Friday, January 07, 2005
THE POLITICS OF MY FOREFATHERS
The argument has raged for many years as to whether America is a nation of Conservatism or Liberalism. This argument is alive and well today. After concluding an election that tilted the vote towards, what is referred to as, a more Conservative ideology under the assumed leadership of the Republican Party. These self-proclaimed Conservatives are touting the “Mandate” that the American Voters gave them and speak of the ethics and morals of our Forefathers. However, they seem to downplay the fact that this was one of the smallest of majorities of the popular vote that has elected a President in many years. With a miserly 3% majority in the Popular Vote it was more like a field goal kicked in the last 10 seconds of the game than a Mandate.
There is a hue and cry for us to return to the Conservative Values of our Forefathers and Founders of the United States by the Conservative Right. The more I thought about it and investigated my Forefathers the more I liked their lifestyle. I have decided that if these are the role models offered for me to follow, I will take up these Values and pass them on to my descendants for the continued betterment and advancement of the American way that has allowed us to be the most progressive, richest, most respected, most despised, most loved, most feared nation on earth.
Our Venerable and Beloved Pilgrims, whom we all were taught came to America to escape religious persecution, in actuality numbered only 32 Puritans among the other passengers on board the Mayflower. These religious zealots were trying to escape religious persecution under the Laws of the Church of England and the English Government that felt they were too out of touch and a detriment to acceptable Society. These were people considered too Liberal in their thinking to fit into the accepted norms of their society as it was in 1620 and these were the “Puritans”. I mean how much fun was England if the Puritans were too liberal? The rest of the 102 “Pilgrims” or passengers on the Mayflower were criminals, ne’r do wells, adventurers, sailors and other assorted human flotsam and jetsam from the slums and the dockyards of English Seaports and cities throughout Western Europe. This gives credence to a statement made by the Actor Bill Murray in the movie “Stripes”. “We're all very different people. We're not Watusi, we're not Spartans, we're Americans! With a capital 'A,' huh? And you know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world.” and “that’s a Fact Jack!”
Even then there was discontent among those that came to the New World to give their Liberal Ideals some breathing room. This was the attraction and the blessing of the New World that was absent in Europe. The ability and the right to move if you didn’t like the way things were going where you lived or if your neighbor got on your nerves. The term that I have always liked was ”Elbow Room” and the New World had plenty of it.
William Penn decided to take this option when he decided in his own Liberal way that the Folks in Massachusetts Colony were a little too Conservative for his tastes and headed out for what is now Pennsylvania. The Puritans in Massachusetts thought his Religious Tolerance was offensive. Think about it. He was a Quaker and he was doing the Liberal thinking in those days. What a partying place Massachusetts must have been for Ol’ Bill Penn to think it was too Conservative for his liking. It kind of makes sleepy little town of St. Augustine Florida look like Vegas.
Then there were the Forefathers who were the architects of our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Men like George Washington, who instead of living the good life up on the Potomac River on his plantation in Virginia spent a great deal of time wandering around Constitution Hall in Philadelphia everyday during the First Continental Congress in full uniform complete with sword, looking for an Army to lead and doing a good impression of “Put me in Coach. I’m dressed for the game”. Meanwhile the rest of the delegates debated the wisdom of picking a fight with the most powerful nation on earth. You have got to admire the man’s determination and his tailor and Congress’s scrappiness.
The Adams Boys, Sam and John were busy up Boston way doing a mess of Liberal thinking. John successfully defended in court the British troops who had taken part in the “Boston Massacre”, choosing not the politically correct road, but the high moral road on the issue. Brother Sam in the meantime was fermenting ale, throwing Tea Parties with him and his friends dressed like the Indian Chief from the Village People and just busting the British’s chops in Boston, Concord and Bunker Hill.
Ol’ Tom Jefferson, down there in Monticello growing hemp and peas, having an affair with Sally Hemmings in the warm Virginia sunshine, while dreaming up a new form of Government with that firebrand Patrick Henry over more than a few tankards just down the hill from Tom’s digs in Charlottesville at Michie Tavern. Tom was so Liberal he thought we ought to have a Revolution every 20 years just for the heck of it just to keep it real.
Tom Paine, son of an 18th century version of a Victoria’s Secret Magnate, revolutionary, author of “Common Sense”, renowned for his writing of “The Rights of Man”, and advocate for progressive taxation, family allowances, old age pensions, maternity grants, advocate for the abolition of slavery, and part of Ben Franklin’s posse as he “went a whorin’” by Ben’s own words, in England and France.
