Election Year

Another election year has rolled around and it promises to be a doozy! While I am all for the free exchange of ideas, the vitriol is already almost unbearable and it's only January!

Why can't we have the candidates tell us their positions and ideas without attacking their counterpart or being attacked themselves? What does it tells us about the person running if their time is totally wasted on negativity? Wouldn't it make choosing a candidate easier if you could find their stance on the issues and trust the information you are receiving? Must we always check, double check and re-check?

I am blessed to live in a country where I can step into the booth and vote for MY choice...without pressure, without fear. I just wish the campaigns were run in such as way as to reflect what an enormous privilege this is...

Prayer for elections:

O God, we acknowledge You today as Lord, Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments.

We thank You for the privilege Of being able to organize ourselves politically And of knowing that political loyalty Does not have to mean disloyalty to You. 

We thank You for Your law, Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged And recognized as higher than any human law. 

We thank You for the opportunity that this election year puts before us, To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote, But to influence countless others to vote, And to vote correctly. 

Lord, we pray that Your people may be awakened. Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation, Their response to You requires that they be politically active. 

Awaken Your people to know that they are not called to be a sect fleeing the world But rather a community of faith renewing the world. 

Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to You in prayer Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth; That the same eyes that read Your Word Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot, And that they do not cease to be Christians When they enter the voting booth. Awaken Your people to a commitment to justice.


Lord, we rejoice today That we are citizens of Your kingdom.May that make us all the more committed To being faithful citizens on earth. 

We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 
Amen.


Prayer source: various websites

230 Years ago...

Ask an American when we became an independent nation and most will reply July 4, 1776. Although that is the day we declared our independence, it was actually won on 10/19/1781. While our nation's founders did take a bold stance when they placed their names at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence, soldiers had to fight to make it real. For 5 long years. Those years were filled with depravation, hardship and death...but in the end we were truly a free and independent nation.

The last fight was the Battle of Yorktown:
American General George Washington and French Lt. General de Rochambeau faced off against British Major General Lord Cornwallis. Twenty days later, on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington and the band played "The World turned Upside Down".


Hats off to the victors of the Battle of Yorktown!

Today we remember...

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Although this is not the most famous excerpt from his "I have a Dream" speech...it is perhaps my most favorite part...

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

for it speaks to all who are persecuted as second class citizens...

But did you also know that today is Benjamin Franklin's' birthday...perhaps it is an "odd" pairing but then again...

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

Each, in their own way, contributed to making America...sometimes I feel we would do well to have one or both of them with us today.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Asbo Jesus!

July 4th

Nothing says Happy Independence Day like fireworks, bar-b-ques, the Boston Pops, and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture...



In the spirit of celebration, what more could you ask?

History of...

Independence Day, by the History Channel of course!

Anonymity in Cyberspace

"As any student of Sociology 101 can tell you, when people don't have to account for what they say or do, they will often say and do things that would shock their better selves."

Having spent a little time reviewing comments on articles I find interesting I can attest to the fact that this section can become a very dark and ugly place. Without personal responsibility, one can speak one's mind without fear of reprisals. And without fear of those you know finding out what you really think...take a moment to read Mr. Pitts article.

While the ability to debate is one of our most cherished freedoms, it should never happen in a place where no one knows who they are talking to or about. With freedom comes responsibility, you cannot have one without the other.

Freedom

There are two freedoms--the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; and the true, where a man is free to do what he ought. Kingsley

Originally I wrote several paragraphs in light of the quote shown above and the recent events...Veterans Day and the shootings at Ft. Hood...but then it came to me that perhaps I should just provide the equation and let you come to your own conclusion. Of course, if you'd like to discuss...