Who Won?

Tuesday - Election Day

We won.

The American people, the citizens who by majority rule, comprise the policy and philosophy of this maturing republic won.

Once again we became the evidence of our beliefs and by public example demonstrated to the world and to ourselves that democracy is still a valid and effective process.

We live in a pragmatic world, often fearful, sometimes cruel and we the people are not perfect, but collectively we strive to live up to the founding ideals of democracy. We shout we argue, we debate, we accuse, and when the votes are counted we accept, we forgive, we get together, and we live in diverse harmony until we do it again. That’s greatness, that’s America.

Dickens: the Tale of Two Cities

Do you think Mr. Dickens was prescient and writing about 2017 under the Trump administration?    

   “It was the best of times,

    it was the worst of times,

    it was the age of wisdom,

    it was the age of foolishness,

    it was the epoch of belief,

    it was the epoch of incredulity,

    it was the season of Light,

    it was the season of Darkness,

    it was the spring of hope,

    it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period...”

Items of Interest

Items of interest.

Please vote today, even though it may be inconvenient.

Re: Texas. It is guns, not mental illness.

Re: Texas. Prayer and compassion.

Commerce secretary Wilber Ross needs to tell what happened to his pledge to divest his investments.

From the Washington Post:

Alan Frumin, who served as Senate parliamentarian until 2012, says the Senate needs a “critical mass of responsible adults” to function effectively.

“Mar-a-Lago won permission from the Labor Department to hire 70 foreign workers. The request is six times higher than the amount of foreign workers Trump hired for the last tourist season, and it comes as Trump continues to implore companies to “hire American.”

 Wake–up Citizens!

We used to be...

There used to be negative people and positive people. We each had opinions and we expressed them.

The negative people seemed to be opposing, sometimes belligerent, always with a clinched fist, or at least the perception of a clinched fist in any passionate discussion or argument.

The positive people seemed to be open, willing to have a passive discussion and always seemed to have an open hand ready for a handshake and an open mind to engage in a conversation of shared disagreement.

Then something happened! I don’t know what it was, but it was powerful. Was it cosmic rays, divine grace denied, too many martinis, or a paradigm shift in what was balanced awareness. Positive people clinched their fist too.

Today in discussions, in arguments, even in conversations, it seems both sides spew their words with clinched fists.

If both sides in any debate embrace the tightness of tongue wrapped in the diapered clothe of not-listening, we are doomed to conflict, not cooperation.

It doesn’t need to be this way! If each side could back off just a little, if each side could pause, for just a moment, before the lance of ego is loosed to impale the other, we might have the start of what we used to be.

COURTEOUS.

The Bed of Life

I heard difficult news from a friend recently; a loved one is going through the cancer difficulty. It reminded me of some things we need to think about before we are too preoccupied to think about them.

There are some choices we might want to make before we can’t make them. I am talking about death and dying. An uncomfortable subject for most people.

Writer Robert Test did his thinking, and this is what he wrote:

 “After I die, don't call it my deathbed. Let it be called the bed of life."

 Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise. Give my heart to the person who has nothing, but endless days of pain. Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car so that he may live to see his grandchildren play.  Take my bones, every muscle fiber, every nerve and try to find a way to make a crippled child walk."

Burn the rest and scatter the ashes to the wind to help the flowers grow.

If you must bury something, bury my faults, my weaknesses and my prejudices against my fellow man.

If by chance you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or a word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever."

Thank you, Robert Test.

Please!

Please, Mr. President, bring us together. Politicizing New York’s terror attack, as you have done, helps accomplish the stated goals of ISIS and other terror organizations. A divided America is their goal.

It was not Senator Schumer’s doing that the lottery program in question was formed. It was a cooperative bipartisan effort formed under the Bush administration. Do you think the American public will believe every lie you say?

Good grief, I hope your answer is not yes.

New York's Terror Attack

Once again the cowardly, the delusionary, the misfits of humanity kill the innocent.

The problem is we never know when the scum of life will surface. It’s always been that way. It wasn’t always Islam. History is filled with a litany of causes that the morally weak embrace as a soiled standard for battle. Violence is something you grab on too when you have nothing in your heart but the emptiness of evil.

I am so sorry that the action of one sick soul has caused so much pain for so many families and I will pray for them. With each ache of loss, there comes a patriotic resolve to stand strong and brave for what is right.

The darkness of a cruel belief can never dim the Divine light of peaceful innocence. That is God’s law, and that is the unconditional power that makes God great. Killing is an abomination of the Divine gift of life.