And speaking of that Wild Man Ben Franklin; Premier International 18th Century Bon Vivant, World Class Partier, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Naturist, Naturalist, Author and Printer of Underground Subversive Newspapers and Pamphlets. Papa Ben as he was lovingly referred to, who spent a great deal of his life doing parlor tricks in the Royal Courts with his new found toy, electricity and cavorting with the ladies of these Courts all over the European Continent. It was he who suggested that Tom Jefferson change the first line of the Declaration of Independence to “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal”, in a time of slavery and women being considered chattels. Acclaimed as one of the finest minds of his time anywhere in the world. The kindly Grandfather figure whose Mistresses husbands wrote him letters saying how sad they were to see him leave, begging him to stay in France for their wives and families would never be the same after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 ending the Revolutionary War as he prepared to return to the newly formed United States after an exhaustive decade. Got to admire the guy’s chutzpah.
Danny Webster, Federalist, the Great Orator, Anti-War Activist (the war of 1812), champion of American nationalism who held court at the Union Oyster House in Boston where he had a reputation because, “It was at the Oyster Bar that Daniel Webster, a constant customer, daily drank his tall tumbler of brandy and water with each half-dozen oysters, seldom having less than six plates.” Who is remembered for saying "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" Kind of like oysters and Brandy. I also believe he came up with the often-heard line, “okay, one more and then I got to go home”. How do we answer him today when his ghost booms out the question, “How stands the Union?”
This cast of ruffians, intellectuals, tradesmen, clergy, inventors, drunkards, philanderers, our venerated Forefathers lead the struggling American Colonies and invented a form of government while sitting in taverns mixing equal parts of Ale, Rum, Brandy, John Locke, Voltaire, Plato, Cicero, Julius Caesar, the Magna Carta and dreaming up a system of government that had never before been imagined on the face of the earth. Methinks it just wasn’t tobacco they were smoking in those clay pipes. What did all these Great Men have in common? Why they were all to a man good Church attending Christians of course!
The problem is that the Republican Party of today does not reflect the ideals of our Founding Fathers. Today we are burdened by such people as Trent Lott and our resigning Attorney General John Ashcroft, defender of American Rights and Freedoms who was so embarrassed at the sight of the classic statue of Justice in the lobby of the Department of Justice because she was topless that he had her covered up. Now I don't really want to label him, but, "Out Of Control Prude" comes to mind. I guess he thought she was having a Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction right in front of God and everybody. But then again what can you expect from a politician who lost his bid for the Senate to a Dead Guy. The man needs serious professional help.
The Republicans do not represent the party of my Founding Fathers. Mine is the Party of the Giants of American History. The Paines, the Jefferson’s, the Washington’s and the Adams’s and all the rest of our revered Founding Fathers. Give me that party and I will definitely show up for it. Heck I will even bring the beer.
Amen
There is a hue and cry for us to return to the Conservative Values of our Forefathers and Founders of the United States by the Conservative Right. The more I thought about it and investigated my Forefathers the more I liked their lifestyle. I have decided that if these are the role models offered for me to follow, I will take up these Values and pass them on to my descendants for the continued betterment and advancement of the American way that has allowed us to be the most progressive, richest, most respected, most despised, most loved, most feared nation on earth.
Our Venerable and Beloved Pilgrims, whom we all were taught came to America to escape religious persecution, in actuality numbered only 32 Puritans among the other passengers on board the Mayflower. These religious zealots were trying to escape religious persecution under the Laws of the Church of England and the English Government that felt they were too out of touch and a detriment to acceptable Society. These were people considered too Liberal in their thinking to fit into the accepted norms of their society as it was in 1620 and these were the “Puritans”. I mean how much fun was England if the Puritans were too liberal? The rest of the 102 “Pilgrims” or passengers on the Mayflower were criminals, ne’r do wells, adventurers, sailors and other assorted human flotsam and jetsam from the slums and the dockyards of English Seaports and cities throughout Western Europe. This gives credence to a statement made by the Actor Bill Murray in the movie “Stripes”. “We're all very different people. We're not Watusi, we're not Spartans, we're Americans! With a capital 'A,' huh? And you know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world.” and “that’s a Fact Jack!”
Even then there was discontent among those that came to the New World to give their Liberal Ideals some breathing room. This was the attraction and the blessing of the New World that was absent in Europe. The ability and the right to move if you didn’t like the way things were going where you lived or if your neighbor got on your nerves. The term that I have always liked was ”Elbow Room” and the New World had plenty of it.
William Penn decided to take this option when he decided in his own Liberal way that the Folks in Massachusetts Colony were a little too Conservative for his tastes and headed out for what is now Pennsylvania. The Puritans in Massachusetts thought his Religious Tolerance was offensive. Think about it. He was a Quaker and he was doing the Liberal thinking in those days. What a partying place Massachusetts must have been for Ol’ Bill Penn to think it was too Conservative for his liking. It kind of makes sleepy little town of St. Augustine Florida look like Vegas.
Then there were the Forefathers who were the architects of our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Men like George Washington, who instead of living the good life up on the Potomac River on his plantation in Virginia spent a great deal of time wandering around Constitution Hall in Philadelphia everyday during the First Continental Congress in full uniform complete with sword, looking for an Army to lead and doing a good impression of “Put me in Coach. I’m dressed for the game”. Meanwhile the rest of the delegates debated the wisdom of picking a fight with the most powerful nation on earth. You have got to admire the man’s determination and his tailor and Congress’s scrappiness.
