Tonight Travalon and I went swimming again at Governor Nelson, and we saw the same catamaran sailing toward us. I thought it would sail right by us to the marina, but it turned and stopped at the boat launch. The guy never put the sail down, so I'm guessing he ran to the bathroom quickly, but I didn't notice because I was too busy admiring the sail. (We could see the top half of it from where we were.) Then the catamaran sailed away again, toward Governor's Island. We also saw what we think was a young bald eagle flying overhead, and it dove down to the water. It didn't look like it caught anything, and then it too flew toward Governor's Island. At that point I had to get going because I had a weight loss meeting tonight, but this one was kind of fun because we played a review game. I came in second place.
Last night at Night Prayer one participant prayed that sports would come back, presumably because some of them were on strike to protest the police shooting that unarmed guy in Kenosha. I said we should be praying for the poor guy, who will live but probably be paralyzed, and he said well, he had a warrant on him, and he had a knife in his car. Today I emailed Richard Bonomo and said I can't deal with this attitude anymore, and then Rich in his infinite wisdom decided to throw gasoline on the flames and tell me I was angry at the wrong people, I should be angry at pro-choice Catholics. I don't know a whole lot of pro-choice Catholics to be angry at, although it is true that some of the people in our choir were pretty liberal. And maybe that's why I was fine for years at my church: like the song says, I had "clowns on the left of me, jokers on my right" because there was a balance between the ridiculously liberal people and the hardcore conservatives. But now during the pandemic, only the hard right people are going to church, so I no longer feel safely in between all the nonsense but pushed off to the side. Anyway, I think any Catholics who go to our church and are pro-choice hear that they are sinning, but I hear nothing about how racists and greedy bastards are sinning. That's the thing - they don't even think they are wrong! And yet Rich thinks my anger is misplaced? I guess it was misplaced in not being directed so much at him. He is definitely part of the problem, not the solution. Way to be a stereotypical old white man, Rich. As the normal people I follow on Facebook joke, "Apparently being pro-life (which actually only means anti-abortion) taketh away all other sins." If I hear one more person say it's not a problem that black people are being killed by the police "because abortion," I will never go back to my church again.
Famous Hat
9 comments:
Since the wearer of Famous Hat has made negative remarks about me in this post and not-quite-correctly related things that I said, I suppose I should respond here, rather than just privately.
The experience has been very painful these past several months as she is a very close and most beloved friend of mine — truly like a daughter in so many ways — as I’ve watched her get sucked deeper and deeper into the Maëlstrom of left-wing rhetoric to the point that it is turning her against loyal friends like me, fellow parishioners, and others of whom she has taken to speaking of in very bitter terms, but who have done her no harm, and, in many cases, have been quite fond of her.
(cont'd next comment)
(continuing from 1st comment)
That some force is succeeding in driving a wedge between her and those who care about her is upsetting, and depressing, and I find myself wondering if there is not something demonic to what is going on. I am quite convinced that this is the case for similar things going on across the country.
The first thing I am going to cover is her blog-post proper, then I will tackle some related matters that have come up in communications between us.
At the start of the “attack” portion of her post, the Wearer of Famous Hat wrote:
“Last night at Night Prayer one participant prayed that sports would come back, presumably because some of them were on strike to protest the police shooting that unarmed guy in Kenosha. “
I personally don’t know if he was talking about the teams that were on strike, or if he was praying about sports in general. This fellow, I’ll call him “Sam,” has a profound mental disability, among other issues. His only job is helping out with re-arranging sports arenas between games, so no games, no jobs. He *may* have been thinking of that. I do not know.
(cont'd next comment)
(continuing from second comment)
However “Sam” IS constantly bringing up political events in night prayer, such as, most recently, the Republican National Convention. Usually, this is in connection with moral questions (like Abortion). With a different group of people, this would not be a huge problem, but this group includes a few people (I am NOT among them) that are convinced that President Trump is SO evil that any apparently good thing he does is simply a political ploy, and not to be celebrated, and that the same is true of the Republican party. Most of us ignore Sam. I am usually in agreement with his political opinions, but I do not encourage him to bring this up during the after-Prayer-socializing, and we all tend to politely ignore his remarks and switch the topic. Wearer of Famous Hat has been very patient, despite the pressures building up within her when Sam does this, but she is reaching her limit.
This was the backdrop of the e-mail that “Wearer” sent to me.
