W&M = Princeton Review 3rd Best Value!!

The following is video footage from MSNBC.COM of Today's feature broadcast on the Best Value Universities in the Country, amongst which my Alma Mater, The College of William & Mary ranks third for public institutions. I wanted to feature this video and comments from an article I posted to my LinkedIn® College of William and Mary Alumni Network Group page from the W&M News website, entitled "W&M Featured on Today as a Princeton Review Best Value," by Brian Whitson, W&M News; January 9, 2009.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Meredith Viera, "msnbc.com video: 2009's best value colleges."
MSNBC.COM Today : News on the Economy, (January 8, 2009).
Retrieved on January 23, 2009 at 12:12AM PST.

The comments from other members of my LinkedIn® Group Network were strikingly negative. Many people had a lot of really awful things to say about the state of affairs at the College of William & Mary today, and about the changes that have taken place in the administration of the faculty, students, facilities and financial aid system in the past ten to twelve years. Although, a few of the remarks were positive, I was rather disappointed by the negativity of the majority of the comments as I originally intended in posting this article to the Group Page to strike a cord of pride amongst Alumni members of the groups, not adamant, vehement negativity.

The first comment to the article, which I responded to immediately after its posting, is listed in its full text here below. I was struck my the snide aloofness and snobbery of this comment that I had to respond myself; in effect, emphasizing my integral pride in my Alma Mater and my faith in its admirable reputation and immense, unique history & traditions. I'll follow the text of the first comment with my own response.

Something about this just strikes a nerve.
As an alumni, I look back and see how much W&M has become such a "catch-all" institution over the last 8 years or so since I graduated and how much it was moving inthat direction even while I was there. A friend of mine and I recently visited the campus, and it just feels like it's lost that "unique" something that made it the "public ivy school" that it is considered. Now its getting to the point where it has so many programs and offerings that there is nothing that really sets it apart from any other state-funded school, other than it's "rich history." I sort of liked when the school had more stringent standards of admission, more focused ona liberal arts degree, and it felt like it meant something to be part of the privileged theat were chosen to attend. With the shift in strategy and direction, it just feels like another school now, to the point that its a "best value." Just smacks of a retail & sales strategy.
It's not Walmart; it's the College of William & Mary.

David Brin,
"W&M featured on Today as a Princeton Review Best Value!: Comments"
LinkedIn® College of William and Mary Alumni Network Group,
(January 13, 2009). Retrieved on January 23, 2009 at 12:33AM PST.

In regards to David Brin's comment 40 (or so) mins ago:

I remember quite well that when I applied for William & Mary undergraduate way back in 1997, the College was also then ranked highest amongst public universities in the nation: Number One Small Public University, by the US News & World Report. So things haven't changed much, except that W&M is climbing in its rankings.

I still believe that the College holds the same stature and reputation for being a forbearer of all things good about the public liberal arts university education, albeit it's history does make it unique.

I was just remarking in a message to my W&M Alumni/Faculty Connections on LinkedIn® sharing the article with them, that the College has far different a reputation on the West Coast as it does on the East Coast. Had I stayed on the East Coast upon graduating from W&M in 2002, I would have easily been employed by a top notch organization or business, but alas, I chose to venture out to the Fog City (i.e., San Francisco, CA) to start anew, and few employers then recognized my outstanding, sterling academic credentials when I was first looking for work.

Californians are all about CAL and Stanford and USC and UCSD and UCLA; they don't pay much attention to things happening on the East Coast, and they certainly don't value deep-seeded history of old ivy league (or "public ivy league") institutions of higher learner. They focus on the new...on frontiers...on innovations. A liberal arts degree from the number one small public university in the nation doesn't mean much in the eyes of the West Coast employer.

That's just a matter of fact, and where I'm stuck now in my career development path. The transition or continuation into a graduate level of study will be an important decision for me, based on the California university that I am able to attend, because that academic credential will be regarded as highly important by potential West Coast employers.

That's just a little of my two cents and my experience! Thanks for your comment, David. I'd simply say, "Buck Up!" And Have still some profound pride in the stature and reputation, the character and aplomb of your Alma Mater! "William & Mary loved of old, hark upon the gale! Hear the thunder of our chorus! Alma Mater hail! Cheers! — Matthew

Matthew Blanchard
mblanchard79@yahoo.com
mblanchard2002@wmalumni.com
Community Development /
Advocacy Professional
San Francisco Bay Area
[January 13 at 08:32AM]

Matthew Blanchard,
"W&M Featured on Today as Princeton Review Best Value!: Comments"
LinkedIn® College of William and Mary Alumni Network,
(January 13, 2009). Retrieved on January 23, 2009 at 12:50AM PST.

In responding to David Brin's comment, I sought to promote a sense of pride in him that seemed he was lacking, but also to be realistic, by explaining my experience coming to the West Coast and witnessing the diminished, often ignored reputation of The College of William & Mary amongst employers. For graduate & post-graduate institutions of education, I believe that the reputation still holds. Let's hope! For I do intend on continuing my education sometime in the next few years. Alas, my remarks went mostly unconsidered by proceding commentators, as they continued to thrash the College for the divisive changes that have taken place over the last ten or twenty years. Still some people had positive remarks to share, and I appreciate them. What follows is a sampling of some of the comments from this news article posting.

