Culture, Economics, Education, Politics 2020, Race, Terrorism

FRUITS OF EDUCATION

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We live in interesting times… and dangerous.  Living in our nation are, incredibly, thousands of parents who managed either through active inculcation of an utter hatred of the United States by their children, or of white people, or of capitalism, or of Christianity or of anyone who is succeeding within our system… or of all these aspects of “Western civilization,” or through utter disregard of what their children were being taught by socialist, even Marxist teachers and/or college professors.  However the hate-filled mindset was acquired, it took a lot of work over many years of formative growth.

No one is born with such distorted emotions, ideas, hatreds.  Hatred takes a lot of energy – much more than love or even acceptance or tolerance.  It doesn’t get developed by accident.  Educating innocent children into modes of hatred needs planning and programming.  A single mistake or poor choice of words won’t cause virulent hatred.  One must be guided to belief of the worst possible injustices and that those who commit said injustices are going without punishment or “justice.”  Takes intentional work.

So to all you parents and educators (terms used loosely), you succeeded beyond your wildest dreams… or beyond your vapid ignorance.  Your offspring have become active, hate-filled “enemies of the state,” so to speak, and enemies of thousands of innocent individuals and businesses and those employed by or served by those businesses.  Some are arsonists or simple (term used accurately) thugs, rioters, vandals and racists of the worst order.  Congratulations.

Some of these knuckleheads think they are “Marxists.”  This single claim indicts their ignorance better than any litany of sociopathic acts.  Marx was a virulent racist and anti-Semite, and a Satanist of sorts, who hated religion – sound familiar?  Are your kids talking like this?  Are they caught up in “protesting” police brutality against hundreds of innocent, unarmed young black people?  Do you, parents, have the foggiest idea of what in Hell your own children are doing?  How unfortunately sad.

Some blacks have abandoned processes built into our legal and political systems.  They have also accumulated abundant hatreds for “white” society for, primarily, economic, welfare-fueled reasons.  These same are susceptible to the lying blandishments of Marxists, that the miracle of social justice may be realized only by destroying capitalism and the hated white power structure with it.  We can start with burning down local businesses.

At the same time, burn those hated police who are all racists ready at the drop of a hat to kill an innocent black man.  Seeking social justice will never succeed while police are defending the capitalist, white power structure.  We must defund police departments as we demoralize them and make them quit.  Concentrate on ultra-liberal cities where politicians already agree with us.

Failed parents of America, your sons and daughters, mostly white it turns out, are maximizing the useless college educations you sacrificed for, by helping Black Lives Matter tear down your standards of living, destroying the business you own or work for, if not your house, itself.  Sounds like a big fat “L” in the loss column.

A presidential election isn’t going to fix this racist, corrosive mindset – no election is.  But, an election, the very next and imminent one, can make it a Hell of a lot worse.  Your vote matters.

Joe Biden is not a candidate for president, nor is he a “shoo-in,” as some might hope, but he is a shoe-HORN, able to slip the actual next president – currently known as Vice-Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris – into office when she doesn’t actually fit very well.  If Biden, that erstwhile “moderate” bag of partial memories, does manage to win in November, a countdown will commence: how many weeks, if not days, until he is declared non-compos mentis and eased into retirement as a hero – the public servant who never gave up the fight for the average guy, the middle class, the working families.  Thanks, Joe, so sad to see it end this way; don’t let the iron gate onto West Executive Avenue hit your ass.  There are pools ready to start selling squares on November 4th.

Kamala Harris is not like the other children: she’s a communist at heart, and a nihilist, ready to tear down our democratic republic and all of the practices and ethics of western civilization.  Sound familiar?  She agrees with “Black Lives Matter,” the Marxist organization, not the lives of black people that matter as much as any other.  She is remarkably fluid in her stated beliefs, which is how she got to where her rock-hard beliefs could place her in the White House.  Your vote, and your innate suspicions, matter.  People don’t really like her fluid nature very much, as could be seen in her paltry support in the primaries for president.  George Soros likes her, and here we are.

Anyone who likes or accepts support from George Soros is anti-American and deserves a vote from no one who loves this country.  Lots of Democrats – and Antifa, and Black Lives Matter – solicit his financial support; they’re fellow travelers on the hate-America-train.  Soros is an international socialist, using his mysterious billions to foment anti-freedom movements in dozens of countries.  He never rests.  Like others on the left, including our strange Democrat bedfellows, he doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of a “NO!” from any plebiscite, election, ballot question or referendum; “NO!” simply means “later.”

Any democratic or judicial decision against the far left is simply an instruction as to how the same goal may be achieved with an alternate fight; any such decision in favor of the left, may never be questioned by anyone.  Heads, we win; tails, you lose.  Your vote matters.

Donald Trump and a relative handful of allies AND YOU, are the only patriots standing in the way of the most foul socialist takeover the world could experience.  There is no one to our west who will send troops to restore our freedom.

Education, Family, Health Care

A BEAUTIFUL DASH

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2001

In Methuen, Massachusetts a young woman is trying to prepare for a very early death.  It’s not her fault; she’s done nothing wrong in her nearly 27 years.  Indeed, from the very first she has been a bright, delightful person, quick to learn, quick to love pretty much everybody.

Inside her genes, however, something is not the same as most people’s.  She can’t fight off dysfunctional cell growth.  Her first cancer arrived when she was about 6, it’s not completely certain when, but she had been complaining of “back pain” for months before her mom finally got her to a “pediatric gastroenterologist” whose connections at Tufts Floating Hospital for Children found and diagnosed neuroblastoma.  There can be no worse day for a mother, unless it’s the one approaching inexorably, almost exactly 20 years afterwards.

That’s a short dash, 27 years.  In between those dates were 5 big battles with cancer, excellence in school, swim team, graduation from High School, excellence in college that included trips to New Orleans to help repair Katrina-damaged homes, trips to England and Ireland, visit to Paris through the Chunnel, Graduation from Wheelock College, Masters degree through Merrimack College, friends’ weddings, even one she coordinated, a trip to Peru and Machu Picchu only to run headlong into the fifth cancer struggle, now stretching into the last.  Loving teaching, early childhood and special needs, was not enough.  There never will be the full-time teaching position of which she dreamed.

How does one prepare for death?  I don’t know.  My good friend, Tony Fusco, prepared for his when an undiagnosed tumor in his brain stem proved inoperable, impossible to biopsy and ultimately fatal.  I got to sit with him the last Sunday afternoon before he re-entered the hospital to try some other treatments multiple neurologists had only the faintest idea might help.  I’d brought some nice scotch thinking we might enjoy a sip together but his gag reflex was so impaired he dared to sip only water.  It was a good afternoon and I expected he’d be home again.

When the only option of a feeding tube was offered, Tony realized – decided – that it was a tube too far: no further treatments, thank you.  His world shrank to a room at a beautiful hospice facility that was always busy with visitors and family.  He had a huge heart; it took a couple of weeks for it to go to sleep.

Clearly he’d prepared for the end.  He was 71.  At his funeral I told him that I knew where to hide a flask for when I’d join him on a porch where he now lived, where we could enjoy a sip and analyze the world situation.  He was a year younger than me.

