Too Sad For Words

Usually I try to stay out of politics when writing my blog or on social media sites. We are all inundated with opinions. From the left. From the right. And everywhere in between. I figure mine doesn't add much.

But today, when I feel I must speak out I find that I don't have the words to express my overwhelming sense of sadness over the events in Charlottesville. I can tell you what I think. But that is a function of my mind. And in the immortal worlds of Blaise Pascal, "the heart has its reasons which reason cannot know." What is in my head is one thing, my heart quite another.

When citizens of this country can fearlessly march under the banner of Nazism, when members of the KKK can present their hate-filled ideology without the president of the United States denouncing them unequivocally we are in danger from within. Our democracy is being undermined.

"Good and fine" people who object to the pulling down of statues don't stand beside violent persons bent on tearing up our Constitution. They go home. They leave when events turn ugly. They don't lend their energy to movements that are blatant attacks on human beings. They write their congressmen. They start petitions. They try to reason with persons with another point of view.

They don't take clubs to their fellow man and they denounce those who do.

As to leaders, there is a statement in the Bible that serves us well. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Not by their blossoming. By their fruit. Never mind how charismatic a leader or how attractive the words coming from his or her mouth. What are the fruits?

If hatred, anger, dissention, and deceitfulness seem to follow someone around, something is wrong.

And right now, something is very very wrong in these United States.