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Name: shuyin
Interests: brokenness and restoration. the music that drives this soul. being awed by God's creation. but mostly, living and loving the way jesus intended it. claiming victory, not defeat.
Occupation: Family Advocate
Industry: Head Start-Education
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
7/28/2004
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| Earlier this year I wrote a blog in response to Obama's overturn of the Mexico City Policy that would basically remove all barriers to abortions, including parental consent and waiting periods. The overturn of this policy rolls back the ban (first instituted by President Reagan in 1984) put on family planning NGOs from receiving U.S. Funds if they perform or lobby for abortions in their country. In other words, an NGO (domestic and foreign) that applies for family planning funds will be refused funds if the funds were used to provide abortions. Some groups at that time altered their activities in order to qualify for the U.S. funds while other groups lost funding because they continued to provide abortions. Now with a new president and party this policy that has been administered and rescinded and administered for the last 20 years has come to its latest stop...at being rescinded.
As an Obama supporter this overturn decision was a major disappointment to me and soured my excitement over his decision to close Guantamano Bay and its torture practices. His seemingly good intentions and reasons for overturning the policy in the name of "rights" "women's voice" "liberty" and "freedom" was a shame to what "liberty and freedom" should really be. It has been half a year since all this "abortion -pro-choice-pro-life hullaballoo" but I still wanted to share my thoughts on the issue because I believe it is one of the greatest injustices of today.
= = =
Ban on abortion. Gag rule. Freedom of Choice. Reversal on abortion ban. Rights killer. Mexico City Policy. Conservative vs. liberal.
Whatever you want to call it, and no matter how much you like Obama and what he has done, abortion is still abortion. The
topic still remains the same whatever we want to call it or whatever "good thing" it
is paired with! It is still abortion. We can remove Obama's name from
it...and it will still be the same.
This topic is especially hard for me to talk about because it combines two things I am passionate about: NGOs and life. As a Community Development Major with a focus in social services, I am a strong advocate for non-profits and all the good things that they do and can do. I even want to set up my one NGO one day. But this love of this grassroots level and meso-level action can only go so far when something life-giving is paired with something life-sucking.
In regards to the foreign NGOs funds, I
think Obama could have passed a much better rule than the one he did. I agree that this is a very tough decision, but I
feel he was rash in his decision to simply reuse that Mexico City Policy ban/no-ban
instead of creating a new one altogether. Why couldn't he still have used government money to reward those groups
that encourage responsible reproduction (which keep in mind, still has a whole lot of positive effects), and not give funds to those
who choose that a women has the right to kill a child? Why must we
accept the bad and compromise just to get the "good tidbits"? I just
feel that this decision was so contradictory to his principles for
closing Guantamano Bay. Here he was claiming
torture and all those methods were inhumane...but on the other hand,
when it comes to babies, suddenly it is okay? I really dont' know what
he personally thinks about it, all I feel is that he should have done
what is right, not what people want. (And this, is absolute, not
relative)
Okay,
to break it down. This essentially is the problem. Irresponsible
reproduction and unwanted babies as a result of it. The proposed solution to this is teaching responsible reproduction to prevent
unwanted babies or at least to teach parenting should an unwanted fetus be born. The issue is so complicated because how are we to deal with parents that abort after finding out their child has some condition or is a particular gender? How about parents that halfway--75%, 90% through pregnancy decide they now don't want the baby and
then aborts. And so forth and so forth.
Let
me attempt to make a metaphor to this. Let's say we have a group of
people in society with abnormal psychology--this psychology could be
benign to society or it could be harmful for society. Such psychology
could range from everything from autism to paranoia to antisocial
killing behavior--but ALL need extra work and help from society.
The problem in this situation is that
these people are different and do not know how to operate "normally" in
society. So the solution to our problem could be a range of tactics.
NGOs or other organizations could adopt therapy, group counseling,
behavior modification, drugs, conditioned responses, etc, etc. These
are all GOOD things to help alleviate the problem. However, there could
be some NGO along the way that does all these good things but also
provides the option of killing someone should they be too much work or
burden on their caretakers, OR too dangerous to leave living.
