Catholic Online Forum

Barb,



I refuse to believe that the country I love so much has died. Undoubtedly though it has changed. All we have to do is look at what is played on the Television, the Radio, and on the Big Screen.

Admittedly I don't go to the movies very much any more, but I absolutely refuse to watch on television those shows which depict Homosexuality as a good thing, derided Christianity and make fun of those who take religion seriously.

I suppose the next step would be to stop purchasing the products that are advertised on those shows.

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Bob C

Barb seems to think that there was some past golden era of US history when the government and the people of the nation were righteous, peace and harmony prevailed, justice and prosperity reigned. From the history I've read it was never so.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

Pax Americana?

See>>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Americana

A note of caution, I would be entertained by a dueling of Historical Facts with Barb, but you probably wouldn't be. I believe her PhD is in History.

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Bob C

Bob – Your disagreement with Barb is only with that first sentence? You agree with what she says next? I must say she struck a chord with me. Surely you are not suggesting we close our eyes and ears to everything, as maybe you have with the Television, and the Big Screen?

I honestly don’t know how to respond to her comments of declining civilization, or are we spiritually bankrupt? Are we more Godless? That one I think is true.

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BobB

Fiat voluntas tua

Maybe you should join Obama's next apology tour?

Man is imperfect as is his governance; HOWEVER, the US is the best thing going thus far. That is what American Exceptionalism is all about...

America is heads and shoulders above the rest...

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Daniel

"Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." -- Luke 12:51

BobB,

No I actual agreed with much of it, but there is a difference in America being dead and America being sick.

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Bob C

You are not listening to either Barb or me.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

Obama won because he is black and Romney is a Mormon and a moderate conservative. 3 million Republicans stayed home.

We will know for sure in 2014. We need a true conservative in 2016, and hopefully no Hilary.

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-Lou (Louis)

ORA et LABORA
Totus Tuus
Cacciatore/Fungaiolo

It is.

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-Lou (Louis)

ORA et LABORA
Totus Tuus
Cacciatore/Fungaiolo

Then I guess you both strongly disagree with Barb's thesis that America is dead or dying.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

There have certainly been periods when we were not involved in any foreign wars, which can be considered peace of a sort. If you only consider declared wars we could be considered at "peace" now. But peace was only one of several factors I mentioned.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

Hi Bob,

Yes. I do believe that in a fundamental sense, America has died. The terrain remains, of course. And the name. But what made America America - that I believe no longer exists. I think George Weigel's column hints at it a bit and I'm going to pull out the passage from de Toqueville's classic on America he quotes there:


People talk about our changing demographics. Since when in the history of our nation were there not major demographic shifts? We've always been a nation of immigrants, one new flood after the other. But despite the differences, there were things all those immigrant groups shared and that was a common fear of the power of government, the determination to chart one's own course, to make one's own way, and to drive one's own destiny. The idea of America was the idea of individual initiative, personal freedom and liberty to pursue one's own happiness. The American experiment was about not needing kings, or feudal lords, and certainly not tyrants.

What has changed in America today isn't that we're more diverse as a people; we've always been that. And it isn't that we're a more sinful people today. We've always been that too. What has changed is that we are no longer the kind of people we used to be, the kind of people Toqueville saw when he traveled across the land we call America. We are no longer a self-reliant people. We are no longer the kind of people who are determined to drive our own destiny. We are no longer the kind of people who will sacrifice something personal for something greater than ourselves, much less the idea of something greater. We are no longer the kind of people who would endure pain and suffering in order to find a small plot of land to call our own and work with our own hands. We are no longer the kind of people who understand what it means to be America and to be called an American.

Obama, with his rejection of American exceptionalism, with his feudal paternalism, his belief in Government as Savior, his determination to have Big Government decide who gets what when and where, with his obsessive intrusion into the microdetails of individual lives, with his narcissism - he truly does represent the "entirely new kind of people" that make up the majority of Americans today. He didn't win because the media hid the details of his multiple failures or because his ground game was better than the GOP's or because he spoke more to minorities and illegal immigrants, or even because some believe the economy is getting better. I don't believe he won for any of those reasons. I believe he won because he really is what these new Americans want: they want a government that will promise to take care of them.

America is dead because what made America America - the kind of people who made this nation exceptional, they are no longer the majority and I don't really see how they ever could be again.

