mine is next week and this will be the second i've celebrated. when ppl ask me what i want, i feel awkward....what is an appropriate thing to ask for? it's all so foreign. i'm just curious mostly, but because i honestly feel like i need nothing, i've been asking ppl to donate to my 2 favorite charities penniesforpeace.org or reecesrainbow.org is that an ok request? i'm so new at this, i dont know where to start!
Posts by 2pink
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10birthday gifts? newbie celebrator here...
by 2pink inmine is next week and this will be the second i've celebrated.
when ppl ask me what i want, i feel awkward....what is an appropriate thing to ask for?
it's all so foreign.
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51
I have just left my parents home and the JW's about six months ago and have found it hard to get over.
by StephanieH ini finally desided to leave the witnesses therefore my family and basicly everyone and everything i had ever known.
i was 19 about to be 20 and i had just finished my first semester at a community college.
i was shocked at the respons of my father and others about me attending college at first they were ok but behind my back they were pretty much betting on my failier.
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2pink
dont have time to reply to all the posts, but please email me offline if you EVER need someone to talk to. i left the JWs after being born in (30+ yrs later) and while i'm not gay, i do have many friends that are. you are in the hardest time of the transition....i promise it gets better!!!! and email me anytime you need a listening ear: [email protected] My name is lindsey
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Advice about writing a letter to my relatives
by 2pink inmy husband and i left almost 2 years ago, and were quickly dubbed apostate and didn't refute it...since then we have had zero contact with either of our families (aside from one of my sisters and one of my aunts).
i think it's taken this long for me to come to terms with that...we both came from large families with extended relatives ...all jws.
something that i need to do for me is write a letter...it will be a pretty generic form letter, but anyway i want to draft and send a letter to those that i truly care about.
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2pink
My husband and i left almost 2 years ago, and were quickly dubbed apostate and didn't refute it...since then we have had zero contact with either of our families (aside from one of my sisters and one of my aunts). i think it's taken this long for me to come to terms with that...we both came from large families with extended relatives ...all JWs.
something that i need to do for ME is write a letter...it will be a pretty generic form letter, but anyway i want to draft and send a letter to those that i truly care about. they apparently didn't care enough to call or write and say goodbye to us, but i would like to be the bigger person and say goodbye and wish them well. this is the only thing that has bothered me since we left...that i haven't closed those relationships on my terms...in a loving way.
my question is...assuming that any of them read what i send (i imagine half of them will just delete the email when they see my evil name attached to it)....should i just say goodbye? or should i include any reasons why i left? i kind of want to, since none of the "christians" took the time to even ask me why i left, what i was feeling, etc. but i dont want to say too much and make them just stop reading. it's such a fine line with these black and white one dimensional people.
i'm curious to know what others' experiences are in trying to explain themselves to JW relatives. i am not out to break their faith or anything i just want a chance to say my peace, and wish them well. that's all.
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Where do you think the US is headed?
by 2pink insince you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.. i'm a born and raised us citizen as is my husband.
ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!
), we've paid more attention to politics.
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2pink
diamondiiz-thanks for the book recommendation...i will definitely check that out. i'm absorbing as much info as i can at the moment (which could be why i sound like a raving lunatic going off on so many tangents).
a few posts have mentioned china in a somewhat negative light as if they are the US's undeclared enemy...funny as this is one of our top choices of places to emigrate to. one of our children is adopted from there, and i've spent a fair amount of time in the country. no, it is not the US, no it is not a "democracy" (but can we even call the US that at this point? really?) and no it is not familiar in the least. but it works for some one billion people. and it has worked for a very, very, very long time. do i think they have everything right? no. no country does. does it have nice weather or pleasant smells? hell no, LOL. but like i said, i'm looking for stability for my kids and their future and from the looks of it, china has a shoe in on the forseeable future. the US outsources everything these days...we are a good for nothing but consumerism country, and the bottom is going to drop very soon. china is producing pretty much everything the world needs right now....that's huge in terms of stability if you ask me. they are doing the work legally to produce goods that the rest of the world demands. you can argue that they "steal" jobs from other nations, but the fact is, it's done legally and is negotiated by big business. i think the chinese themselves are doing nothing wrong...they are working for honest wages legally and they happen to work for much less in that country than we do in ours. dgp, i agree again that the ones we need to direct hostility towards are the big business owners...apple is raking in who knows how much more by having their products assembled by the chinese when they could take a margain off their own profits and give the jobs to americans. who's to blame there? again, greedy big business. it's sickening and really shameful. these guys have been running their own country into the ground for their own personal temporary gain, exploiting others all along the way.
