tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4114849513980773570.post4212691770619750887..comments2023-12-22T14:04:55.065-05:00Comments on Ehlers on Everything: For One Brief Shining MomentMark J. Ehlershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06410705618925284448noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4114849513980773570.post-42050971258258786192011-07-21T12:32:33.935-04:002011-07-21T12:32:33.935-04:00Rich,
Perhaps you are merely a realist who simply...Rich,<br /><br />Perhaps you are merely a realist who simply lacks tolerance for idealistic visions and dreams of peace. It is likely that your view is simply a reflection of how the majority of humankind approaches national borders and boundaries. There is a reason I have often referred to human beings as a rotten species. The failure to behold a grand vision and the need to believe that we are superior to everyone else is to fail to recognize our common humanity.<br /><br />Note that when Buzz Aldrin spoke about the Moon landing, he said, "We who did so were privileged to represent the hopes and dreams of all humanity." From the perspective of the universe looking down at a tiny Earth, one cannot help but marvel at how clueless human beings have been over the course of history. It is why we have such things as "Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, [and] pestilence..." <br /><br />I believe Merlin was right, but I understand that most mere mortals are incapable of seeing the world through a bird's eyes. Of course, it would require all of humanity to do so -- this is not a commentary directed at the United States alone. Absent the ability to look at the world through a different set of eyes, however, we can never as a people hope to someday make the Earth more closely reflect God's Kingdom.Markhttp://ehlersoneverything.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4114849513980773570.post-26581024184717071342011-07-17T10:51:06.464-04:002011-07-17T10:51:06.464-04:00Mark,
As a seven and a half year-old-boy, I can’t...Mark,<br /><br />As a seven and a half year-old-boy, I can’t claim to have had deep thoughts about the meaning of the Apollo 11 moon landing, beyond possibly being thrilled that we beat the commies (it was, after all, a race, and later in life I would learn that it had been a contest between good and unimaginable evil). As I tried to look around my dad, who was using an early version of a VCR – his 1959 Yashica 35mm camera – to capture pictures of the TV screen, I probably also reveled in the fact that we were one step closer to kicking Klingon ass and ogling green-colored alien babes. <br /><br />I doubt that the Russians, gathered in clusters around a limited number of TVs, forgot about the Cold War and think it likely, instead, that they sensed the beginning of the end, watching an American flag being planted on the moon. That is, after all, what President Kennedy was referring to in his magnificent speech: the USSR’s “hostile flag of conquest” versus the “banner of freedom and peace” known as the Stars and Stripes. I find myself constantly reevaluating JFK, normal I suppose, for a man made up of the worst parts of a President Clinton and the best parts of a President Reagan. If the moon landing was the beginning of the end for the Evil Empire, it might also be true for the U.S.A. Could that speech be given today, filled as it was, with politically incorrect themes of national superiority, manly daring, and the recognition that the United States, as a morally superior nation, has a duty to lead the world and defend it against tyranny? Today, our own leaders see nothing exceptional about our country and are less concerned with leading the advancement of the human race than with diapering its citizens.<br /><br />If we are to survive as a nation, we must return to our pre-emasculated days when leaders spoke of “winning,” be it in war or the race for space; when presidents expected this country to lead other nations in the greatest adventure of all time, because they knew that only if we are the “world’s leading space-faring nation” can tyranny be foiled. We must reclaim the knowledge that the United States is superior to all other nations and it must, again, occupy a position of pre-eminence among the world’s governments for the sake of peace. And we must return to God and dependence on His blessings to keep us safe while we set sail on the “most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.”<br /><br />And I might add, we need to return to the use of the word “man.” As a child I was smart enough to ask my mother why Captain Kirk said, “. . . to boldly go where no man has gone before,” when the leggy Lt. Uhura sat right behind him. I was smart enough, then, to understand my mother’s explanation that “man” referred to “mankind.” Now I was a stupid child, so if I could grasp it then, anyone can grasp it now. <br /><br />By the way, Merlin was wrong. Boundaries and borders do exist and are quite easy, from a bird’s view or even from space, to see. Jump on Bing Maps and behold the natural borders made of rivers, oceans and mountain ranges, and the man-made borders of super highways, fences and Great Walls. And that bird, flying over, for example, the U.S./Mexican border, would see plenty of reasons for fighting. On the south, the bird would see mass graves missing only heads that are proudly displayed on fence posts to proclaim that on that side of the border anarchy reigns and horror follows. On the other side, the bird would see law and order and sense the fear that soon, “something wicked this way comes” from across the Rio Grande. Borders are real and inches mean everything.<br /><br />Rich R.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com