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I am guilty of many  things. One of those things is failing to be grateful and humbly appreciative of  the MANY blessings God has provided. So, I pause… Thank you God! — R. A. Grier

Why did our  President give guns to known terrorists and drug lords that used them to kill a  border patrol agent, Brian Terry? Why is it that this same President vehemently  opposes the 2nd Amendment? Why does he get to enjoy being HEAVILY protected by  guns while he seeks to take mine? Why does this same President not care about  protecting our borders? Let me see if I have the facts… We give guns to bad  guys. We don’t want to keep out illegals by ensuring a secure border. We are ok  with supplying weapons to terrorists. We are ok that a good man was killed with  some of these weapons. We want to make sure guns are banned for the US citizens.  Really, now… whose side is our government on?

— R. A. Grier

Living in a free  society doesn’t mean that you ride the coattails of the folks ensuring it  remains free. Too many years of apathy and ignorance have left a damaged system.  If you don’t think you have to do anything, then I would say that you need to  leave this country. If you say that nothing can be done, then I would say you  are scared and insecure about yourself. If you say that that things are far too  gone to fix, then I would say that today you still have options; it will be too  far gone when war is on our land and China (et al) calls in their loans. God has  given each of us abilities and skills. What are you doing to earn your freedom?

— R. A. Grier

The law (not police or the people in the judicial system) was corrupted in the last quarter of the 19th century. During that time, (thanks to the cats at Harvard) we switched from God’s law to case law. Ergo, I am not really concerned with what the law says is right and wrong. I know that difference based on a different authority.

— R. A. Grier

People will change  if they want to change. ANYthing else is just lies, excuses, stalling tactics or  some other BS.

— R. A. Grier

Dear Ohio, I see you  rejected the opportunity to limit the power of Unions. I can’t wait to say, “I  told you so!” when this is looked back upon as a VERY BAD IDEA. I am not sure I  understand why Unions are good for anything except extorting money out of their  employers. I really don’t know why unions are a part of ANY GOVERNMENT agency AT  ALL. The people will get what they ask for though. Enjoy! Liars, cheats and  thieves, UNITE!

— R. A. Grier

Set the example for  others to follow. Speak more in actions than in words. Find the reason in others  that God created them for, BEFORE you find their sins. Find your sins and ask  for redemption BEFORE you pat yourself on the back for all the wonderfulness you  think you are. If you are blessed and fortunate, know that it is all by grace  and mercy from God; display accordingly. When things go wrong, find God, not  excuses or someone to blame. Every second of every day is your opportunity to  take or lose according to your actions or inactions. Put down the habits, pick  up the word and walk the path and PLEASE help me do the same.

— R. A. Grier

Reality Check

Or

Is This Thing On?

December 4, 2011

By: Robert A. Grier

I don’t focus a whole lot on the here and now, but rather the future. It isn’t a secret that I am concerned about the current practices and choices of our government and society as a whole. I hear lots of politicians saying they have solutions. Then there are the wonderful political parties. There are a few major groups in the current political arguments and both are wrong. I say that absolutely because the problems still exist! Each side seems to seek a resolution for the “now”, with little regard for the “next year” or next generation. Well, they say they have concern…

I love to use real world scenarios and analogies that every person can relate to and understand. Here is the analogy on whether or not these folks want the problem solved. Pretend that you are alone in a desert and there is no food. A day has gone by and you are hungry. What would you do to get food? How about a week having gone by? A month? How about a month has gone by and your child is almost dead from starvation. What would you be willing to do to get food? I bet that given the proper motivation, such as seeing the potential that your child will starve, that you would make the necessary efforts to solve that particular problem LONG before it got to the critical stage.

Now what about all of these promises and efforts and so on that we have heard from the politicians? Does it appear that they are “hungry” enough to take action? Add this little piece of intel to the puzzle and you should really be scratching your head. Our FEDGOV has had EVERY CONCEIVABLE resource made available to it for DECADES and we still have problems? Really? So now, take the starving in the desert analogy and replace it with a picture of a guy sitting at an “all you can eat – free” buffet and still watching his child slowly starve.

Yet, the collective “we” stills buys the BS promises and explanations of why things aren’t getting done by our FEDGOV. We still get mad when things go wrong. We still feel betrayed after being repeatedly lied to and cheated on. Folks, that is insanity. A brilliant manager once explained his ease of governing by the premise that when he figured out that he was spending major time on the same loser employees things got fun. After that realization, he spent the bulk of his time praising, training guiding and mentoring the 90% that wanted to do it right.