There
is no such NGO around. And should there be, I don't think we would have
to think hard whether they are doing an acceptable thing. Therefore,
should we then accept an organization for its good even though it
promotes something evil? Should we compromise and say killing is okay
just so that people will know how to use condoms? In my opinion, I
think the evil cancels out and debunks ANY good that org. may be doing.
A woman is not her own body. Who is she to claim killing a child is
okay?. That is not her child. That is God's. Whether she is a Christian
or not does NOT change anything about whether a fetus should live or not and what its creation and origin is from.
The argument in
regards to America helping developing countries do family planning is weak. Of course we should educate, but say we
support an abortion clinic in a developing country that also happens to
pass out condoms. Can you imagine the great number of baby girls especially who will die because society does not want girls but
rather desires boys? Can you imagine? This is happening enough without
clinical abortion! Should we encourage killing by making it more
accessible with abortion? This is injustice for someone so small, weak,
and voiceless. I cannot take that.
A fight for liberty and freedom can only be a worthy fight if it fights for liberty and freedom for ALL affected. Women who claim that having an abortion is their choice and that they should have freedom to do with their body or baby as they please are taking someone else's liberty away for the sake of fulfilling their own liberty. They want a voice? How about advocating for a voice of someone who has NO SAY, NO POWER, NO SUING ABILITIES? Why should someone else suffer for your decision to have a one-night stand or failure to use a condom? Blame this problem on education, blame it on institutions, blame it on everything else but your own mistake. But your mistake still stands, and I'm so sorry, but the egg and sperm do not filter out and decide which penetration is a mistake and which is not. Nature still happens.
The term social justice nowadays has become the popular, sexy thing to tag along too. But if you don't know why you care about social justice and what really is social justice, I beg you, please stop following movements in the name of social justice and instead go follow your own idea of letting every man make his own set of "truth." If we really want to stand up for justice and what is right, we got to be all in. We can't support a "right" if it means taking someone else's right away.
I admit this problem will
never go away as long as humans live. We are broken, sinful, and all
desiring to be our own god. I have the convinctions I have because I
want to slow down the corruption in the world as much as possible. My
thoughts are not so much addressed to Obama, but to all the noise
around whether abortion is a right and whether it should be accepted in
society and culture.
To the child inside the womb that is fighting for life, I hope the world will choose to stand up and fight for your life.
Read more... | | |
| for two minutes last night you and your sister came to visit me in my dreams
you had come back to school, all smiles and laughter
you had only been gone for one month, but you had already grown an inch
much more than you had grown all year
you had come back, safe
for two minutes you were all smiles
but your smiles could not hide the sadness you did not know how to express inside
the bags under your eyes expressed a sorrow that that no child should ever have
for two minutes i had the joy to see you and your sister again
to know that you were alive and safe
to know that despite this crazy world that you live in
this world that you cannot understand
this world where you have never known a house
this world where you have never known stability
you...you were still hanging there, surviving
for two minutes i had a flashback of when you and your sister first came
skinny and underweight
dirty faced and unwashed hands
untied shoelaces and sockless feet
clothing that did not fit quite right
but still you came
ready to learn, ready to know love, ready to know that the world can be a safe place
for two minutes it struck me how much you have blossomed this year
no longer the reluctant and shy learner
but the curious mind that never stopped being awed by things that should otherwise be ordinary to any child
for two minutes i had the blessing to see you again
for two minutes i thought you were back
to ask me to watch you run real real fast
because you were going to be a super fast runner one day
for two minutes i thought
i finally knew what happened to you
but daylight awakened reality
because all i know is that you and your sister have been missing for one month
no calls, no contact, no news
and my heart sank so far
knowing that i won't see you run real fast again
knowing that i won't get killer hugs from you
knowing that i won't be able to send you off to kindergarten
knowing that i won't see your smile again
knowing that i don't know if you are safe
joshua and leilani lemons, please be safe
Jesus hold these children in your palm
they need your love
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| I am slowly going to edge my butt back over to blogging. I have been found guilty on so many counts of not following everyone's blog here and elsewhere. So this is my honest attempt to keep up with everyone! Never too late to start again eh, this post is even later than the last one I had posted. (I claim now 13 months of hiatus =P) Hopefully I will start blogging regularly from now on because I realize how much I have missed not only reading about everyone's lives but turning my reflections of my own life into a coherent bunch of blaghs.
