“Hero Pay”

 To whom it may concern,

I read that you're considering a “hero pay” ordinance and I think there is a large group of individuals  you missed- the EMTs and paramedics within your city who work for private companies. They are exposing themselves on a daily basis in confined spaces with poor ventilation to respond to your citizens emergencies. EMS personnel aid your citizens in their time of need and in addition to that, they now are administering vaccines to your citizens. Many of these EMTs and paramedics would never ask to be called heroes and many honestly would not like that title, but many of these EMTs make within a dollar per hour of minimum wage. I personally know someone who left a grocery store as a courtesy clerk to be an emt who took a three dollar per hour pay cut because he wanted to help people. Covid has definitely added some additional expenses to their households that add up. It's expensive and very stressful to make sure they don’t bring Covid home to the people they love, on themselves, in their car, or on their uniforms. In addition to that, many hours were cut for EMS personnel or they opted to take pto in order to not get laid off or have any of their coworkers laid off early on in the pandemic knowing once staff leaves they won’t be there for the surges in cases.  The companies they work for did less than the major grocery store chains when it came to “hero pay" at the peaks of the pandemic. Many of the larger stores were adding an additional dollar to three dollars per hour to the employees wages. I would highly encourage you to not forget those people who take care of your citizens yet hardly complain to the press or make a big deal of things.

                         Thank you,

                          An Emt

Why God made Paramedics

When God made paramedics, He was into His sixth day of overtime.

An angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?

A Paramedic has to be able to carry an injured person up a wet, grassy hill in the dark,

dodge stray bullets to reach a dying child unarmed,

enter homes the health inspector wouldn't touch,

and not wrinkle his uniform."

"He has to be able to lift three times his own weight.

Crawl into wrecked cars with barely enough room to move,

and console a grieving mother as

he is doing CPR on a baby he knows will never breathe again."

"He has to be in top mental condition at all times,

running on no sleep, black coffee and half-eaten meals,

and he has to have six pairs of hands."

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way." 

"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," God replied.

"It's the three pairs of eyes a medic has to have."

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

God nodded. "One pair that sees open sores as he's drawing blood,

always wondering if the patient is HIV positive."

(When he already knows and wishes he'd taken that accounting job)

"Another pair here in the side of his head for his partner's safety.

And another pair of eyes here in front

that can look reassuringly at a bleeding victim and say,

"You'll be alright ma'am when he knows it isn't so."

"Lord," said the angel, touching His sleeve, "rest and work on this tomorrow."

"I can't," God replied.

"I already have a model that can talk a 250 pound

drunk out from behind a steering wheel

without incident and feed a family of five on a private service paycheck." 

The angel circled the model of the Paramedic very slowly.

"Can it think?" she asked.

"You bet", God said.

"It can tell you the symptoms of 100 illnesses;

recite drug calculations in it's sleep;

intubate, defibrillate, medicate, and continue CPR

nonstop over terrain that any doctor would fear...

and it still keeps it's sense of humor."

"This medic also has phenomenal personal control.

He can deal with a multi-victim trauma,

coax a frightened elderly person to unlock their door,

comfort a murder victim's family,

and then read in the daily paper how Paramedics were

unable to locate a house quickly enough,

allowing the person to die.

A house that had no street sign, no house numbers, no phone to call back."

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the Paramedic.

"There's a leak," she pronounced.

"I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model." 

"That's not a leak," God replied, "It's a tear."

"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.

"It's for bottled up emotions,

for patients they've tried in vain to save,

for commitment to that hope

that they will make a difference in a person's chance to survive, for life."

"You're a genius!" said the angel.

God looked somber.

"I DIDN'T PUT IT THERE" He said.

Author Unknown

"It is impossible to increase taxes, disastrous to keep on borrowing, and inadequate merely to cut expenses."
-Alexandre de Calonne

