Sunday, July 17, 2016

Where to now, St. Peter?

  • Knowing my fondness for classic rock, you might take that as an intro for the song.
  • I don't think so, Tim.  Not this time.
  • It's not just me that wonders if we're accelerating toward the apocalypse: Dallas, Nice, Ankara, Baton Rouge.  With the Trump convention coming up - what could go wrong?
  • Whenever I read an article online, I'll often scan at least some of the comments that follow (if they're posted), trying to get some feel of the public's 'pulse'.  It's an old habit that dates back to the days when I read paper copies of Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report, the WSJ, DMN, and FWST.  Sometimes all in the same day.
  • It's amazing to me how polarized society is, and how many comments some are willing to make that would probably strike most as being 'beyond the pale'.  I've long since conceded that I am a curmudgeon, a fact cemented by my using Paul Harvey quotes from time to time.  One that seems especially apropos to the raging division currently going on in the U.S. is: "Self Government won't work without self discipline."
  • Those who say "We ought to send [them] back to Africa", and "Black lives splatter" - are not helping.  Those who say "Let's get some pigs in blankets", or "More dead cops" - are not helping.
  • As a last resort, let us turn to the pages of the Book of Henley, where it is written "There is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here." There's no place to run to anymore, we've got to figure this thing out. Although that was almost two decades earlier, maybe it's kind of what Rodney King meant when he asked "Can't we all just get along?"   Rodney was no poster child for righteousness, but in that instance, he was right.
  • Eighteen centuries before Harvey and Henley, though, a different Paul might have used the word κοινωνία (koinonia) to urge unity of purpose, participation, and cooperation to heal instead of divide.
  • Here's to getting along.

1 comment:

RPM said...

I thought the Cleveland Police union calling for Gov. Kasich to suspend gun rights during the RNC convention in Cleveland was rather telling.

"They can fight about it after the RNC or they can lift it after the RNC, but I want him to absolutely outlaw open-carry in Cuyahoga County until this RNC is over."

So much with that "Preserve, protect and defend The Constitution" rubbish...