God bless,
Barb

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"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic." Pope Benedict XVI

Barb,




I so want to believe that you are wrong, wrong, wrong. My family's genealogist has traced our family back to the Mayflower and my father's direct descendant to 1634, I have relatives that signed the Declaration of Independence. My family has always had someone of each generation who served in the military.

I refuse to believe that the dream of America is dead, sick perhaps, dormant for sure, but dead I don't think so.

Someday that dream will rise from the ashes like the Phoenix bird, and we will return to glory.

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Bob C

Hi Bob,

I'd like to believe I'm wrong as well. We know that all things are possible through Him who strengthens us. But that's the key, isn't it? That it will have to come about through Him. It's not going to come about through the Republican Party. It's going to have to come about through the work of the Catholic Church. Through taking back the education of our young. And taking back the public square through a strong New Evangelization that is neither wimpy nor watered down.

He didn't make us to be slaves. We have to stop being slaves to the Spirit of this Age and to the politicians and the marketers who now rule not just the government of this country, but its very soul.

God Bless,
Barb
(BTW: Very admirable, your family background!)

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"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic." Pope Benedict XVI

I have a question for people living in the U.S. Does it really feel different living in America now? I mean, if you weren't reading the news and following politics, would you still feel that America has changed so much? Are your neighbours and communities very different than they were a few decades ago?

Reading the news from afar (and also recently reading loads of university web site pages), I am struck by how diversity seems to be considered the greatest common good. Not goodness or excellence or virtue, just . . . diversity. The emphasis seems all wrong to me because I would think it is creating division not harmony.

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Grace

As to the past, let us entrust it to God's mercy, the future to Divine Providence. Our task is to live holy the present moment. - Saint Gianna Molla

Grace,



Yes.

Here is what I perceive in the the neighborhood.

People are more confrontational; more ready to get into violent fights; kids and adults are more and more crass. Neighbors are no longer friends; their interaction with people comes through texting. Neighbors come and go with increasing regularity. Kids no longer play outside with other neighbor kids; they stay in basements and interact with other kids online or they only play organized sports. Divorced and openly homosexual neighbors are growing while the number of 2 parent (1 man and 1 woman) neighbors are shrinking. Kids are dumber and much less aware of world events, and so are their parents.

If you are involved in a parish community, you see somewhat less of this. But if you look about at your neighborhoods, where fewer and fewer people go to church regularly, the gloom is getting thicker.

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Dean
Most people's sense of history goes back to breakfast time - Benjamin Netanyahu

Hi Grace,

I think Dean sums up as well what I've seen. Ever see the movie "It's a Wonderful Life"? Well, the part where he gets his wish to have never been born, where he's running through what is now Pottersville?

That's what I feel when I walk through the streets of America today.

Like someone took America away and left us with Pottersville.

God bless,
Barb

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"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic." Pope Benedict XVI

I would add that my neighbors are absolutely consumed with trivialities too. Libya? Glassy stare. Timberlake? They're right there! Biden? Crickets. Who won "Dancing With the Stars" and who are the survivors on "American Idol?" BAM! Instant reponse. Fiscal cliff? Duh! Is that part of the Grand Canyon? Pumpkin spice latte...mmmmm!

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Dean
Most people's sense of history goes back to breakfast time - Benjamin Netanyahu

In my own neighborhood one glaring difference from a few decades ago is the number of Spanish billboards and Hispanic immigrants who fly flags from their nation (primarily Mexico) but not US flags. They're on bumper stickers, they're flying on cars or they're flying in front of their houses or on their tee shirts and on and on. There are so many jobs that advertise for bilingual only and very often the English spoken by those who are supposedly bilingual is terrible. Both my parents were first generation Americans and spoke English very well and without an accent but also spoke the language of their parents homeland. They were both multilingual but they learned the other language at home and church, not at school. Bilingual education is no longer practiced in California but I have a friend who took her kid out of public school into a private school because the majority of students there didn't know English and didn't try to speak English and he wasn't learning to speak properly. I have on two different occasions been told by a Mexican "this is Mexico now" or "we've taken back our homeland". I don't believe illegal immigrants becoming citizens is going to change it.

