Thoughts on Renewing Society

 At this point, I live in one of the biggest cities in the nation, Baltimore.  A few observations about living here have been going through my mind the past couple of weeks, and I wanted to just reflect on some of these thoughts today.  A couple of things led to me doing this, and I want to give a little background first on the topic.

I teach, as I have mentioned, at a Jesuit high school  As part of the Theology department at my school, I am aware that there are some of my colleagues who have more liberal outlooks than I do.  One of those is the 12th-grade Theology teacher, who is an older lady but she also for some reason does give me cause for concern based on some of her views.  She focuses a lot on race, "social justice," and other things, one of which is the whole discussion on what is called gentrification.  Gentrification is defined as "the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current residents in the process."  Gentrification has become a bogeyman of the political Left, and even this definition reflects some political bias in the way it is perceived.  There are several issues with how this is perceived, and I want to tackle those now.

Many of the opponents of gentrification are also the biggest whiners about so-called "climate change."  One would think that if someone is genuinely concerned about the environment, they might want to tackle urban blight.  However, in many cases that is not the case.  There is a real hypocrisy on the part of Leftists regarding these issues, and the appalling way they approach it reveals what their agenda is truly about.  While of course I would not advocate displacing anyone to make way for wealthier residents of a community, there are a couple of problems with the Leftist view.  For one, many of the Leftists who decry gentrification are themselve wealthy, often White, and they really have no concern for their fellow humanity.  Second, if they were really all that concerned about the environment, then urban blight would be a pivotal issue for them - it is not.  Third, the typical Leftist elitist has little concern about the plight of the lower-income citizenry of the city or about urban blight - their agenda dictates that people have to be divided, compartmentalized, and kept in squalor in order to make them dependent upon the "welfare state" so that they can maintain power.  This is why you don't see Leftists picking up trash in problem areas, and you don't really see any true charity on their part.  If they knew they could advance their own status, they would toss poor people out in a second, and in many cases, what is often called "gentrification" is exactly that - then, the same people use that BS to tell the rest of us that gentrification is somehow evil.  And, the way they do it, it is evil.  Let me go into more detail.

Urban blight is a big problem in Baltimore - there is trash strewn all over many neighborhoods in the city, and no one is attempting cleanup.  Even the "Adopt-a-Highway" programs of the 1980s and 1990s were killed by - wait for it - the Obama administration.  For all the fuss about so-called "climate change," I find it ironic that the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes, the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrens, as well as countless other swamp creatures in positions of power, want to regulate cow flatuence but have no desire to pick up trash in areas they supposedly represent.  If climate change were truly an issue (and believe me, it is just rhetoric for the career bureaucrats and politicians), then there would be a concerted effort to clean up neighborhoods in these cities like Baltimore.  Even the 11th graders I teach - all practically minority students - understand this, as they all have identified excessive trash as a big issue in their communities.  During the mornings when I am walking to the bus stop to catch my ride to work, I walk past a rowhouse on a major thoroughfare in my neighborhood where the basement entrance has been converted into a makeshift dumpster, and no one attempts to clean the crap up - I have also seen huge rats in the overflowing trash receptacles in the same area, and that increases the probability of disease.  So, where are the politicians addressing this?  That is urban blight, and it is a scandal for our society.  The primary people who are cleaning up communities are by and large conservative or libertarian Republicans, not leftist Democrats.  The Leftists are elitists and do not give a crap about the poor minority households in Baltimore or any other city.  All they do is use rhetoric to tickle the ears of people and rile them up unnecessarily over stupid things.  Enough is enough.

So, is gentrification bad?  It depends on perspective.  If it means cleaning up the communities, repairing homes, and encouraging economic growth for neighborhoods, then there should be no issues.  I mean, everyone deserves the chance to improve their communities, and that should be a primary goal.  However, if it means that rich White yuppie Leftists displace lower-income families in those neighborhoods so they can have yoga studios, marijuana dispensaries, and terrible coffeehouses, then that should be discouraged.  People should not be forced to be displaced, and that aspect of false "gentrification" is immoral and wrong.  And, for other leftists - like my colleague here at the high school I teach at - are so against gentrification, maybe they should put their money where their mouths are and propose something better then.  Maybe, such people should take a trash bag in hand and start picking up the garbage in those neighborhoods if they really care.  I mean, seriously, making people live in squalor to fight the false facade of "gentrification" solves nothing for nobody.  And that is the inconsistency and hypocrisy of many Leftists in their talking points.  So, let me give my own modest proposal of what needs to happen.