How does one prepare at age twenty-six and three-quarters? Without an abiding religious faith it is hard to imagine.  She believes in God, but hasn’t had a lot of religious education.  I try to explain, but it is uncomfortable, certainly it was a year ago when the lung cancer appeared.  It represented a third kind of cancer, and her tiny body could tolerate no chemotherapy.  They operated and radiated, but the treatment was still a variation of repair and destroy with the overarching hope that the cancerous cells might be killed before the patient, herself.  Her breathing hasn’t been very good – or comfortable – since then.  Within a couple of months lesions were found in multiple places: brain, bones, pancreas and more.  Now at Dana Farber, they’ve radiated as many places as possible and she’s been taking an oral chemo pill with side effects.  It tended to slow down the growth, but never stopped it and now isn’t slowing it much, either.

There’s only one door open to her… to a place where the weaknesses of her body will no longer be a problem – a place where her health will become perfect.  One needs a reason to hope in order to contemplate passing through that door, alone.  Observers might say that she has no choice so “…she just has to deal with it.”

What does that mean: deal with it?  If one has any trust in God it should be clear that trying to pass through when angry and bitter is probably not the right approach.  One school of thought is that when you pass you’ll find exactly what you believed you’d find.  If that is a fade-to-black scenario, and hopeless, then that is what it will appear to be.  I believe that there is an eventual judgment, an audit if you will, of how well your tests were passed – tests you knew were coming when you agreed to accept the lifetime just ending.  Your “you” or your soul, may or may not have aced everything.  The life just ended may or may not be the last one you need to make your ascension, but Redemption is the unfailing lesson of the Bible.  It doesn’t make sense that in the matter of life and death itself, that the opportunity to redeem oneself would be absent.

For the soul, the agreement to accept a new life that includes the needed tests, is the greatest act of love expressable.

Another path of spiritual guidance says that not only are we responsible for our un-passed tests, or “karma,” but also for our reason for being, our “dharma.”  Both are part of judgment.  The more aware we are while on this side of that door, the more likely we are to meet and exceed the reasons for this life.  Life is not a knife-edge: Hell on one side and the gift of Heaven on the other; it is a path made broad by our free will.  The choices we make have meaning.

When someone passes very young, there has been little time to make bad choices, which is to say, few sins have been committed.  At the same time, few opportunities have presented for passing tests.  Maybe a life that ends in youth is lived sacrificially so that those around you can pass their tests.  Living that life is your test: a unique expression of love.

From the limited, somewhat fuzzy understandings of a human lifetime, this is my most comforting perception of the young lady’s life: one of sacrifice.  Neither I nor anyone else on this side of the door is privy to the purposes of the lives of others, and barely able to grasp the meanings of our own.  Still, this observer has recorded no imperfections in our young patient’s life. 

Is she comforted thereby?  Does she perceive the success of her life?  Or does she feel she’s been punished or singled out for “bad luck?”  I try to tell her to not fall into those ideas, but to approach the door with an open heart and mind, accepting of the possibilities of immense love on the other side.

Something she has earned.

Culture, Education, Politics 2020, Sex

Orwell was right

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We live in an age of what is called, REASON.  Supposedly we have become so very smart that there is no longer a need for faith in any God or gods, no need for superstition or even wishful thinking.  We have the handmaid of reason: SCIENCE.  No one can confuse us with un-testable “mumbo-jumbo.”  We can rely on science, and science is based on evidence, experimentation and repeatable observations.  No mysteries for us; all of our beliefs and decisions are science-based, evidence-based, expert-based.  Since we aren’t all scientists or mathematicians, EXPERTS hold an important place in our reason-fed society.

Yes, we still honor some religious leaders and we still respect the ancient founders of religions… well, some of them: the ones that science can prove actually existed.  And we still revere the great teachings of these ancient religion-founders… at least the ones that science can prove were actually taught by the scientifically-accepted founders.  Reason teaches all of us that questioning the fables that surround Mohammed could result in damages or death.  Muslims not only believe but take offense, too.

In any case, we don’t have to accept the mythologies of other religions, especially Christianity, until science confirms them.

Science, one can easily see, is connected intimately with TRUTH.  This makes so much sense that reasonable people think that science and truth are obviously the same thing.  Basing our decisions, our votes, our very governance on truth will certainly avoid a host of problems that derive from lies and myths and false ideas.  We’ve seen a whole lot of that in our political history.  The political movement that is based on truth, evidence and science is unquestionably the one to follow and support.

Truth, however, has proven elusive, science notwithstanding.  How can this be so?  People who believe in science and truth would never lie, would they?  The fly in that ointment is that science, during its best efforts, can only approach truth.  Truthful scientists never claim to understand absolute truth; science is the quest for truth.  Granted, there are a lot of things scientists are pretty sure of, sometimes so much so that very little additional research is done on those matters.  But, every day, and particularly when a new disease is encountered, there are more questions than answers, and scientists are generally very careful to not proclaim answers that may soon be rendered untrue.  Lies can creep in.  Well, there are advantages to lying, as humans have learned, and this truth has found its way into political planning and campaigns… and even into science.  Who knew?

The basic difference between individual freedom and responsibility as a governing philosophy, and all the other governing models, is that the alternatives to freedom can only gain ascendancy by convincing people of lies.  The greatest of these is the fundament of what we know as socialism: that controlled people will be MORE free if they can shuck off the burdens of responsibility, merit, attainment and, interestingly, religion.

The above is a bold claim.  There had better be some proven truth that backs up such a claim.  All that defenders of freedom have is the history of socialism since it appeared.  It always fails and, in every case, manifests the deaths of millions of people it controls in order to install ever-“purer” forms of the revolution that installed socialists into power.  Only then will the planned future the people were promised, be possible.  Unfortunately, socialist regimes never run out of enemies of the “people” who are preventing the completion of the revolution.  This is due, in no small part, to the inability of planned economies to produce sufficient productive surplus to finance the growth and improved standards of living necessary to serve everyone and defend the nation.  There is always too little surplus to destroy debt – also known as “investment in the future” – as well.

Eventually, socialism consumes all of its people’s money and a lot of other people’s money.  This, unfortunately, is where the United States is, now.  We have swallowed a lot of socialist bull-bleep and find ourselves $27 Trillion in debt.  As we argue over Covid-19, our time is spent expanding the socialist aspects of government, and expanding that debt.  Fortunately, there is still enough freedom in the American system to encourage and allow substantial productive surplus.  In theory our economy can destroy that debt.  Unfortunately, we are politically unable to stop outspending our productive surplus… socialistically.

Truth exists, known or not, and science, if honestly applied, will keep approaching it.  The rest of us will, according to those so enamored, keep running our lives, our personal economics and our government accordingly.  That scenario is superior to how we do those things, now.  It’s because of competing belief structures.  Truth… reality… is dashed on the rocks of belief every day.  Worse, we seem to be able to consider COMPETING TRUTHS!

A perfect example is the current fascination and promulgation of trans-genderism.  Our august politicians have created legal structures around the theory that believing in transgenderism makes it true, or real in some way.  It is not, of course, although the feelings – emotions – that cause someone to deny the responsibilities of his or her biology are certainly real.  Yet those who oppose encouraging transgenderism are held to be “deny-ers” and literally on the wrong side of the law.  The same happens with socialism and anti-Americanism.  Both modes of belief are replete with untruths and distortions so skewed as to be utter lies.  Yet their adherents believe their “facts” (beliefs) are true.

There is no compromise.  We have cleverly talked ourselves into legislating official defense of competing “truths.”

