Remembering Unity

My experience living in hurricane territory is that, when God wants to get the attention of people in the Gulf Coast—to turn them toward Him and to get them to serve one another—He sends a hurricane. We had a big awakening call in 2017 with Hurricane Harvey, so we were all relieved last month when Hurricane Laura took an eastward turn and missed us entirely—putting us in the preferable position of offering help, instead of suffering the need for help.

Nineteen years ago, a catastrophe brought us together. The whole country. We were temporarily unified—in a good and positive way in the wake of suffering.

So, looking back on that 9/11 catastrophe nineteen years ago, what did unity look like?

"Out of the Ashes," by Ken Turner

Earlier this week, one of my favorite artists, a friend, Ken Turner, shared his different versions of “Out of the Ashes” on Facebook—my favorite 9/11 image, which I share with friends every year at this time (and I carry a small copy with me that he gave me after a tour of his studio many years ago). He was originally commissioned to do the painting by Randy Dean (I think that’s the former NY football player) “to commemorate the loss and heroic sacrifices that took place on 9/11 and the weeks following.” Ken finished the painting about four months after the event.

There are various giclee versions (high quality original-like copies). There are three of the original version. One went to the FDNY (Fire Department of New York), one to Reagan International Airport, and the third hangs in the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library in Texas.

But when the painting was revealed at a reception in New York City, there were requests for additional versions. The NYPD (New York Police Department) asked Ken to paint a flag raising specifically for theirs, which now hangs in their museum.

NYPD version of "Out of the Ashes, by Ken Turner

And the Port Authority Police requested that he add, among the crowd in the painting, the faces of some of the 37 of their officers who died that day; he was able to include 10 of them. That giclee hangs in their headquarters.

When I look at this painting—any version of it—I remember. Not just the horror of the day, but the resolve, the unity, and the love that followed. People got in their cars and drove across the country to NYC, and stayed for days or weeks, working to rescue, clear debris, and do whatever they could to help. People set up funds, and offered love and support in any way they could find. We all said we would never forget.

I have briefly visited New York, but I don’t think I could adapt to that foreign land today. Large numbers have never even met a conservative (that they’re aware of). They define people like me—a person who loves the freedom, prosperity, and civilization that come from a righteous people following our Constitution in a free economy—as hateful, racist, bigoted, and whatever other label for evil they tack on at any given time.

They don’t remember how we loved and prayed and cared for them in their time of need.

Particularly we all—Americans everywhere, and many people around the world—honored and respected the police and firefighters of NYC who responded to help, running toward the danger, and some of them giving their lives.

Ken Turner says the title “Out of the Ashes” was given to the painting by Randy Dean, who commissioned it. But, in Ken’s mind there was always a subtitle: “No Greater Love Has Man Than This.”[i]

They deserve honor. Not just for that day, but for every day when they have put on the uniform and gone out to risk their lives in service of the people. These first responders do that all over the country.

But today, instead of being honored, they are maligned and defunded, even in one weird city in Texas.

A response to the Austin, TX, decision to defund their police.
KXAN photo/Richie Bowes, from here

There’s something really heartbreaking about seeing people this far apart, people who were unified, at least for a time, after that unforgettable date. And now we can’t even agree that what the police do is a good thing. As on 9/11, the enemies of civilization tear down and destroy. Then the truly civilized come in to rescue and clear away the debris.

These are irreconcilable differences, unless there is repentance—a change of heart and a change of direction—from those doing the hating, and the destruction in cities across the land. We can’t compromise with their evil.

Tough times, even catastophes, are all around us. That can mean simply ongoing pain and misery, or that can mean a reminder to turn to God, in a spirit of repentance.

I expect if someone is so far gone into savagery that they loot, and destroy, and even kill, and then call that good, they might not wake up in the face of real suffering. But for those who will turn to the side of good and light, I pray they will come to that side with an absolute minimum of apocalyptic suffering.

We don’t want another 9/11 like that one in 2001. But, whatever comes, people on the side of good and light—and the police, as a profession, are among them—will run toward the danger to help. It’s who they are.

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[i] John 15:13. 

Civilization Values Part VI: Repenting as a Civilization

We’ve been doing something of a civilization primer series here of late. Civilization requires valuing God, life, family, truth, and property—which is shorthand for the Ten Commandments. Part I of this series was on Life; part II was on Truth; part III was on property ownership. Next up is valuing God, in three parts of the series. Part IV was on Freedom of Religion, and part V was on defining Civilizing Religion. 

Today’s part VI is on turning a society away from savagery and back toward civilization. For individuals we call that repentance. So, what does repentance look like for a society?

We just did a road trip by way of Colorado and the Continental Divide.
The hairpin turns, making sharp changes in direction
 and heading upward, are a good metaphor for repentance.

