The End Does Not Justify the Means!

 

In the Old Testament in the Bible King David was right in wanting to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant had been captured as a war trophy and had been in the hands of the Philistines, enemies of Israel, for a while.The Philistines had seen nothing, but trouble while they had it. Eventually they sent it back inside the  territory of Israel where it remained in Kiriath Jearim for twenty years.  

King David now firmly established in the kingdom consulted with the military and the people who decided that  it was time to bring back this sacred possession to Jerusalem. Elaborate preparations guaranteed that this was going to be a spectacular day of lots of music using big choirs and bands and a disciplined army.  The parade route festooned with greenery and flowers set the festive atmosphere for the Ark’s return. Thousands of people were in the streets.  King David in his royal robes went out to greet the Ark. Everything was going well. until one of the oxen tripped and stumbled. A helpful Uzzah stuck out his hand to steady the Ark. God struck Uzzah dead.  Shock and bewilderment beset the king and the crowd. 

David was miffed and became angry with God.  I imagine he must have thought,  "I was trying to do the right thing by bringing the Ark back to Jerusalem."  "Now look at this disaster."  "Uzzah was only trying to help."  "Now he’s dead."   The event was ruined. The parade ended and people were horrified and saddened.  All the joy left the atmosphere. 

What was the Problem?  David was trying to do the right thing the wrong way. David was going against the rules of God’s laws.  The Mosaic law said the ark was to be carried on the shoulders of the priests. It was not to carried on an oxcart by unthinking sentient beasts. 

It does matter to God how a task is completed.

 In 2026 bringing President Maduro of Venezuela to justice may have been the right thing. However to break every International Law, violate a sovereign country’s borders and  and to disregard the United States  Congress and Constitution to do so was certainly not the right way.   The only thing this does is to open up our country to censor,  distrust and to sully the reputation of our nation. 

No the end does not justify the means.

If you would like to read the whole Biblical account of the Ark of the Covenant  it is in 

I Chronicles 13: 1-14  and I Chronicles 15:11- 28

Keep Shining!

King Solomon was correct when he said in Eccleasiastes 1:9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

This morning I read that  the Old Testament’s  Israelite King Manasseh had the longest reign in Judah’s history. II Chronicles 33:1  Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years  2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished;  

-High places were used to worship false gods such as Baal or Molech.

 What  jumped out to me  this morning was that Manasseh rebuilt the high places that his father  the godly King Hezekiah had demolished.  The high places were an affront, an insult to the True and Living God. Manasseh’s father King Hezekiah was right in destroying those blasphemous places . God was pleased with Hezekiah for doing this. Then here comes  his son Manasseh repeating the sins of those who preceded his godly father.  Manasseh even made it worse.  He brought in more false gods than every king before him. 

Manasseh did not make a mistake. He didn’t care. He knew it was wrong to rebuild those dens of inquiry, but he  did it anyway. Manasseh was defiant. 

Today in 2025 we are witnessing the same  defiance. This administration is rebuilding the walls of hatred and exclusion. Many tears and much care went into tearing down the protective barriers of prejudice and hatred.  The Civil Rights Movement did not just benefit oppressed people of color,  specifically African Americans. The talent, beauty and diversity of tearing down the walls of hatred in the USA revealed the hidden truth  that we all are created equal. Trying to level the playing field uncovered the fact that we are stronger together.

This malicious assault on the evolving greatness of working together is more than heart breaking it  could be soul destroying.  However we must refuse to let that happen. Independent companies don’t have to bow and can refuse to participate in taking the country backwards. As a citizen you don’t have to go backwards in thinking that its alright to mistreat people or not hired a qualified person  because of the color of their skin or any other identifying characteristic.

I ask that you join me in not letting the actions of the last few days blind us to the fact that there are more of us who desire a country that work’s for the majority and not just a few billionaires. Look at the World’s  history,  minority rule is not even good for those who believe they can do what they want. We are going to have to work harder  to overcome this intruding darkness by shining our little lights. As long as one of us is left standing shining our lights darkness  cannot overcome us.  Deep in my heart I  do believe that we shall overcome. 