For one thing, people in the communities have a certain amount of responsibility to improve where they live.  Especially if they are investing resources into their own homes, they need to show some pride in their neighborhoods.  That means that cleanup needs to take place at a grassroots level, and a measure of responsibility should be endowed upon those who actually live in those communities.  Secondly, I have seen some encouraging things in some areas here - I am seeing some encouraging things in many communities such as community gardens, painted murals on buildings, and those little free library boxes for people to access free books. Some other measures that could be taken is community neighborhood watches to discourage crime (the epidemic of "porch piracy" is rife in many communities, and that needs to be controlled), community assistance programs to assist people having some challenges in those communities, and an easier process for people in the community to start local businesses to stimulate the economy.  Many Leftists oppose stuff like this though because these types of programs encourage self-sufficiency, and God forbid that vulnerable demographics do that!  It would wrestle control from Leftist bureaucrats and place it back in the rightful hands of the local communities. And, that would take power and wealth away from crooked elitist bureaucrats.  Why do you think so many of those swamp creatures are riled up over Elon Musk and DOGE?  There has been a lot of taxpayer money wasted on stupid things, and I applaud Elon cleaning house.  If anything, we need more of that, and also a more urgent sense of accountability in our governing structures.  Hopefully, Elon and President Trump can start a revolution to overthrow rich elitist bureaucrats and restore order and democracy to our nation.  It is time to bring the American Dream back, but in order to do that, we need to eliminate the architects of the current nightmare we have been facing.  A challenge awaits us. 

Any rate, those are my thoughts this week, so will see you soon.

The Backroads

 

I am writing again based on a dream I had last night.  In the dream, my mother was still alive and we were traveling on what looked like some back roads in my home state of West Virginia.  In transversing those roads, what was familiar in dreamland is often not reality once one wakes up, and in real life these roads and scenes technically don't exist.  As is the case with many backroads in my home state, there are turns, crossroads, and even jacknife-like turnbacks, and it was something I felt comfortable and at home with.  At one point, we came to a river in the dream - it looked so much like the South Branch Potomac and Cheat Rivers I grew up around.  In the middle of the river were two barge-like vessels, and there seemed to be an attempt to build a bridge.  The whole thing was quite interesting, and as I began thinking about it after I woke up, I began pondering if a meaning was there somewhere.  And, that is what I want to reflect upon today.

The enchantment of the backroads is an integral fact of life for those of us who grew up in West Virginia, and even on the peripheries of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia that border my home state.  You learn navigating those roads a bit differently from other types of travel, in that landmarks play an important role for local people.  You never say, for instance to turn on Route So-and-So when giving directions - you always say something like, "yeah, hang a left at that barn near the Shanholtz place, and then go to where that oak tree sits at the next corner.  Make a right across from the oak tree, and follow that road to the old Nestor place - nice place to pick blackberries, by the way - and then you will see where you need to go yonder past the old fence."  This is how I give directions pretty much now, and I understand that.  Sure, I know route numbers and streets and will utilize those if I need to (living in Baltimore you have to) but I also still try to identify landmarks where those turns are - for instance, to get from where I live to my work, you have to go down North Avenue and turn on Wolfe Street (funny story about that shortly).  But, for me, I look for the Lutheran church at the intersection, as that is where Wolfe Street is, and I take that all the way down to the courthouse at the corner of Wolfe and Monument Streets.  So, even in the city, I still navigate by landmarks just like I used to do on those dusty old backroads back home.  

Humorous side story about Wolfe Street here in Baltimore.  Wolfe Street is not the most impressive route to travel - it looks like a ghetto as many of the old rowhouses are boarded up, and at certain spots one even sees homeless people wrapped up in blankets sleeping under bridges and such.  However, a source of amusement to break the monotony of traveling that same route every day is the automated voice on the bus.  At every stop, a robotic female voice announces the intersections and transfers to other routes, and for the most part there is nothing spectacular about that.  The only exception is when the bus goes down Wolfe Street - the female robot says "Wolfe" in a flat, almost annoyed tone, and then goes back to the normal cadence of voice on "Street."  What is even funnier though is when she says transfers.  The bus routes that serve downtown Baltimore are not identified by numbers, but by colors - for instance, the bus that drops me off out here at the corner where the school is would be CityLink Navy.  The bus I usually take is local route 21, but it parallels another color bus, the CityLink Gold.  When the female voice announces an intersection and transfers, she sounds like a bubbleheaded Valley girl when she says "CityLink Gold," and likewise that is a source of amusement that makes me chuckle under my breath everytime I hear it.  Since I mentioned Wolfe Street, I wanted to share that little amusing anecdote of my travels.

