The flow of history is a slog through constant resistance, almost like wading through clingy mud, as it were, with progress measured in excruciatingly slow jumps: dry patches where it is possible to walk briskly a short distance until humankind’s instinctive ability to confuse and confound its direction toward some elevation of living quality or standards. Seventy years ago we dreamed of sleeker automobiles, wrap-around windshields and ever more powerful engines. Tens of thousands of patents have been issued for automotive improvements in the interim, but we still crash into and maim or kill one another by ignoring signals or courtesy or conditions. Fewer and fewer of these “accidents” interfere with trips to church. There is still trash littering our gutters, highway shoulders and median strips. Excruciatingly small jumps of progress.
We celebrate great thinkers like Einstein, Rosen, Bohr and Susskind who seem to leap ahead of contemporary understandings, but their genius takes a long, long time to improve people’s lives, although the atom bomb provides the exception to that rule… so to speak. Many of the “rapid” changes to humanity’s convenience and living standards have derived from weapons development as far back as history has been recorded: even the wheel and domestication of oxen and horses and so forth. But great theoretical, mathematical thinkers don’t concentrate on creating better appliances or roofing materials; they contemplate time and gravity and quantum mechanics and black holes and such, which are all important, too, despite most people caring very little about their progress.
Now and then there is a Nicola Tesla, a Thomas Edison, an Isaac Newton, a Copernicus, a DaVinci or an Elon Musk, and thank God for them. The greatest thinker of all, however, is God, it seems Prudent to accept, even though people are certain they can explain why He is not so. It strikes Prudence, however, that the great theoreticians are edging, bit by bit, toward understanding how God’s creation works – physically, mathematically, honestly. It is a matter of truth, information, reality and pure intersectionality… oh, and black holes.
The latest thinking tends to accept that the “event horizon” of a so-called black hole is nearly a spiritual place. It has to do with quantum mechanics and the preservation of information and the “entanglement” principle that predicts that two related particles or wave-packets or even energy strings, will maintain a status of “truth” between them no matter how far apart they may be. That is, if a quality of one particle varies for whatever reason, its “mate” will exhibit the same variation instantaneously. This can be proven by observation if the two particles are within range of observation, and is so well established that the principle is accepted at essentially all distances. What has this to do with the event horizon?
The “event horizon” marks the last place where light or other radiation can escape the effects of a black hole before “falling” into the black hole. Two particles that interact in this most unusual place might separate, one radiating outward as the other falls in past the event horizon. Current thinking says that the “entanglement” of these two particles, which is to say, the shared truth of these two particles, does not end at the event horizon. The entanglement principle holds true in both realms. Variance in the nature / condition of one particle will be true for the other at the same time regardless of distance. To poor, dense Prudence, this sounds a lot like “As above, so below.”
What is true in Heaven is true on Earth, in so many words. The Newtonian / Einsteinian descriptions of reality: space, time, gravity, electro-magnetism, atoms and sub-atomic particles, can describe many relationships in the observable Universe, but it is quantum mechanics, quantum physics, that explain how the engine runs, including the spontaneous conversion of energy into matter and vice-versa… and entanglement. The truth of quantum entanglement pretty much establishes truth as the heart of the engine. It is also the heart of life, which seems to be everywhere in some form, humans being part of it: love, life, law, truth.
There is something true about how the Universe works and exists as it does. As scientists struggle to think the way God does, for utter lack of a better name, they keep getting closer to fundamental truths. As they attempt to observe with ever-greater clarity, how two particles – or FACTS – are entangled in truth, they realize that with better and better observation the particle or packet being observed – or the fact being observed – expands and expands to fill the known Universe, theoretically. Pretty soon the theoretical master-minds are describing the Universe as holographic: an expression of truth perceived through a filter of observation and, well, meaning.
Is the hologram mere happenstance? Can we ask, whose hologram is it? Not a fair question? Scientists keep sharpening their sense of truth / reality without contemplating the spirituality of truth, but it is lurking everywhere truth is observed, thank God… for utter lack of a better name.
The statue of Goddess Athene on the top of the famous Pallas-Athene-Brunnen in front of the Austrian Parliament in Vienna. Built by Theophil Hansen 1898-1902.
For a free people, freedom becomes increasingly harder to realize or defend when knowledge is limited by twisted education (which is to say, by the government) and by outright, calculated lying by that same government. To maintain control at the most fundamental levels, a government bent on Fascism will weaken the economic standing of most Americans and, equally as powerfully, create dependency upon the government for health care. Nearly $30 Trillion debt clarifies the former; elevating Anthony Mussolini, errr… Fauci, to prevaricating pandemic potentate, makes obvious the latter.
To whom does a citizen turn to counter a government that lies? Does he or she try to work more often with local or state government because they are more likely to tell the truth – no certainty, just greater likelihood – because he or she may know someone whose best friend has met someone working at that level? Like all contracts and covenants, only the honesty and integrity of their guarantors can give them force or value.
“Official” lies have become more creative since the Viet-Nam War. Viet-Nam exposed the mendacity of our well-respected military, whose veterans we have always revered. That period also revealed the ease with which our “free press” could be co-opted to push a leftist agenda. In the case of Viet-Nam this meant reportage of destruction and failure, terror and war-criminality, while beleaguered marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen are winning every battle of the conflict, an untold story. Trust in officialdom began to crumble.
Governments lying about, obfuscating or withholding truths from those governed is nothing new. History is a series of stories about conspiracy and secrecy within and between governments, not populations. The U. S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that gave it flight, formed a shift toward honesty between government and citizens, culminating in the Civil War, in which both sides were brutally, murderously honest about their purposes and positions. It has been mostly downhill ever since, as the forces of tyranny, the more comfortable theory of governance for government-types, rubbed and abraded the notions of citizen sovereignty and bottom-up authority – liberty, itself.
The threshold events and actors are well-known: Teddy Roosevelt; Wilson; Hoover; FDR-Cordell Hull; Johnson-Humphrey-Rusk-McNamara; Nixon-Kissinger; Carter- Brzezinski; Bush the 2nd; Obama-Clinton-Kerry-Rice-Jarrett; Biden-Blinken-MIlley, and many of their hangers-on, of whom some were/are virtual if not avowed communists. Numerous congressional leaders steadily pushed American government further and further left, now to an accelerating rate by Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer-Adam Schiff-Jerrold Nadler, A.O.C., Eric Swalwell, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and other fellow-travelers, many of whom literally seem to hate the United States. Here we are in 2021.
Gently speaking, the only federal agency whose pronouncements are accepted as true is Amtrak when they inform erstwhile passengers that thus-and-such train will be late by some number of minutes or hours. We also believe the Federal Aviation Administration is truthful, we hope. But anything coming out of any Cabinet department or the White House, or the House or Senate, or the “Pentagon,” is now taken with so many grains of salt. Since the phenomenal lies told during the Summer of Hate in 2020, and through the federal elections, there is very little that is trustworthy coming from any spoken or printed communication of the federal government.
Not a whole lot from state governments, either.
