Happy 2026

 This is my first official PSA of the new year, and as I prepare to go back to work tomorrow after a 2-week holiday (ugh!) I wanted to share a few thoughts on this coming year as it relates to many things.  There is a lot ot cover so I will try to do it as summarily as possible.

Although I haven't made an official word about it yet, I am contemplating a change in employment right now as well as in a potential move.  Since moving to Baltimore in 2024, I have not felt quite like I belonged here, as living in the inner city, and working at a high school which - and I have to choose words carefully here - has not met a lot of expectations for me, I am wanting to make some changes.  One change I am contemplating is the possibility of moving from high school teaching to parish faith formation work, and I am exploring that possibility now.  There are several parishes in three dioceses that are in close proximity that are actively recruiting for parish faith formation coordinators, and given that is what my Master's degree is in, I think that is a viable option.  The reality is that it may result in a pay cut in my salary, but it will be worth it to gain peace of mind.  I am in a good place financially right now, and it will get even better as the year progresses, so I can absorb a small reduction in income if necessary.  I am also looking into some overseas opportunities, particularly in the Philippines, for a very special reason.  I am not at liberty to say a lot about it right now, but in due time I will share that.  This leads me now to a few other observations as 2026 dawns on us now. 

This weekend, Trump successfully deposed the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.  Maduro was a Marxist who bled his country dry, and Trump did the citizens of Venezuela a huge favor by deposing him.  And, they are expressing their gratitude while American leftists - idiots they are - have resorted to gaslighting and virtue-signaling over the whole thing (it seems like they love totalitarianism, don't they?).  I find it curious that these same American leftists (who are largely White, or very privileged like AOC) didn't say one word when their man Clinton invaded Serbia in 1999, nor did they really care when Nigerian Christians were getting slaughtered a couple of weeks ago.  It reminds me of what South Sudanese activist Dominic Mohamad said once when he said that to NATO and its leftist proxies, White Muslims (and by extension Marxists) are of more value than Black Christians.  He is right too - this is the way the Establishment views Christian minorities, which is also why Obama likes to bellyache about how Trump "targets" illegal immigrants while at the same time he jailed a friend of mine, Assyrian-American attorney Robert DeKelaita, for trying to help Assyrian refugees legally obtain citizenship.  The American and European leftists amaze me with the level of self-righteous hypocrisy they display, and that is why I don't really take anything the Left says seriously, because it is stupidity wrapped up in the language of "social justice" and "inclusivity."  The question here is who they want to extend their fake "inclusivity" to, and it also is worth noting their justice is hollow as well.  As I have said many times, and I also teach my high school students, justice without faith equals tyranny.  Many radical movements and homicidal dictators started in the name of "justice" - Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and particularly Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez.  "Justice" and "liberation" were also the battle cries of Marxists like Che Guevara, and even older, the socialist government of Mexico in the 1920s which targeted the Cristeros for simply being Catholic.  It is also the reason why so-called "Liberation Theology" as embraced particularly by liberal Jesuits is at its outset heretical, and why it has also tarnished the reputation of Jesuits over the years.  Thankfully, there are still a lot of good and sound Jesuits out there - notably Fr. Mitch Pacwa - and there are many good works of theological literature authored by sound Jesuits of the past (St. Robert Bellarmine, Cornelius a Lapide, Henri de Lubac, and Fr. Norris Clarke, to name a few).  However the Jesuit order as a whole is in serious decline.  This is not to say there are not rotten fruits among other Catholic orders, as two in particular come to mind - the Franciscan mystic Richard Rohr is one, and the heretical Benedictine Fr. Bede Griffiths is another - but they seem to be disproportionate among Jesuits for some reason.  So-called "liberation theology" has been rightly condemned as a heresy by Popes ranging from St. Leo XIII to St. John Paul II, but those professing to be Catholic are still drawn in by it.  That needs to change, and a reform of the Church is in order to cleanse it of that demonic garbage.  Catholic theologians have no business reading people like James Cone, and frankly, they need to be censured from doing so unless it is for the purpose of developing a polemic against such garbage.  Any rate, that is one soapbox for today. 

