Another meditation about God's love

Here is another thought about that subject, so that it can help you to better understand God and his mercy (which is not extended to the blatantly unrepentant, but that's another subject). God is the source of and the capacity for infinite love, on such a dimension of vastness that humans cannot comprehend. Here is a real life recollection of mine so you can compare (and also see things a bit from my point of view).

Years ago I had great affection and ardor for a man who did not return it (and indeed, was quite insincere). One of the women who worked for me, and who was on a friendly basis with me (though I cannot call it a friendship as she would never socialize with me beyond the occasional work luncheon) commented basically the following to me:

She said, with some disdain (kind of like she thought I was a rather pathetic sort) something like "I would find it a great turn-off to love someone who didn't love me in return." In other words, she thought it rather stupid and pathetic of me to care for someone who did not care for me in return.

I thought, but could not say at the time (since as my regular readers know, I was not public in my witnessing at that time, since it was both not my time yet and also a matter of my safety): "Wow, it's sure a good thing for YOU and for everyone else that God does not feel the same way!"

You see, God is used to loving humans who do not love him in return. In fact, if you think about it, there's no human that deserves his love at all, yet he continues to pour it onto them, mostly through the constant urging and nudging of the Holy Spirit, who tries to reach and soften even the hardest of hearts.

If God felt the way this lady suggested, there would be no human beings at all, none would be created and none would be alive.

God understands that no one can love him the way he is able to love a human. He doesn't expect even a fraction of what he can extend in love. But constant scorn and negligence of God is not only foolhardy but also such a wasted opportunity, since God extends such leeway in the amount of love that he would find pleasing from any human being. If God was "turned off" by a human not loving him in return, well, let's just say earth would be abundant in plant and animal life, a garden of Eden, with no non-loving humans!

But God created humans in his own image and as a result 1) they all have the capacity to love God and 2) the Holy Spirit works constantly to touch the heart of every human being with love, whether they believe or not, and whether they love in return or not.

For you idiot cult believers, she was a Libra ha ha, you know, the sign of "relationship experts" har har har.

How can humans ever spiritually advance, say nothing of being saved, if they consider love a "you first then maybe I will love in return" game?

Really, it is sad.

Another thought, what if before Jesus was born, Jews were given ballots with a brief description of him in advance, and could vote whether he was worthy of their love before "allowing" him to be born? Like I said, if God waits for the love first, none of you would be around, alive, at all, that is for sure.

I hope that you have found this helpful.

And, to show you I always think of you.... Hey again, my young people readers and fans! I wish that I could speak with you in person. When you wrestle with love and its issues, be sure to think of what I just said, which is that God loves you first, no matter how much love you offer him in return. Believe me, if you begin to know God as he really is, you would not be able to halt in loving him, no matter how much you tried! :-)

The need for truth in music, the arts.....

This is just a personal and philosophical/theological and factual observation, that is follow up to what I've been blogging where I explain that faith is authentically obtained by seeking the truth, the genuine, absolute truth, rather than "the best" "faith for me." Recalling what I've written that if one really cherishes and seeks the truth, one will inevitably find it-and the one true God-because God and his creation are the truth, let me explain my feelings about music.

I totally love music and as I reckon I've blogged before, I was listening to blues and pop music and rock and roll from the cradle (much helped by my much older brother playing the radio.) I wanted to play an instrument-and sing-but was kept from having any music lessons at all until I was able to pay for them on my own when in college. So I have a very clear love of music.

However, my friends, especially those in the music industry, wonder how I have lived for decades without listening to either current music or replaying those I've enjoyed in the past.

It became painfully obvious to me in the 1980's that almost without exception, all popular music, even the most brilliant of pieces, were written and composed by people who did not believe in the true God. Now, I am not saying I wanted Christian music because, actually, I find the same problem in much of Christian music from around that same time period. Since the 1980's the groundwork for the brainwashing and destruction of faith (genuine, factual, orthodox faith) that had been put in place during the 1960's-1970's started yielding their global bitter fruit. Even though most popular songs have absolutely nothing to do with God or faith as a topic, it was still painfully (and repulsively) obvious to me that the songs were all written in a distorted, God less and nihilistic mindset. Even the "happy" songs were clanging and warped, sometimes subtle, but usually very obvious to me. But it was obvious that ALL genres of music had become pieces of production made in in pained, God less and angry/manic depressive music "factories."

Now, young people especially, here is the crucial point I need to make to you, regarding both this topic of music (and art) and of faith and life in general. You must learn to distinguish between and properly manage, and put respectful boundaries around the two completely different mindsets of "truth" and "validity." Your parents (and many of their parents) combined the two, erroneously, in their minds, and have therefore caused their own mental, spiritual and emotional downfalls. It started with "let it all hang out." That is the philosophy that if you feel a certain way, then it is valid, "authentic" and honorable, and must be shared, even if everyone who listens to it then goes off the deep end and wants to shoot themselves. There is a huge difference between being "valid" (which means that right or wrong that is how you think/feel) and the truth, which is reality, a reality which includes the one true God and his role in this world.

For example, someone can write a miserable song because they feel like shit and they think they are evil reincarnated alien spawn. That's "valid," because that's what they think and feel (usually because they were brought up that way, or fell into the hands of sick "gurus"). But it is not the truth, because they would not feel that way if they were taught and came to believe in the truth of the world, a world that very much includes the one true God.

So sure, I am not against someone who has to do a "core dump" in the form of music of their sadness, anger, alienation, addiction, misery, aimlessness, vengefulness, spite, and so forth, since that is "valid...." that is, indeed, how he or she feels.

The problem is that like building houses on sand foundations, instead of bedrock, I noticed starting in the 1980's that virtually the entire music business prompted songs written, composed and produced by people who had totally lost their footing in the truth. They no longer even believed there is a truth, in the world, in their public lives, or in their private lives. They came to think that the current (or past) "validity" of what they think or feel IS the truth, which it most certainly is not.

