Should we forgive them?

Elliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner and Bob Filner are just the latest in a long string of politicians, involved in some sort of scandal, who have said they are sorry and have asked forgiveness.

Should we forgive them?

No!

The Founding Fathers wanted us to know that integrity in office was absolutely paramount.

John Adams wrote: (referenced by W. Cleon Skousen in The 5000 Year Leap Copyright 1991, 2006 by The National Center for Constitutional Studies)

Politics are the divine science, after all. How is it possible that any man should ever think of  making it subservient to his own little passions and mean private interests? Ye baseborn sons of fallen Adam, is the end of politics a fortune, a family, a gilded coach, a train of horses, and a troop of livery servants, balls at court, splendid dinners and suppers? Yet, the divine science of politics is at length in Europe reduced to a mechanical system composed of these materials. (Quoted in Koch, The American Enlightenment. p.189.)

"Some might feel inclined to smile at such a puritanical ideology in a practical politician such as John Adams, but he had a ready answer for the skeptic. Said he:"

What is to become of an independent statesman, one who will bow the knee to no idol, who will worship nothing as a divinity but truth, virtue, and his country? I will tell you; he will be regarded more by posterity then those who worship hounds and horses; and although he will not make his own fortune, he will make the fortune of his country. (Ibid.; italics added.)

Benjamin Franklin had some comments as well. In a speech to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin said:

   Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money. Separately, each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor, that shall at the same time be a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it. The vast number of such places it is that renders the British government so tempestuous. The struggles for them are the true source of all those factions which are perpetually dividing the nation, distracting its councils, hurrying it sometimes into fruitless and mischievous wars, and often compelling a submission to dishonorable terms of peace. (Smyth, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, 7:4. Referenced by W. Cleon Skousen in The 5000 Year Leap Copyright 1991, 2006 by The National Center for Constitutional Studies)

 And, Edmund Burke said, "Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state." Prudence and uprightness. Remember those characteristics?

Can anyone imagine any reason but ambition and avarice for any of the aforementioned to seek or hold political office? I am not aware of any talents they may possess for making money outside of politics, but certainly high office is a road to riches. Something the Founding Fathers warned against.

Consider Barack Obama. Abandoned by his  father, before his birth, raised by a middle class family, but today worth millions. Just imagine the millions more he will be paid making speeches when he is finally out of office. Outside of politics, that is an almost impossible accomplishment.

Consider Nancy Pelosi. Already wealthy, she continues, after 26 years in Congress, to make the arduous journey between Washington and California. Averaging one trip per week, that is over 1,300 round trips at some 5,000 miles each. Over 6.5 million miles! 265 times around the earth. Only an insatiable thirst for power would drive that. Why, oh why, do voters keep re-electing such people?

Learning from the obvious

I'll give one thing to ancient mankind. When they made an observation, they thought about it. They often came to the wrong conclusion, as in the cause of weather phenomena, but at least they tried.

Modern man seems to prefer turning a blind eye to things most visible. British Historian, Paul Johnson, said, "The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.”

It isn't just history. There are everyday things we might honor, but many ignore. 

Recently we've heard much about crime among black youth in America, and many opinions as to the solution. Most of those opinions seem wrong to me. For example, Thomas Sowell decried the fact that these are often called "troubled youth". He said "... they are not troubled... these young thugs are having the time of their life."

I look at black Americans and I see so many quality people. I am reluctant to start naming names, as I know I will forget some of the best. But here are a few: Dr. Benjamin Carson, Dr. Thomas Sowell, Dr. Walter E Williams, Star Parker, Col./Congressman Allen West, Deneen Borelli, Charles Payne, Ken Blackwell, the list is much longer. These are individuals who have earned the respect and admiration of a vast swath of America.

Barack Obama spoke of white people being afraid of black men. Col. Allen West said that no white woman ever 'clutched her purse' when he stepped into an elevator. No one fears the likes of Dr. Carson or Larry Elder. Personally I'd give anything to spend an hour or two in the presence of any of the aforementioned. Just to hear them talk.

Shouldn't every black child be taught to emulate these extraordinary people? Yes, I can imagine a single black mother, working two jobs to support her family; fighting the kids to do their homework, clean their room, take a bath, etc. She has little time for morality lessons.

Still, A number of these men attribute their success to a mother who insisted upon a certain code of behavior. Often we hear "mother made me study". Yet, several of these successful men were raised in poverty by a struggling single mother.
 
It seems to me that the blueprint for success is glaringly apparent to every black child in America. What can be done to make every one of them see it?