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Valerie Garcia
vals1990@yahoo.com

"Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him ....." St. Benedict

Barb,




Thank you. I had nothing to do with it but it is sort of nice to be part of it.

My fathers given name was William, that can be traced back to the crusades where the Knight was given the name "William the Carpenter", and it wasn't for his ability to chop wood, but rather his skill with a sword.

I have here in the house an old black and white picture that had five "William Carpenters" in it, my father was the infant. My wife Photoshopped a copy of the picture to add our son William to it so now there are six in the picture. I should add much to the annoyance of my brother also William who she basically told to go suck eggs when he wanted his face added to the photo.

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Bob C

Grace,

Yes and no.

I could see it more when I was out of the country for a time and came back but I don't see it much now.

It's probably like trying to boil a frog, if you have a pot of boiling water and throw a frog into it, the frog will jump out. Yet if you start the frog in cold water and then set the pot on the burner the frog will eventually be cooked.

My immediate neighborhood is mostly retired military Maybe 75%. The rest of the folks play nice, if they are going to get nasty they do it elsewhere. For example.

The last storm we had here when we lost power, I was sitting in the front yard with a pistol in a holster on my belt and a 12 gauge shotgun leaning on the wall behind me. To my left was my son with a pistol on his belt and my carbine on the wall behind him, my wife was also sitting there with her pistol on her belt, my neighbor was standing there chatting with his 12 gauge in the crook of his arm. A police officer drove by, stopped and asked what we were worried about, my neighbor said not a damn thing officer, you stay safe. The cop chuckled and drove off.

Like I said trouble makers go elsewhere around here.

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Bob C

Val,

Ah an old Californio, a grand tradition. I haven't been in California for a very long time late 1980's visited my BIL who was stationed in San Diego, even on the border I didn't see what you are explaining, but I believe it.

Here in Tampa, we don't have many Mexicans, some but not many. Most of the Hispanics are Puerto Rican or Cuban, the Cubans are further divided into old Cuban families who were here when Teddy Roosevelt charged up San Juan hill and the newer Cubans who are refuges from the Castro Regime. Yet when we have a Heritage event at the parish (everyone brings an ethnic dish) there are folks from every Country in South and Central America...very interesting. Just about every country in the world in fact.

I do see the national flags you mention, and we have some gang problems but not so much.

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Bob C

Hey, I watch that.

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Bob C

I forgive you

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-Lou (Louis)

ORA et LABORA
Totus Tuus
Cacciatore/Fungaiolo

Why, I enjoy it.

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Bob C

Bob C,



It's definitely a change from 1980. I've lived in my neighborhood for 22 years and have seen the changes. What is most confusing to me is why a first generation American still can't speak English properly like my parents did. I don't know if it's because there was still bilingual education then or the quality of education has gone down in general. All of my parents family were first generation and like I said, they all spoke excellent English. Better than me because I didn't pay much attention in school. I understand ethnic enclaves, both my parents lived in them and my mother lived in a town where there was a Polish church (which she attended) and an Irish church and both lived in their own neighborhoods but they changed when the first set of American born children came on the scene.

At my last job, I worked with mostly bilingual young people in their 20's and they all had accents and most didn't really speak English all that well. They also always mixed Spanish and English together which annoyed me no end because the supervisor would be telling us something and suddenly use Spanish and I'd have to remind her I only spoke English. I wish I spoke Spanish and someday I'll take courses though I doubt I'll ever speak Spanish very well. So, I get why immigrants don't speak English well but not why their children do not except to assume it's simply not important to their parents that their children participate fully in American life.

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Valerie Garcia
vals1990@yahoo.com

"Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him ....." St. Benedict

I am going to go against the tide of opinion here. I have lived in the same neighborhood for almost 40 years. Of course it has changed during that time. The ethnic makeup of the neighborhood has really changed twice over the last half century. But it seems to me that even then, the changes are mostly trivial surface changes. Some things get better, some get worse. In my city as a whole, crime went up, then it went back down. Violent crime seems to be the lowest it has been in decades. My friends are mostly from all around the metro area, rather than just in my neighborhood. I would not say my friends and acquaintances are less intelligent, less informed, less educated or less moral than they were in the past. So, if I were not reading the news and following politics, and particularly not spending time on the Internet, then I would not feel that America has changed all that much.