The Adams Boys, Sam and John were busy up Boston way doing a mess of Liberal thinking. John successfully defended in court the British troops who had taken part in the “Boston Massacre”, choosing not the politically correct road, but the high moral road on the issue. Brother Sam in the meantime was fermenting ale, throwing Tea Parties with him and his friends dressed like the Indian Chief from the Village People and just busting the British’s chops in Boston, Concord and Bunker Hill.
Ol’ Tom Jefferson, down there in Monticello growing hemp and peas, having an affair with Sally Hemmings in the warm Virginia sunshine, while dreaming up a new form of Government with that firebrand Patrick Henry over more than a few tankards just down the hill from Tom’s digs in Charlottesville at Michie Tavern. Tom was so Liberal he thought we ought to have a Revolution every 20 years just for the heck of it just to keep it real.
Tom Paine, son of an 18th century version of a Victoria’s Secret Magnate, revolutionary, author of “Common Sense”, renowned for his writing of “The Rights of Man”, and advocate for progressive taxation, family allowances, old age pensions, maternity grants, advocate for the abolition of slavery, and part of Ben Franklin’s posse as he “went a whorin’” by Ben’s own words, in England and France.
And speaking of that Wild Man Ben Franklin; Premier International 18th Century Bon Vivant, World Class Partier, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Naturist, Naturalist, Author and Printer of Underground Subversive Newspapers and Pamphlets. Papa Ben as he was lovingly referred to, who spent a great deal of his life doing parlor tricks in the Royal Courts with his new found toy, electricity and cavorting with the ladies of these Courts all over the European Continent. It was he who suggested that Tom Jefferson change the first line of the Declaration of Independence to “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal”, in a time of slavery and women being considered chattels. Acclaimed as one of the finest minds of his time anywhere in the world. The kindly Grandfather figure whose Mistresses husbands wrote him letters saying how sad they were to see him leave, begging him to stay in France for their wives and families would never be the same after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 ending the Revolutionary War as he prepared to return to the newly formed United States after an exhaustive decade. Got to admire the guy’s chutzpah.
Danny Webster, Federalist, the Great Orator, Anti-War Activist (the war of 1812), champion of American nationalism who held court at the Union Oyster House in Boston where he had a reputation because, “It was at the Oyster Bar that Daniel Webster, a constant customer, daily drank his tall tumbler of brandy and water with each half-dozen oysters, seldom having less than six plates.” Who is remembered for saying "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" Kind of like oysters and Brandy. I also believe he came up with the often-heard line, “okay, one more and then I got to go home”. How do we answer him today when his ghost booms out the question, “How stands the Union?”
This cast of ruffians, intellectuals, tradesmen, clergy, inventors, drunkards, philanderers, our venerated Forefathers lead the struggling American Colonies and invented a form of government while sitting in taverns mixing equal parts of Ale, Rum, Brandy, John Locke, Voltaire, Plato, Cicero, Julius Caesar, the Magna Carta and dreaming up a system of government that had never before been imagined on the face of the earth. Methinks it just wasn’t tobacco they were smoking in those clay pipes. What did all these Great Men have in common? Why they were all to a man good Church attending Christians of course!
The problem is that the Republican Party of today does not reflect the ideals of our Founding Fathers. Today we are burdened by such people as Trent Lott and our resigning Attorney General John Ashcroft, defender of American Rights and Freedoms who was so embarrassed at the sight of the classic statue of Justice in the lobby of the Department of Justice because she was topless that he had her covered up. Now I don't really want to label him, but, "Out Of Control Prude" comes to mind. I guess he thought she was having a Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction right in front of God and everybody. But then again what can you expect from a politician who lost his bid for the Senate to a Dead Guy. The man needs serious professional help.
The Republicans do not represent the party of my Founding Fathers. Mine is the Party of the Giants of American History. The Paines, the Jefferson’s, the Washington’s and the Adams’s and all the rest of our revered Founding Fathers. Give me that party and I will definitely show up for it. Heck I will even bring the beer.
Amen
Sunday, January 02, 2005
WOULD YOU MIND CLEANING UP AFTER YOUR DOGMA?
I would like the Public to be aware of a grave and serious public health risk and a threat to all of us, and yea, even unto the Nation itself. There is an abundance of Dogma Droppings lying around and I am getting really tired of stepping in them.
What are Dogma Droppings? They are the term we use for certain statements and ideas that are commonly equated with the byproduct excreted by a male bovine. What sets them apart from each other is the fact Dogma Droppings smell worse, lasts longer and accumulate in an exponential manner. They are all over and you cannot scrape them off your shoes easily.
