One of my goals while doing this Blogging thing is do was chronicle my involvement in the Tea Party movement. Over the past few months I have given small financial contributions to several candidates and have attended a few protests, town halls and government meetings. This week, however, marked my first venture into the world of actually working for an individual candidate running for office.
You may ask what high stakes political race was I involved with? Could it be a Gubernatorial race or perhaps a high stakes race for the US Senate? No, I was walking precincts for a candidate running for reelection to City Council in a small city I don't even live in. Why do this you ask? The reason is the person running is a good man. What makes this person a good man is that as a member of City Council his city is experiencing a budget surplus. This is something that is a rarity in this day and age and in particular in California. In addition, this person has unashamedly attended our Tea Party meetings and even served on our board. He notified us when a county transportation board tried to levy cash strapped citizens with additional license fees. He actually got up and spoke at a hearing against them!
One thing liberals preach is to think globally and to act locally and to their credit they have something with this philosophy. In order to take back our country we must elect conservatives at all levels of local government not just the glamor offices. Change must come from the bottom and not the top and we must do it electing one good man and woman at a time.
A Voice In the Wilderness
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
The Golden Rule
I must admit that the proposed building of a $100 million dollar Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque at ground zero of the 911 terror attack has been bothering me. But it has been bothering me for reasons that I have not been able to discern until now.
I live in California which is the ultimate cultural melting pot. On the street where I live there is a Lutheran and Catholic church along with a Synagogue. On my way to work I can see a huge Sikh Temple on the side of a mountain. I attend a 140 year old Baptist church in whose building Hispanic and Chinese congregations also meet. I am friends with two people of the Islamic faith and both of them are very nice people. I would say I am as tolerant of others beliefs as anyone and that is why I have struggled with this issue.
Despite the word's uttered by our President a while back we are, and still are culturally, a Christian Nation. This means certain principles and ideas have been ingrained in us as a people whether we are practicing Christians or not. One of those principles is the golden rule.. The expression "Golden Rule" is not found in the Bible. However, the rule enunciated by Jesus that people call the Golden rule is found in the scripture reference as follows.
"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you," Jesus said, "do ye even so to them..." (Matt. 7: 12).
Christianity adopted the golden rule from two Old Testament edicts, found in Leviticus 19:18 ("Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.", and Leviticus 19:34 ("But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God"). Crucially, Leviticus 19:34 universalizes the edict of Leviticus 19:18 from "one of your people" to all of humankind.
Others will spend a great deal of time discussing the religious and political viewpoints of those who want to erect the Mosque. I say that what the people who want to build the Mosque believe is unimportant as well as are their motives. The most important subject matter in this whole debate is that several hundred families of the victims of 911 tragedy are taking great offense to a Mosque being built at ground zero.
The " Christian thing" to do would be to move the Mosque elsewhere where it did not offend so many. Unfortunately, the people building the Mosque are not Christians and have no respect for the golden rule.
President Obama is not a religious man and to his credit he does not pretend to be one. In his two years in office I do not remember him once attending church services with his family. The only religious event he has attended in the last two years(excluding funerals) to my knowledge has been an annual White House Dinner in honor of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. It is unfortunate that our college-professor-in-chief spent his formative years in the Muslim nation of Indonesia and later on spent a great deal of time with people like Bill Ayers. This is where he developed his opinions on what America and the world should be like. He does not share our cultural Christian values nor does he understand them.
Mr. Obama may not be a Christan, or a Muslim for that matter, but I dare say that he is, in point of fact, culturally a Muslim. This is why he lacks sensitivity to those who lost loved ones on 911 and so strongly supports the the Mosque being built.
A Voice In the Wilderness
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
HAPPY BLOGOVERSERY!!!!
Below is my first Blog posting from a year ago.
A Voice In the Wilderness
OK I am 52 years old. Why start a blog you may ask? Well for one thing I saw the movie Julie and Julia last weekend and I was inspired. For another reason I have ideas though sometimes they are hair brained and I want to express them. The traditional outlets for political thoughts from the citizenry are letters to the editors of newspapers. The newspapers are like the giant woolly mammoths who died in the ice age the newspapers as is the rest of the old media is retreating into extinction.
