The Greatest Race

Unless you live under a rock, or happen to be an out-of-state reader, you will know that this week is RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa). Over the past few years this event has been gaining more national attention with a lot more out-of-state riders, but it truly is still a geniune Iowa experience. Good food, good people, lots of good Iowa scenery (yes, it does exist). Now that rock you're living under, if you don't know why this year's RAGBRAI is mass hysteria, then you are knocked out cold under your rock. Lance Armstrong has stormed into the state for three days (two of them actually riding) bringing with him his love of cycling, but also a far more important message. Beating cancer.

Lance has his faults (don't we all) but that does not take away from the true American Legend he has become. Nor does it take away from the mission he finds himself on now. The awareness and money he is raising when it comes to cancer research and defeating this disease is remarkable (and that is an understatement). He has ridden with President Bush asking for more money devoted to cancer research, he will meet with Tom Harkin (Senator from Iowa) later this week. He has even said that Iowa is an important stop on his campaign because it is where presidential campaigns begin, and maybe we can force the issue of cancer research more by asking those presidential hopefuls tough questions concerning the issue over the next couple years. So on "Livestrong Iowa Day" (as proclaimed by Gov. Tom Vilsack- urging Iowans to wear yellow today), I urge the Des Moines Register- the founders of this great event- to kick in by raising RAGBRAI entry fees by like five to ten dollars and donating that to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. By doing this, the Des Moines Register won't lose any riders (come on, who wouldn't pay like $10 more to ride when it is going to a good cause), and will have taken their event to a new level by mixing fun/pleasure with a real cause. There are always 15,000 or so riders anyways, so that would be $150,000 raised easily. Heck I may even get my legs pedaling for a day or two that way!

It is sort of timely for Lance to be here and pushing this issue for me at least. Today is 10 years since an uncle of mine passed away from cancer. He was a fun-loving, unique person and we miss him terribly. Everyone reading this has a similar story, and that's why I find what Lance Armstrong is doing to be so inspiring. I leave you then with a link to his guest column today in the Des Moines Register and a big "Go Lance Go!"

Lance's article

Why Can't We Be Friends?

Every time I start to think no one reads my blog or that I can slack off for a bit when posting, I get a message/phone call/punch-in-the-face saying "GET BACK TO WORK." So here I am again. Speaking of which, if my work were actually just to blog: a) I would be a lot better at it and b) that would be the coolest job ever. I digress though.

So throughout the year and even this summer at my tutoring job with troubled teenage boys, I've been bombarded with talk of (and in some cases singing of) Disney's "High School Musical." What's that you ask? Well, first if you are asking you most definitely do not have a child between the ages of 8-18. I really had no clue what these kids were talking about other than whenever I said the words "Status Quo" in class, I instantly had someone singing this song about the status quo. Last night though I had a chance to experience "High School Musical" for myself. It is the overly cheesy tale of the good-looking basketball star and the cute smart girl who cast aside their normal stereotypes to sing together and audition for their high school musical. There are some obvious roadblock thrown up by the school's brother/sister acting/singing duo who don't want to lose their spot as school drama queen/king. But even the main character's friends cause problems because they need the boy for the big game and the girl for the big quiz bowl. In the end, all cast aside differences, break down barriers, and work together. I have already called it cheesy, and there must be some stronger word for it than that, but the darn idea works. This movie is a HUGE hit and was part of the cover on Newsweek this week with a nice story about it inside. Being as serious as I can here, it actually wouldn't be a bad movie to show in a sociology class or, as a counselor, to the school population to promote an overall positive attitude (though I would probably stick to middle schoolers if doing that). The movie is catchy, upbeat, and just flat out clicks for some reason.

That isn't to say that everyone would get the message. There are always people who are going to be difficult. We see that all the time. On a much larger scale, let's look at Kim Jong Il, or the Iranian president, or what is going on in the Middle East right now. Some people are just difficult to deal with. Sadly, the reason so many in the world are that way is actually one of what should be the great unifiers. Religion. The Middle East is NEVER going to have peace until one of two things happen. 1) One group just eliminates the other or 2) people cool it and realize that (at least the way I see it and have learned) that no matter what religion you are your teachings include something about HUMANITY and peace. Those who are more of religion experts than I who read this may cite wars fought in the Bible...but at least in Christianity, what was it that Jesus taught? I hear Muslim leaders saying that the Koran doesn't advocate what's going on, instead it advocates peace. Now all religions want to claim they are right and "recruit" new members to its church, so there is a "struggle" there. One could claim though that we all worship the same God with just a different savior figure (or in the case of the Jews, still waiting on their savior). Jerusalem is the focal point, that is what they are all fighting over. Why does it matter who is in control though if you can still go visit your temple/shrine? I mean, the U.S. doesn't own the ancient ruins of Athens. That is Greece property, but that doesn't stop me from peacefully visiting if I want. Why not establish a multi-religion council to serve as the government for Jerusalem? It all seems so simple, yet so mind-bending. It almost makes me sad that something as common and human as religion seems to be the root cause of a lot of our problems. Heck, some religions even fight amongst themselves. Look at the Sunnis and Shi'ites in Iraq- both Muslim, both willing to kill each other. There are varying degrees of Christianity here in America. It could be said that the evangelical Christian Church has different principles than say a Lutheran church in Iowa. So why is it that we can't break down these barriers and work together? Why can't we just be friends? Why can't we just all get along? Maybe we should just pop in High School Musical.