Tuesday, October 15, 2005

A LODGING IN THE WILDERNESS

“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away, and be at rest; Behold, I would flee afar off, I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah; I would hasten my escape from the stormy wind, from the tempest… I have seen violence and strife in the city.  Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof; and iniquity and mischief are in the midst of it.  Perversities are in the midst thereof; and oppression and deceit depart not from its streets.”

(Psalms 55:6-11)

QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

“I say statecraft is soul-craft. Just as all education is moral education, most legislation is moral legislation, because it conditions the action and the thought of the nation in broad and important spheres of life.”

(George F. Will)

“Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community."

(John W. Gardner)

“Honor is better than honors.”

(Abraham Lincoln)

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD ASKS “WHAT IS MORE COMPASSIONATE THAN SAME SEX MARRIAGE?”

True to our prediction, gay rights activists have now issued a call for same sex marriage. As the election returns came in Tuesday evening, Matt Foreman, the Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, called for “full equality under the law.”  Attending the Maine Won’t Discriminate victory celebration with Governor John E. Baldacci and others, Foreman claimed that same-sex marriage is the ultimate civil right.
 
No paper in Maine pushed the gay rights agenda more relentlessly than the Portland Press Herald. And no paper denied more vehemently that same sex marriage had anything to do with the vote last Tuesday.  Thus it came as no surprise that a mere five days after the approval of the Governor’s sexual orientation law, an editorial appeared in the Portland Press Herald praising the next step in the gay rights movement, “same sex marriage.” True to form, and contrary to every last bit of evidence, the Portland Press Herald is now telling the public “You really supported gay marriage all along!”
 
When the media invent facts which simply do not exist, they are engaging in what is called “card stacking,” a technique of deception which has been called “the most vicious of all propaganda devices.” It is an indisputable fact that there never was much support for gay marriage in Maine. Yet John Porter, the Editorial Page Editor for the Portland Press Herald, would have the public believe the exact opposite. He states that the current law was approved last Tuesday because people are now more approving of gay marriage.  Thus the editorial is a masterpiece of cynicism and subtle insinuation, an attempt to condition the thinking of the public to accept the next step in the incremental agenda of the gay rights movement. 

The real reason the YES side lost last Tuesday had nothing to do with changing attitudes. A poll issued before the vote showed that support for the law had decreased from previous years. Maine Won’t Discriminate won because of a three-to-one advantage in dollars, much of which came from out of state. They also won because of an army of three thousand volunteers and a phone bank with almost two hundred phones. Therein lies the “card-stacking.” In order for the people of Maine to believe their attitudes are changing, they must first receive this false impression from the Portland Press Herald, and then abandon all doubt that the vote was won by an advantage in money and organization.   

The purpose of John Porter’s editorial was to insinuate the idea of same-sex marriage under the guise of fairness and civil rights.  Porter asks “What is fairer than allowing two people their happiness together? What is more responsible than committing to one’s partner in sickness and health?” In short, Porter asks what can be nobler, truer, and more virtuous than same-sex marriage. It all sounds very Shakesperian, except that Porter admits that he gained his ideas, not from the pages of that venerable author, but from an organization in Camden called the Institute for Global Ethics. But that is a story for another day.  

TRIVIALIZING HISTORY IN SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Controversy erupted in Salem, Massachusetts after the Salem Redevelopment Authority authorized a nine-foot statue of the television character from the show “Bewitched” to be placed in the middle of town. Members of the Salem Historic District Commission uniformly opposed the statue.  The mayor had expressed his approval of the statue which is being donated by the organization “TV Land.” 

In the television show, the character Samantha visits Salem to attend a convention of witches. A protestor was arrested for disorderly conduct at the unveiling ceremony after he protested that the statue was a trivialization of American history. 

NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS

Whoever has the opportunity to do so, should surely visit the National Monument to the Forefathers high atop Monument Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The eighty-one foot high statue is topped by a robed Faith, whose foot rests on Plymouth Rock, and whose right hand points upwards to Heaven. 

Seated below her, under her protection, are Liberty, Education, Law and Morality. The figure of Morality is flanked by a Prophet and an Evangelist. Beneath these figures is shown the story of the departure of the Pilgrims from Holland and their landing at Plymouth Rock.The face of the figure Faith was copied by the French sculptor Bertholdi for the Statue of Liberty.

Michael Heath, his wife, and son recently visited Plymouth as part of their son’s homeschooling program. They took the photo shown here.