A Parallel

I belong to a church that teaches complete abstinence before marriage, and complete fidelity after marriage.  This same church teaches that marriage is between man and woman (or women depending on the timeframe in question).  I belong to a church that teaches homosexual practices are a sin.  That being said, I am a proud member of this church.

However, I belong to a church that also teaches understanding, loving your fellow man with the same love Christ would.  I am a proud member of this church.

Let me demonstrate two very real situations and demonstrate some parallels.

The church that I belong to has not always received mainstream acceptance.   When it was first founded it was immediately the object of much persecution.  It was persecuted so much that its followers had to move to Kirtland, Ohio.  Through several years, and several moves it finally ended up in Missouri, and then Nauvoo, Illinois.  Their largest crime?  They were Mormon.

There are currently a group of people in our nation that are treated as second class.  They are not permitted to marry and have the rights that go along with that.  In some areas they can be denied employment and housing.  Their crime?  They are attracted to people of the same gender.

The Mormons petitioned the government for a redress of grievances.  The President’s reply “Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you”  People were claiming it was their religious right to persecute the Mormons, while all the Mormons were doing was asking for tolerance, and understanding.

LGBT are asking for the same rights everyone else in society enjoys.  States are coming together in droves to pass constitutional amendments to prohibit their marriage.  In my own State there was a debate over whether or not it should be illegal to use their sexual preference as reason to deny them housing.  All they are asking for is tolerance and understanding.

Interesting notion, when a minority is asking for tolerance and understanding the majority is quick to ask for the same back.  I understand you Mormons want tolerance and understanding, but you have to understand, I have my religious rights persecute you.  I understand you want the same rights I enjoy to marry the one you love, but you have to understand my right to persecute you.  The group enjoying the rights the other desperately seeks has a hard time morally claiming their point of view needs acceptance as well.

Recently there was a debate over whether or not Mormons are Christians.  Mormons are exclaiming we believe in Jesus, of course we are!  Other Christians are saying that we just too different, and while we may believe in the same being, are not Christian.

Many people don’t mind civil unions, or domestic partnerships or whatever the term of the day happens to be; but cannot accept the fact they want to call it a marriage.  If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…it’s a duck.  If it looks like a marriage, and acts like a marriage…it’s a marriage, no matter what you call it.

When Utah was applying for statehood, the idea of polygamy was the reason it kept on being denied.  The Mormons were claiming it was their protected first amendment rights to practice polygamy, and took the issue to the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court came down and said that laws prohibiting polygamy were indeed lawful.

The LGBT is petitioning courts asking for their rights to marry.  I hope this is where the parallel ends.

I am not saying that understanding and tolerance is a full embracement.  Reasonable people are allowed to disagree, but to deny someone a right that you enjoy, be it to religion, marry or to even vote is not something reasonable people can do.

I am grateful to live in a country where places like Chick-fil-A can make a statement on marriage, and not be legally punished; where citizens are allowed to march in a Gay Pride parade and not be legally punished; where citizens are allowed to disagree on what they think is right and wrong.  However, I firmly believe that disagreeing with someone is not a basis to deny them a right.

A skill everyone needs

We live in world that is becoming more dependent on computers and technology.  Even jobs that were once done without their aid, have become reliant on computers. PC World writes “...IT skills are lurking outside the lab and server room, within administrative, finance, and human-resources departments. Taking that into account, IT workers have grown from 2 percent of the workforce 17 years ago to 15 percent today..”

This number will only continue to rise. It has become increasingly important that professions, that at one point had very little to do with computers, learn some basic coding skills to stay competitive in their fields, it will also enable them to be better problem solvers in today's ever changing environment.

Let me give you an example I ran into last week; I was sitting in my HTML class, and a fellow student, John, shared his difficulty in finding a job as an artist. He is very, very talented at what he does, and his prospective employers agreed. The reason John continues to get passed over is simple, he does not know how to code websites. Hiring managers would rather get a less qualified artist that can design their website, then a very gifted artist that cannot code.

On a more personal note, my wife, Camila, runs several online clothing shops for little girls. She has had to pay someone to create and maintain her website because she is unable to to write her own code. This forces Camila to pay out of her profits each month for website maintenance.

 

Douglas Rushkoff argues why everyone needs to learn how to code

Douglas Rushkoff argues in the video above about the necessity to learn to program solely on the basis of keeping our right to self expression.  If we do not learn how to understand what is going on in the background, we will simply be taken advantage of by those who do.  I agree with him.  Sites such as Facebook have given us an outlet to express ourselves, on the surface, but as pointed it out, it solely exists as a way to monetize our friendships.