توزیع جغرافیایی و استحکامات از تأسیسات هسته ای ایران

توزیع جغرافیایی و استحکامات از تأسیسات هسته ای ایران

در امور خارجه در سال ۲۰۰۲ اتحادیه آدرس پرزیدنت جورج دبلیو بوش ، با استفاده از اصطلاح "محور شرارت" به توصیف سه ایالت. این سه نفر در عراق ، ایران و کره شمالی. این سخنرانی گذاشته از اهداف "جنگ علیه تروریسم". به گفته رئیس جمهور "هدف دوم ما این است که برای جلوگیری از رژیم هایی که از ترور حمایت امریکا تهدید و یا دوستان و متحدان ما با سلاح های کشتار جمعی." [1] این سه به دلیل نیت خود را از تامین امنیت "سلاح های کشتار جمعی" برداشت شد. ایران به طور خاص هدف قرار داده بود ، چون ، "ایران به شدت دنبال این سلاح و ترور صادرات ، در حالی که غیر منتخب چند سرکوب امید مردم ایران برای آزادی است." [2] دولت در ایران ساخته شده است که اظهارات که انتقال قصد به استفاده از هر سلاح های کشتار جمعی در اسرائیل و متحدانش است. پس از حمله هوایی اسرائیل پیشگیرانه در رآکتور هسته ای عراق Osirak در سال 1981 تعجب بسیاری اگر اسرائیل و یا ایالات متحده از حمله پیشگیرانه علیه تاسیسات هسته ای ایران راه اندازی. با تجزیه و تحلیل نقاط قوت و ضعف از تمام کشورهای درگیر ما می توانیم تعیین اینکه آیا حمله به تأسیسات هسته ای ایران حتی ممکن است. ایالات متحده تا به حال چهار گل در هنگام برخورد با ایران ، از دولت کنونی به قدرت رسید. آنها "حد جسارت تهاجمی ایران در منطقه ، توقف حمایت تهران از تروریسم ، ترویج دموکراسی در ایران و حقوق بشر ، و متوقف کردن ایران از دستیابی به سلاح هسته ای است." جمعیت فعلی [3] ایران و زمین به شدت محدود هر دوره نظامی از عمل است. ایران در شرق میانه قرار گرفته است ، آن است که توسط "افغانستان ، ارمنستان ، آذربایجان مناسب ، آذربایجان ، نخجوان قلمرو ، عراق ، پاکستان ، ترکیه ، ترکمنستان" هم مرز است. [4] در حال حاضر ایران است میان نیروهای آمریکا در عراق و افغانستان ساندویچ.ایران نیز از این جمعیت حدود 65،875،224. زمین ایران است "ناهموار ، کوهستانی لبه ؛ بالا ، حوضه مرکزی با بیابان ، کوهها ؛ کوچک ، دشت ناپیوسته در امتداد سواحل" [5] با توجه به زمین های سخت و بزرگ ضد آمریکایی مردم امکان استفاده از نیروهای زمینی نمی باشد. در نظر گرفته شده به عنوان یک دوره از عمل است. هنگامی که از پراکندگی تاسیسات هسته ای است به حساب گرفته شده است ، نیروهای زمینی هستند غیر ممکن است استفاده کنند. لذا هر اقدام نظامی باید از هوا انجام می شود. ایران آموخته شده از اشتباهات عراق ساخته شده در سال 1981 زمانی که اسرائیل نابود خود را تنها راکتور هسته ای است. ایران انجام داده است چند چیز را برای اطمینان از تاسیسات هسته ای خود باقی می ماند آسیبی نرساند. امکانات شده اند پراکنده در سراسر کشور بزرگ ، ایجاد امکان پرواز کوچک بودن قادر به انجام آسیب گسترده غیر ممکن است. نقشه زیر نشان می دهد که چگونه ایرانیان پراکنده هسته ای خود را تسهیلات. ایران همچنین امکانات در شهرستانها پر جمعیت در صورت امکان قرار داده است. برخی از امکانات به دلیل هدف خود را وابسته به منابع طبیعی است. به گزارش آژانس بینالمللی انرژی اتمی (آژانس) ایران دارای امکانات حیاتی برای برنامه خود در پنج شهرستانها متفاوت است. این شهرستانها هستند تهران ، بوشهر ، اصفهان ، نطنز و اراک. [6] تهران است شرکت کالای الکتریک است که به تولید قطعات سانتریفوژ ، راکتور تحقیقاتی تهران ، تاسیسات تولید رادیو ایزوتوپ ، آزمایشگاههای جابر بن حیان چند منظوره مشکوک. بوشهر در روسیه ساخته شده است راکتور آب سبک است. اصفهان دارای مینیاتور نوترونی راکتور منبع ، نور آب زیر بحرانی راکتور آب سنگین ، صفر قدرت راکتور ، سوخت آزمایشگاهی ساخت ، اورانیوم آزمایشگاه شیمی ، تاسیسات تبدیل اورانیوم ، گرافیت زیر بحرانی راکتور است که نه در خدمات ، و کارخانه تولید سوخت. نطنز دارای یک خلبان کارخانه غنی سازی سوخت و کارخانه غنی سازی سوخت.اراک ایران راکتور تحقیقاتی هسته ای است. امکاناتی که کشورهای دیگر را عصبی در نطنز هستند ، زیرا آنها تولید تجهیزات مورد نیاز برای غنی سازی اورانیوم برای نیروگاه یا بمب. [7]
  (هسته ای ایران سایت)[8] 

