Thursday, June 19, 2008

Obama and our loss of liberty/Remembering Elian

#1)Elian Gonzalez is now a member of the young Communist Union, pledging loyalty to Fidel and his brother.

Dennis Prager made a good point on his syndicated radio show today, namely, if this had happened during the late 1930's or 40's when Hitler was raising up young Germans into the Nazi youth organization, would the United States Justice Department have duplicated Janet Reno's violent seizure of a six year old, only to send him to a father who was a Nazi?

Great job Clinton administration! Elian's mother loses her life trying to rescue her son from a totalitarian regime and the very country to which she was fleeing in an attempt to give him a shot at liberty, turns around and sends him back to a father steeped in Fidel's oppressive brain-washing.

I hope you are all proud of your absurd actions now! God Bless Elean's mother who gave up her life for her son, she is the hero, the saint...the rest of you, God knows. "And whoever causes one of these little ones, who believes, to stumble, it would be better for him, if with a heavy millstone placed around his neck, he were cast out to sea."

Of course, to the Left, communism is not so bad. I agree with Dennis here, I don't think we would have done the same for a child whose mother lost her life trying to escape Hitler's fascism.

#2) All the while the Left is screaming about losing civil liberties accusing the Bush Administration of illegal wire tapping, retaining terrorists without due process, etc., the truth, and irony is, that it is the Left which is moving through the liberal courts to strip Americans of their freedoms.

Their "nanny society" moves every day to control our most mundane decisions, whether it's to smoke a cigarette, cigar or let our children play "dodge ball" on a school playground.

Just this week an elementary school in Portland, Oregon, banned the Pledge of Allegience from its end of the year assembly because it mentions God, and the Principle doesn't want to offend Muslims.

And, of course, the courts will decide if "gay marriage," abortion or habeas corpus is allowed for unlawful enemy combatants. Does anyone seriously think "the people" have any say over public policy anymore? Sorry, "the people" just are not sufficiently "enlightened." And, until they "wise up" the un-elected judges will set the rules.

Yes, Obama, and the Left he represents, are certainly for change...his change...will truly strip the rights of Americans. And, unfortunately, the public education system and the media are enabling these Leftists. Our children are not learning to love and protect the exceptional nation they have inherited, they are being brain washed in radicalism, whether it's the environmental "crises" or "baby has two mommies," reading material in the "media center."

As I volunteered one day in a middle school classroom, I heard the "English" teacher say to the kids, "yeah, that sucks." No, lady, what "sucks" in your vernacular, is your behavior in the classroom! The same day she belittled and mocked letters the class had received from the President of the United States, George Bush.

Parents, you have no control whatsoever, though your taxes support this beleaguered, politically corrupt institution; on the contrary, you have to go through bureaucratic hoops to give your child an aspirin during school hours, but in more and more public schools, your children can get information on birth control, even abortion, totally without your knowledge, not to mention your approval.

Yes, Obama, we're really looking forward to your "changes!"

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

One thing that can't be "googled"/Wisdom

We live in the "information age."

In this sense, we are the most fortunate generation.

I've been told, my grandfather would spend the last few hours of every day upstairs in his study, reading the dictionary. It must have relaxed him at the end of a long day in his dental office. Perhaps, as his hand turned one page, then another, meditating on the structure, beauty and meaning of each word, he felt he was internalizing something of the mystery of the civilization from whence he came.


I can visualize Abraham Lincoln doing something like that, given the fact, that as a child he considered it a high privilege to own a book


However, in our own age, information is ubiquitous, bombarding us every minute of every day, so much so. that sometimes we have to make a concerted effort to turn off the spigot just to catch a breath!

But there is a tragic irony in our situation. While we have unmitigated access to all the information in the world, a privilege unimagined by our ancestors, we suffer from an excruciating lack of wisdom! Oddly enough, we hear psychologists tell us, that our society is struck by an ailment called ennui or "boredom!" I found it enlightening to learn that ancient languages have no word for "boredom," it's a modern invention. When I shared this fact with a friend recently, his response was, "they had no time for boredom, they were busy just trying to survive!" Good point!


Oh, but we have ways to relieve our boredom...reality shows, American Idol and then there's always shopping!

But, does the situation in which we find ourselves have serious ramifications? Notwithstanding the enormous spiritual, ethical and philosophical implications for western civilization; confining ourselves to American politics, and in that regard, after reading Thomas Sowell's latest piece on Obama and McCain, (read it here,) I would say unequivacally, yes, dire ramifications!

Why? Because, one can possess all the information in the world but if that information is not processed with wisdom and discernment, the consequence can only be disintegration, personally and publically. We cannot afford a global disintegration of values and purpose right now; Iran is revving up to destroy this very western civilization, which our universities, for the last 40 years, have so cavalierly dismissed.

Peter Kreeft, (Three Philosophies of Life,) states the following: "Folly cannot detect itself, only the wise know folly, fools know neither wisdom nor folly. Just as it takes wisdom to know folly, the light to know darkness, it takes profundity to know vanity, meaning to know meaninglessness."

When I see the crowd in Rev. Wright's and Obama's church of 20 years, pulsing and cheering rhetoric that is pure unadulterated and dangerous folly, when I hear Obama making speeches that in substance are nothing but deceit and foolishness, while the crowd gives itself over to emotional obcession, it is like getting a good solid punch in the stomach!

Where is the wisdom? Where are the fundamental questions of life? Where is the discernment to decipher substance from dribble?

Kreeft, in another passage, reflects on what the writer/philosopher of Ecclesiastes might say were he alive today to see modern culture:

"If this philosopher were alive today and knew the reigning philosophy in America, pop psychology, with its positive strokings, OKs, narcissistic self-befriendings, panderings, patronizings, and bland assurances of 'Peace! Peace!' when there is no peace, I think he would quote John Stuart Mill that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; and William Barrett: "It is better to encounter one's own existence in despair than never to encounter it at all.""

If Western Civilization, doesn't wake up fast, start appreciating the God-given gifts which are its legacy, and somehow acquire the guts to stand up and fight for it in the schools, in the public square and in the world...then it is despair that lurks beyond the next turn in the road...

A penny for your prayers....