To whom does a law-abiding citizen turn when he or she is governed, cajoled or tyrannized by his or her government? A church? In a few cases, yes. But even normal conversations are rare among ordinary civilians, in 2021. Until one can discern or deduce what news sources a correspondent pays attention to, conversation is superficial at best.
Most Americans achieve respect for a politician who promises certain actions or efforts when running for office, and then does those very things. Even in disagreement, honesty by an office-holder is respected. Trump, for his braggadocio, embellishments and “mean tweets,” still pursued – and accomplished many of – the things he promised to do. His fundamental philosophy of “America First” never wavered, and his foreign policy held true to his philosophy. Americans learned to love “America First.” Under the Biden regime, whomever is the leader of it, We have learned to hate “America Last.”
Biden and his strange, far-left crew, have realized one distinct accomplishment. By reducing Americans’ expectations from the President and from any of his cabinet officers and functionaries, they are now meeting Americans’ expectations on a daily basis. When the Press Secretary speaks, everyone expects her to lie on behalf of the Biden cabal and she never disappoints! When Secretary of State Anthony Blinken testifies before Congress or holds a press conference, everyone, even including Congress, where most members are well adjusted to prevarication, expects him to avoid answering reasonable questions, to provide only partial scraps of information when he does answer, or to repeat lies that the regime has already spewed. No one is disappointed!
If the reader thinks that “all politicians lie” and Joe Biden is just being a “politician,” then he or she should pay attention to the southern border, which has spawned lies so grotesque as to place political lies in a wholly separate category of simple mendacity. Biden administration words, phrases, sentences and non-answers about the border and illegal immigration, are so crooked and twisted as to fold back upon the truth! How is this possible?
It seems as though the military, Homeland Security, the President and the president’s spokeswoman stay up late – well, not the President – just thinking up how to explain or avoid explaining to the American people that what they are seeing and experiencing at the southern border with Mexico is actually NOT what they are seeing and experiencing. Every action taken by the Biden regime regarding border protection, immigration policy, public health, “Homeland Security,” drug interdiction, human trafficking, child abuse and sexual slavery, makes clear how gross were the lies Mr. Biden told when he swore to uphold the Constitution and promised to faithfully execute the laws of the United States. With nearly hourly disingenuousness from media sycophants (formerly known as fellow-travelers) Biden cruises along, seemingly oblivious to the conditions at the border. When a question is tossed to him about “the border,” he turns his back and walks away.
Biden’s Secretary of “Homeland Security,” Alejandro Majorkas is in an impossible position… at least in terms of public relations. He does face questions and is required to claim that “the border is closed” while the Border Patrol tries to keep count of 200,000 or more illegal entrants PER MONTH. On the other hand, he has dropped the ultimate truth bomb: “…things are being handled according to plan,” or words to that effect. The sad truth is, an open border and flooding the country with unskilled criminals IS the plan – a plan the most crass, cynical and hateful aspect of which is no more than to first make the U. S. a one-party nation and second to tear down the United States as a stumbling block to global communism. Millions of Americans voted for these poop-heads, who claim that we “need” immigrants to fill jobs that are not getting done by citizens. It’s as though they might actually expect most of our invited illegals to actually work.
Joe Biden has never been at a loss for some prevarication or another. The first time he ran for president he contrived an elaborate story of his father’s mining career in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Lunch-bucket Joe, father was a miner. Unfortunately the story was untrue and, worse, had been “lifted” from a speech given by a British politician, Neil Kinnock, about HIS father. It was such a good story and Joe’s mental capacity being so limited, even in his 40’s, that “borrowing” it for his own campaign just seemed the best path. Rather odd, that. But Biden was uninjured by what should be seen as a gross lack of honesty. Somehow the father-was-a-miner whopper became part of the élan of Joe Biden. “That’s just Joe being Joe.” Well.
Joe was being Joe when he voted for the Iraq war and the Afghanistan invasion, but speaks forcefully against both actions, now. He worked as Vice President to help Saudi Arabia fight Yemeni fundamentalists, but speaks against it now. He advised Obama not to attempt to “get” Bin Laden in Pakistan, but he’s proud of it, now He was opposed to busing in the 70’s and 80’s, even working with Jesse Helms on legislation, yet was offended when Kamala Harris called him out on it during the 2020 campaign. Now, as Obama was, he is in favor of eliminating single-family zoning everywhere in the country. Millions of Americans voted for this poop-head. Now his title is POTUS: Poop-head Of The United States.
So, the fundamental question remains: To whom can a citizen turn in a supposedly Constitutionally limited Republic? Federal agencies and officers, top congressional leaders and most states have been lying to Americans while generating irrational fears about the Chinese-spread pandemic of 2020-21, while denying use of effective treatments for Covid-19 infection, and while destroying small businesses in the name of “stopping” Covid-19. Federal agencies, including the White House, and several state officials and agencies are colluding with media companies to censor news and opinions about alternatives to the “party line” on the pandemic, the “vaccines” and treatments, not to mention questions about vote fraud in the presidential election of 2020 – quite arguably in contravention of the First Amendment – and citizens are wondering where to turn for “redress of (their) grievances?”
What is a greater threat, lying outright or preventing the dissemination of truth? Perhaps the President will set that straight for us.
Volunteer “service” clubs are a crucial part of American exceptionalism. Whoops, these days it is imPrudent to describe the United States of America as exceptional in any way, yet it IS Prudent to so describe it and us, that way. Contrary to the outright lies and un-historic opinion contained in the “1619 Project,” the founding of our nation WAS exceptional compared to ALL other forms of greater-than-tribal governance ever tried in all of history. We were, upon our founding, an exception. Service clubs are not exceptional in and of themselves, but the American style of such voluntary assemblies is unique if, for no other reason, because of patriotism.
The United States was founded as an extension of the will of the God of Abraham, and of Christianity: the “New Jerusalem.” Carefully delineated in Ezekiel, the simple understanding of the new temple, the Holy of Holies and the city around it, was “Where the Lord God is.” Subject to Masonic interpretation, the much-sullied Jerusalem, stained by the conquest by Islamic armies, needed replacement on Earth and the “new world” of America looked to be the “clean” location for the New Jerusalem, ostensibly defined in the District of Columbia.
Distinction from Europe, and from England following the Treaty of Paris, led the “Founding Fathers” to create an exceptional set of premises to define the first populist, Constitutionally limited government. It was and is exceptional. Only fools and communists cannot admit the truth of that statement. That it was flawed cannot be argued, nor can the fact that the new structure of distributed powers contained the tools to correct those flaws.
Obviously those flaws, most intensely, that of slavery, neither faded away nor were resolved quickly enough. Yet, to keep its moral word, The United States took sides on the question of slavery at the most serious possible level: life or death… of the nation and of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and citizens. No nation, anywhere or at any time, has paid such a high price to adjust relations between races, ie. to end racial injustice. No nation. Lately, however, as leftists are wont to do, we have been rubbing salt in old, old wounds, racial and pseudo-racial, attempting to exhume the guilt of past generations so as to gain dominance over current ones. What a rotten process it is.
