Things To Consider

Covid-19 Deaths in the USA

American Rescue Plan

Last Evening, February 22, 2021 our President delivered an emotional and appropriate tribute to Remember the 500,000 deaths in the U.S.A. during the last year caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic.  As a President who also promotes himself as a member of the Roman Catholic Faith this tribute was not only fitting, but also very proper.  Additionally he focused on the Family Members who survived.  Again very appropriate and very proper.

Out President also promoted the "American Rescue Plan" as the essential program to bring America back to Normal so that we can look ahead with anticipation to a time when there is no more Covid-19 Pandemic and also eliminating the variants we have heard so much about in recent weeks.  The projected price tag on his American Rescue Plan is reported to be 1.9 Trillion Dollars.  

When I checked the potential organizations that would receive this "emergency funding" to rid our Nation of the Covid-19 Pandemic I learned that $50,000,000.00 was earmarked for "Family Planning."  My first question to myself was is this phrase "Family Planning" a code word/phrase for "Planned Parenthood?"  Of course there many more projects in the American Rescue Plan that are not even indirectly related to elimination of the Covid-19 Pandemic such as a rail scheme for Silicone Valley or a bridge project in upstate New York.  There are many more but I highlight these two to point out the folly our Duly Elected Leaders are putting into the American Rescue Plan to enhance their re-election chances.  Enough about these "follies!"

Of course the loss of 500,000 lives is a tragic situation that should cause concern for each of us living in the USA.  Our President deserves a "Well Done!" for this event.

Now for a concern that has troubled myself and I am also confident that many fellow citizens are also concerned.  Did you know that according to the Guttmacher Institute  there were 862,320 abortions performed in our Great Nation in 2017?

Yet, while the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic is the focus of the News Media each and every day we seldom hear of the number of abortions performed in our Nation each day.  Some of these abortions are surgical and others are induced with a pill.  The end result is the same.  The tragic death of a future Citizen of the U.S.A.

Some how our President and even some duly elected lawmakers who profess to be of the Roman Catholic Faith choose to ignore our God's Fifth Commandment which is "Thou Shall Not Kill!"

While I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Faith, I do believe that Our God is awesome God and I am a Follower of Jesus Christ who I know is My Savior.  I consider myself a "Child of God" who also is a Sinner on a Daily Basis.  

So I present this Blog Post today for You to consider!  We are saddened by the tragic loss of lives due to Covid-19 and as a Society we overlook the Tragic Loss of Lives by the thousands each year because "abortion" is a right" in our U.S.A.  

I submit that it is time for us to focus on our Nation's Problems/Concerns which include the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic but actions which promote the Health and Safety of us all, including the unborn need to be investigated and God Fearing Laws and Regulations enacted, enforced and appreciated for the long term benefit of our Great Nation!  Thank You!!

You may be wondering why the picture at the start of this Blog.  When I was a child I was afraid of the ground and the only way I could be placed outside was to be in a basket.  I do not recall, however I recall being told in later years  that one day the basket became overbalanced because of my own actions and I quickly learned that the ground would not harm me.

Maybe we now need to learn that we are in this together and we need to be correctly concerned about all of our Society, including the unborn!!

Time to get out of the basket and get on with life for each of us!!

 

Our U. S. House of Representatives is Perfect!! 

Recently our U. S. House of Representatives stripped a newly elected Representative from the State of Georgia of her Committee Assignments because of statements/conversations/social media post she did prior to her election!

I am content that our House Representatives from our entire USA are perfect.  

I have a memory from my Youth when I attended Sunday School of a man named Saul.  Our God conducted a dramatic conversion of Saul as he was traveling to Damacus to execute Followers of Jesus Christ.  

According to experts who research this type of events this most likely happened AD 34-37.   The above picture is from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, USF.  This is recorded in Acts Chapter 9.

After this event we know that his name was "Saint Paul" and he worked hard and wrote many letters which are now contained in our Holy Scripture.

As we look forward to Holy Week 2021 and Easter we hear once again how a Disciple named Peter denied Jesus Christ three times and yet we have the Headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, Italy named after this Disciple.  I am also aware that both of these individuals were selected by God to grow his Kingdom here on Earth.  They were forgiven of their prior "Sins."

I own this picture and it is from My visit to Rome in the late 1960s.

As I stated in the opening of this Post, I am content that our U. S. has Members that are perfect.  So you may be wondering why I post this Blog entry.  We as believers and many in our Congress and White House profess that they are also believers in Jesus Christ - Why is it difficut to forgive Marjorie Taylor Greene of the errors of her ways when she was younger.

As I review my copy of The Lord's Prayer I read:

"Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."  I take this quote seriously.  It is recorded in Holy Scripture - Matthew 6: 9-13.  Thank You.

 The 1619 Project

Information to consider before we allow Public Education to support this focus on our Countries History.

The 1619 Project.  Information which I gleaned from Wikipedia.