Examples of Dogma Droppings that can be found lying around right now:
A.) The United States is a Christian Country
What? Was everybody asleep in Civics Class in High School? This is a country where you are free to practice your religion. That’s it. None of you religious psychopaths can claim this country for your own. It is a country where a heck of a lot of Christians decided to settle and practice their beliefs as what they feel is God. But no one has given them the ownership papers. This place belongs to all of us. Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, Native Americans, Believers in the Wizard of Oz or the Grand Wazoo, or any other permutation that you can fabricate to assist us in making one’s life seem a little less futile as it has a tendency to become from time to time and we need to get some answers to those questions we ask of ourselves. "What is this all about and what do I have to do with it?"
One Other thing. Who made GOD Christian? Last time I looked the Supreme Being was non-denomonational. You know Christians claiming the Supreme Being as their own and no one elses is just a slight bit presumptive, don't you think? Also one other flash for you. Jesus was a Jew not a Christian. I always have been of the opinion that She was Black and Jewish.
So come on Evangelicals prove me wrong.
B.) It is a Christmas Tree you idiot.
Now this has gotten to be a stupid argument. It is a Christmas Tree and not a holiday tree, a seasonal tree, a tree of lights or anything else you want to call it in order to be Politically Correct and it does represent the Christian Religion. For my whole life the Christmas Tree was a very big part of the year. People changed under its influence. It was a great time of the year and I am Jewish. We had a Menorah for our celebration of Hanukkah. Both holidays are at about the same time3 of the year. It was like one big Judeo/Christian Party. We have not changed the name Menorah to the “Seasonal Candelabra” so we do not annoy our Christian, Islamic and Hindu neighbors, so why should the Christians have to change the name of the Christmas Tree? Oh yeah and by the way, Christians, I got a flash for you. You’re celebrating the birth of a Jew.
Recently the New York City School District banned the Christmas Tree or the Cross in its schools because it was religion based. The Menorah and the Crescent and the Star that sat alongside the Cross were considered not to be a religious influence! If they are not religious symbols, what are they? Logos?
C.) Having a Manger Scene on Public Property is a Violation of Church and State and it is a Christian symbol or an insult to others.
Will someone please get a life? The Manger Scene in case you all forgot was basically a group of Jews bringing a Jewish child into this world in the depths of poverty and political turmoil. There were no Christians at the Manger of that I am sure. There were no Christians at the time. But in this one scene there is a common bond between the three religions that believe in the same God kind of. Here in lie the stories and teaching of the Jews, the Christians and the followers of Islam. All three evolved from the same Beginnings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So you folks and them folks and us folks over here are all Kin in a way. Doesn’t that shed an interesting light on it?
If you feel uncomfortable when you see it a religious symbol of any sort that does not correspond with your thinking don’t look at it. You may have deeper problems than you think. Seek professional care immediately and try to remember the quote of Robert Heinlein “What is one man’s religion is another man’s belly laugh’.
Next Year we will not Celebrate Hanukkah, instead we can celebrate the 1st Annual Jam for Yahweh in partnership with the Christmas Tree Lighting Committee and a Special Appearance by the 10 Commandments. Now that ought to make everyone happy. Happy Kwanzaa.
Oh yes one other observation about Manger Scenes that I want to note. How come many of the characters portrayed wear crosses at Jesus' birth? Did they know something that they were not letting the kid in on? Or were they willing to sacrafice this child right from the beginning to start a cult? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm?
D.) Stem Cell Research is killing unborn babies.
This one is too bizzare to even think about, let alone comment on. The fact of the matter is this. Within our present day technology, methods have been developed to provide what would otherwise normally be impossible opportunities for good loving adults that want to be parents more than any thing else in the world to conceive invirtro. This is a good thing most reasonable people might tend to agree. Smiling Moms and Proud Papas, doting Grandparents, birthday parties and all of that. Pretty smart of us as a species to come up with that.
Now that Little Billy or Mary or whoever are in the world and everyone’s maternal and paternal instincts are sated everything should be just wonderful. It is at this point the Dogma Droppings hit.
To make one going, giggling, spitting up child, crying wonderful gift of life that a newborn child is it takes thousands of attempts at fertilization of the human egg by millions of human sperm and from this you end up with a great many Zygotes. Thousands of chances to become more of those going gurgling bundles of tax deduction than are actually needed, but we in our wisdom at least realize that we cannot bring them all into the world. So, consider what is done with these other chances of life. Why they are flushed down the sink, run through a garbage disposal. They are destroyed. That protocol the Right to Life Folks has no problem with. What they have a problem with is that some scientists believe that this is a good place to harvest the cells they need for research to cure many diseases, like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord damage, repair injuries that now can leave a child or adult paralyzed or worse and in time generally do some possible serious good for all of humankind before we flush them down the sink. Seems fair to me. But there are those that are dead set against this and would rather these cells be destroyed because in their minds it is better to kill a viable organism in the sewer than it is to utilize the good that it can provide before we dispose of it.
