To all those fine people who commented on my recent blog: n2orchids, fieldspeedwell, Ottawa34, MDGluon16, Judge Moonbox, jacksonbgood47, radarlady, VClib, Scylth34: I say a heartfelt thank you to you. I have been uplifted by your participation, by your thoughtful responses. You let me know that my feelings have not been left to molder in the dark.
This platform has allowed otherwise frustrated minds to find expression. My definition: Depression occurs when one is frustrated by a situation, but feels powerless to do anything about it. When one can channel one’s anger into active solutions, depression is transformed into elation!
By putting our minds together, we can achieve GREAT results!
n2orchids, you noted “life …. is not actuated until a fetus can live outside the mother’s body.” Yes!
fieldspeedwell, “ … we need to leave health decisions to the person whose body it is.” Indeed!
Ottawa34 and fieldspeedwell, Well said; distinguishing between truly personal decisions that affect no-one else, or deciding to be a source for spreading easily communicable epidemics to all nearby.
As a comment, I find it to be poetic justice that the superspreader-in-chief, his bull-horn Faux “News” and their fellow-travelers, who have denigrated the need for the Covid-19 vaccine, have made their own base most susceptible to grave illness and death, to such an extent that Hannity has done a U-ie, telling watchers to consult with their doctors, and to get the vaccine, even in secret. Dave Pakman, on his Show, mentions that an anti-vax, pro-Trump radio host, Phil Valentine, in Nashville, TN, is hospitalized, in critical condition, having contracted Covid-19. Fellow Daily Kos blog author KeithDB, under the title “Tweets From A Dead Man,” writes (07/23/2021) about a (then) healthy 34 y.o. anti-vaxxer, Stephen Harmon, who was taken in by all this propaganda, and put his faith in a miracle that would save him. It didn’t. The “Tweets From A Dead Man” blog, so far, has 372 comments!
Reliance on Miracles: When I was about four y.o., I was playing in the garden, and came across two slats of wood and a bent nail. I wanted to push the nail through the slats to make an “X.” I knew nothing about hammers. I went to where my mother was playing bridge with her cronies, and put the question. Her concentration was not primarily on my immediate need. Distractedly, she said “Ask G-d to help you.” Five minutes later, triumphantly, I brought in the successfully completed project. “So,” said Mom, “Did He help you?” I said, “No, but I asked Adam (the garden maintenance man, who happened to be there at the time), and he helped me.” Lost opportunity! Mom said “Good” or something to that effect. If she had taken the time to reflect on a good answer, she would have said, “See, G-d heard you, and sent Adam to help you.” But she didn’t, and it shook my faith, and I grew up kinda secular. Several decades later, I was bored with the secular world, and began to wonder about “The Book,”, and what had interested so many fine minds for millennia. (After all, “Bible” is derived from the Greek “ta biblia,” which means “the books”, and originally referred to scrolls of parchment.) There had to be some deep wisdom in it. And I started reading. I found wisdom in it, at about the same age as it began to find some “wisdom” in me (;-)). I quote often, knowing that I am standing on the shoulders of giants.
A “parable” heard “in my youth.” A very religiously observant man felt that he had it made as regards his guaranteed place in Heaven.
To shorten the story, there was a very heavy rainstorm, and his home street flooded. The ground floor was inundated, so he went upstairs. the waters continued to rise, so he went into the attic. Still rising, the waters forced him to climb out onto the roof.
His faith sustained him; he would be saved. Someone came by in a rowboat and said “Climb in!” He replied, “It’s OK, the Lord will save me.” The rowboat left. A bit later, a powered launch came by, and the captain said, “Climb aboard, you’ll be saved.” The homeowner gave the same reply he had given earlier. The launch left. Still later, a helicopter flew by. They dropped a rope ladder, and said, “Climb aboard, you’ll be saved.” The homeowner gave the same reply he had given twice before.
The waters continued to rise, and the religious man drowned. At the Pearly Gates, he was, to say the least, irritated. “I had complete faith in You,” he said. “I thought You would save me, no matter what!” And the Deep Voice was heard to say, “A rowboat, a launch and a helicopter weren’t good enough for you?”
You can paraphrase this story for the case of the recently healthy, recently deceased Stephen Harmon, who placed his faith in his Creator, but would not get vaccinated, and has just succumbed to Covid. We can wonder about the Q. and A. session going on now.
MDGluon16: ‘All too often religious freedom becomes:
”Freedom for my sect/religion to oppress thee and force my sect/religious rules onto you”’
I hear you loud and clear. That is exactly what is going on. All these restrictive laws regarding termination of pregnancies are examples of what an earlier correspondent referred to as, not “Christianity,” but “Christianism,” which some use as a stick with which to beat others, regardless of their own levels of observance.
Judge Moonbox: Spot on: “The antiabortionists aren’t really trying to persuade people. (…) (they) are trying to pack the courts in order to get the judicial legislation they desire.” Oh, yes, and this is why we need to get the judiciary to “stand back” completely, and get their hands out of what is absolutely NOT their business. The First Amendment is clear on this.
jacksonbgood47: I can absolutely understand your position. There is no doubt that there are charlatans in every human “business.” Particularly, as I mentioned, since no two people can possibly have the same mental image of a Creator, there are those who will take advantage of others. Not all clerics are charlatans, however. Many are pretty good psychologists, and “believe” (;-)) in helping congregants through difficult life situations. After all, we are prepared to pay good money to “shrinks” that we may feel that we need. These clerics are not primarily involved in gaining personal wealth.
radarlady: I greatly appreciate how much thought and effort you put into your comment. “… it is up to the woman, (…) to choose for herself.” You quote the First Amendment regarding religious practice: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” and “The government must stand apart from religious debates.” Now the question is “How do we ensure that this is done?”
In my opinion, there is very little difference between what the “Religious Right” is doing to women in the USA, and what the Taliban is doing to women in Afghanistan. Both groups show very little respect for women, and are unable to acknowledge that, without women, NOT ONE of them would be on this Earth. Women are treated as inferior beings. To try to balance, on one hand, a cavalier hands-off approach to the idea of saving lives in a global pandemic, while, at the same time, forcing women, regardless of circumstances, to carry a fetus to term, under pressure of the considerable power of the law, doesn’t make sense. Those Republicans that are passing these laws should adopt their REAL name: “Taliban USA.”
Scylth34: I hear you. So, the solution is that Congress should pass Roe v Wade into law. Sounds a bit to me like the idea of the mice putting a bell on the cat. The question is “How can such a law be passed?”
n2orchids: “(…) But not governments; our country is not supposed to support a specific religion. (…) While we’re at it, let’s take “…Under God…” out of the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God we Trust” off our money. I am not being sarcastic, here.”
There is an expression that some people “Observe the law in the breach thereof.” So many so-called Republican members of Congress have betrayed their oaths to “protect the Constitution of the United States,” that you make a very effective point, and maybe it IS time to do as you say.