Posted by
peripheral on Tuesday, September 21, 2010 5:33:34 AM
From My Perspective - - -
Political Campaigns always employ clever slogans that can become the
mantra for an election season and/or for the office attained. This was
true in the most recent United States Presidential Campaign when signs
displayed and chants echoed: Change You Can Believe In. A frustrated
follower recently allowed that rather than it being “Change You Can
Believe In” the administration has set out to “Change What You Believe
In”! There is a world of difference between those two statements. The
rhetoric and partisanship in recent months is producing a nation that
is floundering and displaying that it may have lost its way. There is
an increasing and growing doubt among the populace and major divisions
throughout the citizenry. If the nation fails to make a course
correction, we could easily plunge over the inconceived and ignored
precipice.
On September 16th, 2010, Neal Boortz wrote and asked on his website:
"Change that matters." How did you like that? That's the new slogan of
the new-and-improved Democrat Party. They took the data from Obama's
focus groups during the election, saw that liberals really liked the
word "change" and then adopted it as their new party slogan. Is this
what Democrats believe will carry them to the election? A new slogan?
Let's talk about some of the changes that the…administration and
the…party have made to the lexicon.
"The War on Terror" became an "Overseas Contingency Operation."
"Welfare checks" became "tax cuts."
"Illegal immigrants" became "undocumented workers."
"Economic stimulus" became "investments."
"Global warming" became "climate change."
"The Bush tax cuts" became "the Obama tax cuts for the middle class."
"Freedom of speech" became "hate speech."
"Protecting our borders" became "racist."
"The financial sector" became "greedy Wall Street fat cats."
"Unions" became "struggling middle class Americans."
They can change the language and lexicon all they'd like, but the fact
is that the…solutions haven't changed. How about some policies that
encourage the private sector to grow and maintain jobs…”
From the early days of this nation, concern was always expressed that
we guard against division and strive for unity. We are reminded by an
entry in The US History Encyclopedia: "United We Stand, Divided We
Fall," was a favorite toast, in varying forms, of political orators
from Benjamin Franklin to Abraham Lincoln. It gained currency after
John Dickinson's Liberty Song was published on 18 July 1768, in the
Boston Gazette. The work contained the lines:
Then join in hand, brave Americans all—
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!
The slogan regained widespread usage three-quarters of a century later
when the popular writer George Pope Morris's "The Flag of the Union"
appeared. The poem quoted the sentiment as given above, from the motto
of Kentucky, which had been adopted in 1792. Gaining new currency
during times of national crisis, the phrase was most recently a popular
slogan after the attacks upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
on 11 September 2001.
When Jesus Christ was criticized by the Pharisees, Matthew 12:25
records: “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, Every kingdom
divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household
divided against itself will not stand.” The Message Translation
records: “Jesus confronted their slander. A judge who gives opposite
verdicts on the same person cancels himself out; a family that's in a
constant squabble disintegrates…” As it was then – so it is now. We
would do well to embrace Psalm 60:11-12 (NLT) as both our focus and
prayer: “Oh, please help us against our enemies, for all human help is
useless. With God's help we will do mighty things, for he will trample
down our foes. Consider these things with me!