There are now programs in place to allow anyone who gets good grades at VA community colleges to attend The College after a year or 2 and come out with a degree marked "William and Mary". I think that fundamental change has cheapened the degree in a sense.

Not to generalize or to sound arrogant by any means, but some of those students who have taken advantage of said program have a distinctly different level of academic capability which is noticeable to their classmates. This is especially noticeable in such a setting as team-oriented business school courses.

I've heard this fear echoed by my fellow classmates and maybe I'll be one of the few who actually brings it up at the risk of being labeled an elitist or intolerant, non-PC, or something else along those lines.

Christopher Crook,
"W&M Featured on Today as Princeton Review Best Value!: Comments"
LinkedIn® College of William and Mary Alumni Network Group,
(January 13, 2009). Retrieved on January 23, 2009 at 01:06AM PST.

I am an alumnus from the class of 1990 and I spent 6 1/2 years on the faculty. I was surprised at how little had changed at the College between 1990 and 2002 -- the time from when I graduated and the time I began as an Assistant Professor. The biggest thing that changed is that grades became inflated. My colleagues tell me that the average GPA went up by about .3. From teaching in the School of Education I found there really were no academic standards to speak of -- when we on the faculty are told that 90% of the grades on the School of Ed are As, where are the standards?

"Best Value" is no great honor though. It is code language for being way underfunded, at least compared to most other colleges. That was another big change between 1990 and 2002. The state funded roughly 60 some percent of W&M's budget in 1990. It now funds somewhere around 19% or so. The big shift occured when Jim Gilmore decided it was a good idea to cut taxes and freeze tuition at all Virginia Colleges. In all honesty I believe that decades from now when we all look back at the history of the College we will see that as the beginning of the fall of the College from which we never recovered. Believe it or not, I'm an optimist. I'm also pragmatic. When you freeze tuition for 4 years, you can't keep a strong institution moving forward. Other institutions moved forward nationwide. We stayed still, then a bad economy hit, then we had a presidency filled with turmoil and questionable financial management.

The College became much more diverse while I was there as a faculty member. You could literally watch it happen. I view that as a great thing. I don't agree with many of the sentiments expressed in the messages that come before my post. I think W&M has been enhanced by the added diversity provided by all students who are admitted during the regular admission and transfer student admission process.

I will say that I got tired of being lied to at W&M by administrators who kept saying "we will raise faculty salaries to the 60th percentile of our peer group" and seeing our salaries continue to drop and reside somewhere in the 30th percentile or there abouts. I don't use the word lie lightly. They knew we wouldn't get there. They even told us of a plan to raise salaries a few percent a year for a few years to get up to 60% -- assuming every other school would stay flat. An insult to our intelligence.

So after I received tenure I did a national job search and left. Was it due to salary? No. But more competitive salary would have helped. One of the sad things about change at William and Mary right now is that faculty are leaving. I saw them leave each year, and more and more keep leaving. And to be quite honest, many who are replacing them are not nearly as reputable as those who are leaving. I had many reasons to take an offer elsewhere -- work climate pushed me out and a great offer pulled me in to a great place. Were I one person it wouldn't matter. What concerns me is that many faculty are leaving and that is one of the things I do remember about my William and Mary experience -- great faculty. We've reached the point that good ones have left and continue to leave. The financial situation has been so bad for so long and morale among so many faculty so bad that getting top people to come teach at W&M is not going to be the easy task it once was.

Are there things about W&M that are special? Of course. Are there memories that we as alums can always cherish? Definitely! Has W&M changed? Without a doubt. Some of these changes have made it a better place. Others have been beyond the institution's control. Others have just been bad choices. In the end, W&M will always be a good institution. Pragmatically speaking, I honestly believe as a scholar of higher education administration that we've seen our best days.

John Foubert, Ph.D.,
"W&M Featured on Today as Princeton Review Best Value!: Comments"
LinkedIn® College of William and Mary Alumni Network Group,
(January 11, 2009). Retrieved on January 23, 2009 at 01:19AM PST.

Wow! I did not think that I would be hearing so much negativity as I am from this crowd.

I have the benefit of my in-laws living in W'burg so I have witnessed the transformation gradually as it was happening since I graduated in 1995. What we have at The College now are World Class facilities sprinkled into a still very accessible campus community that is actually smaller and more focused with the elimination of the Dillard residence complex.

The caliber of students are still the same, it is just the dorms have been upgraded, the new Graduate School of Business looks and will behave like a Top 50 program is supposed to, and the individual schools have been given the right tools and buildings equal to the caliber of the professors. Let's be honest here - new campus was really sore on the eyes in comparison to the rest of Old and Ancient campus and the upgrades have have transformed really tired and crummy PPE.

What has been dismissed or understated with the former comments is the dynamic change that has happened since most of us were there. We have witnessed a complete revolution in regard to IT / IP / and access to information. The world has become completely global and the way that William and Mark has to market, yes I said market, and position itself among other world class institutions has changed. The upgrades and modifications were necessary to continue to draw the best teaching faculty (no offense to the previous post) and students we have come to expect from William & Mary.

Lastly, in regard to reputation, I live and work in the Mid Atlantic / Greater NYC area and whenever anyone hears I went to W&M they all say what a great place it is and how tough it is to get into. Regarding the transfer students (from what I hear - still aren't that many)...W&M and CNU have always had a deal to allow transfers and unless things have changed, the workload and the demands of the W&M professors are still ridiculous. So, if those individuals are able to do well enough their Junior and Senior years to graduate - they deserve the same benefits as any other graduate.