Those seeking political – or military – advantage, love conflict. Those are they for whom the suffering, even deaths of those enmeshed in conflict are of no moral or humane concern. For those, there is always some nebulous, overarching and much greater morality that magically forgives all injustices on the path to victory or revolution. The presence of conflict implies an eventual resolution of that conflict, wherein all the opportunities for drastic change resides. What sort of drastic change might be needed?
For those who have been busy tearing down our heritage, our Constitution, historical statues and election laws, the drastic change leads only to destruction of this democratic republic and its replacement with a fundamentally communist-socialist regime in concert with International Communism, but dominated by black and brown people.
For those of us who are not sold on that end result, what changes should we make and insist upon from OUR government? Should we insist on only truth being taught in our schools? All of them? This would eliminate race and racialism as “curricula.” There is enough negative, and positive, in TRUTH, to show the wrongness of slavery and racial discrimination, while showing the exceptional nature of the American model. Perhaps we could insist on the strengths of smaller government as part of “civics” education. Could we learn to be individually moral and responsible citizens rather than haters of one another? That would be a nation-strengthening change.
Could we create a plan to ease people OFF of welfare? The worst aspect of socialism is dependency and lack of growth as an individual. What sort of rotten philosophy would guide anyone toward that end? After 60 years of federalized welfare we have accomplished nothing as successfully as the destruction of the nuclear family, particularly of black and brown peoples. Who could be proud of that? Who could possibly proclaim that “accomplishment” as a reason to be granted more elected power? Who would “fall” for it?
What the past 60 years have done is prepare a failing nation for Communism, and 2020 is the year the Communists among us believed their time to pounce had come, and pounce they did. COVID-19 was their major ally whose only worldwide beneficiary was Communist China and a handful of multi-billionaire oligarchs for whom borders are mere address indicia. The longer we fail to recognize the source of COVID’s international spread, the sooner we will fall to China for lack of preparatory defense. Shame on us and on “our” media for whom facts are mere props or weapons in the battle to hide the truth.
During the COVID attack, Americans of all sorts were taught to follow the somewhat whimsical dictates of public “servants,” for whom Constitutional rights took a back seat, every time, to the fears mongered by elected and non-elected experts who, it turns out, were involved in the CREATION of the monster known as COVID-19, and, worse, creation in collaboration with Communist China’s military-dominated virology laboratory in Wuhan. Little by little we are learning about the fraudulent nature of how the COVID epidemic was being handled in the United States, largely by the deep state and the collusion between “big Pharma” and the CDC and NIH bureaucracies. Supporting their mis-directions were the cruel and mainly ignorant reactions of governors and mayors as they locked down economic and other activities on the premise of “slowing” the spread of the virus. It is far from clear that any of the lockdown actions were particularly effective except to ruin the best economy in the world.
Oddly, the same period of economic lockdown and breakdown was chosen for coordinated rioting and violent, even murderous protests of ostensible “systemic” racism. “BLM” and “Antifa” and most Democrats running large cities purveyed a grand lie of the historic upset over the death of George Floyd as adequate justification for destroying businesses and other properties, looting and violent attacks on municipal and federal buildings – particularly police/law-enforcement related. Immediately, national leaders had to explain away (lie about) the threat of COVID among irresponsible rioters while locking down churches, schools and a host of other business types and activities like weddings, funerals and graduations.
Amazingly, the state and federal politicians who forced unconstitutional changes in voting procedures across the country, and who lied about the nature and consequences of multiple protests and riots, are the same who charge anyone, particularly Trump, who might question the results of the oddest election in our history, an election replete with an incredible set of vote-pattern anomalies made astronomically less likely to be innocent by virtue of their simultaneous manifestation at a single historic point… all favoring the least-competent candidate to ever win a major-party nomination, with telling lies. We are still told that only that party can be telling the truth about the weird 2020 electoral processes.
Maybe a change we might demand would be honesty. Perhaps we could strengthen our body politic and our “united” peoples (“e pluribus unum”) by telling the truth about the nature of communist/Marxist front groups who led the riots of 2020. Maybe we could demand honesty from Congress about our budgets. If budget honesty is too much to ask, maybe we can get just the truth about January 6th and the involvement of undercover federal law-enforcement personnel on that day and the days leading up to the breach of the capitol.
Maybe we could change how we identify ourselves, not by discarding precise pronouns in favor of those that somehow validate self-declared, non-empirical feelings, but by celebrating the exceptional quality of citizenship in the United States of America. Maybe we could change the relative application of Constitutional rights to only U. S. citizens, relegating non-citizens to somewhat lesser advantage when residing in the U. S. Another change might be to relegate non-citizens who enter our nation illegally, to the most temporary residency status, including comfortable transportation back to their countries of origin, assuming they have completed their prison terms, if so disposed.
The “New Jerusalem” is a concept, not a place; a means of fulfilling a philosophy, not a myth. Jerusalem is “where the Lord God is,” which is to say, “Where the surrender to God’s will is.” To Masons, Jerusalem is expressible in a sacred geometry: sequences of geometric ratios and relationships that outpicture divine mathematics. Washington, D. C. is laid out in partial fulfillment of those divine patterns. The Constitution and other founding “scriptures” are laid out to enable religious men and women to fulfill their own divine geometries, as they fulfill the divine plan of America. It is not all an accident of architecture, but an intensely purposeful architecture. God is the Divine Architect in both physical form of the Universe, and in the spiritual design of His Laws for mankind: each fits and complements the other. The Universe for testing man’s mettle and faith; the Law for testing man’s faith and mettle.
The imperfect but perfectible architecture of the United States was entrusted to future generations. Our democratic republic was deemed suitable only to a moral and religious people, being inadequate to any other. To the best of its ability, the global, socialist movement to unseat God has inexorably pursued the removal of God, Christianity and (our) divine architecture of freedom and free will that is essential for the evolution of souls and the defeat of evil. That architecture was entrusted across the ages to the fledgling United States. Since the end of the Civil War Americans have done their best to shuck off this holy responsibility as we have shucked off holiness, itself. The left perceived and employed our weaknesses and struck in 2020. The hopeless Mr. Biden, ostensible president of the people to whom America, the “New Jerusalem” was entrusted, is our reward and his plans – or someone’s plans – are well underway to completing the undermining of the two architectures. Just read H.R. 5.
We, meaning the Exchange Club of Lawrence and the Andovers, and a bunch of wonderful volunteers and relatives thereof, installed the “Field of Honor” for the third time on the North Andover, Massachusetts Common, this past Saturday. It is a labor of love and patriotism and, in fact, a most serious community service, part of two of Exchange’s Four Pillars of Service. To do a lot of what a “full-calendar” Exchange Club wants to accomplish each year requires money, and mixed with our forms of service to our communities are some vital fund-raising events; the Field of Honor is a four-way winner on that calendar. With a single project we fulfill “Americanism,” we raise needed funds, we unify our Club and we provide “Community Service” for all of those who sponsor flags in memory of loved ones or in honor of them, who recognize first-responders, health-care workers, coaches, teachers and other personal “V.I.P.’s” in their lives.
