Reflections on God … Man … Life
Opinions on contemporary political happenings and the workings of civil government.
Last week I introduced “Snyderian Truisms.” These are comments I’ve been making in class for quite some time, so I decided to turn them into official truths that I believe are undeniable. The first one was “Since God gave you a brain, He undoubtedly expects you to use it.” I give that one to my students in my American history survey courses on the very first day of class. Hopefully, it gets their attention and lets them know my expectations… Read more »
Someday, we may be able to leave the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case behind us. I know I’m tired of it. Yet it depends on whether others are willing to let it go or whether they are more invested in promoting racial disharmony. We are supposed to be citizens of the United States; we should all be identified as Americans. But what do we see? There is a concerted effort to divide us by ethnicity, gender, age, and whatever new category… Read more »
I’ve made pretty clear in my last two posts that I don’t think race had anything to do with the events on the night Trayvon Martin was killed. Yet we are now mired once again in racial tension over the verdict in that trial. America doesn’t need this. We’re already a severely divided nation; this only increases that divide. Unfortunately, there are some who want to foment unrest over the trial’s outcome. One of the premier agitators is the Rev…. Read more »
Yesterday I mentioned the three groups most responsible for ramping up the racist angle in the Zimmerman-Martin case. The Florida prosecutors and the perpetually aggrieved, self-identified civil rights activists who are still living in the middle of the twentieth century were two of them. I believe, though, that the third group—the mainstream news media—was the catalyst for all the trumped-up drama we’ve witnessed. Right from the start, the media played this tragedy as a racial thing, as if this one… Read more »
I deliberately held off saying anything more about the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin media event until after the verdict had been reached. Now that Zimmerman has been declared not guilty by the jury—that includes both the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges—here is what I take from the drama that has mesmerized a large number of our citizens for weeks. First, it appears the jury did its duty. This was no snap decision; the six women that comprised the jury took plenty… Read more »
The United States has had an attorney general ever since George Washington’s administration. The role of the attorney general always has been to enforce the laws of the United States and prosecute those who break the laws. The goal, from the start, was to provide even-handed justice, without showing favoritism or partiality to one’s political party. Of course, not all attorney generals carried out that task with great honor, particularly during times of highly partisan political warfare. Yet the aim… Read more »
Anyone remember something called the Arab Spring? That was as inaccurate a name as Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China. There was no voluntary union of Russia and the nations it subjugated, and they certainly weren’t republics—representation and the rule of law were both negated. In China, the people aren’t really running anything, but it sounds nice to call it the People’s Republic. And again, it’s not really a republic. Neither was the Arab Spring… Read more »