11.1.2024 – will pick up the shards

will pick up the shards
of a ruined society and
slowly help rebuild

Back in 1947, The Berkshire Eagle from Pittsfield, Massachusetts printed this little note:

Professor Albert Einstein was asked by friends at a recent dinner party what new weapons might be employed in World War III. Appalled at the implications, he shook his head.

After several minutes of meditation, he said. “I don’t know what weapons might be used in World War III. But there isn’t any doubt what weapons will be used in World War IV.”

“And what are those?” a guest asked.

“Stone spears,” said Einstein.

This has come down to us through history as Dr. Einstein saying, “I can’t tell you what weapons will be used in World War 3. But I can you what weapons will be used in World War 4. Sticks and Stones.“

Any body doubt this?

In 2014, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago was quoted in the Chicago Tribune saying, “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization as the church has done so often in human history.”

Cardinal George said that, “I was trying to express in overly dramatic fashion what the complete secularization of our society could bring.”

That was 11 years ago.

IN 2025, I think our current and former Presidents can expect to die in bed.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the next President dies in prison.

And I almost expect that the successor to the next President, and I am talking about the one elected in 2028 or possibly 2032, will die a martyr in the public square.

The country as we know it is bitterly and I mean BITTERLY divided.

The country is about 92.6% armed with guns.

Nobody trusts nobody and I cannot begin to understand who it is that half the of the country listens to that they don’t hear what is being said or somehow can accept and agree with what is being said.

On the one hand an ignorant and arrogant government, and on the other hand a gang of ignorant and arrogant hoodlums — so often the voters must choose between these two,” said a desperate registered voter in Philadelphia … so wrote Carl Sandburg in The People, Yes.

It won’t end pretty but it sure feels like it is all coming to an end.

It was a pretty good run and maybe this all lasted longer than anyone thought it would.

I guess when you get down to it, it was all pretty much a hypocrisy with all the all created equal stuff.

But it was, while it lasted, a useful hypocrisy.

Maybe that’s what this is all about.

I thought some inroads had been made in society on the basis of race but it was just a band aid and the band aid and scab got ripped off.

I thought some inroads had been made in society on the basis of equality but it was just a band aid and the band aid and scab got ripped off.

I thought some inroads had been made in society on the basis of love but it was just a band aid and the band aid and scab got ripped off.

I thought some inroads had been made in church along all these lines but it was just a band aid and the band aid and scab got ripped off.

The band aids and scabs got ripped off and the hypocrisy was exposed to the dismay of some and the cheers of others in a way I cannot understand.

And then?

To paraphrase Cardinal George, our successors will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization as has been done so often in human history.

We started in 1787 to make a More Perfect Union and got this far before those in the Country who needed to tear up the Declaration and Constitution got their chance.

Maybe next time.

10.31.2024 – heard the sound of waves

heard the sound of waves
someone heard them years ago
as will years from now

Driving to work in the dark again, I park and get out of the car for the short walk to the office.

It is quiet, very quiet, even the birds are silent in the pre-dawn.

There is just of a low rumble sound of the surf to remind me that I am standing about a half mile from the Atlantic Coast.

Doing the math and staying with the median of 2800 miles for the width of the United States, the distance between me and the ocean is 0.0178571429% of the median width of the country.

The tide is coming and will reach a peak around 8 a.m. and cycle through to the day’s 2nd high tide around 8 p.m. tonight.

Happens twice every day.

Has happened twice every day since all this started and will continue twice a day for as long as it us supposed to.

Someone years ago, decades ago, centuries ago, could have stood here and heard the waves and watched the tide come in and go out.

Someone years from now, decades from now, centuries from now, might stand here and hear the waves and watch the tide come in and go out.

As Mr. Lincoln said one the field at Gettysburg, “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here.”

I used to think that was pretty cool.

Back in the day when America dreamed big dreams for all people.

Back in the day when America stood up for dreaming big dreams for all people.

Back in the day when America was recognized for dreaming big dreams for all people.

Today?

Today, I am reminded of something else Mr. Lincoln.

“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.“

Years from now, about all I count on is that the tide will come in and go out and someone might be here to see it and hear the waves.

Any marks we may have made will all be washed away.

And we just might thank God that it is.

10.30.2024 – money buys everything

money buys everything
‘cept love, personality,
freedom, or peace

Money is power so said one
Money is a cushion so said another
Money is the root of evil so said still another
Money means freedom so runs an old saying
And money is all of these – and more
Money pays for whatever you want — if you have the money
Money buys food, clothes, houses, land, guns, jewels, men, women, time to be lazy and listen to music
Money buys everything except love, personality, freedom, immortality, silence, peace

Carl Sandburg in The People, Yes as published in the Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1957.

