Sheryl Crow, the popular singer who I once trashed for murdering “Begin the Beguine” in De-Lovely, the biopic of Cole Porter (she did, she did), tangled with Karl Rove at a White House correspondents’ dinner the other night and it was ugly. “Don’t touch me,” Rove said. I can see a couple of Secret Service agents rushing to Ms Crow and tackling her, throwing her roughly to the turf. It wouldn't be pretty. I'd hate to see it. This lady turns out to be a good kid, a patriot, like the Dixie Chicks.
We did it. We gave Karl his power and protection. We the people -- in the voting booth -- at least enough of us did -- empowered this guy by giving the man that he handles the illusion that he had a "mandate" after that man squeaked by in the last presidential election. "We have met the enemy and he is us," saith Albert Alligator. We're to blame for the quagmire we're in.
Here's one more comment about Kurt Vonnegut because it applies to what I've been writing about. David Hoppe, Associate/Arts Editor for NUVO in Vonnegut's hometown of Indianapolis (dear old Nap Town), said this in a tribute:
"Many people, even admirers, persist in calling Kurt Vonnegut cynical. I’ve never understood this. A cynic believes the truth doesn’t matter. If going to war suits him, he’ll make up reasons for doing it and to hell with the consequences. A cynic believes the only real crime is getting caught. (My italics.)
"Truth, or at least our efforts to try and figure out what that means, always mattered to Mr. V. What he’d seen of human behavior made him a pessimist about the future we’re making for ourselves. But this was also a man who, upon hearing of the almost inconceivably simultaneous deaths of his sister and her husband, responded by adopting three of their children.
“'There’s only one rule I know of babies,' he wrote. 'God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.'” Jesus could have said that, God damn it.
I saw a Hallmark movie last night that made me cry, God damn it. It was titled Crossroads: A Story of Forgiveness. Dean Cain (that's Clark Kent in Lois and Clark) is a husband and father who has his wife and daughter killed by a speeding teenager. He goes about getting the youngster prosecuted. Then he goes about forgiving the young man. It was really touching.
That forgiveness. Lord, we need more of it in this world, right now, like love, sweet love. "Go thou and sin no more." Oh if we could all just be confronted and then hear those words from the Big Guy. God have mercy on us. Amen.
3 comments:
What is it with your propensity to take God's name in vain? I'm not trying to say that I'm better than you, because I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I'm just puzzled as to why you would constantly do that. Is it to tell the world that I'm baaaad?
I too saw the movie last night that you referred to. I was interested in it because of the aspect of forgiveness since I recently did a study on forgiveness and also because the man who was the basis for this story was from the Tampa Bay area. Watch "Tsotsi." I would like your reaction to the subject of decency portrayed in this movie.
Thanks for your comment, Donna. I will see "Tsotsi" as soon as I can to be conversant with you on it. It seems to have had a profound effect on you. As I said, I was moved to tears by the pathos.
And I believe that what the man did to forgive the youngster was absolutely right. I almost had cold chills when Dean Cain and the actual man he portrayed came on at the end of the movie and it was revealed that this was not a screenwriter's fantasy but the experience of real people. Sometimes I'd like to hope that God is good, that he is not itching to condemn us for our sins and send us to hell for all eternity, and that instead he really is working his will for good in this world. Such stories give me hope.
I've said that I oppose capital punishment because killing him (or her) who has killed your loved one will not bring the loved one back. Two wrongs will never, ever make a right.
Today, passing by the road where that horrible torture-murder of the 12-year-old girl happened a decade ago, I recalled what monsters the girls who killed her were. Yet I do not agree with the ugly, hateful attitude that Shanda's mother displayed toward the killers. She said she wanted them to "rot in hell."
Maybe instead they could be redeemed some day. Exterminating them would never allow for that. Taking their life too would be God's call, not ours.
I still recall reading somewhere in C.S. Lewis that when Jesus told Peter he must forgive "70 X 7," that would be for the same offense.
I wish I could live up to such grace.
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