Each sponsored flag has affixed a colorful, laminated “Tag” that names the honoree, field of service and heartfelt commentary by the sponsor about this very important person. The first time we “did” a Field of Honor we followed the lead of a nearby Exchange and tried to read all the dedications on the day of ceremony at the end of the Field’s term of display. We messed it up fairly well since we didn’t have a good database, but the hearing of one’s dedication was very important to the flag sponsors, a fact made abundantly clear to us by those who did not hear their own, or who missed the reading. That is when the nature of the service we were suddenly responsible to provide properly, became clear.
We’ve fixed that database problem. We’ve also fixed our lack of recognition among the communities we’ve served for, now, 75 years. Both our Club members and the Club, itself, can be identified with this beautifully visible display, now of three-week’s duration. But, the “Field” is still greater than the values already noted. It’s a unifier when Unity in these “United” States is under its greatest stress. This is the larger part of the story.
Dis-unity is the most potent weapon there is in the hands of an enemy of a democratic republic – a republic built on personal morality and personal responsibility and above and beneath all, FREEDOM. In the past dozen (or five-dozen) years, or so, we have witnessed the coalescing of “liberal,” socialistic tendencies toward dictatorial government, around the always-tender concerns about race and attendant hatreds. There is very little within the non-discussive discussions about race in the U. S. that involve truth. Among intentional, often political LIES about race or racism, exist often-repeated – shouted – non-truths that are based upon beliefs that are just not so. That is, many, mostly guilt-ridden liberals, repeat statements they believe are true, but the premises of which are false. They have no intention to lie, per se, but become greatly exercised as they parrot non-truths. We should stipulate some truths.
One – Different races are not limited compared to any other race in terms of ABILITY, only by BELIEFS. Within those beliefs are familial, parental and social expectations that are imprinted even before birth, as to what constitutes propriety and success for an individual.
Two – Mixing races together, including by force, as with slavery, ALWAYS carries the risk of continuing division because of conflicting BELIEFS, not because of mental or physical abilities. Humans are much more alike than not, despite oft-repeated untruths we may have grown up with. Diversity, in and of itself, is a weakening agent to the cohesiveness of a society, to a nation. Similarity is the great strengthener, and, when reinforced by diverse experiences, a tremendous strength to the United States nation. Diversity for its own sake is a source of social divisiveness, yet now governs our economic and social constructs, including valuations of one another as “sufficiently diverse” enough in our daily lives and actions. No nation can survive, no society can succeed if its interactions are biased toward the non-traditional beliefs of newcomers, rather than the newcomers being required to live by our traditional moral standards, no matter their personal beliefs.
Three – Shared morality is essential to social unity and to economic success. America’s economic success is based on fundamental honesty in contracts written and unwritten, from marriage to multi-year leases, commodity pricing and delivery, and in covenants between the people-formed governments and those governments, themselves, local state and federal. Together with honesty in contracting, our sense of – belief in – sacrifice for a better future for our children and for people unknown, made our phenomenal growth and wealth possible. Welcoming, or allowing establishment of, moralities alternative to the historical, traditional morality of a society, is a first step to social suicide. Americans, in our folly, are not merely tolerant of other beliefs, which is relatively harmless, but we fail to require all citizens to live by our own fundamental moral traditions. Indeed, we have managed to talk ourselves out of living by them.
Four – There are two genders: many feelings about one’s place and purpose and pursuit of happiness, but only two genders. That so much heat is generated over “trans-genderism” or “trans-sexuality” is based on those individuals who desire so much to believe in two contradictory ideas at the same time, that they will endure a host of suspicions and fears among “straight” populations. Others who desire acceptance of aberrant lifestyles, AND those who are mainly interested in the dissolution of the United States, seize upon those who believe in trans-genderism and employ their suffering – which is real – as a further wedge to separate the vast majority of Americans from their traditional morality. Sadly, ultra-progressive parents, themselves, are changing their own beliefs to accommodate the popularized mental incongruity that two diametrically opposed concepts may be true at the same time. Small children who claim to be other than their actual gender are encouraged in this incongruity even to the point of chemical – EVEN SURGICAL – modification of growth and maturation (with untold consequences, nearly all of which are negative). Supposed psychologists, scientists of a sort, including “child” psychologists, have bent their attitudes towards normality and no longer advise maintaining traditional roles for children until maturity. Most minors “grow out of” dyspohric fantasies. Unfortunately, a less and less morally constrained population has created political pressure sufficient to have draconian laws passed requiring society to accommodate these incongruities, to the direct affront of not only honesty, but of all traditional moral codes, including religious codes, and to our peril as a democratic republic, which, as noted, can function only amidst a population self-controlled by shared morality.
Five – Derek Chauvin did not kill George Floyd. Oh, he was “convicted” of murder, much like Joe Biden having been certified as President. The Chauvin conviction was mere confirmation of what weak, jittery politicians had agreed with mobs to do. The nearly sainted George Floyd was on an express bus to an early death that day, before his antics even gained police attention. Chauvin, not the brightest bulb in the string, could have feigned great concern and demanded that people taking videos go find a doctor instead. He could have laid George’s big head on his lap and tried talking to him while they waited for the EMT’s. He’d still have his job, Minneapolis would still be a city, and dozens of businesses and thousands of jobs would still be supporting families in Minnesota. No, Chauvin didn’t kill Floyd, but he caused the deaths of many others and many more to come as idiotic, fearful, politicians attempt to buy favor from Communists and fascists by weakening police departments.
Six – To say that “black lives matter” is to state an obvious fact; all lives matter in a non-communist society: our morality informs us of the sacredness and sanctity of human life. To adhere to the “Black Lives Matter” organization as some sort of leaders in the mattering of black lives, however, is to put the lie to every aspect of the sanctity of black and every other life. More than in any other “advanced” culture, lives matter most under a system of freedom and personal worth. Religion has a lot to do with that, Christianity most of all in this Prudent view. To latch on to anti-Christians for leadership in this area of humanity, is utterly nonsensical. Misguided blacks, in fact, are at the forefront of DISCOUNTING the values of black lives! Let us count the ways.
Blacks are solidly Democratic in their politics, evidently expecting expansive government to make their lives better. Yet it is they who have the most to say about the betterment of their lives and the lives of all blacks. After 60 years of federalized welfare and the concurrent dissolution of the black family, wise blacks can readily describe the negative impact on black lives, a gift from Democrats. The incessant turning away from success by so many black youth, consumed in hatred for anything “white,” like educational excellence and personal merit, is also a product of political divisiveness employed by the great protectors of blacks: Democrats.