Getting back to the backroads though, they are a part of my own story - I am used to them, have traveled on them and lived near them most of my life, and for me there is a comfort, an endearing charm, with the backroads.  In many of my dreams, I see backroads - of course, in the dream world, they look a lot different but still as familiar to me as the real things.  I am not sure of why I dream of backroads - is there a meaning to them?  I tend to believe there is, but haven't totally sorted it all out yet.  Many of the dreams I have had about backroads have usually been pleasant, and there is a sort of security in them.  It could be that those backroads in my dreams symbolize I am secure and safe despite other things, and they could also be a coping mechanism for stress - many dreams are after all.  I have dealt with my dreams many times before, and I always take them seriously - dreams are a window into one's soul, and also serve as a sort of email from God in some cases to convey messages.  The scenery you see in dreams more than likely doesn't exist in real life, but in the dream there is a familiarity.  What is freakier though is that at certain times in life, you will travel to areas that look almost identical to what you see in dreams - that happened a couple of years back when traveling in Pennsylvania as a matter of fact.  They call that deja vu, but although it does happen it is still a mystery why we see places like this in real life later that we vividly dreamed about.  And, again it is the backroads.  

The charm of a backroad lies in its ambience - it is peaceful, aesthetically appealing, and embodies its own mysteries.  Especially if walking down a backroad, it gives you time to reflect, and even express those reflections in self-directed speech because no one else is around and you can be out there without anyone bothering you.  The solitude is a good way to clear one's mind, which is probably why God allows dreams of them for me.  If you travel the back road enough, you get to know it like an old friend, and it becomes a part of you whether you intended it or not.  I still remember as a preteen and even during my high school years, how I walked those back roads looking for things to harvest like fiddleheads or wild garlic, or going fishing at a favorite hole in the creeks that often ran alongside those roads.  As a younger kid, it was not uncommon to stop at those creeks, take off my shoes, and wade around in them looking for crawfish and other critters.  The simplicity of doing things like that is a precious memory, and there are days I miss that a lot. 

The simplicity of life often gets lost in the routines of our busy lives, especially when living in a large city like Baltimore, where the only wildlife consists of either flocks of pigeons congregating over the coffee shop I stop at each day on Eastern Avenue, or the rats that occasionally dive in and out of the litter-strewn alleys near Greenmount.  And, the rush-rush-rush of punctual clock-in times, meetings, and other junk that clutters our life (often without necessity) makes us forget.  We feel an emptiness, like we know we were not meant for this, and day after day of the same boring routines can be depressing.  God provides us those dreams to remind us that life is much more beautiful than the circumstances we are forced into many times.  And, the backroads remind us that the congested city streets are not who we are, nor are they were life ends.  We are more than that, and God seeks to remind us even in the little things. 

I have spent much time rambling about all this, but in all honesty I needed to.  The routines of busy life - especially in a large city such as Baltimore - can burn you out.  I have been feeling very disconnected lately, and as if a part of me is buried, and I want to rediscover that.  Maybe God can show me how to, and there are reasons we have these feelings.  And, there are reasons we have the dreams when our eyes close as our head is nestled in the pillows.  Perhaps tapping into that somehow would be an answer to the depression, discontent, and misplacement we can feel sometimes, and figuring out how to bring it all together is the next step.  Maybe I can find that at some point. 

Thank you for allowing me to share today, and I will see you next week. 

Observations This Week

 I was trying to decide what my thoughts would be this week, as I originally was going to begin a series on Christian morality based on what I am teaching my 11th graders.  A good orthodox Christian morality is necessary these days, as there seems to be confusion about certain things.   It is easy, for instance, for some people to take a Christian virtue and twist it around to advance an agenda - Pope Francis is unfortunately a master of this manipulation.  A lot of things go through my mind as I think about this, so I am going to wait until I have something more substantial to begin a series on Christian morality - I am developing a curriculum based on Fr. John Kiely's 1924 book, Instructions on Christian Morality, and there are still about 3 full months of the academic year left yet.  Given I was sort of tossed into my teaching responsibilities in the midst of the school year, I am having to develop a curriculum by flying by the seat of my pants.  Fortunately, my principal was a big help, as he obtained a copy of Fr. Kiely's book for me, so that is a plus.  The course as a whole is called "Sacraments and Morality," and the way it is structured is the first semester of the year deals with the Sacraments, and I had a textbook for that thankfully.  The second part of the year deals with Morality, and that is where it gets tricky - I don't have an actual textbook for that aspect of it, so I have to work on the proverbial fly to create something for it.  The school I teach at also wants to inject "social justice" into the curriculum, but I am doing my own spin on that to deflect the Marxist flavor of that concept from messing with Magisterial teaching.  Let me explain that further.

