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Found this on Digg yesterday, thought it worthy enough to post about.

Just think that if in the United States of America, the land of freedom of speech, this young lady was nervous to the point of being scared of speaking her mind before a presidential candidate, what can the rest of the world hope for?

In my country people get arrested for much less than this.

My hat is off to you Jean Sara Rohe, may there be more people like you in the world.

This is the transcript for her speech:

Welcome, everyone, on this beautiful afternoon. I only have five minutes, so I’d appreciate it if you’d — thanks. Welcome everyone, on this beautiful afternoon to the commencement ceremony for the New School class of 2006. That was an excerpt of the song I learned as a child called “Living Planet,” by Jay Manquita. I chose to begin my address this way because, as always, but especially now, we are living in a time of violence, of war, of injustice. I am thinking of our brothers and sisters in Iraq, in Darfur, in Sri Lanka, in Mogadishu, in Israel, Palestine, right here in the United States, and many, many other places around the world. And my deepest wish on this day, on all days, is for peace, justice, and true freedom for all people.

The song says, “We can change the universe by being who we are,” and I believe that it really is just that simple. Right now, I’m going to be who I am and digress from my previously prepared remarks that I had been working on for the past several weeks. I am disappointed that I have to abandon the things I had wanted to speak about, but I feel that it is absolutely necessary to acknowledge the fact that this ceremony has become something other than the celebratory gathering that it was intended to be due to all the media attention surrounding John McCain’s presence here today and the student and faculty outrage generated by his invitation to speak.

The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded. Not only this — please, not only this, but his invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all and to commemorate our achievements. What is interesting and bizarre about this whole situation is that Senator McCain has stated that he will be giving the same speech at all three universities where he has been invited to speak recently, of which ours is the last, those being Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, Columbia University, and finally, here at the New School. For this reason, I have unusual foresight concerning the themes of his address today. Based on the speech he gave at the other institutions, Senator McCain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our civic and moral obligation in times of crisis, and I agree. I consider this a time of crisis, and I feel obligated to speak. Senator McCain will also tell us about his strong-headed self-assuredness in his youth which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others, and in so doing, he will imply that those of us who are young are too naive to have valid opinions and open ears. I am young, and although I don’t profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous and wrong, that George Bush’s agenda in Iraq is not worth the many lives lost. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction.

Finally, Senator McCain will tell us that we, those of us who are Americans, have nothing to fear from each other. I agree strongly with this, but I take it one step further. We have nothing to fear from anyone on this living planet. Fear is the greatest impediment to the achievement of peace. We have nothing to fear from people who are different from us, from people who live in other countries, even from the people who run our government, and this we should have learned from our educations here. We can speak truth to power. We can allow our humanity always to come before our nationality. We can refuse to let fear invade our lives and to goad us on to destroy the lives of others.

These words I speak do not reflect the arrogance of a young, strong-headed woman, but belong to a line of great progressive thought, a history in which the founders of this institution play an important part. I speak today, even through my nervousness, out of a need to honor those voices that came before me, and I hope that we graduates can all strive to do the same. Thank you very much.

Saw this video and I think its good to spread the word.

Now i’m doing my bit to help the world by posting this here and hope folks see this.

Here are some teasers, for the full story of Stuff, go here =)

Hello again,

Its been a while, I know.

So, last week I saw a documentary that reminded me what I used to believe in life. And since that documentary reminded me, I’m going to use my site as a place to declare to the Universe what I want from life. For information on said documentary, you can go here.

First and foremost, I’d like to give thanks for that which I already have, my wife, my daughter, my family, my friends, my Job and my Boss, which I also consider a friend. I want to give thanks to the Universe to have allowed me to find these people in the extent of my life as they have all played a very special role in it. I want to give thanks for my health and for all the silly material things that make the day fun. I want to give thanks to the Universe itself for showing me the way back to myself as I’ve finally found my purpose once more and been given answers that i’ve have been waiting for, for so long.

