Stuck At the Intersection of God and Life

In the time in History when there was no King in Israel the Bible says that every man did what was right in his own eyes.

In today’s Christian movement it seems that we want to boycott every other business or investor who makes a stand in support of a group of people that we disagree with. I would like to use the example of Mr. Howard Schultz, CEO of the Starbucks Corporation. He was harshly and, in my opinion, rudely challenged by an investor with very conservative morals and very loose Christianity if any. I won’t focus on the comments to Mr. Schultz, but rather on Mr. Schultz’s response. He said,

“Not every decision is an economic decision. Despite the fact that you recite statistics that are narrow in time, we did provide a 38% shareholder return over the last year. I don’t know how many things you invest in, but I would suspect not many things, companies, products, investments have returned 38% over the last 12 months. Having said that, it is not an economic decision to me. The lens in which we are making that decision is through the lens of our people. We employ over 200,000 people in this company, and we want to embrace diversity. Of all kinds.”

I would like to pose a question to my Christ following friends. How on earth could Mr. Schultz have responded any better or any more polite given his decision making criteria? While I disagree with his financial support, I applaud Mr. Schultz response. I applaud his love for people of all kind, I applaud his business acumen, and I applaud his professional demeanor in the face of harsh statements.

May I remind us all that Christ did not come to this world to condemn this world, but that the world through him might be saved. The failure in this country morally is primarily a failure of Christians. We have been intimidated by laws like the separation of church and state which was put in place to keep the states from setting up one religion as the only religion which a people may practice. We have been intimidated into feeling like we can’t worship God in public. We have been intimidated into trading our moral compass for a politically correct GPS. We are the ones responsible for dethroning the King in Israel, so how can we expect anything more than what we have today?

 If we can start loving people like Christ did, if we can start introducing the King to the people, I think he can do a pretty good job showing them his investment preferences. I will promises you this though, if any of us truly allowed the King to reign in our hearts we wouldn’t be boycotting groups, telling the darkness that it is dark, or hiding out in a cocoon of religious safety. We would be out there seasoning everything with the salt of his word and touching every darkened life possible with the light of his gospel.

Salt is effective only when it is applied to the subject. Light is only effective when it is shown in darkness. Photo credit

Dialogue between myself and Congressman Visclosky

This communication may be of no interest to anyone, but I would like to encourage you to reach out to your representatives and try to get the results you want.

Dear Congressman,

Thank you for your service. Let me be brief as I am certain you are incredibly busy. I am beyond disappointed in my government right now. I am 28 years old, and I feel as though my government is creating a mess that I may not live to see us climb out of. I will leave you with these ideas as action points. I realize that my ideas are drastic and that they will hurt a lot of good people, but the time for tough choices has come and gone. The time for amputation of limbs for the body to survive is upon us. Please encourage your fellow congressmen to moxy up and get the job of rescuing our country done.

1. Cut our total spending to 50% of our total income – immediately!
2. Get creative with income.
1. Drill – now is not the time to save trees; it is time to save my kids future.
2. Reward businesses; don’t tax them so heavily. More employees equals more income tax. 
3. Start paying down debt.
4. Hold a businessman’s summit. Invite the top 2 employers in every state. Develop a business plan to rescue our nation. They will help you, and they will want tax breaks. Listen to them. They need the US to thrive, and they know how to make a business succeed financially. 

My dad taught me as a young boy that if your outgo exceeds your income you have a deficit and that’s bad. If your income exceeds your outgo you have a surplus and that’s good.

Please let me know how I can serve you. I want to be a part of the solution here.

Signed

REPLY FROM CONGRESSMAN VISCLOSKY

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns regarding spending and the national debt.  I appreciate hearing from you.

I share your concerns.  I am deeply frustrated that Congress has repeatedly failed to legislate or make decisions that would fundamentally address our deficit, and instead lurches from one crisis to the next. The debate over the increase in the debt limit in August of 2011 failed to produce a comprehensive plan to reduce the debt, and instead led to the enactment of P.L. 112-25, the Budget Control Act of 2011, and the establishment of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.  This Committee also failed to reach an agreement on recommendations to Congress to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over ten years, ultimately triggering the sequestration process, which was initiated on March 1, 2013.  Even the debate over the so-called fiscal cliff this past December led to the enactment of a law that is neither balanced, nor comprehensive, and instead adds $3.97 trillion to our national debt, while leaving some of the most pressing tax and spending issues facing our country unresolved.