I have to say that, coupled with the continued success of its graduates, all of the effort that William & Mary has been going though the last 10+ years has only increased the value of our degree. Based on the passion, well thought out and the well written responses - The College has done a bang up job.

Larry B.,
"W&M Featured on Today as Princeton Review Best Value!: Comments"
LinkedIn® College of William & Mary Alumni Network Group,
(January 10, 2009). Retrieved on January 23, 2009 at 01:36AM PST.

I was particularly struck by the former faculty member and alumni of the College, who commented on the decline of faculty standards and affairs at the W&M. Below are my final remarks to date. I'm curious to know of the Gene Nichol debacle that was mentionned in a comment that might not be cited here, so I ask for more information on that topic in my final comment. I also beg the commentators and any viewers of the article link to maintain and I guess, in a way, salvage their sense of pride in the College of William & Mary, for the University is still a sterling, stalwart institution with a distinct history and set of traditions and still yet a focus toward the future in its present administration.

My primary intention in posting this news article link to the LinkedIn® College of William and Mary Alumni Network Group Discussion Board, viewable only to members of the group, was to promote and encourage a sense of pride and respect and faith in the reputation, standards, traditions and history of our College. I hope I was able to acheive that in my commentary.

It's taken me about two weeks to return to this discussion and to view the previous comments, and I am also struck with a deep and wounding blow by the negativity that everyone has expressed in their remarks on the dynamic changes instituted at the College in the last ten or twenty years, and that's coming from someone who has already spoken of the diminished reputation of the College on the West Coast.

I'm not familiar with the Gene Nichol debacle, so I can't comment on how the issues there have affected the standards and stature of the College. Would someone kindly inform me of who Nichol is and what he has done to negatively affect the College.

Is change always progress? That's what I believe these comments asks of us all. I haven't been back to the College since I graduated in 2002, so I have no experience with how the College has transformed in the last 7 years, but I hope that the transformations have been positive, despite the economic crisis the country faces and that in due affects W&M administration. I'm glad to hear of facility improvements, which when I was a student at the College were already all long over due.

I must say that I find it quite a shame what the former W&M faculty member and alum had to say about that state of affairs for faculty administration at the College. I have noticed that many of my most beloved and well-reputed professors form the College have left in recent years, going on to change their institution of employment or their career focus entirely. This disappoints me tremendously!

I hate to see the College suffer in that way! And I wish that economically, W&M could afford remunerating their prodigious, elite faculty and candidates for tenure with higher, more competitive salaries. They truly deserve it! We all know that! Perhaps with more private funding in future years, the College will be able to improve the standards of faculty salaries while also improving facilities and maintaining a strong financial aid system.

These are just hopes for progress! Change can happen in so a many ways, from the most minute, quotidian swaying of traditions, to the birth of new monumental edifices and classrooms of learning, dining halls or dormitories. I just wish for the best! And I believe that is what the current administration of the College is striving for: positive, progressive change in full respect of our hardy traditions and stalwart, immense history!!

I wasn't expecting such vehemently negative responses to this news article I posted, and I appreciate the positive remarks immensely. I hope that despite the negativity that herein lays, we all still are able to hold a true sense of pride in our Alma Mater. That was my true intention when I posted the news article originally.

Please inform me on the Gene Nichol issue! And I'd love to hear in more detail of how the College has developed its facilities in the last seven years.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this news article. I appreciate hearing all of your comments. They have helped broaden my perspective on the College as a relatively recent alum. I still only wish that W&M had quite nearly the same reputation on the West Coast as it does on the East Coast amongst employers. Kudos to you all for sharing so thoughtfully on the the topic! Cheers! — Matthew

Matthew Blanchard
mblanchard79@yahoo.com
mblanchard2002@wmalumni.com
Community Development /
Advocacy Professional
San Francisco Bay Area
[01.22.2009 @ 11:36PM PST]

Matthew Blanchard,
"W&M Featured on Today as Princeton Review Best Value!: Comments"
LinkedIn® College of William and Mary Alumni Network Group,
(January 22, 2009). Retrieved on January 23, 2009 at 01:48AM PST.

"An Escape Hatch for a Troubled Intellect!"

The following is the text from an email thread dialogue I am continue to have with a former Facebook™ Friend: Jeff Parker. I am entering this text into my blog as a public record of this insightful, illuminating correspondence. I hope that in sharing these words with my followers, I might impart a sense of the divine purpose that I feel having been bestowed upon me by God (or a Higher Power) in light of my death-defying, tragic illness and injury.  
 
I sincerely hope as well that Jeff doesn't have any qualms with me making this dialogue public. I do so in a way to honor him, for "the fragments of Enlightenment" that we have shared with one another through written conversation. First is the text that Jeff Parker wrote me in response to my Facebook™ Email message (see blog entry: "An Irreverent, Licentious Remark on God!"), and then you will find the long, tedious, rambling remarks that I wrote to him just this evening on Facebook™. 

JEFF PARKER'S FACEBOOK™ MESSAGE TO ME:

Hi Matthew,
Divine faith is neither. It is an escape hatch for a troubled intellect. I believe only in Science and curiosity. Only science can achieve the sublime and find universal truths. With that said, everyone's spiritual journey is different. Your's is especially challenging, but you will get through it. Do whatever works for you, but know that Science is your friend. The pastors & priests make promises for some future paradise, some with good intentions, some with cynical and corrupt motives.

