Marion Berry and Thinking About Eternity
Rep. Marion Berry is retiring this year. He does not have to worry about future political ramifications of his actions, either from re-election by his constituents or in terms of losing political plums from the party bosses. In other words, he is free to vote, assuming it has not atrophied away, his conscience. It appears he is going to vote against the health care takeover unless it has clear language prohibiting public funding for abortion. This has the mavens in his political party, who seem to lust for innocent blood like some sort of psychopath out of a horror flick, extremely upset. He does not seem to care. What does he care about? Why is he taking this principled stand as one of his last official acts?
I can only speculate about motives, but I know what I would be thinking about. Like many in Congress, Berry is not only near the end of his political career, but he is not too many years away from the end of his time on this earth. If it were me, I'd be thinking about eternity. I'd be thinking about the eternal bliss of Heaven and the unquenchable fires of Hell.
I know many "successful" people in politics are too drunk with power to be rational, but a rational person should realize that as wonderful as this life can be, our hope must ultimately be in Someone greater than this life. While one is young and the glitz and excitement of the marbled halls of power are all about a person, it is too easy to forget that. But perhaps Berry is one of the lucky few who let all that humble him instead of bring him to unbearable arrogance. Maybe there was enough left of the Arkansas roots in him that he knew that he did not want to go out like that.
Marion Berry is not the only one who needs to factor in eternity to their present day course of actions. All politicians need to realize it. And not just politicians, but businessmen, bakers, and housewives. In other words, all of us. The purpose of this life, in the classical view, is to let the seeds in our soul blossom and reveal who we are. This is so that the angels will know if we are to be gathered into the harvest or cast into the fire to be burned. I like to think that Marion Berry has decided that he wants to be counted among that number "when the saints go marching in", rather than join the red-handed mavens as they are shown their eternal home.
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Sunday, March 21, 2010
13 Comments:
Well I hope all you third party people are happy. You are accomplice to this terrible bill. I hope you are happy with you puristic candidates.
Ha, ha-- you're funny.
You have a so-called opposition party that essentially does nothing while this Chicago mafia bunch rams through grossly unconstitutional legislation, and you want to blame a ghost for the problem, no doubt to save face for that worthless Lame Old Party.
Good luck with that. People are finally fed up with your party and their promises of salvation.
You idot. Don't you know there is little the opposition in the House can do? The GOP leaders did what they could. Could they of done better? Maybe. But all the dems needed was to get their party vote for it and it was law. The dems did what they've said they would do for years. People who say there isn't a difference in the parties should look at today. There is a big difference.
The only difference in the Party's today is the Republicans aren't in power. The reason the Democrats are in power is the Republicans did such a sorry job the last 10 years. What we have seen the last 30 years is both Part's heading to the same point, just getting there from different directions.
I don't see how you can sit in our ivory tower and say honestly that the GOP is the same as the dems. Every single GOP congressman voted against the health bill. The house leadership has stood strong in their opposition. Even today they are embracing repeal of the bill. How dare you say the GOP is doing the same thing as the dems. You ought to be a shamed of your ignorance.
They're not "the same as the Dems." They are the complement of the Dems. The GOP and the Dems play off one another and make a great show of it all for the suckers who don't want to peek behind the stage curtains for fear of what they'll see.
There are exceptions, of course- the small handful who naively thought they'd use the GOP to change Washington for the better. But at the end of the day, we lose despite their efforts. After all, it is they who are used by the GOP, for, the show must go on.
The complement of the dems? That just goes to show how little you know about American politics. If you really think all this was just a show then you are terrible confused. Maybe you need some of Obama's socialized medicine. We lost because idots like you thought they were all the same and didn't vote. You are responcible for the loss of our freedom. Thanks jerk.
Friend, you know as much about me as you do about how things work in Washington.
Perhaps you should be a little more humble and consider that maybe you haven't got it all figured out.
Great cop out. You can't deal with the fact that you are responcible for this terrible bill, so you just brush it off. Great job idot. Enjoy Obama running your health.
When Bush and the GOP were in the pushed through the prescription drugs for granny bill, which was the largest new entitlement since FDR.
Obama gets in, and he pushes one bigger.
There is no difference in the two DC based parties. They each like their own ways of growing government even if they sometimes dislike the ways of growing government proposed by the other side.
To compare Bush's medicare bill to the health care bill is ludicrous. Do you really not grasp the vast different in what the bills do? You dimwit. This can be compared with passing social security, but to Bush's medicare bill?
I might add that it isn't just the GOP that complements the Dems, but their irrationally devoted followers who cheer them on from the sidelines. Just take a look at the above discussion where every example of expansion of government procured by the GOP is compared- not in the light of whether such unconstitutional expansion is right or wrong- but whether it sufficiently pales in comparison to what the Democrats have most recently done.
For example, you'll note that anon@10:18 didn't say that Drugs for Granny (i.e., Bush's Medicare Part D) was as colossal as Obamacare, but that it was the largest entitlement expansion since FDR (i.e., at the time). Since Obamacare is even bigger, it now becomes the standard by which partisan nuts (like anon@6:50) excuse the behavior of the complementary party, the Republicans.
The earlier statement that "They each like their own ways of growing government" is either beyond the comprehension of anon@6:50 or it is deliberately ignored because it cannot be refuted.
Get ready for amnesty next. Of course, we don't have to worry about where the Republicans stand on this issue, right? After all, they're so much different than the Democrats...
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