Just as was done in South Africa during apartheidt, unions have been strong promoters of unionization and minimum wage laws – the net effect of which have been to make it more comfortable to hire whites instead of blacks. Black youth, more likely to be lower-skilled, unfortunately, are denied their best marketable quality: willingness to work for less to get started up the ladders of success. We have made it illegal to work for less. Alternatives on the streets and gang associations where all the leaders are non-white, are made much more attractive to disaffected youth. Keeping blacks unskilled and inexperienced serves to make unionized jobs more white… just like in South Africa. Who are the strongest proponents of unionization and minimum wages? Democrats, who are trying their hardest to improve the lot of blacks, just ask them. Those are they who celebrate success of black Democrats while heaping scorn upon blacks of other political views. Black lives matter, so much.
President Joe Biden, race-baiter in chief… and great “unifier,” has authorized the flying of “Black Lives Matter” flags at American embassies around the world. It is a move so utterly offensive to so many, and so essentially diametric toward everything the United States has ever professed, fought-for or relied upon in its founding ideas and ideals, and so stupid, as to expose the rank folly of this man’s being president of this nation or of virtually any organization of alert humans. Nothing he does is to be trusted. Nothing he has done as president is pro-American… or anti-racist.
Seven – Education is the primary business of parents: not of the government at any level, or of teachers unions or of mediocrity contracts with arbitrary groups of teachers. Teachers are hired, fundamentally, to teach our children how to be honest, literate, knowledgeable about science, mathematics and the natural world, and knowledgeable about our culture and founding, governing principles. Educators need not teach religion, per se, but about religion as part of World History. Nor should they teach against it. They should teach common decency and respect for others, good manners and propriety in all things within the school campus/environment. Sports and other team functions and competitions are relevant for good health and good adjustment to the individual strengths and weaknesses of others. Exposure to the Arts is also essential for becoming well-rounded individuals, armed with some choices of direction to follow after the first 12 years of instruction. Elective courses should include “manual arts” and tool use, carpentry and basic trade skills. It is not the business of educators to expose minor children to unusual sexual practices or any sexual practices. The subject matter of any “Health” class should be vetted by the parents of children in the school system, else their children may not attend said class. Any school or “system” unwilling to collaborate with parents at that level about sexuality or any other area of controversy, perhaps with open petitioning by a certain percentage of parents, requiring such vetting, does not deserve access to students or to the tax monies that follow them.
Ideally, every school should be a Charter School, and every child should be expected to excel… and to behave.
Eight – The breaching of the Capitol Building on January 6th was not an insurrection. It was several things, but “insurrection” was not one of them. There was no attempt, or even hope, to overthrow the sitting government or our governing “system,” EXCEPT where said system was lying to the American people. The mealy-mouthed half-truths and outright lies tossed around in the hallowed halls of Congress, ostensibly to do “the people’s business” has become so offensive and off-target that people wanted to talk to their erstwhile “representatives” who were about to certify a most questionable election of one of the most crooked presidents-elect to ever reach that level. The actions of some who assaulted the building were clearly unrelated to the President’s words; those are they who entered the crowds at the Capitol and who had not attended the rally.
Capitol police, oddly, had not, despite advance notice for days, made any reasonable attempts to make such a breach difficult and, in fact, made the breach easier, even to helping people enter the building once the physical breaches had occurred. Offers of reinforcement from the Trump administration were refused because of “optics,” we’re told. Yet the entire period since the rather silly impacts of the vandalism and broken windows, has been nothing but “optics,” as conservatives and Trump voters, generally, have been branded as “white supremacists” and “terrorists” and greater threats to “democracy” than “9-11.” What hogwash. The greatest threat to “democracy” in the past several decades exists among those who engineered the 2020 Elections that led to certification of the electoral College votes that propelled Biden-Harris to be sworn in on January 20th. To say that the January 6th events were not a legitimate “protest” against perceived government mendacity is to rewrite history and word-meanings simultaneously. Long before the 2020 elections, sufficient reasons to protest the actions within the Capitol were accumulating: things like $27 Trillion in debts.
Breaching the Capitol was foolish, obviously, and illegal in its own right, from which a host of other crimes and misdemeanors flowed. The worst crime, committed by a Capitol Police officer, was the point-blank murder of Ashli Babbit, who was not assaulting any person or presenting a threat to the officer who shot her. Ms. Babbit was unarmed. Four months later we can finally identify the police officer at fault, despite video of the incident. He is a Trump-hater, reportedly, but not charged with this crime. Can we suppose that had the breach been the work of “BLM” that the entire congressional leadership would have taken a knee on their Communist behalf in the Rotunda? Fourteenth Amendment, anyone?
Back to the Field of Honor in North Andover: Exchange attempts to gather good people to a common purpose, much of which is helping, serving, others. Through scholarships, recognitions of excellence and of overcoming tough challenges, and through Americanism, we attempt to remind our fellow Americans of the qualities that are worth emulating, honoring and teaching. In our experience, people need that reminding; they need to remember or recognize and honor those who were raised with those vital qualities; people truly want the reminding: it affirms that the best of being an American is still true and worth emulating, including to whatever extent, in their own lives and in the lives of those around them.
To all those who, for whatever reason or untruth you are convinced of, teach our children, and who convey that America and its entire history and purpose is to be hated and discarded for a socialized, anti-Christian system that has failed wherever tried, stop! You have no right.
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?
It is an interesting “fad,” we might call it, to portray
every event in history from the viewpoint of the most “woke” or radical
perspectives fostered and pandered-to by today’s politicians. It doesn’t seem to be helpful in terms of
increasing knowledge or of increasing understanding
of the past. But it has, in the span
of 20 years or so, become commonplace.
Every example of this new
ignorance need not be brought before
the bar of reason for the student of history to still be able to ask, “why?”
If we accept the premise that schools are the imparters of truth, then it follows that
they should be the bastions of truth,
as well. Interesting word,
‘bastion.’ It means a projection from a
defensive wall that affords more effective firing angles against attackers, and
it also means “bulwark.” A bulwark is a
person, or a thing, that is the immovable defense of the fort or castle. In the battle of ideas, persons in the school
or education business, are obligated by their office in society – the official
role to which they are committed and for which they are well-compensated – to
be the bulwarks against UN-truth and lies.
In that regard, their best success derives from having
taught students to both find truth and to recognize it when it appears… or
disappears.
Parents consign their children to schools in order for them
to learn truths and to learn about truth.
Human beings entrusted with imparting truth to children of any age, are
sorely tested to not convey opinions or beliefs they hold that cannot be demonstrated
to be true. One might think – and
parents might hope – that a mechanism exists to remove teachers who cannot help
but taint truth with their opinions.
That the opposite mechanism
exists should give us pause. Short of
severe debauchery or criminal acts, it is nearly impossible to pry a teacher
loose from his or her tenured security.
What are they teaching?
Let’s look at a simple event that has caused news stories in
recent years; the landing of the
“pilgrims” in Massachusetts Bay, ostensibly at what we know as Plymouth, named
for Plymouth, England. To get to
Plymouth the so-called Pilgrims had to endure privations and tribulations that
we, today, in our land of too much food and electricity, cannot conceive
of. We lose our cool when another car blocks
us or cuts in front of us. Imagine
uprooting your family and leaving the place of your birth and generations of
customs and history, to sign on to a corporate adventure to the “New World,”
about which little is known. Your first
ship proves unseaworthy and you limp back to port until another can be obtained
and hired to your purposes.