The largest complaint against Republicans is that they don’t care about people and care only for money and big business. The focus of the complaint against Democrats is that they care too much for the people while seeking to punish the businesses and the people building those businesses through taxation and redistribution of assets. I recognize that there are more sides and parties and blah and blah. However, for the sake of brevity, I will focus on the major players.

When setting out to solve a problem, you should probably start with identifying the problem. In this case, we have dysfunctional systems and most, if not all, of the blame rests with the central government; or does it? It is a hackneyed, but very appropriate conundrum, “Which came first the chicken or the egg?” Which came first – the overbearing and overreaching FEDGOV or the entitled, short sighted, lazy individual?

A few folks will get lost here searching for the appropriate group or person to lay blame upon. I don’t care. The FEDGOV overreaches and the individual is almost absent. When the individual is present, it is better when they are absent, or seems so at least because they are so ignorant about history and usually get their talking points from whatever “glowy box program” that happened to be on that morning. Just ask them to support their talking points. Wait for it… wait for it… NOPE!

A philosophy is a set of beliefs or ideas that form a directional guide for actions or choices. The liberal philosophy seems to be that people have little or no responsibility in their day to day lives as this power lies exclusively with the FEDGOV. The conservative philosophy seems to be that people are responsible for their choices and the FEDGOV is nothing more than a periodically convenient tool to organize or discern judgment and stave off attacks through a standing military; otherwise people should be left alone.

A failure of growth and refinement in thinking believes that there are only one or two ways of getting things done. Each party seems to have fear and rabid insecurity so much so that ANY consideration of the opposing viewpoints is labeled “high treason” and that person must be shot or at least lose their parking space.  Again, we still have the problem. While our government is exceeding at creating laws, perhaps they should begin each new session with reading our constitution and then discussing lex parsimoniae.

So, what’s the problem? The list can be innumerable, but can certainly be summed up in a few general points. Enough people benefit from the current practices to keep the practices in place. There are certainly not enough naturally occurring consequences for choices due to the fact that outcomes are artificially derived to avoid those unpleasant consequences. Lastly, God is absent in the planning, choosing and actions of people. (God isn’t absent, but people choose to make him absent in their lives.)

There are people in our society that CANNOT take care of themselves. The key word is “CANNOT”. IF you don’t think that we should help those folks have a decent life, then you need to find your own little path to hell now, as you may get a good spot by starting early! The slippery slope comes in when you talk of temporary “CANNOT” in a person’s life? Do we sit and watch a family starve because the father lost his job because lightening struck the place where he worked hard for years and destroyed it? No, of course not, but the people who help should be his extended family, church and community NOT THE FEDGOV.

Reciprocal helping is one of the missing pieces of the puzzle.

If you start early enough you can teach people to do and act in almost any way you want them to act. Those people will go through life thinking everyone else is wrong and they are the only ones who are correct, because they were raised that way. People don’t know their neighbors, they don’t go to church and they certainly don’t find much value in helping others. It is no surprise that the responsibility of helping is left to the only “capable” system that is left, which is the government. The concurrent exchange of responsibility and power has answered the conundrum of chickens and eggs for our societal woes. People stopped trying and the FEDGOV has inch by inch become the parent for far too many people.

America came into existence (loosely) because a King somewhere didn’t care a whole lot about the “subjects” in his land beyond ensuring that they delivered raw materials to the his empire. However, those subjects cared enough about themselves to stand up to the most powerful man in the world at that time and fight his rule. They only did this after it became overly abundantly clear that Mr. King was just in it for self.

The circumstances are similar now, but markedly different. Our FEDGOV has exceeded its original constructs of its limits and boundaries. The difference between the time of the King and now is that there are A LOT of folks who are happy with this! A representative democracy dictates that the representative acts in accordance with the collective wishes of his/her constituency. What if your constituency is ignorant and selfish? Then the representative acts accordingly or gets replaced quickly.

It would be wonderful if we could all sit around and do as we pleased without regard to responsibility or consequences or limits to our choices. That just would not last too long. Anarchy and cataclysmic destruction would soon follow. You don’t have to look too far around the world before you see some current events examples of governmental downfall due to the drip-drip-drip of ignorance and selfishness of its citizenry. We are on that path.

Again, some people will already be lost in trying to assign blame to somebody or some group for all of this. Another schoolyard adage applies here too; point one finger at someone and you have at least three pointing back at you. The blame namers are part of the problem! I don’t think assigning blame ever did anything to fix a problem. Rather, every second or every day, we find ourselves with choices to make. I am just one person and I don’t believe that I can do much other than speak and act in accordance with my philosophy on life. Doing anything else is just a lie I am trying to convince someone to believe.

