Tag Archives: Golden Rule

national news

Golden Rule, anyone?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This story almost got past me, but I want to offer a brief response to what I believe is a growing trend among those who feel personally aggrieved by comments delivered by public figures.

Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson reportedly was accosted by a fellow who objected to the blowhard’s comments, presumably about the COVID-19 virus. Carlson was shopping with his family. The guy who berated him I suppose believed that since Carlson speaks to all of us via TV that it’s all right to speak to him in any venue, in any context, at any time.

Wrong! I harken back to the Golden Rule, the item in Scripture that instructs us to treat others as we would want to be treated. Therefore, I venture to suggest that no human being would want to be hassled, harangued and hectored by total strangers even if they are in the public eye spouting public policy.

I am not wired to confront individuals in that fashion. Other public officials have suggested that it’s OK to get in the faces of those who say objectionable things. I believe they are mistaken.

I also believe that everyone — even those in the public eye — are entitled to spend private time with family members.

Don’t lecture me about the First Amendment’s free speech clause. I know what it says and what it means. My reading of it, though, tells me it does not give anyone license to verbally assault other Americans whenever they damn well feel like it.

Let’s show some respect, man.

national news

Still intending to argue vigorously against current POTUS

 

I have declared my preference for civil political discourse over much of what we’re getting today.

My intention is to turn down the volume a tad on High Plains Blogger. I have been challenged to follow the Golden Rule more than I have at times. I apologize for the times I have failed to adhere to the teachings offered in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

I know that Trump doesn’t adhere to the Golden Rule. But you know what? I believe this blog is better than the example that POTUS sets.

All that said, I want to be crystal clear about one important point: I have no intention of letting up in my critique of the current president of the United States.

I still want him out of office. I want him gone at the earliest possible moment. My preference would be — given current circumstances — for the U.S. Senate to convict him in the upcoming trial that senators will conduct; the House of Representatives has impeached Donald Trump on one count of abuse of power and one count of obstruction of Congress.

To my way of thinking, Trump has committed both offenses. He needs to go.

Short of that, I want him out of office no later than Jan. 20, 2021, when the next presidential inaugural takes place. I prefer that someone else would place his or her hand on the Bible to take the oath of office.

I am going to refrain, though, from using some of the snarky language I’ve used too frequently in this blog.

I am acutely aware of the language that Trump uses when denigrating his opponents/critics/enemies. I don’t expect him to direct any of those epithets at me directly, given that I also am aware he likely doesn’t see my rants. That doesn’t give me license to fire off the kind of baloney he uses to insult and degrade others.

Thus, I intend to travel onto a higher road.

However, I intend to remain faithful to my stated desire to do whatever I can to ensure that Donald Trump leaves office much sooner rather than much later.

national news, political news

Oh, yes, and then there’s the Golden Rule

Golden-Rule-1

“Do to others what you want them to do to you. This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.”

Matthew 7:12

Ah, yes. You’ve that said before, yes?

The New Testament of the Bible attributes that admonition to none other than Jesus of Nazareth.

I am extremely nervous melding Scripture with contemporary American politics. But the Golden Rule seems somehow appropriate to mention in this context.

Ted Cruz last night stood before the Republican National Convention and delivered a stem winder of a speech that said almost everything he was expected to say … except for this: “I hereby endorse Donald J. Trump for president of the United States.”

He didn’t go there. And why do you suppose he declined to take that step?

Because of what he described as the “slander” and “defamation” of this wife and father. Trump tweeted that unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz during the primary campaign. Then he implied that Sen. Cruz’s father might have been complicit in President Kennedy’s assassination. Sen. Cruz told the Texas convention delegates this morning that he couldn’t endorse someone who had treated two of his loved ones with such cruelty.

“I am not in the habit of supporting those who attack and slander my wife and my father,” he said.

It’s fair to ask: How do you suppose Donald Trump would react if someone had said anything like that about his father and his wife?

The Golden Rule can be found in many religious contexts, be it Judaism, Hinduism and Islam … in addition to Christianity.

Trump has said he is a “religious person.” Well, someone who knows and follows the teachings provided in the Holy Bible might be aware of what Matthew’s Gospel tells us about how to treat others.

The Golden Rule seems always to take a beating during the heat of a fierce political battle. Politicians say things about their opponents that they never would tolerate from others and none of this is unique to the current campaign.

Trump’s way of tossing out insults and innuendo as weapons against his foes — and against their family members — puts the Golden Rule into sharper-than-usual focus during this election cycle.

