he added, we take
the world as it is – not as
we wish it to be

Adapted from the article, Mark Carney in China positions Canada for ‘the world as it is, not as we wish it’ by Amy Hawkins and Leyland Cecco in Toronto.

The story has the slug line of “PM’s visit to Beijing seen as a welcome reset to relations in a ‘new world order’ but critics worry what trade deal could mean for Canadian workers”.

It closes with this line.

Carney also spoke of “red lines” for Ottawa, including concerns about human rights and interference in Canadian elections. But : “We take the world as it is – not as we wish it to be.”

This poll was NOT a part of this story but it goes to the point of the world as it is.

I am aware that this plays right into the hands of those who feel that the USA has not part to play on the world stage.

There are those who feel that the USA has no role in world events.

There are those who says that the USA should stay home and take care of itself.

So how has they been working out you ask?

Somehow how we got a president who does not care about right or wrong, who treats truth as a tool, who shows little interest in a coherent world view, who dismisses the struggles of poor people as inconveniences, who treats the Constitution as an obstacle, who mocks rules of decency as weakness, and who bends or breaks the law whenever it serves his ego, because power and attention matter more to him than principle, responsibility, empathy, or accountability, leaving supporters and critics alike to confront a politics driven by grievance, spectacle, and self interest rather than justice, shared norms, or democratic restraint.

GOSH!

I admit, I asked Chat GPT to describe that current mad in office and that was the response.

Gotta agree with but thinking of famous story of Ben Franklin telling Thomas Jefferson about the man with the sign saying that the man made hats. The sign was cut in the shape of a hat and also had the man’s name on it. Franklin show Jefferson that all that was needed was the sign in the shape of the hat and the man’s name and cut all the words about hats for sale and such.

With that in mind can we work on what Chat GPT wrote?

How about we get by with saying just, we got a president who does not care about right or wrong.

Thinking about this some more, all we really need is, we got a president who does not care.

arc of the moral
universe is long, but it
bends toward justice

On March 25, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech on the steps of the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after the completion of the Selma to Montgomery March.

Rhetorically he asked a question.

“How Long?”

And he answered himself, “Not long.”

Dr. King said:

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.”

How long? Not long, because “no lie can live forever.”

How long? Not long, because “you shall reap what you sow.”

How long? Not long:

Truth forever on the scaffold,

Wrong forever on the throne,

Yet that scaffold sways the future,

And, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow,

Keeping watch above his own.

I like that.

I like that a lot.

For today, remember that Dr. King said that, ” … however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.”

And with that in mind, remember that Dr. King said:

Let us march on ballot boxes, march on ballot boxes until race-baiters disappear from the political arena.

Let us march on ballot boxes until the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs will be transformed into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.

Let us march on ballot boxes until the Wallaces of our nation tremble away in silence.

Let us march on ballot boxes until we send to our city councils, state legislatures, and the United States Congress, men who will not fear to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.

Let us march on ballot boxes until brotherhood becomes more than a meaningless word in an opening prayer, but the order of the day on every legislative agenda.

For today

Let us march on ballot boxes until the Trumps of our nation tremble away in silence.

Let us march on ballot boxes until we send to our city councils …

State legislatures …

And the United States Congress …

people who will not fear to do justly …

love mercy …

And walk humbly with thy God!

(I digress but how cannot this simple line burn through with white hot fire into the consciousness of Christians in America today as a comment on that man in office?

And ask, How Long?

And answer, “Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Say that outloud.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

That applies to all people regardless of the level of their own personal “morality”.

And I will point some important aspects of the calendar.

This nation hold mid-term elections in 9 months.

This nations hold a Presidential referendum in 33 months.

And I thought I might mention that in the State of Minnesota, indictments or complaints for any crime resulting in the death of the victim may be found or made at any time after the death of the person killed.

In Minnesota, there is no statute of limitations on a charge on murder and in the United States, murder is a State not a Federal crime.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

morally bankrupt
past the point of no return
unhinged entirely

I asked ChatGPT to give me words that describe someone who has finally gone too far, gone past the limit.

ChatGPT responded!

Here are words and phrases that capture the idea of someone who’s finally crossed the line / gone past the limit, grouped by tone and nuance:

Blunt / Strong
Unhinged
Out of control
Over the edge
Beyond saving
Past the point of no return
Too far gone
Irredeemable

Psychological / Emotional
Unraveled
Broken
Fractured
Unstable
Snapped
Lost
Unmoored

Moral / Ethical
Corrupted
Depraved
Debased
Morally bankrupt
Tainted
Fallen

Poetic / Dramatic
Crossed the Rubicon
Burned the last bridge
Stepped into the abyss
Past the brink
Overreached
Damned
Claimed by the dark

Colloquial / Modern
Off the rails
Went feral
Lost the plot
Unchecked
Unhinged entirely

Quiet but Heavy
There’s no coming back
Something in them broke
They chose the wrong side
They crossed a line they can’t uncross

I ask you, which of these terms has NOT been used in a headline at sometime, somewhere in the last year to describe some action by the current person in office and his administration?

Then, I ask you, when will enough be enough?

Famously, Senator Joseph McCarthy also met this grading scale and most of these terms were used to describe his actions and his list of 205, 57, no 81, to finally, 1 known communist in the State Department is 1 too many.

According to Wikipedia:

While he never produced a verified list of communists, his investigations had significant consequences:
> 500+ people were called to testify before his subcommittee.
> Over 2,000 government employees lost their jobs as a result of his investigations and the general climate of the “Red Scare”.
> Zero of the individuals he publicly named were ever convicted of subversion or espionage.

The Senator kept at it until finally, in the famous televised Army-McCarthy hearings (televised by the way, because network newcomer ABC had such a weak afternoon programming schedule they could afford to broadcast the hearings live), Joseph Welch, the defense attorney appearing for the US Army looked at the Senator and on live TV asked, “At long last, have you no decency?”

If you have ever seen the movie, Anatomy of a Murder, set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Joseph Welch was hired by the director Otto Preminger as a legal consultant and Preminger ended up casting Mr. Welch as the mild mannered Judge in the movie.

This quiet, unassuming man, looked at Joe McCarthy and said in his quiet, unassuming voice, “At long last, have you no decency?”

And he held up a mirror to the country and the country said, BLEEECHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, where did this McCarthy guy come from?

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you …

tyrants remember
hurrah for flag of the free
it waves forever

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom’s nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let tyrants remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

The Stars and Stripes Forever, music AND LYRICS by John Philip Sousa.

By a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress, it is the official National March of the United States of America.

Goodness gracious but remember the times when Congress used to ACT and we didn’t have to take to streets to protest on behalf of Democracy, Life and Liberty?

Sing out for liberty and light,

Sing out for freedom and the right,

Sing out for Union and its might,

It waves forever.