I believe that we need to make thoughtful, deliberate, and difficult decisions about reducing our deficit, and I have been working with members from both parties to cut spending where possible, but in a more thoughtful manner than the sequestration process.  As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I worked with my colleagues in both parties to make discrete funding reductions that have already taken effect.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, we have reduced discretionary spending levels by $62 billion from Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 to

FY 2012.  These cuts were made thoughtfully, by evaluating each program on its usefulness to the taxpayer, making cuts to programs that have lost their usefulness while making critical investments where needed. 

I remain cautious of proponents in these debt discussions whom are intransigent in their commitment to not raise revenues and solely cut spending.  I would counter that Congress has already enacted legislation that reduce domestic discretionary spending by $1.4 trillion over the next ten years.  I also would point out that if we had eliminated all non-defense domestic discretionary spending in FY 2012, including funding for programs through the Department of Education, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other federal government programs – and did nothing else – we still would have had a budget deficit of $472 billion for FY 2012.

I believe that if we are to truly address our growing national debt, our tax code must also be reexamined to ensure that more Americans and American companies make a contribution to our shared society.  I am frustrated that current inequalities in our tax code continue to allow some to take advantage of certain tax provisions, and pay a lower effective tax rate than what is fair. According to a study conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, these tax expenditures cost about $1.1 trillion annually.

For instance, according to a report conducted by the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, from 2008 through 2010, 30 major U.S. corporations made a combined $160 billion in profit and did not pay any federal corporate income tax.  Additionally, in 2010, the top 25 hedge fund managers in the U.S. alone had combined incomes of $22 billion, but paid a lower tax rate than a police officer in Valparaiso, Indiana.  It is wrong that our tax code allows persons of great means to pay a lower tax rate than a person risking his or her life for our society.

That is why I believe that any serious proposal to reduce the debt must be all-encompassing, addressing all spending, including defense and domestic discretionary spending and earned benefits such as Social Security and Medicare, in addition to the other half of the equation: taxes and the inequalities in the tax code.

As debt reduction discussions proceed, I understand that difficult decisions will need to be made about revisions to the tax code and spending programs, and I assure you that I will be actively engaged in these deliberations to ensure such legislation comprehensively addresses our deficit.  It is paramount that we come together as a country during this time to ensure that incremental changes now for every person and every business will have immeasurable benefits in the future for our children and our economy.

Thank you again for contacting me.  Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Peter J. Visclosky

Member of Congress

REPLY FROM ME

Dear Mr. Visclosky,

Thank you for your reply regarding spending and the national debt. May I say excellent work in helping to reduce spending by 62mm from FY 2010. I applaud your resolve and bipartisan efforts to reduce our debt. I am sure that took some very tough choices, but as I mentioned in my last letter; “The time for tough choices has come and gone. The time for amputation of limbs for the body to survive is upon us.” I am happy, but far from satisfied with cutting our discretionary spending by 62mm. I am not satisfied in the least with your answer to raise taxes. Raising taxes is the very last step in a long list of many that we want to see you take. Pardon my blunt attitude sir, but that seems like an easy way out.

A hard choice would be reforming welfare to a “feed the poor” food distribution system instead of a rewarding and enabling of those who qualify. A hard choice would be to take government jobs that are not profitable and selling them off to the private sector. Government officials make horrible businessmen, and your business is failing miserably. I would love to see us start using our natural resources, specifically oil, for our profit. I don’t care how you do it, but we have to make drastic cuts and create revenue in the trillions - and soon.

Please know that this is not a rip face letter. I am just trying to help you see that if you raise our taxes while continuing to spend like a drunken sailor you haven’t helped anyone. You have enabled the US to continue to make unwise choices. You have simply taken more money out of our pocket so that you can feed the beast that is our out of control credit card. I would ask Congress to please stop asking what the American people can do for you. How can you cut spending and increase revenues without gutting my retirement? I know I can’t count on my Social Security, and now you want my savings?   

As to your plan to raise taxes on businesses; that plan would be permissible ONLY IF it were met with an equal plan to give businesses tax cuts for hiring new employees and expanding their enterprises here in the US. A plan to raise the income tax while punishing those who put taxable individuals on your radar seems oxymoron. Why would the US not applaud job, and tax revenue creators?

I thank you for your hard work, sleepless nights, and continuous service, but please make more assertive choices. Please be more creative. Entire villages in third world countries die of starvation just feet from sacred cows that could have saved them had they killed and eaten them. The programs that we won’t cut for whatever reason are the programs that will outlive the greatness of our nation.

Please let me know how I can serve you. I want to be a part of the solution.

Signed Photo credit

Somethin ain't right here folks . . .

Average cost of an abortion    $450.00          

Average cost of adoption       $30,000.00

US Federal Revenue 2012      

2.52 Trillion

US Federal Spending 2012     

3.60 Trillion  

Since 1970 the median household income has increased by 24.2%

Since 1970 the federal spending 

has increased by 287.5%

We have a few things backwards, but we are the people right? 

