Redneck Review!
No. 166 - 6/25/2018
Hey!  A question!  Just what is happening to our country?  Is the rampant hatred we see on the news and TV something that is new to our country, or is it something that has been with us from the very beginning?  A good question!  Is there any answer?
History tells that fighting and killing have been with us since the very beginning. Are we not told in the Bible that the first son of Adam, Cain, murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy because he thought God liked his brother's sacrifice more than his?
So, violence fueled by jealousy and hate have been with us from the beginning.  Maybe a more pertinent question might be, are we suffering more today than we did in the past? Are the problems we see around us today more serious than those of the past?
Noting events recently, is it out of character for our country to witness the president's lady press secretary being kicked out of a restaurant simply because she works for Trump? Is it normal to see in our daily paper cartoons making fun of our president, or ridiculing him in every possible way?  Are the hate letters found in the opinion pages something we have had to deal with in the past, and are they more frequent now than before? Is it a traditional American behavior for loud and screaming crowds to shout obscenities at the speakers invited to address a crowd on some controversial topic?
Unfortunately, the answer to the above questions is  YES!  During Lincoln's presidency, when the question of slavery was a white hot issue, one senator in Congress beat with a came another member of the House so severely that he was put out of commission for a length of time. The man with the cane, Preston Brooks, and the poor victim, Charles Sumner! The incident further fueled the passions of the opposing sides, and helped drive the nation into a five year long Civil War where it is estimated some 800,000 men were killed, some times by one family member fighting with a brother or relative. We know also that the hatred let to the assassination of Lincoln! And of course, there are hundreds of examples in history where violence and hatred resulted in the deaths of hundreds! The pertinent question is, what is the cause of this problem, and can anything be done to solve it?
It is suggested here that both questions have quite simple answers!  The cause of the problem lies in the very nature of each of us as individuals.  We are born into this world with a built in love of ourselves, and a tendency to put ourselves first! The obvious thought behind the "Me first" mentality so common today! Or to put it in another way, the "Doit my Way" tendency which seems to be in all of us. Thus, because we are all different, common sense says that any two people will find themselves in disagreement now and then, and sometimes doing so violently in matters which are very important at the time!
So the solution will not be found in the atheism of Karl Marx's Communism, nor will it be found in the rampant secularism found today, both ignoring  the importance of a loving God!  And it will certainly not be found in the teachings of Muhammad which calls for all to accept their way of life or suffer the consequences.  No, common sense and the lesson history teaches is that Christ and Christianity's: "You shall love God with your whole heart
and whole soul and love your neighbor as yourself" is the answer we seek. History also tells us that peace comes when this ideal is lived and put into practice!
Jake Wren

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