Curtis Dahlgren
Will the class of 2020 see "Independence" as clearly as we used to?
By Curtis Dahlgren
"How many stars are there on that flag?" – Jay Leno
"It's moving too fast to count them." – woman-on-the-street
SOME PEOPLE JUST SHOULDN'T VOTE, says columnist Andy Heller. I've run into three grads of the high school I attended who didn't have a clue as to what Independence Day celebrates. And the quality of public education has only gone downhill since those kids graduated – although most commencement speakers praise kids now as the "best-educated generation that ever evolved."
Senator Ted Cruz recently gave the grad address at Hillsdale College with a word of warning:
"There are moments in our history when we have to make a fundamental choice. This is one such moment, a moment when our choice will determine the life or death of our kind of society and the future of our children."
That was a line from Margaret Thatcher in her 1976 "Britain Awake" speech. Three years later she was elected Prime Minister. She never lost an election, like Ron Reagan, but her own party eventually turned on her. Reagan's party has even turned on him! Ah yes, ain't human nature something else?
Thomas Jefferson said during the Revolutionary War that from the conclusion of the war, "we shall be going downhill." It's the way of all flesh to go downhill. Our Founders knew that it's hard to establish a democracy that is capable of lasting more than 200 years. At 237, we are living on borrowed time as well as borrowed money (40 cents of every dollar the Feds hand out).
At least up here in the Upper Peninsula, it was a glorious fourth. A crowd of a couple thousand turned out in a town of less than a thousand for the local parade. I was able to watch the parade from my car and listen to a baseball game at the same time. The parade climaxed with a 40-car train roaring right down the center of the downtown loop. We had a great softball game the night before for the old-timers. At nearly 71, I was the most "qualified" player. I've had better games, but it was fun! There was a great car show with many from the fifties. Up here we remember the 50s and we don't make fun of Ozzie and Harriet. July 4th is still a big, big deal!
A few words from my first book, "No More Bull": "Epilogue – we had such HIGH HOPES, but . . . "
Before Martin Luther King, the Founders had a dream too, but how much life is left in it? The acronym for "I Have a Dream" is IHAD (rhymes with jihad). America was once the most-desired destination of all the countries in the world, but evidently America is even less-loved now than four years ago. The President gave a foreign policy speech about a month ago and said that the jihadists think we are at war with Islam, but we're NOT. As if the only reason they could hate us is the perception of our foreign policy!
Where we really are at war with Islam – and most other religions – is in the world-wide culture war.
I bought a Sunday paper recently – I do that about once a year now – and there was a strange quote in the Arts & Entertainment section (Chicago Trib, April 28, 2013). Someone was quoted as saying that when the world sees our movies, they see us as "rich and white." Don't you just hate it when people miss the point?
When the world sees our motion pictures, they see us white-skinned maybe, but also as nude, lewd, and rude, with crude language to boot! They only need to hear the titles of some movies, like "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
There's no religion in the world that wants their daughters to turn out like our "starlettes" or "super models." What the world objects to isn't the color of our skin, but the over-exposure of it! Celebrity magazines are an embarrassment. While the big thing lately is "baby bump" photos, the question that occurs is:
How many babies did they bump off before they decided to keep one?
When it comes to the social issues, clergymen and Ivy League Republicans alike walk on eggshells, apparently afraid of the Washington Post, lawyers, Annie Gaylor, or even their own wives. When you walk on eggshells, eventually the yokes on YOU.
CONCLUSION: a quotation by John Adams -
"The clergy of this province are a virtuous, sensible, and learned set of men, and they do not take their sermons from the newspapers, but from the Bible . . . It is the duty of clergymen to accomodate their discourse to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as are most lacking . . .
"If public spirit [involvement] is much [lacking], should they not inculcate this great virtue? . . . If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should they not explain them, show their nature . . how much soever it may move the gall of Massachuttensis?"
I think he was saying "If you're 'offended by conservative religious talk in the public square, GET OVER IT!
P.S. Maybe we in the U.P. should secede from the rest of Michigan.