"Social justice" is essentially a term for soft-core Marxism, and often it is couched in religious language to make it appeal to Church people.  This was a contribution of notorious Marxist agitator Saul Alinsky in the 1930s, and somehow he managed to get his ideas injected into the platforms of some notable Catholic authorities then, including Jesuit theologian Jacques Maritain, who was a good friend of Alinsky's.  Having been challenged by my own parish priest to be a "beacon of truth," I am going to teach justice the way it should be taught - it is a cardinal virtue, and in its proper context it does benefit society.  However, that orthodox understanding of justice often stands in contrast with the "Social Justice" rhetoric of some leftist Catholics, in that they are not the same thing.  For one thing, while racism is a indeed a sin (and very demonic in many cases), the problem with many "Social Justice" advocates is that in the name of supposedly fighting racism, they in reality substitute one type of racism with another.  This makes "Social Justice" very unjust, and let me give you a preview of my class notes just to make the point.

The Decalogue (Ten Commandments) are divided into two parts.  The first three deal with how we relate to God (piety), while the last seven deal with how we relate to each other (justice).  Jesus summarized the law in Mark 12:31, and for centuries this "Summary of the Law" was a part of many historic liturgies.  So what happens when we emphasize one of these but not the other?  If one exercises piety over justice, then the result is a rigid religious legalism that is short on grace and heavy on judgment.  This is a major flaw of Fundamentalists when they attempt to evangelize others, and also is a characteristic trait of nations such as Iran.  On the other hand, if one emphasizes justice over piety, it results in ultimate tyranny.  Some of the most evil and destructive regimes in history (Hitler, Stalin, etc.) started out as crusades for justice.  However, their view of "justice" was to eliminate those who they felt were unjust against them, and thus they ended up being much worse than the regimes they supplanted. Was Castro in Cuba, for instance, any better than Batista whom he overthrew?  Ask many Cuban ex-pats who live in Florida that I know.  Many of them did not come here during Batista's regime - most came after Castro overthrew Batista's regime.  Castro was of course Communist, and Communism is at its core anti-Christian.  So, the "justice" proposed by Castro and his ilk was not true justice, as it tried to divorce God from true justice, and that never works.  Trying to destroy God's order in anything will result in disaster - the sin of the Enlightenment, for instance, was divorcing faith from reason, which to that point were understood to be complementary and not contradictory.  Therefore, again, here are the two points of this:

1. Piety without justice is legalism.

2. Justice without piety leads to tyranny, not true justice.

The lesson here is clear - we need to stop screwing around with the natural order God has created, because it only ends in disaster.  If only some secularized liberal religious people would get this message, true renewal may happen in our Church.  However, in all honesty, I feel our Church is headed for a major schism soon, and if that happens I will always fall on the side of the orthodox, and not the liberal apostates seeking to conform Christianity to their images.  And, yes, that includes Pope Francis.  Pope Francis is a legitimate Pope, don't get me wrong.  But, he is also a very bad Pope, and he has inflicted damage on the Body of Christ that will end up costing souls.  It is the duty of every faithful Catholic to pray for guidance in this, and also pray protection over themselves, as the forces of evil are all about.  The field is full of tares, and to separate them from the wheat at this point may destroy the harvest.  That is why we need a perfect guidance from God to navigate the whole mess.  

Thank you for allowing me to ramble again this week, and I will look forward to visiting again next week.  

Dealing with Misplacement

 After battling a nasty bout of flu that kept me out of work for over a week, I am on the mend.   The infection is all gone but left me with a nasty cough that acts up if I get overheated, and I am ready to shake that as well.  Being in convalescence at home for a week, I became glaringly aware of the fact that I have been feeling discontented a lot lately.  I almost dread starting a day now in many cases - I am not thrilled with the house I live in, and my job can be challenging at times, and don't get me started on those bus trips!  Fortunately, in the last day or so there has been a bit of a turnaround, but I still have a bit to go.  I wanted to sort of talk about that today, as it really has a lot to do with many things that have happened in the past few months.

I am at heart a small-town guy - I do my best in a small town, and my values and other attributes I share have small-town influence and roots.  But, I find myself in the middle of one of the largest cities in the country, and it has been an adjustment.  The pollution, the population density, and so many other mess with my basic sensibilities, and as a result I find it hard to adjust at times.  Now, this is not my first time living in a city by no means - I lived in the Tampa Bay area for several years, and even faced a few of the same issues there, but not on this scale.  And, I also was extremely happy to move out of the cities too.  The cities have their benefits - the mass transit system, access to shopping and so many other things, and a higher level of salary for work - but they also are not ideal.  A city is ultimately a good place to do work and business, but not exactly the most ideal living place.  While in time things will either adjust or get better, it has been almost a daily challenge to exist recently and I am coming to terms with that.  

