Going through the trash this morning I have come across some random thoughts about the attitudes of the seaboard pundits and governmental Washington elites. First, there was the sound and the fury over the naming of a moose-hunting, hockey mom with five kids who had the audacity to believe she was qualified to be a mayor, state commission chair, governor and then candidate for vice-president. They agonized over the thought of a “trailer-trash” ex-beauty queen taking up residence at the Naval Observatory in D.C. In response, they marshaled an army of sleazeball "legal" types and sent them on a mission to “dumpster dive” in Alaska in search of dirt on the candidate. They returned from their assignment cold, dirty, and disappointed with the knowledge that unlike their fellow critics, she enjoyed huge (80%) endorsement by her parka clad neighbors and was, God forbid, real!
She further stoked their fires of rage by using highly understandable vocabulary to relate to and outline a vision for her fellow citizens. She flummoxed the press and the “lifers” in D.C. by being well advanced in her knowledge and her ability to communicate with every one past the arugula and latte circuit. She assumed the role of “everyman” for those Americans who quietly enter voting booths and exercise their common sense and conscience. The coastal elites went nuts. After all, they went to Harvard or some other weed covered hall of leftist indoctrination, where they were educated to believe that nuance superseded common sense. She revealed she had a mom and dad and neither one was named “government.”
If that were not insult enough, “The One” entertained a question from some “guy” who actually had a job and wanted to make the transition from employee to management and improve his opportunities. This person, now known almost universally as “Joe, the plumber,” demonstrated a simplistic grasp of economics, capitalism, and planning for the future well past the understanding of his betters in congress. He resisted the idea that he should “share the wealth” with others who had not paid the price he had paid. Worse, he has also expressed his belief in his native country, his confidence in the military and the goals of their use, and faith in his fellow citizens. His sturdy appearance combined with his fundamental attitudes scare these people to death.
These two are not all that different from the ones who hang out in your local barber shop, Wal-Mart parking lot, church dinners and PTA meetings who discuss the real problems America faces. They sit on town boards and councils, often unpaid, and exercise their civic responsibilities and participate in decisions which affect their neighbors. They are not all of the same opinion but manage to work together to come up with the solutions which best reflect the attitudes of the governed to the best of their ability. Since they drive the same roads, shop in the same stores, go to the same schools and, generally, worship the same God, they have the necessary information to make informed judgments. They constitute the basic cadre which directs the efforts to improve America and provide for the common good.
The elites attribute this to some kind of “overnight” success which to them is unfathomable. They fail to see that each of them prepared for lives of accomplishment by hard work, caring for others, exercising high moral standards, and actually working their way up the ladder. In close examination of most all-stars, whether they be in sports, entertainment, business, the arts, or what have you, they will modestly assure you their “overnight” success was preceded by ten or twenty years of difficult preparation.. They “made their bones” the hard way. The first time I saw Tiger Woods with a golf club in his hand was at the age of three (his age, not mine!) on the “Tonight Show.” Many US presidents started their lives as paper boys and Boy Scouts, learning the “real” basics of life. Most NFL star quarterbacks have a tale in their repertoire of endlessly throwing footballs through a hanging tire behind the barn in youthful exuberance to hone their skills. How many industry CEO’s have related tales of selling lemonade or peddling vegetables as a kid? Perhaps the most telling story is Bill Gates who dropped out of college to form what is now Microsoft and become the world’s richest man. These people did not come from inherited wealth but did come from an ingrained work ethic. It was not the luck of the draw or a one in a billion lottery ticket that put them where they are today. In their success we award our admiration; the folly lies in not appreciating what they went through to achieve it.
Yes, we are commanded as Christians to give our neighbor a helping hand. Many have done so as individuals and as a nation we have reacted to the downtrodden and oppressed in record amounts. When our nation senses tragedy abroad we immediately dispatch relief even in advance of the event. Our navy does not wait for the aftermath of a cyclone or tsunami to put our hospital ships and carrier borne helicopters rushing to the scene. We send our resources and monies promptly without expectation of praise to help our brothers’ world wide. This national attitude is born in the hearts of the people who form the nation and not from political expediency.
Those who seek to disparage the “common” characteristics and essential goodness of the folks mentioned in the lead paragraphs need to take another look. That look should not be at Sarah Palin or “Joe, the plumber” but rather, in the mirror. Have they done as much? Is paying the price for success so alien they can only carp about their lack of polish and credentials? Personally, I will only find validity in their criticisms when they can demonstrate a lack of agenda in their self-serving attacks. My prayer is that the “average” citizen seeks leadership from those who have “been there and done that.” To have studied, theorized, read about, and mulled over is not the ideal background for leadership if it is not accompanied by some actual work.