So even the most inane and harmless of happy songs (those few there were, especially as rap, metal, angry punk and other genres took over increasing market share) were written by people who thought that the truth was to force out something commercially happy as a product, even though they did not believe in the truth. In other words, unhappy people living with perspectives that lacked recognition of truth were writing both happy and unhappy songs. This means that instead of most houses being built on solid foundations, most houses were now built on sand.

I can hardly listen to anything of the past few decades without seeing directly in the souls of those who produced and wrote these pieces and seeing their alienation, their loss of truth and worst of all, their determination that their "validity" IS the truth, and must be imposed as depressive and warped realities onto each new generation of listener. These adults raised children in the business who completely lost truth about life in the world and yet, brilliant as they are, produced brilliant music that is like a poisoned apple, great to eat but it kills you with each bite. We are on the THIRD decade of this disaster. That is why I cannot listen to music, most music, without pain.

I can even tell you the last song I gave a serious listen to as it came out, the version of "What's the Story (Morning Glory)" by Oasis. That is absolutely the last popular song I listened to and heeded and admired as it was released. Why is that? Of course technically it is wonderful, but more to point, it put into words exactly what I have described above: the disaster of being in a world where all your dreams are made when you're chained to the mirror on your razor blade. I pretty much turned off the radio after a few good listens of that, and that's no lie (as my stalkers can attest!) This is why I cannot listen to even the big hits, the really brilliant songs, even those of great compelling validity, of the late 1980's, the 1990's and the 2000's thus far. ALL of them are only "valid," very, very, VERY few of them are written by people with their heads screwed on properly and who believe in any truth, say nothing of the truth, of life, and of God's role in life.

I wish I could give you a real life example, so instead, imagine along with me the difference in a song about the exact same life experience written by a person who is valid, but does not know about or accept truth, and a person who is valid and is writing from a position of acknowledging the truth. So imagine that each songwriter wants to write about the misery of an addiction and ruined life, for example. One songwriter believes freaky things, nihilistic things, and writes about his or her addiction in that context. Even if they never mention their depressive and nihilistic mindset, that mindset, of course, is the well spring and informs their talent, which shapes their song. The other songwriter writes about the same intense valid misery in their, his or her, own life, but the well spring they have is one that still has at least a foundation in the truthfulness of a world that was created good, where there is a God, but where things go terribly astray. They might even come up with very similar words, and/or the instrumentation and music may be similar. But there would be a profound difference. Like I said, I wish I could give you actual examples but the scale is totally tilted with the bulk of compositions being of the "valid" but not grounded in overall life truth perspective. I'm not as able to access, not being part of the music industry crowd, of course, information where I can make such a real life comparison. The best I can do is point out how the blues, the old, traditional blues, were written by often very sad and afflicted people, and they are powerful and valid, but also honest because they were written by people who were still in touch with truthfulness in the world, including at least a nod toward the reality of God and his goodness, even if that did not comprise any of the song. This is why the old traditional blues are truly treasures of validity and honesty, in addition to their musical craftsmanship.

However, when I have a song recommended to me, which happened quite a bit in the early 2000's when people would email me "OMG I can't believe you never listened to this songwriter or this song or this group or this band" and then attach a link, I do listen and there it is again, but no one else understands what it is, since it's so pervasive. Only someone who grew up in the 1950's and listened to music that was still created on the foundation of truth (even if personal valid experience was miserable) can explain to you that there is a very stark "before" and "after." So after I listen to the song I resist the urge to shoot myself, and then research the artist and his or her other tracks. OMG, it is always the same. You can tell in their discography that they are totally into "validity" while living in a miserable, manic depressive, warped lack of truth. I then have to resist shooting myself after just reading the song titles. Good grief, it is a nightmare.

This really is a topic that lends itself more to face to face discussion (imagine that!) and having the help of a DJ who can pull examples of what I mean. But I thought that many of you, since you are questing, alert, and aware that these are disturbed times, will get the gist of what I mean, and have insight not only into how/why I perceive and do things as I do, but think about the facts as I have presented them and examine your own experiences for further insight.

A person can write the most brilliant piece of music ever, and it still be a wrong thing to do. That is a controversial statement, I know. By wrong I don't mean criminal or necessarily sinful or immoral. But just as products should not be subliminally marketed (the old popcorn hidden in the movie film scam), depressive "validity" that is denial of truth should not be deluging people, as it has for decades now, because that is dishonest. Artists, you must understand that it is possible, very possible, to be "valid" and "authentic," but totally dishonest. That is the boundary you must start to recognize, for the well being of not only your audience, but of your individual self.

I hope you understood as best as I could present these words tonight. I still love music, but for decades, music has not loved me back.

Decades of my "would have been" Twitters

If Twitter existed through my life and I had been using it, here is what I would have tweeted every hour of every day of every year for decades.

First, for young people, and those poor in history and facts, look up "Josef Mengele" in Wikipedia, so that you understand my "cultural reference."



Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day thus far through 2009)

Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2008)

Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2007)

Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2006)

Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2005)

Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004...)

Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999...)

and so on and so on and so on, every hour and every day throughout my years of simply hanging on.... even throughout the 1980's, with perm big 80's hair and all

Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.

And now this morning as I'm wakened after another short night of unrestful so called sleep, as I was urged to Twitter this by the Holy Spirit, who knows what people need to hear in order to have even a chance of understanding and being saved from hellfire:

Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
6 am local time 24/9/2009 posted from my virtual Twitter account on blogspot

Morning giggle: funny movie moment

"....and the lamenting of their women" or, as spoken in a thick German accent by Arnold, "..and the lamenting of their vimen...."

See Wikipedia "Conan the Barbarian (film)."

Recall of that unintentional hilarious moment from this, um, film work of art history popped into my mind this morning as the topic of my mother, who has a German accent, came up at the bank....so in twitter tradition here's that useless thought of mine ;-) My ex- and I used to dissolve into giggles every time one of us repeated Arnold's classic LOL LOL LOL.

