Canthook

I think, the writer said, that both McCain and Obama are atheists. They are of an age and a demographic where few people believe. It would be hard to keep your faith while in an extended stay at the Hanoi Hilton, and Obama obviously selected the most politically advantageous congregation in Chicago for a politician to belong to.

I kept reading for about two more paragraphs, and abandoned the page; it wasn't that interesting. It's been a couple days, though, and I keep going back to the initial premise, thinking, "Is that a reasonable assumption to make? Or is this guy saying that he doesn't believe, and therefore nobody with an IQ over 80 could possibly believe?"

The guy's arrogance at dismissing the faith of others gnaws at me. No man knows another's heart, so wouldn't it be common decency to take people at their word until they are proven to be liars?

I can't find it. And it wasn't like I didn't try. I went through the various sites that I follow in RSS, and looked at the headlines in my RSS reader, then googled each one individually to find the post. After 30 minutes, I gave up. Undoubtedly, I could go through my browser history and find the post, but it's just not worth the effort.

It turns out that I found several people mention that during the 2000 campaign, McCain mentioned to several crowds that he had lost his faith in the jungles of Southeast Asia. That makes me feel sorry for him; I wanted to contact McCain, and ask him if he had checked under the cushions of the sofa. That's where I find things I've lost, although I don't necessarily always find them.

And of course, I ask my wife about the things I've lost. When I mentioned the post to Blondie, she said the guy was arrogant, but that maybe the guy was right. I mentioned that McCain admits to being an atheist, although the guy didn't seem to know that. Blondie said she thought that might be true; she was pretty sure that McCain's was a marriage of convenience.

It's not only sad to lose something, and not be able to find them. It's also sad to have a sham of a marriage. My marriage with my first wife was rocky at times. At least we weren't bored, I figured. And although I hadn't heard of Randy Pausch, I apparently got instinctively what he spelled out in small words: your critics are the ones that still love you, and still haven't given up on you. They think you can do better. It's when they no longer say anything, that you know you're beyond hope.

That's what the McCain ads say. Obama's ads say "Hope". John's ads tell you not to hope for improvement, just to vote for McCain.

A faith of convenience. A marriage of convenience. He's given up all the principles that made me admire him in 2000. Politics of convenience. Instead of eating a peach fresh from the orchard, its juice dripping all over my chest, I feel like I'm being offered kool-aid. There's no there there. And I see others grasping for McCain, fearing Obama, and I realize that the Kool-Aid isn't even name-brand Kool-Aid, but the grape Flav-Or-Aid that they drank at the People's Temple.

A young, handsome, black man. That's how he was was described to me. Except that he's not a kid; he's in his late 40s. He's not handsome; he's got ears that make you think he could fly, given enough wind. And he's not black. He was born of a white woman, and raised in a white community by his white grandparents.

You don't have to say "nigger" to mean it. And there's nothing shameful in being called a nigger. The word means that you have a certain set of features such as fat lips and a wide flat nose (neither of which Obama has) and dark skin and nappy hair (both of which Obama DOES have). The word also means "my insecurities make me hate and fear you." If you think about it, it almost makes you feel sorry for the guy who uses that term.

But why would you pick up on that particular characteristic to describe someone. You could describe him as a Chicagoan, a community organizer, a Democrat, a father, a lawyer, a representative, or as Christian, athletic, well-dressed, polite, quiet, literate, earnest. Why call a man black, especially when he's not completely black, and there are so many other adjectives that are fully correct?

It's because you consider race to be particularly important. It's because you are a racist.

In 1950, even the best-intended adults warned their kids against miscegnation. It has nothing to do with your love for each other. Think of the kids. Interracial couples like Mae Britt and Sammy Davis Jr got everybody talking - and when movies like "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" were made, all the best-intended people went to see them, agreeing in principle, but still thinking, but what about the kids!

Going back a couple a centuries, our family had brothers who were Scotch Presbyterian ministers, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, the very frontier of this country.

At the time, Protestants were still trying to figure out how they should behave. Roman Catholic clergy had to take vows of poverty and chastity. (Just as a note, chastity simply means "not married" and the Roman Catholics have a long tradition of welcoming widowers with grown children into the priesthood.) Well, these brothers came up with a novel solution. They needed women to do things like cooking and cleaning, but they wanted to commit themselves fully to their ministries, so they took Mohawk squaws instead of marrying white women.

What about the kids? Well, when they grew up, they were too much a part of the white world to be welcomed into the Iriquois community, and too obviously crossbred to be a part of the white world. The only solution was for these first cousins to marry each other. Thus, my mother warned me, if I ever get in a fight and someone accuses me of being an incestuous bastard of a crossbreed, I shouldn't get mad, but simply explain that I come by it honestly.

Think of the kids. Well, enough kids were born in the 1970s and 1980s that today's kids don't think twice about what race someone is. They don't even notice. And that's one of the things that gives us the most hope for tomorrow's America.

But old geezers, those of us who remember those admonishments about miscegnation, think race is important. It's not. And when we act as if we think it is, we label ourselves as doddering old fools.

Speaking of Senator McCain, I've decided that Blondie is right about it being a marriage of convenience. He lives in Washington, she lives in Arizona, and they don't see much of each other. Their business, not mine.

But when the GOP makes noises that suggest we should be afraid of a man who seems to have a real, not a mock, marriage, a man who seems to have a real, not a lost, faith in God, a man who seems to have the ability to live in today's world, instead of having his staff print out emails because he's not capable of that, it makes me sad that I've been a registered Republican for the better part of a half-century.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
atheist - faith of convenience - generation gap - marriage of convenience - miscegnation - mohawk - politics of convenience