Politicians, elected mayors, governors, district attorneys, certain presidential and vice-presidential candidates and more, defend anarchists’ “right” to riot in proclamation of their “truths.”  It’s a stretch, and illegal.  The destruction of civil rights now defends civil rights of certain others.  These same bemoan the “fact” that the Trump administration failed to follow “the science” at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis.

And so, the left has managed to weaponize truth.  Once abortion was converted from ending the life of a baby to promoting the lives of women, we were solidly on this path.  Our tax dollars pay for much of it and the wealthiest people and corporations in the world “donate” huge sums to subsidize the only movements who ACT on hatreds, and who promote the destruction of America and of the idea of America.

What is wrong with this picture?  What is wrong with us?

Culture, Family, Governance, Politics 2020, Race

JUSTICE FLAYED

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Hatred, anyone can see, is imPrudent.  In some circumstances one can understand anger, as when a person of color appears to have been mistreated or, God forbid, killed by police for no good reason.  Obviously his or her family has good reason to be angry in such a case.  His or her friends have a “right” to be angry, too, one could allow.  “Justice” is the correct call… in every instance, but lately by some process that translates into destruction of American culture and political existence.  How? Prudence wonders.

It takes a long-term plan, a lot of work… like a political campaign, and money – it takes money.  People are not born haters, we must be carefully taught.  Part of our social troubles… or dissolution, is our tendency to paint with broad, angry brush strokes.  It used to be if an Irishman were inebriated it was because “…those Irish are all drinkers.”

If an Italian pulled a fast one on you, then  “… those Italians are all like the Mafia.”

Frenchmen are all great lovers and they all have mistresses.  Scotsmen are cheap.  Germans are all rigid and militaristic.  Used-car salesmen are all liars.  There are dozens of similar generalizations.  These are prejudices.  They seem not so bad when applied to ethnic or economic distinctions… not nearly as bad as for racial distinctions.

Yet there are people who judge whole “racial” groups based on prejudice from anecdotes and half-truths and expressed hatreds, as well as from official, legal special treatments, real and perceived, based on popularized, but largely meaningless racial victim-hood.  In this sense, government is the worst offender for dividing populations by so-called, “race.”

“Blacks are too stupid to do…” whatever was in question.  “You can’t depend on Chinamen.”  “White people are racist white-supremacists.”  Almost everyone is guilty of some form of “group-think.”  That is, that individuals may be understood by virtue of their “group identity.”  This is diametrically opposed to the ideals of the Constitution.  In the ostensible American system, everyone is equal under the law.  Therefore, laws should be written for individual application, not racially or ethnically or for any other “group” connection.  Color-blindness is a virtue for a free people.

Governments, for the most crass, self-serving (politician) reasons, have proven themselves incapable of resisting group-identity codification.  They attempt, and intend, to garner votes by doing favors legally, legislatively for various groups, undermining the greatest strength of our Constitutional republic.  What a crappy way to damage one’s own nation.

These largely inaccurate distinctions are an easy building-block for generating hatred for groups, and, by natural distillation, for individuals within that group.  Automatically, that hatred is reflected back on the originating group and its individuals.  Great, great restraint and moral strength is needed to resist an easy slide into hatred and prejudice.  Religious teaching helps here, particularly Judeo-Christian teachings and the Bible.  It is instructive that those who would tear down the Constitution and the family-centered culture it protects, are doing their damnedest to dissolve Christianity, too.  Rainbow flags weren’t enough.

Where does the money come from to pay rioters, BLM agitators and Antifa thugs… busing or flying them around the country, covering living expenses and raising funds to bail them out if arrested while looting, committing arson, assaults and an occasional murder?  Is it surprising that, literally, Democrats provide it?  Millions of dollars flow from Democrats and Democrat-supporting corporations like Apple, Amazon, Nike, Microsoft and others who donate multiple millions to various Black Lives Matter-connected foundations and others.  Other Democrats donate and encourage others to donate money to bail criminals out of jail.  Why would people on the Left do such a thing to their own country?

It is what leftists do.  We are no longer contemplating the arguments of left-of-center liberals as to how we can organize America better for everyone.  We are watching socialists and avowed “Marxists” of all colors who are organizing total disruption – first of cities, by rioting and grabbing “reparations” for the “community” by looting and burning, then states by confusing and changing a perfectly good voting system, and ultimately the United States, again by confusing and changing voting procedures to reduce election certainty, and by destroying faith in our system of government by distorting economics and the justice system… possibly by stealing elections.

Back to “justice.”  In MOST instances, the offending police officer or officers are dealt with properly and prosecuted as he or they should be.  Some are in jail.  But not all are appropriately sanctioned, and anger toward a closed, obscured process is well justified.  What should relatives and friends do to seek real justice?  Here’s the list that lately is providing popular choices:

Protest loudly and publicly in large groups, vilifying all police.

Throw stones and bricks at police who are trying to maintain order during the protest.

Burn a police car

Burn a store or restaurant near the site of the use of excess force by the offending officer(s).

Bring in Antifa and BLM to rile up ever larger crowds.

Shoot explosive fireworks at police.

Pull down or deface a statue that honors someone few if any in the crowd know much about.

Assault, or worse, whoever is wearing an article of clothing that offends somebody in the crowd.

Force police from one of their buildings and burn it down.

None of this, obviously, generates “justice” for the victim of a perceived crime, but spreads INjustice across the lives of as many people as possible.  How does this bring even a sense of justice to the family of the original victim?  Maybe our erstwhile leaders could institute something like the following:

First, legislation that requires police agencies to provide a comprehensive, public report no later than 5 days from the date of the questionable incident.  This report could not include any statements of judgment that could distort other legal actions or suits.  The same legislation should include a strict limit of, say 20 or 30 people who are permitted to stage a protest during those 5 days; more than the right number would be apprehended and fined.

Political leaders would call for a 5-day cooling-off period and offer such help as would be accepted to the family of the “victim.”  No public funds could be diverted to any advocacy groups not related directly to the family. This process, however, must be free of admissions of any guilt or responsibility by the municipality or agency before the public report is made.  During the 5-day waiting period groups could apply for permits for demonstrations to follow the waiting period, that may or may not be granted in some form.  Beyond that, demonstrators will be strictly contained and arrested for actions outside of the parameters of issued permits.  Public safety and the civil rights and private property of others are paramount.

Being “really angry” is no excuse for rioting or stealing things or setting fires anywhere.  Municipal leaders: WAKE UP!

Politics 2020, Trump

And on the other hand…

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Prudence has worked for 2 weeks on a response to the Democratic convention.  It is a topic that has piled up words faster and deeper than any other… and it’s not finished.  Whether it’s ever posted is a question.  Who on Earth would read it?

So, a lighter analysis of 2020 politics is in order.  Might be fun.

There are two distinct sets of philosophies vying for power in this presidential year – no news, there.  Summed up, one is generally in favor of our constitutional system of distributed power, installed as governance for the first time in 1789; one is in thrall to ultimate government control over the economy and not just the economy, but control over individuals: how they live, what medicines they are permitted – or MUST – take and how they educate their children and about what.

One recognizes that America succeeds within a culture that is worth strengthening and imparting to succeeding generations; one appears anxious to displace American culture and replace it with race-based socialism.  What has this to do with each of us?  Whichever philosophy wins the 2020 election is going to have a direct impact on the lives of many – not all, but many Americans.  It will also affect the lives of millions of people in other countries.  There aren’t many election decisions when that is true.  Why will it be so?

