If there's ever a question as to how to respond to violence, anger, fear, injustice, unforgiveness, hate or evil, choose love.
Responding to violence with violence creates war.
Responding to anger with anger creates confusion.
Responding to fear with fear creates despair.
Responding to injustice with injustice creates strife.
Responding to unforgiveness with unforgiveness creates bitterness.
Responding to hate with hate creates division.
Responding to evil with evil creates all manner of evil.
Jesus warned against all of these things and told us to choose the forces which emanate from love.
Respond to violence with peace.
Respond to anger with calm.
Respond to fear with knowledge and faith.
Respond to injustice with action.
Respond to unforgiveness with forgiveness.
Respond to hate with compassion.
Respond to evil with good.
We can never go wrong with love and what springs from it. Other solutions may seem more satisfying in the heat of the moment, but thoughtful, loving responses leave us without regrets.
Love is the one thing that never fails.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Saturday, November 22, 2014
What's Next?
After a nearly a 10-month-long hiatus from posting here to pursue a run for Congress as an independent candidate, I am supposing I might come back around to blogging again. My campaign is now a minor footnote in the chronicles of Missouri politics, and I've been contemplating what's next. Maybe politics is in my future, but unless something unforeseen happens, it won't be another run for U.S. Congress. As much as I believe in the independent movement, the reality is that strong, unaffiliated candidates were shut out everywhere in this mid-term election. Record low voter turnout contributed, but who knows how anyone would have voted if they'd shown up at the polls? Too many are stuck in a party politics mentality.
I had hoped we would make enough of a showing to help change the national conversation, to let the powers that be know they should be worried, that their jobs might be in danger. The fact is their jobs are more secure than ever, for many reasons. But most of all the citizenry is to blame. The majority of us refuse to be informed and won't stand up to redeclare our independence and reclaim our rights by voting out those who participate in a corrupt system. Ultimately, it's on us for playing along.
I'm not interested in excuses. There IS too much money in politics, there ARE powerful forces at work behind the scenes and we have been beat down into thinking that nothing we do matters. But votes win elections and voter turnout was dismal. Less than one-third of eligible voters cast ballots in Missouri on Nov. 4, 2014. I'm tired of hearing people rail against the status quo while allowing the status quo to continue, unchallenged.
There were 6,819 of us in Missouri's District 8 who had courage to stand up by voting for an independent (and another 7,558 who voted for other 'third party' candidates), so what can those of us who did try something different do now? I can only speak for myself, but some form of civil disobedience is seeming more like an answer. Question everything. Isn't that what Jesus did? He questioned authority and everything else that society had to offer.
I will continue to question our elected officials and press them on who they're really representing. I approach it with my definition of a government which wants to be a 'Christian nation' which is not one that lacks compassion, continually makes war, no longer rewards a hard-working middle class, refuses to 'promote the general welfare' and blames the poor for being poor. It is more and more disgusting every day to participate in a system which has become corrupted by greed.
Do you know what was the sin of Sodom? Not what many think. “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16:49, NIV) If we bring on our own destruction as a country it will be because we have forgotten what's truly important. We will have forgotten what it means to care.
The Koch brothers and their kind are laughing at us, ALL of us, especially the misguided (usually well-intentioned) voters who keep thinking that electing an ALEC-sponsored puppet is somehow electing someone who represents us. This couldn't be further from the truth. The federal government is making itself more and more irrelevant every day simply because it can't function. What a shame it's morally and financially bankrupting us in the process.
But whatever happens in Washington, we must come back around to what has always made this country great: local solutions. That's ultimately the way it should be and what will be our salvation.
It goes beyond “shopping local,” although supporting locally owned businesses is an integral part. (Online shopping is convenient, but it's helping lay waste to local economies. Please remember that as the holidays approach.) The local movement is about growing our own food or knowing our growers. It's about communities growing our own businesses, too, and creating jobs, manufacturing the things we need when it's possible. Forming farmers and artisan co-ops. Bartering. Connecting with our neighbors.
