I noticed this article over at American Thinker this morning and I cannot stop thinking about it. There is no better example of progressives and the ideology they embrace and it has nothing to do with bettering anyone’s life. What they have done to California is disgraceful. California is home to some of the world’s richest people, some of the world’s most beautiful coastlines and National Parks, and yet also home to 25% of the nations homeless. In fact the cost of housing in California is so high that nurses, electricians, plumbers, etc., are choosing to live out of their cars, if not exiting the State altogether as Mark recently wrote about. California is becoming the perfect example of leftism – the haves, and the have nots. As is Chicago, Baltimore, New York and nearly every other municipality governed by progressive Democrats.
They certainly believe in equality, it’s just that they consider themselves more equal than others. Look at the salaries and benefits these “big government” progressives award themselves, all the while their constituents are living out of cars and worse. The taxpayers of San Francisco County paid $675,000,000 in salaries and benefits to just 2,600 government workers (an average of over $250,000/yr), while those same administrators claim that the government does not have enough money to provide shelter to the over 12,000 homeless living on their streets. That’s who they are. And when people show you who they are – believe them. Never give up the fight.
Blogs For Victory 
OT, but——
I would encourage all shareholders in all the publicly owned companies who have severed their relationships with the NRA to sell those shares immediately, as I would expect them to plummet in price once people have a chance to think about the implications of the management of those companies.
The most important implication is the proof that these companies are being managed by people who are not very smart. I would think that would be a red flag for any stockholder. If the CEO or Board of Directors of any of these companies truly believes the NRA is associated in any way with the Parkland shootings, or has any responsibility for what happened, those people are severely lacking in mental acuity.
I saw the names of Delta and United Airlines and I thought “Do I really want to trust my life to people this stupid?”
It is as if a mentally deranged person purposely drove a car into a crowd of people, killing 17 and injuring dozens more, and then these companies rushed to sever ties with AAA, or Goodyear Tires. It simply does not make sense, and this is something I would want to know about the leadership of a company where I have invested my money.
Another implication is that these company leaders simply show really really bad judgment. A few loud voices have led them to lurch off a cliff together, bowing to the rule of the mob. Not what I am looking for in business management.
A third problem is the glaring lack of ethics, character and integrity.
And a fourth is the willingness to devalue my investment by telling millions of people that they don’t want the business of gun owners or defenders of the Constitution. If I want to invest in a company that openly declares it only wants to do business with Left-wing radicals, I am entitled to make that decision, I would be less happy to invest my money and find out later that the company has decided to limit its appeal to a fringe element of our society.
These companies have definitely made calculated decisions and needlessly in my opinion. Like any liberal temper tantrum, this too shall pass and instead of gaining the loyalties of those people who scream the loudest, these companies will be losing the loyalty those people who spend the most.
Re: the media’s continued outrage over Trump’s criticism of the policeman in Florida. I think if Trump would have just said that they acted “stupidly”, the media would give him a pass. Or better yet, if Trump would pick out one of the victims and declare that he could have been his son, everyone would feel differently about the situation.
I see this in similar light to when Target and other companies changed their bathroom designation from male / female, to transgender accessible, depending on which sex you associate with.
And I now drive right past our neighborhood Target to go to a WalMart a couple of miles away.
Like father, like son:
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ son is officially running for Congress.
Levi Sanders is running for the open House seat in New Hampshire’s 1st District, even though he doesn’t even live in that district
Time for taxpayers to support another member of the Sanders family.
Just moving into the family business of living off the taxpayer and telling people who work for a living they need to pay higher taxes.
Dennis Prager has an interesting piece at Town Hall.
That’s why the Left will suspend a 6-year-old for pointing a finger gun on the playground but, in spite of numerous red flags, the combined resources of high school staff, the school board, Family and Children’s Services, the Broward County Sheriff and the FBE couldn’t bring themselves to stop someone like the Parkland, FL, shooter.