In the event that Trump is re-elected, and we do, historically, tend to re-elect presidents if they have not failed economically, primarily, but not always… in that event there are significant risks to both our culture and our economy – affecting most of us, but not all.  The forces arrayed to stop Trump in his first term will not have given up.  If anything they will be more sharply aimed with greater destructive intent.  It is sad but Prudent to consider the possibility that he will be assassinated.  His determination to undo the deep state and eventually the economic oligarchy has not abated, and will be sharpened, as well.

The upset to our culture will be significant, much like the Kennedy assassination that began a long process of distrust of government and the decades of sex, drugs… and rock-and-roll, but I repeat myself.  It opened the door to Johnson, the Great Society’s 60-year erosion of our family-centered culture, and led to the Viet-Nam War and to Richard Nixon, whose removal from power changed politics – and the media – forever.  It is impossible to predict the upheavals that would follow an assassination, but none would be positive from a Prudent point of view.

Trump’s re-election is perceived as dangerous by many, and will expose him and his family to danger.

If, on the other hand, Biden is dragged across the finish line in November, there are significant risks to both our culture and our economy – affecting most of us, but not all.  The radically left forces that have grasped the philosophy of the Democrat Party will be vindicated even as they celebrate their relatively cheap victory over tradition and constitutionalism.  Elements of the “Green new Deal” will be proposed for legislation almost immediately, as will proposals on how to pay “reparations” to some amorphous group of non-whites.  Green energy, so called, will be sold as an infrastructure plan; money in the defense budget will be diverted to pay for part of it.  “Climate change is an existential threat.”

Sexual aberration will be further codified and given taxpayer support for any treatments or operations needed.  Laws defending sexual identities and how everyone must accommodate them, will become more strict and widely enforced.  Public safety and policing in general will be softened, and sanctuary status allowed where municipally claimed or, God forbid, state-claimed.  The nullification of federal laws will become rampant.  It is hard to predict whether rioting and anti-capitalist / anti-white destruction of urban centers will continue.  Those who have permitted it in 2020 will also feel vindicated and their anti-Americanism rewarded; it’s possible.

Should Trump win and survive, there are positive changes he will promulgate, and among these are immigration enforcement and the eradication of “sanctuary” status everywhere.  There is the distinct possibility that riots will continue, but Trump will feel vindicated by re-election, and will more readily impose states of emergency or even martial law to stop them firmly.  This is a danger to everyone should martial law become acceptable for solving policing problems.  At first it will be welcomed, but it is at least extra-legal and a terrible precedent and habit.

The reactions of China, North Korea, Iran and, interestingly, Pakistan to the re-election of Trump, are hard to pin down.  Xi Jinping of China hates Trump for constantly calling out China over the Covid virus release, if not for several other reasons.  His desire is to embarrass Trump so as to put him in his place, as it were.  Xi naturally perceives his China as destined for global hegemony and sees Trump as his biggest impediment.  Trump must lose face for the world to recognize China’s ascendance.  This could take the form of North Korean provocation to near hot war with China’s declaration of support for North Korea including full military force, forcing humiliation on South Korea and the United States.  Many alliances will be strained or broken if Trump backs down or appears to.

Pakistan, particularly with the conclusion of a much anticipated “peace” treaty with the Taliban in Afghanistan, may be encouraged, again by China, to resume clandestine and, perhaps, direct operations against India.  All 3 states are nuclear armed.  China has had hot incidents with India, most recently in 2020.  It could serve China’s interests to see India tied down in the mountains of Kashmir, and to see the United States take India’s side.  This would provide opportunities for China to act aggressively elsewhere.  Whereas Trump has moved from treaty to agreement with abandon, re-making trade and other agreements to benefit the United States as he wished, in his second term he will be severely tested by China.

What would world leaders do with Biden in the White House?  He has shown himself willing to bribe and take bribes from other countries, as has his “buddy,” Obama.  He has supported softening relations with China for decades.  Would he suddenly be tough?  Doubtful.  He has shown himself unwilling to denounce “Black Lives Matter” or the rioting in several cities.  He appears to like top-down directives from government and would lock down the economy a second time if “experts” told him to.  The only bold moves he has described for his administration have concerned climate change and the green new deal… plus raising taxes.  For middle-class Americans, the Biden agenda, distorted by socialists, is unpleasant to contemplate.

As George Soros, evil globalist, recently stated, “The 2020 election will affect the entire world.”  Be Prudent when you vote.

Culture, Economics, Education, Governance, Health Care, Politics 2020

If You Knew Covid…

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YOU DON’T KNOW COVID

Prudence has often commented on the casual mendacity of politicians, and that quality of theirs is troubling enough.  New depths are plumbed, however, when hundreds of appointed, elected and hired “officials” agree to lie together  for some tawdry political purpose.  Many lie without knowing what that purpose even is.  Suffice to say that the greatest power on Earth is unified belief, including evil belief.

Like the man or not, honest observers, liberals included, have to agree that hatred of Donald Trump inspired some of the most virulent and congruent political lying our nation has ever experienced.  Virtually all of the lies have been exposed for what they were.  Dishonest observers retain belief in many of those lies and have convinced themselves that because of what they perceive as true there is no possibility of compromise or even courtesy towards those who believe that the lies were, in fact, falsities.  This mish-mash of lies and truths and the distrust of so many for so many others, provided the perfect breeding ground for the most widespread political lying yet: the Covid-19 pandemic.

It appears that only in the United States, where Donald Trump is running for re-election, has the Covid-19 epidemic played a significant part in the unseating of a government.  Many countries have been hit hard by the initial attacks of the new, somewhat engineered, coronavirus that China spread across the world, but only in the United States has this medical threat been politicized.  At the same time, and again, only in the U. S., leftist thugs have chosen the same moment to riot in dozens of cities.  That resulted from a completely different set of lies from those told about Covid-19, and this isn’t the place to recount them, but the confluence of the two, essentially unique events, is itself unique and conveniently coincident in a political sense.

But “Covid” provided – and provides – a rich harvest of public policies – all left-leaning and largely unconstitutional – that are serving to twist electoral politics and sway votes based – on – half-truths – and outright lies.  Everything from business and religious lockdowns, intrusions into personal properties and lives, and the enforcement of personal actions like mask-wearing, are based on half-truths at best, complete untruths at mid-range, or utter falsehoods at worst.

Americans have been misled.  We hear constantly how many of us have died… DIED, from this awful scourge, now totaling some 169,000… THOUSAND(!) poor souls struck down by a disease that the Trump administration practically spread on purpose because all those people who work for Trump hate the rest of us.  Remove the silliness from that sentence and we’re left with a statistic that is meaningless.  The CDC counts “deaths” as people who died WITH Covid, not FROM Covid.  Why would bureaucrats count such a serious phenomenon in such a flaccid way?  Even people who died in accidents but who happened to test positive for Covid, are counted as Covid deaths.  What good is a “statistic” like this?

Well, this half-truth serves erstwhile dictators who need to induce fear to gain compliance.  There were reasons for fear in late February and March of this year.  First, the virus protein was altered in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, from a corona (shaped) virus that existed in weird, ugly bats!  Few of us know much about bats in the first place, and most of us are a little fearful of them, thanks to various horror movies.  A wonderment for the average person was: “Who the Hell cares what kind of viruses exist in Chinese bats?”  Fair question.  It was totally rational to be afraid of the entry of a bat virus into humans, especially from such ugly creatures as Chinese horseshoe bats.  The researchers who first discovered the bat-source of the SARS-like novel coronavirus, were certainly frightened.