E.) America Is Evil
I want to use the line, “You can’t handle the truth.” but that isn’t fair. I think people do not want to know the truth. Hungry children. Air too foul to breath. Bone numbing poverty. Genocide. We as a people do not want to know about that. But we had better wake up people! In the world those conditions are the Rule not the Exception and the folks that live in that are getting sick of it and want their share. We as a nation do not want to know about it and have it upset us during dinner and distract us from the nationalism that they want us to have as our new savior and religion, so the government lies to us about it. Ever wonder why they have the Save the Children Advertising on in the Middle of the Night and not during dinner hour?
These desperate people in our minds and truly do become terrorists and followers of what we consider evil people. Need I remind everyone that Terrorists founded the good old USA? We taught the world how to go about achieving self-determination. They are just copying our Forefathers techniques. To quote the Sage of the Okefonokee Swamp, Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” What are we as a nation guilty of? Allowing people all over the world to dream of Freedom, but not helping them achieve it unless it is in our interest and according to our terms.
I once had a well-educated, well-bred delightful woman say to me that she found the plight and the poverty of the boat people of Hong Kong, “Magical”. She said it innocently with no malice and no realization of what she had actually said as we dined on our steaks, and she was serious. But she reflected a view of the world that we are all taught and some actually believe what they are taught. I will never forget that comment. Nor will I forget the Hong Kong Boat People that I spent many evenings with.
We need to accept a large helping of the responsibility. If for no other reason than we change our view of the world and maybe they might see us different.
We are not evil as a people. We are just dumb. We are in the dark as to why people do not have what we have. Lately, I have been hearing a lot about how evil we are from people that live here citizens and foreigners. Well to the foreigner that are here that see us as evil, but not evil enough to go back to their countries and straighten out their own affairs. I say don’t let the screen door hit you.
How about those Americans that do not like it here? Go on down to the beach in Florida and borrow an inner tube from the Cuban, Haitian or Jamaican that just risked their lives and the lives of their family to get to American no matter what the cost to find a better life. Then just sit your rear end down and let it dangle like shark bait and paddle off to where you think it is better. You are taking up the space a useful person who wants to be here could use.
All I ask is that you clean up after your Dogma please so others can enjoy the country without this din of stupidity that seems to be broadcast from every sector, factor, belief, paradigim, focus group pundit, politician, conservative, liberal and comedian. I would enjoy a few moments to think about all this myself now. Thank you. Your cooperation is would be appreciated.
I would like the Public to be aware of a grave and serious public health risk and a threat to all of us, and yea, even unto the Nation itself. There is an abundance of Dogma Droppings lying around and I am getting really tired of stepping in them.
What are Dogma Droppings? They are the term we use for certain statements and ideas that are commonly equated with the byproduct excreted by a male bovine. What sets them apart from each other is the fact Dogma Droppings smell worse, lasts longer and accumulate in an exponential manner. They are all over and you cannot scrape them off your shoes easily.
Examples of Dogma Droppings that can be found lying around right now:
A.) The United States is a Christian Country
What? Was everybody asleep in Civics Class in High School? This is a country where you are free to practice your religion. That’s it. None of you religious psychopaths can claim this country for your own. It is a country where a heck of a lot of Christians decided to settle and practice their beliefs as what they feel is God. But no one has given them the ownership papers. This place belongs to all of us. Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, Native Americans, Believers in the Wizard of Oz or the Grand Wazoo, or any other permutation that you can fabricate to assist us in making one’s life seem a little less futile as it has a tendency to become from time to time and we need to get some answers to those questions we ask of ourselves. "What is this all about and what do I have to do with it?"
One Other thing. Who made GOD Christian? Last time I looked the Supreme Being was non-denomonational. You know Christians claiming the Supreme Being as their own and no one elses is just a slight bit presumptive, don't you think? Also one other flash for you. Jesus was a Jew not a Christian. I always have been of the opinion that She was Black and Jewish.
So come on Evangelicals prove me wrong.
B.) It is a Christmas Tree you idiot.
Now this has gotten to be a stupid argument. It is a Christmas Tree and not a holiday tree, a seasonal tree, a tree of lights or anything else you want to call it in order to be Politically Correct and it does represent the Christian Religion. For my whole life the Christmas Tree was a very big part of the year. People changed under its influence. It was a great time of the year and I am Jewish. We had a Menorah for our celebration of Hanukkah. Both holidays are at about the same time3 of the year. It was like one big Judeo/Christian Party. We have not changed the name Menorah to the “Seasonal Candelabra” so we do not annoy our Christian, Islamic and Hindu neighbors, so why should the Christians have to change the name of the Christmas Tree? Oh yeah and by the way, Christians, I got a flash for you. You’re celebrating the birth of a Jew.
Recently the New York City School District banned the Christmas Tree or the Cross in its schools because it was religion based. The Menorah and the Crescent and the Star that sat alongside the Cross were considered not to be a religious influence! If they are not religious symbols, what are they? Logos?