Personal recollection and the role of good parents

Here is a little personal story to share with you, since it came to mind tonight after church services.

I grew up in the 1950's and at that time, even though my mother could, of course, drive a car, it was usually my father who did the driving. As soon as I was old enough to be observing of the landscape around us as we were driving, and to understand the mechanics, I started to worry about something. I've always loved animals of all kinds, and as a small girl I noticed that birds often landed on or were standing on the road or the road's shoulder. I worried about them and asked my dad about them, urging him to be careful and to avoid hitting them! He was very kind and reassured me that the birds are fast enough that they always get out of the way. This was exactly the right thing to say to a young child, and I believed it for many years.

It was much later, when I was older, that I noticed the occasional dead bird on the side of the road, LOL. By then of course I realized that some birds were not fast or observant enough to avoid a car! But I was grateful for and benefited from the peace of mind that my father had given to me for many years.

Friends, that is how it should and it must be. The Bible says that parents should not grieve their children. What does grieve mean? It means a sadness and sorrow in the heart.

Today there are so many hypocrites about the truth. Modern society values all kinds of untruths, exaggerations, malicious gossip and lies, yet some people would probably think that my father was "lying" to me that birds are never hit by cars and that kids need to be "prepared for life."

The media is even worse in this. How many stupid videos, films, advertisements and so forth show "humorous" flattened animals, graphic details of realities of nature, etc for a far too young audience? Gosh, if a child asked the question that I did back then during these times, I'd be afraid that some parents would go out and run over a bird so the three year old could see the squashed corpse and be "prepared for real life."

Children-all children-have tender innocent souls given to them by God and that are besmirched and harmed only by humans, or by illnesses that affect the child's stability. It is not proper for parents to "harden" or "prepare for 'reality'" (so called) the innocent souls of children. In other words, it is not a parent's job to give children grief, not the slang term of giving grief (to nag or to hassle, which sometimes is necessary), but to grieve and sadden children with graphic violence and sadness, which needs no introduction or promotion to children, since sadly as they age life tends to bring this stuff to them anyway in due course.

So one of my fondest memories, that gives me a smile, of my much loved (and wise) father is that he gave me so many years of thinking that all birds everywhere got out of the way of cars, and it is only later that I had what then was an appropriate humorous moment when I, being older, first noticed a pile of feathers on the side of the road, and said to myself, "Hey! Now wait a minute..."

LOL. I hope that you have found this diverting and even somewhat thought provoking.

Music talk, "Laugh, Laugh" by Beau Brummels

As I've blogged before and people who've known me for a long time know, I was listening to pop radio even as a very small toddler and enjoy the songs of the 1950's very much. This song popped into my mind (the tune is awesome) as they sometimes do, so I thought I'd introduce you to this great oldie song. Just to be precise, this is a Beattle era song, hit the charts in 1965, but to me, it is an oldie, LOL.

I hate to say it but I told you so

Don't mind my preaching to you

I said "don't trust him", baby, now you know

You don't learn everything there is to know in school

Wouldn't believe me when I gave advice

I said that he was a tease

If you want help you better ask me nice

So be sincere, convince me with a "pretty please"

(Chorus)Laugh, Laugh, I thought I'd die

It seemed so funny to me,

Laugh, Laugh, you met a guy

who taught you how it feels to be

Lonely, oh so lonely

Don't think I'm being funny when I say

You got just what you deserve

I can't help feeling you found out today

You thought you were too good you had a lot of nerve

Won't say I'm sorry for the things I said

I'm glad he packed up to go

You kept on bragging he was yours instead

Found you don't know everything there is to know

(Chorus)

Before I go I'd like to say one thing

Don't close your ears to me

Take my advice and you'll find out that being

Just another girl won't cause you misery

You say you can get any boy at your call

Don't be so smug or else

You'll find you can't get any boy at all

You'll wind up an old lady sitting on the shelf

(Chorus)

Lonely, oh so lonely

http://www.lyrics007.com/Beau%20Brummels%20Lyrics/Laugh%20Laugh%20Lyrics.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau_brummels

Cannot resist posting bank corruption story

I heard about this at one of the banks I worked for in the 1990's.

This was told to me as it was happening by someone in a position to know, but not in a position to do anything about it.

A trader stole millions of dollars from the bank using the "trade tickets in the drawer" method. I don't remember how much but it was truly an enormous amount of money.

When he was detected in his theft the bank declined to press charges and covered the whole thing up out of fear that he would ruin their reputation by being in the press and explaining how stupid and weak the bank was (it had a sterling reputation among its customers).

So he was allowed to leave with the millions he had stolen and given a good reference!

He went to work a few days later for a trading location "across the street."

I was told this was not an uncommon thing, where insiders were allowed to get away with what they stole in return for keeping quiet and supposedly preserving the reputation of the bank.

The only evidence I have is that this person was really scared when this person told me and especially when the bank got busy trying to find out who inside knew about this. This honest and really hard working person was really, really scared and wished that he or she did not know about it for fear of being purged or something.

And you wonder why the problems have all come home to roost, and people like me have suffered for not being an insider at the dishonest pig trough.

American Presidency case study: FDR

I have a small case study for you about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In this I want to demonstrate how accurate understanding of history must be personal but not personalized. Here is the difference.

One cannot really understand a period in history without having been there, or spoken to someone who was there. People who were on the scene in a historical period are called “contemporaries.” Sure, you will find a difference of opinion among contemporaries, but very rarely will you find a difference of opinion about the essential facts and zeitgeist (spirit of the times). Thus it is essential to obtain and preserve the personal experience of contemporaries during any historic period.