When we stand back far enough to see the big picture, we can see that the Left steadfastly ignores events and situations that advance its totalitarian agendas, while attacking the foundations of a strong and independent America. The attacks on statuary and Columbus Day and the Founding Fathers are really just efforts to delegitimize our very existence, carbon emission hysteria and income equality are just pathways to establish formal legalized confiscation of private property, white privilege nonsense is just another tool to divide and conquer, Russian collusion is an effort to undermine our very government, abortion is part of the erosion of both morality and the intact family unit—-all are tools in the Leftist tool box. They are not just diversions, they are examples of the Left fighting not a big public easily identified war on the United States but a collection of incursions on many different fronts, all with the same end goal. And disarming the American public is a major part of this overall agenda.
Yep. It isn’t about lives – the left doesn’t care about lives. They only care about tearing our civilization down. Whatever does that is good. And, remember, the only reason the left supported our war effort during WWII was because Stalin gave them permission to do so.
Cluster,
It appears you’re not the only one who finds the unhinged atmosphere at MSNBC entertaining as opposed to informative.
It is like they’ve never so much as held a gun in their hand. I’m not a gun guy…but I know that this is irrelevant.
That network is unbelievable. This morning the panel was waxing nostalgic over JFK and LBJ calling them “strong leaders with vision” (as opposed to Trump of course), but without any mention of JFK’s famous womanizing or LBJ’s racist rants.
Also, Joey claimed that Obama was a unifier not only for Democrats but for the entire country. I just don’t remember that. I do recall Obama saying one time that people like me could “ride in the back of the bus” – I guess that was a unifying statement.
Did they by any chance mention the cowardice of JFK as he backed out on his promise to support the Cubans fighting to regain their country, abandoning them on the shores of the Bay of Pigs as he called off the promised air support and left them to be slaughtered or captured? Did they discuss the fact that the only reason PT 109 was sunk in the first place was because he was disobeying orders and took the boat out where it didn’t belong, with no lights, where it got hit and sunk? Did they mention that, as President of the United States, he was also boffing the girlfriend of Mafioso Sam Giancana? He was so much worse than just a sex addict. He was degenerate and dishonest on many levels.
As for LBJ, ask any Texan of his generation to hear stories of the murders, extortions and general criminality of his rise to wealth and political power. Ask about “Mac”, the guy who did his wet work for him, who finally got convicted of first degree murder but somehow never got sent to prison—whose finger prints were found on a box on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
JFK’s vision never rose above crotch level and LBJ’s was all about money and power. No wonder they are Leftist heroes.
Always wondered how the Kennedy PR people managed to turn a guy who who got run over by a Japanese destroyer into a hero…I mean, how the heck do you do that? Did no one see this big, old honking ship rolling down on them? Was anyone awake?
I read that Kennedy decided to hot dog it and took the PT 109 out, against orders, into a shipping lane and didn’t have lights on it because, after all, he wasn’t supposed to be there. As for why they didn’t see the ship bearing down on them, who knows? But the Kennedy Machine turned this all into a hero-story, with the help of Hollywood of course, and a gorgeous strong-jawed actor portraying Kennedy. At least he swam for help, a concept his baby brother didn’t seem to grasp.
Remember, the Left managed to turn the next JFK, John F’n Kerry, into a hero as well, and he was downright pathetic, faking injuries to get the three Purple Hearts he needed to get out of Viet Nam, getting a kid killed because he wasn’t paying attention to his radar display, and of course lying under oath to Congress (evidently back when that was OK) and lying about throwing his medals over the White House fence, etc. And he is still beloved by the Left, who still want him to be president.
Republicans may have had a tendency to nominate bad choices, but I can’t think of a single degenerate reprobate we have wanted to elect as President, while the Left has JFK, LBJ, Clinton the First, Clinton the Second, and John Kerry, as well as the big faker, Barack Obama, as either presidents or beloved candidates.
Obama WAS a unifier. He brought enough people together to vote Trump into the Presidency.
And the folks over at Newsbusters also enjoy the theater over at MSNBC. They particularly liked the segment I just mentioned:
MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle observed a “common thread” among the leaders in question, which he described thusly:
They arrive like a miracle, like a flash of sunlight on a stormy day in this country, and they are, almost to a person, people who understand several elements of life that affect everyone who is normal in this country. They understand loss. They understand what it’s like to be hurt, to be damaged within their own lives, within the frameworks of their own existence.
