Rewriting History

I’ve always been a student of history, and I love going places that have sites of historical value. It intrigued me to stand in Ford’s Theater just a few feet from where history changed course as Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. I was also blown away when visiting Italy as I stood in a Pompeii home excavated from the ashes of Mt. Vesuvius and realized that it was buried only 79 years after Christ was crucified, but the windows had glass in them. I didn’t know we had glass that far back. History is learning, and we can all benefit from this type of education.

The problem with history is that it’s subject to the whims of people who sometimes don’t want history remembered and so they bury it. In essence, they try to rewrite history by omitting pieces of it. This bothers me enough that I decided to write this piece about the history of Republicans and Democrats because I’ve seen things in the news lately about each party that isn’t accurate.

I don’t care for either party, they’re both corrupt and unhelpful in solving the real problems of this country, but it strikes me funny how the Democrats have rewritten their own history in order to push negative views away from them and onto Republicans. Mainly, they’re racism. It’s true, the Democratic party is a party of racism and has been since they organized.

I know you’re thinking that this can’t be true; we’ve all been taught that Republicans are racist southerners. Well, get out your history books kids, because the racist South was actually Democratic. It’s true, it was the Democrats who fought to keep slavery during the Civil War. The Republicans wanted to abolish it. In fact, back then the Republican party was known as the party for blacks, and Democrats vowed that they would rather vote for a “yellow dog” than let black loving Republicans into office.

The Republican Party was organized as the anti-slavery party back in 1854 and has always been the party of equality and freedom for African Americans. You never hear about that nowadays.

History is pretty interesting, isn’t it? The Democratic Party has been working for many years to turn their racist past onto the Republicans, and since they control most of the news media they have been able to virtually do that. But they can’t escape from history.

Look at the South during integration. Remember George Wallace? He was the governor of Alabama who swore that his state would not let blacks integrate into white schools, and he made such a racist fuss over it that the National Guard had to be called out to keep order. Well guess what, Wallace was a Democrat. It’s true, Wiki yourself to death it won’t change the facts.

You probably also didn’t know that it wasn’t President Johnson who pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was actually a Republican named Everett Dirksen. He was instrumental not only in this Act, but also civil rights legislation in 1957, ’60, ’65 and ’68. Dirksen wrote the language for the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It’s ironic that Presidents Kennedy and Johnson had to rely on a Republican to get the Civil Rights Act pushed through because they literally couldn’t rely on their southern Democratic Senators. They all wanted segregation.

Another example is David Duke, the infamous KKK guy who ran for office in Louisiana, and even for President. He was one of the most racist people known in the country at that time, and he was a Democrat. But even though Duke didn’t get elected, some racists did, like Senator Robert Byrd, a southern Democrat who was also a former recruiter for the KKK. I bet you didn’t know that the Klan was actually started in 1866 to be the terrorist arm of the Democrats to terrorize and lynch Republicans as well as blacks. Whaaat?! I know you’re thinking “Wow, this can’t be true, it’s the opposite of everything we hear today!” I agree, it’s hard to swallow, but the real history is there for anyone to look up, and it amazes me that the Republicans have all this history to tell people, but they don’t. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re stupid or if it’s because they don’t know their own history. Either way I don’t care, it’s their party; they can run it however they want.

You’re probably also wondering why African Americans tend to vote for Democrats if that party is so racist. It’s simple, the brutal tactics that Democrats used in the 50’s and 60’s to keep blacks from voting couldn’t continue, so they went a new way and now they use socialism in the form of government handouts. It’s a tactic of control, which even President Obama in his book “Dreams From My Father” describes what he and the Democrats do to poor blacks by using what he describes as “plantation politics.”

Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be a political commentary; it’s about history which I love to study. It’s about how history has been rewritten and obscured for political gain. The historical fact is that how the two main parties are being reported by the media is actually the opposite of what they really stand for; at least that’s what history shows, and I have a problem with people rewriting history.