However, it is a mistake to “personalize” a historic period. By that I mean to impose a theory or belief of one’s own back in time onto a previous period. That is one of the greatest and most common intellectual mistakes of the past forty years. I saw the beginning of it in college in the early 1970’s. Another word for this phenomenon is “revisionist” history but there is a difference. Genuine revisionist history is an attempt by the current state and intellectuals to rewrite or reshape history in a way that is less embarrassing and more supportive of the current regimes, and there is a long history of that. However, that is not as serious a problem as what I am speaking of in the “personalizing” of history. Governments and their toady intellectuals may produce “revisionist” history, but scholars always maintain the facts of contemporary accounts and thus when the zeal for revisionism passes, people can pick up again with studying the actual facts of the previous times.

Personalizing of history is a far murkier, sloppier and dangerous endeavor and habit because it results from a genuine misunderstanding of how people used to live and think. People who personalize history think that the way they think now is the way people used to think and thus motivated their behavior. Here is a silly example as an analogy.

Suppose that years from now scholars try to understand why the IPOD was so popular, because it has gone out of existence. Perhaps society has changed so that everyone likes the same music and so no one has personal players and custom play lists anymore. So scholars are trying to understand why IPODS were so popular. They study the historical information and learn that there was a wide variety of tastes in music, that everyone had their own favorites, and that also the IPOD allowed the listening of one’s own music in a variety of settings. So these scholars understand by reading contemporary accounts why IPOD was so popular and how it was used even though they no longer “relate” since in that theoretical time in the future everyone likes the same songs.

Now, here is how revisionist history would work. Suppose the government has just spent millions of dollars installing public address systems that play the songs that everyone likes. They are genuinely worried about an individualistic “retro” movement whereby people are interested in marginal types of music again and thus would oppose the shared investment in the public music systems. Revisionists would not hide that people used to have IPODS but would “explain” via “spin” that people were “forced” to spend their own hard earned money on individual systems because the government did not provide public shared music systems. So one still had access to the facts and contemporary accounts, but revisionist history “explains” the facts in terms that put a more positive light on current agendas.

A personalized view of history would honestly misunderstand even the contemporary accounts that are right in front of their eyes since those moderns are no longer capable of understanding people who used to have individual taste in music. Thus they would make up totally bogus interpretations of the past usage of IPODS that are “natural” and “obvious” to how they are living at that time. They might say, for example, that “IPODS were so popular because the government at that time sent out subliminal secret messages that kept the IPOD users ensnared in IPOD use.” So they would read the playlist of someone who lived a hundred years before them and go “Yeah, sure, I bet” as the long deceased author wrote about how much he liked his own mixed playlist of rap and jazz. You could show them a thousand playlists, each different and each reflecting an individual love of music, and these people would sneer and say, “Oh, sure, the hypnosis worked really well.”

Even if they are not conspiracy theory oriented (that being one of the great fuels of erroneous personalized views of history) lack of intellectual rigor and empathy for earlier times in history can also cause erroneous personalized view of history. For example, suppose the people are all miserable and kind of bleak souls in the future (even with their shared liking of the same music, LOL). They assume that people have always been miserable and bleak. So they would figure that IPOD usage was popular because people were trying to escape that period’s “misery and bleakness.” It would never occur to them that people were not always the miserable sad sacks that they are, and thus they interpret history by imposing current feelings on the past and thus totally distorting and warping history.

By looking at FDR and what he did during the two great crises, the Recession and World War II, one can see an example of a current personalizing of his era. So I want to tell you a small story that illustrates the importance of not doing that, and instead embracing contemporary zeitgeist of the actual time as it truly was.

In the middle 1970’s I visited FDR’s home at Hyde Park.

http://www.nps.gov/hofr

It is a beautiful house in New York State on the Hudson River. There was a warmth and humanity about the house that I was able to directly compare to the other mansion we toured that day, which was the Vanderbilt mansion that was grander but colder.

FDR died April 12, 1945 so we visited his house almost thirty years after he had died and, therefore, there were many people alive who remember those times. In other words, there were many contemporaries walking around who lived during FDR’s term in office from March 4, 1933 for the twelve years until his death. His house was a popular touring spot and so we ran into many people who were there, and there is no other way to describe it, to pay homage to his memory and express their gratitude for what he had done.

As we chatted with the various others touring the house and the grounds, time after time we were told that they were there because they loved FDR and were grateful for what he had done to combat the Recession. These tourists would tell us specific stories about jobs he created that they benefited from, or other activities that helped them to keep body and soul together and survive those terrible long years of the Recession. In particular in his office, looking at his very desk, there would be a hush and often people’s eyes would tear up.

Political commentators today like to cast aspersion on how much FDR “really did” and they have a cold and clinical view of those times. They are not being scholarly because they are totally dismissive of contemporary accounts of not only the facts but the zeitgeist. Thus it would be easy for one of them to be on a talk show or to talk to an individual young person and tell their audience that FDR “really didn’t do all that much” and that “much of what he did was harmful.” That simply is not true.

I cannot emphasis enough that you cannot have an accurate view of history by looking only at a “catalog of mistakes.” Modern commentators totally dismiss zeitgeist and the reality of the ordinary people in favor of only listing “mistakes” and “overreaching” that completely misses the genius of what FDR did accomplish. This is true not only of FDR but of all historical eras and personages. Modern people think they are being all clever and skeptical by looking for warts and listing mistakes and then drawing conclusions about the goodness or effectiveness of a person or a historical era. Yet reality is the sum total of all that was being done and not just a list of what people think were shortcomings.

To use the IPOD example, suppose that future historians only reported how many people did not have IPODS. So if you looked up “IPOD” in the future Wikipedia, you would read only one entry: “One hundred million people did not have an IPOD.” That is it. There is no information about what an IPOD is, how many people had one, what they used it for, and how much they valued having one. All that you found in the Wikipedia entry is the bleak and repressive statement that implies elitism and some sort of wrong done, “One hundred million people did not have an IPOD.”

That is what modern pundits and would be historians have become, in both secular and most egregiously in faith history. All they report is the “problems” and the “errors” and ignore the ninety nine percent of normal life that is good and in times of crisis maintained through either secular or faith deeds. FDR is becoming the poster child for this erroneous and even sinister personalizing of history. There is no way one can truly transmit the look in the eyes of the people I saw, humble and ordinary people, who had come to Hyde Park to see the desk and the home of the President who they said “saved the country.”

