Is this a great country or what?

“A lot of swearing going on" 

 

            One morning last week, Kay encroached upon my sense of solitude in order to ask, “Should I put honey or jelly on my toast?”

            Why would she ask such a question? I suppose it’s because her husband is a control freak and she must clear everything with him. -- Excuse me a second. – “No, Darling, my wallet is on the cabinet, next to the Keurig. Please leave me enough to tip the Sonic girl.”

            Where was I? Yes, honey or jelly? I didn’t want to complicate the stupidity—uh, the simplicity of the question, so I said, “Use honey, Honey.”

            During my next sip of coffee, Kay said, “But, I had honey last time.” Whoa. Here we have a case where a husband makes a decision before doing any research. I had paid no attention to Kay’s previous selection of toast spread. So, I had nothing on which to base my answer other than my own particular preference, which would’ve been butter. However, butter, not being offered as a choice, I went with honey. I got it wrong.

            By the way, Kay was merely playing along with my habit of coming up with stupid questions for her, last one being, “Who would win in a fight between Batman and Flash?” Before answering, Kay carefully weighed the abilities of each superhero. She said, “Is Batman George Clooney or Ben Afleck?”

            Illogic drives me right up the wall. I told Kay that the Batman character is the same, regardless of who plays the part. And that Flash could undress Batman, then run to a Walmart in Tornonto, come back and dress the Cape Crusader in Batman pajamas, eliminating his access to his little metal bat throwing things, or bullet deflecting gloves or anything that could protect him.

            Now, Kay just gave us an example of someone using an irrelevant truth on which to base her opinion, which begs the question, where am I going with all of this? Deep, my friend. From the toast-thought to the depths of political-thought.

            For most of our lives, we’ve been witness to decisions made and opinions formed by people (like us) who don’t know all of the truths surrounding a given situation. A close friend of mine agreed to spend Super Bowl weekend with us just so I’d have someone to watch the game with. He had sworn off pro-football because of some players kneeling during the National Anthem. They’re making millions of dollars, yet have the gall to show their disrespect for the greatest country in the world.

            Even though football season is over, the anger persists, and the hue and cry is for something to be done so the behavior doesn’t show itself again.

            I must say that any demonstration in our country over issues, real or imagined, should give us increased pride in this country of ours. After all, a million or so Americans have fought and died to secure our right of peaceful protest. Today there are several million American citizens and non-citizens, whom, after having sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United State, are out there right now doing just that.

            That’s the only thing federal workers must swear or affirm -- to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Not, the nation, its people, our churches, our immigrants or our institutions. Just the Constitution, because in defending and protecting the oldest working Constitution on earth, they are protecting every person in this nation right now the right of life, liberty and property.

            The Presidential  oath is a little different in that he also swears to “preserve” the Constitution. Congress doesn't have to “preserve” anything, however they must swear to protect, defend and “support” the Constitution. A lot of swearing going on in the halls of government.

            In doing so, our government officials are assuring the rights of all of us to peacefully demonstrate against any governmental action or inaction. I’m not saying there will be no repercussion for demonstrating. Your employer might fire you for demonstrating, but he will need to show a federal judge that he has a Constitutional right to do so, and the Supreme Court can change the judge’s ruling if it feels it was wrongly rendered.  More than likely you’ll lose a few friends who don’t agree with your stance on an issue.

            Regardless, continue to boycott football. And, if you have a suspicion that Starbucks is trying to steal Christmas from you by not using cups with the proper colors, boycott ‘em!  Persecute the daylights out of ‘em, but please, do it in a godly manner.

            Bottom line, after researching the truth surrounding something that we view as unacceptable, we have the right to be angry, to share our anger and to raise a big stink against whatever we see as wrong. But, perhaps we should also take a moment to recognize the wisdom of our founding fathers in preventing our government from taking action against those who legally demonstrate their displeasure in the way things are run.

            We each have the right to voice our grievances. We can demonstrate against some of the actions or inaction of our government officials, and we have the right to demonstrate against those who are demonstrating. Is this country great or what! – And, to think, this all started with a question about toast. 

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Mark can be contacted at hayter.mark@gmail.com.