در حالی که ایران به دنبال سلاح های هسته ای هرگز ادعا کرد بسیاری از کشورها معتقدند در غیر این صورت. این کشورها که ایالات متحده و اسرائیل باشد. با نگاه به تسلیحات از این کشور ایرانی ها ساخته شده شبکه دفاع. با کمک روس ها ایران مجموعه ای از بسیار موثر ضد هوایی سلاح کسب کرده بود. این سلاح ساخته شده که روسیه S - 300 PMU باشد. یکی از این سلاح در تاسیسات بوشهر سلاح های هسته ای مستقر شده اند. این سلاح قادر است از اهداف جذاب گرفته تا از ارتفاع از 30 فوت به 90،000 پا آن را قادر به تعامل با هر دو هواپیما و موشک های کروز. همچنین طراحی شده برای مقابله با هر نوع از اقدامات ضد الکترونیکی. علاوه بر این به یک است که شناخته می شود مستقر هستند چندین نفر دیگر شده اند که از روس ها خریداری شده وجود دارد. وجود دارد همچنین بسیاری از روسیه ساخته شده 100mm ضد هوایی اسلحه موقعیت در سراسر کشور. ایران همچنین 25 تا اف - 14 Tomcats توسط ایالات متحده به آنها فروخته شده ، این هواپیما مجهز شده اند به عنوان فرمان مینیاتور و کنترل هواپیما عمل می کنند ، به عنوان بقیه هواپیماهای ایان در آنها خیلی پیرم که به قادر به عملیات در شب. دیگر سد دفاعی طبیعی این واقعیت ساده است که 1،100 کیلومتر بین اسرائیل و ایران وجود دارد.[9] 1،100 مایل بین اسرائیل و ایران به علت مهم به هواپیما و تسلیحات که مالک اسرائیل است. در حالی که اسرائیل تا به بسیاری از انواع مختلف ایالات متحده ساخته شده بسیار هواپیما چند قابلیت را به سفر به ایران. اسرائیل در حال حاضر 25 - 15s اف ، 16 اف - 16 است ، اف 126 - 16 سی و دیاس. تفاوت مهم میان قابلیت های هواپیماهای ایرانی و اسرائیل این است که تمام هواپیماهای اسرائیل قادر به انجام عملیات در شب. مشکل با هواپیماهای اسرائیلی این است که فقط اف - 16 است که دامنه برای رسیدن به تاسیسات هسته ای ایران بدون سوخت گیری مجدد ، و اسرائیلی ها عدم توانایی برای انجام سوخت گیری در مقیاس بزرگ. [10] اسرائیل نیز فروخته شد 100 GBU - 28S . این بمب هستند £ 5،000 بانکر بمب منفجر یاخوردکننده قادر به نفوذ از 100 فوت است. از خاک و یا 20 فوت از بتن می باشد. [11] با توجه به این واقعیت است که اسرائیل هواپیماهای بسیار کمی که می تواند حمله بعید است که اسرائیل می تواند هر یک تاثیر مخربی بر برنامه هسته ای ایران را انجام می دادند. تنها کشوری است که از هر نوع نیروی هوایی قادر به کند کردن یا متوقف کردن برنامه هسته ای ایران خواهد بود که ایالات متحده می باشد. این به خاطر توانایی های هواپیماهای آن ، و مزیت فن آوری. آمریکا اف - 22 است ، ب - 2 ، و اف - 117A که می تواند استفاده شود برای حمله به ضد هوایی تاسیسات ، افشای تاسیسات هسته ای برای غیر خفا هواپیما بود. موج دوم خواهد بود با مقیاس بزرگ حمله هوایی هدف قرار دادن تاسیسات هسته ای با استفاده از مهمات دقیق. آمریکا توانایی برای انجام تمام در پرواز سوختگیری.[12] در طول این سالها ایران را توسعه داده است استادانه درست شده ضد هواپیما سیستم دفاع.علاوه بر متفرق تاسیسات هسته ای در داخل کشور ، در حالی که قرار دادن آنها نزدیک مناطق پر جمعیت. در حالی که این عوامل ایجاد مشکلات در هنگام تلاش برای انجام یک حمله هوایی ، ایالات متحده و اسرائیل که قابلیت انجام حمله هوایی. در حالی که آمریکا و اسرائیل دارند ، توانایی حمله به ایران ، ممکن است من نمی بهترین تصمیم گیری با توجه به واکنش های بسیاری از کشورهای دیگر اسلامی است. شیوه ای که تنها از ایالات متحده و اسرائیل می تواند با موفقیت حمله به تأسیسات هسته ای ایران است به عنوان ضد ثانویه پس از ایران بود حمله اسرائیل و یا آمریکا [13] 