Recently I have tried several times to send a letters on various issues to papers throughout the state of CA. In most instances your letter can only be published if you are responding directly to an editorial expressed in that paper and in many other instances you are limited to less than 200 words in your letter. I must admit that most of my letters have only been published in my local town's paper the Vallejo Times Herald. I have felt like a voice crying in the wilderness ( although I refuse to wear bearskins and eat locusts).
Our political leaders are not listening to us and the old media wishes people like me would just be quiet. I am not a soldier in the mindless army of the beltway GOP but my views tend to be conservative. The name I have chosen for my blog is Barbarians at the Gates. Like the latter days of ancient Rome the USA is a great nation with an increasingly corrupt political system. We have many enemies surrounding us who want to plunder our wealth and we are less and less self sufficient in producing our own products and services.
From time to time I have posted some of my rants to my Face book friends. I know this was not the best format and that is why I am sending this link to you. I am not asking you to agree with me but to pass it on to thinking people both liberal and conservative. To those of you who know me personally I thank you in your prayer and support in this endeavor. I hope I can bring some thought and some humor into all our lives.
That was my post a year ago today.
OK I have been doing this for one year now. I have not changed the world but perhaps I have influenced a couple of minds. That in itself has made this worthwhile.
I have changed my viewpoint and I have come to realize that I am actually not the civilized Roman but indeed I am the Barbarian and all my brethren who belong to the Tea Party movement are the Barbarians. We will not sit idly by and sell our children's birthright nor lose our national soul to socialism. I have always been able to analyze trends and I can tell you the stars are aliening for something special. But that will be another posting.
In the paraphrased words of the late Jackie Gleason (for you youngsters John Stewart's grandfather) " Barbarians at the Gates Fans are the greatest fans in the world.!!!! "
A Voice In the Wilderness
A Voice In the Wilderness
OK I am 52 years old. Why start a blog you may ask? Well for one thing I saw the movie Julie and Julia last weekend and I was inspired. For another reason I have ideas though sometimes they are hair brained and I want to express them. The traditional outlets for political thoughts from the citizenry are letters to the editors of newspapers. The newspapers are like the giant woolly mammoths who died in the ice age the newspapers as is the rest of the old media is retreating into extinction.
Recently I have tried several times to send a letters on various issues to papers throughout the state of CA. In most instances your letter can only be published if you are responding directly to an editorial expressed in that paper and in many other instances you are limited to less than 200 words in your letter. I must admit that most of my letters have only been published in my local town's paper the Vallejo Times Herald. I have felt like a voice crying in the wilderness ( although I refuse to wear bearskins and eat locusts).
Our political leaders are not listening to us and the old media wishes people like me would just be quiet. I am not a soldier in the mindless army of the beltway GOP but my views tend to be conservative. The name I have chosen for my blog is Barbarians at the Gates. Like the latter days of ancient Rome the USA is a great nation with an increasingly corrupt political system. We have many enemies surrounding us who want to plunder our wealth and we are less and less self sufficient in producing our own products and services.
From time to time I have posted some of my rants to my Face book friends. I know this was not the best format and that is why I am sending this link to you. I am not asking you to agree with me but to pass it on to thinking people both liberal and conservative. To those of you who know me personally I thank you in your prayer and support in this endeavor. I hope I can bring some thought and some humor into all our lives.
That was my post a year ago today.
OK I have been doing this for one year now. I have not changed the world but perhaps I have influenced a couple of minds. That in itself has made this worthwhile.
I have changed my viewpoint and I have come to realize that I am actually not the civilized Roman but indeed I am the Barbarian and all my brethren who belong to the Tea Party movement are the Barbarians. We will not sit idly by and sell our children's birthright nor lose our national soul to socialism. I have always been able to analyze trends and I can tell you the stars are aliening for something special. But that will be another posting.
In the paraphrased words of the late Jackie Gleason (for you youngsters John Stewart's grandfather) " Barbarians at the Gates Fans are the greatest fans in the world.!!!! "
A Voice In the Wilderness
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)