RBWords - Volume 29 - Number 9: September 2016
Something to Think About
RBWORDS - VOLUME 29 - NUMBER 9 - SEPTEMBER 2016
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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
I watched the first of the debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump last night and came away exhausted and uninformed. I dread the next two and hope the one between the vice-presidential candidates will be better. One thing I did note and have noted about this campaign is that very little is being said by the two major candidates about the fact that all their promises depend on convincing majorities in the two houses of Congress to go along with them. Right now, the paralysis in Congress is so bad that I doubt they could agree on the weather outside the capitol building. The paralysis in the Senate has resulted in a diminished Supreme Court because somehow the majority has convinced themselves that the public has a vote of some sort in this matter. I feel badly for Judge Garland, who has been nominated and should be more than acceptable to the Senate. His misfortune is to have been nominated by President Obama. Had it been President Bush, Judge Garland would be taking a place on that august bench this October. (I don't know him, but Garland was my mother's maiden name!) Another curious fact seems to be that local folks don't blame THEIR Representative or Senator for the paralysis! It's those OTHER characters who are to blame. So, in most cases the same person is returned. In others, things get a bit more comical. In my home state of Louisiana, 24 people are running in the open primary for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by David Vitter.
The "balance of powers" built into our political constitution was meant to be dynamic and not static, but right now it is so static that only a real revolt by the voters is going to change things. The two current major candidates promise us a lot of theater but not much bread and butter. It is a time for prayer. IT'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
IT HAS BEEN SAID:
"Souls are not introduced to a range of mountains through the courtesy of a definition. Our goal, then, must not be to find a definition, but to learn how to sense, how to intuit the will of God in the words. The essence of intuition is not in grasping what is describable but in sensing what is ineffable. The goal is to train the reason for the appreciation of that which lies byond reason. It is only through our sense of the ineffable that we may intuit the mystery of revelation."
from GOD IN SEARCH OF MAN by Abraham Joshua Heschel
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