C.) Having a Manger Scene on Public Property is a Violation of Church and State and it is a Christian symbol or an insult to others.
Will someone please get a life? The Manger Scene in case you all forgot was basically a group of Jews bringing a Jewish child into this world in the depths of poverty and political turmoil. There were no Christians at the Manger of that I am sure. There were no Christians at the time. But in this one scene there is a common bond between the three religions that believe in the same God kind of. Here in lie the stories and teaching of the Jews, the Christians and the followers of Islam. All three evolved from the same Beginnings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So you folks and them folks and us folks over here are all Kin in a way. Doesn’t that shed an interesting light on it?
If you feel uncomfortable when you see it a religious symbol of any sort that does not correspond with your thinking don’t look at it. You may have deeper problems than you think. Seek professional care immediately and try to remember the quote of Robert Heinlein “What is one man’s religion is another man’s belly laugh’.
Next Year we will not Celebrate Hanukkah, instead we can celebrate the 1st Annual Jam for Yahweh in partnership with the Christmas Tree Lighting Committee and a Special Appearance by the 10 Commandments. Now that ought to make everyone happy. Happy Kwanzaa.
Oh yes one other observation about Manger Scenes that I want to note. How come many of the characters portrayed wear crosses at Jesus' birth? Did they know something that they were not letting the kid in on? Or were they willing to sacrafice this child right from the beginning to start a cult? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm?
D.) Stem Cell Research is killing unborn babies.
This one is too bizzare to even think about, let alone comment on. The fact of the matter is this. Within our present day technology, methods have been developed to provide what would otherwise normally be impossible opportunities for good loving adults that want to be parents more than any thing else in the world to conceive invirtro. This is a good thing most reasonable people might tend to agree. Smiling Moms and Proud Papas, doting Grandparents, birthday parties and all of that. Pretty smart of us as a species to come up with that.
Now that Little Billy or Mary or whoever are in the world and everyone’s maternal and paternal instincts are sated everything should be just wonderful. It is at this point the Dogma Droppings hit.
To make one going, giggling, spitting up child, crying wonderful gift of life that a newborn child is it takes thousands of attempts at fertilization of the human egg by millions of human sperm and from this you end up with a great many Zygotes. Thousands of chances to become more of those going gurgling bundles of tax deduction than are actually needed, but we in our wisdom at least realize that we cannot bring them all into the world. So, consider what is done with these other chances of life. Why they are flushed down the sink, run through a garbage disposal. They are destroyed. That protocol the Right to Life Folks has no problem with. What they have a problem with is that some scientists believe that this is a good place to harvest the cells they need for research to cure many diseases, like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord damage, repair injuries that now can leave a child or adult paralyzed or worse and in time generally do some possible serious good for all of humankind before we flush them down the sink. Seems fair to me. But there are those that are dead set against this and would rather these cells be destroyed because in their minds it is better to kill a viable organism in the sewer than it is to utilize the good that it can provide before we dispose of it.
E.) America Is Evil
I want to use the line, “You can’t handle the truth.” but that isn’t fair. I think people do not want to know the truth. Hungry children. Air too foul to breath. Bone numbing poverty. Genocide. We as a people do not want to know about that. But we had better wake up people! In the world those conditions are the Rule not the Exception and the folks that live in that are getting sick of it and want their share. We as a nation do not want to know about it and have it upset us during dinner and distract us from the nationalism that they want us to have as our new savior and religion, so the government lies to us about it. Ever wonder why they have the Save the Children Advertising on in the Middle of the Night and not during dinner hour?
These desperate people in our minds and truly do become terrorists and followers of what we consider evil people. Need I remind everyone that Terrorists founded the good old USA? We taught the world how to go about achieving self-determination. They are just copying our Forefathers techniques. To quote the Sage of the Okefonokee Swamp, Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” What are we as a nation guilty of? Allowing people all over the world to dream of Freedom, but not helping them achieve it unless it is in our interest and according to our terms.
I once had a well-educated, well-bred delightful woman say to me that she found the plight and the poverty of the boat people of Hong Kong, “Magical”. She said it innocently with no malice and no realization of what she had actually said as we dined on our steaks, and she was serious. But she reflected a view of the world that we are all taught and some actually believe what they are taught. I will never forget that comment. Nor will I forget the Hong Kong Boat People that I spent many evenings with.
We need to accept a large helping of the responsibility. If for no other reason than we change our view of the world and maybe they might see us different.
We are not evil as a people. We are just dumb. We are in the dark as to why people do not have what we have. Lately, I have been hearing a lot about how evil we are from people that live here citizens and foreigners. Well to the foreigner that are here that see us as evil, but not evil enough to go back to their countries and straighten out their own affairs. I say don’t let the screen door hit you.
