WHAT LIBERALS BELIEVE

                  RELIGION

According to the poster I discussed in the introduction to this series of essays, liberals demand that we love and respect all cultures and religions, except Christianity.

The poster would've been correct if they would have not added the “except Christianity” statement at the end. We live in a very diverse world and the United States contains perhaps the most diverse population in the world representing nearly every ethnic heritage and every religion. I do believe that it's in our best interest, and my own understanding of what the Bible says, to embrace and respect our neighbors regardless of the color of their skin or what church they go to.

It seems to me that since the horrors of 9/11, many in this country think it is right and proper to discriminate against anyone who may be a Muslim. Of course that attitude is ridiculous, not very many Muslims follow the same kind of ideology as the people who planned and carried out the attacks on the United States on that day. To cast each and every Muslim into the same pot is unfair just as it would be unfair to throw every Christian into the same pot is the few Catholic priests who engaged in pedophilia. I think most of the arguments that liberals respect all cultures and religions except Christianity are based on the fact that liberals and others accept Muslims as also being decent human beings.

Within Christianity itself there is much dissension. The current Republican primary reflects one of those Chasms was very clearly as Mitt Romney is constantly debased because of his Mormon religion. If one were to study Mormonism he or she would find that Mormons are Christians, they adhere to the same demands as other Christian denominations. As recently as a couple of decades ago, Baptists considered Mormonism to be a cult.

During the many religious events that took place after the 9/11 tragedy, rifts between the various Christian denominations were highlighted and were the topic of many conversations. I remember in particular one Lutheran minister who was nearly defrocked because he prayed on the same platform with members of other religions, including other Christian denominations. The Catholic Church, which was the first organized Christian church, is considered non-Christian by many of the fundamental Christian denominations. It's interesting that recently, due to some government actions, the Catholics and the fundamentalists suddenly joined hands in their efforts to reverse those actions they disagreed with.

I wonder how many of us who claim to be Christians would identify with the group from Iowa that disrupts funerals of American servicemen and who display signs that are degrading to other Americans and vilify those whose beliefs are different from those of that small group, and do it in the name of all Christians. There are many more examples of the differences and the difficulties between the various Christians denominations.

Over the years, in fact over the centuries, the Jews have probably been the most persecuted culture in recorded history. Only the Romans persecution of Christianity during the early years of the church could be considered worse. The Roman persecution of Christians, however, took place over a relatively short period of time when compared to the persecution of the Jews who have suffered over many centuries. It seems the persecution of the Jews has existed almost as long as the Jewish people themselves have existed. I fear that a new era of persecution of the Jews is not too far down the road.

During the years leading up to the World War II, Hitler and others had convinced the German people, and many others that every problem that existed the European continent was the fault of the Jews. They claimed that the Jews controlled the banking system, all of the corporations, basically that they had control over all of the money and wealth of Europe.

In order for dictators to rise to power they must give their followers someone to hate and to unite the population in that hatred.  That hatred, created as a tool for a few to rise to power, led to the Holocaust.

The Jews have been the target of that same type action many times over the centuries. Even today you can read in newspapers and especially on the Internet that the problems in America are simply the fault of the Jews and if we would run all of the Jews out of America all of our problems would be solved.  I have even read that there is an evil cabal of Jews that control everything in the world.  Many people actually believe such rubbish without asking for proof or questioning the possibility that such a system could exist. It is interesting that after all that we have seen in recent decades and read about in books outlining the history of the human race, we still haven't begun to understand the Jewish culture.

It is somewhat unsafe to even begin to talk about Islam. We in America seem to believe that every follower of Islam is a mad bomber whose only purpose in life is to destroy America. Of course that isn't true. We seem to forget that all three of the mainstream religions Christianity, Judaism, and Islam share the same beginning. We are all the descendents of Abraham.  We are all brothers and sisters.