Intelligence vs. Education

Knowing I had not obtained a college degree, a friend recently asked me 'where the intelligence came from'.

Won't comment on my level of intelligence, but in our modern world, intelligence is equated to formal education. Strange. My father, born in 1893, had only a fourth grade education, but he had a curious mind and a thirst for knowledge. He purchased one of those huge, ten-inch-thick unabridged dictionaries and built a stand for it. It stood beside his reading chair and he consulted it frequently. He was, indeed, a very intelligent man.

That's not to say that formal education does not foster intelligence. An education in which one learns how to learn, will surely develop an aware, thinking human.

IQ tests are supposed to measure intelligence, or, at least the 'intelligence quotient', apart from education. But I hold that some measure of formal education will certainly help one attain a higher IQ score.

Schooling can bend the learning curve. But, so may other life experiences. Ralph Waldo Emerson pegged it when he said “Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.” Always be prepared to listen to what someone has to say. You may be surprised to learn what you may learn!

Years ago a friend remarked that "the first time an internal combustion engine is started, it tries to tear itself apart. Eventually it succeeds" When you think about all those pistons and connecting rods and valve lifters, the crankshaft and the cam shaft, all whirling and clicking some 4,000 revolutions per minute, you see the reasoning behind that comment.

But, until I read this column by Philadelphia Daily News Columnist, Christine M. Flowers, I never applied that to humans. Ms. Flowers, commenting on a nephew who had just lost his first tooth wrote, "...even at the beginning of life, we start losing bits and pieces of ourselves. It's a subtle diminishment, but as they say, we start dying with our first breath."

That was not the main thrust of that particular columns, but isn't it great when another little light bulb clicks on above your head and you think, "Gee, I never thought of that!"

I love to learn!

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130712_Of_life_and_morality__in_the_shadow_of_a_saint.html#7CP18xHbRdy4yQI1.99

even at the beginning of life, we start losing bits and pieces of ourselves. It's a subtle diminishment but, as they say, we start dying with our first breath.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130712_Of_life_and_morality__in_the_shadow_of_a_saint.html#vxUpx3Bfks1oR5fU.99

even at the beginning of life, we start losing bits and pieces of ourselves. It's a subtle diminishment but, as they say, we start dying with our first breath.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130712_Of_life_and_morality__in_the_shadow_of_a_saint.html#MkMxUzibU6uoQaX6.99

even at the beginning of life, we start losing bits and pieces of ourselves. It's a subtle diminishment but, as they say, we start dying with our first breath.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130712_Of_life_and_morality__in_the_shadow_of_a_saint.html#MkMxUzibU6uoQaX6.99

Black Pastors and Trayvon Martin

With protests against the 'not guilty' verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial erupting in over 100 cities today - protests sparked by race-baiters Sharpton, Jackson, Obama, et al, it may seem that the entire black population of America opposed the verdict.

Not so.

A number of black Americans have spoken out in favor of the verdict, and in support of George Zimmerman.

Notable among them have been at least two black pastors. I have listened to black pastors during my lifetime. While elitist academians may find these pastors lacking in formal education, I have always found them unusually wise in everyday common sense knowledge. Something many academians are not.

Dr. James David Manning, speaking from the pulpit of his ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York City, called Martin a "pot-smoking, paranoid boy".

Rev. Jesse Lee Patterson, in a television interview, called Martin a "thug", not a "nice little boy".. Asked for evidence for that charge, Patterson spoke of Martins' use of marijuana, his behavior problems in school, and his propensity to engage in fighting.

The interviewer demanded to know if Rev. Patterson regarded everyone who had used 'pot' and had run afoul of school officials, as a 'thug'. Patterson explained about single-parent homes and other symptoms of a youth gone astray. Mostly his reply dealt with what I have always called 'moral grounding'. Many people engage in poor behavior in their youth, but those who have been taught morality soon discover the error in their ways. Without moral grounding, it is all downhill.

Several other black Americans, whom I consider intellectuals, have also spoken out against Martin's behavior. If you see news coverage of today's protests, do not think for a minute that all of black America agrees with the protestors.

More things that make an old man cry

Mark Steyn is always a good read, but this one is a crown jewel! Steyn revealed: The other day, The Boston Globe ran a story on how the city's police and other agencies had spent months planning a big training exercise for last weekend involving terrorists planting bombs hidden in backpacks left downtown. Unfortunately, the Marathon bombers preempted them, and turned the coppers' hypothetical scenario into bloody reality. What a freaky coincidence, eh? (snip) In the far more exciting Boston Police fantasy, the bombers were a group of right-wing militia men called "Free America Citizens," (who) even had their own little logo – a skull's head with an Uncle Sam hat.

