and you are to love
those who are foreigners, for
you were foreigners

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

Fear the Lord your God and serve him.

Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

Deuteronomy 10:17-21 (NIV).

I work in the online world.

The WORLD WIDE WEB.

Forever I have done battle with folks who feel that the First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights applies to the world wide web as a whole rather than just the United States.

It is confusing to be sure but the protected right to say what you want here in the USofA is not the same as it is in, lets say, Venezuela.

There are other jurisdictions and other basis for law and in some cases a higher law.

Take immigration for example.

Lots and lots of talk about immigration and borders today.

And when I say border I mean the border of the United States.

Let me say that I agree 100% that they have to be rules, regulations and laws in place and followed to manage the border of the United States and immigration into the United States.

When you get family history to the level of Great Grand Parents, of the 8 people I count as my Greats, 6 were born in the Netherlands.

As far as I can tell, they followed all the existing rules and regulations to enter the country and take the road to citizenship.

It occurs to me though that while that is all well and good as far as the United States goes, I put it to you that there is a higher law.

Maybe not recognized by everyone in the country but for those who embrace the idea that the United States is a Christian nation, there is an accepted, unquestioned higher law.

And the way I read it, this higher law says to defend the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and love the foreigner residing among us, giving them food and clothing. Love those who are foreigners, for we ourselves were foreigners.

Debate on this view is way above my pay grade and you can take it up with the management when the time comes.

if did not want to
go to Minneapolis …
why get on the train?

Garrison Keillor wrote that Father Emil, the Catholic Priest in Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, would say ” “… If you didn’t want to go to Minneapolis, why did you get on the train?”

This quote was on my mind as I thought about people I know who plan to vote for a certain candidate for President but say, “I don’t agree with or support a lot of what he says or plans to do, but I will vote for him.”

That’s nice.

But if you vote for him, you get him and all that he says, all that he stands for, all that he plans to do and all that will come about if he is elected.

Sure I can say the same thing about voting the other way.

I don’t agree with all that she says, all that she stands for and all that she plans to do, but I will vote for her.

In the main, because she is not him.

You get the whole package.

If you don’t want to go to Minneapolis, don’t get on the train.

As Bret Stephens, New York Times Conservative Columnist says, Voting one way in this election will make me sick. Voting the other way will kill me.

As Mr. Lincoln said in his 1862 Message to Congress:

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.

We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves.

No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.

The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

We say we are for the Union.

The world will not forget that we say this.

We know how to save the Union.

The world knows we do know how to save it.

We – even we here – hold the power, and bear the responsibility.

Say this again to yourself as you decide to make your choice.

We cannot escape history.

We will be remembered in spite of ourselves.

No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.

The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

We hold the power, and bear the responsibility.

Vote one way and you will have to overlook or accept some things you don’t like.

Vote the other way and you will have to overlook or accept some things don’t like.

It is a question of personal integrity only you can answer.

Do the yellow pad test.

Take a yellow pad and draw a line down the middle and write these things down.

One side may compromise your principles.

One side may ask for your soul.

You hold the power, and bear the responsibility.

might reasonably
be expected in questions
with great eagerness

The book, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume, is (according to https://standardebooks.org/) “A foundational text in empiricism and skepticism”

It was published in English in 1748 under the title Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding until a 1757 edition came up with the now-familiar name.

Mr. Hume’s section Of Liberty and Necessity starts with the sentence, “It might reasonably be expected in questions which have been canvassed and disputed with great eagerness, since the first origin of science and philosophy, that the meaning of all the terms, at least, should have been agreed upon among the disputants; and our enquiries, in the course of two thousand years, been able to pass from words to the true and real subject of the controversy.”

One sentence.

66 words.

97 syllables.

Graded out at a 14.4 on the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale.

And some countless words later, ends with “…if the definition above mentioned be admitted; liberty, when opposed to necessity, not to constraint, is the same thing with chance; which is universally allowed to have no existence.”

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I value liberty.

So, by necessity, I am voting for Harris.

Lots of words to the true and real subject of the controversy.