How about those Americans that do not like it here? Go on down to the beach in Florida and borrow an inner tube from the Cuban, Haitian or Jamaican that just risked their lives and the lives of their family to get to American no matter what the cost to find a better life. Then just sit your rear end down and let it dangle like shark bait and paddle off to where you think it is better. You are taking up the space a useful person who wants to be here could use.
All I ask is that you clean up after your Dogma please so others can enjoy the country without this din of stupidity that seems to be broadcast from every sector, factor, belief, paradigim, focus group pundit, politician, conservative, liberal and comedian. I would enjoy a few moments to think about all this myself now. Thank you. Your cooperation is would be appreciated.
I would like the Public to be aware of a grave and serious public health risk and a threat to all of us, and yea, even unto the Nation itself. There is an abundance of Dogma Droppings lying around and I am getting really tired of stepping in them.
OLD SOLDIERS
It’s a chilly morning here on Anastasia Island.
The Beach is almost frosty this morning. For the first time in many months I feel chilled as I start out on my morning bike ride. It will warm a bit as the sun rises a few more degrees in the October Sky. But now the air is fresh and crisp and wiping away the sleep from my eyes in a way that is vaguely remembered. A time and a place many years ago.
With my thoughts almost immediately beginning to drift away as I have 70’s rock & roll blasting away in my ears. I notice my neighbor standing in front of his house on this brisk morning before beginning his days labors.
Today, I stop. For it has been a while since we have taken the time to more than nod in each others direction as we pass during the day.
We are not close friends or even neighbors in the traditional sense of the word. Ours is a kinship of battle. We are brothers from another time and another reality. Never before in our lives had we laid eyes on each other until about eighteen months ago. It was not the small Purple Hearts on our license plates that identified us to each other. We recognized the weariness in each others eyes. We are Old Soldiers. Warrior survivors of one of Dante’s Circles of Hell called Vietnam.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother;”
It is fitting that we talk this day. For now I know what this nagging familiarity of the morning is. I am back on a hilltop graveyard where I had slept for the night. For only the graves were on dry ground in a land of rice paddies. Very rarely one had to sleep in the mud once we learned this trick. People had been dying in that country for many years. It is strangely peaceful sleeping among the dead.
Shivering in the morning cold. A blanket around our shoulders. A tin canteen cup, or a cup made from favorite C-Ration can grasped in filthy, cracked, and callused hands. A liquid posing as coffee heated by a pinch of plastic explosive, held closely for its warmth. Staring into a fire of C-Ration boxes. Thinking thoughts about a life thousands of miles away that we wished we were living instead of the one that we were living in the bone chilling cold of the morning jungle.
Now we stand together staring down into the ground as though the flames of that long extinguished fire were in front of us. Talking of things only Old Soldiers speak of.
Of our lives and loves lost and found. Of our utter amazement that we are still alive after all of these years; Our shame for being alive while so many of our brethren lie cold in the ground; The things that only warriors say to each other when they are in the autumn of their lives.
We notice the small things so quickly. Old habits never die. The new growth on a near dead oak tree which has seemed to have found new life over the summer months. Of the flash of color and movement which is a woodpecker hopping from branch to branch looking for good things for breakfast among the dead limbs.
We talk of our homes we have built for those we love and cherish. But most noticeably we speak in tones of weariness.
A neighbor approached finishing his morning constitutional. The same age as us, but not one of us. He was never the warrior. He has no knowledge of that which we warriors carry in our minds, our souls, and our hearts. “And Gentlemen in England now a-bedShall think themselves accursed they were not hereAnd hold their manhoods cheap while any speaksThat fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”We stand as two bearded incantations of the Norse God Heindall guardian of the Rainbow Bridge to Asgard, who according to legend needed less sleep than a bird, could see a hundred leagues, and could hear grass growing in the meadows and wool growing on the sheep. Protecting our private Asgard where we dwell, until we are finally called forth into our own Valhalla to join our brethren. Now our beards are gray. Our middles thick. Our flowing hair sparse. But our demeanors are ones of assurance. Our visages quiet and thoughtful. We use few words with each other. We speak to each other of mundane things for the most part. But occasionally we speak of our confusion and frustration at growing old and infirm. We mention, but do not speak of comrades no longer with us. But those words are few, for we share the same fear and prayer. That soon we will join our warrior brethren once again. We have the eyes that have seen too much. With ears that have heard too many screams of pain caused and suffered by ourselves; Eyes that one gets only when the screams of pain are of your own suffering and of your own making. We have tired eyes. We have the eyes of predators. We have the eyes that hold a wisdom only those who have faced their own deaths many times over ever acquire. We have sad eyes. So, on this fine chilly October morning, we stand in the shadows under a tree. Looking down into a fire that is not there. Our hands clasping for the comforting memory of that tin cup and coffee. Remembering the warmth and security of that cup in our hands. Now, again, dreaming of a life thousands of miles away. Missing the life that we had been living in the bone chilling morning in the tropics. Wishing we were back in the Jungle as warriors once again. For there we had the one thing that we can not have now, but would pay any price to have. Our youth. “He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, and say tomorrow is Saint Crispian; Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars.And say,“ these wounds I had on Crispin’s day.” - ” Henry V”, Act 4 Scene 3, Wm. Shakespeare It‘s a chilly morning here on Anastasia Island. St. Augustine Beach, FloridaOctober
2000Copyright, Marcus Nevacoff, October 2000
The Beach is almost frosty this morning. For the first time in many months I feel chilled as I start out on my morning bike ride. It will warm a bit as the sun rises a few more degrees in the October Sky. But now the air is fresh and crisp and wiping away the sleep from my eyes in a way that is vaguely remembered. A time and a place many years ago.