Let them take care of your spirt until your body is healed, and even cured, by Science, as mine was. I am amazed every day by the beauty of the natural world around me. Heaven is here right now. Don't miss it. And know that I wish you the best.

RE: MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Email Correspondance.
Jeff Parker, Facebook™; January 5, 2009 at 11:34 AM.
Retrieved on January 13, 2009 at 03:17 AM.

MY RESPONSE TO JEFF PARKER'S FACEBOOK® MESSAGE:

Jeff, I'm sorry to regret having sent you these preachy, pious and proselytizing emails which only provoke your atheism and rational faith in Science, while making me sound like a completely ignorant, brain-washed ascetic. I want you to know that I do also very much believe in Science as the ultimate source for universal truths and healing.

While I have in the past year tired to open myself up to my faith, believing that both it and Science are not a diametrically opposed binary but instead work cohesively together in broadening our understanding of humankind and all things greater than the human intellect, I have at the same time completely abandoned myself to the process of healing though Science.

Science can answer many questions on the mysteries of life, but there are some questions, I believe, that cannot be answered through Science. That's why we have Faith and Religion—to answer the greater preponderances of the human intellect. Major, predominant, contemporary philosophical theories of a Supreme Being and the Divine argue this same thesis.

I agree with you, as I've said, that Science can lead us to many universal truths, but I do not want to be misled to put all my faith excludively into Science; especially now, during my time of immense struggle, discovery and reawakening. I am not a born again Christian. I have been saved not figuratively in the Evangelical sense of the word, but literally both by the miracles of Science and by the miracles of God. Or so I choose to believe!

This, my mutually respective, combined faith in Science and in God, has allowed me to develop a deeper sense of faith in Myself, believing out of circumstance and necessity, that since I have survived death-defying, brutal illness and injury, then I must have a certain calling or purpose in this life that is yet unacheived and still ahead of me to be accomplished and bestowed upon me by a greater being or power that has some important impact on and influence over how the World works.

Is it wrong, in your opinion, to believe that I am meant for something greater, something special, because I have survived? Science doesn't seem to answer the or'looming questions of human intentions, actions and purpose in life. Or, at least, no Science that I have been introduced to answers those questions. If you know of any secular, scientific teaching that could enlighten me as to my purpose in life, please indulge me with the answer!

For now, I'll continue to uphold my faith both in the Divine and in Science, as both will strengthen me in different ways (some physical/tangible and others more abstract/spiritual) and allow me to heal and to survive. Please, do not judge me any less of a person because I hold my faith in the Divine close to my heart, because I am also and equally a firm believer in the miracles, mysteries and mayhem of Science.

In that way, I agree with you! You might be right in saying (although, I'd be hellbent on defending myself against the accusation, if I weren't the victim and survivor of such unspeakable tragedy) that I, like many, use Faith as "an escape hatch for a troubled intellect." I have sought such escape on after falling to an unfathomable low, having my life threatened and saved by Science and by God. And after having my perceptions of the world, my perspective, drastically changed and challenged, flipped upside down onto its dirty underbelly, weak and vulnerable to intimidations of outside forces.

My spiritual journey is "especially challenging!" I ask you though, in admitting this, to not take my faith for granted and denigrate it with awful, licentious remarks.

I have never talked to my priest (or rather, my priest has never discussed with me) about any "promise for some future paradise." He doesn't mention some ulterior, celestial heaven; but instead, he talks to me about demonstrating God's love though our good intentions, actions and experiences with others and about thereby creating a degree or amount or experience of Heaven on Earth: "Heaven is here right now!"

And my priest has yet to answer all my questions and resolve all my doubts. For example, I still wonder how, if God is this blessed, divine, all powerful and eminently/entirely loving being, he could have allowed for this awful tragedy to befall me. Why has he allowed for such great sufferance in my short, young life (delusions, disease, dysfunction, and disfigurement)?

If my faith cannot answer these questions, then I still don't see Science readily offering me any answers or affirmations of life well-lived and good health deserved. Just as much as Faith is a source of great doubt in my life, Science will always be, in my mind, the harbinger of death and disease, not Enlightenment or Salvation. I'll tell you...I'd be a Buddhist, if only I knew enough about that religion to follow their belief system.

My priest does not have "cynical and corrupt motives." He is a well-intentioned, kindhearted, blessed man who only wants to provide me with absolution of my trespasses, assurances of my forward path in Faith, and affirmations of my life and of my miraculous survival/salvation: redemption and reward and recompense in God and in Science.

Finally, in closing, I ask why have you canceled our friend connection on Facebook™? Is it simply because you so wholeheartedly disagree with and were offended by my reverent proselytizing or do you have ulterior motives? I would very much like to have you as a Facebook™ connection, so that we can stay up-to-date on and informed of developments in each others' lives, and because frankly... honestly... truly, I do very much enjoy and benefit from our interactions and correspondence.

Still however, I do not want to be such a burden or offense to you. I just hope that we both can continue to enjoy the beautiful fragments of Enlightenment that we gain from each others in our binary, opposed perspectives on the world. Please, re-accept my invitation to connect on Facebook™, as I would be very grateful to call you a Friend. I want to continue a dialogue with you and hope that you would be interested to know periodically of how I am doing (as I would of you!).

