[Vhfcn-l] Please consider

[Gary Thewlis]

Sorry to be slow reacting – as a couple of you also commented email delivery
seems to be a bit impacted at present. Late yesterday I received all the
VHFCN traffic for this week to include my own musings posting from early
Monday.

 

I do agree that politics and, yes, religion, are poor subjects for debate
and contention. Faith is not an argument, not something to “wave in my face”
if I recall the comment correctly. I do think faith plays more than a small
part in politics these days, hence the grouping.

 

"but to save so much that is, frankly, under siege.”

 

What I am trying to say without triggering just reflex responses is what
seems to me to be the proactive degradation to dismantlement of the
constitution and government. I do not think this is brand new, nor do I
think it is the “fault” of one side alone. But that “trend”, if you will, is
no longer within the boundaries of established and accepted behavior where
power is concerned. I believe that established, accepted, and respected
behavior by all helps insure dialogue and compromise can best achieve actual
representative results. We the people are disappearing, while us the right
and them the wrong is ascendant. 

 

Maybe I am Mr. Smith Goes to Washington naïve.

 

I recall Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent, wherein an attack on one
Congressman was ultimately countered with bipartisan rejection. I also
recall a John Kennedy speech where he declared that both Republicans and
Democrats were equally patriotic, the differences being in how they did
things. 

 

But I am starting to rant, right? And that will achieve nothing.

 

What I do ask is please look at what is happening with a long lens, looking
back as well as forward. And think about consequences, mot just results. 

 

Again, trying to avoid trigger points, I worry about:

 

*	Temporary or “acting” secretaries of major government agencies
without congressional approval
*	The weaponized use of social media
*	The role of news media
*	The apparent abdication of the Senate
*	The unprecedented retention of financial interests by this president
during tenure and its attendant appearance if not reality of conflict with
the responsibilities of office
*	The frank and ongoing attacks on voting rights everywhere
*	And, perhaps most telling, the lack of leadership needed now to
combat covid-19

 

 

There is much more, but still trying to avoid conflict.

 

Headed for the bunker now






..

 

Gary Thewlis