Another reason for fear, then, was China-caused rapid spread of the new virus around the world, especially in the middle East and Europe, areas where China had developed intensive trade relationships and to where Chinese personnel were traveling in large numbers.  Scary numbers of cases.  A third reason for fear… then, was that the U. S. was not sure what to do or how to do it to contain or prevent the disease, and all kinds of directives were being issued and soon abandoned in favor of other directives.  People, officials, with no medical background were creating public policy on the fly upon the advice of medicos who were often wrong.  But recommendations quickly became economic shutdown dictates.  Americans’ private properties were being stripped from them without compensation in the hopes that stopping commerce would stop the virus.

It certainly stopped commerce.

Oddly, maybe, the most Democrat-controlled jurisdictions have imposed the tightest restrictions on business.  Despite improving knowledge from Europe and Scandinavia, governors and mayors insisted on ever-tighter lockdowns.  Amazingly, State and Municipal employees didn’t lose their incomes, nor were they forced onto unemployment or furloughed or, simply, fired.  When a governor said “We’re all in this together,” he was really saying, “YOU’RE all in this together.  I and everyone else who is paid by the state, we’re pretty much divorced from your problems, especially if you lose your business or your job.  We will borrow some money – from YOU – to pretend to care about you today.”

So who is benefitting from tight, anti-business and anti-religious lockdowns?  Certainly not the people who own or work at those businesses, nor the ministers, priests, choir directors or secretaries who work at places of worship, certainly not the believers whose unfettered right to worship has been soundly fettered without debate or legislation, and certainly not all the people who depended upon those shuttered businesses for their daily living, health, recreation, library services or exercise routines.  So, who, exactly?

Is it all to keep healthy people from coming down with Covid?  Maybe… that’s what we are told to justify forcing everyone to wear masks when outdoors at pain of monetary fines and even apprehension should we ‘fail to follow the law.’  Except that it’s not a law, it’s a gubernatorial impulse or, sometimes worse, a mayoral one.  If asked, those worthies would declare adherence to “CDC” advice and the implied fulfillment of “science” because of that connection.  Of course there is no science that informs us of the efficacy of masks or other face coverings, although you’d think there must be because elected officials clearly care so much about saving lives.  Indeed, they care so much that they are willing to implore us to endure the discomfort of masks and, even better, to distrust anyone who isn’t wearing a mask.  In fact, we should no longer trust anyone to not be about to spray us with Covid-laden spittle.

Did you know that hospitals are rewarded, in a sense, by up to $25,000 for treating a Covid-19 patient who dies in the hospital?  That accident victim who died WITH Covid was worth $25 Grand if the right box was checked for C.O.D.  Follow the money for the outrageous total of Covid deaths.  China, our far-eastern friend who blessed the world with Covid-19, has 4.34 times as many people as the United States and about 5 times the population density.  Yet, miracle of miracles, the U.S. has THIRTY-SIX AND A HALF TIMES as many Covid deaths.  Ignorant governors… and malevolent ones, have been making rules to barely live by, based on BS statistics designed to hurt the President of the United States: an odd way to execute public policy.

Now the big battle is re-opening schools… because of the need to protect the children, don’t you see?  School-age children, say, 5 to 17 years, are so slightly impacted by Covid that it is nearly impossible to state their Covid death rate in terms of percentage: the decimal point is too many places to the left.  But despite the desire of most teachers to teach, their unions have hamstrung craven politicians into “hybrid” schooling (some education / some goofing off) for the Fall and beyond in some cases, or long delays in re-opening, as if they’d only just heard of Covid-19.  Teachers are all college educated and it would be reasonable to expect them to know and follow the latest approximations of “science” in judging the safety of schools reopening with real teachers and real students.  But, apparently not.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, not only did the teachers’ union force delays in reopening, they forced the county to prevent private schools  from reopening, as well, all of which, essentially, were prepared to open safely.  The county refused to even examine their reopening plans, citing the fact that public schools weren’t going to open, as if it mattered.  Private schools are generally smaller, more lightly staffed and better able to enforce social distancing and other rules, and, it seems, more committed to real education.

The more one sees the tactics of various “public” employee unions – particularly teachers’ unions, one sees that worries about Covid are largely political and financial.  Between home-schooling and private schools, the grand government school monopolies are threatened as never before, as is the hyper-sexualized, white evil oppression, bull-bleep they spend so much class time on as if educating.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.

What will come of nightly riots and mayhem in major cities?  Would the changes demanded by the anarchists and BLM Marxists make America stronger, fairer or more beautiful?  Not a chance.  If police departments closed down, incarcerations ended and white people gave up their homes to black screamers and haters, would the demands for the relinquishing of all white possessions end?  No.  Kow-towing to rioters or other thugs has never ended the thuggery… it simply increases the level of demands and changes the targets.  In fact, changing public policy on the terms of rioters  instead of on society’s carefully considered terms, is the stupidest path any responsible leader could follow.  The stupidest.

How is it that so many people are holding office at this moment whose decisions to respond to public mayhem are all the stupidest of available choices?  Have these mayors and governors always hated the United States or are they mere cowards?  We know how several District Attorneys got elected with the help of socialist money – anti-American money, but are there no “lawmakers” who can craft legislation that will provide for their removal if they fail to prosecute criminals?  Or even laws that require that EVERY case be brought to court even if unenthusiastically?  Or shall public safety and the fulfillment of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments be at the whim of a single person without constraint of law?

What do we actually believe about our civil rights?  It’s silly enough to wear masks outdoors, please don’t put on blinders, too.

Culture, Economics, Education, Governance, Politics 2020, Race, Representation

An American Opportunity

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There is an unusual opportunity presenting if we have but sufficient vision to recognize it; indeed there are dozens of opportunities forced upon us this August of 2020.  The Chinese communists have done their damnedest to destroy the United States both from within and without with their spying, stealing of intellectual property, cyber warfare and financial subversion of political leaders and key administrative personnel, and, now, with the unleashing – carefully leveraged – of the Covid-19 virus strain.  What an odd way to be handed so many opportunities.  Where do we start?

“Covid,” defined as all of the partially wise and partially stupid effects of reactions to it, has stripped away the façade – perhaps “veneer” is more apt – of wisdom and legitimacy claimed by whole swaths of elected leadership.  From Andrew (and Chris) Cuomo, Bill DiBlasio, Phil Murphy, Janet Mills and Muriel Bowser in the East, to Lori Lightfoot and Gretchen Witmer in the upper Midwest, to Jenny Durkan, Ted Wheeler, Gil Garcetti, Gavin Newsom, Kate Brown and Jay Inslee on the left coast, many city and state leaders – people who have real responsibilities to their populations – have exposed themselves as fools and worse, people who believe that criminals are forced into crime by society (which is to say white oppressors) and that it is merely further oppression to arrest and incarcerate them: they’re all innocent.

