Archive for June, 2008

Everything Happens for a Reason…

Ariela Haro von Mogel June 25th, 2008

If there’s one phrase I can’t stand and find completely odious is “everything happens for a reason.” What exactly does this mean? I have thought about this long and hard, and have completely offended close friends and family members with my less than objective perspective on it.

Some pretty horrible things happened to me as a teenager and, in turn, I did some horrible things to myself. Whenever I would turn to my mother and ask her for help in understanding the world, she would say “everything happens for a reason.” Now, my mom is a devout Catholic who has attended church every single Sunday of her life, but she is still pretty liberal and open to reason and debate. When I asked her what that phrase means, she made a very nebulous comment that god doesn’t give us “tests” that we can’t handle and horrible things happen to make us better people. This made no sense to me at the time and makes no sense to me now. Why do some people get b.s. heaped on them like no other, and many other people go though life relatively unscathed? And the people who have had the most heaped onto them generally do not become fantastic people, but withdrawn, depressed and defeated individuals. There are a few great exceptions to this. Ayaan Hirsi Ali became a terrific social advocate because of nasty experiences with her religion and society. But Hirsi Ali is a truly exceptional case and most people are not like her.

Bottom line: There needs to be evil in order for good to come out of it. Continue Reading »

Interracial Dating

Ariela Haro von Mogel June 15th, 2008

It is often argued that interracial romantic relationships are considered taboo in a lot of sectors of society, and that it is better to go out with someone of your own race in order to keep it safe. I would highly disagree. Interracial dating is a lot more complicated than that. My fiance is an American of European heritage and I am an American of Mexican heritage. We are technically an interracial couple, except, I am white-looking, so we are considered acceptable as a couple pretty much anywhere we go. If I was an American of Mexican heritage that looked Mexican, we would be classified as an interracial couple and deemed unacceptable in most circles. I am of course, speaking for society in very general terms. Continue Reading »

The Innocence of Youth

Ariela Haro von Mogel June 12th, 2008

When I was in third grade, I thought the first man on the moon was Louis Armstrong, a rotund-cheeked black man. This didn’t seem odd to me in the least. It wasn’t only until later on in my youth that I saw a picture of Neil Armstrong and clearly saw that he was a white man. Oops. Inconsequential, I thought. When I shared this knowledge with my peers, they all laughed at me and stared in wild bemusement as to how, exactly, did I ever think the first American on the moon was a black man? Dunno. Innocence, I guess. Aaahh, I miss those days when possibilities seemed endless and the first person on the moon being black did not seem weird… I just wanted to share that thought!