Here is the response I had sent to Wearer, as part of a longer e-mail message:
“Yes, I am aware of your frustration with the Church, as I do see your blog posts. It seems to me your frustration should be directed at the Democratic Party, which has gone off the rails. Their leaders will flash their Catholic cards, but then make it very clear that they will sacrifice the rights of religious people and institutions in favor of those who wish to normalize sodomy, or promote abortion, etc. etc. THOSE are the people at whom you should be angry.“
In the corresponding part of her blog, Wearer said:
“Today I emailed Richard Bonomo and said I can't deal with this attitude anymore, and then Rich in his infinite wisdom decided to throw gasoline on the flames and tell me I was angry at the wrong people, I should be angry at pro-choice Catholics. I don't know a whole lot of pro-choice Catholics to be angry at, although it is true that some of the people in our choir were pretty liberal.”
(continued next comment)
(continued from third comment)
I opined to Wearer that “frustration should be directed at the Democratic Party” and at the party leadership, and she somehow switched this to “pro-choice Catholics” — apparently thinking I was referring to people that she knew personally.
So, let me clarify this here:
“Wearer” has on a number of occasions expressed frustration that many of her fellow Catholics seem to be saying that if one is Catholic, one has to vote Republican. This is causing her frustration. I think this started coming to a head a number of years ago when Fr. Richard Heilman made reference to “our great [because of his pro-life stance] Governor Walker” during an outdoor Rosary at the Capitol. This was during the Act-10 controversy, which had gotten a lot of public-sector union folks very mad at Governor Walker.
My remark was that her anger is mis-directed, and that it should be directed at the DEMOCRATIC PARTY as an *institution*, and its leadership.
We should have at least two reasonable major political parties with which people can affiliate to support candidates or political issues they prefer. There are many aspects of civil life about which men of good will may legitimately differ, so it makes sense that there be multiple reasonable major political parties that all have men of good will therein.
Well, we don’t have that.
(continued next comment)
(continued from fourth comment)
The “Democratic” party has gone off the rails, and has aligned itself against God. It will blather on and on about feel-good things and throw all sorts of slogans around, and the nominal Catholics among them will flash their “Catholic cards,” but, nowadays, its core issues are Abortion, the normalization of Sodomy, and the subordination of religious freedom to these (and other) policies. Vice President Joseph Biden — who insists he is a Mass-attending, Rosary praying, devout Catholic — publicly thanked “the Jews” (his words) in a speech in Hollywood for helping make same-sex “marriage” a legal reality, and officiated at the “marriage” of two men at (if I remember correctly) the Vice-Presidential Residence. He has also made it very clear that he supports access to Abortion, and to taxpayer funding of the same.
Catholic. Right…
Well, frankly, these principles — clearly annunciated as POLICY for the “Democratic” party — are incompatible with being Catholic, with being a Christian of any sort, with being an adherent Jew, with being a devout Muslim — in fact, they are incompatible with being an American, or for that matter, with being a sane human being.
Well, what does that leave somewhat sane people in the United States, even more so orthodox Catholics actually interested in the salvation of their countrymen?
It leaves us the Republican Party.
One can carry on about how we really should have another major party that somehow is more Catholic in its social outlook, but no such major party exists, and if one ever exists, it will be a while.
The problem: many people assume the Republican party is as corrupt as the Democrats, and will not follow through on
the promises made to the voters, and that any policy statement that reflects a desire to protect children in the
womb from murder, or that expressed reverence to God is a phony ploy to reel in gullible ignoramuses like myself, and, OF COURSE, that the party is filled with secret racists. Also, Donald Trump is a bad man who cannot possibly have any good intentions, and is not capable of conversion to the truth.
Well, there are problems with these attitudes, but there are many faithful Catholics who honestly think this the case, and feel that they are in a conundrum.
Is this the Church’s fault? No.
Is the Republican Party’s fault? No.
Is it the fault of Catholic women who wear veils when in church? No.
Whose fault is this?
It is the “Democratic” Party’s fault, for allowing itself to be taken over by subversive ideologies, and to be turned into an instrument of evil.
That is why I say “Wearer’s” frustration and anger is mis-directed, and that she should NOT be getting angry at the Church, or think of leaving it, or be getting angry at people sitting in the pews who have done NOTHING to hurt her, and many of whom are fond of her.
Continuing on in her blog, she goes on to say:
‘Anyway, I think any Catholics who go to our church and are pro-choice hear that they are sinning, but I hear nothing about how racists and greedy bastards are sinning.”
Well, there ARE a few people who are pro-“choice” (where “choice” = “legal abortion”) at our parish church from time to time. I suspect that includes at least one retired physician who may have committed Abortion at some point.
However, from what I have seen, you will probably have a hard time finding “racists and greedy bastards”.
(Of course, “Wearer”, will counter that there ARE, TOO, racists in our parish. She has routinely accused a young man who used to be in our parish of being a racist, apparently because he doubted the completeness of a news report. Perhaps I can go into that later.)
I’ve also never heard anyone at my church say “… it's not a problem that black people are being killed by the police ‘because abortion’”. (There may be all sorts of strange people on social media who might say this, but I’ve not seen this at my parish.)
