Women and Children ... C'mon folks, really ... Show a little mercy!

I'm in the middle of reading disturbing comments in the middle of the night (it would be almost morning in the summer, but it's now only the middle of the night, what the heck is up with that? I can't believe how much longer it takes to stay up all night in the winter than it does in the summer.)

Now that I've got the seasonal comments out of my system, here's what's on my mind on this middle of the night in October of 2015:

Reading the comments from waaaay too many people who seem perfectly willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater for pete's sake. 

I'm talking about the horrifying stories that are coming out of Europe (and some in the US). Yes the stories are truly horrific. Yes the atrocities should be stopped, whatever it takes. You'll get no argument from me about that. 

But some of the comments are talking about genocide, folks. Open any forum on the net these days that has anything remotely to do with Islam and you'll find it.

I'm Christian, so I suppose I'm included in the Islam 'bad guy' list - but I can't find it in me to condemn women and children, who are already not exactly in the safest situation in the world, to the 'kill 'em all' mentality that seems to be taking a stronger root every day.

Battle is battle. Women and young children who are being victimized every which way from Tuesday are not the threat. Can we not find it in us to help those who are already hurt? Yes, take your stand against the ones who are the threat - that makes all the sense in the world. But for the love of God, to not spare the innocent? Where's the sense in that, the decency?

Some are making the distinction, don't get me wrong. They are the ones saying to reject the ones who are a threat - the many men of fighting age who are able to fight for their own country (the one they left) but are instead 'raising hell' wherever they are - reject them and send them to countries that are already Muslim where they might have a chance of fitting in and maybe eventually figure out how to regain their country from yet another faction of their same religion. There's a certain sense in that.

On the other hand, Mercy for mothers and children ... surely we can make room for them? We needn't be as mean to them as their own culture seems to be.

It does seem that battle has come upon us - can't the soldiers fight the soldiers and the rest of us care for the innocents? If a woman, a mother, chooses to be a soldier, let her fight too - but care for the children until she gets back to them.

Ach. When we had our own 'internal' troubles (Christians) our world still had places of (relative) safety for those who needed them and were able to get to them - America was one of those places. Today our world is different, more filled up ... where are the places of (relative) peace and safety today? It seems there aren't any.

So this little old gramma lady doesn't have any answers, but only a plea for mercy for the women and children who have already been hurt enough.

Got a Couple of Things on My Mind

2015  09  25

First of all, the Pope is visiting the United States. Next month it will be the Dalai Lama. The words of these two men will impact many, perhaps for a short time, perhaps for longer. People tend to make a big deal out of such things and then just get on with getting on, doing what they do for good or for ill.

Second, being as I'm an American and my family has been since the founding of the United States of America, I can't bring myself to ignore what's going on in this nation. See, we don't have a Pope to guide us; we don't have a Dalai Lama. We'll listen to what they have to say, but they aren't 'ours' so to speak. Some of us will listen harder, pay closer attention, try a little more to understand what they're trying to tell us - but ... well ... only some of us are Catholic and even fewer are Buddhist. We're a conglomerate of all sorts of peoples here. That's what this nation is all about, after all, or is supposed to be. People who believe in Family, Friends, Freedom, the Future, and have Faith that a way will be found to fuse all of us into a united country.

I think most everybody tends to forget how really young we are as a nation, only a couple of hundred years. Compared to most of the rest of our world, we are incredibly diverse - and we are young as a nation. We are working to figure out how our Constitutional Republic is supposed to function. Our founders gifted us with a legacy, and the instructions as to how to use it. We as a People haven't been paying real close attention to what they told us. As challenges arise, that's changing a little. But this isn't going to be about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, or the Federalist Papers.

I'm puzzling in my mind the reactions to those who are coming within our borders.

Now, on the one hand we've got millions of refugees who need a place of safety. On the other hand, here in the USA, we've got many more millions who are just coming on in without being invited. 

Some of us are saying we ought to close our borders completely, find and evict those who are just barging in on us, and not let anybody else in until we've taken care of our own current citizens. Heaven knows we've got plenty of internal issues among us that could use a sorting out.

Others say to kick out the illegals and use the resources we've been spending on them to first of all help our own and secondly to help those who are seeking sanctuary in the legitimate use of the concept, asking for and coming in only when given permission by the People of the United States.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg. We are fussin' and feudin' among our own selves over this, that, and the other thing. Different folks have different views on all kinds of things, and  they're all strong in their opinions. It's been that way since the dawn of mankind. You'd think we'd have figured out how to manage ourselves by now, make allowances for people who don't see things in exactly the same way we do, and get on with developing our culture in a way that makes sense.

*laughing*

Right.

