An Intense Week

 Good afternoon.

 I say at the outset that I wrote most of this before September 11, but am recording it on Friday the 12^th.  You need to know that I very much have 9-11 on my mind today.  I watched it all unfold.  I grieved with the rest of the country as the towers fell…first one, then the other.  I thought about the future…what that might look like as we prepared for a war of the kind we had never fought before.  The Super Bowl commercial for Budweiser that ran only one time…the one with the Clydesdales kneeling still brings tears to my eyes.  This has been an intense week politically…with the Kirk assassination and the 9-11 observance.  It has also been intense for me personally this week as I had to attend to several situations that drained much of my emotional energy.  That’s one reason why I’m recording this on Friday instead of Thursday.  So, with that understanding, let’s launch into the thought for this week.

I don’t know who Charlie Kirk was.  I think I can truthfully say I had never heard of his name before his assassination.  I normally don’t pay much attention to political activists of any party or persuasion.  As an Independent, I do my best to try to find information from the least biased sources possible, something I find increasingly difficult and practically impossible to do.  Political activists just don’t fill that bill for me.  I’m sure they have their place, and I respect that.  Just not for me.

However, to silence anyone..anyone because of their political speech or belief is so far beyond the bounds of human decency.  I’m old enough to remember the assassination of JFK, RFK, and MLK in the 1960’s.  I’m old enough to remember the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.  And there are others…some relatively recently.

Let me say it again.  To silence or attempt to silence anyone because of their political speech or belief is far, far beyond the bounds of human decency.  There is no place for this kind of violence.  And, may I say, there is no place for most kinds of violence we hear about on a daily basis…political or otherwise.

In 1992, Rodney King famously said, “Can’t we all just get along?”  That question remains unanswered in the minds of many, and in the minds of others, the answer is a resounding, “NO.”  But in the hearts of multitudes of Americans today, that question has been eliciting a “Yes,” answer over the decades…an answer that daily is being tested and tried.

So, what is the answer?  How do we fix this?  I’ll tell you now that I don’t have the answer.  I don’t know how we fix someone’s desire and need to kill someone they disagree with politically.

What I do know is that we can look inward.  We can look at our own biases…our own beliefs…our own tendencies.  We can take a good look at what we hear on TV or radio, what we see on social media, what we read and absorb.  We can take another good look at how we think about others who disagree with us politically, religiously, or philosophically, and how we might act toward them.  We can check our speech…the words we say and how we say them.  We can control our own thoughts and motives.

And if we find we cannot control those thoughts or actions, we can get the help we need in order to bring those things under control so we don’t contribute to the problem, but rather become part of the solution.

In other words, we may not have any influence over what the President says, or what the Senate Minority Leader says.  We may not be able to influence the speech of our Governor or Attorney General.  But we CAN decide what WE are going to say and do and think, and we can find the help we need if we have trouble doing that.

By the way, this kind of thing applies not only to political things…it also applies to religion and religious belief.  Belittling, talking down to, name-calling, and the like do nothing to promote harmony, peace, and unity.  They do a LOT to promote division, discord, and violence.  Think about it before you go off half-cocked on someone else because of their religious belief, their political persuasion, or one of any number of other things that we might use to stereotype or discriminate.

OK, now that I’ve said my piece on this, let me tell you we had a great weekend at the Eastwood Church of Christ in Hutchinson.  They hosted Keith Lancaster, founder of Acappella Ministries for a weekend “Songfest.”  The name tells what we did…we sang…acappella…both new as well as old songs of the church.  ‘Twas an experience of a lifetime, if I might say.

And, we, the bride and I, got to go to the Kansas State Fair on our own sans grand kids.  We separated pretty much as soon as we got through the entrance gate.  She went her way and I went mine.  We met up a couple of times and did some things together, but all in all it was a relaxing time for the both of us to get to see what we wanted to see, but not have to wrangle grand kids.

I saw some of the livestock exhibits, which she doesn’t care so much for…and she was able to see some of the more, um, domestic exhibits that are on the fairgrounds.  We rode some of the more tame rides that we traditionally go for…the train…the Old Mill…the sky ride.  We avoided the twirly, whirly, shake-em-up rides as well as the carnival games that no one can win.

We ate ice cream under the grand stand…had a funnel cake, and enjoyed lunch in the Cottonwood building.  I got my usual catfish lunch and she got the chicken & noodles lunch.  Pretty good stuff.  We bought some honey to bring home, and generally had a pleasant day of cooler weather and not a lot of sunshine.

If you have a chance, you need to take a day and go to the fair.  Yes, it costs some money to do it, but the entertainment is cheap, and they have a lot of free stuff on the fairgrounds.  The Lake Talbot boat rides, the giant slide, the train, sky ride, and Old Mill are all owned by the fair, which keeps prices in line so families can afford to have a really enjoyable day at the fair.

And while you’re in Hutchinson, check out Stratica the salt mine as well as one of the better aero-space museums around…the Cosmosphere.  The zoo is free admission and is a pretty nice one for the free admission.  Check them out soon.

 

Blessings, all.