Give this some thought and share those thoughts with your neighbors. We live in a perilous world and we require common sense leadership. A world in flames and economic crisis does not require yet another symposium. It requires an individual who understands courage, stewardship, fairness, common sense and sweat!
In His abiding love,
Cecil Moon
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
When Wright becomes Wrong
I have come to believe that the biggest problem with mounting a campaign of facts against Obama is his shadowy complicity in difficult to understand programs. These are clouded with language, phrasing, and duplicity which hide the vile underpinnings of their purpose. For those who see American Idol as news, it is especially difficult.
Supplying high sounding words, closed meetings, and difficult to follow financial transactions are the bread and butter of his campaign. This is why finding intelligent people to sort through the mess become a joy. Stanley Kurtz is such a man. He managed to defeat the barriers raised by the conservators of the Annenberg Challenge documents. It was no easy task. It was necessary to document the complicated relationships of Obama, Wright and Ayers in their attempt to scuttle the already failing educational establishment in Chicago.
I would love to furnish an “easy read” for your consumption but thanks to the principals, that is not possible. I do assure you that Mr. Kurtz has done the heavy lifting for you and all that is required is your undivided attention, some of your valuable time, and a strong stomach. Once you have completed your inquiry you will have a far better grip on the entire situation. I promise that reading this piece will bring you a rich understanding of the matter.
The overarching message I took from this was the accent on increasing a divisive posture on a huge segment of American society. The nation’s purpose in spending 600,000 plus of our young men in the Civil War was to enable full citizenship and assimilation into the richness of our country’s liberty and benefits. Would that Abraham Lincoln could see the fractured response presented by this cabal of elites to overturn his goals and hard won victories on the battlefield. Those who have no knowledge of the truth of America’s success will be easily led to believe the lies so cleverly presented.
Men of honor and integrity are laced into the complete history of our country. From the very inception of the republic, they have stood tall to insure our future success. To ignore their sacrifice and nobility to yield to the insane ranting of those who, in Wright’s word, “damn” America, will insure the destruction of everything which we hold dear. This is serious business and it requires serious opposition.
God, in His wisdom, has provided us a place of untold blessings. He has guided our forefathers to construct a government which has no parallel in history. In the face of His immense largess will we allow it to be destroyed by an emotional appeal by a man and his cronies who cannot even bring his message from his heart and not a teleprompter?
You are not called upon in this circumstance to don the armor and weapons of bloody personal contact. You are, however, required to furnish yourself with every available piece of information you can acquire to share with your fellow citizens to insure they fully understand the horrible mistake they may well be about to make.
You do not have to be a Latter Day Saint of any stripe to appreciate the words of Moroni when faced with a serious adversary. He charged his followers to action with these words written upon a piece of cloth rent from his own body, “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives and our children.” (Alma 21:41) In the next verse, he knelt in prayer “unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren so long as there should be a band of Christians remain to possess the land.”
Our liberties are being assaulted as well. Choose whatever level of the struggle you can manage, but choose! Do it for the preservation of your freedoms.
In His abiding love,
Cecil Moon
Supplying high sounding words, closed meetings, and difficult to follow financial transactions are the bread and butter of his campaign. This is why finding intelligent people to sort through the mess become a joy. Stanley Kurtz is such a man. He managed to defeat the barriers raised by the conservators of the Annenberg Challenge documents. It was no easy task. It was necessary to document the complicated relationships of Obama, Wright and Ayers in their attempt to scuttle the already failing educational establishment in Chicago.
I would love to furnish an “easy read” for your consumption but thanks to the principals, that is not possible. I do assure you that Mr. Kurtz has done the heavy lifting for you and all that is required is your undivided attention, some of your valuable time, and a strong stomach. Once you have completed your inquiry you will have a far better grip on the entire situation. I promise that reading this piece will bring you a rich understanding of the matter.
The overarching message I took from this was the accent on increasing a divisive posture on a huge segment of American society. The nation’s purpose in spending 600,000 plus of our young men in the Civil War was to enable full citizenship and assimilation into the richness of our country’s liberty and benefits. Would that Abraham Lincoln could see the fractured response presented by this cabal of elites to overturn his goals and hard won victories on the battlefield. Those who have no knowledge of the truth of America’s success will be easily led to believe the lies so cleverly presented.
Men of honor and integrity are laced into the complete history of our country. From the very inception of the republic, they have stood tall to insure our future success. To ignore their sacrifice and nobility to yield to the insane ranting of those who, in Wright’s word, “damn” America, will insure the destruction of everything which we hold dear. This is serious business and it requires serious opposition.
God, in His wisdom, has provided us a place of untold blessings. He has guided our forefathers to construct a government which has no parallel in history. In the face of His immense largess will we allow it to be destroyed by an emotional appeal by a man and his cronies who cannot even bring his message from his heart and not a teleprompter?