I know that critics of this blog will respond with rejoinders about how politicians dating back to the beginning of the Republic have said far worse than what Trump has uttered.

Fine. Bring it on.

However, at this very moment my particular focus is on a major political party’s nominee for the presidency of the United States of America. This man has failed to abide by the Golden Rule.

national news, political news, religious news

Pastor speaks out about Trump

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Max Lucado said the following when asked why he has chosen to speak ill of the leading Republican Party presidential candidate.

The pastor said: “In this case, it’s not so much a question about particular policies or strategies about government or even particular opinions. It’s a case of public derision of people. It’s belittling people publicly. It would be none of my business, I would have absolutely no right to speak up except that he repeatedly brandishes the Bible and calls himself a Christian.”

Bingo, preacher!

The San Antonio pastor has written a blistering critique of Donald J. Trump’s candidacy, telling folks that the leading GOP candidate lacks basic decency.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/february-web-only/why-max-lucado-broke-his-political-silence-for-trump.html?share=8Wdo/u7n2vsdeS8lu12vTFcmUyD6zK//

Trump’s  insults, name-calling, juvenile behavior and utter contempt for others’ sensitivity disqualifies him holding the highest office in the land, Lucado said.

Here is Lucado’s article.

Trump’s fans keep contending that their man “tells it like it is.” They admire his alleged contempt for “political correctness.” They say the political world needs to be shaken up and that, by golly, their guy is the one to do it.

Even if you take away Trump’s acknowledged extramarital affairs, the man is morally unfit for public office, let alone for the office he is seeking.

He denigrates others with cheap shots and snide remarks.

And all the while, he proclaims himself to be a “good Christian.”

Someone needs to guide Trump to the passage in Scripture that talks about the Golden Rule, the one that directs God’s children to treat others they way they would want to be treated.

He would find it in the Old Testament: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18)

Basic decency, man.

 

national news, political news

Trump dishes out another insult … poll standing to rise?

carly

Donald Trump has added another Republican presidential primary rival to his list of personal insult victims.

And, hey … it happens to be the only woman in the field of 17 GOP candidates.

On the receiving end of a Trump insult is Carly Fiorina. Trump decided to make fun of her physical appearance.

“Look at that face,” Trump said. “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” Trump reportedly bellowed while watching his Republican presidential rival on the news. “I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”

OK, here’s the point of this brief post: If the public response follows form, Trump well might see another spike in his poll numbers. That’s how it’s gone for this guy: He says something patently nasty, the victim of the barb responds … and Trump gets a poll boost.

My question now is this: What in the world has become of American voters, most notably Republican Party primary voters who think it’s all right to be personally insulting?

Doesn’t the Golden Rule apply any longer? Do we no longer seek to treat others the way we’d insist that they treat us?

And what about the notion among some of the more conservative voters out there that the United States is a “Christian nation” comprising people of deep faith who are committed to religious principles?

Are these same folks now going to applaud Donald Trump for tossing aside “political correctness”?

 

political news

Anti-PC rhetoric becomes code for rudeness

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political-correctness-school-u-penn-buffalo2

You’ve heard politicians say, “Don’t Mess with Texas.”

They say such things to convey some sort of macho image. The phrase they quote, of course, came into being in the 1980s when the Texas General Land Office sought to call attention to littering.

Not very macho, right?

Politicians today are fond of debunking “political correctness.” Oh, they say, “That’s just so PC. Let’s cut that crap and speak the truth.”

Actually, what I find happening to political correctness is that it’s becoming a punching bag for politicians who think it’s OK to be crass, rude, uncaring or lacking in humanity.

Pay attention, Donald Trump. I’m talking about you.

I agree that political correctness at times can be taken too far. Politically correct speech at times does drive me a bit batty. Maybe the most maddening example of PC language appears under photos of hunters who’ve killed game. The caption might refer to the hunter posing with a beast he or he has just “harvested,” to which I say, “BS, man. You ‘harvest’ cotton or wheat.”

Trump uses the anti-PC dodge whenever the media question the intemperate language he uses to describe his Republican Party primary field opponents. Jeb Bush is a “loser”; Lindsey Graham is an “idiot.”

Yes, some of them have hurled personal insults at Trump, too, but Trump tends to employ the anti-PC dodge as his justification for saying outrageous things about other human beings.

Perhaps politicians ought to think more about the Golden Rule than about whether it’s OK to toss political correctness into the toilet.