I received a call the other night from someone I didn’t recognize who wanted to ask me two quick questions. It ended up he was a campaign worker for a candidate in PA’s 12th congressional district, Lee Griffin, running for the seat currently held by Fred Keller. Once I was oriented to the purpose of the call I asked if his guy was a Democrat, and eventually, after some equivocation, the answer was yes. I explained that I cannot find it in myself to vote for anyone who aligns themselves with the hatred and racism of the Democrats, a party of, by, and for “Black Lives Matter,” which itself is an organization that primarily caters to privileged white and black leftists and manipulates and exploits black Americans for personal and political power and profit- quintessential racism. The caller, who was very polite, said that his guy Griffin wasn’t a racist because he had an inter-racial marriage. The call ended amicably. Admitting to my own embarrassment that I should have known who Lee Griffin was, I decided to take a look at his campaign website, leegriffinforcongress.com, which to me has the feel of zealous religiosity rather than a political tone.
There was a time when the Democrat party was in fact a political party, and in my lifetime they defined themselves as the party of the workingman, as compared to the Republicans being the party of the wealthy. Whether this was true or not is debatable, but nevertheless the Democrats were a political enterprise, and ran the gamut of union workers, law and order types, and the occasional wacko (like any party), but no one questioned their basic allegiance to the idea and fact of the US: George McGovern was pretty far out there in 1972 but he was a decorated and courageous WW2 bomber pilot.
Trump visits the Suresnes American Cemetery in France, Nov. 11, 2018.
Note: Belleau Wood denotes a significant military engagement in France in June 1918 in which (especially) US Marines displayed enormous courage- and incurred enormous casualties- in a victorious battle against German forces, this being of course WW1. Two years ago there were commemorations in Europe marking the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1. Trump attended some of these and now, two years later, The Atlantic magazine published an article accusing Trump of odious behavior related to his visit to France in Nov. 2018. There were reportedly four anonymous sources for article and the allegations have been vigorously denied by the Trump administration. Links to both The Atlantic article and an article discussing Trump’s refutation of the claims are below.
The other day I received a brief e-mail from a highly educated scholar with an impressive amount of real world experience. He is a serious and very respectable person who tends to be a “never Trumper.” His e-mail expresses his belief that the accusations are true and his associated disgust with Trump; the bulk of this article is my responding that such accusations should be viewed with objective skepticism. Note the syntax used reflects a familiarity between him and me, hence it might sound as such.
His e-mail:
in other news, the latest from our esteemed president (via the Atlantic):
Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
My response:
I can appreciate the frustration a historian must feel at times, hoping to find a gestalt, so to speak, among disjointed and largely non-existent source materials, and then to make the discovered knowledge meaningful in some way. Say a music historian found an unsigned piece of paper in an ancient manuscript that stated Salieri had frequent intercourse with Mozart, what might be inferred? Here are several possibilities: Salieri and Mozart had an ongoing homosexual relationship; the word “intercourse” often had a different, non-sexual meaning in the historical context of the time and that they were frequent collaborators; or that Salieri wanted people to think he was a close confidant of Mozart but didn’t want to personally state such. Let’s say the historian was also a gay-rights activist, the kind who, for example, use salutations from the 18th century as evidence that many founders of the US were homosexuals, and we see a headline, “Renowned historian discovers that Mozart and Salieri were lovers.” Something that seems so benign can become, willfully or not, interpreted or misinterpreted in so many ways.
If a primary Spanish speaker, in learning English, transliterated “Mi tio Pedro me molestaba cuando yo tenia cinco años,” he or she might say, “My uncle Peter used to molest me when I was five,” but this wouldn’t be correct, though someone who didn’t understand the linguistic context might accuse Uncle Peter of being a pedophile.
18 months ago or so it was widely and unequivocally reported in the most august news organizations in the US that Nathan Phillips (the 60+ year old guy who banged the drum in the face of the Covington High School student) was a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam war, but he wasn’t, nor was he a “Marine recon ranger,” which was also reported as fact.
Two years ago this month it was reported that Brent Kavanaugh and some high school buddies were involved in essentially a gang-rape assembly line in which they drugged young girls and had sex with them while they were incapacitated. People that hated Trump were ecstatic, and never really asked themselves, “Is this really likely to be true?” because they so desperately wanted to believe it.