Never underestimate the power of a democratic republic motivated to take control of their situation, and never underestimate the destructive power of a government whose people have decided that they can’t do anything to fix their situation.

John Wayne may have said it best. . .

"I’m gonna tell you something, Flaca, and I want you to listen tight. May sound like I’m talkin’ about me. But I’m not. I’m talkin’ about you. As a matter of fact, I’m talkin’ about all people everywhere. When I come down here to Texas, I was lookin’ for somethin’. I didn’t know what. Seems like you added up my life and I spent it all either stompin’ other men or, in some cases, gettin’ stomped. Had me some money and had me some medals. But none of it seemed a lifetime worth of the pain of the mother that bore me. It was like I was empty. Well, I’m not empty anymore. That’s what’s important, to feel useful in this old world, to hit a lick against what’s wrong or to say a word for what’s right even though you get walloped for sayin’ that word. Now I may sound like a Bible beater yellin’ up a revival at a river crossing camp meeting, but that don’t change the truth none. There’s right and there’s wrong. You got to do one or the other. You do the one and you’re livin’. You do the other and you may be walkin’ around, but you’re dead as a beaver hat."

See the man say it himself if you like. 

Video clip from The Alamo

So . . . I chopped down the tree

(Hang on, I’m going somewhere with this)

I have 3 beautiful 25’ Blue Spruce trees in my front lawn planted in a semi circle.

They provide shade and a little dimension to my landscape. But, there was a problem. I also had a 40’ Walnut tree growing at an awful angle. It shot out from the trio of evergreens like somebody trying to haul deck lumber in a Ford focus. When I first moved into my home 6 months ago I noted how ugly it was, but I also noted that it was incredibly tall and dangerously close to the power lines so . . . I left the tree alone. I noticed continually how diminished the growth of the evergreens seemed to be due to how many nutrients the Walnut tree takes from the soil, but I don’t have a chain saw so . . . I left the tree alone. I twisted my ankles several times on several walnuts while mowing, but all I had was a short axe with a cracked handle and a dull head. My grinder is worthless so . . . I left the tree alone.   

Then last Saturday rolled around, and I needed to mow the lawn, and I was doing fine until I twisted my ankle on another stinkin’ walnut. I stepped back and took a look at my spruce trees. They looked so pretty, but so thin and undernourished. I looked at my landscape and imagined it with no Walnut tree. I looked at the power lines and thought, “I think I could swing that.” So . . . I decided to chop down that tree. I walked down to my yard shed and retrieved that old axe I found in an abandoned garage. I ran my thumb across the blade edge and thought to myself, “Sharp as a marble”, and I almost decided to wait until I got a new axe, a better grinder, or a chainsaw. I shook off the hesitation and dug deep for a little resolve. Axe in hand I walked over to that eyesore and hit it with all my strength half expecting the dull axe to bounce back and half expecting the cracked axe handle to break. Neither happened and I had created a small notch. It took me about 30 min of sweat and determined tree chopping, and got a few blisters, but that tree is gone! My lawn has never looked as good and I think I have the last of the walnuts out of the grass.

All that to say this; the road to a better life isn’t convenient. None of us has the proper tools to tackle this mess we find ourselves in. Dig down deep; grab two fistfuls of resolve and American grit, and let’s fix this. Sure, it’s hard work, and we’ll probably come out with some wounds, but if we don’t like our landscape . . . who else are we going to blame? Chop down a tree. You’ll like the way you feel; I guarantee it.     

Freedom to be Free

In this vast world of diversity and inclusion where do your liberties stop and mine begin? That is a tricky question that is flooding courts and keeping protestors busy night and day.

I love worshiping the one true God in church on Sunday, but if I truly value that freedom then I must allow you to worship freely right? Of course, unless your freedom of religious expression endangers my way of life. If your religion demands that you endanger or take the life of another individual we don’t want it. Get out. If your freedom of expression allows you to create human life and then destroy that life out of convenience for yourself then we don’t want it. Get out. If your freedom of expression demands that you burn our symbol of that freedom then get out we don’t want it. If your freedom to take advantage of our benevolent welfare system enables you to purposely stay out of the work force and live of off my work ethic. Then get out. I can’t afford to pay for your lazy attitude.

Freedom isn’t free; it never has been and it never will be. Freedom is not to be taken advantage of. Freedom is to be reverenced. Freedom is to be held in high esteem. Freedom is to be cherished. As a country we have taken our freedom for granted. We have forgotten the great sacrifice that our own countrymen endured happily and willingly so that we could live as free men and women. By taking advantage of loose wording and silver tongues of twisted lawmen we have effectively broken confidence in the great United States Constitution and consequently we have entertained the most twisted ideas as expressions of freedom.