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness;only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate;only love can do that."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

D

 

Photo Credit NPR

On his First Day in office the 47th President, Donald J.  Trump  proved an old saying wrong, “If you do the crime you do the time.”  Well obviously that phrase was kicked out the door when  DJT pardoned 1,600 law breakers They were pardoned because their law breaking was all done in the service of DJT when he refused to hand over power peacefully. What do you say to the law officers who were doing their duty to protect and serve? What do you say to the officers who were rammed with the American Flag? What about the officer whose faces were jammed into the fencing and who struggled to breathe. 

 How dare you say you stand behind and support the Blue/Police when you let violent criminals who harmed them out of jail?  These are some of the  same people who  caused injuries to 174 police officers. These people were adjudicated as guilty, but are not paying for their crimes. And YES there were crimes committed. 

“But despite the GOP rhetoric, the charges against defendants like Webster and Fairlamb are not an anomaly. Rather, they are part of a larger pattern of violence wrought that day, particularly against the largely outnumbered police officers who were there. Of the more than 500 people(as of the writing of this piece) now charged in relation to the storming of the Capitol, at least 96 of them, or nearly 1 in 5, are accused of committing acts of violence, according to a database created and maintained by NPR of all the people charged in the riot.”  New Videos Underscore The Violence Against Police At The Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

UPDATED JUNE 23, 20214:56 PM ET  Meg Anderson

Obviously we are seeing that the last words  of the last line of the  United States  Pledge of Allegiance “ ..with Liberty and Justice for all”  are being sullied in real time.  Let us resolve to not be hardened by  the hypocrisy of the miscarriage of justice and the destruction of the rule of law.

The Lord hates two things. He hates it when the guilty are set free. 

He also hates it when those who aren’t guilty are punished.

Proverbs 17:15 NIRV (New International Readers Version of the Bible)

Traumatized by What I Saw on January 6, 2021

 

Here it is 2023 and I am suffering from PTSD brought on by the horrific actions of those who say they love America. I am still traumatized by what I saw happen on January 6, 2021 in Washington D.C.        I witnessed our government, my government, come to the brink of extinction by so called patriots of my great nation.

My heart has palpitations when I think how these are the same people who were offended by the NFL  player Colin Kapernick respectfully kneeling when the  National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner was being played before a football game. I watched as they took the very symbol of this great nation on flagpoles and used them as  weapons to terrorize and to hurt those defending the The United States Capital building and in essence our United States Constitution and our democracy.  

I was astonished that those who said that they respected the “Blue “ and stood behind the rights of Law Enforcement Officers  to do their jobs took fence posts and and brutally extinguished the life of a    an  Officer and injure other officers.  I watched as they chased and harassed some of these same officers as they sought to protect and defend that sacred building. These are the  identical  people who would shoot someone breaking and entering a business or while looking at an unfinished  home as Ahmaud Arbery was doing when he was murdered. 

I was amazed as the elected officials of this country frantically rushed out of the chambers. They ran to prevent themselves  from being massacred or killed by the frantic blood thirsty mob bent on the officials' destruction. Yet these same lawbreaking people in that mob decry the rioters  in city streets to react to unjust killing of innocent citizens. 

My heart hurt as I observed with amazement as a  spear carrying  bare chested man with antlers, that looked more like devil horns, sat in the Speaker’s Chair shouting that the rioters should pray as the  unruly horde strew to the floor papers from the polished mahogany desks of hastily exited legislators. 

The bedlam I saw that day made my stomach churn. These are the same people that fill the comment sections on social media with words of trying to preserve our democracy. These are the people who came from all over the United States to disrupt and un-unite us and to prevent the peaceful transition of power.

My PTSD is trying to disrupt my life as we enter into a new election cycle. Why? As much as I want to have a peaceful life I realize that the many of these people are walking around unpenalized and unscathed by the terror they unleashed on January 6, 2021. Many are still not aligned with the  goal for us to be free and live within the parameters of a Democratic Republic.  They seem to have if its not my way I’d rather burn it down than to try and work together with those of opposing views.

