Clarence The Angel Was Prescient
By Charles Cole (09/27/03)
In the 1949 movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the film’s main character George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) is visited by his guardian angel (Clarence) who, in order to restore Mr. Bailey’s faith in himself and in mankind, arranges to have God grant Bailey’s wish to “never have been born”.
Clarence then accompanies Bailey on a journey through the latter’s home town. All the places and people are the same, but no one recognizes Bailey. And how could they? After all, he “had never been born”. When asked what in the world was going on, Clarence replies, “You’re going to see a lot of strange things around here from now on”. One wonders whether Clarence hadn’t perhaps taken a peek at the “counterculture” movement of the late 1960’s and its legacy of lunacy in contemporary American society.
During his short-lived run for the presidency, former Senator Phil Gramm used to quip that, if things didn’t begin to turn around, he would one day wake up in a different country than the one in which he had been born. As one who grew up here in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, I have already undergone that experience. The Russians have an interesting turn of phrase to describe our current dilemma: “If God wants to punish a man, all He has to do is take away his common sense”.
Our collective common sense has taken some major hits in the past couple of decades, as recently evidenced by some truly disgusting examples. A federal judge outlaws the presence of a monument honoring God and His commandments on public property, ordering its removal from the Alabama State Supreme Court building. Then a truly obscene monument is placed on public ground, in Capitol Park in Sacramento, California. The monument reads: “In Honor of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Veterans Killed in Action”. Transgendered veterans killed in action?! I’d like the supporters of this monument to cite one case of a “transgendered veteran” being killed in action while wearing the uniform of our military! The very term is a total oxymoron. And, most recently, Madonna appears on national television and proceeds to kiss Britney Spears in a very sexual manner. It seems that each outrage must be outdone by a succeeding example of rank indignation and depravity.
The pompous denials of the “mainstream media” and their allies in academia notwithstanding, what is at work here is the continuing disparagement of traditional western culture and its attendant value system – the ongoing work of the “counterculture” movement of the radical 1960’s and early 1970’s. God is under constant attack, as is the bedrock foundation of the traditional “nuclear” family in America. Unelected federal judges who are not accountable to anyone play their part by enacting their social agenda from the bench.
Another old Russian saying was clearly ignored by the generation of the Clintons and their current fellow travelers: “measure the cloth seven times before cutting it once”. The strangest part of all this is how we – the American public – toil on in our state of zombified slumber, seemingly inattentive to the gathering storm clouds of ruin advancing ever closer toward what has heretofore been the most wonderful country in the world. The God of the Bible is being replaced by contemporary secular “gods”, dutifully and faithfully served by those who skew history and call it “correcting the record”, who view perversion and call it “tolerance”, who witness the Balkanization of America and call it “inclusiveness”, who participate in scams designed to “level the playing field” and call it “social justice”, who tolerate rampant theft from the federal treasury and waste of dollars confiscated from taxpayers and call it “politics as usual”, and who view blatant violation of federal law in the form of the violation of our borders and call it “multicultural diversity”. Sadly, there are many Americans who, in the face of numerous examples of such mendacious hypocrisy, don’t bother voting in elections, claiming that their vote won’t change anything anyway.
William Jefferson Clinton, a genuine icon of the counterculture, placed a total of 367 judges on the federal bench where they will “serve” for life. It should be the solemn duty of every American citizen who respects this nation’s foundational principles and wishes to preserve and defend them for posterity, to study the issues of the day and to participate in the political process by helping to inform others of where candidates and political parties stand in relation to these principles, by voting in every election – federal, state and local – and by encouraging their fellow citizens to do so as well.
Former Senator Alan Simpson used to say, “Politics is a participatory sport – either you take part or you’re going to be taken apart”. Examine your conscience and see if you are doing everything you can to take part in this glorious experiment known as American.
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