Obituary of Common Sense

This is a piece that was forwarded to me in an email. It contains obvious kernels of truth that belong on this blog. I attempted to search for the original author of this specific piece, but was unsuccessful. Here is the piece:

Obituary of Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Aspirin, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student, but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by three newly found relatives: I Know my Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I'm a Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

The Poems "Creed" and "Chance"

Here are two satirical poems written by the English Journalist, Steve Turner, that I first heard qouted by Ravi Zacharias during one of his presentations concerning the subject, "Can Man Live Without God?" The poems were apparently written in the 70's according to one source I found on the world wide web, but I did at one time find another source, which I cannot relocate, that said the poems were written in 1981.

I love these two poems because they so accurately and vividly describe and point out the prevailing illogical thought processes that you may tend to find in the "old media", from liberals, Atheists, Agnostics, and New Agers. The logic behind these poems are timeless. In the end the truth prevails because truth corresponds to reality. I hope to continue blogging in the spirit of these two poems by Steve Turner and continue to move the proverbial "ball" forward by adding more observations of similar illogical thought processes wherever I find them. To confine and limit my satire, my observations, to a few with prejudice and without being all inclusive in my criticisms without prejudice means that I have lost my right to be heard and taken seriously at all.

Here is "Creed" by Steve Turner:

*****

Creed

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone,
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy is OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything is getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in
horoscopes, UFO's and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man
just like Buddha, Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher
although we think His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same--
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of
creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied,
then it's compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson.
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
and the flowering of individual thought.

"Chance" a post-script

If chance be the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
and when you hear

State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.

*****

If these two satirical poems have wet your appetite for more material by Steve Turner, then here is a link to another book he authored called, "The Gospel According to the Beatles".

Why There is Hope for America

On July 4, 2007, I discovered an essay contest for Citizen magazine at the Focus on the Family's website. The topic was, "Why There is Hope for America." I felt compelled from the heart to write this 500 word essay, so since July 4th I have been working on this essay. I have finished it today and submitted it.

__________

This is the essay that I wrote:

Why There is Hope for America

by Mark O'Neil

The shores of America have always been a land of hope, hope of religious expression and freedom from Jamestown to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, hope of independence for thirteen colonies seeking to secure certain unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, hope of freedom and equality for Africans abducted and forced into slavery, hope of equal representation and opportunity for women as coequal partners with men, and hope of new beginnings and new opportunities for immigrants leaving the old world behind for the new. However, it was one foundational hope that made America great and from this one hope overflowed all the blessings and the expressions of the other hopes. The founding fathers of our nation expressed this foundational hope for our nation in these words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” For it is when men anchor their hope in their Creator who endowed them with certain unalienable Rights, that these Rights are realized as blessings to men from their Creator, and when men anchor their hope elsewhere, these same blessings suffer from less than the equal and full measure of expression among mankind.

Because hope in the hearts of good men may grow dim and the assurance it brings may be neglected by them, and because there are evil and ignorant men among mankind who have contempt for their Creator, for His obvious design for Nature, and who strive to do all within their limited power to deceive, corrupt, and destroy the hope of men, then we must be ever vigilant to cultivate hope in our Creator and the assurance it brings to the hearts of men. Therefore all men who earnestly seek to experience the equal and full measure of the expression of their Rights should fix the foundation of their hope with a sacred solemn covenant in Nature’s God. For when the People of a nation fix their hope in Nature’s God, then He will restore the blessing of experiencing the equal and full measure of the Rights with which He endowed to them. Therefore when God can find at least one man in our nation who is willing to firmly fix the foundation of his hope in the Creator then there is hope for America.

However, history has proven that not all men will heed the Patriot’s call of our founding fathers to entrust themselves to their Creator. Therefore we must continuously strive to keep the Patriot’s call of our founding fathers by fervently guarding the hope with which we were entrusted until the day the last Patriot is no more. When this day arrives, Nature’s God will intervene into the affairs of men to champion His own cause bringing to full fruition His designs for Nature and for the blessings He endowed to men.

_____

It was difficult for me to keep the essay within 500 words, because there was so much truth and context that I wanted to bring to this specific subject and that I felt everyone needed to hear. I obviously had more to say on the matter. However, the contest being what it is, this is the best I could do in the time and words allowed.

As an afterword, I based my essay upon the principles from the entire chapter of Jeremiah 35 with the blessing of the Lord in verses 18 and 19 in my mind. I also drew upon my general knowledge of God’s word, the Declaration of Independence, American history, and our national motto, “In God We Trust.” All these afore mentioned things were combined and written in a style to honor the heritage which our founding fathers passed on to us, their posterity, and to hopefully pass on these same things and this essay on to our own posterity.

4th of July, 2007

Thanks to the strong convictions, bravery, and faith of our forefathers and special thanks to Nature's God and His divine hand of providence and protection, we have freedoms and the blessings that flow from those same freedoms that very few other nations on this earth have ever known. It is with this same formula of character and divine intervention that we too can continue to hope to pass on these freedoms and blessings to our own posterity.

Happy 4th of July in the year of our Lord, 2007

Mark O'Neil

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.