayed to them concerning the contents of the test.  As it turned out, the test consisted of one question in which the teacher had to answer by using complete sentence structure and in the form of two paragraphs.  That was the entire test.

However, as the laughter died down the teachers made another statement concerning what they had learned over the past year.  Most of them, after they got over their anger, understood that the entire process made them better in that it allowed them to reacquaint themselves with how to give and to take a test and that it had reminded them of how to use their brains in order to figure something out that they had learned a long time ago.  They also mentioned that they were lucky to have the school teachers that they did when they were in high school and that they would not have traded those years for anything.  To be honest the methods of how the teachers gave tests for my remaining year changed over that Christmas break and on those lines I truly believe that the change in philosophy from the teachers helped me down the road.

The human mind expects to be challenged in many ways and in reality thrives on this type of situation.  However, if the mind is not trained to overcome adverse conditions then it shall not understand how to figure a way out of things when times become tough.  I have mentioned a few times of some of my younger colleagues who I have asked general history questions in which they have no idea about as their response.  My own daughters have trouble breaking down a sentence and diagramming a sentence, which even though my grammar skills are not the best I do know how to use a direct object and where to put it if necessary.  Yet our testing skills for the state are well within the national expectancy rate.  This represents many flaws in a system that is designed to teach and to bring interaction with students and teachers in order to expand the young minds so that they can advance our society down the road.

Society is also seeing this non caring attitude penetrating the streets with the rise in the number of crimes against innocent people. Communication levels between individuals is also under fire because the younger generations do not even know how to verbally talk with anyone yet they know how they can get pregnant and curse at a teacher for telling them to sit down in class.  There is a reason that the Bible addresses this topic by stating if you spare the rod on a child you will soon find out the results of this failure.  Now, that does not mean that ANY human has the authority to beat a child or any other person but a stern discipline will cause the person to think about what occurred and that they should not repeat it.

When a mind is challenged with a problem it will always bring about the best out of the person at that moment.  Also, it will stick into that person’s mind and will provide an answer when that person’s grandchild is facing a similar situation.  Now this can work in both directions if society allows it in such that if society promotes laziness then that is exactly what our minds will be trained for when attacks come; the opposite is true as well.  Whatever the mind is trained for that is what it will portray in the future towards others and we need to bear this in mind as we sit down and think about the adventures that we are about to endure.

God understands life for He is the one that created life.  He also understands that our minds need to be challenged in order for them to stay current with life.  The ways that we trend towards God also understands will keep us in the dark when challenges are not dealt with accordingly and appropriately.  God designed us to be defined by our challenges and not by our everyday routines that we mundanely complete.  Do we fancy this type of challenged society or have we become a welfare oriented state of mind when it comes to coping with the hardness of life, that is the question that all of us have to answer.

We need to understand that many people will not stand up to the challenges of the world and to complete these challenges for the best interests of the world.  If one watches the news and reads the blogs and websites they will see a pattern that has been rising for a while now that should shed some light on which direction we are heading in.  The time is now for us to stop and to expand our mind’s capacity and realize that the paths that we are choosing are creating destruction all around us.  Out of necessity for our lives and future we need to wake up and realize that our society needs to have God in the center and not having Him sit on the sidelines of our surroundings.

As I look back into history and read about the troubled times of our past, I cannot but wonder how those people survived all of the catastrophes that were presented to them.  The numerous wars and disease outbreaks alone could have brought civilization down to the ground yet the minds of that time found a way to stretch their methods of thinking in such a manner as to keep the societies functioning and productive amongst the trying times.  I am so thankful that I was not born during those times in human history but even with that selfish thought of mine I applaud the people who lived during those times because they had the mindset to find a way to get things done and to survive another day.

As a believer and studier of God’s Word I have ran across some of the most bizarre human experiences that one can imagine.  But while these stories are hard to contemplate based upon modern standards, I can believe the content because of how humans adapt to their surroundings when pushed into service.  There is one portion of the Bible that I had confusion over for a very long time but those passages are becoming clearer to me as each day passes.  For some reason humans cannot seem to figure out how to control each other and allow one person to rise up and take over the world, which leads to a bunch more fun and exciting things.  To me, this description sounds like the minds of civilization have been so condensed that they no longer can function outside of the box so to speak.  And for a long time I could not understand this philosophy that is written about but with the current events of today I now understand the meaning of the beginning of the birthing pains and how the one ruler will come into play since the dividing lines are so wide that only anger and infighting can be produced. 

It seems to me that we as humanity continue to search for our testing skills based upon the known and not the true unknown.  Life deals its cards through the unknown and it is important that we articulate this concept to our children, grandchildren and for anyone else who will drop the dividing lines that we have established and listen to what our history is telling us.  God is alive and He understands everything that we are going to be facing.  Yes, there shall be tough times ahead; I cannot tell you when because I do not know.  Yes, many people will fall apart due to these changes; how many and to what degree I do not know but based upon our mental stability now, it will not be pretty. Yes, governments and nations will disappear and wars will rage; how many I do not know but it is coming.  All of this had been told to us through the words of the Bible, just read it and keep in mind that it is talking about humans and their activities.

I agree with many people that we should expand our thinking about how we are doing things.  I disagree with them on the premise that secular methods and current views need to replace the valued and storied standards that we have had lived with ever since this country was established.  I believe that right at this moment that there is enough people in this country who have a fighting spirit to rise up and defend our country if needed, but if this should happen it better hurry up because those numbers are decreasing by the day.  The sharpness of the mind is being whittled away at breakneck speed and our enemy loves every minute of it.  God is calling us to wake up and to shape up before the predicted events of humanity begin.  The process of torment and pain can be delayed if we only turn back to Him and allow God to change our hearts.  It is easy as that.

So the question remains if society will be allowed to continue its appeasement process of our lives.  The results will be clear no matter which answer is given to that question.  The choice is strictly up to us and whichever way we decided our fate is in our hands.  Let us use our “authority” of choice to boot the “right” of choice out the door.  Let us make the correct choice for our future and get off our butts and dig into the greatest history book that has ever been written.  God loves you and wishes nothing but peace, love, joy and prosperity in our lives.  But in order for this to occur we need to have sharp minds and hearts when the tests come along.  It is also guaranteed that if we are not prepared the opposite will be true in that we will totally destroy ourselves due to the lack of Godly understanding.

DLB