In a word, messianic. “And oh my God, do we need someone like that today,” Barnicle concluded with unanimous agreement from the panel.
Some people need leaders – others don’t. Kind of like “the one we have all been waiting for”.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2018/02/27/trump-derangement-syndrome-morning-joe-panelists-long-hero
Yes, if we could only find someone who could feel our pain, all would be sunshine and lollipops.
As for me, I don’t need empathy or a group hug—my idea of a leader is someone who actually understands the problems, not the symptoms, and who can work to address those problems, within the framework of our body of law. That is, of course, the Constitution.
We had a modern messiah, The One We Have All Been Waiting For, and his legacy is the destruction of decades of progress in race relations, trillions in national debt, more divisiveness than this country has ever experienced, international disdain and internal hostilities purposely created to divide and conquer.
Barnicle ought to go to church if he is looking for a Messiah, and leave problem solving to the adults, who are not huddled in safe rooms hiding from banana peels and shoelaces hanging from doorknobs, straining to hear dog whistles and looking for someone to understand them and soothe them and cuddle them and color pictures with them
Well don’t sugar coat it Amazona – tell us how you really feel – LOL
I would like to watch you debate the panel, that would be fun. Peggy Noonan was on this morning too, complete with her “concerned” look and the obligatory comments of the “lack of decorum” in the age of Trump. Which really exposes who NeverTrumpers are – experts in conservative parlance, but practitioners of none.
Yeah, I get that a lot. Someday I might figure out how to overcome that reluctance to speak up.
I think Diane Sawyer finally got Botox to deal with her Klingon forehead and those deep furrows of concern she showed every time she had to address some “CONTROVERSIAL” aspect of some conservative idea. (Hint: if it was called “CONTROVERSIAL” you knew it was something the Left wanted people to distrust or dislike. Nothing on the Left was ever “controversial”.) I used to wonder if her face would freeze that way.
I used to like Noonan but I understand she has abandoned pretense to objective political philosophy and is on the Identity Politics train these days. Just curious—-is she addressing her concern about lack of decorum to shrieking harridans wearing genital suits and screeching the F-bomb to express themselves, or the rioters or the car-poopers? Or is she just focusing on tweets?
Anyone who attended parochial school will appreciate this:
I am trying hard to picture my teachers with guns. They were scary enough with rulers.
I love that—as a survivor of almost 8 years of parochial school. (Whenever I say that I am reminded of the New Mexico math teacher who had a fit when I said that, as if it didn’t make sense. Moved halfway through eighth grade=nearly 8 years, but he pitched some kind of weird fit about it as if it didn’t make sense.)
Well we now know why the left is so apoplectic:
With unprecedented speed, the Trump administration has already implemented nearly two-thirds of the 334 agenda items called for by the Heritage Foundation, a pace faster than former President Reagan who embraced the conservative think tank’s legendary “Mandate for Leadership” blueprint.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/heritage-foundation-64-of-trumps-agenda-already-done-faster-than-reagan/article/2650141
I’m surprised it took the Dems 13 days since the Parkland shooting to come up with their solution.
That eliminates every gun I own except a 40-year-old 5 shot .38 revolver and a 12 gauge shotgun.
It would not, however, eliminate the M1 Garand. I suggest someone start to make that.
Unfortunately, for the left anyway, the adults are in charge, so none of this happens.
Well, we do have to remember that we also have some spineless squishies pretending to belong at the grown-ups table. And for some reason Trump is making noises as if he is one of them, trying to appease the Left with mouthing sentiments indicating a willingness to accept some gun control measures and scolding the NRA. (Which, by the way, just got my new 4-year membership.)
LOVED this article:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/dispatches_from_deep_inside_progressiville.html#ixzz58PFwDs7t
And particularly this:
The election of Donald Trump has been a gigantic litmus test for America. It is said that true character is revealed only under duress. If that’s so, then this country is filled with a whole lot of people who present well in the day-to-day world when things are going their way. But when the fates don’t favor them, they’re revealed to be namby-pamby embarrassments, with dubious reasoning skills, largely indefensible positions, hearts full of hypocrisy and hatred, and a dumb-assery that is fast becoming legend.