Please, let this be an continuation of our conversation, another jumping off point and not a final, abrupt end to our cyber-interactions. Indulge me, please! Invite me in! Talk to me and continue to share your wisdom with me. I am many times over a better person for what I have gained and will gain from our experience corresponding together.

As always, thank you for reading this email and for offering me your time and attention. Thank you for being willing to consider my thoughts as legitimate and sane and not as merely "an escape hatch for a trouble intellect." And thank you for responding thoughtfully to my remarks! God Speed! Peac Out! Blessings! Until some time soon...

Your Friend,

Matt(e)o | QHereKidSF

P.S., Onto a tangent, I digress: Are you familiar with LinkedIn®, the professional development and networking web service that connects colleagues and classmates though effect and active Internet linkages? Well, if you are not familiar with it, then I encourage you to set up a profile and to connect with me directly there as a member of the College of William & Mary Alumni Network Group.

My public LinkedIn® profile URL is http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewblanchard/. From there, you will be able to set up an account of your own and request a connection with me.

http://qherekidsf.blogspot.com/
http://www.bebo.com/qherekidsf/
http://www.myspace.com/qherekidsf/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewblanchard/
http://www.pandora.com/people/mblanchard79/
http://www.wmalumni.com/member/mblanchard2002/

THE GREAT ENEMY OF TRUTH IS VERY OFTEN NOT
THE LIE, DELIBERATE, CONTRIVED AND DISHONEST,
BUT THE MYTH, PERSISTENT, PERSUASIVE AND UNREALISTIC.
— John F. Kennedy

SI ON SAIT EXACTEMENT CE QU'ON VA FAIRE,
À QUOI BON LE FAIRE?
If we know exactly what we are going to do,
What's the good of doing it?
— Pablo Picasso

An Escape Hatch for a Troubled Intellect! Email Correspondence.

Matthew Blanchard, Facebook™; January 13, 2009 at 3:04 AM.

Retrieved on January 13, 2009 at 3:24 AM.

Volunteerism as Professional Development

In light of my current physical predicament and the ensuing medical developments thereby involved and keeping me out of the workforce for an extended period of time (well into 2010), I have begun to consider volunteerism as a valuable means to continue in my professional development, so as to develop my resume and to gain valuable skills in nonprofit program development for the prevention/advocacy and performance/visual arts fields.

My first order of business is to establish communication with various nonprofit organizations and networks seeking volunteer participation in their program development and services. I have already contacted CounterPULSE (an alternative arts organization in San Francisco, CA), ArtSpan (the producers of SF Open Studios, Young Nonprofit Professional Network | San Francisco Bay Area (YNPN/SFBA) and Project Open Hand (a local nutritional outreach program for HIV/AIDS positive individuals and the critically ill) for further information on volunteer opportunities.

In correspondance, I have made myself available to volunteer with numerous performance & programmatic events with CounterPULSE, and I have met in person with the Volunteer Coordinator of Project Open Hand. The YNPN/SFBA Volunteer Coordinator has also sent me via email a cursus of volunteer opportunities assisting in program development, events planning and administration for that network. I've yet to formally decide on which opportunities I am going to committedly pursue, expect of course for those opportunities I've already committed to with CounterPULSE. I will be attending a Volunteer Orientation for Project Open Hand on Wednesday evening next week, followed up by a TB Test and a Saturady 6-hour Volunteer Training to work in the Grocery Center or the Kitchen of Project Open Hand.

My primary concern is not to over-extend myself with too many commitments and activities, while at the same time filling my very empty daily schedule with tasks, responsibilities and events. I'm particularly interested in all of these volunteer opportunities that I've mentionned and would be willing to consider any additional opportunities that someone might suggest to me. I am however so far less interested in the YNPN/SFBA volunteer opportunities, as I do not yet hold any particular affinity to that group: a group that I was introduced to via my LinkedIn® affiliation & profile.

Another concern for participating in a variety of volunteer opportunities is my facial disfigurement and how it might impede on my involvements and participation. I will always be wearing a mask. My speech is slightly impaired due to the disfigurement. I am not necessarily at ease in public situations or when interacting with others; although, I do hope that in volunteering, I will be able to overcome my profound insecurities about my face. I don't know if any of the factors would prevent me from being able to participate as a volunteer for these organization, but they will certainly impose somewhat of a challenge for me to overcome.

Also, with regards to my professional development, I have just this evening sent via email my Cover Letter & Professional / Performance Resumes to CounterPULSE to be considered for a position as "Performing Diaspora Project Coordinator." I have previously applied for a position with CounterPULSE, but did not even receive a telephone response to my application submission, proving that they were not interested at that time. But with a new and improved Cover Letter and Resumes, I feel confident that they will be interested in talking with me more in-person about my credentials and my experience working in the Performing Arts and in Program Management.

If I do get the position, it will come as a great relief to the burden of the unending monotony of my daily life and would be a valuable way to continue in my professional career path part-time while also undergoing ongoing cycles of craniofacial reconstruction and recovery. Again, for this career opportunity, my facial disfigurement might easily deter from my appeal as a candidate for employment, as I've been told by a CounterPULSE representative before that my disfigurement & slight speech impediment would prevent me from executing the necessary responsibilities of public speaking related to any employment with the organization.