So I take exceptions when someone indicates that because I am a liberal I disrespect Christianity and love all other religions. First of all there is no basis in fact that could be presented to me to indicate that I hate Christianity. I guess the years that I spent in the Christian ministry are evidence of how much I hate Christianity. Do I hate Judaism and Islam? No I don't. I embrace each person in the world as a brother or sister until they individually prove to be something different. I do not consider the people that flew airplanes into the world trade center towers to be my brothers. I consider them to be some of the most evil people that have lived. I don't consider anyone, Christian, Jew, or Muslim who harbors hatred against another to be my brother or my sister. I think the world has begun to revolve around the question of “who do we hate today?” Instead of developing a dialogue that would be lead to peace and understanding, it seems we look for differences that we can exploit and use as an excuse for us to exercise our desire to hate.

I would like for the person who made this poster that said liberals do not love or respect Christianity to come and tell me to my face that that's what they think of me, or of any other liberal person they might know. It just isn't true. For people to pass those lies on through the Internet and in many cases anonymously is to bring upon themselves the disgrace that is due to deceivers.

To respect other cultures and other religions does not mean that one does not respect Christianity. It simply means that one is trying to live a life based on those principles that Christ laid down for us. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus said that the first was that we love God with all our hearts and with all our souls and that the second was like the first, that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. He didn't say that we love only our neighbors that think the same way that we do, he said to love our neighbors. Therefore as a Christian, and in my case a Christian and a liberal, I will continue to respect every man and woman of any culture or religion until and unless they do something to lose my respect. In this regard, I am trying to walk in the footsteps of Christ, are you?

Peace

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ATTACKED BY FRIENDS

I AM A LIBERAL

Recently while scanning that most recent posts my friends had made to Facebook, I noticed a posting that looked to be made up of small pictures, like a pane of postage stamps.  When I enlarged it, I got a sudden and dramatic shock to my system.  I was nearly sick to my stomach.  No, the pictures were not child pornography, but was a poster titled “typical liberal” and the six smaller pictures each had captions indicating what originator thinks of the liberals in general. Since I have been painted, by whoever decides these things, into a box labels me a liberal.  I was quite offended by what I read. Actually offended is not the proper word; a better description would be to say that my feelings were really hurt.

The posting was made by a gentleman who I worked with had a very good working relationship with.  During the time we worked together we had many discussions about a lot of different issues and always respected each other’s opinions.  He is someone I would have introduced, and still would introduce, as a friend. As I looked at pictures and captions, I wondered what it was that I had done that would make this man, who I considered a friend, have such a low opinion of me. I took the insults very personally because I felt like they were meant to be personal.  I just closed Facebook and went on about my business and tried to forget about it because I did not know how to respond; or even if I should.  The words just kept repeating in my head and I knew I had to try to set the record straight.

The captions in the picture indicate that liberals are anti-Christian, are against free speech, except his or her own, believes that all corporations are evil, hates capitalism, hates wealthy people, and discriminates against conservative straight white people. I noticed that this particular picture was part of a set of perhaps one hundred more pictures with the same theme.  They were produced by an organization, I’m guessing, called the Republican Revolution. I don't personally have the time or the energy to make a response to each of those many bumper sticker type posters, but I can respond to these first six. Since I am sure my friend didn't post this to offend me personally, I will not use his name in my responses. As I said, I consider this man friend and will continue to do so.

My method for responding to these first six accusations against liberals will be through a series of essays.  I will post the new material every day or two and hope that I can change the perception that some people may have of liberals. I don't apologize for my political beliefs nor would I ask my friend to apologize for his.  I think by responding through a series of essays, my friend may better understand my positions and hopefully will try to help me gain an understanding of his.

Peace

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A Tribute To A Good Man

Recently, I had the honor and privilege to attend the celebration of a good man's life. The good man's name is Jack; he is my brother-in-law, my wife’s older brother. Jack had passed from this world into the next just a few days earlier. He joined his parents, his wife of forty-nine years, his two sisters, and two nephews. He left behind a sister, my wife Elizabeth, an older brother Bill, two absolutely wonderful daughters, Karen and Maura, and three grandchildren.

