It’s
Sunday morning and I have a few minutes before we leave for church. Just time
for a few words from the old judge.
So far
today I have finished my daily mile and a half walk and my ten laps in the
pool. Feeling pretty well. I shot 88 on Friday and I’ll be 86 on Wednesday.
Close enough to boast about.
Maybe
there are some folks who would like to know what an 86 year old man thinks
about when he is walking and swimming in the morning.
Not
many, but some. A few perhaps? I’m sure nobody under the age of 40 would give a
hoot in hell what I was thinking about. But maybe their parents might.
Anyway,
I think about death. Not in a frightened or worrisome way. More a matter of
curiosity. It’s hard to imagine a world without being in it. Sort of like New
York or Los Angeles. A lot of people doing a lot of things, but I’m not part of
it.
My
faith tells me there is a hereafter, and that’s a comfort. Exactly what that
hereafter will be like, I don’t know. Nobody does. The only course I ever
failed was a speculative elective at the University of Detroit taught by a
Jesuit named Father Magget. I didn’t need the credit to get into law school and
I couldn’t get into wondering about how many choirs of angels there are.
What I
do wonder about these days is the next hundred years. I see pictures on the
Internet of masked ISIS gunmen ceremoniously beheading 21 Coptic Christians and
I read that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States, and I
wonder.
Then I
think about Nidal Hasan. Again. I have written a couple of blogs about him over
the years. In 2009 he slaughtered 13 innocent Americans at Fort Hood, Texas. In
2013 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. That sentence has not
been carried out.
Now I
see that Hasan wants to be a member of ISIS. He wrote a letter to Abu Bakr al-Baghadadi, leader of the Islamic
State. Here is what he had to say:
“I formally and humbly request to be made a citizen of the
Islamic State. It would be an honor for any believer to be an obedient citizen soldier
to a people and its leader who don’t compromise the religion of All-Mighty
Allah to get along with the disbelievers.”
Isn’t
that just dandy? The U.S. Army provided the man with stationery and postage to
give aid and comfort to our enemy. That would be treason, I should think. Maybe
the crowd who think that Hasan was a victim of work place overload will now
urge that he be transferred to Gitmo as an ‘enemy combatant.’ Sick.
Tomorrow
is Memorial Day. Polly and I will raise a glass to toast her brother, Emmanuel
Weinberger, a paratrooper who was killed on the beach of Salerno in 1943. E.J.
died in the Great War, fighting for our freedom.
We’ll
also salute the thousands of brave and decent young Americans who have died on
the sands and stones of Iraq and Afghanistan in a war that wasn’t declared by Congress
as required by our Constitution. They died in a war that all the talking heads
and the intelligentsia are now telling us was a mistake. No wonder so many of
them have post traumatic problems. No wonder eighteen of them commit suicide
every day.
The
President of the United States hasn’t the slightest idea about how to deal with
ISIS. He talks about “degrade and (ultimately) destroy.” That’s a bumper
sticker foreign policy that basically means we’re going to bomb them a lot and
hope they give up.
The Islamic
State is based on an extremist version of Islam, in which the killing of
innocent non believers is expected and rewarded. They will not quit. They will
not surrender. Religious fervor is their motivation. They will kill for it.
They will die for it.
My
great grandson, E. Henry Richardson, will be my age in the year 2100. I wonder
what his world will look like.
Things change. Formerly Catholic Ireland has just voted to accept gay marriage. The USSR went down with nary a whimper. What used to be called Red China is now a world economic power. Natural Law is no longer a concept with any currency in Europe or in the West.
ReplyDeleteFederal and state legislatures now largely play political games and leave the tough decisions to the courts. The vast and diverse US citizenry is, on average, too lazy, ignorant and clueless to be able to "keep" the democratic republic that was set up for us by the handful of people involved with independence and with organizing and then quickly reorganizing our initial government. Newspapers have been replaced by partisan infotainment.
My guess as to what the world will look like in 2100 is that we will be in a largely post-Christian era that is dominated by commercial oligarchies. Money will rule.
The extremist Islamic societies will largely have died out due to their refusal to accept modernity.
The world will be much more secular. The major faiths of today will rapidly evolve into or be replaced by liberal humanism, much as the then traditional pagan world view was replaced by Christianity 17-16 centuries ago.
At some point we very possibly could arrive at a critical environmental or biological tipping point that will reduce world population.
Through advertising, commercial oligarchies increasingly will drive our values and belief systems world wide.
Here in the US, the judicial oligarchy that you write about ultimately is subservient to commercial interests. Money rules. The people are oblivious.
We need leaders for the common good, not propagandists, and not reality and talent show stars.
Many people are oblivious, but most are simply afraid — all possible forms of reform have been systematically choked off.
DeleteEighty-six and obviously of reasonably good health and mental alertness — keep on keeping on!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure, like Poly and yourself, Marilyn and I wonder of the many issues you bring up — life and death, our grandchildren's futures, and that ignorant government.