So we have an article in the Atlantic, very much a leftist publication but one of the few remaining with some traces of true liberalism, using (I believe) four anonymous sources to report rather ignorant and odious statements emanating from Trump’s mouth made two years ago. Anytime something like this is proposed, an intelligent and educated person, tempered with a bit of wisdom and complemented with some real life experience (and always with a bit of skepticism), should ask themselves not if it’s possible it’s true, because the answer is always yes, but is it likely to be true?
If it was reported that Trump said something like, “Belleau Wood, what the hell is Belleau Wood?” that would be believable, especially because ignorance of history runs deep in the US, and I wouldn’t doubt that 95% of Americans (and 98% of elected officials!) have no idea what Belleau Wood was nor its significance and, more worrisome, wouldn’t care. As to referring to the Marines killed during that engagement as “suckers,” I don’t buy it for several reasons.
First, obviously, is the anonymous nature of the sources, but even if the claimants were known, we’ve seen in the last four years any number of people making false or specious claims against Trump (or his representatives) out of hatred, greed, desire for celebrity, political reasons, or a combination of these factors: as we learned with the “whistleblower” during last year’s impeachment proceedings, he (though I think his name still remains officially undisclosed) was a blatant partisan. Second, the timing is suspect: if Trump made such an unfortunate statement two years ago, why was this not made public at the time, in an environment ripe for any and all accusations against Trump. And the other half of the timing question is, "why now?" I imagine and suspect in the next two months we are going to see many similar accusations, with some being reported as “bombshells,” and these, regardless of veracity, will dominate the news cycles. Thirdly, though Trump clearly has a tendency to say nasty things about people he perceives as opponents, there is no real motivation for him to say such things generically.
An unfortunate trait of human nature, shared by all of us, is pleasure derived from hearing bad things about people we don’t like, and accepting them without critical regard or context or perspective. In some cases, if dislike becomes hate, it goes beyond schadenfreude and becomes almost a drive to hear and believe things that will elicit blind outrage, which sometimes I think is a neurophysiologic state: a paradoxical pleasure stimulation evoked by a barrage of neurotransmitters!
Thinking and mature people, who seem increasingly rare (perhaps even more so in academia!), will view reported "bombshells" with healthy skepticism. A personal example for me were reports that Obama ordered the White House to be cast in a purple light when Prince (or the “artist formerly known as Prince”) died of a drug overdose. Actually this was very conceivable based upon Obama's precedents, but before I personally began to express and share my “outrage,” I checked it out and, much to my disappointment, found it wasn’t true. And it didn’t matter whether I “felt” it was true or that “it might as well have been true,” it simply was not.
You might consider to reading Trump’s response and see if there is there is a basis for questioning the article in The Atlantic.
Note: USAA (United Services Automobile Association) is a membership based insurance company begun in the 1920s by a group of Army officers. Over the decades they grew considerably and branched out into financial services. Some type of military association is required to be a member and they have developed a deserved reputation for integrity and service. I’ve been a member for 37 years, and I (along with my wife) use them for our car and house insurance and many of our banking needs. One great plus of USAA is that it has been operated by serious and competent adults who never gave in to societal and political fads and pressures, until now. Below is a letter to Wayne Peacock, the newly installed CEO of USAA and the first who has never served in the military, in response to a position statement he released fully aligning USAA with the woke social justice activism (that statement can be found at the bottom of the page).
Greetings Mr. Peacock:
I had thought to myself with satisfaction that USAA was one of the exceptional companies that had the strength of character and sobriety to not succumb to the coercion and disingenuousness of the popular culture of the moment. That is, until I found your letter of supplicating mea culpa apologetics when I signed on to my USAA account.
I cannot recall in my lifetime a situation in which there has been unanimous agreement on a value- in this case revulsion at the brutal murder of George Floyd- that was so quickly exploited so as to create division and foster hatred and even violence. The underlying premise, that black lives matter (BLM), is fine as far as it goes, because everyone’s life matters, regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. What we know is that the political and cultural movement known as BLM in fact embraces racism by selectively applying worth to black Americans on a commodity basis, and finding marketable value only when the manner of death can be used for profit: if a black American is one of the handful killed by a white cop, for example, there is titillation; if a black American is one of approximately 6,500 killed by intra-racial violence every year there is something between silence and embarrassment: the former must be exploited, the latter ignored.