I can describe what it looks like. I don’t pretend to know how to initiate it, to get it underway. But I think civilization is something most people prefer to savagery. When the chaos gets intolerable, people want something better. It has happened at times, historically. Phases pass. The world domination attempts of the past century were quelled, although possibly not wiped out forever. But good people stood up and fought for freedom, prosperity, and civilization, rather than succumb to tyranny, poverty, and savagery. We could catalog a few such turnaround examples, but we’ll save that for another day beyond this series.

My hope is that we don’t need to reach a near rock bottom before turning upward.

As in the past several posts, the material below is from the Spherical Model website, Civilization vs. Savagery section, published there in 2010.

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Converting from Savagery to Civilization

As we find our society decaying further and further south into Savagery, the question is, what can we do to get back to Civilization? Repent. In religion, when you have sinned (committed an act that doesn’t qualify as civilized), you as an individual must follow a process to get out of the dishonorable position.

·       Recognize that you have done wrong—get past denial.

·       Confess that you are wrong (depending on situation, this may need to be public).

·       Make restitution. (Include your plans to make restitution when asking forgiveness of anyone you have wronged, which is part of the confession step.)

·       Change your way of thinking to prevent yourself from falling into the negative behavior again, and then live honorably from this point onward.

Steps aren’t that different for a society that needs to repent. When society has been going the wrong direction and decaying, it needs to recognize the wrong, then admit the wrong, make restitution, and then change and continue on the new path.

Society repents when a critical mass of individuals in the community take the necessary steps to change. When one person changes, that is a beginning. When an entire family changes, that family becomes a civilized societal unit. When that family joins with other families that have chosen to give up savage behaviors and continue with civilized behaviors, that becomes a larger civilized society. When a strong majority of families in a community choose civilization, they can benefit the large society and pull it upward, and have the strength, then, to separate out the savage actors, so that the civilization is no longer at risk of being decayed by them.

At every step it is a matter of choosing. Government cannot force Civilization on a people, so the solution isn’t governmental intervention. The role of government is, at the lowest possible level, to support people in protecting their hard-won Civilization. It has to be the Civilized people themselves who set the standard for living among them. A family has that right. A church has that right. A school has that right. And as you get larger, when the strong majority, a critical mass, choose to live in a civilized way, they can set law—as a municipality, a city or county, and a state. Civilization can only happen at a national level when the lower levels have already made the changes.

family illustration found here

The good news is that you can enjoy many the benefits of Civilization in even the smallest unit—the family. When parents and children live together in peace and love, adhering to the requirements of Civilization, they benefit. Beyond the family, the benefits grow as larger units become Civilized, but a single family in and of itself can flourish. So helping our own family, and then preserving the concept of family, is where most of us should be spending our energies. We’re almost ready for “Family is the Basic Unit of Civilization.” But first, let’s go through a reminder list (incomplete, as any list must be) of what civilized people will and will not do.

Civilized Behaviors

·       Civilized people work to support themselves and their families.

·       Civilized people welcome children into their family with rejoicing and commit to nurturing the child physically, emotionally, educationally, and spiritually to ensure that the next generation remains civilized.

·       Civilized people will give freely from their surplus wealth and time to help shore up people going through hard times.

·       Civilized people are honest in their dealings with others, in business and in personal relationships.

·       Civilized people are peacefully law-abiding in a community with fair, people-led laws.

·       Civilized people don’t get intoxicated or use recreational mind-altering drugs.

·       Civilized people never attack their civilized neighbors in anger, nor provoke their neighbors. If there are disputes, they work them out, with the help of courts if other negotiations fail to resolve.

·       Civilized people do not have sex outside of marriage. Once married they remain faithful and committed for life. When there are marital problems, they seek help to work through the problem, rather than leaving the marriage, as long as the spouse has not committed serious uncivilized acts that might not be recoverable: adultery, addiction, abuse (specifically defined), or abandonment.

·       Civilized people never participate in pornography, neither in production, dissemination, nor use. All aspects of pornography are savage.

·       Civilized people never even consider prostitution, as every aspect of the practice is savage.

·       Civilized people never even consider committing a sexual act that is not mutually desired; i.e., rape, incest, child abuse are nonexistent among civilized people. The acts can only be committed by a savage, and every effort should be made to keep such savages from having freedom to commit their crime within the civilization.

·       Civilized people will not allow uncivilized behavior among them; they hold people accountable. Depending on the uncivilized act and the willingness of the perpetrator to repent, being held accountable could include lawful punishment, ostracism from some segments from society (excommunication from a church, for example), limitations in employment (people shacking up together, for example, could be limited from having teaching or other positions that influence children), or simply a stern correction followed by an offer to help change.

·       Civilized people are quick to forgive the repentant, but never by releasing the wrongdoer from making restitution; both the person repenting and the society require the restitution to prevent Civilization’s decay.