Somehow we've been led to believe it's impossible to be self-sufficient, but it's only in recent times that the economy has become global. Local choices exist and local choices are crucial. Local solutions are also about all of us taking responsibility and helping to care for those in need in our own communities while contributing time and resources to build strong families and education opportunities. It's about things like mentoring young people, so they can break free from generational cycles of poverty and much more.
The future of our country really is worth fighting for, but we must face the struggle with respect for others, integrity and a sense of responsibility for doing what is right and honorable, because in the midst of the fight, we must not lose the heart and soul of what made our nation great. Have courage. Be kind to those around you while always questioning authority. We'll get through these rough times and we'll hope for good things ahead.
I had hoped we would make enough of a showing to help change the national conversation, to let the powers that be know they should be worried, that their jobs might be in danger. The fact is their jobs are more secure than ever, for many reasons. But most of all the citizenry is to blame. The majority of us refuse to be informed and won't stand up to redeclare our independence and reclaim our rights by voting out those who participate in a corrupt system. Ultimately, it's on us for playing along.
I'm not interested in excuses. There IS too much money in politics, there ARE powerful forces at work behind the scenes and we have been beat down into thinking that nothing we do matters. But votes win elections and voter turnout was dismal. Less than one-third of eligible voters cast ballots in Missouri on Nov. 4, 2014. I'm tired of hearing people rail against the status quo while allowing the status quo to continue, unchallenged.
There were 6,819 of us in Missouri's District 8 who had courage to stand up by voting for an independent (and another 7,558 who voted for other 'third party' candidates), so what can those of us who did try something different do now? I can only speak for myself, but some form of civil disobedience is seeming more like an answer. Question everything. Isn't that what Jesus did? He questioned authority and everything else that society had to offer.
I will continue to question our elected officials and press them on who they're really representing. I approach it with my definition of a government which wants to be a 'Christian nation' which is not one that lacks compassion, continually makes war, no longer rewards a hard-working middle class, refuses to 'promote the general welfare' and blames the poor for being poor. It is more and more disgusting every day to participate in a system which has become corrupted by greed.
Do you know what was the sin of Sodom? Not what many think. “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16:49, NIV) If we bring on our own destruction as a country it will be because we have forgotten what's truly important. We will have forgotten what it means to care.
The Koch brothers and their kind are laughing at us, ALL of us, especially the misguided (usually well-intentioned) voters who keep thinking that electing an ALEC-sponsored puppet is somehow electing someone who represents us. This couldn't be further from the truth. The federal government is making itself more and more irrelevant every day simply because it can't function. What a shame it's morally and financially bankrupting us in the process.
But whatever happens in Washington, we must come back around to what has always made this country great: local solutions. That's ultimately the way it should be and what will be our salvation.
It goes beyond “shopping local,” although supporting locally owned businesses is an integral part. (Online shopping is convenient, but it's helping lay waste to local economies. Please remember that as the holidays approach.) The local movement is about growing our own food or knowing our growers. It's about communities growing our own businesses, too, and creating jobs, manufacturing the things we need when it's possible. Forming farmers and artisan co-ops. Bartering. Connecting with our neighbors.
Somehow we've been led to believe it's impossible to be self-sufficient, but it's only in recent times that the economy has become global. Local choices exist and local choices are crucial. Local solutions are also about all of us taking responsibility and helping to care for those in need in our own communities while contributing time and resources to build strong families and education opportunities. It's about things like mentoring young people, so they can break free from generational cycles of poverty and much more.
The future of our country really is worth fighting for, but we must face the struggle with respect for others, integrity and a sense of responsibility for doing what is right and honorable, because in the midst of the fight, we must not lose the heart and soul of what made our nation great. Have courage. Be kind to those around you while always questioning authority. We'll get through these rough times and we'll hope for good things ahead.
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