who's the dumb one now?

I recall an event from my childhood, when in elementary school, I had a parent/teacher/student conference on my lackadaisical efforts applied to schoolwork. As I sat in an empty classroom away from the teacher and counselor discussing my intellect, or lack thereof, while awaiting on mom to arrive, I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation – He’s dumber than he looks! And my dad, being an Air Force fighter pilot, prompted the other – I can’t believe his father is an officer. And so, my school career evolved.

Now, I have a son. And fortunately, he was blessed to get my better half’s brains, and did extremely well in school. So much, I believe those who know him, when they meet me, think I’m just as smart, and will sometimes ask my opinion of things. Based on me and my past, my reaction has never wavered: always a well-intended silence. If I’d learned anything in youth:

Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue. (Proverbs 17:28)

So recently, when a friend of my son visited, I listened in, and his friend directed a question my way – What would you do? They were debating intent and design. Immediately, that parent/teacher/student conference flooded my memory, and I deferred, but I did have an opinion. One I believe could have even stunned any of the teachers from my youth. Umm, I’m not as dumb as I look … maybe.

Although, and there’ll be a point to this: I believe in God, not a god, but the Creator of Heaven and earth God. I find it impossible to fathom a big-bang created this universe we live in. Just gaze deep into the night sky outside a light polluted region, and yes, the majesty of creation will overwhelm the visual. On earth itself, the beauty, grandeur, diverseness, and myriad array of the physical and living is undefinable, the magic of all life, beyond comprehension. To say it happened from an explosion man can’t categorically prove while denouncing the presence of God … Right! Although, I can confirm if one wants to see what a big-bang can do, visit the Trinity site on the White Sands Missile Range. There, one can sense the evil of man in a harsh land and ponder what the government did with the layer of trinitite left after.

As well, I also believe in evolution, just not the monkey to man theory we were fed in school, but man’s ability to progress from a primitive to advanced society. I can’t help but think in the earliest time of man’s existence here on earth, he did not look in awe of God’s creation, and reasoned one greater than anything imaginable designed and put together this world. And from those early days, he developed faith. Then in time, faith created religion, and within the structure of it, the exploitation of God and his design began.

Yet, on his own, man struggled to survive until he made union with others, forming society. And from there, evolution accelerated. Then the evil of man’s heart overpowered himself, and through force, government was instituted to control those too fearful, weak, or able to be manipulated. Advancing through the centuries, power begat power, dividing government, thus multiplying, with some rising greater in strength, becoming richer through the subjugation of others, all by the will of the strongest … until:

WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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. (pre-amble to the Constitution)

A representative government, unlike any before: “instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” (Declaration of Independence). A simple concept of power delegated through the people’s hands to those elected, uniting the whole. Yet today the perceived notion appears to be unraveling, pushed by government itself, to usurp the role of the people. So much, I ponder the intellect of those who believe the nation on a sustainable path. Am I truly the dumb one, or are the ones who pontificate the current direction vacuous, or just willfully misleading to achieve an end? Or the voters themselves, merely apathetic as life provided by government easier than life worked for by self? The nation didn’t arrive at this point on its own. Even a simpleton can see somethings amiss. But intent and design and what I would do, or what I see. A complex layer of issues to what should have been a simpler process of action.

So, to begin, every citizen should read, understand, and know the Constitution. It’s unfathomable most don’t, but I’m told most already know. I think not, apparent by the state of the nation. And the Federalist Papers a must read, the nation’s owner’s manual. Although, a PHD in Political Science recently claimed they were merely a propaganda piece. His political bent exposed, posing - How can one understand intent without knowing design, or understand agenda, if ignorant of intent. All politicians lie to achieve their goal:

Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people. (Federalist 10)

When the basic litmus test for office is age related, the Framer’s believing with age came wisdom, shouldn’t it then be incumbent on voters to elect their representation based on constitutional knowledge? Or does one rely solely on the willful deceptions through prevarication by those looking to obtain votes? Based on the Constitution, who bears responsibility to make certain intent of design is fulfilled by the action of intent? WE THE PEOPLE, as the pre-amble proclaims, or those desirous of achieving ends unknown?

A limited power legislature in its basic definition was meant to be fed, not feed, with a few caveats built in, albeit requiring uniform and general be included. On the other hand, religion, by design, was meant to feed by being fed. A distinct difference in operational principles, even though each consume, but do not produce money, requiring a base to pull from to feed into: the taxpayer, the congregation. Yet, things go awry when greed and deception presented in the name of altruistic motives to protect those less fortunate, while the inverse was the actual intent of outcome; those at the top prosper, while those at the bottom, continue to suffer, and the inability to decide when enough is enough, because there never will be enough:    

Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle of the body politic; as that which sustains life and motion, and enables it to perform its most essential functions. A complete power, therefore, to procure a regular and adequate supply of it, as far as the resources of the community will permit, may be regarded as an indispensable ingredient in every Constitution. From a deficiency in this particular, one of two evils must ensue; either the people must be subjected to continual plunder, as a substitute for a more eligible mode of supplying the public wants, or the government must sink into a fatal atrophy, and, in a short course of time, perish. (Federalist 30)

Limiting the power of those governing the governed should suppress the plunder while abating the atrophy, a balance. But while our government currently allows citizens to face violence unabated, they retreat behind gates, and remain protected, and flood the nation with non-citizens of other countries. A broken concept on safety, borders and being borderless. Where borderless is of church state, it destroys the sovereignty of a nation, a conundrum dependent on agenda. And Congress now promises to make society equity based, while they grow richer, their base poorer. Through taxation, money is taken from, while weakening those it’s given to, all the while, perverting the Constitution they swore to uphold. A vicious cycle of agenda replacing design.

And as churches build massive structures, purchase state of the art sound systems, perform on first class productions stages, pay extravagant salaries, spread the word of God, claiming not for profit status, people starve. And though Jesus stated the poor we will always have, he also claimed it’s easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle than a rich man’s ability to get to Heaven. Church leaders should review their current design to reflect His philosophy, as their actions appear the antithesis of biblical intent.

While citizens, through ignorance, protest for rights already protected, legislators pontificate about the very issues protested, promising solutions, parading people to stand beside them as they proclaim action, yet nothing ever changes. There are solutions to problems that should not involve government, but the best solution overall may just be to adhere to the Constitution. I know, too novel, too simple a concept, as in tax law, convoluted spells discombobulation, meaning intent by design, and feeling dumber than I look.