who's calling who stupid?

On board the USS Sperry AS-12

A week ago plus, when I initially sat down with my keyboard in hand to start typing, I struggled to form cohesive thoughts. My inner fibers keep telling me I’m wasting my time writing, as no one wants to read the tripe produced. I’ve been told it’s terrible, hard to read, too many roundabouts, and “big words.” And trust me, I’m okay with knowing what others think, no offense is taken. The problem being, I just wish people would think. Of late, I find Americans have become an ignorant, stupid lot of citizens, with no desire to consider another’s viewpoint, unless it’s a meme, lacking substance, depth, or intellectual intent, an indicator of the nation’s intelligence level and attention spans.

So, in setting direction, after I graduated high-school and joined the Navy, my first ship was a sub-tender in San Diego, and I had a lot to learn. One of the “learnings;” three section duty and standing watch on the quarterdeck, the gangway to get aboard. It was manned twenty-four-seven while the ship was in port, three men in dress uniform, in four-hour shifts. The two worst; the 0000-0400 or the 0400-0800 watch, where one missed sleep the better part of the night. As a freshly minted, lowly E-3 standing watch every third day (three section duty), I was the go-fer, where the petty-officer above manned the ship’s loudspeaker and bell, and the one above him – officer of the deck; all the power, none of the work.

And trust me, those late night, early morning watches were boring, and to dispose of any conjecture, it is always coldest just before dawn. Plus, one never knew who they were going to stand watch with until all arrived, the watch in place was relieved, and everybody settled in for their four-hour tour. The point of this: one of the petty-officer’s I was usually assigned with always kept a dictionary. Early one morning I inquired why. His intent; grow his vocabulary by learning a new word daily, then incorporating it into his conversations, even the “big words.”

I adopted his mantra, not necessarily carrying a dictionary wherever I went, but finding a dictionary and learning the definition when I came across a word I didn’t know, which was quite often. I’d then incorporate such into my vocabulary, increasing my word capacity, thus word power. Except, what I believed then was a simple concept to enlarge one’s overall intellectual acuity has proven a distraction to others today. What I call indolence, or a lack of desire to learn, much less understand. Ponder; everyone now carries “smart phones,” having the ability to googleize anything desired. Basically, holding their brain in the palm of their hands. No need to learn information by rote, time consuming study, much less having to discern truth, or committing through memorization, knowledge, thus storing it in their head and heart. In addition, with the brain in palm approach - short term memory retention - one never gains true passion, or desire, much less understanding consequence, or even obtaining a patriotic fealty of America’s foundational structure. The outcome; vacuousness, and ignorance in buyer beware. Thus, to googleize knowledge is never knowing if it really is knowledge. A vicious cycle.   

Anyway, the point to my writing using the Framer’s words directly: I believe the nation is devolving, whereas most claim it’s evolving, confusing to say the least. So, my goal is to present their constitutional intent to unconfuse what appears befuddling, even though it isn’t. In my perspective, as a people, we are traveling further from, as opposed to closer to, the precepts the nation’s Framer’s desired, for a reason. Allow a point to ponder; since the Framer’s day and time, word vocabulary in adults has steadily declined to a sixth-grade reading comprehension, making the Framer’s vocabulary incomprehensible today. Too advanced for those who are supposedly more advanced than they were. Or, in an easier, more relatable conveyance, no one wants to read what they wrote simply because they don’t understand the wording, an epic failure of epic proportions of our educational system. Citizens would rather be duped by those in power as opposed to learning true intent because of “big words” and sentence structure too difficult to read. Yet, those very same individuals who lack the reading skills of the Framer’s, castigate them as being backwards, while never understanding the Framer’s wrote in a manner the average citizen then understood. Put that in perspective.

In my recent struggle to clearly coalesce my thoughts, two national mass shootings have yet again taken place. One aspect of America’s moral integrity devolving front and center, including the ever-increasing rising cacophony of voices to institute more gun regulations on top of all that’s in place due to the mass casualties involved. An evil deception to completely de-arm citizens can be easily contrived from the din of noise to ban the never defined “assault weapon.” The discombobulating part: the government and media’s intent to use tragedy to instill national change over all, those too ignorant to see the deception, blinded by a faith in believing there’s good in the evil proposed. Yet the misguided faith individuals place in those who seek absolute power, demonize anyone who proposes the nation was designed around Judeo-Christian principles of faith, an oxymoron. Only, in truth, obtaining a complete government transition of power cannot be achieved unless a breakdown of design to instill another form is manipulated through an obfuscation of intent, even though the Framer’s designed the Constitution to prevent just such government overreach, understanding:

The consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity. (Federalist 1)

Yes, an overly complicated sentence structure and words too big to clearly understand, but what America needs to comprehend in a nutshell. So, while the nation continues to move toward a society of values and mores the antithesis of the Framer’s design, make no mistake, they were imperfect men who made mistakes, but they understood oppression. Thus, the American Revolution, including the emphatic desire and design to keep citizens armed afterwards (Federalist 29). Although, if citizens are not careful, before long, we’ll understand their oppression today. That’s why the national freedoms woven into the nation’s framing document are grounded in unalienable precepts, only begging one’s desire to keep or willfully surrender.

For thought, I propose a biblical analogy using a vine, where the Constitution is the trunk, WE THE PEOPLE, including those elected to serve, the branches, and the soil, the Bible. Without the Bible feeding, anything goes, as is happening today, but if paired with the Constitution: Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone (2 Peter: 5-7). To understand the verses in concept allows a clarity of purpose the Framer’s intended, but government now wants to dissolve. And, while good continues to become bad and bad transitions to good, for the nation to evolve justly (the vine survives and grows), the bad branches need to be removed, the Bible discarded (no nourishment). Only, in today’s climate, which branches are inferior needing to be cut out, and once the Bible is completely abandoned, what then drives morality?

And, for those who claim there is no God and Jesus is a myth, why not name their children Judas, even if sarcastically just to poke the bear. Seriously, Frank Zapa named a daughter Moon Unit! Anyway, I’ll continue to incorporate new words into my vocabulary, although not to impress, and write in the manner I do, comments irrelevant, while striving to improve myself as I’m uneducated with a yearning to learn and a desire to not be as vacuous as those who are educated. Plus, I believe in my heart God gifted me to do this through His talent given, no matter how bad my writing may be.