[1] State of the Union Address 2002,President George W. Bush, From the 2002 Presidential Documents Online via GPO Access, January 29, 2002
[2] Ibid.
[3] Michael McFaul, Abbas Milani, and Larry Diamond. 2007. "A Win-Win U.S. Strategy for Dealing with Iran." Washington Quarterly 30, no. 1: 121-122.
[4]Central Intelligence Agency, “The World Factbook- Iran” CIA World Fact book. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iran.html [accessed February 22, 2009]
[5] Ibid.
[6] Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. Iranian Nuclear Sites, Hussein D. Hassan, 2007.
[7] International Atomic Energy Association, Report prepared for Meeting of the Board of Governors prepared by the Director General, Implementation of the NPT safeguards agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran: 2003.
[8] “Iran Nuclear Sites”, Nuclear Threat Initiative Web site, http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles_pdfs/Iran/iran_nuclear_sites.pdf [accessed February 22, 2009].
[9] Andrew Brookes, “Air Attack Iran,” Royal United Services Institute, [Jun 2006, Vol. 151, No. 3]: 53
[10] Ibid,53.
[11] Global Security, “Guided Bomb Unit-28.” http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/gbu-28.htm [accessed February 22, 2009]
[12],Andrew Brookes, “Air Attack Iran,” Royal United Services Institute, [Jun 2006, Vol. 151, No. 3]: 54
[13] Michael McFaul, Abbas Milani, and Larry Diamond, "A Win-Win U.S. Strategy for Dealing with Iran," Washington Quarterly [Winter2006/2007]: 124-125.

American Lit- Naturalism

Realism and Naturalism 

            Many naturalistic works demonstrate the problems when capitalism is allowed to run ramped in a society. Naturalistic books take good, moral, and just characters; puts them through a series of events which are out of their control. The end result is a character which the reader empathies with even though, the reader wouldn’t like what the character has become. This happens in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Sinclair takes a realistic approach when looking at his world and sees this uncontrollable force called capitalism. By showing the middle class readers part of ordinary lives that would shock and awe them these Sinclair is able to effect change.

            In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair’s original goal is to expose the improper treatment of immigrant workers and child labor by paying them wages that do not allow for survival. Sinclair uses the main character Jugis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, to show how capitalism takes advantage of the poor and uses them as extremely cheap labor without regard for their welfare. In many ways the conditions Sinclair describes are cheaper labor then slavery. This is described in the book as “There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where things are behind bars, and the man is outside.” (Sinclair pg. 337) Rather than being enslaved and behind bars Jugis and his family are on the outside of the bars where things such as food, medicine, and shelter are one the inside, just out of reach. 

            At the begging of the book Jugis is an enthusiastic, bright eyed, young man who is eager to live and work in America. He believed in America, “rich or poor, a man was free, it was said; … he did not have to pay out his money to rascally officials, --he might do as he pleased, and count himself as good as any other man.” (Sinclair pg. 23) With this being his idea of America Jugis brought his family of twelve (six adults and six children) in all to Chicago. Eventually this uncontrollable force of capitalism had Jugis working in the Stockyards of Chicago at a meat packing plant. Jugis’s job does not pay him enough and other members of his family are required to procure employment as well. The family then undergoes a series of unfortunate events that result in their suffering and death, all because of the uncontrollable force called capitalism.