You are not called upon in this circumstance to don the armor and weapons of bloody personal contact. You are, however, required to furnish yourself with every available piece of information you can acquire to share with your fellow citizens to insure they fully understand the horrible mistake they may well be about to make.
You do not have to be a Latter Day Saint of any stripe to appreciate the words of Moroni when faced with a serious adversary. He charged his followers to action with these words written upon a piece of cloth rent from his own body, “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives and our children.” (Alma 21:41) In the next verse, he knelt in prayer “unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren so long as there should be a band of Christians remain to possess the land.”
Our liberties are being assaulted as well. Choose whatever level of the struggle you can manage, but choose! Do it for the preservation of your freedoms.
In His abiding love,
Cecil Moon
Monday, October 13, 2008
Monday Morning Rant 59
When the preacher (Pastor Lee Parsons) went to the final prayer yesterday morning at Fellowship Baptist Church, I came to a startling discovery. I was so thoroughly engrossed in his topic and his excellent presentation that any vestige of the awareness of time had completely escaped me. Either I am maturing in the faith or else he is one of the most captivating sermonizers I have ever heard. I have to admit that it is the latter. After all, who would not confess, at least to oneself, that he has stolen a peek at his watch during a Sunday service? My reaction was one of surprise and disappointment rather than relief at the close; shame on me and cheers for him.
Although not the subject of his remarks I was provoked to consider what other aspects of my so called Christian life are governed by external forces and not the pure love of Christ and His message. Does my personal budget have an affect on my support of the ministry? Have I found the time to carry the message personally to others? When I contact those with whom I disagree—and who doesn’t during an election—am I aware of their identity as my “brothers” and not ready to brand them as fools and lunatics? Does my faith operate 24/7 or is it practiced at my personal convenience? If indeed, I plan on wrapping myself in the cloak of Jesus Christ by claiming His name as the most important part of my identity, it would be well to rethink some of these questions.
In my travels through Ozark Christendom, I have noticed tradition to be widely varied. The music, the order of worship, the accepted dress for both women and men, those who offer prayers, and other aspects of the services which I have attended appear to be accepted by those who attend and there is a wide disparity between many protestant bodies. Being a geezer, I have some ingrained old time habits. No matter where I wind up on Sunday, you will find I am always dressed the same. Dark suit, white shirt, necktie, shined boots, and a general sartorial presentation consistent with the respect I have for the God I worship. This is in no way meant as criticism of those who are comfortable in casual trousers and a clean pressed shirt. It’s possible us “old guys” are a bunch of stuffed shirts and overdress for the occasion. It does cause some confusion on occasion, however.
In nearly all of these wonderful congregations I have visited, the ones most surely to share my personal dress code are the preachers, elders, deacons and others of rank. On occasion someone will confuse me, by virtue of my dress, with one of the officials of the church. To know me well is to establish firmly that you can’t tell a book by its cover. While I find the misinterpretation flattering, it is often embarrassing. A man I know only casually was close by and obviously very tickled over something. When he saw that I had noticed he came to me to apologize. After a series of appropriate disclaimers we launched a discussion of God, humor, and the general relationship. In this particular church, the pastor has a marvelous sense of humor and displays it often during the delivery of his message. My personal experience has been that humor often provides the tonic to dilute the gravest of problems.
Altogether, the day provided much food for thought and a wonderful distraction to the week’s political nightmares. Please note that the relative importance to me is demonstrated by the fact that it leads the rant. The rest shall follow.
Michelle’s Thesis
Although somewhat unusual, Michelle Obama was required to furnish a thesis for graduation from a bachelor’s program at Syracuse. This was prior to being admitted to Harvard Law. When questioned about the availability of the document, she at first seemed reluctant to furnish it to reporters or the general public. This is, I suppose, a furtherance of the desire to examine under a microscope, every snippet which can be extracted from every scrap of paper authored by anyone remotely connected to the current campaign.
While I disagree with her husband about nearly everything but his choice of waffles for breakfast, I fail to see why anyone would have any interest in the ramblings of a twenty-something undergraduate from Syracuse. However, to satisfy myself that there was nothing earth shattering in the paper, I found it and read it. You may also if you wish to waste whatever time it takes you to read roughly 100 double space pages of typing. Ed. note: Yawn.
If you chose to take my word for it and passed, I congratulate you on your time management skills. Like much of what passes for civil discourse on both sides, there is “no there, there.”
Imaginary Americans
For those who are tiring of the campaign, I have a temporary distraction for you from Dave Burge at Iowa Hawk. In response to the attempt by ACORN to fix the election by tampering with voter registrations, he has written one of his typically astute satires on the subject. Have a look and you can thank me later for exposing you to his clever wit.