I was and am still today remarkably moved by the encounters with those who loved FDR so much, those who were the “real people,” the average people, who were certain because they lived it that through his jobs creation and other programs they were able to survive. By the way, during that time I was married into a very astute family of professional historians, so this was not schmaltz. Even when they knew he had done “bad things” like “pack the Supreme Court” they knew the facts of the overall context of all the positive and essential that he had achieved. So there is no substitute for historians who have a comprehensive view of the full context of the time, both the facts and the actual experiences and perceptions of the people who lived in those times.

So to summarize, be aware that there are two problems in modern interpretations of historical times. One is deliberate and quite customary, called “revisionist history.” The other is an unconscious and thus pernicious and dangerous imposing of the cloud of emotion and distortion of the present by some onto their view of history, casting it into a mold that it simply did not occupy at all. The best cure for this is to read contemporary literature of the time as much as possible, including textbooks that were written soon after and not years later when they themselves tend to be very agenda and revisionist driven. I see this, for example, in writings about George Washington. Even if there is a glow around the older works they are more accurate factually, because in the effort to “stamp out the glow” moderns also stamp out their understanding of the times and thus a lot of the context and the facts too.

Readings from FDR’s inaugural addresses:

…Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only the by standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honestly, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.
Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the value of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relieve activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly…
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt
First Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1933

When four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic, single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here. We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a vision-to speed the time when there would be for all people that security and peace essential to the pursuit of happiness. We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it; to end by action, tireless, and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day. We did those first things first.

Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there. Instinctively we recognized a deeper need-the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered. For, without that aid, we had been unable to create those moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to make science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind. To do this we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and blindly selfish men...
Second Inaugural Address
Wednesday, January 20, 1937

Well, if you think about it, it is not too difficult to see many parallels between what FDR said and the great financial crisis and damage to the economy and self esteem of the workers and the homeowner (to say nothing of the homeless and the jobless) today.

Another thought about American Presidents

I have the feeling that many readers enjoyed my blogging about the religion of the American Presidents and why certain faiths are so represented historically. I also have the feeling that by grouping the Presidents in sets of ten, showing that we have had four sets of tens Presidents, plus four, that readers, especially the young, have a better feeling for the span of our history as a country. It is both a mature nation and a very young one.

I've always been a visual learner myself and teacher. I find that grouping information in certain ways helps give a quick and rich insight into what might otherwise be obscured by a lot of detailed text. For example, let's look at the grouping of ten Presidents in sequence again for another couple of insights.

If ten Presidents had only one four year term, a group of ten Presidents in a row represents only forty years. If a few of them have two four year terms that bumps the span of ten Presidents to forty eight or fifty two years. Think about that: a group of ten Presidents is well within a lifespan of an observer. Traditionally the phrase "one generation" refers to thirty years. So a group of ten Presidents could be thought of that way, in terms of generations, but isn't the idea that it's between forty and sixty years kind of interesting? It makes it more real because now you can imagine someone who lives a good long life as seeing over a fourth of the Presidents that we have ever had in our history. That helps you to understand how young our country really is, and it is far too soon and inappropriate to feel all old and jaded about the USA. I like that President Obama seems to view it that way too.

I've mentioned this before on my blog but now in this context this small story from my own family is even more interesting. My grandparents on my dad's side owned a small hotel in upstate New York, near the border with Canada. Thus it was a real country inn kind of place but the way it used to be not the quaint image people have today. Thus is was a saloon, a place to get home cooked meals, and lodging for my family and rooms for those who needed, for example, the single elderly.

Think about this. When my dad was a young man in the hotel there was a Civil War veteran who lived there, who went by the name "Pappy." Yep, you read that right. My father (who was born in 1903) personally knew a Civil War veteran and that veteran lived in my grandparents hotel, since he was a single and elderly gentleman. My dad died when I was a young child, so I did not have a chance to have conversations about such things, but my cousin who was much older than me told me about Pappy. I think that my cousin also met Pappy, but I'm not sure as Pappy would have had to have lived to quite a long age. However, what is significant is that between me and my father, one generation, we reach back to someone of the time of Lincoln and the Civil War. How cool is that?

This gives you another way to look at history, doesn't it? It shows that even though a struggle for something so crucial as Civil Rights seems to take so long, with decades of sweat and blood, on the other hand such a radical and amazing change as we have seen can take place in three generational jumps: Pappy, my father, me. Lincoln was the 16Th President. Thus Pappy to my father to me spans Presidents 16 to now President Obama, who is number 44.

So young people, do not think that your parents and your grandparents are boring and have nothing interesting to tell. Ask them to tell you about the earliest President they remember, for example, and try to get some stories from them. So many of my father's generation the "World War II" generation have died and it's sad that many of their kids and grand kids just were not interested in history or their family stories. I think that President Obama is stirring more relevance, pride and interest in American history and that's one of the implications of his presidency I find thrilling and very hopeful for rejuvenating the American spirit.

Again, think about my example... I was born during President "Ike" Eisenhower's first term so I remember him as President very well. While of course I was not yet born when his predecessor President Truman was in office, I remember him as having been current and just recently stepped down from the Presidency so he was a figure of great stability and honor along with "Ike." So just in my relative youth (ha) I have memory of (Truman), Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton, GW Bush...one of those "group of ten" Presidents, twelve if you count Truman and now President Obama!

I remember Eisenhower governing and I remember, and even watched part of, the famous Kennedy-Nixon debate. My dad, a Catholic, lived to see Kennedy win and become President, but my dad died of a heart attack well before President Kennedy was assassinated. So I've been alive for and very aware of our Presidents and national and world events for just about one fourth of the Presidents our country have had!

