Thursday, March 27, 2008

Comments too good to pass up!

2 posts from a fellow Wash Post reader:

1> No wonder the R's are losing it. Just listened to Rush talk about how America is the world's best last hope. Nothing like turning a nation into an idol. Sounds just like Hitler's deification of Germany.

The world's last great hope are those who act justly and defend the inalienable rights of humanity, wherever they may be.

The founding fathers realized that the nation they were founding was another experiment in human governance. It could fail as easily as the many nations before it.

A nation which embraces torture, pre-emptive wars, invasions of sovereign countries, pollutes the environment, lives off the slave labor of poorer countries and legislates belief can no longer claim the moral high ground or pretend to be the last great hope of anything except humanity's basest desires.

America is not great by virtue of its existence. It is great only by virtue of its virtues.

So tragic that so many listen to such tripe. It's like people who are told they are good simply because they belong to a religion, mistaking membership for good works, ritual for good fruits, prayer for acts of charity, religious clothing for conversion of heart.

America is only as good as its actions.
No more, no less. To claim some innate divine superiority is as delusional as it is blasphemous.

But the weak and insecure always seek to clothe themselves in God's mantle when unable to do God's work.

The right is to be pitied when seduced by such a small-minded man.

Posted by: wpost4112 | March 27, 2008 01:52 PM

2> Charity.

As some one remarked long ago, the poor will always be with us. In other words, we will always be creatures of choice.

That same man remarked on the rich who paraded their charity for all to see. To empower the poor? To promote the general welfare? No. To reap compliements and indulge in self-pride at a being so "generous," giving a pittance from their piled-up of wealth.

True charity has little to do with money or tax-write offs. It has to do with treating others with respect. It has to do with empowering those who have no power. It has to do with protecting the environment. It has to do with creating balance in society. It has to do with sacrificing one's comfort for another's survival. It has to do with self-respect, respect for others and respect for the created universe.

It has nothing to do with sending a check to Africa from the comfort of a exclusive country club.

As that same man said so many years ago, it will be easier for a camel loaded with baggage to get through the tiniest of archways than a rich person to enter the gates of heaven. Not because they are rich, but because they can't let go of the baggage.

Money is not the root of evil, it is the desire for it.

But as some of the rich are unable to release their grasp of materialism for love of neighbor, so too many of those who are not rich are unable to release their grasp of envy.

Judging each other on matters of the heart are as meaningless as judging charity from an IRS filing.

Posted by: wpost4112 | March 27, 2008 03:35 PM

2 comments:

Don said...

It has to do with empowering those who have no power.

This is where a person can begin to change the world.

Chad E Burns said...

excellent comment Don. I completely agree--as you can probably tell from my blog. :)

Unfortunately, you also touched on the difficulty--to those who are in power, or the "etsablishment" they are afraid it is a zero-sum game and they fear giving those with no power, power, because they think it will mean a loss of their own.