Level Ground

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Can an infinite number of chimps on an infinite number of keyboards pound out a post that doesn’t accuse everyone else of being a $&#%-ing Nazi?

Probably not.

The problem with social media is that it isn’t.

…social.

Whoever you know online, you don’t know. And whoever knows you only online, you don’t want to know.

An essential ingredient missing from any community is communication. Oh, sure… everyone’s talking. And talking at once. But no one’s listening.

Another is unity.

Back in the day, some found evil lurking in the analog grooves of long playing vinyl. And everyone laughed.

Today, evil has evolved into digital hashtags. Cultural vandals hide behind anonymous screen handles and fake profiles to taunt, terrorize, and torch the world around them into either conforming cliques or fractured factions. But no one’s laughing.

There’s a price to be paid for distant socializing.

Even before the zombie apocalypse, the anti-social skipped out on everyday life; content to virtually exist in the very unreal community of online shopping, contactless banking, and app’d pizza.

…leaving everyone else to foot the bill for their hostility and incivility. Yeah, keep the change.

Or maybe our modern evil is air conditioning.

Dead to the world behind flat screens and palm idols, our neighbors could be beamed-up by wayward aliens and no one would even notice the gathering pile of unforwardable mail.

Not that anyone really has neighbors anymore – just people who live next door. The rest of the world is just …there. Don’t have to talk to them, don’t have to listen, and don’t have to care.

So, from our climate controlled bubble mobiles, we cuss out other lane cutting idiots in terms we’d never confess face to face.

We bless the Father and give the finger to our fellow man, then wonder why Dial A Prayer goes straight to voicemail.

When Sunday dawns, off we go to worship with our fellow man.

…sorta.

Rather than community gatherings, too many services have gone tribal – segregating believers by dialect, hue, or flavor of Gospel.

Everyone else is sleepin’ in.

Or gettin’ down at The Mega Mall of Religious Convenience with this week’s Imax message, free mega-watt concert, and (of course) the Bagel Hour of Power – religiously totin’ that source of light and inspiration for all mankind:

  • iPhone preloaded with iBible: $1500.
  • Red-letter’d Hardcopy backup [option not selected]: $15.
  • Forgetting to remove iPhone before getting iBaptized: Priceless

You may own the phone but Apple owns the app. And when the ‘net nannies sanitize your portal “to save your soul”, God’s Word is… Gone with the Wind.

Perhaps the Gospel’d be better served if all these churchy monopolies were busted-up like Ma Bell.

…into smaller community assemblies, where everybody knows your name: White clapboard framed stained glass, the fragrance of hardwood, and King James.

…and they’re always glad you came.

There’s warmth in a man’s hand and truth in his reflection. And you take him at his word, because long before the country thought bandanas were cool, “Do unto others…” was the rule.

That’s right… take a good look around – this is what “unity” looks like in a Fruity Pebble’d utopia.

Racial arsonists may preach diversity and sing of rainbows, but their hearts are purely monochromatic. And like Pringles tumbling from a can, pitchforks and bullhorns in hand, they seek to destroy everything that offends them – everything that is not them: Columbus Day, Chik-fil-A, The Dukes of Hazzard… .

Robespierre preached unity through revolution. And he used the French Lives Matter mob to destroy non-believers …in the name of unity. In the end, the mob destroyed Robespierre.

Yeah… some lives matter. Some lives matter more than others. Welcome to the farm, animals.

Diversity doesn’t make us stronger. Just different.

Strength is found on level ground: Stars and Stripes, Balls and Strikes, the Flintstones… .

But there will be no unity until the closed fist is replaced by an open hand. And no peace until the unrepentant pardon the unforgiven.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

Gathered beneath the steeple, everyone has a neighbor. And y’know… it’s hard to feud with folk who share your hymnbook.

Cowboy boots and sandals
Tailored suits and pony tails

…but there’s a baggage check at the altar.

Come as you are. Don’t leave the way you came.


Free Parking
“Ride it like you stole it.” Thomas Paine (sorta)  Well… he might have said it, had he opened a novelty t-shirt outlet.