During the last few weeks we’ve all seen the government processes grind to a halt by the unwillingness of one party to work with the other party. It as if a slow moving insurrection is taking place in the halls of Congress. I am afraid for our country. Will we make it through to the other side of this situation? I just don’t know. I hope so. I do know that the Bible states that a House divided against itself cannot stand.  I am hoping that I am wrong and  that  things will turns around. I am willing to not be a victim and to not be consumed by my PTSD. 

The Pearls I Do have

 

Last evening as I was waiting to start teaching my Zoom class someone asked the group a question. “Does everyone have their pearls for tomorrow?”  I answered,   “No I don’t have any pearls because I left my strand in Seattle”

Several hours later I thought about a necklace I had. It actually does look like pearls.

They are not the real pearls I wanted, but they are the “pearls” I have.  I will wear those today, January 20, 2021, Inauguration Day, to honor our new Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The thought came to me, isn’t this like this past election, or any election when a person’s preferred candidates don’t win. They may not be the ones I want, but they are the  ones I have. I will  work with those officials for the next four years. This is what has helped us move forward as a country. Our candidates have not always won. However we’ve made do with what we had. 

In these next four years I am asking my friends and any family that didn’t get their choice to join as family. If all you can do is make do, then make do.  Let’s move our country forward and not backward. Let’s keep trying to form that more perfect union. This is our country the  land that we all love. Like me and my second choice for pearls, let’s use what we have. 

Preamble to the Constitution

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Why the Post Office May Take Years to Repair.

 The elections over but the damage to the United Post Office ability to efficiently get mail out may last for a long time.  #45’s appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said it was a cost cutting measure to get rid of these machines citing declining mail volume. The most important machine removed was  the Delivery Bar Code Sorter machines (DBCS).

“The people who run and maintain -- and who were being told to dismantle -- these machines tell CNN they can sort roughly 30,000 envelopes an hour”

The problem is  DeJoy did not have a plan on what to do with the mail that still need to be sorted.  My father worked for the U.S. Postal service for forty-three years in the Railway Post Office. For most of his working life his primary route  was between New York and Pittsburgh.  These men, and they were all men, also carried Government issued side arms incase of attempted train robberies.  

Each man had to know the name of every little  teeny tiny town in the state in which they were sorting mail. If you would have asked my father the name of any town in Pennsylvania  he could tell you. He had to know this information by memory. They sorted the mail eight hours  on the way to Pittsburgh and eight hours coming back to Philly or New York.  Not only that, they were not allowed to make mistakes. They got tested every, I think it was, six months. If they made  a certain number of mistakes, the person would lose their job. The cycle of testing  never stopped and went on for decades. 

Once that train started the mail for the small towns on the route had to be  sorted and ready to be thrown out of a moving train to be caught by  an electronic arm as they approached that town. Their working spaces  spaces were tiny and the pressure to get the mail sorted efficiently was intense. Plus the Black men  had to deal with anger by  their  white colleagues who demonstrated they didn’t think a black man should have, what was then, a very good job. Therefore the black men  were constantly harassed by the white men. They knew if they got in a fight that would be the end of their jobs, so they endured the harassment. An aside, when they got to Pittsburgh where they had to spend the night they could not stay in the hotels as the white men did. They had to find their own accommodations in the black part of town.  

However, all of the men black and white took great pride in being part of a well run postal service and getting things right. When the mail got to the towns the mail was sorted by experienced people too. Then the mail sent out across the city.   In the local post offices  in big cities  it was  again sorted for delivery. 

When those mail sorting machines were broken and destroyed sorting mail became a nightmare. You see in recent years by the time the mail got to the local post offices it was racked and rolled. That means it was already sorted for delivery to the various  residences and business in the neighborhoods  The collision of the pandemic, and the explosive growth online shopping further added to the nightmare scenario which the U.S. Postal service is experiencing.

When those machines were taken  out and destroyed  long gone were the people who once knew how to sort volumes of mail by hand. That is why it may take a very long time to make a once proud institution viable and efficient again.

The legacy of an inefficient administration will plague all us who are dependent on an efficient mail service  for a while longer.