My Town and GOD

Ah, my town.

What an amusing place it has become.
It has now produced two local politicians who have seen
a ploy work for Gee Dubya and have decided to follow in
his footsteps (no pun intended).

The Mayor of My Town, for all the good things he has
done, mainly paving the street on which I live, has
decided that if George can do it, so can he. I don't
think that George went as far as our Mayor in his
attributions, but he has come very close.

Our Mayor has told us that he was actually 'sent by God'
to become the Mayor of My Town. Isn't that wonderful?
God has sent his/her/its own personal emissary to lead
Our Town out of the political darkness and into the light.

I guess that, considering the little reaction from the
local media concerning this personal crusade by our
Mayor, a person seeking to be our representative on the
state level has decided to join the Mayor, thereby
starting a troupe of crusaders. She too, has been sent
by God. WOW! Are we lucky or what? We now have two
personal emissaries from God! At this rate, I suspect
that by the end of the year My Town will be the hub
of direct tele-communications from God. I'm not exactly
sure how God plans to type out all of those emails to
his troops, but, being God, I'm sure he/she/it has such
a little detail fully covered.

Now, what bothers me is, are we really so vain and
arrogant as to think that God, whether he/she/it is
the Christian God or is Zeus or Buddah or Shome
daMoney or any of our other man-created personal gods,
is now into politics? And not on a universe or global
basis, mind you; not on a national or state level
either, but on a city basis!

Does this really make us feel better about ourselves,
more worthy of our posessions?

Does God also now direct traffic at school crossings
or desiginate who will drive home from the bar and
who won't? Does God decide which college our children
will attend or whether we wear the red shirt or the
blue one? Does God direct our sniffles, sneezes
and muscle aches?

Well good. That means that if we are directed by God,
then we can also blame God when a drive-by kills an
innocent bystander. Or we get fat eating only at
Macdonalds. Or when our plans for the new
multi-million dollar tourist attractions do not
bring in the revenues we anticipated and budgeted on.
I think we can also blame God for starting smoking
or for non-smokers getting cancer. (Isn't this grand?)
I'll bet that we can even blame him/her/it for leading
our country to killing our soon to be historical-current
enemy--Islamic terrorists, ignoring of course, the invading,
killing, bombing Christian terrorists.

Holy Cow, Batman! This is FUN!

WE are not responsible!

IT'S NOW OK TO BLAME GOD

FOR EVERYTHING!

Good. So this must mean that if we don't like God's
directives, we can impeach him/her/it and create a
new God.

Right?

Man, the meter of all slings and arrows...

It has suddenly ocurred to me that the old adage
"Man is the measure of all things" is slowly being
replaced by a concept that is more visible, more
personal to the average man, and easier to understand
via comparisons with ones neighbors and friends.

In many cases, 'Man' being the measure has been
eroded and altered sufficiently to encompass the
concept that allows it to be read as 'Today's man
is the measure of all things.' This is easily seen
by its use when many ancient beliefs and customs
are written about and are measured by academia.

Frequently in archeology, you will encounter reports
of 'finds' that are reported with a hint of
tongue-in-cheek, as if to say 'They were just a
little ignorant (and beneath us).'
Even more odd is the way archeologists will refer to
the 'myths and gods' of these primitive societies, yet
our schools continue to promote the myth that Columbus
discovered America and the accompanying implication that
the United States "is" America. He didn't. It isn't.
Yet, we maintain the myths.

As stated at the beginning, the new adage might better
read as 'Money is the measure of all things' because
the 'gods' that we worship today are concurrent with that
new adage.

The fact that money is an inanimate object and only has
the value that we give it is immaterial. Money is
currently being mistakenly infused with 'life, love,
power and the pursuit of happiness.' Yet, any
individual on the face of the planet can burn it,
cut it, or deface it to any degree that that particular
individual desires. It won't fight back, it won't scream
in pain and it won't complain or take you to court.
Money is a medium of exchange, but not the only
medium that exists and certainly not the only measure
of ones self worth.

CRASH

I didn't see this movie until its release to the video
stores in the early part of the year, and it only had
one copy of the movie for rent. I did recommend it to
anyone willing to listen.

Ironically, as the year progressed, a few more copies
of the movie showed up on the shelves of the video
store. Later on, a few more and then a few more.

Watching the movie, I was amazed at the direction and
editing that was paramount throughout the entire movie.
Probably the most excellent, put-together, movie I have
seen since Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia.

And then I began to read the 'quick studies' of this
movie in most major publications and I wasn't sure I
had watched the same movie as the reviewers. I was
disappointed to note that the majority of reviewers
slanted their statements toward racial and/or
cultural tension in Los Angeles on a hot, sultry day!
Huh? I guess I was so enthralled with the complexity
of interactions that I just missed the racial tension
part. What I saw was people just being people.

For me, what sets this film apart from all others is
how over and over we are shown in a plain, simple,
and an unmistakable way how the effect of just one
action or one word ripples out into this universe
that we inhabit. Everything we say, everything we do,
everything we even think, has an affect in this
world, we just never take the time to examine it.
One simple action on the part of one person a
thousand miles from me, affects me. One simple word
from me can, and does, affect that same person who
is a thousand miles distant from me.

This movie is the meaning of the adage "No man is
an island unto himself." What a person does, and
sometimes doesn't do, affects all of us. We, in
turn, affect everyone else.

One other thing that I liked about the movie was the
fact that finally, finally, slurs and derisive
comments that we have all heard, usually whispered
or in confidence, from someone has now been stated
publicly. Hopefully, by drawing attention to the
fact that racial or uncomplimentary comments are
made constantly by many people-types will also
draw to the conscious level of those same people
what it is they are doing when they voice these
slurs and how their comments may affect people
whom they don't know or have never met and will
never meet in their lifetimes.

"NO MAN IS AN ISLAND"