Chatter

by Ed Evans

Far too much power is being given to those in society who have not earned it, nor have they been elected to it. When that happens, history shows abuse of power ensues.

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There is so much beauty and joy in this world that it's about time we all stop abusing the grace of the very God who created us and look around to see what we can do for someone else. "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." -- Hebrews 13:2

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A people who walk away from God cannot hire enough police. If your thoughts, your intentions, your actions are not based in Godly love, you're just sowing sand in the wind.  Dig deeper.

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Benjamin Franklin's words keep coming back to me, responding, when asked what kind of government he and his fellow patriots had decided upon, "A Republic, if you can keep it."  It's not enough to simply enjoy America's hard-won freedoms, we must stand up and defend them at every challenge, or our sons and daughters, our grandchildren, will not have the ground to stand upon for any such defense.

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In the midst of racial discord, a seeming continual disruption in American politicians and economies, It would seem we are tripped up by our own history of language, abetted by human emotional response patterns. If you research the word "Caucasian" you find that as a race Caucasians don't exist, and when that word was used in the early 1800s for deciding who could and could not be a citizen of the U.S., it included North Africans, and Europeans of "color". And each early designation of "race" was based upon skin color. Today, we look at skin color and attribute certain general traits, i.e., this race can't be trust not to steal, that race eats cats and dogs, another race puts stock only in power. But it all comes down to emotional triggers. Once Caucasian was assumed to be the primary image of God as He created us. If we could only get past those emotional triggers and realize we are ALL created by God, racial differences would have no meaning. It becomes powerless.

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Sooner or later, when we talk about improving the world and the people in it, someone will ask, “ What do we do with the ones who don't graduate, who are already criminals by the time they are 18, are grossly overweight and can't do anything, or who are dopers?

The facts are that if you willingly swim to the bottom of the gene pool, sooner or later you take yourself out. Not that we shouldn’t care about those people, but this world doesn't want to be saved. It wants only to be loved, and that's how we save it, but that's another path.

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Recently received an interesting invitation to a fundraiser for a local women’s healthcare clinic.  For a price you could join a growing group of men (and women) who loved to smoke cigars aboard the General Jackson riverboat while plying up and down the Cumberland River.

Love cigars, even though I'm not supposed to smoke 'em.  Seems odd they would propose a fund drive with cigars that could clog up your breathing apparatus amidst CVID-19.

I'm the founder and still a member of the Tigris River Cigar Club.  In Iraq, all of us working late in Saddam Hussein's third wife's castle on the Tigris River, we would take a cigar break at 8 p.m., go out and stand on the dock and light up.  The enemy would shoot at us from across the river, and we would puff heartily and watch the bullets plop in the water about 10-20 feet out.

The one-star general in charge of our 60-man/woman Restore Iraqi Electricity group demanded we wear flak jackets out there.  We invited him out, supplied him with several Churchilll cigars.  He came out, lit up, and watched the bullets plop in the water.  Finally, he said, "Let's take these things off."  After that we were officially the Tigris River Cigar Club and all sorts of dignitaries wanted to come out and smoke with us.  Fortunately, I'd written the Marine MGySgt. Mafia (an unofficial designation for some select friends), and those boys had sent me boxes of Churchilll cigars with the specific orders to "Burn 'em!"

Once back in the states, Merilyn ordered me to "knock it off!"  But I could always get away with a good cigar once a week while I mowed the "back 40" with my rider mower.  Now we live with a postage stamp lawn and no chance for a seegar.  But the membership plaque still hangs proudly in my den.  It still has the scent of a good Romeo y Julieta stogie.  Ahhh the memories. 

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Wisdom is to the right; foolishness is to the left.  Ecclesiastes 10:2, "A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left."

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If we are open about it, then we know and just admit that our worst acts come from inside of us, not from outside agents.  Difficult to accept.  But the medicine never did taste good.  Mark 7:20-23 tells us the worst of us comes from inside us, not from the outside. We want to blame the repugnant acts of others on some outside force; surely that doesn't come from inside us. Hard news, bitter taste, but our Jesus makes it sweet again. He knows us better than we do. Thank God.

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Response to those Marines going through depression, fighting off suicidal thoughts, feeling alone ----

I'm 79 years old, Devil Dog. Did 30 years, saw four battlefields. You are never, never alone, but just know for many of us it never goes away. The most important things we did in our lifetime were in uniform, when you knew who had your back. Today there must be a million I'm in contact with, some of whom I may not hear from but twice a year. But we don't forget. We don't leave any behind. It's a challenge, but it's a challenge you are up for. You were trained that way. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. You can do this. You're doing it. So keep reaching out to others. They need to hear from you. Semper Fi!