Jack was born in South Bend Indiana. As a young child he moved with his family to Chicago. He was a Southsider.  Jack’s family lived in what is known as South Shore and he attended Leo High School where he was a standout football player. After high school he attended the University of Illinois where he earned a degree in Civil Engineering.

Jack was a passionate civil engineer and during his career built dams, bridges, massive earthworks, and even part of the Big Dig in Boston. He worked for only three companies in his adult life and left a lasting impression on each of those companies and with all who were lucky enough to know him.

That's the basic story of my brother-in-law Jack’s life. But the basic story doesn't begin to tell the story of this good man.  I will make an attempt to enhance the basic short blurb that announces the death of someone after decades of contributions to his city, his country, and to his wonderful family.

Rather than a traditional memorial service, where people would be crying and sad, a celebration of his life and his many accomplishments was much more appropriate.  I would have expected a lot of people to stop by but I was not prepared for what occurred.  The two adjoining ballrooms used for the celebration were filled for several hours with people sharing stories with each other and with the family ranging from his years in grammar and high school through his long career as a civil engineer. In total I would guess there were at least 200 people that stopped by to join in. Each story brought a new and deeper understanding of just who Jack was.  The number of his former co-workers, who were not in contact with him for years, but showed up to join the celebration of his life, shocked me.

One of the things that most people did not know about Jack is that he was an artist. He had been an artist for most of his life. Some of his grammar school friends told us about the cartoons he used to draw, and in fact he was making entire comic books for his classmates. Even though he did some oil paintings his passion was watercolors. Over the course of his life he produced hundreds of works ranging from montages of peoples’ faces or shapes- he loved to work with angles-to abstractions of his work and of the world around him and most of all to the things he loved and cared about. Many people have paintings that Jack produced. What we found out is that Jack only gave away the paintings that he felt contained some kind of flaw; the ones that were not good enough to keep.  As a fly-fisherman, Jack tied flies for his use and to share with friends.

I was surprised at the age range of people that attended the celebration of Jack's life. They ranged from men and women in their seventies and eighties through men and women in their twenties and thirties. Each person had the opportunity to share stories about Jack with the entire group, and many did. We were somewhat surprised to hear, repeatedly, that the speaker was drawn into the engineering professions through their association with Jack. We were not so surprised that Jack served as a mentor for many young people entering the profession, but the sheer number surprised us. Many managers and company owners stated that they owed their careers to the mentoring activities of Jack.

All evening I listened to stories about Jack's life; Stories that covered his life from a young grammar school kid through his career as an outstanding engineer and teacher who finally retired just a month before his death, when his body could no longer manage the rigors of a job. I heard stories of how he demanded perfection from everyone, but mostly from himself. I heard stories about his tirelessness on the job. I heard stories about his willingness to share his knowledge with others. I heard stories about his devotion to his profession.

Later I thought about the number of people who stopped by to help celebrate Jack's life. During the evening I never heard a negative story from Jack's friends and coworkers. This alone convinced me that, most likely, Jack was a good man.

While Jack was ill, I began thinking about the contribution that he had made to the world. It occurred to me that each of us have the desire to leave something behind, to make a mark on the world, to do something so that future generations will know that we've been here. Sadly, most of us never have or don’t take advantage of that opportunity. But Jack did. For generations to come the dams and bridges and other massive construction jobs that Jack participated in designed, or built will stand as a testament to his life. Due to his mentoring, generations of engineers will carry his passion for excellence throughout the profession. The artwork that he leaves behind for many to enjoy will be admired for years, maybe even centuries.  When one considers all he did, one must admit that Jack didn't leave just a thumbprint or a palm print but a massive footprint on the earth. The world will know, and not soon forget, that Jack was here.