Just think, my dad was born during the 26Th President, Theodore Roosevelt's, first term. So my dad would have been alive for and witnessed Presidents number 26 through 35, and would have obviously seen a lot more if he had not died at an early age of chronic heart ailments. But think about it: my dad was born just "ten Presidents" after Abraham Lincoln!

See. memorizing lists of Presidents is boring. But thinking about who was President and what the issues were during the time of your grandparents and parents is VERY interesting!

So even though much of the schooling in history is dismal in our schools (and thus I try to plug in some key information for you all whenever I think of something pertinent and interesting) you can make it interesting for yourselves by just sitting down with an almanac or the Internet, of course, and look up the Presidents that correspond to the lives of your family members. Then it would be fun to ask them what they thought and what they remember about each of the earliest ones.

It's not only educational but it is reassuring.

Of course it all goes back to Washington. Regular readers know that he is my favorite President because he was the first to walk the talk. President Washington had to become in reality what was needed, first as the Commander of the Revolutionary Army and then in the new role of President. As time goes on the wonder and marvel of what Washington did only grows, it does not diminish.

Washington's birthday is February 22. Lincoln's birthday is February 12.

I remember when each day was a separate national holiday, before they became mashed together into "President's Day."

I wish they were still two separate holidays, and I think with the election of President Obama you can see why. One was the father of our country, who took the impossible dream and made it honorable and real and his birthday should be celebrated with that in mind. The other fought the great Civil War, held the Union together and emancipated the slaves. Are these not two separate wonderful glowing deeds and men in our country? Should not our kids learn about them and celebrate them on their actual birthdays as national heroes and role models?

Instead President's Day is just a long weekend, a mashing together of "something about the presidents" and endless advertisements for automobiles and their "President's Day sales!"

It was really different when I was young and the days were celebrated separately. Just a little story here. In the 1950's if you did well on a school paper you would get either a sticker, a star or a rubber stamp on the top of your paper. The rubber stamps were of holiday themes, and thus included one stamp of Washington's famous profile for Washington's Birthday and another of Lincoln's profile for Lincoln's Birthday, and kids were thrilled to get one of those stamps on their paper! Kids really cared about and role modeled Washington and Lincoln, they were NOT boring. We loved Lincoln and I'm speaking as someone who grew up in a rural white community.

I blame the schools, society's rampant commercialization, and the secularization of our nation for the degrading of our education of our kids in the Presidency and in particular those two icons and heroes of our nation, Washington and Lincoln. Sigh. Remember, when you "purge" teaching about any history that mentions religion or God you are basically whiting out of discussion and textbooks half of factual human events. Look at how I had to explain why each President was of certain faiths because that is no longer taught in schools.

Anyway, I hope that you have found this more grist for thought! I've listened all day to the Inauguration activities and am very excited and hopeful. (I totally do not understand the "blah" attitude of some news personalities who were not "Obama supporters," I mean, duh, why are they not excited?) I have always been no matter who wins because that is the American way, to "give the new guy a fair shake" to use a classic expression. The snarky partisanship is so wearying and depressive and it really ought to stop. Like I said, I remember when no matter which candidate you voted for, you were still excited and supportive when one of them won and became President, even if he "wasn't your guy." That is one of the sad things about how this country's spirit has changed. I hope that people will regain that fairness and unity of American support for their President. Lord knows I've supported all the Presidents in spirit and dignity even when they have done the most dreadful things!

Hibiscus, a favorite flower

Growing up in the fully four season north of New York State I did not see a hibiscus until I was a student in college, in the early 1970's. The very first hibiscus that I ever saw was "in the wild" while I was bird watching in Corkscrew Swamp in Florida. I was walking along the boardwalk in the nature sanctuary and was amazed at this glimpse of orange, and when I got closer realized that it was my first hibiscus. I always thought it was so cool that the first one that I saw was in the wild and not cultivated!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hibiscus_rosa-sinensis_(bloom).JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corkscrew_Swamp_Sanctuary

An early sign of society coarsening, downfall

Many years ago, this would have been in the late 1980's, something happened that I've never forgotten, and it bothers me to this day because it's one of those small cruelties that is a warning sign for society at large.

My ex- and I were vacationing, visiting Native American friends, in New Mexico. We decided to send a post card to his nephew who is developmentally disabled. We knew he'd love these special post cards where instead of a photograph, the "card" was a thin sheet of copper engraved with pretty scenes, animals and so forth. Pasted to the sheet of copper was piece of cardboard, which was like a normal postcard where you wrote the address and your message and placed the stamp.

Weeks later we were visiting and shown that the postcard had arrived without the copper. Someone had gone through the trouble to peel off around all four edges the copper, loosen it from the glue, and let the torn piece of cardboard continue on its way through the US mail. Imagine how the peeled off backing made it through the mail just fine and into the very hurt and baffled hands of our developmentally disabled nephew. While not a child in years at the time, it was still a crushing disappointment and one we could not remedy, obviously.

Worse is that he had not realized what he received (that it was marred and incomplete) so until his parents spoke up, he just wondered why we sent him a tatty ratty piece of cardboard from New Mexico.

This was way before the "expensive copper" syndrome; this was just mean.

Everyone should visit the Lincoln Memorial

Anyone, American or not, who has an opportunity to travel to Washington DC should, if at all possible, visit the Lincoln Memorial. It is my favorite secular building because it is the one place that has such a grace of history, dignity and inspiration that no one can fail to be uplifted and heartened by a visit.

http://www.nps.gov/linc/


It's been many years since I paid my visit as an adolescent with my brother and sister in law while we were tourists to Washington DC. (By the way, that was also the occasion of my first visit to a mosque).

The Lincoln Memorial captures and magnifies in its very structure and design much of the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, his burden and his triumphs, in a way that no one can fail to derive much inspiration from, and an instinctive sense of who he was and what he did. The memory of such a visit, taken with such an attitude, will never fail the visitor, even years later. I love to think about my visit and I wish I had my photographs from that time with me so I could check them out again, me (young and slim!) next to the statue of Lincoln.