Having said this, I wish to declare the following; I want to live a rich, healthy and meaningful life from this day forth with my wife and my daughter. By this time next year, I will have reached my target weight and will be eating healthily and my body will be at ease. By June of this year I want to have $500,000 saved in the Bank and by December, I want to have $1,000,000 saved in the bank. I want to live a spiritual life and explore my spirituality to its fullest extent and evolve into that which i’ve always known to be true.

In Ten years time, I want to have opened a school. A school dedicated teaching and allowing its student explore their potential to the fullest. In Fifteen years time, I want this school to be completely self-funded so anyone can attend, regardless of their social standing. In Twenty years time, I want to have brought change to this world, I want to have taught people to think differently and give them the potential to change their lives and those around them.

This is my life statement, I state it so with pride. Universe, know I’m here and that I’m actively seeking you.

Tonight I’m feeling somewhat melancholic. My wife and I seem to be at each others throats… for any reason what so ever. That got me thinking about happiness. What is it exactly? How do we acquire it? Can it be bought? Can it be found?

And that made me think about so many things I’ve done in my life, wondering which of those made me happy and I’ve been trying to remember a moment in my life when I’ve been happy.

I don’t mean to sound Emo. This post, my very first real post, isn’t a cry for attention, but a reflection on what happiness really is. And perhaps by writing about this, I can come up with an answer to all my questions.

By definition (according to wikipedia), “Happiness is an emotion in which one experiences feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense joy”. How ever, considering its that what most people want in life is to be happy or live in a state of happiness, the fact that its just an emotion seems kinda weak. If its just an emotion, then why is everyone so unhappy? Why not just feel happy? I suppose thats why drugs are so common worldwide now a days and it seems most everyone wants to live off some narcotic or another. I guess that we could deduce from that, that happiness can also be a drug. Probably the most addictive one man has ever known. Or hasn’t known. I guess it could also be called the ultimate illusion, Happiness. Everyone wants it, but no one can ever find it.

If happiness is a state of mind, then to be happy, we would just have to want to be. We’d actually have to reach out and remove whatever is making us miserable, sad, uncomfortable, etc., you name what ever is in the way of making you happy and just be happy. How ever, that seems kinda selfish doesn’t it? I mean, we do live in a society where certain parameters must be met. There are responsibilities we must follow through with, and most of the time it would be those responsibilities getting in our way of happiness.

Perhaps I’m digressing, but I’m just letting my own thoughts flow and come to some sort of conclusion here. I’d like to believe that I’m a logical being, how ever most things in life don’t follow logic. You can apply logic to the world, but never expect the world to be logical. Anyway, back to happiness.

While I’ve been writing this, I’ve been trying to remember some moment in my life when I’ve been happy, and I think I can name a few. My daughter’s birth, when I got married, when I got my first job as a Web Developer (I really like Web Development =)), my first date with my wife. Those are some moments when I remember being happy. I guess knowing that feeling, momentary as it maybe, causes addiction, which explains the paragraph about drugs and such.

All of the sudden, I realize why I’m unhappy. Like an epiphany it came to me. My life lacks purpose. Despite being a parent and husband and son, there has to be more to life than just that. It’s pointless to just, be born, grow up, reproduce then die. There has to be more and the lack of purpose in my life is whats stealing the happiness away! Making everything dull, making everything annoying.

I’ve got to try harder to recover my sense of purpose in life. Because I wasn’t always this way. I used to be content no matter what, I used to be happy or to give it a better sense of definition, I used to live in a constant state of happiness, because I knew my life had a purpose and I knew what that purpose was… until It was lost, well, not lost. I realized it was never my purpose, but somebody else’s purpose, which left me hanging, lost and feeling completely naked and vulnerable.

Everything in this world has a cost. Nothing is ever free. But I will find my purpose again. I refuse to let fate tie me up in an unbreakable bond and holding me back tied against a wall. I will step forward and break that bond… somehow. Apathy consumes me, apathy is everyone’s worst enemy.

Mankind lives in total apathy. Apathy to one another, to every single living being on this earth and to earth itself.

I will overcome my apathy and perhaps, in time, help others find meaning to their lives as well…