Let’s Eat Grandma
Hold up on that blue haired buffet, we need a quick powwow with the shoot eating panda.

R is for Redskins

Not for rose. But what’s in a name?

A shadow vaults a fortress wall then steals silently through a forbidden grove to the castle of his enemy. On a moonlit balcony unaware, a fair maiden appears. She speaks:

“O Melvin, Melvin, wherefore art thou Melvin?”  Melvin & Juliet – Scene 2 Act 2

Of course, Shakespearean purists will be quick to critique: Juliet wasn’t asking where Melvin was but why he was.

Melvin.

…which he wasn’t.

To thine own self be true but his one true love hated his name though not him, or so she claimed. So, was it any wonder that her romantic misplay “Refuse thy name!” ended in tragedy.

What’s in a name? Would an overall’d farm lad straw hat and cap gun, sneak into a Saturday matinee double-play featuring Marion Morrison in Soggy Oatmeal followed by Not Jane Russell and the Rather Harmless Man?

That’ll be the day, pilgrim.

If a rose were an elephant, would you really want a dozen? What if they were Redskins? or what if Moses supposes his toes were roses… ♬

Opinions ain’t a Hollywwood musical. In a free society, All the world’s a stage and offending someone is inevitable, maybe necessary. The First Amendment not only protects free speech but guarantees unpopular speech, which begs the question…

Amendment XXVIII: What Right doth Thou have to be Offended?

Constitutional arsonists defiantly deny the downright declarations inked in the Bill of Rights, insisting on silly stuff like… you can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. But what if there is a fire in the theater? or worse, what if there are…

“Redskins!”

Or what if you just need some devious diversion to rescue other hapless husbands from an evening worse than shakesperean death (…which might be preferable once they’re all discovered down at Mel’s Grill & Ale with a wench in one hand and a pint in the other.)

But with a charred wonderbra in one hand and a nutcracker in the other, society’s Juliets set out to cancel everything that offends them – everything that is not them:

Columbus day
Chik-Fil-A
The Dukes of Hazzard

And without the consent of the fans of Major League Baseball, the Cleveland (no longer the…) Injuns now suit up as dreaded Guardians – door-t’door insurance salesmen striking fear in the hearts of harried housewives everywhere.

What a bunch of pussies we’ve become.

But blinded by their own contempt, the unhinged pink pussyhat brigade failed to also censor the home of the franchise formerly known as the Redskins (a name which is actually older than the team itself) which honors the original white male himself – the one and only redskin-fighting Father of our Nation.

Guess now they’ll hafta move.

The Cowboys will be next – soon to be rebranded as The Beta Male Livestock Managers, followed by the Tampa Bay Semi-Aquatic Wealth Redistributors.

Approved rules package for the new NFL season:

• No tackling without permission
• Quarterbacks will be uniformed in pastel pleated mini-skirts
• Half of winning score differentials credited to each losing un-winning team

…resulting in – you guessed it (and fractions).

The woke League ought to grow a pair and recoin all their teams according to the fantasy protocols found in backroom bars and poolhalls. Something like…

Flaming Rat Breath Snot Nosed Puss Picking Belly-Button Lint Lickers.

…or the new Jets. (Oh, c’mon – this is football: Wear a helmet!)

If changing your name doesn’t change your identity but you change your identity anyway, maybe you should just go ahead and change your name: The National Hm-hmm League – yet another Shakesperean tragedy.

Yeah… the truth hurts.
The truth nobody wants to hear is hate.

But names don’t hate. Hate is not a logo, a monument, or a flag painted on an orange car. Hate is heart issue – yours. You are what you see in others. And when everything you see is hate, hate is everything you see.

So there can be no Redskins, no Dilbert, no Blazing Saddles – not until the closed fist is replaced by an open heart…

The Golden Rule
a few Beatitudes
and Love thy Neighbor

The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

Juliet may have been right about one thing: The Redskins by any other name will still be smelly.


X is for Christmas
If your neighbors accused you of being a Jesus freak, would there be enough evidence in your seasonal display to convict?

Dear Diary
Day 1: Hello, I must be going! I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be going… ♬