I will in the future plan on posting blog entries chronicling my involvement as a volunteer with whichever organizations I indeed initiate a relationship and participate with. So, for my avid blog following (who ever the innumerable few are!), be prepared for updates in the time to come... And wish me luck on my endeavors! I'll need it.

An Irreverent, Licentious Remark on "God!"

My December 24, 2008 blog entry, entitled "MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS," included the text of an email message I sent out to all my Friends, Family & Colleagues (on Facebook™ & elsewhere) as a Holiday Blessing, in which I discuss my responsibility to discover my "other" God-given gifts & aptitudes in light of my life's mission being interrupted & canceled as a result of my unfortunate, tragic disfigurement.

I received plenty of positive responses to this message from various of its recipients, all expressing their gratitude & their admiration of my enduring sense of hope & purpose, in light of severe illness & injury. So far, I have only received one apparently negative response to that message, from a (former?) Facebook™ Friend: Jeff Parker in the San Francisco, CA Network [CLICK HERE! to link to Jeff Parker's Facebook* Profile].

Jeff Parker's single, seemingly ir reverent, licentious remark included in his email response to my original Holiday Blessing was "Good luck Matthew. Talk of god shuts down rational conversations" (January 2, 2009 at 10:19AM). He wrote nothing else. He did however refuse to capitalize the first letter of the proper noun: God, in his phraseology, to perhaps intentionally strip the word of its magnitude, power & meaning.

And I believe that after sending his response message, in frustration & disgust, he canceled our Friends' Connection on Facebook™, for when I went to visit his Profile, I found an option available for adding him as a Facebook™ Friend, which otherwise wouldn't appear if we were in fact connected. In reaction to his polite but rather mean-spirited end to our Facebook™ Connection and to his remark on "Talk of God," I wrote the following in a Facebook™ email message:

While I find it divinely poetic that you'd argue the denigration of rational thought when there's "Talk of God" in dialogue & communications, in so far as the majesty of a Higher Power should rightfully influence intellect & reason, I can not say that I agree with your obdurate assertion.

I am perfectly capable of both professing my Faith in the Divine and maintaining cohesive, coherent rational thought when expressing an opinion, discussing a particularly secular topic or when arguing for or against modern conceptions of Faith. In fact, I've just posted a new blog entry, entitled "PIOUS CELIBACY : Nobler Children of God!" (January 02, 2009 at 06:58PM) in which I intelligently rationalize an argument which defends the role of "group/family" relationships in our unfathomably complex individual experiences in Faith and which claims that pious celibacy is an antiquated route to Redemption or Enlightenment.

The new blog entry was written in response to my in-home Chaplain's January 02, 2009 Homily on readings of the Holy Gospel acc. to John 6:35-42, 48-52. Each week, on Fridarys, since I was discharged as a patient from Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center, my priest visits my home to offer me Holy Communion, the Day's readings of the Holy Gospel, his Homily on those readings and a blessed anointing. Each week, he rationalizes for me the immensity and grandeur of Faith in the Divine and guides me in my pursuits of righteous thought & action and in my attempts to discover & reasonably define my uniquely individual journey into God's graces.

My in-home Chaplain continues to demonstrate to me in his preachings his distinctly stoical & sound intellect, unblemished (but rather empowered) by his resoundingly rational Faith in God. He helps me understand my own individual Faith in God (i.e., "God" being a construct of the Human Mind: a sublime idea derived by a culmination of human experiences in our Civilization's long, tumultuous evolution, that is meant to conceptualize covetously irrational mysteries & miracles).

Faith in a Higher Power is defined by an individual's uniquely rational, physical & emotional interpretation of the Sublime, in so far as Divine Faith reconciles the purely human yearning for greater meaning in our lives with the infinitely numerous, monumental limitations of the Human Intellect. You see! You can't mistake it! You've caught me right here all emotionally enveloped in turgidly rational rhetoric on Faith. What IRONY! But, it is possible, as I've demonstrated in this small dissertation and in other portions of my journaling, to sustain (and yes, sometimes suspend) rational thought when talking of God.

I'm sorry if my Holiday Greetings email/blog message offended you in any way or struck you as obtuse and exceedingly reverent. I'm sorry if you can/will not be able to share in the joyfully innocent, enlightened examination of that which defines our very human, rational experiences of Faith in the Divine, for you seem to have declared a distinctly atheistic argument against talk of God. I'm not meaning to proselytize & preach, to convert or to convince you to bend to my own personal inclinations in Faith.

I'm just hoping to help broaden your intellect enough for it to be able to incorporate, experience & understand the Divine (or the spiritually "irrational") in all its Glory! I hope that this response is not resented and tossed away angrily, in frustration & unconvinced, but rather that my words here encourage your input & feedback and your courteous continuation of the conversational thread.

What are your thoughts on all that I have said? Has it been miserably difficult to follow my rambunctious train of thought, or have you well understood my arguments? Please respond in due time with extended personal thoughts on this elementary, polite dissertation! I look forward to receiving some sort of insightful response to my message. Thank you for taking the time to read this message and for giving full consideration to my points of view! Thank you for replying to my original Holiday Greeting message in the first place, with however slight & meagerly licentious a statement that you provided! Please respond! In due time...