One thing about a repenting society: it’s done by a critical mass of individuals doing the necessary repentance in their own lives. I have control over my own life. Maybe I have some influence over a small circle. I can share ideas that might help a larger circle. I pray it happens soon. My tolerance for savagery is low.

Upcoming is the remaining portion of the series, on valuing family. My guess is it will take more than one additional post.

Hitting Bottom

A few years ago I had a rather ridiculous accident that has provided me much metaphorical use. The short version is that I have finally been forced to give up any lifelong dream of becoming a firefighter.

It was a homeschooling lobby day at the state capitol—one of the best field trips ever. My daughter had a friend who lived near Austin, where we were having dinner before the three-hour drive home. The house happened to have a fireman’s pole, just for fun. Sort of like the Jonas Brothers on their TV show at the time. I was curious to see it, but I had pictured looking at it from the bottom. Instead, I ended up following the young people up the stairs to see it from above.

I had no interest in using the thing, even when the kids all tried it and landed quite safely below. But my daughter incorrectly assumed I needed the "fun and exciting" experience. I was not firm enough. I explained reasons I felt it was not safe for me to do it—and they kept addressing my concerns, one by one. So, while I don’t know if you could call it peer pressure, since I was an adult and should have known better, I gave in and tried sliding down.

As my husband said later, “You failed to do the math relating to upper body strength versus lower body weight.” True, but probably could have gone without being said to a suffering wife. I went down hard, about as fast as if I had just fallen. I knew immediately I’d hurt my ankle. But at first (and for a couple of weeks) we thought it was probably just a bad sprain. It was swollen and purple right away. I felt more than just a little stupid for having done such a thing when I should have known better. In my defense, I’m the first person, including adults, to have been injured on this fireman’s pole, and they had had parties with dozens of people, young and old, trying it out. I’m just special that way.

The thing is, I knew immediately that I’d made a really bad decision. I even said to my daughter, “I know what repentance is all about; I really really wish I had never done this stupid thing.” And here’s another thing I know about myself: I learn fairly quickly from experience. I even learn from other people’s experience, and from reading or other forms of literature. I am not someone who needs to learn the hard way.

Nevertheless, I had a walking cast for two weeks, when the first x-ray showed nothing. When it didn’t heal, I got a better x-ray with an orthopedist and learned it was broken, in the talus joint, where it was hard to see. I didn’t have to have surgery, fortunately, but I did have a cast that required elevation (and thus a need for a wheelchair) for eight weeks, followed by another five weeks with a walking boot, and several months of physical therapy. And now, almost four years later, I’m aware that there’s some minor permanent damage.

Sometimes the consequences for our actions need to be serious, even if we’re sure they are too harsh.

There are many ways this can be a metaphor for our world. But, for now, I’m thinking economics. For many of us individually, we can see that profligate spending and unmanageable debt will lead, at some point, to financial failure, possibly sudden and seriously painful. If you spend money that is unsupported by wealth, you will fall and land hard. And when you hit bottom, it might take a long time to heal. You will lose wealth-building time, an opportunity cost, in addition.

But once you realize you’ve hit bottom, when you feel the sudden sharp pain, you get very interested in taking the necessary care to bring about healing. Not everyone, apparently, has that natural reaction, however. Things are made worse when someone hits bottom and thinks, “That wasn’t so bad,” and doesn’t change behavior. Who would do that? Someone who’s drunk or otherwise mentally impaired, maybe. Someone who can’t or won’t perceive reality. In economic terms, someone perhaps drunk with the power of spending other people’s money. Someone who has never been held accountable for the reckless behavior.

The question of our time is, how do we get the monstrously insensitive “government” to stop spending money unsupported by wealth? To stop leaping off an economic cliff that has already resulted in a 5-year economic malaise including at least two credit rating downgrades?

I have seen a few people in my life who have hit bottom—well beyond what I would consider hitting bottom. But, for them, the gravitational crash isn’t hard enough to convince them to change their behavior. They somehow think, “I can endure this; it’s not that bad.” I’ve seen that happen to a loved one who went through several attempts at alcohol rehab, lost the right to drive (re-wired the car to avoid the breathalyzer), lost family, friends, jobs, health, and finally died of liver failure. Nothing ever felt like a hard enough landing to permanently change behavior. I’ve seen a friend’s child go through several years of youth rehabilitation camp, prison, loss of family, mental institution, more rehab, and using people who care about him to keep him off the street—and the result is still, “It’s not that bad; I can handle it without actually changing.”

Economically speaking, what I’m afraid of is that, what I see as already hitting bottom is considered “not that bad” by enough people that the country as a whole moves inexorably toward more pain—until things get so uncomfortable that finally people wake up and say, “Oh, now I get it; we can’t keep spending like this when we don’t have it.” The sooner the better. Repentance—turning 180 degrees to the right direction—is hard and requires possibly a fair amount of painful rehabilitation, but is very much preferable to more serious falls or death (bankruptcy or worse?), which is the ultimate bottom to hit.