We are at a crucial crossroads at this point in history. We are quite possible more free than we have ever been in my lifetime. We are free today to choose a path of freedom or a path of slavery. That decision falls to us."Any government powerful enough to give the people all that they want is also powerful enough to take from the people all that they have.” Choose wisely.

 Photo Credit via Google image

Motivation by Reflection

A steadfast spirit of freedom is often born from a heart of gratitude for the things that we have. So sit back, drink up, and read on!

If a picture is truly worth a thousand words then it must have been a picture of coffee! Liquid gold, bean juice, black Ichor of life, personality in a cup, sweet nectar of the field, or whatever you call it! (Please do comment with your favorite coffee nickname.) Coffee for many of us is a passport to a better day, a companion on slow afternoons, and a catalyst for the wonderful and creative things inside each of us waiting to be discovered by the wonderful world which surrounds us. If you are like me, a good cup of Joe can be the difference between life happening to me or me happening to life.

So today as you drink your brew of choice and prepare to take this tangled world by storm, think first about the events that made it possible to bring your coffee of choice from the green rolling fields of cherry trees to the warm porcelain mug that gently kisses your lips and delivers sweet satisfaction to your soul. Think of the Creator who knew we would discover the over 850 aromatic compounds that make up so many unique coffee profiles. He didn’t have to make this caffeinated go-juice so naturally tasty. He didn’t have to give it so many wonderful shades of color as it swirls slowly in the cup. He didn’t have to design it pop and crack as it roasts. He didn’t have to give it such a distinct, pleasant, and lingering aroma. Knowing what we would come to love; He set the fruit in nature and gave us the wisdom to procure it. Think today of the farmers who have dedicated their lives and fortunes to planting and harvesting this tasty crop year after year. Think of the dads and moms that spend many long nights away from home in search of a good plantation to partner with and support economically. Think of the long journey this produce makes back to the states, the aging, the roasting, and careful preparation. Think about it until you get good and thankful for it. Once the thankfulness warms your heart, raise your favorite mug and breathe deep; fill your senses with just one of the millions of aspects of creation that we get to enjoy on a daily basis.   

Enjoy your coffee, enjoy our world, and enjoy the wonderful people who make this tangled mess worth all the effort. Freedom is worth standing up for. Our way of life is worth the inconvenience of going against the flow once in a while.

Not to be cliché, but stay free my friends.

Gun Control - as I see it

Every day, I trust crazy maniacs who have had a terrible day to drive my direction at 55 MPH with only a small median or guardrail separating our two vehicles. I don’t trust them because cars are inherently good. I trust them because if they were to lash out and willfully smash into my F-150 intending to kill me they would be faced with the dilemma of an equal and opposite reaction. Their intent to kill or maim me would be met with their own destruction.

I would not trust that same driver at the county fair surrounded by hundreds of defenseless pedestrians.

When we disarm a law-abiding society for the sake of a few deranged maniacs it’s like setting that driver free in a playground. Why don’t gunmen shoot up police stations or Hunting shops? Why do they target secure gun-free areas like school zones and Navy yards and shopping malls? Because they are week and scared. That’s why.

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life". Robert A Heinlein

Photo credit: azcapitoltimes.com via Google images 

My $.02 on budgeting

Outgo that exceeds income equals deficit. Income that exceeds outgo equals surplus. - Paraphrase from the  Yoda wisdom files of my dear old dad.  

Photo credit: therepyshow.com via Google images

National Debt and the Government Shutdown

As a free American I love that our country is so benevolent to other countries and to our own disadvantaged countrymen. However we do not seem to be in a position to spend so liberally. I would love to see our leaders reform our welfare system into a necessity driven feeding and housing of the poor instead of our apparent rewarding of those less fortunate. I would love to see tax breaks for any organization pitching in to help feed the poor. We should care for the poor in such a way that they are fed and warm, but still motivated to go out and get a job and become a part of the solution.

I would love to see our government begin rewarding businessmen for bringing jobs into our borders instead of punishing them for being wealthy. I would love to see us cut government spending to 50% of our total income. This would be drastic, and it would hurt, but in my opinion we have no other choice. 

In my opinion, we should live off of what we have not what we want to have. If our expenses continue to exceed our income we will never have a financial surplus again. If we do not spend far less than we make we will never truly be a free nation again.

As Americans we will only ever be as free as we are willing to be. If we continue to vote in leaders who will do whatever it takes to give us whatever we want then we should not be surprised when we lose everything we have. I for one am willing to do whatever it takes to stay free.

Photo Credit: http://mrsambrosia.deviantart.com/art/American-Flag-337819262 via Google images

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