Of all the issues I face in urban living though, perhaps ideological issues are one of the toughest.  I am fairly conservative, a traditionalist, and I also embody the values of an older generation.  Often, in the middle of a big city such as this one, there are problems such as political and religious differences, and whereas in most of America I would be the mainstream, in the middle of the city I feel like a proverbial fish out of water.  Even the Catholic school I work at is somewhat divergent when it comes to how we view things, as many teachers tend to be more liberal than me and I am having to guard my convictions in order to prevent risking castigation by both the co-workers in my school as well as many of the students.  At some point there has to be a breaking point, but if one happens I want it to be as genial as possible.  Any rate, in many instances it is also a type of spiritual warfare, as I am contending often for my own soul and I feel that if I let my guard down on even the most subtle of deviations, I could risk issues.  That is one reason I am back to reading Watchman Nee's book again.

This week's discourse seems like rambling on and on, but I wanted to announce what I am going to be doing.  As I am charged with teaching a course on Sacraments and Morality, one huge challenge to that is the lack of a good textbook - I have had to fly by the seat of my pants to design a curriculum, and so far I have a decent one.  I am wanting to turn those notes into some blog article lessons, much like what I did when I taught the adult Bible studies at St. Mary's in Winter Haven years ago.  So, over the next few weeks, I will begin composing a series of articles that give basic lessons on morality, and in doing so I can also refine how I teach these things to 11th graders.  Therefore, next week we will begin that series.

Thanks again for allowing me to share this week, and will see you next time.

Recovery and Reflection

 As I write today, I am on the mend from a nasty bout of flu I have suffered with for the past couple of days.  It got me two days off work, and I was able to get some rest which was nice, although the miserable feeling of body aches and a nagging cough don't afford much.  It seems like a number of people at work were hit with the same thing too - many of the kids were out of school, and at least 7 teachers (including myself) called in yesterday.  I am thinking it has something to do with the sub-Arctic conditions we have had with our weather over the past several weeks - January has been one of the coldest months in a while on record, in at least 8 years.   The last time it was this chilly out was in 2017 at around this time, when Barbara, Mom, and I had just moved to Hagerstown from Florida.  I caught a nasty bout of the flu then too I recall.  I am starting to pine for Spring now - a little snow is OK, but this has been ridiculous.  Today it is a comfortable 46 degrees out, and my own temperature has stabilized at 98.8 - after at least two days of being over 100.  I am also preparing to eat my first full meal I have had in several days - the flu will rob your appetite, and I have been eating extremely light since Saturday.  So, I have a nice pizza on the way now to me which will be a good way to break the viral fast I have been compelled to be under.  While I was at home I had a lot of time to reflect - when I could, that is - and there are some things I want to share today.

To begin, starting last Thursday I re-watched both The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, two of the best mini-serial movies ever produced.  The last time I watched these was 3 years ago not long after Mom had passed away - it reflected my melancholy at the time in all honesty.  Being both a history buff as well as also just a major admirer of those movies in general, it was good to watch them again.  Being sick meant that I could binge-watch them over the course of the past three days, and so I did.  Both of these movies came out when I was still in high school, and they are based on two novels of the same names by Jewish-American author Herman Wouk.  I had attempted to read the novels too in high school but never managed to conquer them, although I plan on doing so soon.  I won't give you a synopsis of the books or the movies based on them, but what I wanted to do instead was reflect on the movies themselves and how they affect me personally.

In our weekly faculty meeting for our 11th-grade team last week, we did an icebreaker exercise that entailed naming what fictional character in a book or movie we would like to be.  I chose Dr. Aaron Jastrow from these two books/films.  Dr. Jastrow, who in the story is a prominent Jewish-American writer and professor, captivates me in that in many ways I am a lot like him too.  Like Dr. Jastrow, I embrace both my current religious identity as a Catholic, but also have strong ties to my religious past too.  It amounts to what I have taught for years that one's testimony is integral, and for someone to be truly Catholic, it is important to embrace what led to one's union with the Church.  This perhaps applies more to converts like myself, but it implications are potent when it comes to knowing oneself.  In the case of Aaron Jastrow, it led to his demise in a Nazi gas chamber at Auschwitz, and in perhaps one of the most powerful scenes of the entire movie, as Dr. Jastrow is in that chamber, stripped of all his clothes and minutes away from asphyxiation from the Zyklon B gas the demonic SS guards dump into the chamber, he is reciting the 23rd Psalm - The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want...  His dying words are an affirmation of his faith in God and his identity as a Jewish man, despite years of trying to reconcile with the society around him.  There is a valuable lesson in this, and I want to go for that now for us as Catholics.