Stop with the JFK assassination obsession

November 22 is the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and a pause to remember this tragic event is appropriate. However, I am more than tired of the obsession about his assassination, particularly by you young pups who were not even born or who were too young to remember it. Why do I say that? Let me explain.

I was a student in grade school when JFK was killed, and so I had years of being aware of politics and life in general. In other words, this was not an abstract event read about in a book or fantasized about in movies or new age types of searches for "meaning." I was there, alive, thinking, a citizen of a country that is greater than any one president. I was attending after school Catechism (Catholic children who did not go to Catholic schools would gather once a week in the church to receive faith instruction from the nuns). The priest came in and told us of the assassination. Unlike today's children who seem so context free (not their fault), as shocking as this way, we did not need special counseling from the priest, just the news, and then we would go home as normal. Kids in the 1960's understood life more than children today, despite how sophisticated the most recent generation thinks that they are. Our parents had all fought in World War II. As shocking and most certainly sad as the assassination was, kids back then understood that bad things happen. We didn't obsess about some bizarre inner meaning, or keep re-opening the wounds, over and over and over, as the moderns seem to do. We prayed with the priest for JFK's soul and for his family, and then went home at the end of the day like normal.

First I stopped by a friend's house, a short distance from the church on the way to my own further away house, so I could see with her and her parents what was on the TV. Thus I saw the coverage for myself. Remember this was before news shows, though obviously all normal programming was interrupted. TV and radio was the only "instant" news. I also knew that it was a safe bet that my mother, a traumatized World War II civilian, would not have the TV on, so I wisely figured to get the news that I could at my friend's house, and I did.

And that is it. What was the message that we received? Not the gore and the mystery over and over, but watching the greatest country that ever existed pass peacefully in power to President Lyndon Johnson. Life carried on the next day, and the next, even as we mourned such a tragedy. Back then people did not obsess over "anniversaries" any more than anyone today obsesses over anniversaries of great battles in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I or World War II when hundreds or thousands perished in a day. I have to this day a Catholic Memorial card with a picture of JFK and a prayer for remembrance of him in my Roman Catholic Missal. That's enough.

See, those of you who were too young to remember or who were not even born forget the great lesson of the day was not the tragedy, but the peaceful transition of power to the Vice President who became President. We remember LBJ being sworn in on the plane, with Jackie in her blood stained suit, standing next to him, and we went to work and we went to school the next day. Life went on. That is what my generation remembers because that's the truth of what it was like. That is why we do not constantly cast new astrology charts to "see why it happened" or sniff around like dogs behind every shrubbery looking for new bullet discards. For some reason many delusional moderns think that the generation that actually lived through the assassination not being obsessed with some abstract "why" is a sign that we are dummies or something. No, you are the dummies because you miss the entire point of what it "meant," which is that this great country rolled on without a pause, under honest leaders, even as we grieved one man and his family.

I totally rolled my eyes in the days before our recent Presidential election as people tried to stir the pot by predicting "unrest" and "riots" whether Mr. Obama won or not. That is the typical fears and perverse hopes of those who do not appreciate that the greatness of the United States is its sturdiness and trustworthiness during transitions of power, planned or unplanned, joyous or tragic. And, as I expected, there was not an inappropriate peep reported across the country from either side when President Elect Obama won. That's what mature and grown up folks expect, you know.


If I could I would scan and post an image of the front and back of my Catholic memorial card for JFK so you could see it and in a way, understand the simplicity of what I am describing to you that as great as he was, he was just another man who died, in this case, tragically and too young. And like every other man, a priest comforts and consoles, and then the family moves on, in this case the American family of the USA. But I lack working scanners, printers and bandwidth to actually utilize "the tech" to post an image. So I will, instead, type in a description and the content.

The front of the card is red, white and blue. The paper is white, the photo of JFK and the print is in muted blue, and the border of the card is red. Under the picture of JFK, a very nice picture, in a striped suit, head and shoulders full face pose, is lettered the following text:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Thirty-fifth President of the United States
Born May 29, 1917
Inaugurated January 20, 1961
Died November 22, 1963

The back of the card had no picture, but a simple cross at the top, with a prayer underneath.

+

LET US PRAY

Lend ear to our prayers,
O Lord, as we humbly en-
treat Thy mercy; and bring to
the place of light and peace,
into the company of Thy
saints, the soul of Thy servant
John, whom Thou hast called
to go forth from this world.
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

May he rest in peace.

_________________________
Printed in the U.S.A.
St. Anthony's Guild, Paterson, N.J.

Also watched this TV show as a tiny kid

And can still hum the theme song and remember some of the words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_(1955_TV_series)

Thinking about a TV show I watched as a wee one

I was really young when this TV show was on, but I watched it and remember it very well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_King

Reminiscing about fashion

The first designer clothes I ever bought was a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress, when they first came out and were a sensation. Here is a link to an example in the Met design museum.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/amsp/ho_1997.487.htm

The one I bought was exactly that style, bought as best as I can recall around 1976-77. However, mine was cream background with random red pattern, less dense coloration than what is in the museum sample. I loved it, it was stylish and very comfortable to wear. As I was thin and quite fit during that time it looked really nice on me.

I admit, it is hurtful when people who were barely born at the time that I bought that dress have made jabs at me regarding my not wearing trendy clothes. I could not afford anything couture or fashionable before this dress, which I bought when I was earning a paycheck working after having graduating from college. I really wonder what people expect.

When dreams reveal truthful situations

As a counselor and spiritual director I would sometimes do dream interpretations. They can be very useful if kept pure in intention and not distorted for occult purposes. While thinking about that just now I remembered a dream I had years ago that I thought I would share because it revealed to me an actual situation that was taking place, though I did not have all the "missing pieces" in place at the time.

This was when I had my home of twenty two years, which had a hill covered with woods in the back. So the dream would have been at least fifteen to twenty years ago.