Police on the other hand, in this (can’t say “school” of thought, maybe cesspool of thought) mindset are all guilty and should be disbanded.  After all, the very existence, never mind presence of police actually causes more crime.  Every one of these elected executive officers swore to uphold their state constitutions and the U. S. Constitution, but they have apparently not read those written formalities.  What they have sworn to ultimately do is tear down the United States and western civilization with them.  This attitude helps them when it’s time to bow down so very, very low to the banner of Black Lives Matter: a communist front group.  Can you say, “treason?”

We’ve spoken of the dangers of unionism in the past, and one of those is the tendency of police unions (call them what you will) virtually universally, to protect their members whenever there are public complaints, or departmental sanctions against them.  Lost in the minutiae of municipal employment contracts are numerous, arcane ways to delay, compromise, trade or plead down reprimands for everything up to and including fatal events.  Defense of members is understandable and a large part of union justification, but it is safe to say that many of the officers sanctioned for the death of an unarmed suspect, regardless of skin color, were sanctioned previously for failing to follow accepted, prescribed “rules of engagement,” as it were… and their unions protected them, keeping them on the job when they should never have access to the official umbrella again.

Unionism for municipal employees, so-called, “public” employees, is a bad idea in general, were it not for so many examples of poor municipal executive management.  Another terrible example is teachers’ unions, poor school department management notwithstanding.  Along with police and fire employment, education employment is where excellence is needed and should be rewarded, and where mediocrity or worse should never be tolerated.  In most cities and towns, even with some mediocre or poor members, police and fire departments have long records of success, often marked by dramatic lifesaving.  Their unions seem to encourage selflessness, even heroism, in service to others.

Education unions, on the other hand, are mere budget manipulators.  Exceptional educational work outside of contracted hours and duties is frowned upon and discouraged, else other teachers may suffer in comparison.  There seems to be little concern for the positive effects on children who are blessed with some of that exceptionalism.  Covid-19 has provided an opportunity for communities to rearrange the nature of education in the face of teachers’ (unions) unwillingness to go back to work after the spring Covid disinformation campaign.  Science makes clear that the risks are minimal for almost all school personnel and for students, while emphasizing the damages done by the absence of daily school attendance.  Doesn’t seem to matter.

Some “School Committee” could have done its actual job and utilized the past 5 months or so to de-certify its local teacher union and replace those who refused to work without a union.  Lots of people would be happy to teach if imparting knowledge were to become the goal of public education.  Each could be interviewed and hired on the basis of their honest appreciation for the United States’ history, the theorems and facts of mathematics, the proper usage of English grammar, the ability and value of proper spelling, the meaning of words and the responsibilities of citizenship.  And some serious science, of course.

Instead these 5 months have been wasted, barely utilized to advance education at all.  In a way, the students have been safe from hyper-sexualized, socialistic content for 5 months.  We should rejoice that so many teachers on the payrolls are so uncaring.  This is an opportunity for parents to do what that hypothetical school committee might have done:  Clean house and return to an education system rather than a propaganda system.  The opportunity is here.

What other opportunities might there be?  Perhaps there is an opportunity to replace political party leadership – both parties.  Clearly both parties need to step back from lies, calumny and focus-grouped accusations.  Clearly, the American people are entitled – ENTITLED – to honesty about our government, budgeting and success rates for a multiplicity of “social” programs.

We are entitled to the defense of our nation, to the clarity and defense of our borders, and to the safety of our streets, properties and persons.  We are entitled to the education of our children in the history, heritage, culture and CITIZENSHIP of OUR COUNTRY.

Are these things too much to ask?

Aren’t we also entitled to honesty about communist, anti-American domestic subversion?  We are in the midst of the greatest opportunity for our nation: to expose the insinuation of communist operatives into key bureaucratic points of power… and into even elected and political positions, including municipal, county, state and federal levels.  Are we not entitled to leadership committed to the strength and defense of our country?  Can there be no test of loyalty and patriotism?  What are we afraid of?

Do American freedom and the Bill of Rights provide a process of cultural suicide?  Doesn’t seem very Prudent.

Culture, Economics, Education, Governance, Politics 2020, Race, Terrorism

BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER

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Prudence won’t be watching any Red Sox games in 2020, not because it’s a truncated parody of sport and exemplary of governmental malfeasance and economic ignorance, and not even because the whole team organization besmirched itself by “winning” the World Series by cheating in 2018.  Besides, who the Hell is even playing this year?

No American should watch because of that stomach-turning, obscene “BLACK LIVES MATTER” banner draped above the “Green Monster.”  Please don’t misunderstand: it is perfectly Prudent to appreciate that black lives certainly matter, just as much, in fact as white, tan, beige, medium brown and swarthy skin-toned people’s lives matter – we are equal in the eyes of God.  If that is too scary, consider that we are equal under the law in this country and that anyone who takes away that equality has committed a crime and the law says he or she will be sanctioned appropriately.  To our shame this doesn’t always work equally.

Instead of a banner supporting the “BLACK LIVES MATTER” movement and political efforts, the Red Sox might as well have a banner that says, “TEAR DOWN THE UNITED STATES.”  Not many people would put up with that crap, yet that is exactly what Black Lives Matter stands for and is fighting for.  They are Communists.  They hate the United States and everything about it; they hate White people and everything white people have ever done back into history immemorial.  Well that should attract a big audience, John Henry, you idiot.

Black Lives Matter also hates Christianity.  Quite a lot of Red Sox fans and customers actually ARE Christians, so that’s another brightly illuminated marketing ploy, John.  If you put a flashing l.e.d.-lit sign rivaling the “Citgo” sign above the sky-boxes that says, “SATAN CELEBRATED HERE,” you can surely get a lot of Christians to pay outrageous prices to watch your millionaires play ball with the other guy’s millionaires.  What a country.

Maybe the Red Sox organization agrees with the purposes of Black Lives Matter.  For wealthy people these owners don’t seem to be as bright as their prominence would lead one to think.  Most business owners would carefully evaluate any signage, ad messaging, inadvertent imaging – everything.  Just look at how quickly social media slugs will turn on a business and attempt to damage it for any racial slight or perceived hetero-normal bias.  No intelligent business would spend $3,000 or more for a banner that supports the destruction of the nation that made them rich, would it?  Surely not.  They would make sure of what that banner’s message is.  That would be Prudent, at least.

Lots of private homes display the same signage: “BLACK LIVES MATTER.”  They’re very proud of that sign because it shows the less-sensitive population: racists, every one, for sure, that the resident of that house is more loving, sensitive, non-racist and deserving of honor than everyone else who is not awakened to the tragedy of racism in America.  Wow!  That’s a lot to convey in just 3 words.

Actually, these “woke” self-praising superiors are conveying an entirely different message.  They either have no idea what in Hell they are aligning themselves with, at best, or they do know and agree with “BLM” crap, at worst.  For shame either way.

If every ostensible Black Lives Matter “supporter” gave enough of a damn to know what he or she is supporting, then minds might change, one hopes.  The BLM “Manifesto” is as dishonest as the original Communist Manifesto and contains a host of non-truths and deceptions.  Communism, like socialism in lesser forms, cannot be honest about its intentions because it plans to replace human nature and all spiritual values, leaving BLM’s promises doomed to fail without total top-down control by a small group.  It has never been otherwise in every attempt at socialism or Communism.