The most important things that Jack left behind are his two fantastic daughters Maura, who lives in Norway, and Karen, who lives in Seattle. They, and their children, will carry on the very best of what Jack was. To his old friends, he will always be a Chicago Southsider. To his coworkers, he will always be their mentor, their guide, and the engineer each hope to be. To his daughters, he will always be dad.

When one weaves all of the stories into a narrative of his life one is left with the impression that Jack was a good man who strived to be the best that he could be every day of his life.

Rest in peace John M. ”Jack”  Goodrick. You did good!

This is perhaps the most defining picture of Jack in existence.  I can’t decide if he is watching something intently and thinking or if he is preparing to kill someone, or if he is wishing the person with the camera would hurry up before he busts out laughing and spits that cigar across the room.

One last thing.  All of us being from good Irish stock, I was surprised that the evening did not end with a rendition of “Danny Boy.”  So Jack this is from me to you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jgma--0WYU

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LETS REBUILD AMERICA

We Americans are some really strange people. We complain constantly about the loss of American jobs, and we know who to blame for those lost jobs. 1st of all we blame politicians because of the policies that they've put in place, policies that encourages employers to take jobs overseas and in fact rewards them for doing so. Then we blame the big businessmen themselves.  We blame businesspeople because want save money on labor costs and the cost of doing business and moving jobs overseas is one way to do that.  We hate that they are getting rich by stealing American jobs.  The truth is that they are getting richer and richer while the working men and women keep getting poorer. Then we add labor unions to the group of culprits. These big unions, with their demands for ever increasing wages, improvements in working conditions and workplace safety, and their desire for retirement plans and health care benefits have held a gun to the business owners heads and driven those businesses into the ground, leaving the owners no choice but to leave or go broke.

The one group we seem not to think of when were assigning blame is ourselves, we the American consumers. We want to buy things cheaply, the cheaper we can buy stuff, the more stuff we can buy. We love pulling up in front of some big giant store, walk half a mile to get to the door, enter into a massive warehouse that uses street signs and maps to help us from getting lost and marvel floor to ceiling shelves down countless aisles, filled with every imaginable item, including groceries, all at the lowest possible prices, and we don’t give a damn that 85% of those items have the words made in China somewhere on their packaging. We seem unable to make the connection that every time we pick up one of those packages, take it to the checkout, pay for it and take it home that we have helped to destroy another American job.  Once upon a time in America, jobs were plentiful, they paid well, and when we went to the store we bought products that our neighbors made. Those days are gone and may never come back. Unless, we bring them back!

Will we talk with each other we say that we would like to buy something that was once made in America but we just can't find it and have no choice but to buy foreign made goods.  The fact is we don't really look. Were quite content to walk into Wal-Mart or Kmart or Target and grab whatever is handy. And for the most part those handy are items were made in China or Taiwan or Bangladesh or Vietnam or Cambodia or, you get the picture. If we really wanted to buy American made goods, they are available; it just takes a little work to find them. Nearly every item that we buy in the discount stores, items that were made in China or other places other than the United States, we could find an American made substitute. I hate using the word substitute because the items that we buy in the discount stores I mentioned are substitutes for American made products. We have become so used to buying foreign-made items that we think something made in America is a novelty.

If we want to see American jobs come back to America. If we want to see American industry revived. If we want to see our neighbors going back to work, earning a decent wage, buying a home they can afford, raising a family, paying taxes so that our schools and our cities can function, then we must start buying American-made products. It sounds pretty simple, but it's a little complicated. Finding the products we want may take a few minutes while we do an online search. But, we can find the product, where that product is made, and where that product is sold. Its possible that you may find everything that you're looking for in a store just down the street from you, or you may have to buy it online and wait a couple of days for it to arrive at your door, and just so you know, it may cost just a little bit more.

Bringing back the America that many of us used to know, the America that many of us grew up in, the America where we were educated, and whose factories many of us worked in may cost a few extra dollars. I say, “It’s worth it, let's make the effort let's find those American-made products, and let's buy them. Let's show the rest of the world what America is, has always been, and always will be.  Lets become the Americans we used to be self-reliant, dependent on our own ingenuity, and who stood up shoulder to shoulder against the rest of the world.”