What makes perfect sense to one person is another person's idea of insanity.

#  2015  09  26

I found out that both China and Russia (their heads of state) are going to be meeting with our own in short order although not at the same time. Would it not be a good thing for both the Pope and Dalai Lama to sit down with them and a few other heads of state at the same table and come up with some solutions? 

Separation of church and state is not a bad thing, and I'm not advocating by any means a return to the bad old days when it was otherwise. Even so, I can't help but think it wouldn't hurt anything to throw in a couple of other perspectives. When it comes to that, add Cousin Rick to the mix. He's rich, and an atheist; his perspective might come in handy, too. For that matter, it would be a fine idea to take along a couple of ordinary citizens ... you know, the ones who have to live with the consequences of whatever the 'leaders' choose to do.

Back on topic ... I was reading the other day about the hissy fits people were having back when the Scots and Irish were coming over in big numbers. Some wanted to shut that down, too. Fortunately, things were a little different then; there was a lot of space to expand.  But it wasn't all peaches and roses by a long shot and that's a kind of sad fact.

And so I'm reminded of something we tend to forget about. There was a time when such things as 'Orphan Trains' were running. If you don't know about them, look it up. The cities in the east loaded up kids onto trains and sent them west. Many found good homes; some found a lot of really hard work - or was it the other way around? I guess that depends on which perspective you're looking at it from.

Then there were the WPA projects ... make-work for people in need of jobs. A lot of building got done. My Grandad helped to build a railroad; it wasn't in his home state, but he went and did it. And so our family had a little money and a big job got done. The fairgrounds of the county I live in has a beautiful stone building that got built at that time - we use it for all kinds of things.

Am I still on topic?

Yes.

In the past we've found or created solutions to problems. Maybe they weren't ideal solutions but they seem to have at least done a little good along the way.

Populations that weren't particularly welcomed by what was then the 'mainstream' have ended up becoming many of the vertebrae of our backbone, not to mention the strong body attached to that strong back. 

What the heck.

It is my considered opinion that Louis L'Amour ought to be required reading, and Louisa May Alcott, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Oh I forgot. 

We don't read any more.

Well then, somebody ought to make movies out of all of the books of those authors, the ones that haven't already been done - and require us all to watch them if we won't read the books.

It would remind those of us who have forgotten, and inform those who have never known, what this nation is supposed to be all about and that freedom comes with a price tag. It would also serve to introduce our nation and our culture to those who wish to join us, so they have some kind of idea about where we've come from. 

No, it isn't necessarily where we're at right now, but for the vast majority of us those books are pretty good indicators of the families whose strengths built this nation. It's only fair to those who come here to know sort of what they're getting themselves into. Don't forget, we're a fairly new nation. Our roots are closer than a body might think.

And I'll get off my soapbox now. I've got a lot of firewood to gather if I don't want to freeze to death during this coming Dakota Long Dark. It's time to put my work boots on and pick up my chain saw.

Even us little old gramma ladies, in these here parts, do what needs doing when it needs doing. There are times when others might pitch in and give us a hand, but we sure as heck don't expect someone else to do every last little thing for us. My young daughter and I re-wired this house. We painted it. We plumbed it. We shingled it. We built a stout fence. Now I'm going to see to it that I can keep myself halfway warm this winter. Those steel-toed work boots in that photo didn't get into the condition they're in by sitting around on a shelf doing nothing. My sister's work boots look about the same - and you should see her work coveralls.

I think my point here with all this blathering about firewood and such (aside from the procrastination factor) is that unless you're ready, willing, and able to wear out a pair of steel-toed work boots you might not quite realize the standards this nation was built on and might want to think about that a little (no, think about it a LOT) if you want to call yourself an American.

Huh? What?

Before we begin, I must make it clear that my own personal Faith is based on the Holy Trinity: the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In no way is the following to be construed as anything except a part of my own journey as I seek Guidance from the One who does the Guiding. My religious education may be searched; my Faith is quite very secure. There is but One God. Each and all of us human beings are Mind, Body, and Spirit, in the likeness of God. On this my Faith stands.

I just read two articles of interest to me. The first is a blog post about a young person deeply affected by thoughts of Hell ...

The other one showed up in a related comment and has something to do with the validity of Hell. 

Both are worth looking at, but I kind of fail to grasp the real connection between the two, to be honest. 

I'm no scholar of any kind, let along a Biblical one. I've read it, and my father was a Southern Baptist Preacher, so I heard plenty about it growing up, but I'm by no means an expert.

Being as I'm an alleged 'grown up' now, and me being me, I went looking for answers in more educated minds than my own.

" Does the word hell appear in the Bible " is the question I wanted an answer to.

