Oct 29 2008
You may notice very slow response or non-response this evening and thursday morning. Dreamhost, my server provider, is having some technical problems.
Please check back tomorrow if things aren’t working too well this eve.
UPDATE: problem seems fixed.
Oct 29 2008
I know it’s an oldie, but a friend sent it to me, and we all can use a laugh right now.
Oct 29 2008
A little thought just popped into my head. I was trying to figure out how to put into words what I’ve been feeling about the upcoming election and I think I may have a working metaphor. Forgive me if you think this overly melodramatic but I must admit I have been most profoundly affected by this presidential election and the choice of possible outcomes. The reason probably lies with concern for my kids and the kind of world they stand to inherit.
Anyway…. I was just thinking of the movie, Braveheart. The scene is very near the end of the movie as William Wallace, after being betrayed and captured, lies bound to a table, helpless before his executioner in the public square. As he is being tortured, (methodically disemboweled) before facing the guillotine, he musters up all he has left and with his last breath he utters a mournful, plaintive and defiant cry of, “Freedom!”
Will it be thus for The United States of America? I have truly come to believe an Obama presidency will result in the dismemberment of our dear country as we know it. For we are about to exchange liberty for “change” and it is clear to me that the “change” of which Obama speaks is not freedom but a governmental yoke, hung about the head and shoulders of every citizen. And there are those with whom this has apparently found favor, the only requirement being that everyone else is also equally yoked.
Freedom carries with it the opportunity to succeed and the potential to fail. Apparently, faced with a large enough number of recent failures, our country now wants to turn away from freedom. Perhaps this is because we think the price is too high. Perhaps we are tired or lost and seek the comfort of the yoke, for when we are shackled together we won’t have to make any more decisions on our own, rather we can just pull the cart and let someone else decide where to go. We can walk when we are told, stop when we are told, eat when we are fed, sleep when the sun goes down and never ever have to worry about anyone wandering away or, heaven forbid, going ahead of the rest of the herd.
But like that scene in the movie, I do hear a cry in these final days before the vote – a cry of “freedom!” and a warning that our very freedom as a people is at stake in this election. For it is freedom and liberty that has made this country great and it will be the surrender of freedom through the election of Barack Obama that may signal the final curtain for America.
Patrick Henry once declared, “Give me liberty or give me death”. I think he would be shocked to find his famous utterance has been drowned out by so many other voices. “Give me healthcare!” Give me bailout money!” Give me my house back!” Give me citizenship!” “Give me an abortion!”
Give me the yoke!