LETS START TODAY

Each day in my blog, I will be providing a web address for a company or companies that make American products. Over time, I hope that, with your help, the database of American-made products gets so large, and that as our database grows, so does our desire to buy those products, those American made products!

It gives me joy and fills me with excitement to think that we, Americans setting in our own homes can join together and rebuild America.

Peace

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INVICTUS

I was about thirteen when I first read Invictus, by William Ernest Henley, it immediately became my most favorite piece of prose and has remained near the top of my list of favorite things to read and feel, even today over five decades later.  I was quite upset when Timothy McVeigh chose to recite that beautiful poem as his last words on the day that a needle was inserted into his vein to deliver, via the attached tubes, drugs to stop his heart stopping his life in exchange for the lives of one hundred sixty eight men, women and children whose lives he stole and for the injuries to eight hundred more occupants of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and for the families he destroyed.

The words of Invictus recited by a heroic figure on his or her death bed would seem appropriate, but just the thought of a mass murderer thinking his life could be reflected in those words simply sickens me.

Henley was a heroic figure. At the age of twelve he was stricken by Tuberculosis of the bone and at age seventeen, in order to save his life, it was necessary to amputate his leg just below his knee.  Henley lived in England, had he lived in the United States, he would have joined the untold number of young men who lost limbs as a result of battlefield action during the American Civil War that had just ended.

Just like the Americans who had to adjust, Henley led an active life until he died at age fifty-three in 1903, the year my father was born.  He was a man so full of vitality that he inspired his friends with his active lifestyle, even though his life was interrupted for often and sometimes long stints in the hospital.  His friend, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote to him after the publication of Treasure Island and said:

"I will now make a confession. It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver...the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely taken from you".

For those of you that may have never read Invictus, I will share the beautiful words and deepest thoughts of a beautiful man who chose to share them with the world.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

In truth, life in general is simply a walk through hell.  This thing we call life and cling to so stingily is just years of sadness, tears, and intense sorrow.  We go through life wanting what we can never acquire and wanting to hold a position we can never attain.  We harm others as we scramble after the same limited rewards.

Love is a very elusive prize but a very common emotion.  Each of us crave love at some level.  We each have our own definition of exactly what love is. Love can be a dangerous thing that involves sharing the most intimate thoughts, words, and actions with others and risking hurt if that love is unrequited or the mutual emotion dies.  But, without love, life would be nothing.  While love could be fleeting, much of the time it is lasting, everything else, however, is definitely fleeting.  Those material things we clamor after, many times stepping on friends and foes alike will remain here in the material world when our time here is expired, but love will follow us beyond the grave.

Henley, through his life as well as his words gives us a blueprint for how to live, and die.  No matter how badly the world beats us up, we still have the opportunity, if we take it, to stand tall, shake our fists, and yell to the world and to the heavens that we may have been beaten but we did not break and that what ever punishment or reward awaits us at the next stage of life, we earned by living a life of virtue and avoiding the moral corruptions that surround and tempt us constantly and ignoring the taunts of others.  We can all be heroes if we do not waver and as we pass from here to there we can have on our lips that proclamation best expressed in the last two lines of Invictus.

When I read the words of Invictus, my thoughts have a tendency to drift to the Jews, and others, who were subjected to the most unthinkable horrors known to the modern world during the Holocaust Period of Nazi Germany, and yet held true to who they were and did not give up their personhood, and in the end, those who survived, could stand, for themselves as well as those who had their lives snuffed out by the animals who established and ran the camps, bloodied but unbowed, victorious against those that sought to destroy them.

Tim McVeigh had no right to utter those words, he was no hero, he destroyed life.  He appointed himself the arbiter of what was right and what was wrong, then became the executioner of those he judged to be wrong.

Those who walked out of the death camps, those who gave their lives or limbs on battlefields, those who stood against hatred and violence were heroes and can claim the message of Henley’s words as their own.

