I'm Down

I’m Down

Maybe it’s the wind and snow today, on June 5, that got me down. I’ve lived here in Windymucca for over thirty years now, so I should be used to it, but it is still a shock when it happens. Yesterday the temperature was in the nineties with bright sunshine. Then in the afternoon the wind turned on like a switch had been flipped, and we were stuck on I-80 for a couple of hours when 60-70 mph winds blew trucks over. Many trucks were trying to pull left down into the median to keep from being blown over. The slope of the right shoulder made the danger worse. This morning the temperature had dropped fifty degrees and it snowed from nine ‘til noon. We shut off the coolers and fired up the furnace again. I was so enjoying summer!

Maybe it’s the news that millions of wage earners in Wisconsin voted for a governor that promised to prevent them from bargaining for better pay, and intends to cut their retirement and benefits and lay off thousands of them. Talk about chickens voting for Colonel Sanders! I think H. L. Mencken had it just right when he said, ‘‘Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

I even know good Democrats who think if we concentrate on cutting government spending and reducing the deficit we will get our prosperity back! The blinders are so tight they can’t see that Europe is trying that austerity program right now with devastating results. Their unemployment is at 11% and rising, and England is going into a second recession. Greece is having massive riots in the streets and the neo-Nazi fascists are becoming stronger, just as in Germany and Japan eighty years ago. Fascists seem to know how to end depressions, and they forced the USA to end our depression on December 8, 1941.

Most people are too young to remember, and schools don’t seem to mention Herbert Hoover much anymore. He tried to restore prosperity by not spending for over three years, and plunged the nation into the worst Depression in history.

Yeah, I’m down because I know that the government is not spending enough money, the middle class is shrinking, the reduction in wages will lead to a reduction in tax revenues, which will increase the deficit and the government will reduce spending even more, and the debt spiral will put us right back into another recession. Yep, those who forget history...well, you know the rest. 

But I think the real reason I’m down is related to a poll showing the growing ignorance of the American population on many levels, not just economic. We rank 47th in the countries of the world in math and science. Almost half of people polled in a recent survey believe the world is less than 10,000 years old, in spite of incontrovertible evidence that it’s much older. Much of the intelligence deficit is directly caused by fundamentalist Christian preachers who seem to think they are smarter than scientists who have spent a lifetime studying the real physical evidence.

Measuring atomic decay provides the most accurate time measurements we know. Using Carbon 14, Potassium 40, and Uranium 235, this earth can be measured back millions of years. Now that we can study human DNA, we can trace the migrations of humans out of Africa, and how some turned right into Asia and some turned left into Europe, knowing by the rate of mutations when that occurred. We can precisely measure the speed of light, and know that if stars were created after the earth just 6,000 years ago, we could not even see any stars on the other side of our galaxy, let alone the rest of the universe. The Hubble telescope sees stars thirteen billion years away.

Not only is religion stifling knowledge, they are not even improving the moral quality of society here on earth. The worst atrocities seem to come from the hate and competition of religions, whether Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim slaughters in former Yugoslavia, or Hindu Muslim carnage in India and Pakistan. Many preachers, pastors and priests are still advocating that all people with sexual preferences different than their own should be killed, or at a minimum imprisoned.

One church has a growing scandal from priests abusing thousands of children all over the world. Adherents of this religion still believe it was just a few errant priests, even though the evidence is that the whole institution has known of the problem for decades, if not centuries, and has denied, hidden and enabled the abuse for all that time.

This church still claims moral authority to deny women birth control or abortions. Could it be they are running short of altar boys?

Other evangelical churches are becoming famous for the variety of sins by their clergy. They get caught with girlfriends; they get caught with boyfriends; they get caught with prostitutes; and I believe for every one caught there are ten that just haven’t been caught yet.

I recently found out about a woman friend in town who was in foster homes for much of her childhood. In every one of several foster homes she lived in, all fine Christian families, she was raped by the father. She said it became so routine she told the last guy, “Hurry up and get to the good part where you buy me ice cream and make me promise not to tell.” Carolyn says she still shudders and leaves the room when a rape scene comes up on the TV or in a movie.

All of the evangelical churches are also opposed to abortion and birth control. Maybe they need more foster kids? Well, they’re getting them! In states which refuse to teach comprehensive sex education in the schools, the unwed birth rates are higher than in the remaining states where kids get a complete education. Cause and effect are not much studied in schools governed by fundamentalist Christians.  

Every religiously upright, devout Christian I have ever known seems to have trouble with those pesky marriage vows. They preach the sanctity of marriage and boast of their fidelity, but when you really get to know them it’s just the getting caught that seems to bother them. They want to be known as righteous Christian men, but they want to sneak around and have fun on the side--and get self-righteously indignant and offended when asked about it.

Do they really believe in heaven? Do they really believe in hell? Are they all thinking that after they are done sneaking around they can just ask God for forgiveness and he’ll open wide those gates? What kind of a useless religion is that?

I don’t believe in a heaven or hell after I die. I believe in heaven or hell right now. I can make life heaven and I can make life hell for myself and those around me, just by the actions I take every minute of every day.

I love my wife. I want our life to be as heavenly as possible, because I’m not convinced there is another life. This life is the only one I know for sure I’m going to live. Why would I want to screw it up and make it hell for both her and me?

Our marriage is not held together by a legal contract (although we got one for tax and child custody reasons). It is not held together by some magic words a preacher or priest said in a ceremony. Our love is sustained and strengthened by trust.

I made her a promise forty three years ago to love her and care for her and never hurt her for the rest of our lives. My honesty and integrity are on the line. 

I try to avoid any situation which might make her wonder about my faithfulness. I don’t understand the games people play, trying to make their partner jealous by flirting with others. I don’t want my wife anxious or worried or jealous--I want her happy and confident in me.

Secrets don’t stay secret, be sure your sins will find you out, what you sow you will reap, and there really is such a thing as Karma. Knowing that what you do today will make the rest of your life more like heaven or hell is the best religion in the world. 

Well, it’s two hours into a new day, I feel better for getting this off my chest, and I think I’ll feel even better after a hot bath and warm bed. 

I think I’ll wait for sunrise and a reread before I publish this.

Don Rogers  June 6, 2012