Regards,
Matt(e)o | QHereKidSF
Matthew Blanchard
San Francisco, CA 94109
[01.03.2009 @ 09:14AM]

While I'm not certain of any ill-intent of Jeff Parker's part, I was struck rather affrontingly by his curt, concise response to my Holiday Greetings emal message, due to his refusal to ellaborate a full, thoughtful response, beyond the few purposefully parceled words that he wrote to me in Facebook™.

What I'm grateful for is to have been stimulated by his response (However short it might have been!) and to have been motivated to continue in my intimately personal intellectual rationalization of my experience in and understanding of Divine Faith. I believe that I achieved a certain level of rational discovery & comprehension of the sublime mysteries of Salvation in God's Love, with these recent blog entries & emails.

I think that there will be much time before I return to these subjects of "God," "Faith," "Gifts/Vocations" & "Human Intellect," because I fear that I am beginning to depict myself as passionately pious ascetic Believer who is bent on preaching & proselytizing to others & on trying to sway certain people in their Faith. I am not a profoundly religious person; although, I do have Faith in God: a resilient Faith that has survived with me through immense, harrowing tragedy in Life.

I was momentarily inspired by my participation in Christmas Eve Midnight Mass Services at The Church of the Advent of Christ the King (San Francisco, CA) and by ongoing discussions with my in-home Chaplain, which led to my original Holiday Greetings email message to Friends, Family & Colleagues and to the posting of yesterday's blog entry : "PIOUS CELIBACY : Nobler Children of God!"

I'll take a pause for now, for a good while, "to regain a command of rational thought" (So Jeff Parker would so like to believe!) or at least, to calm my passions and desensitize. Long phases of contemplation should always be followed by a period of much deserved rest & repose!

However, I suppose I will continue my blog opinion discussions on GLBTQ Civil Rights, Marriage Equality and on the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, just to stay in-tuned to current developments & decisive issues related to these three topics. I also think that a blog entry discussing my intentions to pursue professional development through participation in altruistic Nonprofit Organization Development Volunteerism is about due. To be further discussed in the near future... Auspicious Wisdom, Enlightenment & Immense Karmic Blessings to you all! Peace Out! Cheers! — Matt(e)o | QHereKidSF : Matthew Blanchard; San Francisco, CA 94109; 01.03.2008 @ 11:15AM.

PIOUS CELIBACY : Nobler Children of God!

Every week, on Fridays, since I was discarded as a patient of Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center after recuperating for three months after my first craniofacial reconstruction (January 30, 2008), the generous, faithful, altruistic Hospital Chaplain comes to visit me in my home to offer me holy communion, a reading of the Gospel, his homily and anointment. This week's "sante scritture" were readings of the Holy Gospel according to John: Chapter 6, Verses 35-42 & 48-51. A discussion on his homily follows an image of El Greco's painting, Saint John the Apostle and the text of the Holy Gospel.


"John The Apostle, Saint: painting by El Greco." Online Photograph,
Britannica Student Encyclopedia. Jan. 2, 2009,
http://student.britannica.com/eb/art-87622/.

The Holy Gospel acc. to John 6:35-42, 48-52

35 … And Jesus siad unto them, I am the bread of life: He that cometh to me shall not hunger; and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.
36 … But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believeth not.
37 … All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
38 … For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
39 … And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that all which he hath given me I should Lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
40 … And this is the will of Him that hath sent me, that every one which seeth the son, and believeth in Him, may have everlasting life: And I will raise him up on the last day.
41 … The Jews then murmured to him, because he said, I am the bread which cometh down from heaven.
42 … And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from Heaven?
48 … I am the bread of life.
49 … Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 … This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51 … I am the living bread which came down for Heaven: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the World.
52 … The Jews therefore strove among themselves; Saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

"The Holy Gospel acc. to John 6:35-42, 48-52."
The Holy Bible: King James Version, p. 401.
Paradise Press, Inc., 2006.

PIOUS CELIBACY: Nobler Children of God!
Or The Unfathomably Complex Individual Experience in Faith:
Reaching Closer to God Through "Group/Family" Relationships

Reverend Steven Bartlett-Re's January 2, 2009 Homily for the readings of the Holy Gospel according to John: Chapter 6, verses 35-42 & 48-52 was born of our preliminary, pre-offertory discussion on current world events as they relate to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and on the antisemitism of Saint John the Apostle and therefore of all Christians argued by an elite group of fundamentalist Jewish religious leaders in contemporary theological studies.

Father Stephen compared the disingenuous belief of Jews in Jesus Christ, as depicted by the Holy Gospel according to John in the above verse and the historical tendency of various religious groups to factionalize and incite internal conflict within the (Roman) State, to the conflict between Jews & Muslims today, as well as to the disputes over Marriage Equality in the USA between the far-right Christian Fundamentalists and the GLBTQ Community today.

He then related the Christian/Gay disputes to the modern argument for "traditional family," born of an original Faith in Christ that was albeit all together egocentric and not at all family-oriented. From there developed Father Stephen's Homily on Pious Celibacy as the perfect path toward redemption, on the unfathomably complex, individual experience of Faith in God, and on the role of "group/family" relationships in the deepening of our realization of that Faith.

Father Stephen first argued that Jesus Christ was not pro-family; but instead, Christ preached that the journey into God's graces is an individual experience of learning unique to each Believer. As opposed to "group/family" relationships, Celibacy was considered the ultimately perfect & righteous path to Redemption. "Group/family" relationships only distracted the believer from his calling, blockading his path toward Salvation with inconvenient, inconsequential, troublesome distractions & conflicts.