And that leads to some other discussion as well.  I am venturing into the world of pop culture a little as something struck me the other day.  I began re-watching the Star Wars movies, and started with the ones that came out in the late 1990s and early 2000s.   When you watch these things, there is something that comes to light that I have seen in many media outlets in recent years - the hero is often flawed.  I am not talking about Anakin Skywalker turning to the dark side of the Force either, but rather what pushed him to do it.  In the movies (as well as in animated spinoffs like The Clone Wars) there is a character who in all honesty just rubs me the wrong way, and that is Jedi Mace Wendu.  In the films, he is portrayed by the actor Samuel L. Jackson, who did a magnificent job.  However, the character itself is just someone you want to despise when you see the potential damage he caused.  The real reason, if you watch the films, for Anakin's descent into the dark side was not the manipulation of Darth Sidious - the latter just seized upon an existing opportunity (there is a lesson here - Satan does that to us too) of which the seeds were sown long before Anakin decided to make that choice.  From the first of these newer films, we see Anakin as a child, and although Qui Gon Jinn saw the potential, and Obi Wan Kenobi nurtured it well, the young man had serious opposition in the Jedi Council, and the most prominent force of that opposition came from Mace Wendu.  Wendu never trusted Anakin, and even tried to sideline him because for some reason Anakin didn't meet his standard of being the "chosen one."  Wendu is supposed to be the "good guy," but you see nothing but negative in his character.  The attitude Wendu conveys to Anakin did several things.  It eroded confidence in the Jedi order, as Anakin started to note glaring inconsistencies which the supposed "perfect" Jedi made some very fundamental mistakes, especially in dealing with the separatists.  It also bred an animosity toward Wendu which the latter needs to assume responsibility for.  We see this a lot in real-life history too, and I wanted to share some examples of it to show you, as well as relating an experience I had as a middle school student.

The most dangerous people who commit some of the most devastating atrocities are often victims of something themselves.  A school shooter, for instance, may have been targeted for bullying.  Another student, who may not have a lot of money to afford all the trendy garbage teenagers get caught up in, may be insulted and degraded by the popular kids.  At some point, the relentless abuse and ridicule the poor student faces pushes them to a breaking point, and often that results in an extreme action such as shooting up a school.  In this case, who is the real villain?  Is it the kid who did the shooting, or the bullies that drove him to it?  That is a discussion that needs to take place in our schools in particular. And, that now leads me to a personal experience I had as an 8th grader years ago.

When I was in middle school, my experience was hell - I frankly hated it.  I was not popular, and I also was not by any means from a wealthy family.  I was constantly harassed and attacked for my music interest, the clothes I wore, and other things, and I had days I didn't want to go to school in all honesty.  Although things would gradually improve and by my high school years I was in a good place, my middle school years were bad.  I did come to that breaking point eventually and I defended myself against a kid who was harassing me by smacking him in the head with a rock.  Now, it really didn't hurt him thankfully, and eventually I made up my differences with that particular kid, but we had a science teacher who wanted to dig it up weeks after it was resolved and she actually threatened me.  The science teacher's last name was Mowery, and she was my 7th-grade science teacher.  She was noted for showing favoritism to popular kids, and I remember being relentlessly harassed by others in her class and she just either laughed along with it or would do nothing.  But, God forbid when I stood up for myself against one of her favorites!  Weeks after the incident happened, and most of us had moved on with our lives, this nasty woman who should have never been a teacher approaches me and started threatening me and just being disgusting as an educator - I was both deeply shocked and offended, and to be honest I have never absolved her of that.  She didn't care to be the teacher I needed when I had her science class, and she certainly had her favorites.  Luckily, I was too smart to resort to revenge tactics and figured my accomplishments later would be enough vindication.  That nasty woman is now thankfully retired (good riddance!) and she probably doesn't remember a thing about me, but I remembered her, and I often wonder how many other students she mistreated like that and got away with it?  That teacher was a Mace Wendu, and I was the Anakin she picked on, but instead of turning to the "dark side," God saved me and I became a force for good.  As an educator myself now, I try to avoid the type of behavior she modeled, because the wrong attitude with a student can ruin them.  Any rate, this sort of deserves a topic of its own later, and I may develop it. 

Any rate, I think I have shared enough for today, but we have a whole year ahead and more insights await.  Have a blessed 2026, and will see you next time.