This is an article published in a small local newspaper on April 29, 2020 by Reid Fitzsimons with the intent of suggesting people who could afford it to donate their virus relief money to charity. It was run unedited except for the headline- the original title was "Retired Pennsylvania Couple Donates Virus Relief Money To Orphanage"
In 2007 Patricia Huenemoerder and her husband, Reid Fitzsimons, of Thompson, PA, opened a small charity project in a rural village in Honduras, which they described as a center for children with a mix of nutritional, recreational and educational programs; overall a safe place where kids were free to act like kids. A variety of reasons, including increasing violence in Honduras and Fitzsimons' son being deployed to Afghanistan, led to the closing of the children's program in 2012, but in 2013 they began a less involved program focusing on vocational training for young adults and small community development projects. It was for this reason Fitzsimons went to Honduras on the 12th of March, just days before the global corona virus restrictions were put in place.
Carpentry class with the 2 oldest kids 2019
"I was able to get everything up and running pretty fast; the carpentry shop, English classes, the sewing co-op" he mentioned, "but soon thereafter Honduras essentially shut down, leaving people largely confined to their villages and being jailed simply for being found outside." He eventually was no longer able to accomplish anything and finally, heeding dire US Embassy warnings returned on an emergency evacuation flight on April 6th.
The apparent head of the United Methodist Church "Imagine No Racism" project, Mark Webb, who holds the title of "Bishop."
A very good and caring friend recently mentioned she had attended a seminar entitled Imagine No Racism, sponsored by the United Methodist Church in the Buffalo, NY area. I checked it out on-line and what I discovered was no surprise. For example, there is a list of desired qualities of prospective “team” members: Do you have a passion for racial justice and equity? Are you open to change and willing to grow in your knowledge and awareness of racial injustice and white privilege? Do you have some knowledge already of racism and/or white privilege? There is a mention that “Racism is a disease that infects the hearts, minds, souls and bodies of individuals, churches and communities. Our Social Principles state, ‘Racism is the combination of the power to dominate by one race over other races and a value system that assumes that the dominant race is innately superior to others.’” All utterly predictable non-sense, of course. Below is an e-mail I sent this person, which was well received by her.
Note the person referred to as “Nelson (name changed)” is a
gentleman from Kenya who I first knew when he was a teenager when I was a
volunteer medical director of a clinic in his remote village in the early
2000s. In Dec. 2018 my wife and I were able to bring him to the US on a
non-immigrant visa to attend college; he has subsequently earned a 4.0 GPA!
Hi_______:
I’m intrigued by the seminar you mentioned, “Imagine No
Racism;” I went to the website for it. I think you know I can be pretty
scathing when it comes to religious and societal matters, and this has both!
Perhaps you could share the following story at your next session.
You haven’t met him but I think you know who Nelson is. In
2017 I traveled with him and my son throughout very (VERY) remote eastern
Uganda. When Nelson returned to Kenya he entered what is called the Land of the
Luos (any major tribal area may be referred to as the “Land of…”). Nelson is in
fact a Luo but his skin, while a very dark brown, is not the actual black that
is typical of the Luos. This was at the time of some tribal conflict, so once
he was back in Kenya he kept his mouth shut (Nelson likes adventure and new
experiences!) and heard some guys talking about what they should do to him.
They assumed he was a Kikuyu or other rival tribe and even considered killing
him. At this point he spoke up, in his native Luo language, and said he was as
Luo as they were, with an implication they should have been ashamed of
themselves, and he continued his travels unmolested. Is that racism- injuring
and even killing people not because they are black, but because they are not as
black as some others?
Back in 2002-2003 I served as a volunteer medical director at a clinic in remote Kenya, East Africa. This was at the time of the AIDS pandemic with suffering beyond the comprehension of most Americans. Needless to say, we generated a large amount of bio-hazard type waste, especially blood and pus and associated needles and scalpels, etc. These all were discarded into a designated pit.