It says in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 1:9) that there is nothing new under the sun. There may be some new stuff, but it is not the important stuff.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

Grace,
From where I am, yes, it has changed. I thought it couldn't be for the worse, but it did.

Although I've lived here for over 40 years, I became a US citizen only during the Clinton years because I was happy with my legal immigrant status and didn't want to deal with the tyrannical Immigration service again. But I was told at that time that if I didn't naturalize, they would ask me to turn in my green card to be replaced with a new and improved green card. Afraid that I'd never see my green card again (I never trusted Immigration), I opted to become a citizen.

I rather liked having Clinton as president, not because of his policies, but because he was entertaining. Besides, the SF newspaper I worked for (I worked in the advertising dept, so had nothing to do with the news) was crazy about Clinton. I was politically naive and never got over the feeling that since I'm neither Black nor White, I remained a "guest." A polite guest. The fact that SF was mostly pro-abort didn't bother me so much because within my little Filipino-Catholic enclave, every one was Democrat, but pro-life and against gay unions. It went without saying and so it was never said.

Until the Bush-Gore recount conflict erupted in Florida did I realize that things have started to change. Very gradually, but they changed. My TV had no Fox news at that time and I didn't have the internet, but I knew there was something very wrong. The Florida Supreme Court was changing the rules after the game was over, and the local and main stream news outlets weren't calling them on it. When Bush finally won at the US Supreme Court, I rejoiced. When the matter was brought up at my prayer group meeting, I was vilified. At work I felt like a pariah, for posting on my private bulletin board a picture of the gown Laura Bush wore at her husband's inauguration.

I posted a Holy Week schedule of the nearby church at my work's bulletin board and right away, a woman told me to take it down because of the "separation of church and state." To which I countered, since when did our newspaper became "state?"

Gays and lesbian friends of my husbands pressured me to vote for Kerry because they claim the embryonic stem cell research that his party supports would cure my husband's ailments. I staunchly defended my Catholic faith and courageously marched in the Pro-Life West Coast walk for the next three years, despite onlookers telling me to drop the pro-life sign and "go home." I said, "I live here." I also vowed if, by chance, I saw our gay councilman come up for communion in our church, I would step down from my cantor perch and pull him out of the communion line. Thankfully, that never happened.

On retirement, my husband and I moved out of the city, one-hour northeast. I like where I live now, but I'm afraid it's starting to become more or less like SF. People are decidedly more polite. There are no harrassment, no gay pride parades. But the community is ominously silent. I heard that there were silent protestations from gays about my church, having repaired its silent bells after so many years, has started to ring them again. There were no election signs on the lawns except for local candidates. The churches (Catholic, protestants, and non-denominational evangelicals) are more vocal against abortion and gay unions, but outside of their buildings, there's silence. No one likes to talk politics here for fear of offending anybody.

On the morning of election day, having voted and was just walking back home, I met a dear friend - white, male, native-born, and conservative - who, I thought would have been a perfect Romney voter. He said he had no intentions to vote. Why? Because this is California and his vote wouldn't count, anyway.

I feel so sad, so very sad.

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Pax et bonum,
Marie

JMJ

Not dead yet -dying yes.

Things look much worse than they are when the President who should focus on upholding the law and American principles that are common to Americans instead focuses upon dividing and conquering so that he may amass power and destroy that which he swore to uphold and defend.

Division is amplified and at times even fabricated and then exploited by the left...

This is what I see now.

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Daniel

"Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." -- Luke 12:51

Let me add:

Division not premised upon truth is amplified and at times even fabricated and then exploited by the left -this has always been the case. However, now with the President we have and the power at his disposal the effects are much more noticeable and seem so much worse...

The leftists are coming out of the shadows and the true divisions becoming quite apparent. Denial is no longer an option -neither is surrender.

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Daniel

"Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." -- Luke 12:51

Many years ago I lived in small [500 pop] town in New England. Someone complained to my father that the town was dying. He replied that it had died 50 years earlier; they were observing rigor mortis setting in.

America died 40 years ago when we accepted Roe vs Wade. What we see now is rigor mortis setting in.

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- Joe Kelley

Death is only a shadow across the path to Heaven.

