Driving down a major highway at night coming off a major mountain range feels like being poured off the edge of the earth. As if you could miss the earth by going so fast and fall off curved edge of our planet, sucked into a forever darkness. The major highway causes higher speed limits than give comfort, and the darkness and curves not to mention wind through passes mean you don’t know what is ahead, except what it says on the map. The speed means you won’t have control long if its wrong, and the downhill is suspected to be a long way down on one or both sides. You can’t afford this fall.
That is faith. Faith that nothing has gone wrong around the next bend, faith that the road continues to banked for high speed as promised, checks and balances in place. I won’t say its faith in God because God might prefer a slowed speed…though assignments from God are doled out often a step at a time, and have that same requirement for faith, and the same feel to them.
That is faith. Faith that nothing has gone wrong around the next bend, faith that the road continues to banked for high speed as promised, checks and balances in place. I won’t say its faith in God because God might prefer a slowed speed…though assignments from God are doled out often a step at a time, and have that same requirement for faith, and the same feel to them.
The coach once told me one of the male racers was so powerful because, beyond being talented and trained, he had the mental fortitude to be able to ride new territory as quickly and courageously as trails he’d been on many times before. Is that courage or recklessness I thought to myself? For the record, the guy lived long enough to retire from racing and get a job for a communications company. Was that courage or luck or well placed faith in skills, map-reading and God?
For my road trip, I eventually slowed down. It was shortly after passing the aftermath of two tractor trailers colliding…that is two professional drivers and they surely did run too close to some limit.
Arriving home and returning to electronics I found I was just in time for the Republican National Convention. Speeches to hear not as heavily reported as the candidate’s include Peter Thiel and Ivanka Trump. However, the bottom line for me was this: Trump is a bull in a china shop. I mean this in the best of ways along with the worst of ways.
We need a bull in a china shop to destroy what Citizen’s United enabled with our current corrupt system. Donald Trump is able to be that wrecking ball because he has the means and the passion to do so. I don’t see anyone else standing up to what I know is real. I might not have been so convinced it was real but the supreme court and congress members are enjoying rewards from lobbyists that would not pass corporate ethics set of rules. Our lawmakers spend all their time raising money. Voting is shut down in ways I thought were limited to third world companies — I saw this first hand in Arizona but it happened many places and it hurt Bernie Sanders, his campaign claimed before they too were bought. Clinton while not criminally prosecuted, was also not cleared. She behaved in ways many corporations would have disciplined her for if not let her go— and we are supposed to promote her? If we do, will we get rid of the system that corrupted her?
The media loved to moan about how the convention shouldn’t have shouted “lock her up” about a professional political opponent. But they weren’t saying it because she was a politician. They were saying it because they perceive wrongdoing. Of course, they were a little one-sided about it. At least one speaker on stage (from my state no less) is also of accused of crimes and I didn’t notice them objecting to him. He’s not guilty yet, maybe? Hmmm.
And yet, globally we may not be able to afford a bull in a china shop. Trump showed he can appear presidential long enough to deliver a wonderful speech, and pick a tried and true running mate. He promised great television and he delivered, giving Cruz enough rope to hang himself in front of all of us — talking about principle but not living the very principles he was espousing by going rogue himself after voters have spoken. Then Trump took to twitter and worked tarnishing what he’d built, wrecking relationships that could withstand a more traditional fight…can the Secret Service take his twitter feed away and make us safe from the side effects of a Trump presidency?
No. We will not be safe. The existing agreements are meant to lead to flat world, appealing because each human is an image bearer of God and valuable. But the world was never flat. Our system has succeeded because of discipline and principles, principles like the rule of law at the heart of which is our constitution. These principles are being torn apart by Citizen’s United and egregious corporate profits. Corporations leverage the cheap labor and resources in other countries while retaining high prices for the countries losing jobs— pocketing the difference, and there was nothing to stop them. Current policies have not made the world flat, but they have made corporations exceedingly wealthy. To be a domestic bull in a china shop will necessarily mean being a global bull in a china shop.
Trump has taken on the world as we know it. The establishment and his political opponents would make us think it means the end of the world and war, and I doubt that. But rest assured it will be the end of government finance and USA’s global role in trade as we know them, in order to produce more decent paying jobs here. But can we afford the wrecked relationships on a global scale that seem to come as collateral damage?
Trump might learn not to take to twitter…he MIGHT. He MIGHT not. He has till November…
I am an undecided voter, and am still thinking through exactly how fast we can afford to drive down the highway ahead. You think too.
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