Late one night a pregnant lady came to the clinic with obvious malaria, which actually accounted for most of the morbidity and mortality in our area. There was some debate in the literature about the effects of malaria on pregnancy, but sadly the mother miscarried and the dead child was fully expelled intact from her uterus. The baby was a fully formed girl, perhaps 23 to 25 weeks of gestation, and fully abortable by the standards of the Democrat party. The dilemma I faced was what to do with this dead baby- throw her down the pit, which would be consistent with the Democrat belief that this child possessed no more value than a tumor or basin full of pus, or provide some kind of dignified burial for her. Despite not being a believer in God or any religion, I could not help but to choose the latter.
I would like to ask the luminaries of the Democrat party- Cuomo, Warren, Buttigieg, Schumer, Biden, Northham, Pelosi- what they would choose, the pit or burial. I guess, unfortunately, we know the answer: to choose other than the pit would impart humanity on the baby, and this is contrary to their narrative that such a child is nothing more than medical waste, not just at 12 or 24 weeks of gestation, but right up to full term and even post-birth.
A reference to Bruce Jenner receiving an ESPN "courage award."
by Reid Fitzsimons
We live in a rural and decidedly Republican area of
Northeast, PA- our county went for Trump something like 70/30 in 2016. Down the hill is a little town of perhaps
150 people, and in the 8years we’ve been here a house on Main Street has
distinctly displayed several flags, including the US flag, a “rainbow” flag
that contained the words “Don’t Tread On Me,” and one that stated, “Born This
Way;” the flags have weathered and faded over time and have been replaced. I have never seen the person or persons who
live in this house but I assume he, she, or they are homosexual activists of
some sort. I’ve never heard of any
trouble, such as the flags being stolen or anti-homosexual graffiti, but this
is not surprising as the overall conservative philosophy in such matters is
“whatever you do, though it might not be my cup of tea, is yours to do as long
as it doesn’t interfere with the rights of others.”
The progressive left has certain immutable beliefs that
paradoxically often prove to be quite fluid. The above-mentioned sentiment,
“Born This Way,” implies there is a genetic imperative connected to
homosexuality. While I’m fairly certain
there is no established “homosexual gene,” this concept has been a mainstay of
homosexual activism, which disallows any suggestion that a homosexual can
change, therefore any treatments or therapies (“conversion therapy”) are not
only scorned but in some cases have been made illegal. Curiously this is in direct opposition to
what is called transgenderism, the advocates of which declare that scientific
genetics (xx versus xy) can and should be ignored, because concepts of gender
are merely “social constructs,” specifically those created by oppressive
conservative males of European descent. Also, curiously, conversion therapy in
regards to transgenderism is not only allowed but demanded by activists.
I can’t help but think the displayer(s) of these flags
wouldn’t mind a little “homophobic” action, some vandalism or the like- they
are obviously trying to make a statement and I suspect they would like some
kind of confirmation that they’ve been heard.
Ironically for decades “tolerance,” which is plentiful, has been the
catchword of such activists, their ostensible goal, but it is really approbation
that is being sought, and the problem with affirmation/approbation is that it
is an extrinsic phenomenon that by nature requires the participation of
other people. Tolerance is a passive
live and let live thing; approval, and the associated demands of “embracing”
and “celebrating” is active, and herein lies a political and social
dilemma.
20 plus years ago I was elected the local President of a NY
State public employees union representing professional, scientific, and
technical workers, a somewhat curious occurrence considering I am/was a
conservative and generally anti-union. Nevertheless, I won by a 2:1 vote margin
and was fairly popular, if I may say so; it proved to be a revealing
experience. One of the members was a middle-aged guy with whom I had a friendly
acquaintance. He was always affable and seemed perfectly competent and
dedicated, but there was always a vague stain on his reputation- he was barely
tolerated by management and never seemed to be going anywhere in his career. At
times he suggested there was an ill-defined conspiracy against him, which he
attributed to his declining to be part of the old-boys network from years past,
the kind of claim to which one responds, “Is that right?”
