She is married with 3 kids and seemingly very happy with where she is in life!

We are still FB friends and have talked a few times over the years, but you’re right, I should tell her!

When I was 15, I told a girl that she should audition for the elite choir at our school (she was very talented). She said she would audition if I would audition (I had no vocal talent) but I auditioned and being one of the only males I got in. I fell in love with singing, worked my ass off, went to college on a vocal scholarship and now 20 years later I am the vocal coach for the largest theatre in our state. That little moment, which she probably doesn’t even remember, changed my entire life trajectory.

And how is that worked out? Every time it’s been tried the people who are in the government take all the power and rule with tyranny over their citizens. Communism only empowers the people in the minds of idealists who think that it works. Every time it’s actually implemented it’s just dictatorships under fancy names.

Because every time it has existed it just leads to a huge amount of government power without actually empowering the people. The people may be protected from corporations but they are not protected from their own government.

Any system which requires government coercion over individuals is never going to be feasible because the greedy will always find a way into power. That’s why it hasn’t worked for communism, and that’s why it hasn’t worked for capitalism. What we need is a government specifically set up to protect individuals from corporations. The more we can empower individuals and the common worker, the better off we will be. Communism is not the answer to that, neither is capitalism.

Sure, but I am a teacher, and if 2,500 people were killed in my area in three months, I wouldn’t stick around.

The article also says that gangs are responsible for 2,500 deaths between January and March alone. There’s no amount of knowledge that was going to keep these people safe. And the truth is, religion can lead to fool-hardiness quite quickly, and I say that as someone who was raised in the church. Their deaths are tragic, but also avoidable.