Still, the BLM Manifesto is nothing if not comprehensive.  It reads like the step by step annihilation of the Constitution that it is and, therefore, of freedom and our entire heritage and founding.  Indeed, the Manifesto’s first section, item D., specifically calls for creation of a 3-year assembly for the express purpose of replacing the U. S. Constitution.  What is worse, if you think about it, is item E., where they demand creation of a committee of “experts” who will control and administer the entire U. S. economy.  More than one of our neighbors proclaims “Black Lives Matter” along with a bunch of other “woke” platitudes.  They seem like nice people and it seems Prudent to assume they haven’t the faintest idea of what they are promoting.  Odd, as they seem intelligent, too.

There are lots of ways to align oneself with the concept of the sanctity of life no matter the color or creed.  Despite our racialist governments and welfare programs, our society, operated ideally, pays no attention to color – everyone is equal under the law.

BLM intends a government very similar to the soviet, Leninist model, with a few exceptions, one of which is power sharing with anyone who wanders across the ostensible borders.  The danger of open borders is that people can escape as easily as others might enter, and that will weaken the power of the central committee of the wokest, so those who swallow that part of the manifesto should be prepared for temporary border closures until the “revolution” is completed and every vestige of white supremacy and racism has been removed from the United States.  Prudence’ readers are well aware that racism cannot be expunged by government and “white supremacy” is simply hatred of white civilization, a condition of shifting definition.

BLM is about creating a black-peoples’ dominated international Communist structure.  To effect it they have recognized and leveraged the failures of American education and the tendency of a people too comfortable, to feel guilty about their comfort in the presence of poverty.  They’ve watched as political America transferred many $trillions through federalized welfare to support restive, non-working blacks in inner-city ghettos.  The failure of these decades-long efforts created a willing army of resentment–filled “protesters” ready to explode upon ignition of the right fuse.

Why are Whites bending the knee before Black Lives Matter?  What are we collectively guilty of?  What have any of us done to deserve the collective hatred of, well… anyone?  Did Andrew Jackson own slaves?  Why, yes he did.  Is there anyone alive today who is actually affected by that fact?  Perhaps if one is determined to hate and to spread hate, he or she is “affected,” but that is a choice made to cause reaction today, which cannot change anything Jackson did, believed or smelled like.  But, that hatred can create division today.  The real question is why are whites falling for it?  Have we “decided” that we have no rights?  No culture of value?  No progress or civilizing improvements, inventions or developments to be proud of?  Progress achieved with the phenomenal contributions of blacks and every other race?  Nothing to take credit for?

What’s the matter with us? Four assholes in Minneapolis murder a black suspect and western civilization is called into question?  Can no one tell the truth anymore?  Can no one call out Antifa or BLM terrorists when they operate inside the United States?  If those terrorists steal the artifice of white-on-black oppression does that turn crime into protest, murder into justice, destruction into positive change?  Does it magically make hatred a basis for something good?

Does anyone besides rabid, committed communists see the destruction of our unique Constitutional system as the path to a “better” future for mankind?

Wake up, America! … all of you!

Culture, Politics 2020, Race, Responsibility, Terrorism

FIELDS OF HONOR

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Forever in a field they wave…  In rows and columns true;
Each soldier’s memory proudly etched – Loyalty, dressed Red, White and Blue.
Deeds of Honor recognized… Of times not long ago;
Field of Flags wave proudly.
History written in hearts aglow…  Offer silent reverence, quiet prayer;
Noble servants rightly praised… On through time pass forever grateful.
Remembered with Flags unfurled and raised.   By Mike Sousa, North Andover

In a summer marred by urban insurrections and variously excessive and unconstitutional, official pandemic fears and dicta, community service clubs, pillars of society, all, “Zoom” notwithstanding, continue their often unheralded works raising money to give away, along with countless hours of volunteer time.  So it is with chapters of the Exchange Clubs of America who “Exchange our Service today to build stronger communities and a better Nation tomorrow.”  This concept would be moribund if Exchange (and Rotary, Kiwanis and others) did not believe in the likelihood of stronger communities and a better Nation tomorrow.  In fact, service clubs’ heartfelt faith in America’s striving for a more perfect Union – and Unity – is so directly opposite, and in opposition to the sea of hatreds that some stoke for anti-American ideologies, that the distinctions are quite sharp in the Summer of 2020.

Exchange in the lower Merrimack River Valley of northeastern Massachusetts is one of those chapters: the Exchange Club of Lawrence and the Andovers, sponsored in 1947 by the Exchange Club of Lowell, Mass., 8 miles up the river, just a few months after the Exchange Club of Haverhill was chartered, 8 miles down the river from Lawrence.  Many Clubs were formed or grew significantly right after World War Two, as Americans returned from battles in terrible places and conditions to recognize how great the promise and premise of the United States of America truly were then and, Exchange members believe, still are today.  Americanism is one of the 4 pillars of Service that define Exchange Clubs of America.

Following the September 11th attacks in 2001, a flag company, at the urging of Exchange members in Sandy, Utah, created the first “Healing Field” of nearly 3,000 flags for those killed in the 9-11 attacks.  The idea became a National Exchange project and over the past 20 years has been a focus for 9-11 and for other events that cry out for attention and memory across the country, promoted by various Exchange Clubs and by many other organizations. 

Despite Covid-19 shutdowns and restrictions, the Town of North Andover, where Exchange did its first local “Field of Honor” in 2019, encouraged us to do a Field in 2020, as well, although without a closing, crowd-attracting ceremony on the Common where 500 flags were displayed.  Local access TV created a video of the many parts of the ceremony that we would have done, and created a You-Tube video for anyone to watch:

The value of the Field of Honor is not mere patriotism, as essential as patriotism certainly is, it is a set of focused remembrances.  Whether “In Memory Of” or “In Honor Of,” the person(s) to whom a flag is dedicated is an important part of who the flag sponsor is, now, today.  The first time our Club installed a “Field of Honor,” we were not ready for the importance  to our “customers” of this simple act of stating – printing out for all to see – the name and “heroic” worth  of their relatives, antecedent or descendant, or even of great, somewhat sacrificial friends, even acquaintances.  In every case, the honoree associated with each flag is important to the flag sponsor and the fact that he or she or they remember  or take note of the honoree and are in some way affirmed  in their own lives by the excellence, value  or sacrifice of the honoree.  It is intensely important that their own lives are acknowledged through the best connections that comprise them.  It’s spiritual.

Every flag is about love and many about the deepest love: respect.  Each tells a story about the sponsor and about the honoree, living or passed.  The Field of Honor is merely a focus for manifested love and remembrance, but oh, so crucial – something the club was not prepared for the first time we installed a Field in 2019.  Even more, we were not prepared for the importance of reading, saying, the dedications out loud.  Spiritual.

For the Town of North Andover and for Andover and Lawrence as well, the Field created a statement of normalcy against a backdrop of Marxist anti-American hatred in the spring and Summer of 2020.  There it was okay to be patriotic, okay to recognize goodness and honor and duty.  There were so many outpourings of gratitude to the Club  when the gratitude belonged to the flag sponsors… at least as the Club members saw it.  Yet there they were, steadily, thanking us  for erecting the Field.  Humbling, spiritual.

For those who don’t share the views of rioters and insurrectionists, the Field is a comfort.  It’s presence is an affirmation of America, of the Constitution, of what we hold dear in our families, and of what we hold dear in our faiths.  The American flag, itself, is simple, by itself… no more complex than any other national flag, and we display it and hundreds of others very simply.  A cheap PVC pipe is the flag-pole, slid over a short piece of steel rebar we try to pound vertically, we hope, into the soil.  Tie-wraps hold the flag in place through holes we drill through the pipe, and a cheap golden bulb is stretched – coaxed – over the top.  The flag is a printed one of decent quality, metal grommets and sewn edging.  We tell sponsors that it will last eleven months and two weeks.

