This past weekend's Tea Party Rally in D.C. was shameful.Yes, Glenn Beck and S. Palin are a) sound and b) fury. Yes, they signify nothing in terms of intelligent content. But they are dangerous in abuse of justice, mercy, kindness, humanity, common sense, inclusiveness, fairness.
Their rally or rather the fact of their rally was painful in its proud disrespect for America's history, which pretty much begins with slavery, not just racism with its ugly discriminations but slavery. The great triumphs in America's history are Abolition of Slavery and Dr. Martin Luther King's success in Civil Rights legislation and his demonstrations of true Christianity.
Their rally or rather the fact of their rally was painful in its proud disrespect for America's history, which pretty much begins with slavery, not just racism with its ugly discriminations but slavery. The great triumphs in America's history are Abolition of Slavery and Dr. Martin Luther King's success in Civil Rights legislation and his demonstrations of true Christianity.
Glenn Beck and S. Palin make a big and pompous deal of being Christian, though I doubt they begin to delight in that singular spirit that has outlived and rises above organization. The brutality and atrocity done in the name of Jesus have nothing to do with that spirit and everything to do with human pride and greed.
So I suppose I shouldn't say Beck and Palin signify nothing. They signify pride and greed. They distort Christianity (most people do). They distort the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and most ethical underpinnngs to this odd experiment (as it's called), America. Thomas Jefferson, even with his regrettable hypocrisy, would denounce them.
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
Hence, the law. As Aristotle said, and I paraphrase, the law habituates us to the good. I'm less interested in the faux-Christianity of the Tea Party than its utter ignorance, cruelty, danger. Using Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday to rally? And to promulgate stupidity and meanness at the Lincoln Memorial. Sad days. The Kindness and Generosity Party, the Do Not Fear, Little Children, Party, the Ethical Thinking Party need to work harder.
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