            His father, Dede Antanas, is one of the first family members to step up and help provide for the family. Dede is so old that he ends up having to pay a man one third of his wages in return for a job. This job is so unsanitary and unsafe that Dede ends up dying of lung infection.

            Jugis’s wife, Ona, gets a job working for Phil Connor in a factory. She is constantly sexually harassed by him and he ends up raping her. Ona dies from blood loss during delivery of the child which is a result of Phil raping her. Phil is the representation and embodiment of everything that is wrong and corrupt with Chicago and capitalism.

After his wife dies his young son drowns in a muddy street while Jugis is at work. These two events and his overall failure to provide for his family, drive him to leave, his family, the city, everything. “They were beaten; they had lost the game, they were swept aside. It was not less tragic because it was so sordid, because that it had to do with wages and grocery bills and rents. They had dreamed of freedom; of a chance to look about them and learn something; to be decent and clean, to see their child group up to be strong. And now it was all gone-it would never be!” (Sinclair pg. 163) As a result of Jugis’s abandonment, Marija, Ona’s cousin becomes a prostitute to feed the remaining children. While at the brothel Marija, becomes addicted to morphine. These were a series of unfortunate events that had either resulted in the death of two children and three adults.

Jugis is arrested for a bar fight over change of a $100 bill and goes to jail. One of the great examples of how capitalism has effected Jurgis is when he prefers being in jail then out, and wishes they put his family in jail. “"They put him in a place where the snow could not beat in, where the cold could not eat through his bones; they brought him food and drink-why, in the name of heaven, if they must punish him, did they not put his family in jail and leave him outside-why could they find no better way to punish him than to leave three weak women and six helpless children to starve and freeze?” (Singclair pg. 191) While in jail he meets Jack who introduces Jugis to Chicago’s criminal underworld. Jugis becomes hired muscle and then goes back to the stockyards in hopes to get the union workers to vote for a republican candidate.

            Sinclair would claim these series of unfortunate events just explained can be all tied to capitalism out of control. If only those companies were not so greedy and paid Jugis a wage which he could live on none of these events would have happened. Sinclair then turns the coin when Jugis returns to the city and is working as a con-man. This is evidence that capitalism is this evil force that will corrupt and ruin all who try to profit. It will also take advantage of the poor and any who are innocent victims.

            In the end of the book Sinclair has, Jugis attending a political rally for the Socialists. The moment Jugis becomes a socialist things are finally becoming good for him. He becomes a porter at a hotel which is a social hotbed. He then returns to the children which capitalism had forced him to abandon. By the end of the book Sinclair has two characters becoming something that the reader would normally not empathize with; but because of the books naturalistic view point you feel sorry for Jurgis, the socialist, and Marija, the morphine addicted prostitute. The entire book is meant by Singclair to be a realistic example of how much capitalism is negative social effect, in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, America.

The book did not have the effect Sinclair wanted, Sinclair was hoping for reform with child labor, or fair wages. As a result of Sinclair’s novel there was a public outcry and “caused the Government investigation into the methods employed by the Beef Trust”. (Sinclair 2 pg. 3) The result of that investigation was within a few months of the book being published the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 were passed. Sinclair said this about the results of his book; “I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” (Wilson pg. 1) Many naturalistic books targeted capitalism as their uncontrollable force, yet few suggest other alternatives like Sinclair suggested socialism. Few Naturalistic books had the fast and swift reaction of the public and the Government. The book had such an impact that it was run as a long series in the “The Sun” a newspaper out of Tallahassee, Flordia. Although it was not the change Sinclair was hoping for he did achieve major change, through showing something that would shock and awe, the middle class.

Works Cited

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906.

Sinclair 2, Upton. "The Jungle." The Sun 14 July 1906: Third.

Wilson, James C. The Heath Anthology of American LiteratureUpton Sinclair- Author Page. n.d. 19 March 2011 .