But for patriots the flag is a history, a heritage, a dream and a promise.  Those who dedicate one to an Honoree of their choice, feel all of these aspects of this amazing symbol and yet more – things they can’t put into words.  As we install them, straighten them, put dedication tags on them, and straighten them again, we feel those things, too.  Together, we not only feel that history and heritage, and hear those dreams and promises, we make them, anew.

At the beginning of our You Tube video our senior member, a virtual pillar of these communities – his children following his example – recites a somewhat famous, somewhat poetic statement entitled, “I Am The Flag,” by Howard Schnauber:

I am the flag of the United States of America.

My name is Old Glory.
I fly atop the world’s tallest buildings.
I stand watch in America’s halls of justice.
I fly majestically over institutions of learning.
I stand guard with power in the world.
Look up and see me.

I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.
I stand for freedom. I am confident.
I am arrogant. I am proud.
When I am flown with my fellow banners,
My head is a little higher,
My colors a little truer.
I bow to no one!
I am recognized all over the world.
I am worshipped – I am saluted.
I am loved – I am revered.
I am respected – I am feared.

I have fought in every battle of every war for more than 200 years.
I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appamatox.
I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy.
Guam, Okinawa, Korea, KheSan and Saigon, Vietnam know me.
I was there. I led my troops.
I was dirty, battle-worn and tired,
but my soldiers cheered me and I was proud.

I have been burned, torn and trampled on the streets of countries
I have helped set free. It does not hurt for I am invincible.
I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and trampled in the streets of my country.
And when it’s done by those whom I’ve served in battle – it hurts.
But I shall overcome – for I am strong.
I have slipped the bonds of earth and
stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space from my vantage point on the moon.
I have born silent witness to all of America’s finest hours.
But my finest hours are yet to come.
When I am torn into strips and used as bandages for my wounded comrades on the battle field,
when I am flown at half mast to honor my soldiers,
or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,

I am proud.
I am the flag of the United States of America.

Al Torrisi is a natural leader and a forceful speaker at any time.  Yet his voice has a stronger, more commanding timbre (good for the 50-year owner of a large lumber company) than at other times when he recites these words.  Years of patriotism, loyalty and love of country spill forth as he speaks, infecting and affecting his listeners.  Truth is the most spiritual statement of all.  It is the truth of America and of every flag sponsor and honoree, and of the Field, itself.

As this is written the Exchange Club of Needham, Mass. has experienced vandalism of its Field of Honor with some 30 flags being burned.  The empty, sinking feeling a fellow Exchangite and field of Honor afficianado feels is hard to articulate.  Clearly the membrane of civilization is thin and easily sundered for those who cannot judge the presence of hatred for their own country that such an act exposes.  For shame.

Culture, Politics 2020, Race, Representation, Terrorism

Same as the old tyrants

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Black is White, Wrong is Right, Day is Night

Decision-making, whether of voters, politicians, very angry individuals or government types, are made from a mish-mash of facts, opinions, fables, fantasies and other lies.  Within and among all of this slippery, shape-shifting pile of influences, lie words and language: the two building blocks of decisions that ought to be solid and immutable, upon the meanings of which all parties can agree.  One might think that… if one thought.

Since the death/murder/manslaughter of George Floyd, a lot of decisions have been made and the consequences of decisions made long before that death, have played out.  Some decisions were carefully weighed and placed on the shelf of foul opportunity for an, well… opportune time.  Others have been made only in reaction to “riots,” vandalism, assaults, arsons, mobs and public mayhem – some strategic or tactical decisions to retreat, some difficult to comprehend by those who think.  Utterly spontaneous mobs could not share such unity of purpose in 20 or 30 cities, as was evidenced in the first days of the 2020 insurrection.  Those making use of well-calculated, pre-Floyd decisions took and retained the upper hand in city after city, forcing flabbergasted municipal officials to offer varieties of ever-escalating bribes to regain peace.  What a disheartening display of governmental pant-wetting.  Let’s not re-elect any of those dolts.

The organization calling itself “Black Lives Matter” was assigned the “point” position in making demands upon politicians to somehow rectify the centuries of “injustice” that black people have endured.  The problem is, that if every weird change and every financial bribe is delivered (thank God we don’t negotiate with terrorists), none of the fundamentals of the next insurrection will go away.  The existence of America and Americanism is an affront to communists, and until America is destroyed, their hatreds will be unfulfilled.

In other words, BLM is not primarily motivated by tearful concern or anger over the black fatality rate in North America.  What does motivate these avowed – and trained – Marxists, is destruction of “white” culture and power, and destruction of the Constitutional system.  Sadly, ignorant youth, products of incompetent education, march along with professional BLM agitators, demanding the piece-by-piece disassembly of the world’s greatest governing ideas.  Every form of socialism is sold with untruths, starting with the premise that humans will be finer, better, happier people once the shackles of religion, merit and attainment are thrown off – discard human nature and “we” will make a better world.  It’s a clever hoax if enough unhappy people can be identified via groupthink hatreds.

BLM has valid points to make about poor policing standards and practices, some of which result in the death of “unarmed” black suspects and arrestees.  These are crimes when wrong actions are taken, but not always – not even close.  And the frequency of such events has declined markedly since the Ferguson, Missouri riots.  Unfortunately, so has other valid and valuable police work, causing a spike in crimes in inner-city areas, including murder rates: a very costly bargain.  The Ferguson incident is the key example Black Lives Matter cites as proof of police malfeasance.  The facts, even following a biased DOJ investigation by A. G. Eric Holder, show that Darren Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown as the teenager attempted to wrest the officer’s firearm from him.  BLM consistently claims alternative “facts” to justify its anger, when it has other examples that are more reasonably real examples of police error.  Constantly citing a false narrative makes it difficult to communicate with those not caught up in the hatred business – like most blacks and most whites and most others.

The actions of rioters that devolve into looting and arson and physical assaults on police, destruction of police equipment and other public properties, are indicative of the most foul hatreds.  Nothing good comes from hatred: nothing of value is built, no advancement of the human condition is effected.

Politicians who believe they are the only people qualified to hold whichever august office they sit in, are virtually helpless in the face of hateful mobs.  Immediately prior to the riot those same politicians thought that nearly everyone loved them – or should – given all the good works and heartfelt pandering each has done for every group he or she could identify.  The knee-jerk or plain-jerk reaction of most elected “leaders” is to pander MORE to meet mob demands, thereby, it is hoped, to buy some sort of mob approval, turning murderous, anti-American hate into positive, America affirming cooperation.

It doesn’t seem to work, even when the big demands of the supposedly aggrieved mob leaders are met.  Those demands have sunk to defunding or abolishing police forces and city leaders are actually agreeing to this!  At the same time they are arranging for private security forces for their own safety.  The vast majority of the citizenry that elected these fools is left out of their calculations.  Normal, law-abiding, non-rioting residents of the jurisdictions of pandering politicians, are made significantly LESS SAFE in order to bow down to mob demands.  A strange political calculation, that.  At least the identity of office holders who should never be elected to anything ever again, is now clear.