responsible to
live as Christians in the midst
of unchristian world

I am impelled to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in the midst of an unchristian world.

This is what I had to do.

This is what every Christian has to do.

But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs.

They are afraid to be different.

Their great concern is to be accepted socially.

They live by some such principle as this: “Everybody is doing it, so it must be all right.” Morality is merely group consensus.

In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways.

You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup Poll of the majority opinion, and how many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.

From Paul’s Letter to American Christians by Martin Luther King, Jr. as read on June 3, 1958.

You can listen to it here.

But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs.

You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup Poll of the majority opinion, and how many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.

1958.

Well, in some ways we have come far since 1958.

In some ways we have backed up a ways since then.

As Dr. King said, “”The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

It’s these times when the arc seems a little flat, maybe a lot of flat, that tries my soul.

It Dr. King’s day today as well as Dr. King’s birthday as well as my wife’s birthday.

If you were a State of South Carolina employee, you would have the day off.

The next day off, If you were a State of South Carolina Holiday is George Washington’s Birthday / Presidents Day on Monday, February 19.

Boy Howdy but after that State of South Carolina Employees have to wait another two months for an extra day off.

That won’t come until Confederate Memorial Day — Friday, May 10.

justice is always
in jeopardy, pitfalls
misery, meanness

Political democracy, as it exists and practically works in America, with all its threatening evils, supplies a training-school for making first-class men.

It is life’s gymnasium, not of good only, but of all.

We try often, though we fall back often.

A brave delight, fit for freedom’s athletes, fills these arenas, and fully satisfies, out of the action in them, irrespective of success.

Whatever we do not attain, we at any rate attain the experiences of the fight, the hardening of the strong campaign, and throb with currents of attempt at least. Time is ample. Let the victors come after us.

Not for nothing does evil play its part among us. Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy, peace walks amid hourly pitfalls, and of slavery, misery, meanness, the craft of tyrants and the credulity of the populace, in some of their protean forms, no voice can at any time say, They are not.

The clouds break a little, and the sun shines out — but soon and certain the lowering darkness falls again, as if to last forever.

Yet is there an immortal courage and prophecy in every sane soul that cannot, must not, under any circumstances, capitulate.

Vive, the attack—the perennial assault!

Vive, the unpopular cause—the spirit that audaciously aims—the never-abandon’d efforts, pursued the same amid opposing proofs and precedents.

From Democratic Vistas, an essay by Walt Whitman.

According to Wikipedia, Whitman condemned the corruption and greed of the Gilded Age, denouncing the post-Civil War materialism that had overtaken the country.

“Never was there, perhaps, more hollowness at heart than at present, and here in the United States. Genuine belief seems to have left us,” he wrote.

His solution to the moral crisis was literature: “Two or three really original American poets … would give more compaction and more moral identity, (the quality to-day most needed) to these States, than all its Constitutions, legislative and judicial ties,” he declared, believing that literature would unite the country.

The line from the song, Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio? The Nation turns its lonely eyes to you ..” comes to mind.

Where are the heros today?

Where are the Two or three really original American poets?

Where have you gone … Taylor Swift?

I will say this.

Should Ms. Swift endorse any candidate this cycle, its game over.

Justice is always in jeopardy.

Peace walks amid hourly pitfalls, and of slavery, misery, meanness.

The craft of tyrants and the credulity of the populace, in some of their protean forms, no voice can at any time say, They are not.

It some ways, its comforting that Mr. Whitman felt this way back in 1871 and here we are today.

key to the rise of
authoritarians, they …
use false history

The key to the rise of authoritarians, they explained, is their use of language and false history.

Authoritarians rise when economic, social, political, or religious change makes members of a formerly powerful group feel as if they have been left behind. Their frustration makes them vulnerable to leaders who promise to make them dominant again. A strongman downplays the real conditions that have created their problems and tells them that the only reason they have been dispossessed is that enemies have cheated them of power.

Such leaders undermine existing power structures, and as they collapse, people previously apathetic about politics turn into activists, not necessarily expecting a better life, but seeing themselves as heroes reclaiming the country. Leaders don’t try to persuade people to support real solutions, but instead reinforce their followers’ fantasy self-image and organize them into a mass movement.