Twilight of the Saints Ch. 2

Twilight of the Saints: Ch 2. Civil Religion From The ancient Past to the Anxious Present

            The second chapter of Twilight of the Saints deals with the history of civil religion.  Beginning with the history of American Civil Religion, The Declaration of Independence.  G.K. Chesterton talks about how the Declaration lays out the “creed” of United States civil religion.  The chapter lays out the past nations which have had some form of civil religion, like Rome, and Greece.  It also lays out the history of America’s civil religion, how it became what it is today.  This chapter expands the boundaries of civil religion

What is Civil Religion

          This chapter uses the opinion of Rousseau to add to the understanding of civil religion.  Rousseau adds an idea of a social contract.  A Social contract is “the general will of the people expressed religiously in the life of the state with a benign but watchful deistic god to preside over the keeping of the public faith.”[1]  The general will of the people is found using reason, assuming that the Christian religion is true.  Civil religion is not a nation which possesses a state church as its religion.  Emile Durkheim said this about civil religion “a common religion is constitutive of the unity and character of every society.”[2]  Plato also confirmed the belief that “the essential conditions for achieving a just political order was the practice of citizens honoring the gods and their parents.”[3]

Civil Religion in Ancient Nations

          Rome and Greece are two ancient nations which both possessed civil religion.  These two nations both had a religion which every person embraced.  Rome was the main force when it came to influencing England which influenced America.  Rome was the first civilized nation that attempted to civilize the English.  Because of this development of the English by the Romans the English experienced the civil religion of the Romans.  The Romans first had a polytheistic religion but then the people began to worship the Emperor as god.  This idea was impressed upon the English, but they were also opened up to the Christian religion.  This Christian religion and the idea of a single person being in power remained.  The Romans also gave the English the idea of global conquest through colonization.  This is the reason why the Americas were established.

Civil Religion in England

            England has played a vital role in the development of America’s civil religion.  England has created a national church with much latitude making it almost a civil religion.  The most important idea which emerged from England was the idea of a state.  This is the idea of having an individual at the head of the country and a god to be next to the king.  This is when the phrase “For God and crown”[4] originated.  England also sent settlers to America who possessed this idea but wanted a different religion then the state church offered.  These settlers wanted “their outpost in the wilderness would be as a “city upon a hill”, a moral and political example to the entire world.”[5] John Foxe has inspired the idea that “England was God’s anointed vessel.”[6]

Civil Religion in Modern America

The American civil religion is the basis of the American dream “A third element in constructing the first American civil religion was some sort of religious consensus”[7]  The whole process creates  “but in the process, where the churches moved out the nation moved in.”[8]  The early civil religion was based on different ideals “evangelical-deistic ideals made up the early national faith.”[9]  In Americas now use civil religion as a blending tool for all immigrants.  America has “a nation with the soul of a church.”[10] This soul is nurtured by events like Memorial Day, “The Memorial Day celebration is an American sacred ceremony, a religious ritual, a modern cult of the dead.”[11]  America has created a nation which is beloved by a majority of its citizens, because of civil religion.  It is the sum of its major influences from Greece, to Rome and England.

Analysis

          The Author does a very good job of presenting where Americas civil religion originates from.  As well as the key people or ideas which have influenced it along the way.  I personally did not like the references to some of the founding fathers being considered deists, on page 71.

---

[1] Robert D. Linder and Richard V. Pierard, Twilight of the Saints (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1978), 44

[2] Ibid 45

[3] Ibid 46

[4] Ibid 49

[5] Ibid 59

[6] Ibid 54

[7] Ibid 67       

[8] Ibid 66

[9] Ibid 71

[10] Ibid 74

[11] Ibid 62

Twilight of the Saints Ch. 1

Twilight of the saints:Effects of Civil Religion within America

            Robert D. Linder and Richard V. Pierard do an excellent job at the religious problem facing American Pop culture.  The chapter deals with defining civil religion directly with the United States.   This problem is one of pluralism.  The United States did not always have an unofficial religion of pluralism.  At one point in time the United States was a country based on the basic understanding of a supernatural entity.  Twilight of the Saints gives an account of the reason for falling down this slippery sloop of pluralism.  The authors give a defence for why Christians can save America and why it is too late.