I work at a Jesuit high school in Baltimore, and as it is well known, the Jesuits tend to be extremely liberal theologically.  The administration of the school right now is lamenting President Trump's securing of our borders and they are almost making a political statement out of it.  This is despite some faculty members saying that in regard to Catholic teaching, it should be jettisoned because of "education not indoctrination."  OK, fine - so then, why are they pushing political indoctrination then? I have yet to see any of the faculty at our school participate in March for Life or any other cause that extolls the Church's teaching on the sanctity of life, yet they are really pushing this immigration thing.  I am fully aware that we do have a high proportion of Hispanics in the student body, but in all honesty most of them were born here.  And, despite my reservations about the Biden immigration disaster, I am not necessarily against immigration either - just obey the laws doing so is all.  If Catholic hierarchs were really that concerned about immigration, then maybe what they need to do is help make illegals legal by following the law in this case.  And, that includes even Pope Francis, who with all due respect needs to shut up and stay out of the immigration debate in this country.  Like some others have said, if Francis is so concerned, then why not take them in at the Vatican then?  We all know the answer to that, and nothing will change.  Francis, for a positive, is old now, so thankfully his pontificate is soon to be over, and I hate to say it but good riddance when it is over.  A lot of faithful Catholics feel the same way about this too, and with legitimate reasons.  We need serious reform in the Church, but a reform that restores our Catholic faith.  Get rid of the politicians and pedophiles in the hierarchy and elect holy men of God who are true shepherds to be our bishops.  Give the Latin Mass back its status and stop punishing people for wanting to celebrate it.  And, be a voice for traditional values and not merely a political mouthpiece for billionaire oligarchs.  If all of this happens, the Church can be restored and reformed. But, it's a tall order. May God have the grace to make it happen for us.

The past several months have been a time of upheaval and transition for me, and I have needed to rethink so much recently.   Being in a somewhat oppositional environment workwise with some liberal CINOs I have started reflecting again on my own story - what makes my own faith in other words.  There are many things I do miss about my religious past - the Baptist conventions, Pentecostal campmeetings and revivals, and the Anglican synods I used to attend.  I also miss the beauty of Eastern liturgies too, both Catholic and Orthodox.  I even miss some of the eschatological talk and other things too, and although I don't believe like a dispensationalist anymore, admittedly there was a sort of appeal to their ideas, and those guys were prolific authors.  And, the Evangelicals of 30 years ago - they lost their fire too.  Back then they had some real cultural warriors - Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, Chuck Colson, etc.  Now, they are all gone.  Sure, the shells of their former ministries live on, but as commentator Michael Knowles aptly stated, the Evangelicals now have largely gone "squish."  It seems like in recent decades the mantle of cultural warrior has shifted to faithful Catholics, and we are even getting opposition in our own churches in many cases for it.  There is no doubt that a battle for the soul of the Church is taking place, and it's starting to look like the lines are drawn now.   Will there be a schism in the Church?  That remains to be seen, but as I have said many times, I will always side with orthodoxy and if a split happens, I plan on being with the orthodox side.  I do not know if saying all this would even put my job at a Jesuit high school at risk, but if I have learned one thing it is this - I have to stand for what is right.  If that costs me my job, so be it - I have lost far more in the past several months so I have nothing to lose.  Like Professor Jastrow, I am drawing my line in the sand, and it doesn't mean things will be easy for sure.  But, I also recall what Fr. Grassi said to me - be a beacon of truth.  And that I shall.

I could go on and on about all this today, but I feel this is sufficient for now.  I will hopefully have more lucid insights to share later, so be safe until next time.

Is This a New Era?

 It is January 20th as I write this - it is 26 degrees outside and we have MORE snow on the ground, and there are flurries blowing around out there now. I am off school today as it is Martin Luther King Day, and it is also the day Mr. Trump is being inaugurated as the 47th President of our nation - that births optimism in me, as the past four years under the senile old fool named Joe Biden were a nightmare.  Trump being back in office means so many things - it means a possible end to the runaway inflation, a drilling policy to tap into our own petroleum supply, and most importantly, an end to all the "woke" BS that most of the country is frankly sick of.  I feel very good about all this, and hopefully my good feeling has justification. 