I dreamed that I observed many middle age and older women intruding on my property and spying on me. Even though they looked all respectable and matronly on the outside, it was not friendly type of spying; it was unfriendly and far from being the "little old lady" type of snooping. They also were making themselves quite at home on my property, having tea in patio structures they had had built for them and so forth.

In my dream I went outside to find out who they were, and not to confront per se, but to see if they had even the slightest shame and embarassment at spying on me and intruding on my property.

So I walked out to them in the woods, and up the hill a bit, and was astonished to find that far from being embarassed, they were unrepentent and even annoyed at ME for "disturbing them." But then they looked over my shoulder in dismay and some fear (though it turns out not enough fear, as I realize in retrospect, LOL). I turned to see what they were afraid of and was surprised to see they were afraid of the cranes that nested on my property.

(Now, actual crane birds did not nest on my property, but I did have a long time relationship with that kind of bird). So its not strange that my dream would portray cranes as peacefully nesting and flourishing on my property. I have affection for the bird species themselves, their role in spirituality and culture, and also I favored crane form of kung fu at the time (and still do).

They were extremely afraid of the cranes, but rather than that being a basis for understanding their hostility and intrusion toward me, they simply "clammed up," except to continue to glare at me and look fearfully toward the nesting cranes, who were flapping their wings at the time, while standing on their nests and nearby tree branches. I woke with no further information.

So here is another example of how I had been alerted to being stalked by very strange cultists, even decades ago, as I did understand that truth from the dream, but at the time (when I still had an affectionate or at least neutral view of humans), I thought that it was kind of an unconscious stalking rather than the evil and deliberate script of stalking that cultists had indeed been doing toward me. Too bad they didn't respect the cranes.

A story about knitting needles and warnings

I enjoy all sewing and needlework projects, including knitting and crocheting. I learned how to knit by reading a book my sister in law had, while I was staying at my brother's house on "vacation," but I was really taking care of my baby niece while my brother worked on his PhD and my sister in law taught in elementary school. This was during the summer that the United States landed the first man on the moon, and I watched that event from there on their black and white TV. (I was alone in watching it because they were out for the evening and just not into it anyway). So I was just a young girl.

Anyway, I was already an avid fan of sewing and arts and crafts, so I picked up that book and learned from the instructions and pictures how to knit. Years later I taught myself crochet. I knit and crocheted many of the clothes I wore in high school.

Years later when I was reading about Native American culture I was interested to read a historic event involving knitting needles. (I did a lot of reading of Native American culture, not for the goofy reasons that many did about "mysticism" and "vision quest" by stoned New Agers, but because I spent many years sponsoring Native American children who needed financial help to stay in school. I later considered many of them dear friends and family). So I enjoyed reading about their history, culture and art and traditional beliefs, and even collected some rare books on these subjects.

Many people have heard about the great defeat of General Armstrong Custer by the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne alliance at the Battle of Little Big Horn. I read some contemporary accounts of what happened, in my rare book collection. Here is a little gem that I often think about when I buy knitting needles (as I did yesterday). The Lakota had warned Custer not to persecute and attack them, and they warned him most seriously about the dire consequences if he did. But Custer pursued the Indians anyway, and history knows the result, that he and his men were slaughtered in battle.

Some bodies were found with knitting needles stuck in their ears. The explanation was that Indian women stuck them in there after they were dead, to symbolize "the hearing problem" that the soldiers had for not heeding the warning. Hmm.

Background Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Little_Big_Horn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knitting_needles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11

They are concerned about hotel security

Years ago I favored their hotel in London, staying there frequently for both business and personal travel. I liked it (even had my first venison in their restaurant) and thought it was a good place with professional staff.

Unfortunately I discovered the staff were deliberately indiscreet about both my personal stay at the hotel and also about what I would call my "work," the days before my public ministry. Thus they spied and reported on both my personal intimate activities with loved ones AND about what they thought were my routine decisions which they provided to occult followers. (Cultists monitor and manipulate all sorts of ordinary daily activities, thinking that they are "clues" to things like bogus past lives, future "foretune telling," etc. It is anti-God in every respect).

No one need wonder how terrorists know who is staying in hotels and what they are up to. Don't need to hire high priced consultants to figure that out. Just look at what has been done to me over the decades.

Ironic when staff that blabs and violates privacy then feels the heat, sometimes.

A comment about protests

Just now I was checking the status of some uneaten ice cream in the refrigerator and some of it is far beyond its "use by" date, so I washed one of the containers' contents down the drain. As I did I thought of one of my stories from youth that I could tell my readers, to help them to understand my perspectives and better formulate their own values and opinions.

When I was a kid there was some sort of very contentious quarrel between dairy farmers who produced milk and I think the state government, though it could have been the federal. As you may know government policy has an influence on what farmers can obtain for their products.

Anyway, the debate became very heated and to my horror the dairy farmers decided to protest by dumping milk into the ground! Their point was that the milk was worthless to them because of the pricing policy they were protesting. This, however, is one of the images that has seared my brain and bothers me to this day about how humans decide to do things like protests, regardless of the provocation.

I still to this day do not understand why they did not "destroy" the milk in protest by giving it free to poor and undernourished children for a day. If they were going to discard the milk they had produced for an entire day, why did they not donate that milk to an agency that needed it?

I'm sure I'd hear all sorts of excuses such as the cost of pasteurizing milk that they would just give away. But if you are going to protest and emphasize the value of milk, a basic life giving food, why protest by pouring it unused into the ground? I was and still remain horrified by that image of total waste and nihilism by people who were otherwise "salts of the earth."

If they do not think of that simple and positive protest alternative, how much farther from them are the people who are unbelieving, who are liberal secular worshippers, who are "angry" advocates of this or that "outrage?" How will people ever really rise up in their worthiness if even the good people think that destroying a life giving commodity is the answer? It's sad, the terrible waste I have seen over the decades that I have been here, observing, and being buffeted by cruelty also.