If people are going to advocate for a cause, and this must be in Sol Allinsky's book somewhere (a book the tea party seems to have read through and through) you do your cause, for which you are advocating no good if your speech is constantly laced with qualifiers in the name of "objectivity" any more than advocating for a client means you should 'help the other side out". That's not your job. People don't need to know all the negatives about your cause, at least not from you. This is particularly true if you are, pardon my retro thinking here, advocating for God. There are tomes when I have come off rather atsolutist in addressing people even like the Asshole from El Paso, if I'm convinced I am saying what I'm saying out of love and loyalty to whom I think is God. Like I say, in that saying "If you were tried for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you" the answer would be a yes. Like President Obama with the tea party - - my "accomidations" to Christianity over has caused me to bend in near yoga like positions. But the upshot of this behavior is that no preacher, no way can ever come back and say "Well, that guy never made a serious effort to even try and be a Christian". Capish? As Randy Rhodes points out there aren't many of us progressives left on the radio, and we need to not wast our precious air time on the radio with mincing words or constant equivicating, which only causes confusion in many listeners, and lessens the cause we are advocating for. If it is a right and just cause, it needs to be zealously advocated for. (Selah( And the thing with
Ebony K is that while she says she supports the President she, like Moe, drowns
her persuasion in so many qualifiers you’re not entirely sure which side she is
on. Ebony K buys into this line that
the President is having some sort of a popularity melt-down or something, and
the ACA roll-out is headed for disaster.
I don’t think if the Republicans had “confidence”, if that is even the
word, that the Affordable Care Roll-out would be such a disaster, they would be
jumping on it hysterically from day one.
On the other hand if they know it’s the only time they’ve got because after
the site is fixed, they’ll have to shut up, then obviously they are going to
milk the present moment for all it’s worth. But the key is, "Yes" you should tailor your remarks to the here and now rather than to some etherial generality if it isn't true at the moment. To have clear and present evidence for your cause at hand, is important for speaker effectiveness. But don't "borrow from the future". The strange thing about the tea party to date is "so far the future hasn't arrived yet", which is not to say that it won't. There future being - - - Their Complete and Total Demise. (Selah) Keep your options open and be optimistic enough to leave pathways open for a better life even if the circumstances for all of it are not apparent at this present time. It's a derivation of the old expression "keep your powder dry". It's a good idea in general to "leave something in reserve" you can spring on someone at a later date. These people whom you address from the other side of the fence are not your friends, and you need not treat them as such. "Gunny sacking" is not only not incorrect, it is a survival mechanism. Nothing puts fear and despair ad well as the appearence of utter cowardess on the other side than knowing that you seem to have a bottomless pit or "Reserves" that can be called on at any time. (Selah)
Back when I was young they spoke of "Living out your dreams" or "having a dream, or an idea" and pursuing it and seeing it come to fruition. Christians used to appeal to people on terms of "You can be what you've always wanted to be" like in that one song by "Love Song". President Obama had his dream, and he lived to see his dream come to fruition. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the Tea Party has gotten a lot of mileage out of saying "President Obama promised everybody the Moon - - and now they see this President for the liar he is- - because once he was elected peace and brotherhood didn't break out everywhere". Thomas Edison had a lot of ideas, and he was able to market them and become a famous inventor in history. Chuck Smith claims to have had a dream of converting long haired hippy types to Christianity. Unfortunately the left wouldn't go to Calvary Chapel now if they were paid. It turned out that Chuck Smith's "dream" was just another tea party marketing ploy to make an awful lot of money. People like Judy are always talking pie in the sky stuff about a man can be born dirt poor and invent something and become famous, or he can make something of himself and become an Illinois lawyer and then congressman and then President of the United States. (Of course they're talking about Lincoln and not our current President.) It seems as if this Heratio Alger story happens to a Black man, the right wing will hence forth view a that man with great suspicion.
Dr Levy was in the
building when I came in from coffee break and I was soon down there in the
room. We did our check in. I asked if Dr Levy had read both of my E
mailings and he said he had read one of them, but I’m still uncertain which one. The Christmas party is being changed to
Sunday the fifteenth of December, and may have to be changed again depending on
what his wife says. Dr Levy hopes to
have his knee surgery the week before the party. Dr Levy gave Joe Drisco and me each two dollars
to spend on cigarettes, and I did just that the minute I left the class. We talked about resilience, which is a
favorite topic of Dr Levy’s. I spoke of
how one's Actions are more a key to a “constructive approach to things’ than are mere
words, and Dr Levy had to agree. Dr Levy responded "Well someone who does what you say in talking a big game but then doesn't follow through - - that man is a hypocrite". The fact is that with age, one loses his "resiliancy". Resiliancy is a goal to shoot for but it doesn't always happen. It depends on circumstances. People say I too much speak of the importance of circumstances. But others would deny that circumstance is something you even need to take into consideration at all. And somehow if you "make a decision to do something" that this mere "resolution" itself somehow gives you mastery of something. Marcia
Meredith showed up to class for the first time in months, and she talked about
her involvement with the Mormon Church along with Wally. It was point out that “Many of our group have
either dropped out - - or died”. I
would call it a good session, and it broke up just after three thirty. I had to use the facilities and therefore saw
very little of the game.
There is always the possibility that this physical world and universe and this physical life is "all there is" and we should just face that fact. It does raise the question of those who "forbear' certain things or give up rights they might have under some sort of Christian sense of morality, or expecting to be rewarded in the next life. Not knowing the future isn't a crime. And it isn't a transgression of some holy edict "Not to know everything", particularly is "nobody else knows it, either". (Selah) Mankind has always had a vivid imagination. They have always imagined other dimensions and realms. Dimensions almost by their mere definition - - only measure or otherwise "take stock" of things in that dimension. If you are playing baseball, you don't impress anybody by suddenly playing by football rules and running with the ball. In the same way - - a character in the story can't say "stop the scene - - I want to consult the Author because I wish to alter the plot." (Selah) If it's true, as I have suggested- - that some "thing" in dimensions we know of - - can have a "different interperitation" or manifestation in some other dimension - - this is not really our problem without some scientific linkage of cause and effect. In short, these are not the "rules" we live and play by. Also I believe that while transgressions - - must be atoned for- - - the idea that "sin" as it's defined in classic terms - -can or should be "atoned for" is about like saying "The problem with my cat is that he isn't a dog" (Selah) In bewitched they engaged in travel to other dimensions all the time like to the "Witch's Council meetings" and places where they abducted Rock Groups to perform for them. People have no problem accepting these "conventions' in a fictional setting. For Walter Martin expressed his belief in "other dimensions" when he said that in John 20 that Jesus "appeared before them" not by "walking through walls", which Martin thought was silly but says 'Jesus always had a solid body and not some ghostly apperition but he merely "switched dimensions on them". Samantha does it by snapping her fingers. Scientists maintain that space on the subatomic level- - is of a very different orientation from what we know. But I am well aware of a problem that it's a lot harder to make a case for something for which there is absolutely no proof. This hasn't stopped people through the ages from doing just that. Many will say "science is advancing all the time and yesterday's pipe dream is today's reality". Perhaps. But other than landing strips in Peru, or crop circles in England in the summer of 1990, evidence you can measure of "something beyond the here and now" is pretty much lacking. The way that Evangelists get around this obvious lacking on their part is to say things like "the signs are all around and all will be revealed soon, if you know how to interpret these signs". But when you come down to it, the bottom line is they offer you something FAKE in exchange for something REAL, in the here and now, from you. And no matter how you put lipstick on this 'Pig" this is a character failing on the part of these Evangelists. (Selah)
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