Finding the Right Direction

In a recent interview President Obama came out of the metaphoric closet and said that he supports homosexual marriage.  That’s his prerogative as an American and this post isn’t about marriage, it’s about priorities and focus.

It’s amazing to me that homosexual marriage is such a big deal in this country.  Seriously, it’s a topic that gets talked about on the news almost every week, and it’s caused division in our society on a national scale.

So here’s my question: why is this minority group enjoying so much attention from the media?  Homosexuals only make up about 1.7% of the population¹.  So is it me, or is this miniscule number of people getting a disproportionate amount of attention?

I understand that homosexuals want to have their grievances heard and dealt with, I’m ok with that.  What I’m not ok with is that we have way more serious issues in this country that we should be focusing on.  Why is this topic talked about more than homelessness?  Why is it talked about more than poverty and starvation?  Why is it talked about more than abused children, illegal drugs, or any of the myriad other ills that pollute this country?

What does it say about us when the homeless population in Louisiana doubled in one year², but we didn’t hear about it?  Instead we were bickering about Jane wanting to marry Beth.

What does it say about us when the number of homeless families in Mississippi increased 260 percent in one year², but nothing is reported on TV?  Instead we’re spending millions of taxpayer dollars on litigation and legislator’s time discussing why John and Dave’s marriage in one state isn’t valid in another.

Why are we so busy servicing the complaints of this teeny tiny segment of our country when other segments are having problems just finding food and shelter?

The enemy wants our focus to stay away from the things that Christ wants us to focus on.  The Bible tells us "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:17-18

It’s easy for the enemy to use the media to turn us the wrong direction.  They keep us focused on things of lesser value than what Christ wants us to work on.  Our priorities aren’t in the right place, and we’re not paying enough attention to the real problems in our world.

Who knows, someday it could be you or me that’s suddenly homeless.  Will it feed you knowing that instead of focusing on programs to help people in need, we concentrated on making sure George and Craig could get married?

“God, your Word tells us that this world will continue to spin out of control and into the hands of the enemy.  Help us keep our focus on you and ignore the enemy’s attempts to make our priorities unbalanced. Amen.”

¹ Lisa Leff, Huffington Post, 4/7/11, “Gay Population In U.S. Estimated At 4 Million, Gary Gates Says.”

² M. William Sermons & Peter Witte, January 2011, “State of Homelessness in America.” Homelessness Research Institute and National Alliance to End Homelessness

Hating Politics

Politics seem to permeate almost everything these days.  I remember when people just went about their daily business and were only assaulted by politics when an election year rolled around.  But now it seems to be politics every day and in almost everything around us.

The sad thing is that it affects us as humans.  I see people all the time shunning their fellow man simply because of opposing political ideology, or even the perception of opposing views.  A good example is John Cuzack.  John is a good guy, a Democrat and a concerned citizen.  A couple of weeks ago he tweeted that he read an interesting article by Tom Engelhardt about how the Office of the President has become “imperial” to the point that the president can order someone killed at any time. The article wasn’t a direct slam on the president; in fact it went into detail about how the office started to change after 9/11, and how the Bush administration made changes.  Obama simply inherited these new powers, but he’s also expanded them to give himself even more control. 

Cuzack wasn’t saying anything bad against the president; he was just saying the article was interesting and that perhaps the Office of the President has become almost king-like instead of an office of serving the people and there needs to be accountability.

Well, the response he got was mixed, but I was really surprised at the number of liberals who attacked John because they didn’t care what the article really said, they just saw something they deemed negative about Obama so they tweeted that they didn’t know Cuzack was a Republican and they wouldn’t follow him anymore, even though he had been on their top 10 follow list.

Huh?  So you love John Cuzack, watch his movies and follow him on Twitter, but he posts a link to an article saying that presidential powers are getting out of control, and you decide that he can’t possibly just be a concerned citizen, but that he must be a Republican… so now you hate him.

