Witt's End

Someone asked me why I care so much about Roe being overturned. Why I'm talking so much. Why I this position and others that seem contrary to the majority of my faith. It's not the first time I've been asked something similar. I think I need to talk about why. It's simple and it's threefold.  First I used to be anti immigration. Second I used to be homophobic. Third I used to be entirely pro life. Things change. ---- The first shift was in regards to immigration. The largest shift happened as a missionary. I began as a 19 year old that thought no one should cross illegally. That it was a crime. It was harm to me and my family. I had some sympathy for those who left troubled lands to come to our own. I mean heck my grandmother was first generation from Germany. But that was the end of it. Not only did I have limited sympathy and a lack of knowledge I had a lot of bad jokes too. I'd be lying if I said some weren't racist. Things changed. I spent time on the gr

  We are living in a time when some pastors, some clergy are calling over the pulpit for the death of LGBT+ people or their parents.   Not enough Christians are unequivocally condemning the statements. And that worries me. I worry that too much of the conversation is about the explanation or apologetics of the doctrinal position that we lose sight of the harm being perpetuated by the language. This rhetoric doesn’t even qualify as hate speech. People are running active churches and even some political campaigns on this rhetoric. And the only people who have the right voice and perspective to change it are those who believe in Christ as well. The way we speak to our brothers and sisters who are of the LGBT+ community needs work. I understand the moral misgivings some may have. The challenge to relate. Maybe we’ve reached a point where if we can’t be truly supportive we shouldn’t say anything at all.  The speech used to isolate the sin of Same Sex Attraction from the sinner is problemati

We all have moments where we are screaming into the void. Times where we sound unheard. Where the cacophony of life just drowns us out.  I was there for a very very long time. I finally feel like I have the surety and confidence to be heard above that. I'm not who I was in the past. Part of what was holding me back could have been not knowing what to say. Not having something to say. It was not just the surety, but the lack that informed so much of the discourse that came out of my mouth, and from my pen. I'm struggling to express exactly how much it means to be a little more free. Physical fatigue can do that. But where my body is tired, my mind is not. It's free. It's free because I'm both standing true to my convictions, and I'm being more (almost radically) honest about who I am and what I'm going through.  I spent so much of my life crushing under uncertainty. Under trying to figure out not just who I am, how I belong, but how I'll express what I

Do we speak to the rule or do we speak to the exception?  Do we speak to rules generally or specifically? How do we prioritize the rules we follow and apply? When I look at laws that require exceptions I feel we should write to the exception. Now the laws that came to my mind immediately were abortion. But I think we can also apply this to things like welfare requirements etc.  Blackstone tell us, " It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."  Benjamin Franklin took it one step further, " "it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer". Our legal system is founded on this ideal. That a bulwark to false convictions must be so steadfast that some guilty men and women will escape punishment. Why isn't that same ideal applied to our laws and policies as they're written.  I hear so many people talk about how we have to stop people who don't "deserve" welfare from receiv

I haven't been able to manage my time all day. It's just been relying on others or alarms for the most basic of things. I can't focus on anything, I want to break down and just sleep for awhile. I cooked dinner and lunch and breakfast. Didn't eat a single meal. Just a handful of olives and a couple taste tests of rice while cooking.  That was my day.  At work tonight, slogged through classes. Slogged. Struggled. The little free time I had. Started 7 pieces, wrote on 5, and finished this little one. That's what I could handle.  I didn't get near enough done that I "should". It made it harder on people.  I'm sick of it. I know they are too. 

 I'm not always the person my children need. More often than not it's their mother. But sometimes it's not her either. It's the same as it was for me. There were times I couldn't go to my parents. At times they didn't have the advice I needed, others the friction was too much. Luckily I had people I could trust. There were times when teachers, coaches, clergy were the people I turned to. But there was something more. Friends of parents, parents of friends, extended family all stepped up too. There was a community I could lean on. I want that for my children too. To do that I have to be there for the children in my life that aren't my own. I remember learning to parallel park from a church leader and family friend at a time I needed to have a little space. I remember coming home from dates or activities to a friend on the futon downstairs cause he had a run in with his Dad, and mine was there before I could even get home. I remember having chores at friends h

 One third of military personnel will face a mental health crisis in their service. That’s one third of soldiers in garrison, one third of sailors on a cruise, and one third of personnel returning from a deployment. One third. I was thinking about that in light of something that will be hard to write about. Gun control. Red flag laws. We have to be ultra careful in how we discuss mental health and firearms access.  I keep hearing it's not a gun issue it's a mental health issue. What's that even mean? What mental illness, what specific set of diagnoses in the DSM is causing the issues with guns. I say this because I have spent time with severely depressed, anxious people in high stress jobs I trusted to have a gun around me. I knew both their mental health status and their capability. With the constant nature of deployments, and the strain of constant training, mental health. We need to be honest about what aspects of mental health result in someone being a danger to themsel