America Dividing into Good versus Evil

I remember when I was young during the Vietnam era and beyond we were constantly warned of the evil of communism, Anti-Christian beliefs and the overall bad in the world and the dangers of allowing it to grow. I remember watching a film at church that depicted what it would be like in America if communism took over. How the government would treat the people as if they were slaves, torture and control them. How this would usher in the coming of the Anti-Christ and the mark of the beast. It scared me to death being an eight to ten year old boy trying to wrap this image around my brain. I remember hearing uncles and neighbors, the older men of the day who actually fought in World War II rebuke the Hippies and Anti-war crowd calling them all manners of names filled with disrespect and contempt. Of course, I thought at that time a Hippie was someone who wore long hair and didn’t bathe much so I kept that as a mental image. Those older men I admired would tell stories of these Hippies being draft dodgers and cowards or simply communist. I had no idea what these words really meant other than I thought they didn’t love America and would rather protest the war than to fight in it. I also remember myself fantasizing about being a soldier fighting in Vietnam along side the Army and Marines. In my little heart then I felt I had the courage to fight for my country. I remember trying to understand some of these concepts that preachers would warn about how the world was becoming evil and that one day the bible would be illegal to read or own. They would always say that Christians would have to go underground to worship God in America one day. In my little simple mind I would always think of how we would have to dig tunnels underground to have church and worship. I didn’t understand the wording used but I understood well what they were saying meant that if you believed in God you would be in danger and would have to hide to worship. Now that I am 43 years old, I often find myself thinking that America and its people have lost sight of God and his principles and the love of country that I once knew. Do I pretend to be perfect? By no means am I saying that, I can be a champion sinner at times. But even when I sin I know what I am doing is wrong. I possess the ability to know wrong from right. Over the course of my life so far I have watched this countries government turn from a very patriotic body of leaders into government that detests personal liberties and the history of greatness this country has been to the world. I remember distinctly when I was younger and President Ronald Reagan would be on the television everyone stopped what they were doing to listing to his words. He was the President and he was respected. Now, when I see our current president on the television I either listen to hear what the latest trick our government is pulling on the American people or I switch channels to watch something more productive such as a ball game. Now our president travels the world wide to apologize and put down our great country. What a tremendous disgrace and appalling difference between the two. I also pay attention to the constant attacks on Christianity as this nation seems to be in a nightmare love affair with any and every religion that opposes Christianity, especially that of Islam. We are at war we this fanatical murderous cult and yet our own government will not recognize them as evil and downplays their atrocious murderous ways. I also see where our courts are under legal attack with continuous assaults on the freedoms of Americans to worship as Christians and the bible being removed further and further from public view. What is alarming is how many people in this country now hate this country that is a gift from God to all of us who were blessed enough to be born here. I also see how many people who claim Christianity and vote for those in government who try to remove Christianity away from us. How can this be possible? The people who shout blessed is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then turn around and vote for a candidate of the party that is trying to kill Christianity and have it removed from our lives. I see the warnings of my youth coming to pass everyday. What they were trying to warn us about is happening and most of us deny this.  No, our country has not been taking over by another country like I envisioned it with soldiers parachuting from the sky, but as political enemies of America being voted into office by Americans themselves. The evil and Anti-American crowd simply walked inside upon the invitation of the American people without force. What I see is that what we were warned about as kids is already taking place. I see a great divide taking place in this country that does not run along party lines. I see the great division taking place and forming two groups of Americans. I see these two groups of people as the Good versus the Evil and I wonder sometimes if all the people even realize this is happening. As for me, I will be on the side of good until the end.

Presidents, Idols and Celebrities

We are people who love to glorify those among us who reach high levels of success. We celebrate them by putting them on a pedestal which stands high above regular mankind and follow their every move and some of us even worship them as if they are superhuman and even as if they posses enlightened knowledge we should seek. We forget about the one or two attributes of their special talents that propelled them to fame and begin to believe that they are perfect creatures. In some cases we are even guilty of given them Godlike deity and will follow their every word as if it were spoken by God. 

The American media will work feverishly to promote these special ones among us. The more loved and most famous will take the priority in the printed news and be covered on our TV shows and network television news until these figures have become household names and their images saturated in every form into our daily lives to the point that we even seek their opinions outside of their special talents and believe them. What becomes lost is the fact that they are merely human beings made of flesh and blood as we are and are susceptible to the same human downfalls as the worst of us. 

Sadly, these celebrated among us actually begin to believe their own hyped up images the media feeds the public and more times than likely they develop personalities opposite of what their fans appreciate and adore in the first place. If the truth be known, these media created personality traits would repel the majority of us regular people in everyday life from those who possessed them as absurd. For instance, imagine your next door neighbor acting as pompous as Barbara Streisand. I’ll bet you a dollar two-ninety-eight you wouldn’t invite them over for a party. Imagine if your boss acted like Madonna and required you to turn your back to her presence when she arrives to work? I would bet you would clock out and join those of the unemployed even in this ridiculous job market rather than work for an individual with this much self adoration. 

We love a celebrity! 

Then it happens. 

The world comes crashing down on them and the celebrity is exposed as the everyday human being with faults that they are. The members of the media fall all over themselves in a frenzy to be the first ones with the dirt that brings down the stardom of the beloved superstar. They will fall short of nothing to expose every embarrassing detail to ruin the image of this celebrity or star in order to increase their own fame. Sometimes I think these are the worst creatures among us but that is a blog for another day. The networks will gather in flocks of death smelling Vultures camping out for days with microphones in hand for the chance to get a peek of the tarnished Idol as their fame crashes in on them for merely being human and getting caught in their secret sin. 

The irony is the more pompous the celebrity, the harder the fall and obviously the more devastating to their career. But what we fail to realize is that we are all to blame for how we treat others and how we allow ourselves to fool ourselves by thinking some people are better than those of us simply because they sing better, throw a football better, give a speech better or hit a golf ball farther and more accurate. 

Are we not the fools in the end? We elevate those among us based on the silliest of reasons. We elect presidents to lead our country over the same petty reasons and find ourselves further down the road angry or disappointed that they were not able to be the superman in office that they were as the media suggested on the campaign trail while the country continues on its slide downward into trouble. Who is the next superstar celebrity we should seek to save us? 

Maybe we should examine ourselves and our priorities for placing so much trust in what we are told by the media instead of keeping in mind that people are simply people. We are all human beings who possess their own individual faults and sins, not just the glamour the media creates for us to judge others by until they are ready to make a fortune by bringing them back down to our own level.