I remind you that this is MY blog. I get to say what I want to on MY blog. You can choose to read it or choose to shine it on. But hurtful and spite filled comments will not be published.
For the past few days, I have had the urge to watch the movie The Patriot again. Don't ask me why. I'm a WWII buff, not a Revolutionary War buff. But, finally, last night I weakened and spent $3 to have access to the movie on Amazon Prime for 24 hours. Crazy, but I just finished watching it for the 4th time.
It is an "action" movie and has its share of blood. War is brutal and bloody and I think it is perfectly fine to let people know that. But, the principles behind the movie are timeless and it is chock full of symbolism as well. Maybe you have to watch it 4 times in a row to see it........ Heath Ledger plays a brash and idealistic young man who enlists in the Continentals against his father's wishes. In fact, the Heath Ledger character, Gabriel, and his younger brother are sorely distressed when their father, seeking to protect his children from the horrors of war votes against a levy in South Carolina to support the war effort. The father, Benjamin, knew that this war would touch families in most unpleasant ways. How did he know? Because he had once been a brash and idealistic young man who had fought in the French and Indian War. There is one point where Gabriel, in all his youthful idealism, tells a black man, who is fighting for the Continentals in order to win his freedom, how much the world will change when this war is over. Yet, we ended up with a Constitution that prohibited blacks from voting and continued the practice of slavery. The war made no change in their status as a group.
The young seem to forever forget or be unaware that history is cyclical. And, they do not seem to understand that life is also cyclical. In 1968, many of us "stodgy" "old" parents rallied 'round the electioneering flag of an idealist named McGovern. Other rallied around the electioneering flag of an idealist named Edmund Muskie, who was destroyed politically and personally in the process. When he cried into the TV cameras, we cried right along with him. I remember being totally mesmerized by Bobby Kennedy and swearing never to wash my right hand again because that was the hand that shook his. We chanted "Peace Now" and sent our youngest and brightest off to fight in Viet Nam in a war our country did not choose to win. We damned segregation and risked life and limb (and some lost their lives) to carry out voter registration in the deep south. We held sit-ins on college campuses and we threatened Dow Chemical representatives with bodily harm for their part in war materiel manufacture. We listened to Lyndon Baines Johnson talk about the War on Poverty and we cheered. Later we learned that we'd lost the War on Poverty. Yes, we were once young and brash and idealistic. And we supported our "causes" with at least as much enthusiasm as the young and brash and idealistic do now. Some of us, like our current President's mentors, even bombed government buildings in protest.
So what changed us into such "old" "stodgy" "conservative" know nothing adults as we are frequently perceived to be. Easy answer--LIFE. We learned through much head banging that no matter how many picket signs we carried or how many flags we burned or how many bras we burned, things really didn't change. Here we are, 40 years later, and there is still war. There is no world peace and it certainly isn't because we didn't do everything we could to promote it. Here we are, 40 years later and there is still poverty. Here we are, 40 years later, and there is still inequality and discrimination. Here we are 40 years later and we talk about the "glass ceiling". There is still crime, there is still graft in government and so on.
Over 2000 years ago, this guy named Jesus was said to have fulfilled 350 or so Messianic prophecies. And his teachings have endured through many generations, though in many cases his teachings have been twisted to mean what someone wants them to mean. (It might be a good idea to read your Bible to get an understanding of just what Jesus was all about.) In any case, he made some prophecies of his own. He prophesied that in the last days there would be wars and rumors of wars, maybe like Somalia, and Afghanistan and Iraq and so on and his country, at the time, was occupied by the Romans. He prophesied that we would always have the poor with us. And we do, despite government programs.
Leading up to WWII, we forgot or refused to look at the fact that some things are worth fighting for. England gave away Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland to try to maintain peace with Germany. It didn't work. It merely fueled Hitler's thirst for power and world dominance, and we ended up having to fight to maintain our freedom. I know there were young and brash and idealistic men who enlisted to fight when Pearl Harbor was attacked who had fathers at home who had fought in France in WWI who argued against their enlistment.
The question is NOT whether there should be "peace now" or "peace in our time". The question is NOT whether people should live in poverty. The question is how to effect change. Some limited change may be effected in picket signs and flag and bra burnings and sit ins or in voting for politicians who make pretty promises to the politically naive and disillusioned. But, even the liberal press will address the question of whether or not the political candidate with the biggest war chest will get the vote. But, how do we really effect change? I think there is only one way and that one way is Jesus.
Our teachers can teach us the glories of protest and civil disability and fuel our idealism. But those things will not change the world and our children are done an injustice when they are taught this ...... pardon me, I have to call it what it is.........rubbish. What will change the world? Each person doing what is right before God amongst his or her fellow man. The Bible does set standards for what is "right". For example, we are commanded to love our fellow men. If we love them, then we act charitably toward them. If we love them, we don't try to take what's theirs. If we love them, we forgive them when they offend us. If we love them, we share what is ours to help meet their need. And, if, per chance, we have wronged our fellow man, we go to him and make it right. If, when we lay our heads on our pillows at night, each of us could say we had acted in accordance with God's word with regard to our fellow man, what problems would remain in this society, in this world? I submit, very few if not none. It is a question of each person's responsibility to live his or her life according to certain rules and ideals that will change the world. NOT flag burning. And NOT governmental programs.
At the birthday party yesterday, my son-in-law asked me which Republican candidates I would favor in the upcoming election. I gave him two names saying it would be one of those two people. My son-in-law is 41 now. During the last election, I think he was probably embarrassed to have our van parked outside his house. You see, he had drunk the Kool-Aid and we had the "wrong" bumper sticker. He believed the promises, and those of us who were older, who had already banged our heads repeatedly on certain walls and knew it was pointless, were argued down. Yesterday, it appeared perhaps he has entered the ranks of those who are "old" and "stodgy". I hope so. If it is true, it tells me this is at least one way in which humans can change without God's help. We can learn from our own experience even if we're not bright enough to learn from someone else's.
