I thought a change of pace might be in order even as I try to wrap my brain around the recent bizarre events transpiring in our country and the world in general. Humor never killed a man (except for the “funny” guy who killed himself by shooting fireworks from the top of his head. At least there was no brain damage ~ since there was nothing there to damage). So I begin and end this post with some jocularity. In between, however, I expect you to THINK  (Horrors!) but I feel that if you actually found this site you are up to it.

I begin with a favorite quip from my favorite Jesuit, Fr. Tom Kelly, long deceased. “America is a country where everyone is allowed to say what they think ~ even when they CAN’T think.”

Speaking of Jesuits, Do you know the difference between a Dominican and a Jesuit? Simple, the Dominican’s job is to explain the faith; the Jesuit’s job is to explain it away!

I see the recent drive to bury the Confederate battle flag as really an attempt to bury history. But here is the real irony. The party trying to bury it the deepest is the very same party whose history it reflects ~ the Democratic Party.

It seems that we have learned very little from our nation’s long and tragic struggle with slavery. That hard experience only affirms that when people allow some horrific evil to go unchecked for too long a period, disaster becomes inevitable. Today’s widespread culture of abortion, promiscuity, drug abuse, and imminent normalization of suicide can hardly be any less corrosive to our society than slavery was to Southern ante-bellum society.

Perhaps that old battle flag is too great a reminder as to just where we may be heading today so it is best to retire it and put it conveniently out of sight. Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them, or as I like to put it. If you don’t know where you’ve been you can’t possibly know where you’re going.

In truth, a free society must be willing to tolerate certain evils in order to maintain social peace. But toleration nowhere implies that a given evil should be raised up as a fundamental “right.” When that line is finally crossed evil will always tyrannize over goodness.

Gilbert Chesterton noted that, “Modern toleration is really a tyranny. To say I must not deny my opponent’s opinion is to tell me I must not discuss it.”

He further observed the irony of so-called “progressive” ideology which is “that those who talk the most about toleration are exactly those who cannot tolerate opposition.” Or in Fran’s own unforgettable phraseology, “I can tolerate anything ~ except intolerance!”

Next on the social engineering agenda is physician assisted suicide, which is fast gaining traction as a viable option in our society. In light of the fact that only 37% of Americans now oppose to this grisly perversion of the Hippocratic oath according to Gallup polling, it might not hurt to reflect on the truism, Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Finally, a note of levity after so much serious polemic. Somebody sent me an e-mail recently asking I I knew the difference between the KKK and our Supreme Court? Answer: One is a bunch of people in white robes who scare black folks. The other is a bunch of people in black robes who scare white folks.

Have a great week!

Fran Pierson

Post Script:

I sent the comments below concerning the celebration the Fourth of July below to some of my of e-mail contacts regarding the recent Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage (an idiotic term in my opinion). A satirical friend of mine, Pat O’Brien, once deliciously opined about gay marriage, “Hey, I’ve been married for 35 years. So when does it get “gay?” I’m not as funny as Pat, however, so here is my beef if you care to know.

I have decided that in the current situation our country finds itself in today, celebrating the Fourth of July with festivities might just be living in denial.

The fact is that our political liberties have been utterly stripped away by a power-drunk cadre of five Supreme Court justices who have once again blatantly usurped the sacred right of the American people to self government. We are living in lawless times when the rule of law “by the People” can be so callously ignored by an elitist judiciary, completely unashamed of fabricating any new “right” that suits their “social engineering” whims.

The so-called right to “dignity” so recently uncovered by Justice Kennedy essentially translates into a novel right not to be “offended,” primarily by anyone who may still have some vestige of a conscience. This sets a dangerous precedent because if traditional political rights can be so easily trammeled by the court today will individual rights fare any better, particularly those which relate to the free exercise of one’s religion?

The destruction of marriage as traditionally understood Is tantamount to the destruction of the family, without which no free democratic state can long survive. The only alternative is to make the state itself one’s substitute family, which is, of course, what the “nanny state” was all about from the beginning. We ought to declare this Fourth of July a national Day of Mourning because it effectively marks the final decline of our once proud republic. We have substituted License for Liberty. No longer one nation under God, we now live at the dictates of a radicalized Judiciary.

So take this sobering thought to your barbecue:The next thing to be roasted may just be us!

Fran Pierson
2 July, 2015