America is alive and well and hope is springing.
I find it very ironic and appalling that you continue to reinforce this "us" vs "them" mentality...namely leftists, homosexuals, etc...
What about us being the UNITED states of America, and being willing to work together!
Why don't you pray for Obama and all the "leftists", etc...rather than continue to spout your veiled hatred.
We are the future and your old, archaic, "right wing, conservative, uber religious" views are hurting more than helping. /irony

bb

I see I struck a nerve...

On a Catholic forum YOUR political positions are ironic

I pray for an end to evil ESPECIALLY that which the leftists and their useful idiots promote.

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Daniel

"Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." -- Luke 12:51

I can see in this thread and several others, a lot of folks who are dear to me are in despair. I encourage you to take some time to notice and remember the goodness and strength you can easily find in America if you look for it.

A hard lesson I often struggle with myself is this: don't mourn for things when you think they are dying. After they die you will have plenty of time. While they live, take heart and do good work, hoping and praying for the best and doing what you can do day to day. I fail at this myself, so I'm not preaching down to anyone. I'm just saying, give some time and energy to seeing the good, and doing the good.

In the long term, very few things happen that do not end up serving the good.

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Charles MacKenzie

"For nature is one with rapine, a harm no preacher can heal;
The Mayfly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow spear'd by the shrike,
And the whole little wood where I sit is a world of plunder and prey."
-Tennyson

Daniel,



Ahem!

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James Daly

"It is the Lord." (Jn 21:7)

Joe,
It's time we buried her, poor girl.

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Pax et bonum,
Marie

JMJ

On the one hand you sound optimistic, on the other you seem to despair.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

I trumpet more a call to arms than I call for a waving of the white flag.

If there is any despair it is for understanding that defeating evil will come with some cost...

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Daniel

"Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." -- Luke 12:51

Oh! I thought you said Amen.

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Bob C

Bob,

Hardly.

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James Daly

"It is the Lord." (Jn 21:7)

Thanks to all who responded to my question. Interesting observations. I don't have much to say because of course I wanted to hear from others.

One thing that Val said makes me want to add...

Val, without doing research and off the top of my head, I think it's because there was NOT bilingual education when your parents were young.
Bilingual education became trendy in the 70s and 80s, I believe, and you are seeing the result. It doesn't really work, but it does tend to make English-speaking-only people not eligible for some jobs.

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Grace

As to the past, let us entrust it to God's mercy, the future to Divine Providence. Our task is to live holy the present moment. - Saint Gianna Molla

Interesting, as I recall President Obama pushed the “us” and “them” in American politics to a new divisive level during his first four years in office and this was the cornerstone of his 2012 campaign. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, his support for abortion, same-sex 'marriage', adoption of children by same-sex couples, and disrespect for religious freedom have thrown faithful Catholics, Christians and many among those of other religious persuasions onto the other side of the American landscape. As long as the status quo is unchanged the country will remain divided and I can understand why my faithful Catholic brothers and sisters in the US believe this will be so.

If you are still a faithful Catholic obedient to your bishop, you will know that for the Church, there are five non-negotiable issues: Namely Her stand against abortion, euthanasia, homosexual ‘marriage’, embryonic stem cell research and human cloning. If you believe faithful Catholics can compromise on these issues in moving forward, then you have a lot to understand what the Church teaches.

Any Catholic who thinks he can ditch the five non-negotiables—still believing his soul is safe from eternal damnation—and considers that he and his like-minded thinkers are the future of his country will be sorely disappointed when the truth finally comes to roost and ruin society irreparably. And more terrifying when he stands before God in judgment of his eternal fate.

God help America, and other countries, if you and your ilk are indeed the future of all nations.

For sure, Catholics in the US and elsewhere who are faithful to the Church, will pray for President Obama, you can certainly count on that. We pray for all, regardless of whether they are leftists, homosexuals or simply insane. And while we are on this subject, you need to know that the Church has never been against homosexuals and in fact work to help them in their struggles. Only practicing sodomites have portrayed Catholics as hateful of people with such conditions. The Church only condemns sinful practices, as we do fornification, adultery and all wrongdoing.

One last note: please sign your name properly as “Brandon” as you have in your earlier posts. You can make them permanent by including it in your signature. We all do this, and “BB” just won’t do.