Peace

THE DREAMS OF OUR YOUTH

Recently I watched a program on the local PBS station.  The program, “John Sebastian Presents: Folk Rewind” was the backdrop for the PBS fund drive.  As I watched, it became evident to me that the program meant more to me than the PBS telethon and brought back memories and stirred deep emotions      some caused me to face very disturbing questions.

So that you understand my need to look in the mirror and ask questions that may not have an answer, I was born in 1944.  I grew up during the most volatile and rapid change in the psyche of the nation and, in my opinion, the world.  I refer to myself as a child of the sixties because, even though I, and most people of my age, had thought about and discussed the future, who we were going to be in that future and how we would fit into that future, before the sixties arrived, it was during the 1960s that we put into practice those things we said we believed, those things we said were important to us and to the world, and when we became who we think are, and that we have been throughout these several decades.  For the record, I served our country during the turmoil in Southeast Asia.

Those of us that grew up in that period had high ideals, many will not see it that way, but we were out to build a better world.  Each of us, no matter our political ideology, social class, or race felt that we were contributing to the future as we envisioned it.  For some reason, I was part of what you may consider to be the more radical segment of the Post World War II Generation.

I grew up in North Eastern Ohio.  The Civil Rights Movement was just gathering steam and we did not understand what it was all about.  Where we lived, there was no race problem, at least to our young eyes.  Black and white lived near each other, we went to school together, played sports together, hung out together after school, some of us Do-Wopping, hoping that we were going to be the next Dion and the Belmonts or The Drifters.  As I got older, and after my excursion into the heart of the activity, I noticed that blacks lived near whites, but not like next door.  I realized that, even in Ohio, there were places where black people did not go and I realized the degrading nature of some of the names that were used in reference to black people.  By the time I left home, I heard young people, my age, using the very words we hated so much when we heard them form our parents generation.

We had such high ideals and such high hopes of changing the world, and then we were gone.  We were still here physically but most of us had to change our focus from changing the world to putting food on the tables of our young families.  Advancing in our jobs so that we could make more money and have more things became more important to us than the billions of our tax dollars that were being spent around the world influencing governments so as to shape them into our vision of what they should be.

Suddenly one day, we looked around and discovered that we had become the very thing that we had fought so hard to destroy.  We had become them.  We were part of the establishment, living our lives of affluence, always wanting more and not caring about the suffering that many may have endured to bring it all to us.

We dreamed, and fought for real education, education that would prepare students for the world they would someday enter.  The two sizes fits all educational system of the 1950s needed to be updated with more individual attention for those with learning difficulties and curricula designed with the person in mind rather than the cookie cutter systems we had all grown accustomed to.

We dreamed of, and fought for equality.  Not just for the word but for the meaning.  We wanted every person in America to be afforded the same right to a good education as his or her neighbor.  We wanted every person of legal age to participate in the election of government officials and to vote on issues and to run for and be elected to government offices.  We wanted any person with the means to pay for a home to be able to buy a home in any neighborhood and to live in harmony with their neighbors as part of the community.

We dreamed of, and fought for peace.  Peace, in our community, in our country, and in our world.

What happened?  Where and when did our dreams get derailed?  To where did we, and our big dreams of a better world disappear?

Today, the poverty we dreamed of eliminating encompasses more of our countries citizens and is deeper than any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.  To add to the despair of those in the most need, members of our congress are fighting to eliminate the very programs put into place, during and after that Great Depression, to ensure that the basic needs of all American Citizens would be met.

Shady real estate brokers and their equally shady Wall Street cohorts cheated the process of home sales and the handling of the subsequent mortgages so severely that they have sent this country’s and the world’s economies to near total collapse, and profited from the whole mess.  As their empires began to disintegrate, we, the taxpayers, were forced to bail them out of their troubles and save their companies.  They used our tax dollars to pay themselves, the very people who destroyed our economy, put millions on the unemployment line, caused thousands of businesses to close, pension funds to shrink to such a level that made retirement for most a forgotten dream and destroyed the lives of many already counting on their pensions to live, multi-million dollar bonuses.