This past week has been a crazy one - a corrupt postal carrier failed to deliver some of my packages, and I am in the process of getting him taken care of now.  Also, dealing with 11th graders can have its own challenges - you would think at their age they would not act like babies, but on Friday I had one that I wish I could have booted into Baltimore Harbor.  The kid - we will call him Zack to protect his identity - was just being plain obnoxious, and I had to report him to his parents as well as writing him up.  As a teacher, I am not overly enthusiastic about calling anyone's parents on them, but in some cases it is a necessity. Zack was one of those - he was loud, disruptive, and in all honesty I wish I had the power to expel his rebellious butt. He is one of a group of around 8 "problem children" I have in my first class of a day, and to be honest, this group is making me reconsider career options.  Thankfully though, for every jackass in a class there are also several kids who make teaching rewarding too, and I am happy for them.  Bottom line, teachers do have to earn their salaries, and often that can be an uphill battle. 

Along those same lines, let's talk about something else.  Baltimore, like every major city in the country, has a pollution problem, especially in largely Black neighborhoods.  When I walk down Greenmount Avenue to 25th Street to catch my bus to work of a morning, I noticed in particular a certain site that disturbs me.  Baltimore's signature "rowhouses" are found all over the city, and I actually live in one myself now.  Depending on the neighborhood, the typical rowhouse can either be a run-down and abandoned shell, or it can be a very beautiful residence.  The construction of many of these rowhouses incorporates a basement, and in many houses, the access to the basement is either via a stairway inside the house or an external entrance next to the front door.  One of the more deteriorated rowhouses over here on Greenmount has one of the external basement entrances, and to access it one descends a flight of about a dozen steps to the door.  At this particular house though, a bunch of irresponsible people have turned the stairway leading to the basement into a makeshift dumpster, and it is almost filled to the top with garbage.  No doubt there are rats around that area too, as the nasty garbage would naturally attract them.   Seeing that, as well as the streets littered with garbage in some neighborhoods as well as unsightly graffiti on many surfaces, I started to think about something that really could be a good campaign platform for a conservative political candidate.  Let me elaborate.

The Black community in Baltimore has for years voted overwhelmingly Democrat, and as a result, the city government here is dominated by Democrats.  Part of the Democrats' unpopular and unsuccessful agenda for decades has been the environment, including the hoaxes of global warming, climate change, etc.  You would think with such a "Green" platform and a huge Black voting base, these Democrats would be eager to clean up the garbage on the streets here.  Yet, it is precisely in Democrat-run cities that pollution is out of control (just like crime) and for all the talk of "climate change" from these career politicians, I have yet to see them clean anything up.  It also proves what a hoax the whole "green agenda" is - if they were really that concerned about it, they would be initiating cleanup programs all over the country.  However, we all know what it really is about for these Democrats - they want power, will say anything to get power, and once they get it, they don't give a damn. Even many Blacks in those certain neighborhoods know this too - so why do they keep voting these fools in?  Get promised a handout, and you will do whatever you are told when it comes to the ballot box.  Some Republicans are equally culpable on this too.  If they are really so interested in the environment, perhaps they should shut their mouths and get their lazy asses out and clean up the neighborhoods they claim to represent.  I just wanted to make that casual observation before I continue. 

Shifting gears a bit, I wanted to talk about something else that came up recently.  You know, as I get older I start noticing when people are dying off, and that has become glaringly obvious recently.  In the past month, we lost a former President (Jimmy Carter), two prominent Evangelical Protestant figures (prophecy writer Hal Lindsey and Gospel singer Nancy Harmon), some major celebrities (actresses Joan Plowright and Linda Lavin), and on a personal level a former associate pastor of a church I used to attend as well as one of my former professors have just passed away.  This also made me think about an inner commentary I wanted to touch on briefly here too. 