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Ian DC
Blessed Ever Virgin Mary -- Sanctuary and resting-place of the Blessed Trinity where God dwells in greater and more divine splendour than anywhere else in the universe

Along these lines, I take heart from Gandalf.



I was encouraged to read this, too: "If this culture is to be saved, it won't be through legislation. You can legislate the destruction of a culture but you can't legislate the creation of one. For that, you need believers. And I know that as the ever expanding darkness spreads, the light of Christians will shine brighter. And some will come towards that light. And in such ways are cultures reborn."

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/matthew- ... z2BnZ6xVpq

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Grace

As to the past, let us entrust it to God's mercy, the future to Divine Providence. Our task is to live holy the present moment. - Saint Gianna Molla

Hi Joe,

You wrote:


There's something to that, Joe. What did Roe v Wade represent? Disregard for human life. The placing of a distorted concept of "social justice" over Church teaching on the sanctity of human life. The victory of "justice" over Mercy. It represented the end of couples accepting responsibility for their actions. It represented Judicial activism. It represented disrespect for the Constitution.

It was like a poison that coursed through the very veins and arteries of American life.

Saddest part of all has been the way it's worked to intoxicate the victim while slowing sucking the oxygen out of his cells - depriving him of more and more of his rationality while making him drunk with a sense of power and happiness and pleasure.

Or perhaps the saddest part of all is the way the victim is so unable to see that he is on his deathbed. And so - keeps yelling at the doctor to back off.

God bless,
Barb

_________________
"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic." Pope Benedict XVI

Hi Brandon,

You wrote:


I pray for Mr. Obama every day, as I'm sure all Catholics do. I wonder if you do? Or, a more appropriate parallel, I wonder if you pray for all those "old, archaic, right wing, conservative, uber religious" people you have judged so harshly and believe so filled with hatred? Would you? Would you pray for me? Will you pray for me?

I mentioned in one of my prior posts to you that one of the things I find oddest about so many in your generation is how you're fighting not your own generation's actual battles but rather the battles of your parents' and your grandparents' generations' battles. I wonder if you understood what I meant by that?

Your posts reminded me of when I was your age. In fact, I even went and pulled an old picture of me during my young radical Marxist atheist days and made it my avatar. That's me over there, sitting in my college student newspaper headquarters back in the late 70s, writing yet another protest column about what I too called "old, archaic, right wing, conservative, uber religious views" and which I too believed so destructive back then. (How 'bout that afro? A lady I used to babysit for, a hairdresser, recommended that and I kept it for quite a few years. )

Like you, I thought Marxism, socialism, structuralism, post-modernism - were all a "new" way of thinking that represented the future. And religion!? Oh boy, I could write reams about what I and my cohorts thought about the opiate of the masses!

But a funny thing happened as I stopped one day and began to really take a look around me. A funny thing happened when I stopped and asked myself, "Wait a minute, what are these categories of analysis I'm using to understand things? Where did they come from? What's my starting point? What's my end point?"

A few things startled me and one of them was this realization: Marxism, socialism - those are really 19th century Victorian ideas. Sure - they had their origins and early manifestations in prior historical time periods, as did capitalism. But they were really developed in the 19th century in response to other 19th century events and developments. And more than anything, I realized, they were - in and of themselves - part and parcel of the 19th century way of thinking.

Ever hear of a physicist by the name of Fritjof Capra? There's a lot he says and believes that I don't buy, but he wrote a book called "The Turning Point" that I think amazing in many ways and on many levels. It has to do with a transition from what he calls, if I remember correctly, the 19th century "mechanistic" way of thinking to the more 20th century "wholistic" way of thinking. That book drove home more than anything else I read at that time just how antiquated and "archaic" were all those things I was thinking so "revolutionary."

I don't believe the things you're calling "the future" are the future at all, Brandon. I think you're actually very much stuck in the past. I think my generation was taken for a ride, but I don't think the ride we were taken for is anywhere near the ride your generation is being taken for. My generation came up with the "Question Authority" mantra but what we questioned was indeed the "Authority" at the time: the powerful institutions of Government, Church, State. We were told to honor and obey those institutions. Instead we questioned and challenged them. Your generation didn't come up with "Question Authority" - your generation has been raised on and fed a daily diet of that very concept. The difference is you haven't been raised to question the true Authority today but rather those parts of it that were most weakened by my generation: the Church, Parents. Does the Church have any real Authority over you, Brandon? Of course it doesn't. Unless you agree to accept that Authority, it has none. It can propose what it believes is Truth but neither you nor anyone else has to submit to any of it. Do your parents have true Authority over you anymore? Call a local social service or family social service center and give it a test. See how powerful your parents really are over you versus, say, the One True Authority today: the State. The Government.