We have engaged in two wars lasting a decade and financed by raiding the Social Security Trust Fund and borrowing money from China.

As these events unfolded and continue to unfold, our national balance sheet presents us with a deficit so large it is hard to comprehend.  The answer for many of our members of congress is to eliminate the programs that assist the poor and elderly while refusing to allow a slightly higher tax rate to be levied on the richest, very small, segment of our population.  Our country has become populated with people whose motto seems to be, “I got mine, screw you.”

Somehow and by someone, a determination has been made that our public school systems are failing students.  There seems to be two main reasons cited for this situation; the failure of some students to pass a standardized test and the fact that teachers belong to a union and therefore get paid too much.  The resolution; get rid of the public schools, except to serve the poor and basically disenfranchised students, and use our tax money to fund private schools, catering only to those students the private, for profit, school operators deem worthy of their particular school and whose parents can pay the additional tuition.  This plan will, as it is intended to do, leave the children with the most need stuck in the remaining public schools with very limited resources, like books, teachers, chalk, you get the picture!

I do not have enough years left to list all the wrongs I see in this once great country.  What disappoints me most is my generation, including me, that gave up the fight far too soon and then failed to pass the torch.  The Occupy Movement is far to disorganized and lacks the commitment, and intestinal fortitude, to bring this country back to its senses.  What we need is another round of “children of the sixties” to wake us all back up before it is too late.  It may be too late now!  Think about it!

This was written by a nineteen year old young man in 1965.  This video is one of many.  Some show scenes from the 1960s, some, like this one are updated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akoukq5DvAE

Same old world, only worse

Peace

WHAT DO WE CELEBRATE AT CHRISTMAS?

Recently, I noticed that a friend on mine had posted the following statement on Facebook.

“I don't care who this offends because this is what I believe. I am sick and tired of every year when CHRISTMAS comes around; there are people who want to take CHRIST out of CHRISTMAS because it might offend someone. Well, how about all of the CHRISTIANS? What about offending us because you are taking our CHRIST out of CHRISTMAS!?!? CHRIST IS CHRISTMAS!!! If you aren't celebrating CHRIST then why are you celebrating? CHRISTMAS is about the birth of our SAVIOR! CHRISTMAS is one of a few holidays left that celebrate my CHRIST! Leave my holiday alone!!! And tell everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holidays! Repost if your not ashamed”

After I read it, I thought about it for a long while and wondered if what greeting we us at Easter and Christmas was an issue and why.

I began by considering the fact that many people that are not Christians, but still shop in the same establishments as they do throughout the rest of the year, would be offended and how badly.  I think it would be wrong to intentionally offend a person just because they are of a different faith.  So, I started up my handy dandy search engine and stepped off on my quest to see who might be offended.

I decided to look at two possibilities; other religious holidays that share the same season a Christmas and how many people would be offended because of their particular religion.

I discovered only two major celebrations that coincide with the Christmas Season, Kwanza and Chanukah.

Chanukah (Hanukkah) is the Jewish Celebration of Lights which commemorates the reclamation of Jerusalem and the story about the one day supply of nondesecrated oil in the Temple after all the Syrian idols were removed.  Miraculously the oil lasted eight days, until a supply of usable oil arrived so that the Temple could be rededicated.  The celebration begins on December 20^th through December 28^th in 2011.  The celebration is based on the Jewish calendar so the dates are slightly different on our calendars each year.

Kwanza is a cultural celebration rather than a religious observance.  Kwanza begins on December 26^th and ends January 1^st.  Kwanza celebrates the African-American culture, who they are, what struggles they have faced and what their vision of the future is.  The name “Kwanza, is derived from the Kiswahili word meaning “first fruits.”