One day, as an office building was being shuffled about, another employee came across a file with his name and, assuming it was his, handed it to him. As he looked through it he came to quite a realization- the folder contained all sorts of management documents and communications ridiculing and demeaning him, going back years. In essence he was accidentally given a “secret” file that proved he was indeed a target of an administrative conspiracy, in violation of numerous contractual and policy rules. Keep in mind we were not a nerve center of NY State government, but a rather remote outpost, so to speak. From the union standpoint we had a field day, with one of the few administrative people with integrity admitting, “We have no excuse or defense.” I learned during my union time his case was not altogether unique, and that there are always plenty of petty people lining up to curry favor with bosses by disparaging others and bosses who bask in their own petty power and who live to have their boots licked.
Virginia's enlightened progressive Governor Dr. Northam's medical school yearbook photo
Part 1, Milton
We first knew Milton when he was perhaps 5 or 6 years
old. He was a fairly regular attendee
at our charity children’s program (breakfast, story time, playtime, lunch, arts
and crafts, sports, games, snack, finish up by around 4 pm) near a small
village in rural Honduras. To be honest
he wasn’t the brightest of kids, but he was very cute as he sat on the swing
and said, “Reid, calame (Reid, swing me).”
We would open in the morning, often with 20-30 kids, and by
the afternoon 40 to 50 wasn’t unusual.
They largely had one thing in common in regards to the following: pretty
much none of the parents (mothers) had any idea where their kids were. There is no tradition of, “Hey mom, I’m
heading off to the guarderia, be back around 4:30,” but rather the kids go off
to do whatever they do and all is well if they end up back home by dark. By our “we are right in the latest
incarnation of whatever we do in the US at the moment” standard this might
sound negligent, but it’s more similar to the way my generation was raised than
not, plus our project had a pretty good reputation. For the most part the mothers in the village sincerely care about
their children, fathers typically less so, considering so many of them are
absent from their children’s lives, which is pertinent to Milton.
Briefly, the last full session of the kids’ program was in
2011, for a variety of reasons we did not leave the US in 2012, and beginning
in 2013 I (now with my wife staying at home) began spending about two months a
year in the village, not doing a program for kids per se but more young adult
and adult oriented, especially teaching English, carpentry, and sewing. Not surprisingly on each trip down there I
catch up on the latest, especially asking about how the kids we had gotten to
know quite well in past years are doing.
This past March (2019) upon my arrival I inquired as to Milton’s status
and learned he had recently gone to los Estados Unidos illegally, which was
unexpected. In learning the details I
was told his father had taken him. I
mentioned that to the best of my knowledge his father was never part of his
life, and this was confirmed, i.e. Milton simply became a pasaporte for his
hitherto absent father.
We are funny in America in regards to children, at least the
left is. In any social policy, or political debate, invoking “the children” is
supposed to stifle the other side and assure their acquiescence (which
unfortunately has often proven to be true, at least in pre-Trump times). Though the left gleefully ends the lives of
children by the boatload under the guise of “women’s rights,” they seem to drip
with compassion for non-aborted children as long as it advances their
narrative. This has very much filtered
down to the villages in Honduras in the form of, “if you show up at the border
with a kid you will get in.” This explains Milton’s father’s newly discovered
love for his dear son. It also explains
why 13 year-old Julia’s aunt was planning on returning to the village and drag
her with her to the border (“remember Julia, I’m your mother!”).
We hear a good deal about child/human trafficking these days
and what I’m describing is at the lower end: certainly the parents aren’t
knowingly giving up their children to be sex slaves, and not even selling them
per se. There is simply an implicit understanding that “when you get into the
US using my son or daughter as your passport, I will expect to be spending time
at the Western Union office to receive remittances from you.”
Although I could fill pages talking about immigration, I
merely want to end this section with a few thoughts. First, our progressive
Democrat policy, which is essentially in effect Trump or no Trump, turns
children into commodities, and indeed makes them susceptible to full-blown
exploitation.
Second, our policy ignores the most basic and humane (though
most difficult) solution, which is to improve the situation in the countries of
mass emigration. This should not mean
everyone has to have the American middle-class standard of SUVs, big screen
TVs, streaming video, smart phones, wine coolers, and air conditioning, but
there are basic modern comforts that, if more universally available, would
certainly improve living standard.