That's the real irony, Brandon. The All Powerful State has presented itself to you as your friend. It has raised you through its public union servants called teachers to believe that when you "challenge" its only real challengers (parents, the Church), that you're being really "revolutionary" and "forward thinking". That's what Dan means when he uses the Leninist term "useful idiot." The ever increasingly powerful State - best represented today by the Democratic Party (though most Republicans are right there with it) - is the real Authority and its power to enter into your life, and really, actually control you is expanding every day. And it is using you as its agent, all the while letting you believe you are attacking "Authority."

If you really think you're the future, spend some time reading some books like "Brave New World" and "Animal Farm" and give yourself an opportunity to see just where you really fit in the battle between the "old" and the "future."

There's an old saying: "He who marries the 'spirit of the age' will find himself a widow in the next."

There's only one Truth and it doesn't change from age to age. It is what it is. And it is calling you to something higher and something real.

God bless you, Brandon and please don't forget to pray for me as I will pray for you!
Barb

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"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic." Pope Benedict XVI

OMG. Yes. Everything Dean said. He said it so well. With so few words.

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Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Angel

OMG. Another quote which sums everything up perfectly. I don't think I'll ever see "It's a Wonderful Life" again. It was a fun movie when you realized Potterville wasn't real. Now everything is worse than Pottersville. In California, since we legalized medical marijuana, everyone grows some in their backyard, and as long as it's not too much, the police don't care. It's impossible to enforce the law, except where large quantities are concerned.

The kids in the neighborhood used to get up and make newspaper deliveries. Now, I see them riding early in the morning to go deliver pot/weed to their customers. It would be hilarious if it weren't sad. If I want to, I could get up from this desk and be back here in two minutes with weed. It's that easy now. Or I could talk to one of the neighborhood kids and get on their "subscription" list for my regular delivery of pot.

Teens, college kids, teachers, coaches, doctors, lawyers, heck, maybe some clergy too--everyone is on weed in California, except for David, Val, Marie, and me LOL (well, a little exaggeration). And those who aren't on weed are buying the illegal prescriptions. The kids raid the mom and dad's medicine cabinet for Xanax, Vicodin, etc. and sell it. Who needs a sacrament when you can find peace and serenity with your bong?

I remember in school we used to have projects of growing things, like tomatoes. I was so proud I asked my mom if we could plant a little garden. Kids used to do that all the time--grow easy vegetables. Now, everyone has their pot plant. Or maybe two or three. The kids help take care of it. Watch it grow. Ain't that special?

Like Barb said. Welcome to Pottersville!! I guess we just have to laugh, or we will cry.

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Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Angel

The company I worked for was one of three working on concepts for a new defense system. During one review, the government representative said that we had made the most progress. The engineer next to me muttered, "That is the most discouraging thing I have heard today."

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- Joe Kelley

Death is only a shadow across the path to Heaven.

Sorry folks, Bedford Falls and Mayberry never existed.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

Bedford Falls and Mayberry never existed, but the social fabric of this country has frayed significantly in the last 50 years,

An example from my own life: I grew up in a large public housing project in an east coast city, Cambridge Massachusetts. It was kind of tough when we lived there from 1955 to 1966, but there were no drugs, gangs or drive by shootings, but there are certainly plenty of those things today. Back when I grew up there, the families had a mother and father, the father worked and sometimes also the mother. People went to church for the most part. We were all very poor but families were stable and there was a central moral compass and anchor in the neighborhood, the two Catholic churches and their schools. Each church had several priests and the schools had the nuns.

Today there are single unwed mothers on welfare with serial live-in boyfriends. There are drugs, gangs, shootings every week, crime that has spread from the projects to the surrounding neighborhoods. Here is a picture of the very doorway I gew up in, hell on earth today:



No one can tell me that things have not gotten much, much worse in this country, due in large part to Government programs which have served to break down the traditional family.

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~~Karl~~

God bless you