You are unable to carry with you more than a small trunk’s
worth of tools and possessions. On your
little ship there are no bathrooms, no showers, salted fish and beef to eat, no
fresh vegetables, no toothpaste or toilet paper. Privacy is virtually non-existent, you know
nothing of germs or disease except that the latter is common. Childbirth is among the deadliest of burdens
for women. For years you have planned and
hoped for a better life upon reaching the distant unknown shore, and after the
final two months at sea you are deposited on the shore, far off from your
intended destination, now forced to fend for yourselves from the ground up, in
fact, building shelters, foraging for wildlife and wild fruits or berries to
try to store enough food for the imminent winter which will be much harsher
than what you have been used to, particularly since your delay in leaving
England left you in the New World in October, rather than in May or June.
Among your beliefs is deep religious faith in God, bolstered
by frequent prayer, but He isn’t cushioning any blows or revealing hidden
stores of healthy food. Many of you die
in that first winter, yet faith and incredible work see you through. Eventually relations with natives, whom you
believe to be “savages,” keep you from dying out altogether and your duties as
profitable fur trappers can commence.
Accidentally, in total ignorance, you have brought germs
that infect the native people, germs against which they have no defense. You have brought another disease, economics,
including concepts of private property, fences and stockades, and guns and
swords of steel to defend them. You
believe that God has blessed you with a new land over which you have every
right to take dominion. History records
the clash of beliefs and its outcome.
To this Prudent observer, descended from those Pilgrims and
others who followed soon after, the story of immense courage and faith,
regardless of what we may, today, think of that faith, is a bit heroic. Courage in the face of danger is one of
humankind’s abiding virtues and is worthy of honor and emulation, but what is
more frequently discussed, even abetted by public entities, is the awfulness of
the Pilgrims and all of their virtues and beliefs, since it turned out badly
for the natives. The thanks offered
prayerfully to God, for the salvation of the tiny colony, must now be
denigrated because of those germs and the new ideas the colonists held dear.
The strength of the underdog fighter who wins against all
odds, must be hated because, we have since learned, he once flipped the bird to
another driver and… it was a woman!
There will never be a good reason to train the way he did, or learn the
tactics that he used to win, not ever will there be a reason to mention his
name or take his picture. Everything
must be expunged.
And so education has purged itself of the role of
Christianity in the creation and final founding of the United States. Since many teachers and professors, now, are
so sure that belief in the Bible’s teachings is superstition, they cannot bring
themselves to learn how it is woven into the fabric of America, and certainly
not to teach about it. Is it all just
economics? That was Marx’s view; we
certainly must teach about that. So, is
the “new” narrative about where America came from the same as “truth?” It would seem Prudent to judge that it is a
half-truth at best. Does that fulfill
the essential requirement that educational institutions… and functions… be the
defenders and imparters of truth? If
not, what are they? What are they being
paid to do, if not impart truth?
Christopher Columbus was nothing if not unusually
brave. It took unusual courage to set
sail beyond the sight of land, not knowing how far it was to reach another
shore. It was a struggle for him to
obtain not one, but 3 crews to follow him on his undefined journey. When he landed he was thousands of miles from
where he thought he must be. His mission
was financed by the newly victorious, fused monarchies of Ferdinand and
Isabella, who defeated the Moors just one day before granting Columbus the
support he needed.
They needed gold, which the “indies” reportedly had, and
some other valuables Columbus’ crewmates and soldiers might come across. No one on earth had knowledge of germs,
viruses or infections. No one. The Spaniards were simple thieves who
believed non-Europeans, non-Catholic non-Europeans most particularly, were “savages.” In other words, Spaniards, like French,
British, Italian, Dutch and other explorers… Portuguese, were brought up to
believe that because of their relative enlightenment, manufactures, printing,
marriage, courts, police, and religion, they were superior to savages wherever
they found them. The Spaniards were
fulfilling the charge of their King and Queen, whose authority came from
God. There was no better work they could
do. Not so simple, perhaps.
Today Columbus is vilified, as if current hot feelings might improve Columbus’ own attitudes, causing him and all of his crewmates who had just risked their lives on their mission to the “Indies,” to renounce every belief they held and their faith, and to switch to social services for the savages they had found, perhaps teaching them how to forge iron and smelt bronze, and to build better huts and grow more crops. The next expedition could teach them to read the Bible and raise their children.
Many teachers seem consumed by the estimates of decimation
brought about by European diseases thanks to Columbus’ discovering the new
world. Rather than recognize the
essential sacrifice and bravery of mariners of Columbus’ day, along with the unintended consequences
of the intercontinental movement of peoples, educators convinced of the evil
intent of all white-skinned peoples, pummel their students with the evils
initiated by white Europeans.
Increasingly liberal teachers twist the views of their students such
that whites begin to hate themselves and question not only bad actions of the
past, but even ideas and philosophies generated by people whose skin is not
brown.
This immediately translates into hatred of America and the
ideas that created it; it also validates hatreds the racialist hate-mongers are
encouraging non-stop in black communities.
Neither trend is healthy for our nation, our future progress or our
steady destruction of disease and poverty.
It’s stupid, essentially. Shame on
us.
This same poisoned outlook has been seized upon by
socialists now to fuel their never-ending struggle to destroy individual
freedom, a goal that may only be achieved by destroying America. They must destroy Christianity, too, since
many white people believe in it.
Can the descendants of slave owners atone not only for the
sins of their ancestors but for the sins of their ancestors’ ancestors’
ancestors? No, never. The actions of the past still remain no
matter what is done, now. Can the
descendants of slaves (which are virtually all of us depending on how many
ancestries we include) receive some kind of justice for the sufferings of their ancestors? No, the suffering will have still
happened. Is that suffering the reason
some brown-skinned people are economically behind the curve today? Or educationally? No.
Up until the “Great Society,” which federalized welfare has
purchased the votes of blacks for generations, the suffering of slaves had
created a great strengthening of their descendants. “We shall overcome” had genuine meaning and
blacks were overcoming and gaining economic power faster than their white “oppressors.” But when hate became a tax-funded industry,
black progress not only slowed, but reversed.
And still they excel… in virtually every field, yet more also fail,
convinced by their hate-filled leaders that life is unfair because of (pick all
that apply) whites, Christians, police, schools, businesses, Republicans,
slavery, Columbus, NASA, Trump. What a
waste, however enrichening it is for some.
People elected to office in the United States, from Senators and Representatives to state’s legislators, Governors and state-wide officers, Sheriffs, Judges, District Attorneys, Registers of Probate, Deeds and what-not, to cities’ councilors, Mayors, aldermen, local selectmen and various trustees of reservations, libraries, housing authorities and conservation commissions, all have an obligation, TO WHICH EACH SWORE ON HIS OR HER HONOR, BEFORE WITNESSES, to conduct him or herself and the business of the office at stake according to the law and in defense of various charters, bylaws, state and federal constitutions.
