Shedding light on truth….
This is not an apology, but a statement of fact! It seems that in America today the only people that believe they have freedom of speech are those that stand in a polar opposite position from where I and many of my friends stand. Since I do not want to be the person that insites riots, I never have, and I never will. I have taken down this post and will return to doing photographic and faith related posts. For anyone who thinks this is capitulation, I do this in the same spirit that Christ did not resist when he was arrested and taken to be crucified. I am in no way drawing a parallel between myself and Christ, I belong to Him, He bought me at a price and I’m simply performing an act as one seeking to be a peace maker. I doubt my shared political feelings make a difference anyway.
While I continue to be heart broken as I watch what is happening to my country, I will not speak publicly on such matters, but only in the close confines of friends. I will, as I ask you to do, pray for America, and for the defeat of spiritual powers of evil exerting their force on our nation.
Blessings,
the pilgrim
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 19th, 2017 at 6:42 pm
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My dear friend, this deserves a response.
I read the original post. I agreed with much and disagreed strongly with much of the rest. I think you’re right that the country is in trouble from both extremes. One a hijacked political party that promotes fear in order to obfuscate accommodation to special interests while trying to appear populist with no meaningful checks and balances and the other more worried about bathrooms, abortions and who can get married that pays lip service to its traditional role as being the advocate of working men and women while sucking up to big donors. In other words, at the end of the day they mirror each other. As for the news media, they’re human like the rest of us and there’s even divisions there. The Washington Post (which I subscribe to) is significantly more diverse in its positions than the New York Times that seems to find it difficult to move off of appeasement of left leaning positions — something that the Post is at least willing to do. But the good side in this is that the moribund news media that has wallowed in the morass of hairdos and nitwitness news is waking up and beginning to rediscover its purpose in a democratic society.
That said, my friend, the operative part of this response, with all due respect, is this. We both wore the uniform of this country. In so doing we took oaths which require us to defend the rights of people to express vile, disrespectful, crazy and even profane speech and actions that turn our stomachs. But that’s what it means to be an American. And we were the lucky ones. We came back home. I’m sure you and I know at least a few of the many who did not — people who paid the ultimate price defending our freedoms. One of the things that’s the most “wrong with this country” is that too many people failed to exercise their rights and duties as Americans to speak up…to educate themselves on the issues of the day and the future…to call out the corrupt and inept leaders…to investigate and report on those difficult stories instead of spending ten minutes in a newscast telling people that the streets get slippery when it snows (duh). That’s what freedom requires us to do and the best antidote to oppression is for us to exercise our rights.
And yes, that means we won’t always agree — not should we. But we should be willing to listen and respond with respect, humility and compassion. And when we “speak our onions” and one late friend used to say and stand up for the rights of even those whose expressions make us puke we the lucky ones who came home honor those who didn’t and what they stood for. We have somehow lost the ability to stand up for what we truly believe and when we do that tyranny prevails. So, speak up, speak out and exercise your rights. Do it. Do it now. Do it often. Do it for yourself, your family, your community and especially for those who cannot. Democracy isn’t easy. Nor always pretty. Or safe. But as the late Harry Reasoner said some 47 years ago, “Our forefathers never promised us a rose garden, only a Constitution.” Carry on.
Thanks, Dick.
Thanks for having convictions. When the world around us is so relativistic, it is a breath of fresh air for someone to speak in black and white. God Bless!