With my thoughts almost immediately beginning to drift away as I have 70’s rock & roll blasting away in my ears. I notice my neighbor standing in front of his house on this brisk morning before beginning his days labors.
Today, I stop. For it has been a while since we have taken the time to more than nod in each others direction as we pass during the day.
We are not close friends or even neighbors in the traditional sense of the word. Ours is a kinship of battle. We are brothers from another time and another reality. Never before in our lives had we laid eyes on each other until about eighteen months ago. It was not the small Purple Hearts on our license plates that identified us to each other. We recognized the weariness in each others eyes. We are Old Soldiers. Warrior survivors of one of Dante’s Circles of Hell called Vietnam.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother;”
It is fitting that we talk this day. For now I know what this nagging familiarity of the morning is. I am back on a hilltop graveyard where I had slept for the night. For only the graves were on dry ground in a land of rice paddies. Very rarely one had to sleep in the mud once we learned this trick. People had been dying in that country for many years. It is strangely peaceful sleeping among the dead.
Shivering in the morning cold. A blanket around our shoulders. A tin canteen cup, or a cup made from favorite C-Ration can grasped in filthy, cracked, and callused hands. A liquid posing as coffee heated by a pinch of plastic explosive, held closely for its warmth. Staring into a fire of C-Ration boxes. Thinking thoughts about a life thousands of miles away that we wished we were living instead of the one that we were living in the bone chilling cold of the morning jungle.
Now we stand together staring down into the ground as though the flames of that long extinguished fire were in front of us. Talking of things only Old Soldiers speak of.
Of our lives and loves lost and found. Of our utter amazement that we are still alive after all of these years; Our shame for being alive while so many of our brethren lie cold in the ground; The things that only warriors say to each other when they are in the autumn of their lives.
We notice the small things so quickly. Old habits never die. The new growth on a near dead oak tree which has seemed to have found new life over the summer months. Of the flash of color and movement which is a woodpecker hopping from branch to branch looking for good things for breakfast among the dead limbs.
We talk of our homes we have built for those we love and cherish. But most noticeably we speak in tones of weariness.
A neighbor approached finishing his morning constitutional. The same age as us, but not one of us. He was never the warrior. He has no knowledge of that which we warriors carry in our minds, our souls, and our hearts. “And Gentlemen in England now a-bedShall think themselves accursed they were not hereAnd hold their manhoods cheap while any speaksThat fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”We stand as two bearded incantations of the Norse God Heindall guardian of the Rainbow Bridge to Asgard, who according to legend needed less sleep than a bird, could see a hundred leagues, and could hear grass growing in the meadows and wool growing on the sheep. Protecting our private Asgard where we dwell, until we are finally called forth into our own Valhalla to join our brethren. Now our beards are gray. Our middles thick. Our flowing hair sparse. But our demeanors are ones of assurance. Our visages quiet and thoughtful. We use few words with each other. We speak to each other of mundane things for the most part. But occasionally we speak of our confusion and frustration at growing old and infirm. We mention, but do not speak of comrades no longer with us. But those words are few, for we share the same fear and prayer. That soon we will join our warrior brethren once again. We have the eyes that have seen too much. With ears that have heard too many screams of pain caused and suffered by ourselves; Eyes that one gets only when the screams of pain are of your own suffering and of your own making. We have tired eyes. We have the eyes of predators. We have the eyes that hold a wisdom only those who have faced their own deaths many times over ever acquire. We have sad eyes. So, on this fine chilly October morning, we stand in the shadows under a tree. Looking down into a fire that is not there. Our hands clasping for the comforting memory of that tin cup and coffee. Remembering the warmth and security of that cup in our hands. Now, again, dreaming of a life thousands of miles away. Missing the life that we had been living in the bone chilling morning in the tropics. Wishing we were back in the Jungle as warriors once again. For there we had the one thing that we can not have now, but would pay any price to have. Our youth. “He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, and say tomorrow is Saint Crispian; Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars.And say,“ these wounds I had on Crispin’s day.” - ” Henry V”, Act 4 Scene 3, Wm. Shakespeare It‘s a chilly morning here on Anastasia Island. St. Augustine Beach, FloridaOctober
2000Copyright, Marcus Nevacoff, October 2000