I too am worn out by the irrational fear progressives have of guns, white men, and just about everything else they confront when they leave their homes in the morning.
I don’t even know how they manage to leave their homes, to go out into a world full of Norwegian flags, banana peels, cotton balls and other threats to their very LIVES!!!!!! Not to mention the fact that other people they encounter might actually have opinions different from their own, or might actually go home to a house that has a GUN in it! Oh, the horror! They can’t even go out to dinner at an Outback Steakhouse without fear of being pursued across the parking lot and gunned down by a park ranger—-it’s a good thing Outback has busboys who can escort them to their cars, providing adequate protection against killer cops. We simply lack the empathy necessary to understand the constant fear—–nay, TERROR—-of being a Leftist, in a world where all human life might be extinguished at any moment by Donald Trump.
And again – much needed perspective in the midst of a progressive temper tantrum:
The NRA contributed $1.1 million to candidates in the 2016 election cycle, according to Opensecrets.org. The left says the “Republican Party is owned by the NRA.” Is that so? One million isn’t that much – unless you believe that the Russians influenced the 2016 election by spending that amount on Twitter and Facebook ads. Is anyone asking about the really big money?
Fahr LLC, owned by left-wing climate warrior Tom Steyer, contributed $90 million in 2016. The American Federation of Teachers gave $31 million, and the National Education Association contributed $30 million. The NRA are a bunch of cheapskates in comparison. Which groups are really buying influence in Congress?
How much has George Soros contributed to Leftist causes in the United States? He is beloved by the Left, and he is a horrible man and a convicted criminal whose wealth has allowed him to avoid prison time. From an article about an interview with him in 1998: emphasis mine
CBS’s Kroft asked Soros: “And you watched lots of people get shipped off to the death camps.”
Soros replied: “Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that that’s when my character was made.”
Soros had gone on in that broadcast, to reply to Kroft, that he felt no guilt whatsoever. In fact, according to the introduction to his father’s book which Soros himself wrote, “these were the happiest days of his life.” Soros had added: “It is a sacreligious thing to say, but these ten months [of the Nazi occupation] were the happiest times of my life…. We led an adventurous life and we had fun together.”
…………………………………………………
“All of the despicable, present British asset Soros’s obvious defects—his reversion to pre-Peace of Westphalia types of attacks on national states, his destruction of national currencies, and his drug-pushing, for starters, reflect, according to his own admissions to CBS, his training by the Nazis.”
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110425135623AAxITyZ
http://dailysignal.com/2018/02/28/closing-mental-institutions-made-us-vulnerable-mass-shootings
I’ve been saying this for many years now. I was a college student living in the Capital Hill area of Denver, a neighborhood of once-rather-grand houses cut up into apartments and mostly occupied by students and recent grads getting their feet on the bottom rungs of the ladder. It was a charming, rather Bohemian atmosphere.
Then the mental hospitals were emptied out and disoriented, confused and often terrified people were pretty much just dumped on the streets. The neighborhood changed almost overnight, as these people were housed in old hotels that quickly became cesspools of filth as these people simply did not know how to take care of themselves, or were put in the cheapest of the converted-house apartments where the same thing happened. They didn’t know how to handle their money, and the day their checks came in they were preyed upon by predators ranging from violent thugs to con men and women, often losing all their money within a day or so and then being hungry and scared. Many ended up on the streets. Even those who had rent paid by some government agency had nothing to do all day and spent their time on the streets, often trying to find money for food. It was tragic, and it still is.
Sure, the rhetoric of the advantages of being “integrated into society” sounds lovely, but it often simply does not work. These people were sacrificed to the lofty ideals of people who were clueless as to the reality of the fact that these people simply could not care for themselves.
