Choose Well

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

Abe Lincoln
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Hello Arlene
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As we approach election day, politicians all over the country will be campaigning to get enough votes to win a job or keep a job. The President and Vice President jobs are at the top of the pile, but other positions from Congress, through State Governments on down to local governments are also being sought.

A lot of money will be spent trying to win votes. Speeches will be made, interviews will be held and debates will take place. There will be a lot of information and misinformation delivered to the voters. Accusations will be made and denied. Records will be held up for scrutiny. Our radios and TVs will be inundated with advertisements for and against one candidate or another. And. yes. unfortunately, lies will be told.

There will be talk of war, budgets, human rights, health care and the "future" of America. Programs, systems and traditions will be threatened by the sabers of opinion and policy.

One of the greatest things about the United States is that no matter where you live, stuffed into a small room in the ghetto of some inner city, in a shack on the desert, a remote island off the Alaskan coast, there is someone in Congress, in your state legislature and in some cities who represents you. It means you have a link to the government, and you have a right to contact that person at any time of you need help or if you feel the need to express an opinion. What that means to me is that although a tremendous amount of power resides with the President, the Vice President and the 50 Governors of our various states, and those people should be carefully chosen. it is equally as important to provide the best people you can for those representative positions.

I look at the records, I hear the speeches, I read the opinions, I consider the issues, I watch the debates. Unfortunately I also have to watch the mud slinging, the back slapping, the nose twisting and the hand shaking. But when it's all over and time to exercise my special privilege as an American citizen to cast my vote I look for the person who has the heart, the heart to care, the heart to help, the heart to heal.

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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Worship

When I do good, I feel good, when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

Abraham Lincoln
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Well, the National Day of Prayer sure has got the cauldron bubbling.

US District judge Barbara Crabb of Wisconsin issued a ruling saying that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, and that has a lot of people with their knickers twisted. They think she's saying it's illegal. But all she means is that the Constitution does not allow for a religious celebration to be a national one.

We have some national celebrations, most of them holidays, such as the 4th of July and Thanksgiving. And we have others that are not national holidays such as Halloween and Christmas.

We are, thank goodness, a multi national, multi lingual, multi religious nation. We have the right to worship, but not the right to impose our religious beliefs on the rest of the nation. The right to pray is a constitutionally confirmed right, but it is not a national obligation.

But the United States is a Christian country, founded on Christian principles. Oh? The founding fathers, those that were religious, were Christians by default. They came from Christian countries. To say the nation was founded on Christian principles the fathers would have had to deeply investigate and seriously consider all the world's religions and then decide on Christianity as the basis for American government. But they didn't do that.

Let's say we are a "Christian" country. We have to round up everybody and find out what God they worship. Do you worship Yahweh, Allah, Jesus, Buddha, Shiva, the Copper Woman, Zeus, Quetzalcoatl, Osiris, Astarte. Satan? Are you a deist, an atheist, anti religious, areligious, animist, agnostic? Are you a monotheist, a pagan?

Alright, now we have separated the Christians from everyone else it's testing time.
How many believe Jesus was God? How many don't?
We've lost half of them. But the testing goes on.

On which day did God create the beasts of the field?
What did Adam do to earn the Lord God's curse?
How long did the flood of Noah last?
Who built the tower of Babel?
How many children did Jacob have, what were their names, in what order were they born and who were their mothers?
Who first said to "love they neighbor as thyself"?
How many of Jesus' disciples were fishermen?
How many beatitudes are there in the Sermon On The Mount and what are they?
What is the Mother of Harlots?

Well what do you know? There are a few true Christians who actually know the answers to those questions. Now one final question.

Do the few of you that are left go forth every day to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleans the lepers and cast out devils"?

I thought so. Well, that more or less does it for our "Christian" nation.

There is a difference between a Christian and he who is trying to become one. And so it is with anyone on an earnest spiritual quest, whatever his religion.

The Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

Only 7 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
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