But for just today--a quick update on my life:
Where I have come from...and where I hope to go..
* I graduated from UC Davis Spring 2008 with a degree in Community & Regional Development (focuses in Social Services and Organization & Management) [yes, I know, I'm not as old as you think...I hurried up my degree and finished in 3 years]
* I am working in the East Bay as a Family Advocate for the Head Start Program. I manage a case-load of 80 families who have children attending the program. I love love love love what I do, the kids I work with, and being amazed by people in so many regards. My job only runs for the school year so I will soon be unemployed. Time flies and there is only 2 1/2 months until this year is up!
* I am planning on applying to grad schools in the Fall. Thus, the fat GRE prep book will sit on my desk for a month before I even venture into it to start studying. I am trying to avoid it as long as possible. I was so busy in college with school and work and IV and everything else that since graduation I have prided in sitting around and vegetating. It takes me forever to finish a task now; it took me like 2 months to finally sign up for a Spanish class I knew I needed to take. Anyway, I was originally set on settling on going the MSW route (Master's of Social Work) at two of the UCs but recently my housemate told me about UCSD's Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies and when she was telling me about it it was as if a spark went off within me. SO, I'm super excited as to where all this is going to lead me, but a lot of prayer is needed!
What I have learned...and am learning...
* South Bay culture is so different from the real Bay Area.
* I rarely had been on I-880 before. It was always the 280, 680, 237, never the 238, 580, or 880.
* Buicks are supposedly cool and g over here. When my Dad drove his Buick around Cupertino, it was always duck and cover. Now that I have inheritated his car and drive up around here, I no longer have to do that
* On a more serious note: Diversity, diversity, diversity. I thought UCD InterVarsity was pretty diverse already, but man this area is even more amazing. This is why I can never ever move back to Cupertino (even though I had no desire to do so prior to moving here).
* The one thing that was most in-my-face however was being removed from the college-educated bubble where everyone pursued their education all the way to the University level. Here, it is rare to meet straight out of high school 4-yearers college folks. And although one of my best friends here has a totally and absolutely different lifestyle and background than me, it still strikes me how strange it is that my background is such a rare occurrence. I realize how blessed I am to have the education I have and parents & teachers that made it possible for me to pursue more education. I'm trying to learn how God wants me to use this privilege for His glory--with the people I work and laugh with, with the low-income parents I partner with, and with the impressionable innocent and most joy-giving 3-5 year olds I teach and play with.
* Everything that is written in the Read World book "Following Jesus in the Real World" is true to the max. No need to explain. Real Worlders--enjoy every waking moment you have studying with Matt & Ruth. Church, community, belonging, and everything that is so dear and central in college IS stripped when you're in the Real World. I am STILL trying to find that place of belonging and it has been very hard and challenging. What made it even harder was the fact that since I graduated early I left the majority of my close friends at Davis. For the first few months I was a hermit, and although I did not want to admit it, I was bitter, lonely, and tired.
* Seeing people through the lens of Jesus Christ--a lens that draws me first to look at how I was before He gave me life and hope: a broken, sinful, and lost child.
* God is most glorified when our brokenness and loneliness cries praises and honor to Him. The tree planted by streams of water will have fruitless seasons, but it's leaf will never wither. It is OKAY to go through periods where all God wants me to have are leaves.
* And so much more....fit for chocolate, blankets, and dreary skies.
On another note, more proof that fashion recycles itself: The Srunchie Returns
Does this mean I need to dig up my 15 year old scrunchies stuck at the back of my accessories drawer in the dresser at my parent's house?!? Thoughts? Ugly or wayyy cool.
(i say wayyyy no.)
For some kick...Yosemite 5.5 years ago. Look how we've grown!!!! 
  Love, Shuyin | | |
| i still want to be part of the story...
Hey there. =) It has been approximately a year since I've ventured here. Yes, it's been quite the hiatus, I must say--but it hasn't been without a lonesome som on this side. I'm kind of scared to be on here again, and as I told my boyfriend and my sanyo Amber, it's almost as if I 've lost touch of this side of mine--the side that dared to write crazy senseless esoteric-nism such and suchs, the side that vomited all the spoken things I couldn't necessarily speak to human ears. One thing that has still remained--my rambling. I took a journalism class my sophomore year in college and didn't do too hot in it. The reason, I write too much--I'm as far from as concise as anything can be. It's okay. I think I'll stick to the creative writing--if I can do that even too.