President Obama didn’t create these problems; neither did Bush (1 or 2), Clinton, Reagan or even Jimmy Carter. We all have responsibility. The real problem will come in weaning Americans off the suckle. Even talking about it yields a condition I like to call Mammary Gland Separation Anxiety, which creates uneasiness, stress and often yields loud and disruptive behavior.

It doesn’t really matter a whole bunch what side you are on if you are part of the problem. It doesn’t really matter too much that you say the right things if you are doing the wrong things. It even doesn’t matter if everything is going all right while you are doing all wrong. The next election won’t change a damn thing if all we do is change the owners of the clothes in the Whitehouse master bedroom closet.

This problem has been brewing for many decades in this country. With ever increasing acceptance, tolerance, excuse and look the other way; we have whittled away at the foundation of what it is to be American and consequently Americans. There is so much spin, double talk,  and lies that the children who are growing up “looking up” to those spewing the professional BS (that has been politics of the past several generations) has little or no chance to help the situation. It’s like getting mad at an alcoholic for drinking beer while we are gladly serving them up triple shots of bourbon. What do you expect and why are you mad because he’s drunk?

So, Mr. Liberal, go and save the world! Fight for the green things and the causes of the squirrels, injustice and the like. It is ok. Really, it is ok. AND Mrs. Conservative, make sure you have an accounting of all the dollars created by who and what and ensure that people are accountable and responsible just as you are. It’s ok… really! To the 9658 other groups who are some combination of both and neither and something else; keep fighting for what you believe. It’s ok.

I have to admit that one of the spun-to-death accusations levied by both major parties recently about “lack of leadership” is very much true. However, I strongly caution you against looking around for a leader when there are none to be found. Instead heed the wisdom in the words of Anthony J. D’Angelo. “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.” Once you have identified the leader, then I suggest you consider a few words on the subject from Admiral Arleigh A. Burke. “Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure.”

We got to this place and condition in our country not overnight, but over time. Often the best course back on track is to turn around and walk the path that led you to “lost”. It will take time. Find comfort in the fact that you are heading the right way. Enjoy the journey too! Frustration comes from trying to control something you have no control over. Move with your hands that which you can, want and should move.

So, as we move to the next stage of our country’s future, I will ask that the movers and shakers consider a few gentle words of guidance. Know that what you say and what you do has an effect on somebody and something. Know that there are young people watching what you do far more closely than hearing what you say. Know that even a simple person can recognize lies, deceit and hypocrisy. Don’t forget to look in the mirror periodically too. Make sure you know that person, because if you don’t or if who you think you know in that mirror doesn’t match what you see, then you are the embodiment of a lie. Lastly, know that no matter what you do, whether it is in secret, broad daylight or even in your own mind; God sees and is taking an account of everything. One day, you will answer as you kneel. I pray that you have made the best choices and all the redemptions so that your soul will live in God’s kingdom forever.

 

I have learned just because I believe something that it isn’t necessarily true. There is power in the ability to be objective. There is tremendous growth in being open to the possibility that I am wrong. Fear restricts or closes the mind to possibilities and exploration and of course, growth. Little bits of denial and ignorance and avoiding create sediment. Over time, the layers of sediment form rock. Individual issues then become national mandates and often codified by law. Folks, law doesn’t mean “correct”. Our current laws are made by man and therefore seriously flawed just as the fruit is form a poisonous tree.

There has been a lot of writing and talk by many, but not “many enough”. Things don’t seem to be turning around, but rather marching steadily toward implosion. And yes, many times I have stepped away from what I believe I think is true and correct in order to accurately assess and prayerfully correct the apparent incongruences. I have failed to find resolution.

Our society has been fragmented into vicious, rock solid pockets of individualism. Each person’s nuances and personal preferences form their immovable identity. Soon, our country will fragment along these types of lines. Some of the succession lines will be drawn along; religion, geographic identity, political ideology, race, sexuality and so on. E Pluribus Unum is now being reversed to “Out of one, many”.

We have been practicing “distance” from our neighbors for many, many years. What are the ties that will bind us? What will be the indivisible glue that will keep our union together? What will be the greater need that will supersede our individual preferences and opinions? I just don’t see it anymore. Nationalism is an old worn out comfort blanket that went of style with the generations of those who were around for WWII. America stood together to fend off an attack on our homeland. That wave continued for many years after WWII.