and a valid point that of course economies in different countries will be different. we'd certainly pay a lot more for a home in sydney than our home in california, BUT it's really relative because wages there are much, much higher than here. so, kind of a wash if you ask me. we'd just have to travel to china once a year to buy clothing and other small goods.
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Where do you think the US is headed?
by 2pink insince you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.. i'm a born and raised us citizen as is my husband.
ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!
), we've paid more attention to politics.
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2pink
dgp-agreed that there are many frames to view the immigration situation through. this country was founded by and built up by immigrants, yes. but we are an entirely different beast now. 200 years ago we needed bodies to populate this place and built cities and towns, if it was going to become its own nation. today, we cannot support the bodies who are already here, much less more who are pouring in illegally.
i believe that economically, there is a difference between legal and illegal immigrants. legal immigrants will pay taxes on earnings, illegal immigrants will not. my children are being supported by ME; children of illegal immigrants are being supported by the state. truly, the only ones who are benefiting from illegal immigrants being illegal are business owners who are getting cheap labor. illegal immigrants are treated like crap and paid even worse. there needs to be a program to legalize them, so they gain rights while earning their own way here. too bad the US is too busy meddling in other nations' business to take care of its own....
podobear-i just watched a program for a class about the gap widening between the rich and the poor...the american "middle class" is on its way to extinction faster than i realized.
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64
Where do you think the US is headed?
by 2pink insince you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.. i'm a born and raised us citizen as is my husband.
ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!
), we've paid more attention to politics.
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2pink
flying high now-i just read an article on this...will post back later about it if i have time!
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64
Where do you think the US is headed?
by 2pink insince you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.. i'm a born and raised us citizen as is my husband.
ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!
), we've paid more attention to politics.
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2pink
diamondiiz-thanks for pointing out that typo......writing 2 papers full of statistics, and then taking a break to drink a beer and post on JWN isn't really conducive to getting the numbers straight is it?
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64
Where do you think the US is headed?
by 2pink insince you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.. i'm a born and raised us citizen as is my husband.
ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!
), we've paid more attention to politics.
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2pink
of course people are coming to the US in droves because the current situation here is 1000x better than where they are coming from. i get that. but that's not my point...yes things are ok here at the moment, but my concern is for the future.
dgp-i'm sorry that you clearly took offense to my comments about immigration. of course i do not "despise" a group of people as you insinuate or find a group of people "despicable". yes i am well aware that americans stole this land from many peoples, native americans and mexicans among them. yes, that is a VERY embarrassing and sad part of our history. i recently took 2 history courses and was further saddened by the details i learned. however, it happened and i cannot change it. currently, i do not blame many people for wanting to come to america to get respite from their current situation in their homeland. what i do find wrong about it though is that it is done ILLEGALLY and is becoming a significant drain on our already sinking ship of a country. most immigrants who come here are poor...so we are admitting over a million (at last count) ppl per year to our society that is already challenged with poverty of its natives. i happen to have sitting in front of me a document for a class i'm in...it's a FAIR document written in 1996 (so numbers will be off from current ones...but just as a convenient starting point) but it places the NET cost of immigrants at $65 billion per year (again a 1996 fig). the document additionally notes that 1.9 million americans are displaced from their jobs every year by immigrants who will do the jobs for less money, all for the benefit of big businesses getting a bargain of course. the cost for providing welfare to these displaced americans is over $15 billion. i think that the solution would be to make these immigrants become LEGAL and treat and pay them as americans. i'd see only benefits coming to our country and to the immigrants that way. and btw, i have 3 kids, 2 adopted internationally who look different from me and have different skin so in no way am i discriminating racially here...this is not a white vs other skin color discussion for me. and as a matter of fact, my own children also happen to be IMMIGRANTS themselves...so to insinuate that i hold this group as "despicables" was very presumptous of you. the difference is that my children are LEGAL. and no matter what country they end up being raised in, they will be taught to respect its laws and work to benefit it. oh and no, i don't plan to emigrate elsewhere and send money "home". i'd legally become a citizen of the country and then work to build it up as my home.