Blogger Jeff Atwood argues a compelling counterpoint "To those who argue programming is an essential skill we should be teaching our children, right up there with reading, writing, and arithmetic: can you explain to me how Michael Bloomberg would be better at his day to day job of leading the largest city in the USA if he woke up one morning as a crack Java coder? It is obvious to me how being a skilled reader, a skilled writer, and at least high school level math are fundamental to performing the job of a politician. Or at any job, for that matter. But understanding variables and functions, pointers and recursion? I can't see it...[The everyone should learn to code movement is wrong because] it puts the method before the problem. Before you go rushing out to learn to code, figure out what your problem actually is. Do you even have a problem? Can you explain it to others in a way they can understand? Have you researched the problem, and its possible solutions, deeply? Does coding solve that problem? Are you sure?"

Mr. Atwood is right in that learning to code, merely for the sake of coding, adds no quality to life, and would certainly not add anything of value to Mayor Bloomberg's ability to run New York City on it's own merit. However, I believe he is too extreme in his opinion. On a personal level, it would enable him, as it would anyone else, to better understand the workings of his computer, and how to better realize its full potential to his benefit. Blogger, Nat Garun, adds "Learning to code contains the same logic skills you apply in daily life: What is the problem? How can I solve the problem as efficiently as possible? Can my solution be helpful to others who are experiencing similar issues? If you can figure out the same steps from a programming perspective, it can help develop your logic and decision making skills to streamline the best solution to your problems. It’s not just about creating something out of a weird language, it’s learning to think like a programmer."

We have examined both practical reasons why people should learn to program, in their professions, and to further their self expression, and simple problem solving skills.  As computers become more and more a way of life, understanding how the work and how to use them is paramount.  As Douglas Rushkoff argues, those that do not learn how to program, will be the victims of those that do.

From Games to Programs

From Games to Programs

A Memoir to Geekiness

I remember as if it were yesterday. I was 5 years old and going to play at my neighbor Joe's house. This wasn't anything unusual, but what happened changed my life forever. His family had just gotten a Nintendo Entertainment System, and they were playing Super Mario Brothers. I was fascinated with the idea of being able to control a character on the TV. I played, and simply could not get enough. I remember holding the controller just like my friend did, the wrong way. I would hold the controller vertically, rather than horizontally; a habit that would remain until I was a teenager.

The next details are somewhat of a blur, but I guess I bugged my parents enough, or convinced them some other way, but I remember my family getting a system from Santa Claus that same Christmas. I no longer had to go to Joe's house to play. I remember watching my parents play and having fun. Coming home from work and surprising me and my siblings with a new game. My life at that moment was complete, and full.

A few years later, I remember my cousin, Matt, giving me his old Atari system, because he had gotten a new one. He was showing me his game collection, including one that he said he made. I was blown away that someone could actually make games. Up until then, that idea was something I had never considered. The next day I went to my school's library and found every book I could for programming for the Atari. I was able to make the screen say whatever I wanted. I had learned the fundamentals of BASIC, Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, a very simple programming language. I never did anything anyone could be serious on any level, but I didn't care, it was fun. It was a natural step I went from making a character on the screen do something I wanted to teaching a machine to do whatever I wanted.

When I entered junior high I was required to bring my own calculator to class. The teacher would showcase  the spiffy TI-82 from Texas Instruments. A few kids I knew had them, and much to my surprise, they could be programmed to play games, and do their homework!  The idea of making a program, one that could be useful, or just plain entertaining was paradise. For the next year and a half I continuously and unrelentingly pleaded with my parents to buy me one. Finally, my wish came true, and Christmas 1996, a secret Santa had given me a TI-83, a suped up and newer version of the TI-82! I immediately ran to my friends house to get whatever games from him I could, and devoured the 200 page manual that came with the calculator to learn how to program my own stuff on it. I was soon designing my own games, and my own programs to do my homework. 

Sadly, as I grew up, my dreams were delayed.  Finances, deployment in the Army, and work all contributed to slow me down.  It would be nearly ten years until I was able to realize my dream.  I attended SLCC and started working towards a degree in Computer Information Systems.  I will graduate in December!  I have learned more about how computers work, and how to make them do whatever I want.  I have gone from seeing Mario on the screen and making him jump, learning how Nintendo made him jump on my command!

 While not directly related to programming, video games have always been my motivation in this field.  This video is from my favorite creator,

Christ Metzen.  The speech was given in 2010 and is titled what means to be a geek.