Too many people since then have treated our country like a rental car or a rental house. It really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you get what you want. If it breaks or tears up, that is somebody else’s responsibility. Too many generations have been spoiled by the security, opulence and comforts provided by previous generations. Difficulties today are often described by the lack of stuff and wants. Yes, there are folks that truly have needs and troubles that weren’t of their choosing. But, we have spent the bank taking care of those who didn’t need taking care of. We continue to coddle those who don’t need it which just continues the pattern of generational dysfunction.

America doesn’t care. America is only the collective of its inhabitants. America can only be what the people make it. The inhabitants don’t want America. The renters or now more aptly labeled, “squatters” are not interested in a greater good or doing what is necessary to make things better.

Right or wrong, people look around at what others are doing to determine if what they want to do is ok. There are far too many people who don’t contribute and don’t care and don’t participate. Why do I expect that things will change? Silly me. I have put faith in man.

The process will increase in speed exponentially as folks like me stop trying to teach, lead and help and of course pay the fare for the train. I will be a martyr for my God and my family, not my country. My God and faith don’t require me to die for him, but I would before I denounce him. My family is my responsibility to lead and protect and they deserve it.

America formed out of a united group of people who had faith in God and feared lack of liberty more than they feared discomfort or even death. We are not that country anymore. Today in America, our inhabitants don’t know God and feverishly denounce or avoid him. Our inhabitants are terrified by discomfort while they are blindly being deprived of true liberty by their pursuits of selfishness and greed that is fueled by their lack of security and fulfillment. Our inhabitants focus on the weekend, not the continuation of our freedom. Our inhabitants worry about image and personal transgressions while ignoring a national shame being propagated through apologies and weakness around the world. Our inhabitants only concern themselves with issues that will ensure their comforts while ignoring the demise of a nation that once shined like the brightest star on the darkest night.

It is dark again. Where is our shine?  — R. A. Grier

One day, all the lies, BS and cover-ups will come to light.  The spin, maneuvering and ignorance will shine like the brightest star on the  darkest night for all to see. One day, people will look back on their country’s  history and choices and say things like: “What were they thinking? Why didn’t  somebody try to fix it? Was everybody stupid?”

Here are some of the things that will become part of the  Legends of Fall of the Stupid and Selfish America:

Believing that America is powerful and magical and safe  from extinction

Accepting, “Well they did it too!” as justification for  poor behavior

Thinking that power doesn’t corrupt isn’t capable of  Godless acts

Believing that individuals have real power with their  Government

Believing that convenience and comfort come at no cost

Not caring who pays the cost as long as it isn’t them

Promoting welfare for those who are capable of doing  without it

Believing that tax breaks and subsidies aren’t welfare

Creating artificial outcomes in order to make everyone  equal

Lack of Term Limits for ALL elected and appointed people

Lack of Line item legislation

Believing that the media isn’t biased and is for the people  and the nation

Believing that some media is different from other media

Believing that schools just need more money to solve the  problems

Believing that parents and their kids aren’t part of the  problem

Believing that education unions are helping the kids

Believing that Unions are for the good of the people and  nation

Trial lawyers creating a new type of career classification  for people

Debt fueled social engineering

Social engineering

Ensuring one feels good at the expense of many

Believing that tolerance is a good thing

Believing that by acting in a racist way will stop racism

Believing that you are not part of the problem

Believing in something other than God as truth

 

I will admit my faults, learn from my mistakes and fight  evil and corruption and ignorance at every opportunity. I will forgo comfort to  stand alone to identify and try to correct things when they aren’t right. I will  lose friends and power and money for the stand I take on these beliefs because  it is the right thing to do. In the end when I have failed to help this sinking  country, I will also be the one to say, “I told you so.”

Existing is not living. Today, America exists. The systems  and power brokers have been allowed and even have been encouraged to destroy a  beautiful opportunity for people to truly live and be free. I see my fellow  Americans in cages that they believe are equally necessary and immovable. Sadly,  most don’t see the cage at all. I see the power brokers supervising the welding  of those cages. I see those who are charged with ensuring our liberty standing  idly by while more personal prisons are built for the American people. I rage  against the true injustice that corrupt power delivers. I rage against the  helpless and hopeless who have no will to stand and fight for what is good for  all. I am saddened by those who were warned about cages and then help build  their own cages. I loathe those who were warned and then complain that they are  imprisoned and expect someone to get them out.

The corrupt do not have a monopoly on the absence of rules  and consequences. Do you think that just because you aren’t on a leash that you  should feel good about being in a cage? Do not expect. Demand! Words are lies;  actions are evidence of belief and intention. Take over, not back!

— R. A. Grier