I was intrigued by a passage on an article* that quoted Mr. Cruz saying, "'God's blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe God isn't done with America yet...'" Every time I read or hear someone saying God is on our side, I wonder if they truly sense the meaning of their statement. If God is on our side, does that mean he is against the entire rest of the world? Last time I checked we don't even make up one fourth of the population of people on this planet. And yet we feel comfortable enough to say that God is blessing only this small section of the world. If we go by our last president's stance of "You are either with us or you are against us," then lucky for God that he is with us. It seems to me that when we are saying God is on our side, that message is loaded with conditional approval. God is okay as long as things keep going as we want them regardless of what that means. But isn't God omnipotent and omnipresent? Isn't He autonomous, too? Should we not instead say "We are on God's side." Wouldn't that make us subservient to his wishes and whims? It seems to me that that statement is much more accommodating of what God wants whether it benefits us or not. I say leave it up to the big guy. He knows what he is doing.
But back to Ted. I wrote a short story some time ago called "Don't Mess With Ted," That's not relevant, but it sounds funny. In the article from which I got the quote above, Mr. Cruz is said to be raising an army of "Christian conservatives" for his race to the White House to go to the polls and "vote their values." These values, however, are the type of values that exclude certain people like gays and lesbians, Dreamers, refugees, Affordable Healthcare Act recipients, women seeking abortions, the list goes on. Seems to me they are a pretty narrow set of values. Wasn't America founded so that groups could escape religious persecution or the jamming down the throat of one groups' religious values on the others? This small tent vision of America is scary.
This brings me to my poem plug-in (the last of the 5 in the challenge!):
Civilization Petrification
...We close the door to growth when this growth
involves applying the same level of fairness and honesty to the lives of others
who are different than us.
That is death.
That is stagnation.
That is the dry bearing in the wheel
that eventually brings the whole contraption to a screeching halt
then paralyzes it until it is obsolete...
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Ted Cruz is running for the Executive Office of the President. This makes me happy, because like he, I was also born abroad to an American parent. The only difference between us is that I actually have some experience in that capacity: when I played the role of President Lyndon Baines Johnson in a theatre performance. I was actually pretty good at it. That's it, move over because I'm jumping in the race tomorrow! Nah, I'm just messing with you, Ted...
*Check out the article quoted here on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Ted Cruz (Republican from Texas) announced that he is jumping in the race toward the presidency in 2016. Never mind that he was born in Canada. Oops, someone forgot his papers. No, it's not like Obama. He was born in Hawaii, that is, on U.S. territory. Have we annexed Canada yet? I need to check my facts because another thing that is odd about that region is our border with Canada. I hear it's porous like crazy. I wonder if Ted Cruz has advocated much about sealing the border up there? Or deporting Canadian citizens trying to make a living here? Jim Carrey? Nah, he's a good guy. Let him stay.