I have a cousin, now in his 70s, who could have been one of these people. He was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, and the oxygen deprivation left him permanently mentally challenged. But he was the oldest in a family of nine children, in a farming community with dozens of cousins and caring neighbors, so he could be integrated into the society of his community. He got a drivers license and worked a series of jobs, simple work but he worked hard and was respected for his efforts, and his emotional swings were tolerated with sympathy and kindness. When his mother died a brother bought a house which was easily converted into two separate living quarters, where he lives in a quiet rural community of cousins and another brother, and the brother who bought the house makes a point of spending most weekends there.
My point is, it takes a lot of work and dedication and love and patience to deal with the mental and emotional issues of the mentally ill, whatever the source of that illness. When this is done, the person CAN live “integrated into society”. But when this is lacking, that person is much better off in a safe environment where he or she is housed, fed, clean and protected from the harshness of life on the outside, getting good nutrition and necessary medicines.
This is just another example of the Unintended Consequences of Leftist theories put into practice, with no understanding or care for what happens afterward. Mentally ill people resent being in institutions? Take them out of institutions. There—-problem solved. Order up some nice herb tea and feel smug about “helping” these people.
Well remember, and many progressive liberals have told us this, it’s not the results they concern themselves with, it’s the intent. As long as someone says that they care, and they have D after their name, the results are never examined.
Speaking of irrational fear:
On Sunday’s AM Joy, the show’s panel of former Republicans joined far-left host Joy Reid in freaking out over the idea of encouraging some school teachers to carry concealed weapons to combat attacks on schools with faux Republican Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin calling it President Donald Trump’s “dumbest idea,”
Now let’s set aside the obvious that these liberals are claiming that teachers are incapable of being armed and instructing children at the same time. Kind of exposes how they really feel about teachers, but I recall after 9/11 that we trained and armed pilots and that has been a huge deterrent, among other measures taken, so why do liberals believe teachers are not as professional as pilots, and why do liberals believe that protecting airline passengers for private companies is more important than protecting our nations children?
Shouldn’t that question be asked?
Liberals don’t want armed teachers because armed teachers means that the lunatics will no longer choose schools for their rampages and that takes away an effective means of pushing for gun control. Its really as simple as that – they want a high body count because they are expecting it to eventually allow them to ban weapons.
They racked up quite the body count in Las Vegas last October.
And that is the weird one, isn’t it? We know this Cruz guy inside and out already…we still know next to nothing about the Vegas shooter.
I’ve nothing to base this on other than gut feeling: the “shooter” was a gun/drug dealer and he was murdered by his confederates who were actually the shooters. I’m thinking the Vegas shooting was a test run for something larger.
And that is the weird one, isn’t it?
Sandy Hook was also weird. In the Stoneman Douglas shooting 14 students and 3 staff died from their wounds while 20 (I haven’t seen the breakdown of students/staff) were wounded but survived. At Sandy Hook 20 students died from their wounds and NOT A SINGLE ONE survived. Six teachers/staff died from their wounds, and, depending on the account you read, none/one/two survived their wounds. The vast majority of accounts of Sandy Hook, including several that claim to be the definitive final report, don’t mention ANY wounded teachers/staff who survived. One very early account said two teachers were wounded but survived and a couple said one wounded teacher survived. No wounded survivors were ever named as far as I know, and I’ve watched hours of video and read a couple dozen articles and news accounts. I’m not one of those conspiracy theorists who doesn’t believe it happened, but I seriously doubt it happened the way it was reported — just too many discrepancies and unanswered questions.
I agree. I think it was the works of the anti gun lobby …..
You guys do realize that merely asking questions about mysteries can brand you as kooks, nuts, conspiracy theorists, etc. don’t you?
To this day, people who have asked questions about where Obama was born or his educational background are derided as such, while the questions have been ignored or partially addressed. Sometimes a question is just a search for an answer. But sometimes a refusal to provide an answer leads to the conclusion that perhaps the real answer is dangerous a threat to someone.