Even if someone DID (or DOES) express an opinion like this, it is his fault, the not the Church’s fault.
(continues with next comment)
(continued from fifth comment)
Of course, part of the problem is that Wearer has both bought into the leftist narrative to a great extent (Wearer actually thinks CNN is objective, and that it actually tries to get the facts right, for example.), and, in addition, often just misconstrues things, as she did when she unconsciously changed my suggestion to direct her frustration toward the “Democratic Party” to direct her frustration toward “pro-choice Catholics” she knows personally.
It is also the case that Wearer has adopted to some degree the vocabulary, hate, and hateful speech of the left, which, as this spirit encompasses more of her psyche, she has directed at me with increasing frequency, including implying I am a racist (for voting for President Trump — however reluctantly). She has also become increasingly intolerant of differing opinions in all of this, or even of hearing the names of people that have been classified as “bad” by those from whom she takes her queues.
Part of “Wearer’s” offense at “Sam” was that he pointed out that Mr. Jacob Blake, who had been shot in the back 4 times by Kenosha police (3 other shots missed) was found — according to police — to be armed or in possession of a knife and that there were warrants out for his arrest. Wearer apparently thought that Sam was trying to make excuses for the police, when he was simply trying to get the facts straight according to the reports he was seeing, and point out that it may not have been a matter of the police gratuitously shooting Mr. Blake in the back multiple times, which seems to be the dominant narrative.
At one point, the day after this conversation took place, “Wearer” sent a text that included (apparently in reference to Sam) “I cannot handle anyone who denies that there’s a different justice system depending on what color you are.”
I have no idea what Sam’s perspective is on this, or even if he is able to form well-informed opinion about something like that. However, this was not discussed that night. “Sam” just tried to correct a possibly incorrect impression regarding Mr. Blake’s status.
There was also discussion of the statistics of shootings by police of caucasian vs. black suspects.
There was never any denial that the justice system often is biased against African-Americans in many places. I am assured, by those who have direct experience of these things, that — for example — getting stopped for DWB (Driving While Black) is a real thing. However, there is a big difference between racial bias in the justice system, and racial bias in people getting shot by police! I think there is no doubt plenty of evidence of the former; *from what I understand,* the statistics do not bear the latter.
(continued with next comment)
(continued from sixth comment)
However, even casting doubt on the dominant leftist narrative in a particular case is to somehow deny the existence of bias in the justice system.
At one point in her post, “Wearer” says: “That's the thing - they don't even think they are wrong!” (This just after the remark about hearing nothing about how racists and greedy bastards are sinning.)
Well, wrong about what, exactly?
Part of the problem in discussing anything nowadays that touches on politics is the Left’s misuse of the accusation of
racism. “Wearer” has been convinced by leftists media and groups that the Republican Party, and Donald Trump are “racist.”
Well, I don’t see this. I see PLENTY of racism, usually of a condescending sort coming from the Left generally. I am sure you can find racism of the more classic sort in fringes of of the far Right. However, during my time when I was active in the Republican Party (admittedly many years ago), I saw not a hint of racist attitudes. As far as I could see, party activists were interested in ideas, not in race. I also have not seen any signs of this in the Trump administration. When I ask for examples from accusers, I usually get either ad hominem remarks thrown at me, or, in one case, the attempt to paint President Trump as a racist because he did not abjure the “birther” hypothesis that was floating around in connection with Barack Obama’s candidacy. The Left demands that “birtherism” be defined as racism; of course, it is not. The people I know who were questioning his eligibility were not racist; they had real Constitutional concerns.
The Left is very adept at playing this psychological trick: accusing the other side of what the Left ITSELF is guilty, thus deflecting the conversation away from its own crimes, and toward the other sides real and imagined faults; getting people to think about real or imagined personal faults of individuals on the other side, deflecting attention from the crimes and blasphemies that they have enshrined into their policies. They are very adept, indeed!
I have to stop here, just because this counter-post is getting rather lengthy. I started writing this on Friday 28 August, and it is now Saturday, 29 August.
There are many other things to cover, including various bits of incorrect “information” “Wearer” has gotten from the news sources that she uses, regarding President Trump’s actions in defense of gestating children, and other things.
However, this will have to wait for another day.
Rich
Once again, the same old thing: "Your side is completely evil, and my side is never wrong." And you wonder why I am so skeptical of anything you say!
So interesting to read this in light of all the massacres lately. The Republican Party refuses to entertain any attempts at rational gun legislation, so it appears they in fact do not care about children once they are born and can be shot dead in schools by people who can easily obtain military-grade weapons. So in fact they are only anti-abortion and not pro-life.
Post a Comment