Once people internalize their leader’s propaganda, it doesn’t matter when pieces of it are proven to be lies, because it has become central to their identity.

As a strongman becomes more and more destructive, followers’ loyalty only increases. Having begun to treat their perceived enemies badly, they need to believe their victims deserve it. Turning against the leader who inspired such behavior would mean admitting they had been wrong and that they, not their enemies, are evil.

This, they cannot do.

From Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson (Author) Viking (September 26, 2023).

This is one short passage from just the short forward to the book, Democracy Awakening.

Reading the forward was about all I could get through.

I am reminded of the story about a lady who walked into a police station and asked if she could sit in the lobby.

She was reading a Stephen King book and got so scared she couldn’t keep reading at home.

I did look ahead through the rest of the book, all to easy to do with an e-reader and I keep saying yup, yup, yup and why don’t those people see it?

Why don’t they see where this is leading?

It is not a case of ‘none so blind as those who will not see’ as it is a case of everything Ms. Cox points out that the extreme’s are achieving through their drive to an authoritarian world is not bad, damaging, wrong, hateful or hurtful but are GOALS.

Parallels to the triumph of authoritarian Germany are to easy to make.

I have to point out that the German authoritarian leader was offered the 2nd highest place in government in 1932.

By 1934, all opposition political parties were outlawed.

Two years.

How can I sleep at night.

Really, how can I sleep at night?

The main reason is that the United States in 2023 is not Germany in 1932.

What do I mean by that?

Well, this is what I mean by that.

I am reminded of the movie Casablanca.

Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart is asked by a representative of the German authoritarian Government:

Can you imagine us in London?

Rick replies, “When you get there, ask me.”

Diplomatist.

The representative of the German authoritarian Government continues: How about New York?

Rick replies, “Well, there are sections of New York, … that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.”

That is the American attitude I am betting on to save us.

There were, are and will be a Major Strassers in this world.

There will always be people, who for their own reasons, want to line up with the Major Strassers.

Let us hope there will always be a Richard Blaine.

I, and I hope a lot of America, will line up with Monsieur Rick

All knew… ALL KNEW … that
this interest was the cause …
And? And the war came …

Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.

And the war came.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves not distributed generally over the union but localized in the southern part of it.

These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest.

All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war.

To strengthen perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war …

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address.

On March 4, 1865, only 41 days before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for the second time.

Lincoln’s second inaugural address previewed his plans for healing a once-divided nation.

The speech is engraved on the north interior wall of the Lincoln Memorial.

The war was still going on on March 4, 1865 and Mr. Lincoln had no problem saying “All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war.“

As far as I can tell, no one disputed this claim at the time.

The New York Times slugged its coverage of the speech stating:

THE INAUGURATION

A Stormy Morning but a Clear Afternoon.

THE PROCESSION TO THE CAPITOL.

Imposing Display–Enthusiasm Among the People.

THE INAUGURATION CEREMONIES.

Vice-president Johnson Sworn in by Mr. Hamlin.

President Lincoln takes the Oath for the Second Term.

HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

The Changes of Four Years–Both Sides Disappointed at the Length of the War.

HE SITUATION VERY HOPEFUL.

Our Object a Just and Lasting Peace Among Ourselves and with Others.

No one said, “PRESIDENT OFFERS NEW REASON FOR WAR.”

No one said, “SLAVERY? REALLY?”

Mr. Lincoln said, ALL KNEW and all seemed to understand what he meant by all and what he meant what it was they knew when he said ALL KNEW.

Mr. Lincoln was the man on scene.

Mr. Lincoln would have been the one to know what he meant when he said ‘all knew’ and he knew what it WAS that ‘all knew’ when he said ‘all knew’.

Over the years since, the question has not changed.

What caused the Civil War.

Back in 1865, Mr. Lincoln said all knew what caused the Civil War.

I mean, at this moment, I am not pointing fingers at who or what was said, but that, today, the newsroom discussions to answer the question are searching searching searching.

Might has well ask what color was George Washington’s White Horse.

OH … ohhhhhhhh. .. oh, gee whiz.

PS That was asked once in a class I was in and the kid next me yelled back, How am I supposed to know that??