And I was shocked out of my Baptist-trained mind at what I found.

Look it up, my friend. That's the best advice I can give you. 

My next question was in reaction to my discoveries.

Me being me, I wanted to know where on earth Hell came from, since it didn't come from the Bible.

Here's another link that I found interesting. I've got thoughts that go along with it and might get to them here, or save them for another post, or both ...

" Development of Hell " didn't come along until Jesus had long since been born, lived, died, lived again, and went on up to Heaven. Hell was not in the vocabulary of Jesus, nor in His teaching, and most certainly not the Hell we've been raised to fear. Jesus never threatened anyone with eternal hell-fire. Ever. Not once. 

Look it up, my friend. That's the best advice I can give you.

And here I will insert an aside.

Here's a quote from the above link:

'... The Jewish Yeshua and those in the Jerusalem church, especially James, Yeshua's brother, held a traditional conception of the Messiah. The Messiah would be a man, perhaps descended from David, who would be anointed by God to rout the occupying army, the Romans, and establish an earthly kingdom ... '

I've only just this moment had the following 'ah-ha!' moment.

As a part of the research for the Mamm Books, the change-over from the Roman Empire to the future Holy Roman Empire demanded some looking into as it is pivotal to the development of the SONG series. And I connected the dots between the survival (and widespread growth) of the early 'Jesus Movement' despite Rome's best efforts to annihilate it, Rome's subsequent toleration, and finally its adoption of this tenacious Faith - which just so happened to 'coincide' with the 'fall' of the Western Roman Empire.

There were plenty of factors at play during that whole time span. It's just my own thought patterns that lead me to say, 'God works in mysterious ways, and it is not for us to know the mind of God.'

Me being me, in the fiction I write, behind the assortment of 'barbarian' peoples who ultimately brought the Western Empire to its knees was indeed a 'conspiracy' of a sort. It was led by those who saw the 'politicizing and militarizing' of their Faith as a threat to its true and original meaning. Our fictional Characters, who historically had no reason to much like what Rome had dished out (tried to) to their people so far, weren't overly trusting of this new interpretation of the Faith they had been celebrating for centuries. 'Rome has replaced her legions with priests and her governors with bishops,' was their take on it and they wanted no part of it.

And what on God's green earth does this stuff have to do with Hell?

Nothing.

There was no such concept in the teachings of Jesus, nor in anything anywhere at the time that the foundations of the Faith of the Characters of the Mamm Books would been laid. What references there were came from belief systems to which our Characters would not have adhered in the first place and so would most surely not have been part of their Faith.

And so I have to conclude that 1) the second of the above links, while no doubt the author sincerely believes what he says, is based on absolutely zilch that makes any sense, and 2) the author of the first of the above links has been, like many generations of us, tormented by something that has no basis in reality, and 3) people need to be taking a closer look at what they 'believe'.

Pointing fingers is a pointless exercise at this point. The fabrication occurred so long ago that the statute of limitations has long expired, along with the fabricators. The effects ... those have lingered ... but there are no living feet of flesh and blood at which we can lay the blame. Just because a hundred or more generations have believed something does not necessarily make it true.

When I was a kid, the grown ups used to ask us, regarding peer pressure, 'If they all jumped off a cliff would you jump too?'

So does this mean that Hell is no longer a cuss word?

isis, Islam, Christianity, Judaism - It's a Family Thing

2015  02  16

Jordan has Spoken.

Libya has Spoken.

Egypt has Spoken.

Israel has Spoken.

Saudi Arabia has Spoken.

Rome has Spoken.

Iran has Spoken.

China has Spoken.

Russia has Spoken.

Japan has Spoken.

Germany has Spoken.

Belgium has Spoken.

France has Spoken.

England has Spoken.

Scotland has Spoken.

Ireland has Spoken.

Australia has Spoken.

Canada has Spoken.

The People of the United States of America have Spoken.

Norway has Spoken.

Sudan has Spoken.

Islam has Spoken.

Christianity has Spoken.

Judaism has Spoken.

. . .

The list goes on.

As the leaders of Islam, and her people themselves, begin to step up to the plate to discipline their own, hope grows.

There are some powerful nations on that list up there.

This whelp calling itself isis might better watch its step because it looks like mama and papa might be starting to get upset with its behavioral choices and attitude – and backing them up are the grandparents and great-grandparents in this equation, Christianity and Judaism.

Really?

It takes a rebellious child on a rampage of death and destruction to unite the generations of a family that never should have been at odds in the first place?

It’s not about what’s different, people.

It’s about what’s the same.

Peace and justice for all.

If the parents need a hand, grandma and grandpa are right there; if need be, so are the Elders.

Just sayin’ . . .