The purpose, in my view, of emptying the institutions was to create social chaos…that is what Progressives want. They view our pathologies as caused by our religion and our free markets…and that we’re just a bunch of hypocrites “hiding” our problem…well, we’ll show you (say these liberals): we’ll take these people you’re “hiding” and put them in your neighborhoods where you can’t ignore them! That’ll show you that you must discard your religion and your free markets! That the lives of these poor people are destroyed – and others, into the bargain – is irrelevant. The liberal goal is served: things get worse and they are keeping with the old Bolshevik concept of “the worse, the better”.
Mark, I think you are right. It’s harder to be anti-America if there aren’t thousands of “homeless” on the streets, so the Left creates homelessness. Also, overloading the system is part of the Cloward-Piven strategy. I have to wonder what would happen to those numbers if the mentally ill were institutionalized, work was required of the able-bodied to get welfare benefits, and food stamp requirements were tightened up.
I would have no problem in having government jobs made available to people who truly are homeless through no fault of their own, such as children fleeing abusive homes or people who lost jobs and didn’t have safety nets of their own. I would have no problem in paying for apartments for homeless families so they would be off the streets and have addresses and phone numbers, necessary to find job.
I understand that there are homeless people whose mental conditions don’t call for them being in institutions but also don’t let them fit well into society or regulated lives. Fine—but they should be required to live in some sort of official housing, not under our bridges or on the streets, and should not be allowed to panhandle or use the streets as sewers.
But real answers to the real problems are not what the Left wants. They need crises, and will never act to eliminate them.
Remember when Mike Pence was mocked for “talking with God”?? Well, here’s Oprah:
“God, if you think I’m supposed to run, you gotta tell me, and it has to be so clear that not even I can miss it.’ And I haven’t gotten that.”
How many media outlets will mock Oprah?
Well, Hillary talked to Eleanor Roosevelt and the Left was fine with that
Now the Archbishop of Chicago is lecturing us on how we should “listen to the children”–because really, who could make a more compelling argument than a bunch of teenagers “educated” throughout their lives in Leftist indoctrination, forming screaming mobs of hysteria?
Children who have, evidently, never heard of the Constitution—-another surprise. Not.
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/02/28/chicagos-cardinal-cupich-listen-young-people-about-guns
It is harder and harder to be a Catholic these days. If it were not the heritage of years in the Church before Vatican II and its awkward lurch to the Left, and the assurance of some priests that no, the Pope is not infallible in anything but pure Church doctrine, I’d be looking for another church. It is just so sad to see a once-muscular Church sissified into this weak, spineless Leftist mouthpiece. Even the Jezzies sound like Lefty wimps half the time.
Hard for me to get involved with any church anymore. They are either overly political, or just a Sunday social club with T shirts and refreshments.
On my local level I don’t have to deal with this Leftist political crap. I like the church I attend and it is a genuine worship service with a great priest and congregation. It is the upper levels of the Church hierarchy that I find offensive. The Church was brought low the last time the Left gained power, back in the Vatican II days, which led to (among other things) the sex abuses by priests—which were, by the way, very very VERY seldom “pedophilia” but were seductions of post-pubescent boys by predatory homosexual priests. In the years after Vatican II Catholic seminaries became havens for predatory homosexuals, as the Church basically offered a great hunting ground for boys and young men who would look up to and trust their spiritual advisers. The Complicit Agenda Media, in their hatred of religion and promotion of homosexuality, tried to cover this up with their blanket assertions of “pedophilia” which implied dirty old men molesting young girls, and for the most part they have been pretty successful in selling this story, but it was homosexual predation after the lurch to the Left by the Church opened it up to this kind of thing.
At one church I attended last year, the priest told the congregation they should listen to the Pope and read what he says and not fear that this would constitute heresy, because it is important to know what he is promoting. I nearly fell out of my seat. That is the boldest statement I have heard. The church I regularly attend has not been political but the homilies have also not referenced anything said by the Pope, which I think is significant. There is a certain quiet distrust of this Pope, I think, not spoken of much, but I don’t sense much active support or respect.
This Leftist Pope and the increasingly Leftist Jesuits and the plethora of Cafeteria Catholic nuns who think they can pick and choose which teachings to follow and which to ignore as they advocate abortion, are not the true face of the Church. But they get the attention.