Third, a common aspect to the immigration debate is the idea of assimilation, and there seems to be a reluctance to embrace this ideal culturally and linguistically, at least when compared to the widely held narrative pertaining to prior immigrants. The concept of assimilation simply doesn’t exist in the minds of the current wave from Latin America: there are no tired, huddled masses yearning to breath free. They are not refugees with legitimate asylum claims planning to assimilate, but rather have seen plenty of Hollywood movies with all the glitter and materialism and say to themselves, “I want that.” And you can’t really blame them.
Part 2, The Blind Girl
In modern progressive Western culture the most odious
creature is the white male Christian conservative, even worse if they are from the
South, and even worse if they are credentialed as a Baptist pastor- the horror!
I will call him Leonard, and yes, he is all of these things. Around 15 years ago his fictitious (I am a
non-believer) God called him to Honduras to help children, and eventually he,
along with his Christian Mexican- American wife (I forgot to mention he is also
a dreaded heterosexual), established an orphanage. It wasn’t your typical orphanage, however, with cottages and
hired caregivers, but rather the kids were their kids, and they lived with the
kids. They peaked at perhaps 20-some
children, lost a few for a variety of reasons, and now have about 15. Needless to say, these kids were from the
worst situations of neglect, abuse, and abandonment imaginable, for the most
part have been with them since infancy, and they are “children of color.” More
on this shortly.
About 13 years ago a baby girl was born, named Xiomara who
was obviously blind, and there was some concern she had a “syndrome” that would
make her mentally retarded, deaf, or what have you. During the time the baby was a neonate an American physician
(OB/Gyn, who traveled on a somewhat tortured road that led her to Honduras,
then back to the US) happened to see this baby and declared it would be better
off if she were simply left to die.
This did not happen, and shortly she was taken in by Leonard. She grew and thrived and a couple of years
ago she was adopted by, yes, a despicable Christian, conservative heterosexual
American couple from, Lord help us, Texas.
I’ve known Xiomara since she was a baby and had the chance to see her
this past March (the adoptive parents bring her back to Honduras to visit her
siblings, i.e. the kids she grew up with until her adoption), and she was
everything wonderful in a child- happy, vibrant, engaging, etc.
Not to long ago the Democrat Governor of Virginia became embroiled in some
controversy, especially in terms of a black face/KKK medical school yearbook
photo. Though this has faded away
(together with a sexual assault accusation against the Democrat Lt. Gov. it was
conceivable a Republican could have ascended to the VA executive office, so the
initial progressive outrage had to be quelled), there was a lesser-reported
controversy that reminded me of Xiomara.
The Governor, who graduated medical school and is a soft-spoken
progressive extremist, was prompted to muse about a bill to end any
restrictions on abortion, to include allowing the abortion of baby while the mother
was in natural active labor. In the
event the child survived the abortion and continued unwanted by the mother he
suggested “comfort care,” in other words putting a blanket over the infant and
allowing it to die from dehydration or starvation. He added, “And it's done
in cases where there may be severe deformities.”
My primary career was as a medical provider, Physician Assistant (PA), and I worked or associated with many physicians over the years. I can say some of the finest people I’ve known were physicians, many were of average integrity, and too many were disingenuous reprobates, the kind of people like VA Governor Dr. Northam who couch barbarism- starving and dehydrating babies to death- in feel-good terms such as “comfort care.” Needless to say, under Dr. Northam’s professional and august guidance, Xiomara would have died an agonizing death. It’s ironic to note that it would be less cruel to simply use a pipe or hammer and smash the baby’s skull, but with all the blood, bone fragments, and brain tissue it would be less sophisticated and less quaint, and wouldn’t qualify for the soothing term “comfort care.”
The children under the care of Leonard and his wife, their children (the oldest are now 15) are a true joy to know. They are kids and have all the normal concerns and problems of kids certainly but are pretty well adjusted, enthusiastic, and are also truly fluent in both Spanish and English- and it’s quite a bit of fun to watch them switch back and forth with ease as the situation requires. Less than two years ago Leonard (known as Papa to the kids), was diagnosed with an adult form of muscular dystrophy and can no longer walk or stand, and is losing the use of his arms. As much as the left finds solace and satisfaction in ridiculing Christians, Leonard endures and even thrives because of his Lord and Savior and because he believes in something greater than himself. I doubt very much that those who would call him a racist bigot simply because he’s a Christian could bear riding in his wheelchair: they wouldn’t sacrifice materialistic comfort for a moment to care for “children of color,” no matter how much they claim to love them.