Will the class of 2020 see "Independence" as clearly as we used to?
© Curtis Dahlgren
July 8, 2013
"How many stars are there on that flag?" – Jay Leno
"It's moving too fast to count them." – woman-on-the-street
SOME PEOPLE JUST SHOULDN'T VOTE, says columnist Andy Heller. I've run into three grads of the high school I attended who didn't have a clue as to what Independence Day celebrates. And the quality of public education has only gone downhill since those kids graduated – although most commencement speakers praise kids now as the "best-educated generation that ever evolved."
Senator Ted Cruz recently gave the grad address at Hillsdale College with a word of warning:
"There are moments in our history when we have to make a fundamental choice. This is one such moment, a moment when our choice will determine the life or death of our kind of society and the future of our children."
That was a line from Margaret Thatcher in her 1976 "Britain Awake" speech. Three years later she was elected Prime Minister. She never lost an election, like Ron Reagan, but her own party eventually turned on her. Reagan's party has even turned on him! Ah yes, ain't human nature something else?
Thomas Jefferson said during the Revolutionary War that from the conclusion of the war, "we shall be going downhill." It's the way of all flesh to go downhill. Our Founders knew that it's hard to establish a democracy that is capable of lasting more than 200 years. At 237, we are living on borrowed time as well as borrowed money (40 cents of every dollar the Feds hand out).
At least up here in the Upper Peninsula, it was a glorious fourth. A crowd of a couple thousand turned out in a town of less than a thousand for the local parade. I was able to watch the parade from my car and listen to a baseball game at the same time. The parade climaxed with a 40-car train roaring right down the center of the downtown loop. We had a great softball game the night before for the old-timers. At nearly 71, I was the most "qualified" player. I've had better games, but it was fun! There was a great car show with many from the fifties. Up here we remember the 50s and we don't make fun of Ozzie and Harriet. July 4th is still a big, big deal!
A few words from my first book, "No More Bull": "Epilogue – we had such HIGH HOPES, but . . . "
Before Martin Luther King, the Founders had a dream too, but how much life is left in it? The acronym for "I Have a Dream" is IHAD (rhymes with jihad). America was once the most-desired destination of all the countries in the world, but evidently America is even less-loved now than four years ago. The President gave a foreign policy speech about a month ago and said that the jihadists think we are at war with Islam, but we're NOT. As if the only reason they could hate us is the perception of our foreign policy!
Where we really are at war with Islam – and most other religions – is in the world-wide culture war.
I bought a Sunday paper recently – I do that about once a year now – and there was a strange quote in the Arts & Entertainment section (Chicago Trib, April 28, 2013). Someone was quoted as saying that when the world sees our movies, they see us as "rich and white." Don't you just hate it when people miss the point?
When the world sees our motion pictures, they see us white-skinned maybe, but also as nude, lewd, and rude, with crude language to boot! They only need to hear the titles of some movies, like "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
There's no religion in the world that wants their daughters to turn out like our "starlettes" or "super models." What the world objects to isn't the color of our skin, but the over-exposure of it! Celebrity magazines are an embarrassment. While the big thing lately is "baby bump" photos, the question that occurs is:
How many babies did they bump off before they decided to keep one?
When it comes to the social issues, clergymen and Ivy League Republicans alike walk on eggshells, apparently afraid of the Washington Post, lawyers, Annie Gaylor, or even their own wives. When you walk on eggshells, eventually the yokes on YOU.
CONCLUSION: a quotation by John Adams -
"The clergy of this province are a virtuous, sensible, and learned set of men, and they do not take their sermons from the newspapers, but from the Bible . . . It is the duty of clergymen to accomodate their discourse to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as are most lacking . . .
"If public spirit [involvement] is much [lacking], should they not inculcate this great virtue? . . . If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should they not explain them, show their nature . . how much soever it may move the gall of Massachuttensis?"
I think he was saying "If you're 'offended by conservative religious talk in the public square, GET OVER IT!
P.S. Maybe we in the U.P. should secede from the rest of Michigan.
Will the class of 2020 see "Independence" as clearly as we used to?
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
