Too busy to write until now. I’ve all but stopped listening to what passes as news. I continue to skim Huffington, Think Progress and some other blogs. It’s getting late and I’ve just tuned into Game 3 of the Cleveland-San Antonio NBA Finals. I’m pulling for Cleveland, but they’re down 2-0 and trailing going into the fourth quarter of Game 3. I just heard that one of the local young men is home from Afghanistan. That’s a blessing. I also read in the newspaper that the Army fell short of its recruiting goals in May. Does that mean that conscription is right around the corner? How can we sustain this endless war without it? I saw where Senator Lieberman is calling for us to attack Iran. How come chicken hawks like Joe Lieberman get to send young men and women into harms way? Where was Joe during Vietnam? How come these bellicose old men managed to avoid service in their own generational conflict? The commander-in-chief was a no show at reserve meetings. The vice-commander-in-chief had nine deferrments. Karl Rove managed to avoid service. Rudy, Romney, et al managed to get out of Vietnam. Only a handful of those running for President from either party ever served this country in uniform, yet all are willing to send our sons and daughters to die.
The United States is dying. We’ve lost our way and our soul. We spend more on weapons and war than we do on programs of social uplift. It is only a matter of time before we cease to exist. We are a shell of a nation without a spiritual compass.
That is a sad fact. It should make it harder to think war under those conditions.
Don, you sound depressed…cheer up. I guess watching that dismall excuse for basketball game didn’t help. At least you know it’s over so you don’t have to waste anymore time with it.
As for the US, I wouldn’t say we’re dying, we’re actually one of the few Western countries that isn’t. If you want to see dying, look at Europe- it’s a continent who’s birth rate is so low it will make itself extinct within a few generations.
I would agree with you that we need a spiratual compass. We need to figure out how to deal with an enemy that is intent on destroying our way of life, all while trying to better our society. We have strayed far away from our Judeo-Christian foundings and I am just hoping that it’s not too far.
I’ve sick of the news as well- I think I need to compile a list of all the things that are good in this country, just for some positive news. I would love your input.
Actually this country wasn’t founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Jefferson and many of the other patriots were deists. Jefferson actually re-wrote the New Testament and removed the miracles. The founders of our republic knew that the wedding of religion and politics would be the ruination of the country as in fact it has come to be. How can you look at the enslavement of Africans and the wanton slaughter of Native Americans and believe for one instant that this nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles? It just isn’t so.
The USA is sunk because we’ve sold out the principles of Jefferson, Washington et al who warned of entangling alliances. We’re headed down the river because the men and women who got elected or in recent years appointed have sold out to multinational corporations and interests beyond our own shores.
Don,
I’m not saying that everything that has been done in our past has been right, let alone perfect, but to say it was not founded on Judeo-Christian principles fails to look at the facts. If you have any doubts, pick up a copy of the Constitution or Declaration of Independence and see how many times God is mentioned.
The founding father’s did want this country to be run on religious principles, they just didn’t want a centalized religion. That is a common misunderstanding that most people take when they use the argument of ‘seperation of church and state’. The seperation that was talked about, was that they did not want a centralized religion and thought each man should have the freedom of their own religion. So much so, that they made it one of the first ‘freedoms’ that they speak about.
Like I said, I can’t really argue about things that have happened in the past, but there is also no other country that was founded without bloodshed.
I do happen to agree with you that our current elected officials have sold us out for the interests of power and corporations, and that needs to be corrected.
God is mentioned to be sure in the way of recognizing the existence of a supreme being in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Our currency does have “In God We Trust” and back then I think because we were relatively weak we did rely on God. Now, we rely on weapons systems and force of arms. Western or European man has a view of God that allows him/her to disconnect God from the cosmos. Western thought puts God in a box and as long as God stays in that box it is possible to act as though our actions had no systemic relationship to creation as a whole. Therein lies the sin. In my view sin is anything that interrupts or interferes with our ability to see all creation as our brother and sister. St. Francis of Assisi and other holy men and women throughout the ages have seen that relationship. These words of Chief Seattle echo more fully my point of view.
“Your God loves your people and hates mine; he folds his strong arms lovingly around the white man and leads him as a father leads his infant son, but he has forsaken his red children; he makes your people wax strong every day, and soon they will fill the land; while my people are ebbing away like a fast-receding tide, that will never flow again. The white man’s God cannot love his red children or he would protect them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help. How then can we become brothers? How can your father become our father and bring us prosperity and awaken in us dreams of returning greatness?”–Chief Seattle