That is, each swore to be honest. Prudence recommends honesty as the best way to conduct the people’s business. Unfortunately, honesty, truthfulness are almost NEVER part of anyone’s campaign message, platform, literature or advertising, despite each knowing that he or she will happily SWEAR to be honest during the conduct of the office being striven for. Odd, that. In practice, all oaths to the opposite, many office-holders consider that honesty, in fact, extends only to the scrupulous fealty to the letter of the law: every jot and tittle and loophole thereof.
We do hear a lot about “working hard for you,” or “it’s time your group is treated more fairly,” or “my opponent, the incumbent (stated in a low voice) has not been honest with you,” or, if the case, “he doesn’t even pay his parking tickets!”
Because legislation – and regulation – is devised and designed by people who are hoping to find a way to gain personally from the “loopholes” they write into it… legally of course, voters rarely get much input to the process or the content of new laws. And, we are reassured from the rooftops as to the diligent efforts made on voters’ behalf, sometimes late into the night at great sacrifice, keeping their promises to “fight” for us and to “work hard for us” if entrusted with the office. After all, they swore an oath to uphold the law and the constitution, and there they are keeping every word of at least part of what was promised. And we re-elect them, sometimes for decades, as if we can’t imagine causing them to “lose” their jobs, for goodness sake!
Most gain considerable wealth while in office, and this is a very mysterious consequence of becoming a public servant. Some are paid from the public treasury quite handsomely, even exorbitantly, yet they continue to “sacrifice” in public service instead of accepting much more lucrative positions in the “private sector.” Just look at the millions paid to people like the presidents of nationwide banks, insurance companies, invest firms, Boeing, Amazon, Facebook and Exxon-Mobil. Yet still they toil on our behalf under terrible conditions and low pay, particularly in view of the tremendous responsibilities they carry for the rest of us. [See: http://www.prudenceleadbetter.com/2017/03/31/massachusetts-vaults-into-first-place/]
Congress members and Senators seem to fare the best of all – at least the crafty ones. Politics, unfortunately, seems to attract those who are always looking for an edge of some kind… not a scam, necessarily, but some special advantage, like signaling what’s in your hand to your Bridge partner. One notices that there are many laws that specifically exempt the “Royals” (those currently in Congress) from their terms or penalties. For decades, for example, members of the House and Senate could take advantage of what in the private sector is known as “insider trading.”
That is, by virtue of knowing what laws and attendant regulations were about to be imposed, the Royals could buy stocks about to go up as a result, and short stocks that were about to go down as a result. It’s “edgy,” one could say, and we can be comforted in our beliefs that none of them would ever share that information with a mere civilian, since they all are sworn to uphold the law: every jot and tittle and loophole thereof. Moreover, they are forced to be away from their families and pay for extra housing in or near Washington, and it’s not fair to demand so much additional sacrifice on top of that already entailed in their “jobs” in Congress.
In response to negative press, Congress crafted the “STOCK” act, that essentially made insider trading by legislative employees (over 28,000 of them) and by executive department employees, illegal. President Obama signed it into law with cameras blazing. Not only was the trading illegal, finally, but everyone affected would have searchable financial disclosure statements available on some website, a requirement that was not very popular. A few months later, with most members absent, the House and Senate rushed a bill through and the President signed it with little notice or announcement. This bill kept the thousands of disclosures under lock and key in a basement room in the Capitol, where virtually anyone could review them… individually, by correct name, and even copy them for 10 cents a page. But they couldn’t be “searched,” per se, and you had to get to the Capitol and to that room during limited hours, and provide the correct name of the disclosure-owner. Nothing illegal, but just a little edge over the competition – us.
The search for truth is a competition, if you hadn’t realized that before now, and in this competition relative to our public servants, we have very wily opponents. Think of that: opponents.
How nice would it be to hear an office-seeker say in his “stump” speech: “I promise only a few things, ladies and gentlemen… just a few.” He or she holds up the fingers of one hand. “First, when you ask me a question about any part of my public job – the one you pay me to do – I will answer truthfully and fully, unless there is a specific statute that prohibits me from doing so. I will then explain that statute to the best of my ability, or get back to you promptly with the explanation. If there is a way for you to obtain the information from another person or office I will tell you and, if you need it, I will help you get the information… not just an ‘answer,’ but the information you are entitled to.
“Secondly,” holding up his pointer finger, “I will tell you the truth about the budget and about expenditures. The money we spend and allocate is all taken from your wallets and I will show you at least enough respect as American citizens, to tell you the truth about what’s being done with it.”
“And, finally, point number 3. I will not vote for any legislation that contains provisions that are ‘snuck’ into the wording because those provisions could not have passed on their own merits. In other words, some legislation is brought forth with titles that indicate it is about one issue, while hiding legislation about unrelated issues. Those bills are at least partial lies and I will not vote for them. On the other hand, I will fight to stop this practice. To do so I need your vote on Tuesday.”
Prudence declares her support for any such candidate. Sadly, none has presented him or her-self for consideration. On the other hand, if one were looking for someone who has crafted an articulate message of hate for certain groups, individuals or for the United States, there are several from which to choose.
The underlying problem with elected and appointed malfeasance is that it undermines the ideas of America. And there is no one to our West who will come to our rescue when our citizens lose all trust in our “self” governance. There is no one else with a more “free” system or where citizens have sufficient sovereignty to perfect themselves, who will ride to our salvation and help as throw off tyranny. We, the United States of America, still somewhat free, still somewhat honest, still somewhat Christian, are the last best hope on Earth. If, in our libertine libertarianism we allow Constitutionalism to perish, or if we fail to reverse our educationally slipshod descent into sexual confusion and feelings education, the whole experiment is at risk.
Indeed, for an American elected official to abuse his or her office, particularly for illicit, if not illegal personal gain, is among the worst offenses against our nation. It is virtual treason against the electorate, and utterly inexcusable. Compromised judges and law-enforcement officers naturally follow the path of rot blazed by dishonest elected officials. Tightening and increasing the penalties for official corruption should be the fourth part of our “honesty is the only policy” candidate wished-for above. Let’s hope.
Prudence says that America needs some fresh thinking about race. Anthropologists can “describe” some 300 “races” using markers like blood-type concentrations, in a process that tries to use physiology to delineate human “types” or races. It is largely a waste of time for most people since it cannot relate social activities, social actions, with physiological differences.
RACE is a construct for both safety and control within societies.. except, lately, a construct for hatred. The most visual markers are employed – like skin, facial distinctions, hair, eye-color… virtually meaningless attributes in terms of how people ACT, but crucial when differing groups come together. No training or understanding is required to distinguish physiognomy. That is a matter of belief.
Prudence has thought long about the power and dangers of belief. It can exist and guide the actions of millions of people without paying any heed to reality… to truth. Just as faith is the engine for maintaining religious traditions, there are many other belief structures to which individuals can adhere that effectively replace reality with constructed, believed paths of action that guide whole lifetimes. Belief can be so self-fulfilling that it becomes its own evidence of “truth.” It’s commonplace.