One of the defences is the orgins of the Uniteds States.  Originally the United States was founded as a British colony.  The majority of the people populating these colonies were English Puritans.  These people held a dominant religion until the twentieth century.  “During the nineteenth century the country flourished on the principles of biblical Christanity”[1]  In the twentieth century the country underwent many changes and endured hardships.  This is due to the events like presidential assignations, Vietnam War, and two world wars to say the least.  Somewhere in all this Americans stopped practicing the civil religion which the immigrant puritans began.  The orgins of America are Christian but somewhere over the years we have strayed from the orgins.  “Upon Christian Principles as a holy experiment by people who had faith in Jesus Christ”[2]

Civil Religion is the use of consensus religious sentiments. This means when we use the national motto “In God We Trust” it is to further a certain political agenda.  The pluralism has become so bad, we the people of the United States, thought about removing this part of our heritage from the history books.  They like to compare their heritage to religious events in order to comply too civil religion.  “Our freedom from the course of sin cost God His only begotten son. Our American freedom cost our forefathers and it cost the men who signed the declaration. ”[3]

Many people within the United States believe the United States is the new Isreal.  In the Old Testament Israel was chosen by God to be his people.  People now are thinking that God has gone aginst his character and changed his nation of favor.  “We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people-the Israel of our time”[4]

Throughout the years each and every president has used God as a puppet to further their campaign.  Many candidates attend church and make sure video cameras are present.  Presidents use God and religious phrases in their speeches alongside patriotic phrases.  This is something which the American people have always had this and will continue to vote for the individuals who do it the best.  People want to see this because it really is both God and Country.  American people love their flag and will do anything to protect it.  Americans are disgusted when they see images of American flags being burned, when they are not aware if someone burned a cross on a churches front lawn.  Americans want their religious references to remain intact for future generations.

Because of the introduction of secularism the people have come close to abolishing “In God We Trust” and the line in the pledge of allegiance referring to God.  The church is standing idly by and watching this happen.  The church only does this because it thinks it is powerless to stop anything.  This is not true, but we should have acted when this book was written.  Unfortunately the pluralism has abolished the propose of the United States by removing God.   Now the people of the United States enjoy a purpose free nation and therefore they themselves are living purpose free lives.  This creates many people who are unhappy and discontent with life in general.  Our nation has lost it moral compass as well as its purpose. 

---

[1] 152

[2] 148

[3] 150

[4] 144

Quotes

"To Say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, this is truth." -Aristotle

"It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it." -Gen. Douglas MacArthur

"War is not an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.  The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable so by the exertions of better men than himself." -John Stuart Mills

"Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil." -Plato

"What is life without honor?  Degradation is worse than death." - LTG Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." -Colin Powell

"A leader leads by example, not by force." -Sun Tzu

"The price of greatness is responsibility." -Sir Winston Churchill

"What a cruel thing is war; to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the face of this beautiful world." -Robert E. Lee (Letter to his wife 1864)

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." -Helen Keller

"To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die." -Francois De La Rochefoucauld

"Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed.  God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave." -Gods and Generals (Stonewall Jackson)

"There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell. You can bear this warning voice to generations. I look upon war with horror." -Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." -Sir Winston Churchill

"With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity." -Keshavan Nair

"Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses." -George Washington Carver

"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself."- Jim Rohn

"If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins." -Benjamin Franklin

"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire." -Field Marshal Ferinand Foch

"When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion." -Dale Camegie

"Without friends no one would choose to live though he had all other goods." -Aristotle

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." -Robert F. Kennedy

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." -Mark Twain

"When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn." -John Wesley

"Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." -Winston Churchill

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever costs." -Arthur Ashe

"Essential characteristics of a gentleman: the will to put himself in the place of others; the horror of forcing others into positions from which he would himself recoil; the power to do what seems to him to be right, without considering what others bay say or think." -John Galsworthy

"The test of any man lies in action." -Pindar

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." -Eleanor Roosevelt

"They fought together as brothers-in-arms. They died together and now they sleep side by side. TO them we have a solemn obligation." -George Washington

"Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Continue to learn. Appreciate your friends. Do what you love. Live if this is all there is." -Mary Anne Radmacher

"Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem you own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone then in bad company." -George Washington

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." -Abraham Lincoln

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away." -anonyms

"There aren't any great men. There are just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet." -ADM. William "Bull" F. Halsey

"Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it." -Colin Powell

"How can you govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?" -Charles De Gaulle

"Democracy is the worst system devised by the wit of man, except for all the others." -Winston Churchill

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." -Harry S. Truman

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." -Theodore Roosevelt

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." -GEN. George S. Patton

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -Bill Cosby

"The most prominent place in hell is reserved for those who are neutral on the great issues of life." -REV. Billy Graham

"We may make mistakes - but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

"With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently he who milds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions." -Abraham Lincoln