"I was taught that if I left home, I would be fully responsible for any evil that befell me, because men cannot be expected to control their extincts." -  Manal al-Sharif, on growing up as a young girl in Saudi Arabia.

The crime is not hate speech, but hate thought -- a state of mind that apparently only self-appointed liberal referees can sort out. - Victor Davis Hanson in a discussion on charges of hate speech against conservatives.

Ron Kelly retired from the Army in 1993 after 20 years of service. As an infantryman who fired tanks and machine guns, he likely expelled over 100,000 rounds. But when he tried to buy a .22 caliber rifle at a local Wal-Mart recently, he was turned down because of an old conviction. Forty-two years before, when he was in high school, he got arrested for having a baggie of marijuana. He wasn’t even sentenced to a night in jail, but he did get one year of probation. He contacted his home state of North Carolina to find out if they had a  record of his arrest, and they didn’t, because it was so old. But the FBI obviously remembered. And they’ll never forget, because they want to make sure that no gun ends up in the “wrong hands.” - Political Outcast

 

Black Education... or, the lack thereof.

Dr. Walter Williams is probably today's most coherent writer about America's black community. Yesterday he wrote a column titled Black Education Tragedy. For his opening shot, he wrote:

"As if more evidence were needed about the tragedy of black education, Rachel Jeantel, a witness for the prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder trial, put a face on it for the nation to see. Some of that evidence unfolded when Zimmerman's defense attorney asked 19-year-old Jeantel to read a letter that she allegedly had written to Trayvon Martin's mother. She responded that she doesn't read cursive, and that's in addition to her poor grammar, syntax and communication skills."

I have not closely followed that trial, but I did see the segment where Jeantel testified. I was saddened by her performance. Saddened that this young American girl will, next spring, graduate from High School unprepared for a successful future.

It made me think of the difference an education, and a dedication to learning, can make. Williams, himself, and Dr. Thomas Sowell, are both positive proof of the successful future awaiting a couple of poor black boys, raised in the housing projects of Philadelphia and New York.

They are proof, also, that skin color, ethnicity and "pedigree" are irrelevant.

So, my question is this: Why isn't their story being shouted from the rooftops? Why isn't their story being told in schools? Why aren't black mothers telling their sons they could grow up to be another Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell?

I am hopeful that today's black students are taught about outstanding black Americans of the past. That is good. But it would seem that the story of two men who grew up in an environment similar to the one in which today's students live, would be more powerful.
 

The puzzle.

A 13-year-old girl, raised in a Liberal household, asked her Conservative grandmother why she disliked President Obama. Not having been privy to the conversation, I don't know the grandmother's answer.

But, hearing of the conversation, caused me to think: How would one explain something so complex to a 13-year-old? Puzzling!

I think I would first try to explain that, while you vote to elect only one person, you are actually choosing thousands of persons to run the executive branch of our government.

Yes, the name of the Vice-President is on the ballot, but that person was personally chosen by the presidential candidate. Once elected, the President gets to choose the people to run the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Justice, and more. The President also chooses the Secretary of State, who oversees our relations with all foreign nations, the Secretary of Defense, who oversees our entire military force, and others.

So, when you speak of the policies or the actions of "President Obama", you are actually describing the policies and actions of tens of thousands of people.

Many of these people, like Barack Obama himself, have little experience to qualify them for such important jobs. Many are well-meaning people who propose rules and regulations which sound plausible, but in practice are burdensome, costly and restrict the freedoms of law-abiding citizens.

As a Conservative, I believe the government has grown too large and unweildy. I believe there is much waste of taxpayers money. Because the government has grown so large, I believe it is impossible to keep track of everything that is happening, and that leads to fraud and abuse.

In the past, many new government programs were created. If they were later proven to be ineffective, those programs were discontinued. Today, however, failing government programs are never ended.

For example, in the 1970s, it became apparent that America was too dependent on foreign nations for our supply of oil. If those nations were to cut off shipments of oil to America, we could no longer operate our cars, planes, ships or trains. We could no longer make many of the plastics we use in everyday products.

The Department of Energy was formed to solve that problem and end our dependence on foreign oil. The D.O.E. has clearly not solved the problem, yet we continue to spend billions of dollars each year to run the D.O.E.

We Conservatives would like to abolish the D.O.E., but President Obama does not agree.

So, when we say we dislike Obama, we are really saying we disagree with the way the government is operating.

Is my young teen listener still awake?