There is a Storm Brewing in our Land

A great friend of mine posted that Subject line into a FB thread yesterday and it struck a chord with me. I tossed and turned last night in trying to get off to sleep but that term kept whirling through my brain.  As my mind worked back through the news media, Facebook comments and pleas and acidic rhetoric, sermons, phone calls, texts, emails and that quiet introspection that comes when there seems no answer to the myriad questions, I found myself in a state of calm as I quietly sought God's insight on what it all means. I slept soundly from that moment on.

 

Our America, that land we love so much, has become a land where far too many Americans act like they do not love our nation as we have known it. There are many culprits to that terrible journey of dissension and angst and so easy to point fingers or unleash the frustrations on the keystrokes of a computer for that is easy, sanitary, and seemingly harmless to the send or respond to. But in the last two weeks we have all seen the seams of dissent that have been there but surfaced under the light of relevancy and camera lights and we do not like what we have seen.  For what we have seen is our new reality and it is not pretty and it frightens us for we know something is badly broken but seem powerless to fix it so we can move on.

 

The unleashed anger about the Confederate flag literally, like the Civil War, pitted brother against brother, long term friends against long term friends resulting in attacking, threatening rhetoric laced with  this resounding drumbeat of the age old North and South antebellum in America.  The killings in South Carolina, while tragic beyond imagination, was superseded by the presence of the Confederate flag at the State Capitol. The media became heatedly focused on that symbol which fueled days of insults and attacks by people in the South, some of my long term friends,  aimed at anyone or anything with the audacity to even hint that the Confederate was, in fact, a symbol of racial oppression for, frankly and undeniably, it was and it is and always will be. It was an era now gone but I was shocked at the doggedness of those seeing any logical protest about that symbol was translated as hating the South, disconnected from some almost sacred heritage that simply has been washed into the ocean of history.  The pendulum swing overreaction has been dazzling with the removal of the Flag, monuments removed, etc which I think is silly but that is what happens when the stability of history, it seems, is jostled; always overreaction. This will grow sillier until that pendulum hits it's apex and begins it slow swing in the other, less reactive posture; and it will.

 

The Obama eulogy, which I found soothing and Presidential, was met with harsh criticism meaning the fomented distaste of this man, the POTUS, which I feel as well, was momentarily eased by his excellently delivered eulogy. A black man, in a black church, before primarily black people with a uniqueness to their words and actions and songs at a black funeral allowed Obama to be truly "black" in his demeanor and words and actions and song. I found that perfectly alright and I say that as one that sings and speaks at many funerals. Was there a political edge to his utterances? Most certainly but even thinking about it now I believe he, Obama, for the first time for me at least, showed reverence, connectivity, passion and caring in his words and was, for me, very presidential.  Then, as with the flag, any hint of agreeing with his words such as these previous sentences, was met with hostility on the threads of social media.

 

As we go into this Independence Day holiday, multiple billions of taxpayer dollars are being exhausted because of or in the name of terror threats against fueled by social media used apparently effectively by the ideology of hate called ISIL. Social media again!

 

Then the capper was the now infamous decision by the Supreme Court in a very split decision declaring as the Law of the Land the approval of same sex marriage and again even the social media moguls came up with the LGBT colored White House which angered and enraged so many including me for it sickened me.  This decision was simply wrong and Mr. John Roberts will pay a high price for his role in so many landmark decisions that is so dramatic changing the very fabric of our nation.  This decision was simply wrong for it was a direct violation of God's stated principles of marriage. But I also must rely on the fact that it is not I that can or will correct the abomination but God has promised He will take care of this at His timing. Amen I say!

 

So yes, there is a fever and a storm brewing in our land, the once Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  That Land, sadly, is no more as some of us knew it as Baby Boomers growing up in the mid 20th century post World War II. That land is now pock marked with too many lawyers, too much media, instant communication, never ending corruption, weak, manipulative political machines fueled only by money and, yes, social media.

 

But you know, I still believe in the American experiment for that is certainly what it is still.  We are still the nation people will fight to come to.  The demographics of our nation are changing before our eyes as a frightening rate. Latinos in America now hold nearly $2 trillion of our $18 trillion GDP and is close to if not already the largest voting bloc in our nation. Let that soak in a minute! 

 

Our national pride has dimmed and sullied due to shifting mores where we are all supposed to be tolerate of any thing and everybody belief, activity and choice. We, I wholeheartedly disagree with that for if you do not stand for something, you will most certainly fall for anything; THAT describes America today. My level of unsurprising disappointment in our POTUS leadership, our nation and our future is the lowest and most concerning of my lifetime and I see nothing on the horizon that will return us as a nation to a better time.  When Jenner is celebrated as a national hero and icon, well, you get my drift but that is where we are. America is being bullied by factions and now supported at the highest levels of a dysfunctional wrongly aimed higher arm; our government.  This government is no longer for, by and of the people but for, by and of the people of money and voting power.

 

When presidents are elected solely on the amount of money they can raise; the core metric, they are nothing more than NASCAR drivers acting as prostitutes as I view it. We are, I think a better nation, still, than we are showing.  But the once great tenets of spirituality that led and guided leaders in this land have seemingly gone quiet or people just do not really care nor listen to these tenets. Living unwed, LGBT, same sex marriages, etc, etc is the new normal and that is very very sad. But that sad will translate to a sicker future with diseases for God will not tolerate that mockery of Creation I do not believe.

 

So the only, ONLY, aspirin for this terrible headache is prayerfully petitioning God for His Hand in cleaning up this national disaster that will grow much worse before it gets better.  Here is all I know ... I have had some great time with my five grand kids this week and I cannot escape that crawling feeling about their lives in their future and what will be their normal.

 

Dear Lord, come quickly!