The Alabamian in Virginia

Welcome, Rev. Snow!

I'm a Reverend myself, though my title comes from the Universal Life Church, so I'm not quite sure how qualified you would view me.

That aside, it sounds like you're in the right place, so welcome! If you feel as we feel, and wish to do more than the average citizen in engaging in the processes that impact us all (armed service and seeking public office are great ways of doing so, by the by), then you are among comrades indeed.

I'm a tad too young to run for major office as of yet as well (though I would say that 21 is a reasonable age...), and so I can certainly sympathize with your cause. I think that our generation needs its fair share of true leaders, and as such I say to you, carry on!

Again, welcome to the Modern Whig Party: a good group to sign your name to!

Being irreverent to a fault and THE doubting Thomas, Reverends are an unusual type to me, where the title can be misleading. Some seem cool with their aura and soul in the right place, and others.... well.... Be the true ones folks... as many of us have very refined and accurate BS meters dialed in!

Remember what old combat vets say,"BS don't cut it at the moment of truth!"

Welcome Rev! Hope you dont mind a sinner around, as I am, practicing my penance and trying to grow my orenda before my final score is given to me.

GodSpeed to you in your goals. And I would like to hope that by sticking around the MWP you can get a good civic lesson in "how to do it differently, honorably, and to best effect" here.

BTW, I encourage all to go through the Leadership course. We borrowed it from the Army, and the live interactive version at www.myarmyonesource.com is the source. A very good lesson that even this 50 yr old learned a bunch from.

And true be the generational thing. As I brief every undergraduate finance course I teach (side gig), dont expect us OFs (old farts) to bring about change as most of us are too worried about securing our own retirement to be visionaries. ( very much like our elected representatives it would seem). So grab as much "old skool wisdom" as you can ( and there is some for the asking) , but STAND UP on your own!

You may notice, as I do, that our fellow citizens hunger for true leadership, and they are looking desparately for it. (no visionaries in sight) In many of the wrong places, I might add. When they might take the addage "the Kingdom of Heaven is Within" more to heart; i.e. find the leader inside you first before looking to others! Too many "false prophets" out there today, in the political space.

Even this "faceless commoner" can clearly see that we've missed a few very important lessons from our own history that I beleive if we understood implicitly would help us redefine our social contract with one another, and allow us to move forward as a society in the 21st century. Uncle Sam is clearly holding us back.

Some of these lessons come from the Civil War. For example, to this Whig's weird Hz mind Uncle Sam is becoming rather a prevaisive slave master, both doemstic and foreign. And in a odd ironic turn of historical roles, modern Whigs have appeared again to provide, in part, the role of REBEL to challenge the status quo, redirect, and "re-wright" our Republic; i.e, disarming the slavemaster mentality as well as the near complete "prostitution" of the political process. I would also like to beleive that we can marginalize the two proxies that were borne from the ancient Whig party's own death in 1860, and drive our bayonets into the heart of "bipartisanship" once and for all. Did we not learn anything from our bloodiest war?

In fact, this Whig sees the "slavemaster" both on the far right, and the far left in today American political context, as well as in Uncle Sam hisself. And who among us cannot deny that the two primary parties are in it for their own perservation alone - i.e., the "prostitutes". ( and NOT the honest ones!)

While I cannot speak for all Vets, I hope all, especially our youth, can see how some of the motivation for this resurgence of Whiggery, sparked by four NCO's in a combat zone in 2007, can be viewed as our response to the screams and rebel yells coming from gravestones of our brothers and sisters, of lessons yet unheeded and unlearned. ( Our experience in Vietnam also might contain many lessons yet unheeded and unlearned by us.)

Before you judge my sanity, give that concept a very good dress down. And please understand that amongst many of us Vet OF's, especially Vietnam era, the concept and motivation is very real.

Money, power, politics? Nope. Motivated by the "unseen hands" of those before us and the promise of what can be once we come together and "get real" with one another.

A very long WELCOME JOHN!

CARRY ON!

Don't worry, the "sinners" don't phase me. :)

My Ordination is as an Interfaith Minister. My personal beliefs are Roman Pagan, so.. many a TEA Party candidate would like to burn me on a stake. ;)

Prostitution is such a poetic and accurate word to describe the current political process.

I cannot lay claim to the use of the word "prostitute" as a descriptor. Recently, my maketing consultant who I would "characterize" as a new age chic, turned me onto a CD colllection of lectures by Caroline Mys. She wasnt sure if I would "get it", but "get it" I did and understood her archetypes intuitively. She speaks to the "postitute" archetype and it resonanted. ( what else would be expected by one who has been described by others as embodying the warrior/philospoher archetype)

The "Grand Sell Out" is gross. And here's my little snippet of how pervaisive it is in our culture, to the point of us being blind to it unless you practice a wee bit o zen...... At a car show in Sturbrdge MA; I pull out onto the main road and see a small placard which reads,

" Shrine of St Ann " - and although a reformed Catholic, saints always intruigued me and still do ( the power of one soul is nuclear!), so I squinted my eyes to read what was below, thinking it was birth/death or some one line description of what St. Ann did.

Can you guess what the smaller print was telling me?

"Gift shop open from 9-5".

As if a trinquet is somehow relevant to anything spiritual. Sheesh, I said, the "grand sell out" knowns no boundaries. It is all around us, even in religion.

Pagan ideology you say? We seem to be worshipping chatchky.

I'll be honest, I don't know what chatchky means. I looked it up and the only definition was in the urban dictionary... and it wasn't very nice. ;)

Yeah, back when I was still Christian at the Church of Christ, I was reprimanded by my church's elders for wearing a cross. It says in red, "thou shall not bear any graven image.." So, I take it off.
A few years later, the church is advertising themselves (in the fashion of churches in Alabama). Ahh, the smell of BS in the morning... nothing wakes you up better! lol

I noticed on another topic, some one was talking about the war and leaving lose ends...
Honestly, a war (a legitimate declaration of war) or something like the current conflicts should not be taken lightly by the government. In my opinion, Congress is doing to our current progress to what the Roman Senate did during the Punic wars.. involving themselves in too many of the mundane aspects if war and not focusing on the big picture. All the stuff we've done, we could have just annexed it (I realize that is a drastic step, but it was said for the reaction).

Also, what is the MWPs general opinion on imperialism?

Chatchky means useless trinkets.

General opinion on imperialism - UNCONSTITUTIONAL!! Patently as regards the spirit of that document. Yet no leader seems willing to take the issue on.(Ike did.) Which shows how entrenched that power center is.

Making the world less safe for their own ends, eh? That is me talking, the reb, not a spokesman for MWP policy. Further Gene the Reb diatribe, if U.S. foreign policy used the Army unit motto "De Oppresso Libre" as its "call to kinetics" ( along with BIG STICK self-defense obviously), it would be much more authentically American. If the current Navy media campaign was utterly authentic - it shows the right attitide we ought have. A force for good. Not imperialism.

Back to MWP, it is one of the many differences MWP has with the TP and the far right. They seem to be all for these "Christian Crusades", while MWP would rather walk softly, free the oppressed when we can ( think Darfur )and carry a mutha big stick for self-defense. Our focus is more inward with bulletproof self defense outwardly, as well as a more balanced "free the soul" attitude in foreign affairs. Freeing the individual spirit, Not free trade.

Let us Yanqui Rebels guide foreign policy for a while, as opposed to money center bankers and the defense contractors. Cheaper, safer, better. SUSTAINABLE.