The 1619 Project is a controversial historical revisionism project developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine which "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the United States' national narrative".^[1] The project was first published in The New York Times Magazine in August 2019 for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in England's Virginia colony.^[2] The project later included a broadsheet article, live events, and a podcast.^[3]

^{However the same Wikipedia article had this to publish about when enslaved Africans arriving in America:}

Background[edit]

The 1619 Project was launched in August 2019 to commemorate "the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved people arriving" in North America.^[17][18] However, the first enslaved African people arrived in North America in 1526.^[19] Slavery in North America extends to before the arrival of Europeans^[20] and European slavery in the New World is documented as far back as Columbus in 1494, possibly as early as 1493.^[21] In 1619, African slaves arrived in the Colony of Virginia. A ship carrying 20–30 people who had been enslaved by a joint African-Portuguese war^[22] on Ndongo in modern Angola, landed at Point Comfort in the colony of Virginia.^[17][23]

My Understanding of this 1619 Project:  I understand that facts and opinions may not always agree.  The timing of the launch of the 1619 Project for me is questionable when facts bear out that 1619 was not the first time enslaved Africans were brought to America.  The opinion/s of the 1619 author remain just that – opinions.

My additional comments:  It appears to me that we have some among us who choose to ignore why our Country was founded.  For me the Declaration of Independence makes it very clear.  Our Founders desired to start a New Nation that allowed all to have Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  Unfortunately the human condition of greed, which I call a sin, prevented many from enjoying our Freedoms.  Just as sin entered the Human Situation when the first couple ate the wrong apple and the first kids took envy to the point where one killed the other.  I am confident that everyone knows of these events.  No reason to change history here, yet we have that Author of the 1619 Project attempting to change facts as they have been recorded.  Opinions for the individual who develops them are valid for that individual only, unless others jump on the bandwagon.  However opinions should never be the basis of a national movement.

While it is a fact that the condition of slavery lasted longer than it should have, because it should have never been allowed to flourish at all; we must accept the fact that it did.  Why?  Because of the Human Condition which I discussed above – Greed or as I consider it “Sin!”

To appreciate the History of Education in our Country I know that it is essential that consideration be given to the events of 1927 when a Trial was held.  I know that Judges and Courts issue Opinions.  That is a fact, however I know that I and My anchestors as well as my own dear children and their offspring did not evolve from an ameobe swimming ashore on some beach many years ago.  

Here is what I gleaned from Wikipedia on that famous trial which also generated an opinion:

The Scopes Trial in 1927 – Religion versus Evolution

 

Until the late 19th century, creation was taught in nearly all schools in the United States, often from the position that the literal interpretation of the Bible is inerrant. With the widespread acceptance of the scientific theory of evolution in the 1860s after being first introduced in 1859, and developments in other fields such as geology and astronomy, public schools began to teach science that was reconciled with Christianity by most people, but considered by a number of early fundamentalists to be directly at odds with the Bible.

In the aftermath of World War I, the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy brought a surge of opposition to the idea of evolution, and following the campaigning of William Jennings Bryan several states introduced legislation prohibiting the teaching of evolution. Such legislation was considered and defeated in 1922 in Kentucky and South Carolina, in 1923 passed in Oklahoma, Florida, and notably in 1925 in Tennessee, as the Butler Act.^[1] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) offered to defend anyone who wanted to bring a test case against one of these laws.^[1] John T. Scopes accepted, and he started teaching his class evolution, in defiance of the Tennessee law. The resulting trial was widely publicized by H. L. Mencken among others, and is commonly referred to as the Scopes Trial.

Scopes was convicted; however, the widespread publicity galvanized proponents of evolution.

When the case was appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Court overturned the decision on a technicality (the judge had assessed the fine when the jury had been required to). Although it overturned the conviction, the Court decided that the law was not in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court held:

We are not able to see how the prohibition of teaching the theory that man has descended from a lower order of animals gives preference to any religious establishment or mode of worship. So far as we know there is no religious establishment or organized body that has its creed or confession of faith any article denying or affirming such a theory. — John Thomas Scopes v. The State 154 Tenn. 105, 289 S.W. 363 (1927)^[2]

The interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment up to that time was that Congress could not establish a particular religion as the State religion. Consequently, the Court held that the ban on the teaching of evolution did not violate the Establishment Clause, because it did not establish one religion as the "State religion." As a result of the holding, the teaching of evolution remained illegal in Tennessee, and continued campaigning succeeded in removing evolution from school textbooks throughout the United States.^[3][4][5]

 Conclusion of this Post:  Admittedly our Society which includes our Government and "We the People" have committed errors/greed/sin in the past and will continue to do so, however that understood we must focus on improving our Society with appreciating History and the founding Principles rather than relying on opinions which are generally known as the result of personal greed, or sin; or simply ignorning the facts.

As I have heard very often in recent days:  "We must focus on and seek Unity in our United States of America!"

Thank You!