Bryan College Triangle

by John Moore
Staff Writer

“Contentment is a window or picture frame that sets the boundaries around us in which to live.”
—Susan McCauley, daughter of Francis Schaeffer

After a taste of beautiful weather and more soon to come, it seems the complaints about the gray drizzle that has hung over the hills of eastern Tennessee for months have ended. People begin to study outside and simply enjoy these temperate days of spring.

Attitudes about the weather have shifted from despondency to joy, at least for a time. But before we know it, we may soon bemoan the fact that the sun is shining too much and that the temperature is too hot. Indoors we will go, where we will regulate climate and attempt to avoid sweat as though it were a contagious disease.

Contentment will likely be a struggle for us humans nearly all of our lives on earth. We tend to move from one thing to the next, looking for satisfaction and finding it, for a time, in the new. As the thrill gradually wears off, we move on with time and effort. However, I am convinced, that contentment is a state of mind rather than a place of life.

The weather may be a moot point, as all seasons have their less than desirable aspects; nevertheless, we often lose our appreciation of things for what they are versus what we want them to be. We are inhabitants of a culture that has a notorious predilection to constantly desire everything to be immediate, yet also tends toward that age-old, grass-is-always-greener desire for something other than what we currently have. Read full story »

by John Moore
Staff Writer

Please take note of the date of publication when reading this article.

As we take another step into the year 2010, we see that our country continues in its path of decline: the educational system in America is failing our children, the economy is unfair to its patrons, the job market is cruel to the unemployed, and the poor and the sick are uninsured (though that is soon to change). As the ideals of freedom hoped for by the founding fathers plummet, I lose hope of ever seeing the American people break away from these shackles and rise to freedom on their own.

In this dark moment of realization, perhaps I begin to see one glimmer of light. It comes with the recent passing of the healthcare bill. I had once hoped that the rut we the American people have fallen into would eventually be grown out of—the rut referred to by Neil Postman as, “amusing ourselves to death.” But the bleakness of our fated reality has begun to set in.

Where will we find help in these perilous times? Who will we look to for a hand up out of this mire? I believe the answers lie with those who are willing and ready to lead us into change that we can truly believe in. The answers to our deepest questions lie not in ourselves but in this: a government who can delegate, direct and provide assurance that all of our needs will be adequately met and that all will be spread equally among both rich and poor.

I lay out four basic areas to recovering the true freedom for which we, as a country, are in desperate need.

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by John Moore
Staff Writer

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

— Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America

On Sunday afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to send a voluminous healthcare bill to President Barack Obama for his signing. The bill will expand government healthcare in America to a near universal system.

Along with many changes, 32 million uninsured Americans will receive government aid, taxes for those who are already insured will increase, Medicaid funding will be cut back while somehow expanding the program,, and insurance companies will be prevented from refusing coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. If all goes according to plan, deficits will decrease over the next 20 years.

Read full story »

by John Moore
Staff Writer

Last week iTunes sold its 10 billionth song.

Chart courtesy betweenthescreens.com

Seventy-one year-old Lou Sulcer from Woodstock, Ga., paid 99 cents for an all but tangible commodity: a digital audio file. Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen that Way,” was the magic purchase. With this news we witness the marriage of the new and the old. Others have noted the irony. I guess things happen that way.

There is something to be said about the technological tools and toys that decorate, infiltrate and mitigate our lives. Upon my knees rests a rapidly aging Macbook Pro. Open on my computer are two Word documents, a web browser sporting multiple opened tabs giving me the news, and my iTunes library. Our lives are intertwined with these things and they flow together seemingly in a forward sprawl. It is hard to separate our lives from technology these days, and it is tough to actually live without being controlled, at least a little, by it. Read full story »

by John Moore
Staff Writer

The largest community of leprosy patients in the Middle East may soon be dispersed.

Yolande Knell of the BBC, in a One-Minute World News report from Feb. 7, informs us that Abou Zaabal is the last leper colony in Egypt. While built by the government in the 1930s to house leprosy patients and to treat them, it is now likely going to be closed. All treatments for the disease can now be given at local hospitals.

Good news: after nearly 80 years, all lepers may now return home. Bad news: those who live there are not in favor of the closing of Abou Zaabal; it has become their home.

In the 20th century, many lepers were forced to come here, isolation being a primary treatment of leprosy (Hansen’s Disease), for which no medical cure was known. Now, Abou Zaabal has become something of a “refuge” for its residents, said one man interviewed by Knell.

The effects of leprosy are noticeable, especially in patients who have been ill with the disease for years. Affecting the nerves, the disease causes loss of feeling in which- ever areas of the body it resides.

Pain, in effect the one thing that so often reminds us that we are human, is stolen. The feeling of touch, perhaps one of the most basic human expressions of affection, is taken. In many cultures, compounded with these things is the social stigma often attached to leprosy. More than half of all new leprosy cases are found in India, a Hindu culture. In this culture, contracting the disease is one of the worst imaginable for anyone. Those who contract the disease literally become “untouchable.” Read full story »