I do not have empirical evidence, but I would suggest that since it is not a religious celebration, most African-Americans would not expect store clerks and wait people to wish them a “Happy Kwanza”, unless it would be a business that actually participated in the celebration.  In my mind, most African-Americans, until the celebration becomes more established, would be offended by hearing “Merry Christmas” as opposed to “Happy Kwanza.”

Unless they are in an establishment that participates in the Chanukah celebration or they wore some identification indicating that they were not Christian but Jewish, I don’t think that Jewish people would be offended if a store clerk or an acquaintance were to wish them a “Merry Christmas.”

In my experiences, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’, a Christian organization, have been the most vocal in correcting me when I would wish them a “Merry Christmas” or mention anything about the holiday.

I walked down the other path I had decided on and looked at the population of the U.S. to see if the ethnic diversity would demand that Christians be more sensitive.

According to the CIA World Factbook, the U. S. is comprised of 79.96% white, 12.85% Black, 4.43% Asian, the other 2%+ is made up of Native Americans and a variety of other ethnic groups.

According to the latest Survey, 76% of the adult population of the United States identify as being Christian.  About 1% identify themselves as Jewish.  14% of respondents claimed no religion at all.  The remaining 9% is made up of Muslims, Buddhist, Hindu and a variety of non-conventional religious disciplines.

When I got to this point I realized that the number of people who would be offended by someone wishing them “Merry Christmas” was very small.  I could see no reason why stores would be concerned about the term.  I asked my wife what she meant when she wished someone “Merry Christmas”; she told me that when she was a lot younger it was a salutation of joy shared with other Christians but that over the years as Christmas became more commercialized, it was just two empty words, spoken out of habit.   That gave me even more to think about.

When I was about eleven or twelve, I remember passing a church’s outside announcement board that had the words ”At Christmas, whose birthday do we celebrate” A little lower was a picture of Santa Claus and another of Jesus Christ.  Above each picture were the word “His” and between them the word “or.”  That vision is as clear to me today as it was fifty-five years ago. And the question even more important that it was then.

Too many Christians complain about how commercial Christmas has become while they are shopping in every store within ten miles of their homes, buying every new gadget, toy, or gizmo on the market, and complaining because the clerks said, “have a nice holiday” as opposed to “Merry Christmas.”

Based on the uproar over the “war on Christmas” that someone with too much time on their hands dreamed up, one would expect to see most churches bursting at the seems on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Guess what!  Attendance has dwindled over the past fifty years to the point that most churches have given up on Christmas Eve services.  Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are filled with the self satisfaction for finding the best, most, and most expensive gifts, most of which will end up in the trash or the fall garage sale to make room for the new batch of stuff that will show up on the December 24^th and 25^th of the next year.  Most will never tell the Christmas Story much less contemplate its meaning.  The truth is, we don’t celebrate Christmas anymore, we celebrate the retail industry’s season of profits.  We celebrate our ability to spend money we don’t have and scorn those who have nothing to eat.  We celebrate with our big Christmas Eve parties while our brothers and sisters sleep in the cold, under a bridge or in an abandon building.  I hope Jesus does not come back like that.  The greeting we get from store clerks is irrelevant, because whatever greeting they use, those words are devoid of any meaning.

As Christians we should start backtracking to a time when everyone knew what Christmas was about.  Everyone knew the story of the birth of the savior of all mankind.  Giving gifts is fine, but if we call ourselves Christians, its time to walk the walk and celebrate the universes greatest gift, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God!

I hear arguments that Christmas is not the date of the birth of Christ, that it is a pagan holiday.  I know how we got December 25 as the day we celebrate the birth of Christ.   The accuracy of the date is unimportant, the meaning of the celebration, for Christians, is.

As a Christian, I believe the war that started way back in the Garden of Eden, the birth of Christ was just one very important day in the war, soon will come the last battle will be fought and everyone will know the true meaning of Christmas.

I’m glad I was given a push to think about Christmas, as I haven’t for a long time.  I thank that old friend who has caused me to remember whose birthday it is!

Peace