Hello my name is (Insert name here)

I am an addict, addicted to feeling completely sedated. A feeling of floating that kills all brain cells addicted to numbness and dumbing down of senses; pins and needles pin pointing my needs. The only meaning to me behind the words, “cold turkey,” are the left-overs I scarf down. High off of so many substances I lose count and take another bite. Roaming through life like a lost dog I lose all concept of time. Months? Years? Seasons? Even days blur together in one psychedelic jumble.
Darkness...
I wake up and walk to the next room only to see what once was a kitchen, now turned into a laboratory. Then again, I'm not sure whose house this I am in. Maybe it was always like that. I walk past a tear-away calender, March 22.
“It's my birthday...”
I sigh and continue my trek towards the bathroom, not because I need to go but because it is the only place I can be alone. I step over three still unconscious students. At least they have an excuse for being here. They are still young and foolish. Perhaps they'll out grow this stage before it's too late. Maybe they'll wake up before they end up being a thirty year old addict still running the party circuit of a college town. A drug dealer whose only income is spreading the very poison he consumes in lethal doses. It's ironic really, I used to despise the old guys who were at all the parties, hitting on the young girls and using them through paying them with free drugs. I'm that guy.
“I hope that girl from last night was legal,” I wonder.
Let's face it, it's been a long while since anything I've done was legal. She looked not a day older than sixteen but who knows? She said she was eighteen and that's what matters, it's not like I card.
I sit down on the porcelain. Through a small window above me a ray of sunshine beams on my face like a laser beam from star trek set to blind. I shield my eyes. When was the last time I've seen the sun? I can't even remember. Like a vampire with a hang over I quickly hide in the shadow. Only I didn't turn into dust and disappear. I reach into my pocket and pull out my shades. I laugh to myself as I realize that my perception of life is like these shades. Everything I see is darkened by my warped ideas of how to exploit it for my own monetary gain or more devious personal pleasure which is the true harlot of all my misdeeds to whom I am forever enslaved. Enough of this serious self examination.
I light up a joint that I saved from the night before and drift into oblivion. This was the good stuff. The premiere merchandise I saved only for myself. The stuff that's laced with things I can't even pronounce. I feel a little better now. I think I'll go grab a leftover beer and head across town to meet my supplier. Then I'll just let myself wander 'til the next time I wake up somewhere. Then I'll begin it all again. “Happy Birthday to me.”

FRUSTRATION

By, Stuart Platt

Tension
Pulsing, Burning
Memories fade to Black
nothing...
mountains are climbed
boulders towards heaven roll
frivolously falling further down
life's existence foiled
circular motion forced
round milky way's edge
unrequited, unending
satisfaction, no guarantees
tip toeing toward turning
failing to pass the course
we will weep when we wash on
sleeping slumber of solace
usurping Satan's stare