In the past 30 years, I have noticed some things about how different Christian denominations approach societal issues.  It used to be that it was Evangelicals who led the charge as cultural warriors - I still recall the days of stalwarts like Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy making a stand for religious freedom and moral reform in society.  But, as that generation of Evangelicals died off, so did the zeal and motivation that once drove them.  Nowadays, there are an increasing number of young Evangelicals who are on the political Left, and I am sure many generations of their pastors and leaders are spinning in the grave over it.  But, fortunately to fill that gap, there are more Catholics making a stand for the truth now.  I once heard someone on EWTN (maybe it was Raymond Arroyo?) remark that there are two types of Catholics today in society.  There are the Catholics who love the Church and stand for Tradition, and then there are the hierarchs and elitists in diocesan leadership who are more liberal in their views (including Pope Francis, which is frankly disturbing).  It is apparent that except for a few shining examples - Cardinal Burke, Archbishop Vigano, Bishop Strickland - the leadership of the Catholic Church is out of touch with what its people need and want.  I am seeing younger people crave Tradition, and it is such a wonderful sight to see well-dressed young men at Mass as well as young ladies wearing mantillas.  It is saying that something is happening, and it is the Holy Spirit I believe stirring those young people.  Their greatest opponents though are liberal Boomers who insist on "changing the Church with the times," and they are even popping up at Catholic schools saying "education and not indoctrination" when it comes to orthodox Church teaching, yet they then will spout their DEI and other "woke" agendas - that sounds more like indoctrination to me.  I see it among some faculty at the Jesuit high school where I teach, and to be honest I was a bit unsettled when I heard this stuff.  The good thing though is that there is a positive turn toward orthodoxy and Tradition in the Church, and in time I think that Francis and his agenda will be sidelined in history just like Arius was in the 4th century.  We see it in the general population too - there is a reason why Trump is back in the White House now, and our nation has spoken as to what it wants, and Trump is the guy many people think will deliver.  This turn back to something decent is encouraging, but for now the war still rages although our enemies are losing a lot of ground.  It marks the beginning of a new era, both for the Church and for America.  And, may it continue to move forward as we reclaim so much that was lost. 

That pretty much concludes my immediate thoughts for the week, although I am certain I shall have more to say later.  Have a good week, and will see you next time. 

The Thoughts of the Week

 As I write this today, it is on a Monday and I am home.  I was feeling a bit under the weather over the weekend and took a sick day from work.  Dealing with the handful of snarky high school juniors I teach in my first class was just not something I was up to today.  I am not sure what happened to me, but starting yesterday morning I was nauseous, lightheaded, and having headaches - I know I don't have a viral infection, as I was not congested, so not sure what is going on with that.  While I am feeling a little better today, I figured it might be a good idea to take it a little easier.  

Also, as I write this I am in the process of upgrading a few things in my home now.  I got a new compact mini-desktop computer and am in the process of hooking that up.  I have to wait for a VGA adapter to be delivered in a short while to get the monitor hooked up, but everything looks like it will be pretty easy to connect.  Technology has come a long way since the days of clunky monitors, large computer operating towers, and floppy discs - in a fraction of the space now, you can have all that same convenience, and I personally think that is a good thing.  And the flash drive - that is a genius invention!  You can save so much on those, and I have a boxful of them with practically all my documents as well as books, videos, music, etc., preserved.  While on a more comprehensive scale I am a bit wary of technology (AI, for instance, is a prequel to transhumanist eugenics, so I don't see much good coming from it), I also understand how integral it is to have technology these days.  The fact it is now more compact makes it even more appealing.  Now, if only all these damned wires could go away - those are the biggest pain.  I spent the better part of a morning detangling a mess of cords, earpieces, and other stuff that I had in a basket under my old computer desk in Hagerstown but now is in a drawer.  There were cords to things I don't think I even have anymore, and in all honesty, I question the wisdom of keeping a lot of them.  But, I keep a few on hand just in case - you never know when something like that may come in handy.  Technology then is a necessary evil - I wish there was less of it, but so much also depends on it now. 

Getting rid of my desktop - after dissassembling it and taking out the hard drive and the disc drive - was a mixed feeling.  On one hand, it does symbolize the end of the old and the emergence of the new, but on the other hand it symbolizes the same thing.  That is both a positive and a negative in other words.  With so much that has happened in the past few months, I am still digesting a lot - it could be why I was having a few physical problems that led to me taking off work today. Losing a lot of stuff at our old house, then having Lily pass away on me, as well as having to rehome my rabbit Zoe and my birds, was a lot.  Thankfully, I was able to salvage a core of my life and it is safe in a storage unit in Martinsburg, including all my most precious items such as memoirs and the core of a music collection I can begin rebuilding upon.  However, I have days where I just feel a bit overwhelmed coping with all this, and it does wear on me at times.  God is in everything right now, and I have seen his hand at work, but it still is a lot to adjust to.  I am slowly getting a number of my books back though, and now have about a shelf of them.  I know I will never get the library I used to have back, but I can get some important volumes that will aid in my research.  Until I get a permanent place and get out of just living in a rented room though, I am being prudent about how much I actually get.  The less complicated an imminent move is, the better.  New beginnings lead to good places in life, but my goodness, they are not always easy.  Any rate, I felt like sharing that today.

There is still much to sort out, and as I do so I am sure that I will start to see the bigger picture.  And, I will continue chronicling those developments here.  Thank you for allowing me to share, and will see you next time.