In 2015, when the Supreme Court issued its Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing same-sex
marriage, Barack Obama ordered the White House be bathed in rainbow colors.
This was an immature and inappropriate thing to do considering 10 of millions
of Americans opposed the decision, but it was Obama doing what he did so well:
divisive in your face activism.
Perfectly compassionate religious people opposed the decision based upon
the concept of sin, and otherwise perfectly typical people might have opposed
it simply because they viewed the decision as legitimizing what was unnatural
or perhaps opening the door to further erosion of traditional mores. Nevertheless, no reasonable person, no
matter how upset, argued that sex between two men or two women approached the
level of evil.
Evil has been with us as
long as we’ve been in existence.
Perhaps a few groups or cultures have not been perpetrators of evil, but
it’s been pretty universal to be on both the receiving and the committing
sides, depending on who was on top or at the bottom at the time. One aspect of evil that has been relatively
uncommon has been the overt celebration of one’s atrocities. Perhaps there were public relations
considerations, perhaps strategic, and even maybe some residual sense of right
and wrong, but for the most part evil people and entities haven’t been inclined
to trumpet their reprehensible accomplishments.
There are, of course, people
and philosophies that discount the existence of evil, claiming some are driven
to do bad things based only upon extrinsic factors. Religious people might argue that evil exists as a consequence of
Satan. Personally, as a God
disbeliever, I think some people are innately evil. Whether this reflects some aberration of genetics, or even some
evolutionary imperative I’m not sure, but I’ve been around a bit- worked at a
prison, been in the military, lived in other (“third-world”) countries and
cultures for a number of years- and I’m fairly certain I’ve met some evil
people. And like that storied serial
killer living next door, the neighbors inevitably say, “He seemed normal.”
The New York State
government gave us something almost unprecedented the other day- an act of not
just unadulterated evil but a perverse celebration of it, ordering the spire of
the “Freedom Tower” to be illuminated in pink.
It doesn’t take a great moralist or contemplator of ethics or even run
of the mill reprobate to understand that dismembering a child just weeks, or
even just hours before his or her birth is blatantly evil. Nevertheless, majorities in both houses of
the NY State legislature voted for this latest “health” bill, and the Governor
enthusiastically and pompously signed it into law. One could imagine a legislator from Queens applauding the law and
giddy with pleasure, perhaps not even cognizant of their affirmation, “I am
evil, and I’m feeling pretty good about it.”
Sadly and historically evil
doesn’t occur in a vacuum, but rather it typically finds adherents or enablers
willing to rationalize it. It also
encounters those who recognize evil for what it is and, in theory at least, are
charged with opposing it. Sometimes the
people and organizations charged with identifying evil and countering it fail
to do so, even willingly, and hence are justly tainted by it. And speaking of the NY Catholic Church
establishment (what Trump supporters might refer to as “the Swamp”), no matter
how irresistible the sweet love of their Savior Jesus or their veneration of
the Blessed Mother, there is something even greater for which to yearn- being a
player, no matter how trivial, in secular politics.
I am a Bishop and I have a staff and mitre to prove it, and by God I’m allowed to utter platitudes of the sanctity of life. But the Governor, evil incarnate he may be, is a good Catholic, and I can find all sorts of arcane doctrinal and theological arguments of how he should remain in good standing. My God, if we really did the right thing and disavowed him as one of us, the Cardinal’s calls might not be forwarded to one of the Governor’s administrative assistants, and we would feel diminished. Besides, what could be more fun than giggling with the Governor at the annual Al Smith dinner? Yeah, sure I love the Cross, but I love the idea of being accepted by the woke cultural elite even more.
Not too long ago pink was the color the oppressive patriarchy associated with little girls. In short order, however, pink has become the symbolic color of victory over the helpless and innocent; in New York that is a reason for delirious celebration.