Photo by Chris Robinson

International Adoption

In a normal Texas household, a young girl of approximately 15 years old sits in a chair contemplating her life. She seems to be reminiscing about her past and then pondering her future. She stands about five feet tall, has brown hair, and weighs about 98 pounds. At a glance, she seems to be a normal teenage girl living in the southern United States. Then, she speaks. Her accent is anything but a sweet southern drawl. She speaks broken English with a thick eastern European accent.
Meet Amelia Pauline Platt. She is an adopted child from Kazakhstan. Amelia is a product of the international adoption agency, Children’s Home Society and Family services of Minnesota.
CHSFS international aids American couples in adopting children from over a dozen countries. In 2006 alone, more than 700 children were adopted through their international adoption programs. This organization and others like it are a much-needed ministry that we as Americans should consider. There are approximately 100 million orphaned children in the world today. Sadly, many children are simply over looked for consideration to be adopted because of their age.
Age is an important factor in the adoption process. The only requirement for the graduation of older orphans is age. In many cases graduation can come as young as 16 years old, for an orphan this means leaving the orphanage that they have called home for most of their lives. This means being put onto the streets alone and penniless.
It is estimated that approximately 10% of orphans that “graduate” from their orphanages kill themselves within their first year on the streets. Of the remaining orphans who are kicked out, one in five will become involved in crime. Drugs and prostitution are the majority of the offenses in which graduated orphans participate.
The ministry of adopting older children is something that Doug and Lee Ann Platt of Bryan, Texas took to heart. After years of consideration and prayer they decided to adopt a girl from Columbia who was nearing the age of graduation. During the process of adopting, Ana Carolina, they were approached by a representative of Forever Family, an affiliate of CHSFS, and asked to consider adopting another girl. After having been told of the extreme circumstances behind the adoption, they accepted the offer. The Platts met their new daughter, Amelia, in Waco with her then mother.
“When I came to America to the family, I have a hard time.” Amelia said. “I fight with my sister, Natasha, and with the wife. I disobeyed her. She slapped my face… she pulled my hair and all the way to the door she pulled my ear so I ran away for six days. The police came and got me and took me home to talk to the wife. I came back to their house and I slept on the floor.
“They said (that) I going to Missouri in the morning to think about if I want to stay in them house or if I want to go back to Kazakhstan. When I come back from Missouri,(Her original adoptive father) met me in the hotel and said that I am not their daughter anymore; I am going to another family. He gone. Then the wife came the next morning and picked me up and took me to meet the new family in Waco.”

In November of 2006, Amelia came to live with the Platt family.
Now, Amelia is a happily adopted member of the growing Platt household. In this year she has gained a new sister, learned to roller skate, learned to ride a bike, participated in organized sports such as volleyball and basketball, and is flourishing home school student.
Due to the poor condition of her orphanage and the language differences, Amelia, who by age should be a freshman in high school, is only in the 4th grade.
“My language is way different ... It was hard to hear the change in the speaking...It was hard to tell and understand.” said Amelia.
“The weather is way different (too),” said Amelia. “When I came to America. I saw big, huge airplanes and lots of people... (There) were stores and things everywhere. They were different clothes and dress. We in Kazak, wear sweaters and long clothes and when I came here there were people wearing shorts and not covered and it was hot.
“The grocery stores were huge! Lots of room and food everywhere. The houses have lots of room and space everywhere. Things are clean… (in America) people are everywhere. They go all the time.”
Despite the differences in culture and the hardships that she faced Amelia seems happy to be a part of her new family.
“Being in a family you share with sisters. You learning things from each other.” Amelia said. “I love having friends and a wonderful home, sharing things at church, having brothers and sisters to laugh with. I love the pets...dogs and cat. I love decorating at holidays, especially the tree and lights.
“Having people who care about you and sharing and helping them. I love to play with this family and volleyball and basketball and riding bikes together. This family loves me and teaches me and helps me write letters and I don't have to figure it out alone. They pray with me.”

Amelia is just one example of adoption in the Platt family. Between them and their extended family they have adopted six children from two different countries. Their willingness to minister to these children is something that others should take to heart. People should take action in aiding those in need who unable to help their selves. Whether that aid is adopting a child, financially supporting children whose families are in need, or even simply giving donations to ministries like CHSFS who allow others to adopt, action must be taken.
“Right now, life is not scary anymore,” said Amelia. “I was watching over kids in (the orphanage) like my sister and here I don't have too. We fight in the orphanage all the time and here it doesn't. We have clothes (in America) and there we doesn't. Houses are pretty (here) and there they are not.”