i dont think that the US must be the top dawg...or feel that i need to live in the top country. i am the least competitive person you will ever meet. i despise that arrogant attitude displayed by our country so much...that they think they are the best (except cooking---you're so right there!). i thought i conveyed that in my first post but i guess not...i do not like that proud attitude and realize that it has contributed greatly to our rash decisions in international affairs and hence the bad taste we are leaving in everyone's mouths. i actually want to live in a country that minds its own business and flies under the radar. mostly, i just want to raise my children somewhere SAFE. i want to raise them where they will have a future, in a country that isn't hated by a large portion of the world and that isn't in shambles by the time they are 25. i realize every country experiences its ups and downs...that is life. but i just feel that the US is headed down a very bad path very quickly, and if i can move my family to a safer more stable location, then naturally i would like to do so. if i could spare my children living through what i think is the imminent fall of this nation, then yes, i would like to do that. my husband's job has the possibility of relocation to australia, so that would be an option for us...if they let us in. they have immigration control!
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64
Where do you think the US is headed?
by 2pink insince you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.. i'm a born and raised us citizen as is my husband.
ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!
), we've paid more attention to politics.
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2pink
assuming you are serious, , we feel the same way! that combined with the fact that we have virtually no friends left in this small world doesn't lend to a promising future, does it?
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64
Where do you think the US is headed?
by 2pink insince you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.. i'm a born and raised us citizen as is my husband.
ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!
), we've paid more attention to politics.
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2pink
since you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.
i'm a born and raised US citizen as is my husband. ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!), we've paid more attention to politics. we've also come to the realization we are responsible for our own futures, and since we have 3 very young kids, we think about this a lot.
that said, we dont see a very promising future here in the US. while i realize no country is perfect and many places have things FAR worse than we do, i think that the US is headed in a very bad direction. while i feel many americans are good, moral people, i also feel there is a huge disconnect between the masses and the politicians (could be both a cause and a result of the low voter turnouts!). i feel that the US uses its power to act arrogantly and irrationally and stick its nose in places it ought not. we are like the nosey, interfering asshole next door neighbor that no one likes! and with our ever changing allegiances, i feel we are making enemies right and left. i've traveled a lot internationally and as a younger person, always wondered why i was often treated rudely. now i totally understand. to top off our disastrous foreign policies and actions, we are one trillion dollars in debt. who's gonna want to loan that asshole neighbor a trillion bucks to help them out? no one! and we are letting immigrants pour across the border (i live in CA so am esp sensitve to this). they come here and drain our govt, using all forms of public assistance, then work under the table, pay no taxes and dont even further the economy by spending their money here. they send it "home" to mexico. i recently read somewhere that by 2025, it's predicted that LA will be 45% non-english speaking immigrants.
sorry, i tend to go off on tangents...anyway, i'm just curious what others' opinions are as to what our future might be here. (US citizens and others!) we rose to the top to become a superpower in just 200 years, i feel that we could be brought down even quicker. there's a saying, something like, "rome wasn't built in a day, but it could burn in a day". i totally feel that is the case here in the US and many citizens are too apathetic to work for and demand change. we've also become so fragmented and opinionated that it seems nearly impossible for anyone to agree on anything, leading to so much intolerance. "conservative" and "liberal" have become derogatory terms, rather than ways of describing those of differing opinions. i think aside from our other issues, a huge challenge facing americans today is whether or not we will choose to transcend differences and re-unite.
my husband and i are considering emigrating to another more stable country because we are so disillusioned at the way the US looks now. part of me would like that as it would truly be a fresh start for us, but mostly we are just trying to decide what is best for our children's futures.
what are your thoughts on the US and its future? thanks for reading.