I think Francis is the Barack Obama of the Catholic Church and he is doing great harm. But I love my parish and find a spiritual home ther—no T shirts though they do have pancake breakfasts and after some Masses offer coffee and doughnuts. The Catholic Church is the original Christian religion and has survived centuries of ups and downs, and I haven’t given up on it, but I am getting tired of the Leftist propaganda some its officials keep pushing.
I changed my involvement in the Catholic church many years ago when I saw firsthand the many conflicting teachings proposed by various people of authority within the church, which has only gotten worse. While growing up, my mother grew to become what is often referred to as a “staunch” Catholic. My father was typical of a non-practicing Catholic, who worked 70 hours a week. Growing up, all of my siblings and I were sent to a Catholic school. Even back then there were numerous instances where we children were told one thing by the nuns or priests while in school, only to be “corrected” by my mother and / or her very religious friends. While that in itself became a constant state of confusion, what created further uncertainty was when my parents greatly stressed the requirement for obedience to proper authority. The fact that our local bishop resided in the same parish housing as our church priests, seemed anything the priests and nuns taught received prior approval from him. And if the bishop(s) received their marching orders from the pope, what higher authority should I as a “good Catholic” follow – my parents and their friends, who were well versed in church teachings along with all the reasons we were to do or not do certain things, or the priests and nuns? Add to that, my parents told us that ultimately we were required to follow our conscience, for in the end, that’s how we’d be held accountable by God. This chaos did more to pushed me away from God than bring me closer to Him. When I realized that was happening, I step back from both sides of the equation to develop a more direct relationship with God.
I prayed (talked) to God often asking for guidance, direction, inspiration and knowledge of what He wanted from me. This was a very different form of prayer I typically engaged in (was forced to participate in) as a child – saying daily prayers, praying the rosary and going to mass. Saying the rosary every night became nothing more than repetition of words without thought or meaning. Going to mass was not much different. Most probably know the church mass routine; stand, sit, stand, sit, stand, kneel, sit, kneel, sit – intertwined a few verses of the bible and a homily that few listened to. This was made obvious at a Mother’s Day mass. During the homily the priest talked about the value of mothers. Toward the end of his speech he asked for all the mothers to stand and be recognized. Well, as the mothers stood up a number of men woke from their mini slumber thinking the homily was over, also stood up.
Confusion, disorder, chaos, mayhem… these are tools of evil (and to a large part the very same tools used by the far left). Clarity of thought and truth allows people to solve issues, creates strength in numbers of people who seek to do good, and helps bring about true harmony. I’m not against my fellow humans who are of a different color skin or a different sex than I, but I will stand up against either who advocate or work against a moral society.
And most unfortunate is that the current pope, the person who represents the head of the church on earth, has been at the forefront of creating confusion with many of the church’s prior, long accepted teachings. The church as we know it cannot stand when there is so much conflict within. Somehow, somewhere there has to be a correction. I have not idea what form that correction will take. It could be slow with constant turmoil or it could fast and hard.
While knowing a correct has to happen and that it could create harsh difficulties for everyone, I do not dwell on it. Instead I (try to) spend most of my energy seeing the miracles that occur everyday and all around us and realize, God is fully aware and taking care of things. I use to see most things as simple coincidences. Now, most things reveal themselves as well thought out actions with intended purposes. One only need to look beneath the surface to see it. For example, my son was on a recent business trip. Due to weather, his flight (along with a bunch of others) got cancelled. He was able to get to his destination using alternate travel including a car rental, driving to and using a different airport & airline. Interestingly, not only was his next seat companion on the airplane strongly interested in one of my son’s products, he also had several hundred clients himself looking for that same kind of information. Coincidence? I think not. I see these things play out many times a day. There are just too many of them happening to be pure coincidence. If that is true, the only thing I’m left with is Devine influence.
God is… well God. I could attempt to use an array of words to describe Him, but simply put, He is. Knowing that helps remove confusion and allows us to establish a meaningful relationship with Him. Though I think about the things to come, I do not worry about them. I’m at peace with Him knowing what He knows and doing what He will.