The Four-Year Stigma

As seniors look forward to walking down the aisle during commencement ceremony, the fast approaching reality of graduation throws many students in a quandary, while graduates visit with family and friends and celebrate their benchmark achievement. Seniors stew in the knowledge that their so called “victory lap” may not be so victorious.
The number of awarded bachelor's degrees awarded from 1987 to 1997 rose by 18%. In the year 2003 the U.S. had 37.4 million citizens between the ages of 20 and 29. In the subsequent years these statistics have grown. The rise in number of these “twenty-somethings” with a college education has led to a phenomenon of depressed young adults that is commonly called “the quarterlife crisis,” a term applied to the period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence into adulthood that causes feelings of depression, inadequacy and confusion of identity.
Many psychologists recognize QLC as a real problem among young people, and it is often compared to the mid-life crisis of adults 40 to 50. All these statistics can be found at quarterlifecrisis.com, a site dedicated to literature and statistics related to alleviating this problem.
Although QLC is usually found in college graduates, the issue is more commonly being found in all students nearing the end of their collegiate career. The general belief held by many Americans that adulthood begins at age 26 may further the problem.
The quarterlife crisis looming above our heads, the thousands more dollars of debt we will accrue in the following semesters trying to finish our degree plans, and the constant hassling of others over when and why we are not graduating on time. It would seem to be a grim outlook of life for my fifth year compatriots.
Though suffering from feelings of embarrassment or depression from our inability to finish our collegiate journey, we may take comfort in a report by The Education Trust put out in 2005. It shows UMHB’s six-year average graduation rate is only 41.2%.
This statistic may bring us encouragement. The simple fact that we are still in school and close to finishing, should spur us on to no longer furthering the statistics.
We are ahead of the curve. We must focus on the prize at hand by putting our nose to the grindstone and putting away our slacker-like ways. Together we can show the incoming freshmen not born in the 1980’s how it’s done.
If we focus on graduation in 2009, it will not only help keep our mind off of our busy senior schedule, with robing, midnight march and all the last experiences of our collegiate experience, it will also then be less likely for us to think ahead toward the great unknown of the future ahead.

Water

Rain slowly drips from the clouds like a leaky faucet, a light mist fogs the windows as a small grouping of droplets form into a community. Together they slowly conform to one single unit, one mind, one soul, one spirit. Yet each droplet is its own being. Its own personality. Its own consciousness. One individual thought in a sea of flowing rain. As one they are nothing but a drop, a speck in the large scaled existence of the universe. As a unit they comprise a driving force capable of causing the untold tragedy of entire planets. We need it for survival. It sustains the erratic system of life on which we cling and is the very fabric of our being. The majesty of its beauty holds spectators breathless as it dances through nature a holy trinity three in one. Immersion in its depths will awe those who brave it, many fall victim to its might. This deadly temptress of navy and gray may also heal those who thirst for its power. Then all at once the time will come when the sun breaks through the clouds and everything will fade into nothingness.

What happened to the American Dream?

As I listen to the two presidential nominees argue against one another as a way to somehow win the hearts and votes of the populous, I can't help but wonder what happened to America?
When the Founding Fathers laid down the Constitution for the United States, they did so with the great ideals, hopes of freedom and dreams of liberty. Their stance against the tyrannical monarchy of oppression, from which all colonists fled, was a radical new idea. The idea that all are created equal. When were Liberty and hard work replaced with the socialistic ideas of governmental control and handouts?
The current administration as well as the upcoming administration that is to be elected in November have much more in common than they would have us believe. The so-called partisanship of Washington fades away when citizens see the voting records of those running. Both John McCain and Barack Hussein Obama have voted with the Bush administration; they have also both voted against it. When will the American people wake up and realize that the freedoms they once enjoyed in this country have been traded away for a false sense of so-called, “safety?”
Benjamin Franklin once said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
The Founding Fathers would never have agreed to things like the recent government buy out or the Patriot Act of 2001. These blatant power grabs are just two examples of the extent of corruption that the powers that be have jumped into.
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy,” James Madison said.
Our government has scared its people into blind submission through threats of terror and foreign enemies. They have policed the world as a way to slowly leech our liberty.
They have perverted the very foundation of our nation – the Constitution – into some kind of living document that should be changed instead of followed.
“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government,” Madison said.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press as a way for the government to be held in check. Constitutionally, the media should be having a field day with this current way the government is being run. Why is the media so slanted towards push one party's rhetoric or the next? Those who would say that the media should not criticize and critique the government are not in agreement with the Founding Fathers.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public,” Theodore Roosevelt said.
These are just some examples of how far the United States have fallen from grace and how very close we are to becoming a completely socialistic society. Short of a violent revolution, which none truly want to see, the only way to change this reality is to lobby and vote for the men and women who do hold to the values the Founding Fathers held.
In the words of John Quincy Adams, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