One of the big draws I have to Iowa Hawk is his familiarity with areas of the upper Midwest where I have lived or traveled during various parts of my life; Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and the Michigan Upper Peninsula. Given my late-life aversion to snow piled up higher than my 6’ frame it is likely I shall never give any thought to returning to the four season delights (early winter, winter, late winter, and the 4th of July picnic) of that region. Dave is good enough to keep me up to date on the happenings there so that will not be necessary. Enjoy him; he’s very good at satire.
That’s it for the rant this morning. No big revelations or attacks on anyone today, just, as usual, the aftermath of an enriching Sunday.
In His abiding love,
Cecil Moon
Although not the subject of his remarks I was provoked to consider what other aspects of my so called Christian life are governed by external forces and not the pure love of Christ and His message. Does my personal budget have an affect on my support of the ministry? Have I found the time to carry the message personally to others? When I contact those with whom I disagree—and who doesn’t during an election—am I aware of their identity as my “brothers” and not ready to brand them as fools and lunatics? Does my faith operate 24/7 or is it practiced at my personal convenience? If indeed, I plan on wrapping myself in the cloak of Jesus Christ by claiming His name as the most important part of my identity, it would be well to rethink some of these questions.
In my travels through Ozark Christendom, I have noticed tradition to be widely varied. The music, the order of worship, the accepted dress for both women and men, those who offer prayers, and other aspects of the services which I have attended appear to be accepted by those who attend and there is a wide disparity between many protestant bodies. Being a geezer, I have some ingrained old time habits. No matter where I wind up on Sunday, you will find I am always dressed the same. Dark suit, white shirt, necktie, shined boots, and a general sartorial presentation consistent with the respect I have for the God I worship. This is in no way meant as criticism of those who are comfortable in casual trousers and a clean pressed shirt. It’s possible us “old guys” are a bunch of stuffed shirts and overdress for the occasion. It does cause some confusion on occasion, however.
In nearly all of these wonderful congregations I have visited, the ones most surely to share my personal dress code are the preachers, elders, deacons and others of rank. On occasion someone will confuse me, by virtue of my dress, with one of the officials of the church. To know me well is to establish firmly that you can’t tell a book by its cover. While I find the misinterpretation flattering, it is often embarrassing. A man I know only casually was close by and obviously very tickled over something. When he saw that I had noticed he came to me to apologize. After a series of appropriate disclaimers we launched a discussion of God, humor, and the general relationship. In this particular church, the pastor has a marvelous sense of humor and displays it often during the delivery of his message. My personal experience has been that humor often provides the tonic to dilute the gravest of problems.
Altogether, the day provided much food for thought and a wonderful distraction to the week’s political nightmares. Please note that the relative importance to me is demonstrated by the fact that it leads the rant. The rest shall follow.
Michelle’s Thesis
Although somewhat unusual, Michelle Obama was required to furnish a thesis for graduation from a bachelor’s program at Syracuse. This was prior to being admitted to Harvard Law. When questioned about the availability of the document, she at first seemed reluctant to furnish it to reporters or the general public. This is, I suppose, a furtherance of the desire to examine under a microscope, every snippet which can be extracted from every scrap of paper authored by anyone remotely connected to the current campaign.
While I disagree with her husband about nearly everything but his choice of waffles for breakfast, I fail to see why anyone would have any interest in the ramblings of a twenty-something undergraduate from Syracuse. However, to satisfy myself that there was nothing earth shattering in the paper, I found it and read it. You may also if you wish to waste whatever time it takes you to read roughly 100 double space pages of typing. Ed. note: Yawn.
If you chose to take my word for it and passed, I congratulate you on your time management skills. Like much of what passes for civil discourse on both sides, there is “no there, there.”
Imaginary Americans
For those who are tiring of the campaign, I have a temporary distraction for you from Dave Burge at Iowa Hawk. In response to the attempt by ACORN to fix the election by tampering with voter registrations, he has written one of his typically astute satires on the subject. Have a look and you can thank me later for exposing you to his clever wit.
One of the big draws I have to Iowa Hawk is his familiarity with areas of the upper Midwest where I have lived or traveled during various parts of my life; Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and the Michigan Upper Peninsula. Given my late-life aversion to snow piled up higher than my 6’ frame it is likely I shall never give any thought to returning to the four season delights (early winter, winter, late winter, and the 4th of July picnic) of that region. Dave is good enough to keep me up to date on the happenings there so that will not be necessary. Enjoy him; he’s very good at satire.
That’s it for the rant this morning. No big revelations or attacks on anyone today, just, as usual, the aftermath of an enriching Sunday.
In His abiding love,
Cecil Moon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