Such cheek on my part to adapt Carl Sandburg and change around his words but there it is.

When Mr. Sandburg died in the summer of 1967, the office of President Lyndon Johnson issued this statement in his name.

THE ROAD has come to an end for Carl Sandburg, my friend

Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America. We knew and cherished him as the bard of democracy, the echo of the people, our conscience, and chronicler of truth and beauty and purpose.

Carl Sandburg needs no epitaph. It is written for all time in the fields, the cities, the face and heart of the land he loved and the people he celebrated and inspired.

With the world, we mourn his passing. It is our special pride and fortune as Americans that we will always hear Carl Sandburg’s voice within ourselves. For he gave us the truest and most enduring vision of our own greatness.

At a memorial service for Mr. Sandburg held in front of the Lincoln Memorial later that fall of 1967, President Johnson closed his remarks with:

He knew that always in America “the strong men keep coming on.”

I will miss him; we will all miss him. There will not be one like him again.

But that line of Mr. Johnson’s, “For he gave us the truest and most enduring vision of our own greatness.“

And I read … Money buys everything except love, personality, freedom, immortality, silence, peace.

I will miss him; we will all miss him. There will not be one like him again.

10.29.2024 – tolerance of serious

tolerance of serious
wrong by leaders sears conscience
God’s judgment results …

Tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society, and surely results in God’s judgment.

Be it finally RESOLVED, That we urge all Americans to embrace and act on the conviction that character does count in public office, and to elect those officials and candidates who, although imperfect, demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character.

Adapted from Southern Baptist Convention Resolution on Moral Character Of Public Officials passed on June 1, 1998.

Oh well, it wasn’t carved in stone now was it and it wasn’t like anyone thought that back in those years of Bill Clinton in 1998, those folks voting on the resolution ever thought they might be called upon to actually follow through on what they were saying for themselves.

Be fair, who ever … WHO EVER … thought the SBC would ever have been called upon to support a leader who, while imperfect (Boy howdy!) COULD NOT demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character.

Unless … you don’t think … they DO think this feller DOES demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character?

BOY HOWDY!

Whoever thought that the flexibility of their faith would prove to be … so flexible?

Seems to me that we all grew up singing a song about the houses built on rocks and houses built on sand.

Soft sand.

Blow with the prevailing wind sand.

Here today and wiped away with the tide TWICE a day sand.

Houses built on sand.

You know what Bible story comes to mind?

Jacob cooking in the kitchen and Esau asks for a bowl of soup.

Jacob says nope … unless … you give me your birthright.

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

So Esau despised his birthright and he gave it up … for a bowl of soup.

The SBC had a role, a place, a birthright, but the SBC could see that THEY could lose an election and if the election was lost, what good was their birthright and the SBC despised their birthright for hope of gaining not much more than a bowl of soup.

What did Jesus say?

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

I have a copy of the New Testament translated in the Gullah language of the South Carolina Low Country.

That translation puts that verse, Mark 8:36, this way.

De poson wa git ebryting een de whole wol
an den dead an gone ta hell,
e done loss de true life, ainty?
E ain git nottin!

E ain git nottin!

Nottin!

10.28.2024 – necessary that the

necessary that the
Executive Magistrate be
peoples’ guardian

It is necessary then that the Executive Magistrate should be the guardian of the people, even of the lower classes, agst. Legislative tyranny, against the Great & the wealthy who in the course of things will necessarily compose the Legislative body. Wealth tends to corrupt the mind and to nourish its love of power, and to stimulate it to oppression.*

So said Gouverneur Morris on July 19, 1787 during the debate on the powers of the Executive during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

Let’s look at what Mr. Morris said one more time.

The Executive Magistrate should be the guardian of the people, even of the lower classes against Legislative tyranny …

Against the Great & the wealthy who in the course of things will necessarily compose the Legislative body …

Wealth tends to corrupt the mind and to nourish its love of power, and to stimulate it to oppression.

Mr. Morris, it should be noted, was one of the richest men on the Colonies but he was also that feller that championed the concept that “While most Americans still thought of themselves as citizens of their respective states, Morris advanced the idea of being a citizen of a single union of states.” (Wikipedia).

Mr. Morris is also credited with writing out the Preamble to the Constituition of the United States.

The part that reads, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

I can see why there are those in the news today who feel this piece of writing is out of date.