Woo-hoo for yoo-hoo

Yoo-hoo chocolate drink is by far the best beverage that has ever existed. Often when I write I will not be able to continue until I have made the trip to a local grocery store to grab at least a six pack of yoo-hoo and some Little Debbie snacks.
It is no secret that college students frequently eat unhealthy snack food and highly caffeinated beverages during late nights cramming for exams, papers, and the like. But not one of those midnight snackers can compare with yoo-hoo.
For those who are unfamiliar with the drink, yoo-hoo is a wonderful chocolate milk alternative.
According to the company's official website, the drink got it's start in the early 1920's by a man named Natale Olivieri, owner of a bottling company in New Jersey which made fruit drinks.
Olivieri believed if he could create a chocolate drink that would not spoil in the bottle, it would be a major success. After many experiments, he finally found the correct mix of natural flavorings and bottling methods, and yoo-hoo chocolate drink was born. Today yoo-hoo is still headquartered in New Jersey and is bottled and sold throughout the United States.
Yoo-hoo is often label as a chocolate milk alternative. Some critics point out that it does not traditionally score well on purely taste-based chocolate milk comparisons. It is true that good chocolate milk is very tasty and does taste more like itself than does yoo-hoo. However, leave milk on the counter for a day in an unopened container and come back and taste it then, or leave a chocolate milk in the refrigerator for over a month and try it again. Now do the same thing with a yoo-hoo.
Compare the two again.
Does the milk taste different? Yoo-hoo doesn't.
Yoo-hoo not only boasts of no preservatives and no left-over growth hormones from some mistreated cow, its nutritional facts blow away opponents.
When compared against any of the most popular chocolate milks or soft drinks on college campuses yoo-hoo stands strong. Common sodas and energy drinks are loaded with calories and mass amounts of sugar and caffeine. Chocolate milk is high in fat, calories, cholesterol and sugar. Yoo-hoo, however, not only has fewer calories and less sugar than sodas, energy drinks and chocolate milk but also is 99 percent caffeine free and 99 percent fat free.
Yoo-hoo is a delicious alternative to the usual junk drinks that are consumed on a daily basis. So, next time tempted with the high in sugar high in caffeine drinks or fatty calorie stuffed milk, reach for a yoo-hoo instead. Don't forget to shake it.

I Like Pants

By, Stuart Platt

I like Pants as every boy should
On or off my pants are good!
They keep me all cozy, like a warm woolen blanket
and if they are gone I can't hardly take it
My Pants are my friend at good times and bad
they remind me of friends that I've never had
Pants are the thing that keeps me all quiet
they even remind me when I need a diet.
A feel very lonely when pants are away
I wish that in public that they'd always stay
For me and my pants we'll be friends forever
until comes the day when seams start to sever.
I like Pants

3:16

By, Stuart Platt

What is it about the night that brings out the philosopher in us all?

There seems to be a silent longing to know more about life and meaning.

The quietness.

It screams in our ears so loudly that we feel as if our eardrums might burst from anymore.

Minds racing thinking about yesterday and looking forward towards tomorrow. Responsibilities, Work, Obligation, Bills, Friends, God, Love,

All these come to the forefront of the mind in the silent deadness of night.

It is in the light of day that we lose ourselves to our life.

In the hectic blaring noisiness of the monotonous rush and bustle of the day.

We lose that quiet part of ourselves that longs to sit in silence.

Perhaps that is why we come back to ourselves in the night.

A haunting shadow, our fears and desires, our phobias and dreams.

Maybe that is why we fear the sanctuary of the night.

Do we fear His still small voice?