“Ours Is Not to Reason Why”
“Ours is but to do or die.”
This proverbial saying means it’s not our place to question orders, processes, or requests. Instead, we must cooperate without question, even if there is a threat to our lives or a potentially bad outcome. It originated in the 1854 poem The Charge of the Light Brigade written by the UK poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Without hesitation I suggest that’s exactly what it seems our federal government expects of us ‘ordinary’ people.
As we watch patriotism become ‘outdated’ as a part of being a US citizen, there’s some of us with a number of questions as to the “why’s.”
As I peruse the issues and what our government is doing, I struggle to understand how these policies and EO’s benefit America’s citizens, our economy or our national security. Ergo, why? There must be an answer otherwise why do it?
Here goes.
Our schools are teaching kids to dislike, even hate, this country as everyone is divided into groups of oppressed and oppressors – the victims and the perpetrators. Antisemitism is being taught in some of our most prestigious universities. Why?
With the current federal leadership and bureaucracy we have launched a full-out campaign that in but a few years we’re to eliminate the use of fossil fuel for basically everything we do, from cooking food, to driving a car, to electricity generation. Why? And why so quickly?
Electrical generation is to be exclusively done by wind and solar, but the nuclear option, the cheapest method, is not considered. Why?
The southern border is wide open as immigrants from poorer countries and circumstance simply walk in. The volume of immigrants is so high border states and “sanctuary cities” are strained to their financial limits. There’s no reason given for the national current policy and Congress is apparently weak-kneed to do anything about it. Why? Why the policy in the first place and why is nothing being done about it?
The streets/sidewalks of some of our major cities are lined with cardboard boxes and makeshift tents which are home for the ‘homeless.’ Anyone with eyes can see the drug paraphernalia strewn about, the blurred dignity, public defecation, and the ugliness these people bring with them. Why? These people are not only allowed to, in effect, put the businesses they now front out of business, but some locations even require young school children to pass through them to attend school. Why? Everyone knows these people have no right to do what they’re doing, because with rights go responsibilities – to themselves and others. Why is this allowed?
With the 1619 Project, CRT and DEI we’re supposed to revert to a time in our history when standards of today were not met and consider reparations and admissions of guilt for some ancestors being racist in the past. Why? Why is this stuff allowed – even encouraged at a time when the laws and attitudes have changed to correct past discrimination and deficiencies? Why am I liable for my great grandfather being a bigot? The current Secretary of Transportation even calls many our envied national road system racist. Why?
The US has adopted Ukraine in its war against Russia sending over $100B in money and military equipment. And apparently we’re not done. Why? Ukraine is and has never been a US ally. It has a history of corruption which is why it likely will not be brought into the NATO alliance, and we’re borrowing money so it can fight Russia. Why? When Russia usurped Crimea from Ukraine several years ago, we did nothing. Why now?
In peacetime we’ve never seen government spending explode like it has in the last 15 or so years. Why? What is so pressing as to warrant sending our debt way past our GDP with no end in sight? Why deliberately cause an eruption in inflation by spending so much more than expected revenue? Who profits? Why?
Abortion apparently is an issue many people rally around – one side or another. Why should it be a national issue? We are still a republic, a union of states, and States have the right to legislate their own policies on abortion access and execution. If anyone’s state situation doesn’t fit their desires, there’s nothing stopping them from crossing a state border to be treated differently elsewhere.
Crime. The country has seen its crime statistics escalate exponentially with lax or even nonexistent consequence for the criminals. What fool thinks not enforcing the laws makes it better for cities and neighborhoods? Why would any rational person think this way? Further, why would anyone interested in citizen safety and protection want to ‘defund the police?’ Meanwhile, we have organized looting which in CA, for example, is a misdemeanor – not a crime – if individuals are caught with less than $900 in stolen merchandise. Why?
Political parties, especially the Democratic Party, seem to think everyone is part of a ‘group think’ scenario. It apparently doesn’t matter what a Party or any member thereof does or says, the political party elites rally around actions by groups and individuals, whether criminal or otherwise. Why? Our economy, our wellbeing, our safety, our ability and aptitude to excel, our opportunities, our ‘pursuit of happiness’ are not tied to our affiliation with a political party. All political parties in America should have those goals at the forefront of everything they do. With the voters now approaching a majority of registering as Independent you’d think the political parties would take a pause to reflect.
I could go on, even expand those situations cited, but you get the message.
“Ours IS to reason why.”
It’s time we voters start practicing it.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
SPIDER Bites
This week’s trivia question: What is the only edible food that never expires? (The answer is not hard liquor) The answer to last week’s question of which science deals with the motion of projectiles: Ballistics. It’s the science of the field of mechanics concerned with launching, flight behavior, and impact effects of projectiles. Those projectiles can be anything from stones, bullets, rockets, and spacecraft. My readers with military experience knew the answer offhand.
Here’s one to forget. In January the San Francisco mayor/city council appointed their African American Reparations Advisory Committee. It proposed a lump sum of payment of $5 million to every eligible black American in the City by the Bay, plus – the elimination of all personal debt, guaranteed annual income of $97,000 for black residents for 250 years, and providing homes for black residents at a price of $1 each. Well, since then the mayor and council found themselves needing to cut $75M from the budget. So, not only is the Committee’s estimated $175B recommendation nixed, but the Reparations Committee itself is also eliminated. What a pity! After all that hard work.
While that was happening, New York’s governor signed a bill creating a commission tasked with consideration of reparations for slavery.
87-year-old Pope Francis approved priests ‘blessing’ for same sex couples last week. To receive the Catholic sacrament of matrimony the Church still requires it between a man and a woman.
A tape of sex between two men in the Senate Hearing Room was aired on the internet last week. Probably like you, I don’t care about the what, but I do care about the where. A senator’s staffer was relieved of his job. Good riddance. Get a room!
Anti-Semitism continues raising its ugly head around the country. It’s beyond belief. Meanwhile, college students continue their assault on Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip to the October 7 barbarism by Hamas, citing civilian deaths in Gaza. Hello! In addition to hoarding UN humanitarian aid in the Strip, Hamas is apparently using civilians as human shields against the IDF, then counting the civilian dead as an argument to be used by the media for an Israeli cease fire.
I don’t know whether to classify this as ignorance or stupidity. Maybe both. I saw a NYC protest sign last week that read: “Queers for Palestine.” They should move to just about any Mid-East, Arab country and see how long they can keep their heads attached to the rest of their bodies.
Here’s an argument for zero man-made CO2 in the atmosphere – immediately. Iceland experienced a gigantic volcanic eruption last week. That coupled with the onset of the 11-year solar storms cycle that shifts the polarity of the sun’s magnetic field that can punch out through the surface, sending the sun’s plasma into outer space and potentially triggering storms on Earth. If we’d all just buy an EV, things would get back to normal – whatever that is. But surely volcanic activity would stop and the sun would behave the way some people think it should.
Half of Americans don’t have a garage to charge EVs. So, here’s a Biden slogan for the 2024 election: “An $750 outdoor charging station for every home.”
I can’t fathom how/why the Colorado Supreme Court last week ruled Trump could not be on the ballot in the state because of the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. I didn’t know Trump was convicted of, much less formally charged with, insurrection re: January 6, 2021. Law is now dictated by Party politics?
