“Noise”

May 24, 2018

In South Carolina, we are in the midst of a Republican primary for governor, attorney general, representatives for something important, dog catcher….Well, I am not sure if the position of county dog catcher is up for grabs, but by God, it ought to be!

The whole race for political office has evolved, no, shall we say devolved into the greatest mud-slinging, cow patty throwing display of mean and cantankerous politics and politicians I have ever seen.  The TV time around the evening news, particularly local news must be prime real estate to be bought and sold!

I have witnessed no less than three of the exact same commercial, of shall we say, ‘hate speech’ being propagated across the “sold to the highest bidder” space of one half hour news program!

If he is for it, she is against it.  If she says the sun comes up the east, he will say the west, and the little man sandwiched in-between will say he doesn’t care, because the whole world is being held in the grip of “career politicians.”  He says he is coming now as the knight in shining armor to slay these career politicians and replace them with “term limits.”  I have heard this all before and the politicians who get elected forget all about “term limits” once they take the lucrative halls of Congress and can make some money from “graft” themselves!

No one actually believes anything these men and women say in their “approved” commercials.   “My name is Elmer Fudd trying hard to shoot the rabbit,” they tell us, and “I approve this message!”

Does anyone really listen to their message?  Does anyone know what these people actually believe and will do?  No, of course not.  Their speeches seem scripted by a robomaton, who parrots back the same thing done two or four years ago.  And if I hear of one more politician calling for “our conservative agenda,” I will be forced to vomit right on the TV screen.  One Donald Trump is more than enough; who said we needed any more of his disciples to torment us every night and give us indigestion while we watch the evening news!

I suppose I could endure the parroting speech, the conservative diatribes and even the slash and burn techniques of politician skewering other politicians if in fact those speaking had intelligent ideas!  As a whole, the whole lot of Republicans has come up with nothing new since Ronald Reagan.  They have all digested Reagan’s milk and given themselves smelly diarrhea!  As I recall, Ronald Reagan was our President in the 1980s.  Has no one in the Republican camp had a new idea since then?  Even then “trickle- down economics” was a really bad idea.  It was mocked back then.  The rich get richer and the poor poorer!  Has anything really changed, except we can now say Donald Trump is the worst politician ever to inhabit the White House!   And now we get to watch Lee Atwater come to life again and again running these negative campaigns!

I remember when George Wallace, governor of Alabama stood and said, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”  It was not too long till someone shot him in the back and he got to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.  To George’s credit, he repented of his racism and actually embraced other races, including blacks.  In politics things that go round come around.  One day the Republicans will be outside the reaches of power once again.  I hope then we can find some civility in our politicians and our government again in that day!

There was a time when a few senators from across the aisle would gather and come up with legislation that most everyone liked.  Does anyone besides me remember the last time that actually occurred?

Our not so loved President has brought crudeness, incivility, attack politics and “leave no prisoners alive” mentality to the governmental arena.  He is crude, lewd and rude all at the same time.  Old guys like me know he has no more enduring effect on government than a passing fart in the wind.  It smells really bad and everyone gags on it for a while, but then it is quickly gone in the evening breeze.  President Trump does have a big belly and he manages to fart a lot every day.  Too many fast food burgers and fries, I suspect.  Nevertheless, one day even the odor of his evening meal will be long forgotten!

So the Democrats have a really good chance to do something new.  I don’t expect much from them either.  They will squander it all on speeches about the poor, but do nothing for them or anyone else.

I support neither Republicans nor Democrats.  I will, however, support anyone who has some new ideas about how to get things done, like fixing the bad roads, protecting our innocent children from gun violence in our schools and spending our tax money on something better than a damn wall to keep out Hispanics.  This country is a big country, certainly big enough to house refugees and strangers seeking asylum in a new land.

Have we forgotten who we really are?  We are Christians who follow Jesus, for God’s sake!  Have we completely forgotten what we learned in Sunday-School, when we learned that one rule that supersedes all other rules? Do we remember when Jesus taught us, through our teachers this Golden Rule, which he taught us while we were still children, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you!”

We also claim to be Americans.  If the things happening now in politics in this country represent the American ideal, then God help us, we all need to move to a foreign land!  We don’t belong here, as the land will vomit us up.  We don’t deserve to call ourselves “the land of the free and the home of the brave” if we can’t do better than this!  I am sure the Lord Jesus is quite ashamed of us all!  We cannot call ourselves Christians unless we live as Jesus lives, unless we do as Jesus does, unless we walk as Jesus walks.   “As we have done it unto one of the least of these Christ’s brethren, we have done it unto Jesus Christ our Lord!”

I, for one, do not intend to live my life hating my fellow human beings.  I will not turn away strangers from my door!  I will not turn the little children away who come looking for bread.  No, let me bend down and wash their dirty feet.  Let me offer them a place in my home.  Let me kill the fatted calf and give them something for supper.  Let me cleanse their wounds, pour oil on them and bandage them up from the weary day.  Those who destroy and maim these little children will one day give an account of themselves to the Living God!

The problem with this nation is we no longer know nor remember the God who gives us life!  The day is coming, unless we repent, that the land we call our own will vomit us up and spew us out to make room for others more deserving than we!  I hope I don’t live long enough to see it.  But until then, I will warn, cajole, prick, preach and slap us all in the face until we finally wake up.  O God, we remember that you alone are God, there is no other!  Let us not slumber for too long in this slumber of not caring.  Wake us from the dead, O God, that we may live in you, once again!

Prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us and hear our prayers.  Let us not sleep long in this slumber of death of separation from God and from one another.

We are your people and the sheep of your pasture.  Hear, and forgive us as we pray, in the strong and powerful name of Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, who conquers both sin and death.  Raise us all to life once again.  Purge away the chaff from us, that pure and holy grain in your storehouse we may be!”

“Amen and Amen!”

Let all of God’s people, wise and true, say, “Amen!”

“Amen!  We praise you, Lord Jesus Christ!”

The voice of one crying in this wilderness, make straight in this desert a highway for our God!

Bill W

Addend:  While it my appear, in some respects that I have lost some of my respect for the office of presidency, owing to my above remarks, in fact, this is not true at all.  I sincerely respect the Office of the President of the United States of America.  In fact, I consider this office one of the most important offices in our world, as to governance, leadership and example.  With this particular President, I have not been able to generate much respect for the office holder, even while continuing to respect the office of the President of the United States, to which nation, under God, I have sworn my allegiance as a citizen.

I have chosen to use hyperbole, and sarcastic political discourse in an attempt to make the point of needed change in our government as to our officials holding current office and as to our methods of government, which do not achieve consensus, but rather growing division.

I feel this is legitimate political discourse and I suspect I am not the first person to poke fun at the bellicosity of our politicians.  President Trump is just one example, of course, but he is such a good example of what not to do in the office of President, it is hard not to say something about our crappy government.  My grandmother’s philosophy is that if you cannot do something better yourself, then say nothing at all.  Her critical comments let me first into the Pastoral Ministry and then also into Family Medicine, where I now serve as a Family Practice Physician.  I have tried, in my own way to truly make a difference.  I am not a politician, but I am a citizen.  My discourse and cajoling of our politicians is my way to show them my support and affection.  I know that I can do better in my own job; I suspect equally they could do better in theirs!

Bill  W.

May 27, 2018