This is just an example of what goes on today.  We have become a nation of two camps: Democrats and Republicans, and people try to force you into one of these camps even if you’re like me and claim no political affiliation.  I see them on TV sizing up people by asking the hot-button questions, “are you for gay marriage,” and “do you believe in gun control.”  If you answer yes to these questions they put you in Camp Democrat; but a negative response will get you put into the Republican camp.  Once they have you in a camp they know whose side you’re on and whether or not they like you.  They don’t care who you really are inside, they base their entire opinion of you on the camp they’ve put you in.  You can be the nicest person on the planet, but once you’re put into a camp you’re labeled for prosecution by the other side.

A good example of this is the 2009 Academy Awards.  Every year they present a montage of Hollywood industry folks who have died the past year.  The amount of applause that occurs as each picture is displayed is a good indicator of the actor’s industry popularity.  Well that year Charlton Heston’s picture was shown, and the room was almost silent.  Now, this is a man who brought us iconic pictures like Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, and the Sci-Fi epic Planet of the Apes.  He won a ton of awards, including the Jean Hersholt Academy Award for his humanitarian work.  He was a consummate actor and good guy, but the room was almost silent.  Why?  Because Charlton had been put into the Republican camp and this wasn’t acceptable to mainstream Hollywood.  Instead of revering him for his amazing contributions to their craft and his humanitarian work, they shunned him over politics.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: the single greatest threat to the safety and prosperity of this country is Republicans and Democrats.  Well, there's the Tea Party too, but as far as I can tell the Tea Party is just a bunch of disgruntled Republicans.  I have certain views from both conservative and liberal camps that I agree with, but I refuse to be pushed into a camp. Politics and politicians are all the same in the end, so I choose to not participate in a party.

I vote for the person who most closely believes in the kind of America I want to live in. 

There’s no perfect candidate and it’s a forgone conclusion that the two main parties are too big and strong to not get elected, so unfortunately I have to choose one of their candidates or my vote is wasted, and I refuse to abstain from voting.  It would be irresponsible of me and all of you as citizens of this free country to ignore the election process.

We can’t help but get some of the political rancor on us.  It’s everywhere and I don’t think any of us will completely go unscathed.  Politics, liberal, conservative, racism, reverse racism, poor, rich, black, white, media, blogging... I'm just tired of all the hatred.

“God, sometimes it’s a bit depressing to watch as my fellow countrymen spend their time hating each other instead of using their skills to help one another.  I ask for patience to handle this, and wisdom as we prepare to vote later this year.  Thanks.”

The Choice of Blaming

I had lunch today in the Haven for Hope cafeteria, which I do most days now that I work there.  I always try to pick someone new to sit with every day because it's always very interesting to hear their stories, and I've heard a lot of stories. Today I sat with a young man named Ryan.  He seemed quiet when I sat down, and a little jittery.  He looked to be less than 30 years old, but it's hard to tell people's ages in this place.

I finally introduced myself and he told me his name.  We talked about the food, and how it was to live at the Haven.  He had only good things to say.  Then I asked him how he got here.  It turns out that he was a youth pastor until his wife suddenly died.  His faith was shredded and his life spiraled out of control until he ended up sitting across the table having lunch with me in a homeless shelter.

I'm surprised everyone in the room couldn't hear my heart breaking.

I asked him if his faith had been shaken, and he said it definitely was.  So then I told him that I thought it was odd that when terrible things happen to people they raise their fists and rail at God, blaming him for their pain and suffering... and all the while they let the devil completely off the hook.  I said God is the creator of everything that is good and pure, but Satan is the destroyer of everything good.  Perhaps his anger was being directed in the wrong place.

All Ryan said was "Fair enough," and we sat in silence eating our lunch.  He finished his meal and said it was nice to meet me and went on his way, alone, head down, destroyed.

It's too easy to say that God works in mysterious ways.  It's almost a meaningless cliche when someone has lost the love of their life.  I can only hope that God will free Ryan of this torture that he has put on himself.  In the end it's his choice though.

"God, I pray for pastor Ryan.  Please reveal your plan for his life and relieve him of the hell in which he has relegated his life.  I know you don't want that for him.  Please.  Heal him."