Historical theological studies prove that most of Christ's original followers were celibate & unmarried (or divorced) and not bound to any family. Christ, in turn, created a "family" of followers of sorts, tangling his disciples in distinctly human struggles to define their relationships, hierarchy, customs, values, mores, etc.

Modern Christian values define the "family" as the center or the foundation of our Faith and of our journey toward Salvation. While Christ originally meant for his followers to learn strictly from their individual experiences in order to define and strengthen their Faith in God, today's Christians allow for a strengthening of Faith through learning of the sublime complexities of that Faith and connection to God based on "group/family" experiences and relationships.

Our journey toward Salvation remains an uniquely individual experience, only supported by our relationships and interactions with others. In this regard, Father Stephen believes that, as a Chaplain, he can not, for a believer wanting of answers and absolution to his doubting Faith, define another's individual relationship with God and "family." He can only guide them to a righteous path with scripture and teachings on godly Faith and pious action.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender People's social history in a distinct way mimics this thesis on the value of "group/family" relationships and the complexity of the individual journey toward Salvation. It can be concluded from simple observation of their social interactions that older generations of GLBTQ Americans often beg for a return to simpler times earlier in our Community's history (c.1950-1960's), when only the right to proclaim and exhibit one's love of another was essential and not confounded by complex social mores, maxims and politics. GLBTQ elders often seek a return to a time when they existed comfortably in small, exclusive, clandestine groups that functioned as their surrogate "family."

Modern GLBTQ Culture & Community relationships and the journey toward a completely legitimized, legalized, accepted social identity (i.e., ≈ Salvation) are made more complex and deepened through shared experiences learned in larger, more open social groups (i.e., the GLBTQ "Family") and through generations. In this way, we are led to our present day struggles on the path toward Redemption: the fight for GLBTQ Civil Rights & Marriage Equality. The question remains...What's better: the life of a celibate ascetic gay believer or unions of GLBTQ couples in marriage legalized by the State and sanctified by our religious institutions?

Ironically, Modern Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists align with older generations of the GLBTQ Community in their desire for simpler things, simpler relationships, simpler ways of being, a simpler Faith in God and a simpler journey toward Salvation, calling no heed to the influence of complex modern social relationships on their experience in God's Love. This system that strictly values former, less complex individual pathways toward Redemption makes these two vehemently opposed communities, in my opinion, prejudicial, exclusive, limited and ignorant in thoughts, values and customs.

The primary difference here between these two binary antithetical communities is that Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists believe that their "institutions" of "traditional family" and "traditional marriage" are stricture that they are obligated to impose & enforce on all members of Society, regardless of Faith (or absence there of), while older GLBTQ generations do not impose their desire for simpler social relationships on their fellow community members, but rather they exist as an exclusive, discriminatory and relatively weak (again, in my opinion) social network that withholds or negates any of their potentially direct impact on the greater majority of Modern Gays & Lesbians.

Thus, Pious Celibacy as the ultimately perfect and higher route toward Salvation under God is an antiquated equation. In modern Christianity, according to Reverend Stephen Bartlett-Re, followers of Christ (gay & straight alike) should be guided to follow their own individual paths toward Redemption and to define their own unique relationship with and Faith in God by the influences and teachings of their worldly social experiences in groups and in "family." That is a more just, pious journey in God's Love. Preachers of Faith cannot proselytize and suggest exact redeeming actions or beliefs, but must guide their followers toward a discovery and a defining of their unique relationships with God through scripture, teachings and individual "group/family" experiences.

"Homily on the Holy Gospel acc. to John 6: 35-42, 48-52."
Spoken Word by Reverend Stephen Bartlett-Re,
January 2, 2009 1:47PM.

It has been my aim with this intimate, thoughtful essay on Faith and "family" to provoke profound contemplations & questions on the conflicts between Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists and the GLBTQ Community, on our unique, unfathomably complex individual experiences in God's Love and on the influence of social relationships on our far-reaching, righteous paths toward a realization of Self and a realization of Faith. By offering a discussion on my intimate conversations with my in-home Chaplain, I mean to reveal and share with others the profound wisdom and guidance I receive from my personal leader in Faith.

I do not assume that every reader of this blog entry will whole-heartily agree with the conclusions presented in this discussion, nor do I seek to selfishly impose my beliefs on others. I do hope however that some random faithful soul might be touched by these teachings and have their Faith in God strengthened and stimulated by this sharing. If anything, readers could at least easily chuckle at the ironical comparison we've made between two diametrically opposed groups: Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists and the GLBTQ Community.

May God bless each of us in our Faith with real instances of prosperity, wisdom, learning, achievements and grace in His Glory through our individual experiences and on our path, this year, further toward Redemption, and may we all be positively & profoundly influenced on our journey toward Salvation through diverse, righteous, valuable social relationships & experiences!

May we find peace amidst turmoil and strife! May we find absolution of our trespasses against others and against God, the Father! May we each have hope and trust in our capacity to grow and develop as Children of God (or of Karma and Chi gong) and in our capacity to reach ever further toward our complete realization of Self and of Faith! And finally: May we be blessed by God and by auspicious Karmic wisdom in 2009!