Since January many things have happened. Let me just give you a quick update on that...
- I have lost the teen to my age
- I am taken by a wonderful wonderfulness named David Alfred Nguyen since January 27, 2007
- I went to Thailand for 6 weeks of my life and befriended a many girls who make a living selling their bodies, saw some things I wish I never knew has been existence for forever. Let me share if you care to know. It's hard to share with people who don't want to care.
- I entered what is known as the last year of the best of your young life--I shall be graduating this year, and am feeling quite bittersweet about it
- I have a new set of ducklings to mother and learn from--from 4 girls to 10 girls, I am a proud Momma
- I am extremely busy--balancing graduating early, work, internships, bible study leading, and having a boyfriend and old and new friends to not lose touch with
I'm kind of tired. I just realized that I don't even journal in my old pen-paper journal anymore. Sometimes I'm too tired to think about how my day went--and then too tired to write it down. Maybe my disappearance from this attests to that too. (help me! save me from languishing away!)
The other day I was listening to Rich Mullins last works before God took him away---he sings "Jesus" in such a way that even its simple words digs its little hooks and swirls into my heart and likes to hang around in longing.
He sings,
Jesus
Write me into Your story
Whisper it to me
And let me know I'm Yours
Sometimes I question--
Why would Jesus want to write ME into HIS story?? Who am I that could even make a dent into HIS story--HIS claim to Lordship?? He doesn't even need me.
In times when I feel my crappiest that I can't even turn to Him, it's in that shame and scrunched pain that I see glimpses of my own desperateness for Him. I don't turn away cause I don't want Him anymore--it's cuz I want Him too much, I want Him to be proud of me, but so often He cries another tear to the ocean.
I've been learning this about myself (slowly, yet still learning), that when I speak of faith, I don't have much. I'm scared like anything (surprising coming from the girl who used to be so ambitious and risky) to really live out what I want to do.When I share my dreams and get them shot down as being part of "the youngness in age and idealistic" a little part of me dies...and that little girl in me who used to have that untainted heart unbutchered by the world still cries out to live and be part of His story. The big girl has too many responsibilities, practical needs, "wisdom", and "adultness".
I hate it that when you become an "adult" you have to become that adult that makes more than enough to put food on the table, to hold the job that ensures envying nods in your direction. You have to wear adult clothes, you have to settle down and be "real". Whatever happened to dreaming? Whatever happened to striving to reach your full potential and not get bogged down by what's "practical (so I can prepare my retirement fund at age 24)"?? Whatever happened to living as yourself and not fitting a mold of another? No, I'm not saying go starve because you want to have fun the rest of your life--I'm talking about daring to follow Jesus especially when it's non-conventional--daring to risk being "poor" for the gains of being alive. I don't want no 9-5 job, I don't want no suburban house, I don't want no nice corporate job where I can go to business banquets. I don't want a well-paid husband who comes home with a briefcase and sits down at a nice table with warm soup waiting for him, I don't want no nice car, or Godiva chocolates. Don't give me your blahs that I'm living in the world and I HAVE to be practical and financially secure in the corporate world.
Jesus and his apostles were so far from practical and corporate.
He was a freaking homeless.
If the Gospel was re-presented to many people as something "new", not as a two century old type thing, so many would reject it. It's too radical. It says too many things that snatches you away from the claims of the conventional. It's too bold in it's desire for wanting you, and completely you. Not your lip services, passage recitations, and small group. YOU.
I'm still kind of floundering around not knowing what to do. But this I know, and I want it so badly it makes me want to cry. I want to be known. Am I selfish? I don't know. But I want Him to know that I tried, I really tried to follow. Sometimes I take a peek over the narrow way at the other side where there are always butterflies and shiny things (often times I go there too and find rusty things), but I don't think I will ever lose that ambitiousness God has placed in me...to choose a lifestyle conventional people (or the older generation) usually don't embrace.
I still want to be written about in His story. I still want to be His. I'm still trying to make it back from the (rusty things to the right side).
p/s is anyone still on this? here's a new layout to a new start to the xangaziness. enjoy! | | |
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