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Saturday, July 06, 2019

News Weakly - 7/6/19

Speaking Truth from Power
With so many loud and angry voices about how the dirty, rotten United States is evil for not flinging open her borders to all comers (while no other country in the world does so), it is almost a total surprise to hear this. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, declared that the death of the man and his young daughter whose picture at the Rio Grande recently incited such outrage was the fault of El Salvador (and, by extension, the other countries from which they are coming). "We can blame any other country," he said, "but what about our blame? What country did they flee? Did they flee the United States? They fled El Salvador, they fled our country. It is our fault." Bukele doesn't even approve of American treatment of immigrants, but I am impressed that he is looking at the source rather than the end point of the problem.

Neither Justice nor Mercy
In 1970 Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary was sentenced to three months in jail for "indecent liberties" with a 14-year-old girl. Two sisters, ages 14 and 17, had knocked on his hotel room door for an autograph and he answered naked. In 1981 President Carter pardoned Yarrow. You might (unwisely) think, "Done and done." The man served his sentence and was pardoned later on top of the distance in time from the crime. But, no. The Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival in upstate New York disinvited 81-year-old Yarrow because of social media outrage. That is, once you've committed a particular category of sin, there is no payment, no forgiveness, no possibility of change, no termination by any means of the guilt. American social media hates both justice and mercy, except, I suppose, in their own cases.

Many in our society today complain about Christian judgmentalism. "He who is without sin cast the first stone," they will throw in our faces without the slightest consideration of their own judgmentalism.

We're Not Using It
After we invaded Iraq because of WMDs, they began the process of becoming self-governed. One comedian quipped, "If they need a Constitution, they can use ours; we're not using it." We have a Constitution largely to protect us from leadership. We have checks and balances in place to keep us from having a government by fiat. Elizabeth Warren appears not to care. While the concept of "executive order" has been used by many presidents, it was used on the basis of emergency and intended for short-term action. Warren plans in advance to use it to remedy "the wage and employment leadership gap for women of color." She won't wait for the legislative branch to do its job; she will do it by declaration. That's okay, I suppose. We're not using our Constitution anyway. But if you are in favor of a president that rules by fiat rather than our legal process, vote for Warren. (I think there are more candidates than her planning the same sort of monarchy.)

The Offense of Being American
Nike has decided to pull a special shoe from the market which featured the old Betsy Ross American flag -- you know, the one with the circle of 13 stars. Why? Because Colin Kaepernick said that the original American flag reminded people of slavery. Nike concurred. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey disagreed with Nike and "ordered the Arizona Commerce Authority, a public-private economic development agency, to withdraw incentives the state offered Nike to build a plant in Goodyear, Arizona." Ducey said, "Arizona’s economy is doing just fine without Nike." The statement would cost the state some 500 jobs and $450 million in economic activity.

Follow the logic. "'These people' (in this case, some racist or nationalist groups) have used a symbol of a nation's origin for their own nefarious purposes. Ergo, that symbol is offensive and should be removed from public display." Follow the logic. "Some Christians have used the name of Christ as a reason for their own nefarious purposes. Ergo ..." well, you can see where this would go. Now, shall we try it with the Left's pet symbols or projects? Let's not. There is probably no symbol that would survive if "somebody is offended" is the measure of what should stay or go.

It is not a surprise, then, that as Pride Month ends, it is followed by "Shame On You America" Month. Must be true; I saw it on the Internet.

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