idolatry

The idea that anybody can be president, means that you can be born poor and become president.  It doesn't mean that you can stay poor and become president.  Then there is the difference between rich and well-off, Obama, Clinton, Reagan, LBJ, and Nixon were all born rather poor.  I think Reagan and Nixon were relatively well off by the time they began their political careers, but they were not as rich as what we consider the rich today, only the super rich are considered rich anymore.  And anymore being rich is a big help in getting into politics.  You can pay your own expenses and the party loves that.  Right now in Illinois we have a Richie rich as governor and two Richie riches are vying for the democratic party nomination to run against him.

I hate idolatry. The flag is just a piece of cloth, the star spangled banner is just a compilation of notes, the constitution is just something a bunch of guys knocked out over a couple weeks of a hot summer in Philadelphia.  If one of the guys hadn't showed up, or if another guy had dropped by, or if they had written it a week later, or if the summer hadn't been so hot, we would've had a different document.  It is the work of mortals who are prone to errors, not God, who word on the street is He created us, and look how that turned out.

There was some talk among us Conscientious Objectors, about how what we were doing was not so morally pure, in that the war would go on without us just fine.  Our place would be taken by some other guy, most likely some working class guy who didn't have access to anti-draft counsellors in the room off the student union.  So weren't we just condemning some poor schlub to get shot at in the jungle while we mopped floors in a peaceful hospital?

Well yeah, but on the other hand did that mean that I should take up a rifle and shoot at guys who I thought were the good guys in a war?  Because at the time I did think they were the good guys, they were fighting a war of liberation against a colonial power.  Which they were but, in retrospect, that doesn't necessarily make them good guys.  They committed their fair share of atrocities.  Anymore I guess I think they were a bunch of guys, neither one all that good, fighting a war that meant something to them, but not much to us, so what were we doing there?  Anymore it seems like a stupid war.

To be a Conscientious Objector you had to technically be against all wars.  Well that was tough in the shadow of WW II, mostly we just finessed that and nobody pushed it.  It does seem like there are just wars, like when the enemy is attacking you and planning to kill you, so then we need an army, and can we have guys in the army, even if they are right, deciding which war is just and which is not?

There has been much talk about Vietnam veterans being spit at and called baby killers when they returned.  No spitting is documented and I never heard anybody called a baby killer.  We anti-war guys were glad to have them.  Vietnam Veterans Against the War was our best protest groups.

Al Gore, being the son of a prominent pol, and thinking of a political career himself, went to war, even though he said he was against it, because he thought serving his country was a higher cause.  (Bill and W, both draft dodgers became president and Al never did).  I used to think that reasoning was specious.  How can it be right to fight in a war you don't believe in?

Anyway these guys go to war, and maybe they are in it because it pays better than McDonald's, or maybe they are making a career move, but some of them are in it because they believe in their country and even those other guys who are in for different reasons, might also believe in their country.

And like I said earlier, a phone call won't bring them back from the dead, so I guess it is some kind of idolatry.  But if you are going to get all worked up by the idolatry of the flag and the song at the beginning of a football game, couldn't you honor the latter?

Did you guys catch Kelly at the press conference.  Weird.  He talked so solemnly and authoritatively yet he didn't make any sense.  Still, the reporters gave him some space because dignity is such a rare commodity these days.

My singular mass hysteria is over, but i will be making my fall trip to Indianapolis Monday and Tuesday so I won't be posting again until Wednesday.