Less common is honesty. An honest person can be taught the error of his or her beliefs and it is this very effect that has held the United States together through slavery, Manifest Destiny, the Civil War, destruction of Native American culture, waves of immigration and the Great Depression. Beliefs have changed, honing more closely to reality little by little… until the 1960’s.
It was under the aegis of “The Great Society” that we changed the role of government to one of, essentially, social engineering – unionized social services that Lyndon Johnson and other hubris-laden socialists believed could change the nature of both rich and poor people for the better. Change has certainly happened.
Blacks, who were making sure, but uneven progress in the 1950’s, have regressed in the inner cities where federal and state policies have re-enslaved them for 3 generations. Why such conditions continue, even as the drug trade flourishes in that population, seems a great mystery to progressives. It must be the fault of Republicans. Our incoming president has mentioned conditions in the inner cities, but no policy changes have been described.
It’s all a matter of belief. Progressives have long held the belief that the most generous “safety-net” possible, especially now that welfare has been federalized, will cause people WE have taught to be irresponsible for themselves, to become responsible, self-sufficient citizens. We have placed them in a system where the only way to “get a raise,” requires careful cheating – things like getting two EBT cards or SNAP allowances beyond one’s entitlement. Or, to sell some drugs, perhaps. There should be no surprise that blacks hate whites. They believe that whites have kept them from opportunity, that we discriminate in a thousand ways, that we are racists and on and on. Some of it is true. But the policies that have done so are not those of most whites, who feel guilty about black’s condition, and who act a little nutty because of their guilt; they are the policies of progressives who believe socialism will make better humans than God has… despite all reality to the contrary.
One might infer that Prudence indicates that progressives may not be truly honest, else they could learn the error of their beliefs, lo these past 50 years.
Belief can be a most powerful weapon, spurring action, hatred or love. Election 2016 is a frightening example of popular belief manipulation and those who fomented it deserve our condemnation. Don’t let “fomented” be a comfort – it’s still going on.
The “press” in the form of television, is hardly the equivalent of the printed newspaper / newsmagazine “press.” Since 1960, really, television has been the primary organ of information for voters – at least until 2008. And, it is still a major one. Several factors prevent it from being an honest one.
First, it divides its attention between actual news and information, and entertainment. In a newspaper the Sports section and the Comics pages are clearly defined and separate – handled separately from “News.” TV, not so much.
While a newspaper has time to make decisions about what is most valuable to report, biases notwithstanding, television news strives to be “up to the minute” in its transmittal of events. A dozen Internet services have worsened this. The presence of live-action video must be canned, edited and packaged for transmission in a few hours, or, when events are “breaking news,” fitted in unfiltered to an otherwise choreographed “segment.” What is actually displayed may or may not be the best representation of “truth” about an event, a belief-group, a protest or significant civic function, or about a crime.
Having taken the time to read a paper, the recipient of the views and news it contains can process them and develop his or her own beliefs about what was read. Everything on television, on the other hand, is “read” for the watcher/listener, and speculated upon or interpreted and delivered to multiple senses simultaneously. This implants the ideas of the presenter quite effectively. If no alternative sourcing is done by the recipient – if no newspaper is read later, for example, the beliefs and biases of the TV presentation are left to form beliefs.
One can see the effects of belief manipulation in topics like race, climate change, “immigration” and, most currently, Trump’s campaign and election. “#BlackLivesMatter” rides this dragon with abandon. We can also see the effects of overreach when media giants fail to be convincing.
A few months ago a new member – a young Hispanic woman – of a service club I am proud to be part of, heard us talking about corrupt practices connected to the Clinton Foundation. She questioned what we were saying. I assured her that there was plenty wrong with how they acquired money through the influence of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.
She was wide-eyed in shock! She’d never heard of any of this. One can trace the path of her disbelief: she obtained her news from an outlet that wanted her to know nothing about Mrs. Clinton’s negatives – an outlet that never reported on Clinton Foundation practices.
This recognized, carefully applied ability to sway large swaths of “low-information” voters was on bright display during our recent 18-month election marathon. Unfiltered hatred of Donald Trump, and unfiltered calumny, has millions now believing that he is barely a change of clothes away from gathering his armies of hateful racists on the Washington Mall and leading them with a “Seig Heil!” salute!
No wonder our college-age snowflakes – and many of their “teachers” – need safe spaces in which to worry about… nothing, actually.
How much brighter the future would be if both these groups spent more energy becoming smart, rather than angry.
Members of the University of Maine class of 2010 keep a beachball aloft during the commencement ceremony at the Alfond Arena in Orono Saturday. The university held two ceremonies because of the large number of students graduating this year. About 1700 students received their diplomas this year. BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY GABOR DEGRELEARNING TRUTHS
Truth in education would seem to be a perfect sequitur. That is, educators will naturally be imparting truths to their students… without question. Go to school – society’s best expression of its worth, strength and future – and truth will be your reward. Naturally. But, increasingly it seems, not necessarily.
HISTORY AND TRUTH
What has happened in the past, for example, to the best of our ability to discover and document, provides a body of truth that should be the basis of a History course. In order for our children to know our nation’s origins, our standards of action and cultural “traditions,” we are obligated to convey to them what the facts are and were. We are obligated to tell our children the truth… I think.
Adults – and teachers – sometimes forget that what they show and what they tell their kids is grasped as TRUTH. It can take years for those who have the good fortune or good parenting to unlearn opinions, biases or hatreds, and replace them with “truer” truths. Unless they also have the good fortune to go to most colleges.
COLLEGE LEDUCATION
There they’ll listen to deeper biases, radical anti-Americanism, lists of words that can’t be used any longer, while learning about “trigger” words or concepts that can damage their fellow students… although they won’t be allowed to say “fellow” students. That’s a micro-aggression.
The “Education Industry” used to open minds to new ideas, challenge them with opposing views, teach them to embrace exploration for ever greater and purer TRUTHS. That is a habit that serves American citizens and other humans, for their entire lives.
TRUE HATE
How did higher educators become sources of so much hatred? Inordinate amounts of effort are expended teaching students whom they ought to hate, largely by accusing their targets of being haters! No debate seems to affect this process. Then they demand campus cultures that protect their charges from hearing hateful opposing views. Often this includes agitating to prevent certain people – some quite accomplished – from speaking on their “safe” campus.
WAR ON TRUTH
The college war on TRUTH includes cleansing courses of books written by white people that have been judged by today’s irrelevant attitudes to have been hateful, regardless of truths they may have understood or discovered. There are, apparently, no reasons to learn about truths discovered or described by people we no longer approve of. The entire basis of the United States, going back 500 years, is now rejected as distasteful and properly hated by our delicate “students.” One wonders if they are students if their areas of exploration keep shrinking.
The Constitution and its intellectual premises are well documented, forming a certain body of truth worthy of study (“worthy” is an opinion). At least, one would hope that raising new citizens would include truths about their own country.
