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Garfield's right. Mondays suck. It's the beginning of my 6th week of work. Back when I was in school, the 6th week of a semester was usually right before I hit the wall and just didn't want to be there anymore. So we'll see how this week goes, and the rest of the month. If I still like this job on February 1st, it bodes really well for the future of my employment here.

Fun party last night at Alanna and Molly's. I'm really glad they threw that, as amusing as the idea was in the first place. Too bad they all have off from school today, and therefore decided that a Sunday night party was a good idea. I hope I don't fall asleep at my desk today...

Go Eagles! This Sunday will kick ass. Falcons suck!

I'm really behind in stuff I have to do for the NHC. Shira and I were supposed to make 11 phone calls between us; I think she made 6 and is planning on making 1 more, and I've made 1 and am planning on making 3 more. Plus, I haven't yet typed up the minutes from the meeting over a week ago, and I'm sure everyone is silently stewing at that.

It's my birthday in two days. I should do something. Perhaps. It's not that I'm one of those people who just doesn't care about birthdays, or doesn't want a big deal made out of my own. I just haven't felt motivated to do anything about this one. Oh well. If anyone has anything in mind that could serve as a celebration, feel free to suggest it.

[T]here are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of Harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?

--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", April 16, 1963