"Laziness may appear attractive, but work give satisfaction." -Anne Frank

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did." -Newt Gingrich

"Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft." -Theodore Roosevelt

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -Lord Acton

"A man who enjoys responsibility usually gets it. A man who merely likes exercising authority usually loses it." -Malcolm S. Forbes

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." -F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." -Proverbs 29:18

"Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop brining you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or conclude you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." -Colin Powell

"The administration of government, like a guardianship, ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust." -Cicero

"We, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"In a democracy, a man who does not listen cannot lead." -David S. Broder

"The difference between a politician and a statesman is: a politician thinks of the next election and a statesman thinks of the next generation." -James Freeman Clarke

"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers - and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce - and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution - and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." -Alexis De Tocqueville

"The road to hell is paved with initiative." -

"If you don't know what something is intended to be used for, you are destined to abuse it." -

West Wing Quotes

Bartlet: What's the virtue of the proportional response?

Admiral Fitzwallace: I'm sorry?

Bartlet: What is the virtue of a proportional response? Why's it good? They hit an airplane, so we hit a transmitter, right? That's a proportional response. They hit a barracks, so we hit two transmitters.

Admiral Fitzwallace: Yes, that's roughly it, sir.

Bartlet: This is what we do. I mean, this is what we do.

Leo: Yes sir, it's what we do. It's what we've always done.

Bartlet: Well, if it's what we do, if it's what we've always done, don't they know we're going to do it? I ask again, what is the virtue of a Proportional Response?

Admiral Fitzwallace: It isn't virtuous, Mr. President. It's all there is, sir.

Bartlet: It is not all there is.

Admiral Fitzwallace: Just what else is there?

Bartlet: The disproportional response. Let the word ring forth, from this time and this place, gentlemen, you kill an American, any American, we don't come back with a proportional response. We come back with total disaster! [He bangs the table]

General: Are you suggesting that we carpet-bomb Damascus?

Bartlet: I am suggesting, General, that you, and Admiral Fitzwallace, and Secretary Hutchinson, and the rest of the National Security Team take the next sixty minutes and put together an American response scenario that doesn't make me think we're just docking somebody's damn allowance!

Bartlet: Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the Earth unharmed, cloaked only in the protection of the words civis Romanus-- I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens. Where was Morris's protection, or anybody else on that airplane? Where was the retribution for the families, and where is the warning to the rest of the world that Americans shall walk this Earth unharmed, lest the clenched fist of the most mighty military force in the history of mankind comes crashing down on your house?! In other words, Leo, what the hell are we doing here?!

Leo: We are behaving the way a superpower ought to behave.

Bartlet: Well our behavior has produced some crappy results, in fact I'm not a hundred per cent sure it hasn't induced it.

Leo: What are you talking about?

Bartlet: I'm talking about two hundred and eighty-six American marines in Beirut, I'm talking about Somalia, I'm talking aboutNairobi-

Leo: And you think ratcheting up the body count's gonna act as a deterrent?

Bartlet: You're damn right I-

Leo: Oh, then you are just as stupid as these guys who think capital punishment is going to be a deterrent for drug kingpins. As if drug kingpins didn't live their day to day lives under the possibility of execution, and their executions are a lot less dainty than ours and tend to take place without the bother and expense of due process. So, my friend, if you want to start using American military strength as the arm of the Lord, you can do that. We're the only superpower left. You can conquer the world, like Charlemagne! But you better be prepared to kill everyone. And you better start with me, because I will raise up an army against you and I will beat you!

Bartlet: He had a ten day old baby at home.

Leo: I know.

Bartlet: We are doing nothing.

Leo: We are not doing nothing.

Bartlet: We're destroying-

Leo: Four high-rated military targets!

Bartlet: And this is good?

Leo: Of course it's not good. There is no good. It's what there is! It's how you behave if you're the most powerful nation in the world. It's proportional, it's reasonable, it's responsible, it's merciful! It's not nothing. Four high-rated military targets.

Bartlet: Which they'll rebuild again in six months.

Leo: Then we'll blow 'em up again in six months! We're getting really good at it... It's what our fathers taught us.

Bartlet: Why didn't you say so? Oh, Leo...when I think of all the work you put in to get me to run and all the work you did to get me elected...I could pummel your ass with a baseball bat.

Bartlet: "We hold these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that all men are created equal." Strange as it may seem, that was the first time in history that anyone had ever bothered to write that down. Decisions are made by those who show up.