Does this Road Even Have an Off-Ramp?

I do not know about anyone else, but I am starting to feel like we have all been thrown down a 30 foot well, with no chance of getting a ladder, until the central planners toss one down to us.  We have all been placed under an undeclared Martial Law. Restaurants, bars, gyms, barbershops, hairdressers, nail salons, malls, sports, plays, concerts and gatherings all stopped. Your ability to speak to your neighbors is now socially unacceptable, unless you are standing 6 feet, or more, away while wearing a mask. (For some, this is a positive if you have that one neighbor you like to avoid like the plague…. I mean the Coronavirus). Check out the reactions from your friends when you ask them when we are getting out of this well. Their answers are simply stunning. They are more or less telling you to be grateful we were thrown down into a well that has water. So, while we are drowning in misery, we should be thankful they didn’t banish us into the desert. Often rational people become irrational once they feel threatened, or are convinced they are in immediate peril, even if they are not. Fear is a powerful thing. I fear that fear is now in full swing across the country. Not only to control us, but to also reset the rules and norms of society. How we continue to behave going forward and our willingness to accept these disproportionate constraints on our freedoms, will determine if the rule book is rewritten.

A Nun and a Nurse

              This past week I decided to take a walk around sites I usually avoid for obvious reasons. They are usually rabid anti-Trump sites like “Newsday”, the “New York Times” and the “Washington Post”. I wanted to get a flavor of the indoctrination underway. While I expected comments with the usual garbage of “Trump Sucks”, “I hope Melania gets it”, “Trump just cares about his hotels” and “Ivanka is the Anti-Christ”, I was not really expecting the levels of pure foolishness that I saw from writers. “People of Color are being Targeted because they are Sicklier”; “Trump Did Nothing and Allowed This” and perhaps the worst article I saw was; “Trump is Hiding the Real Numbers Until After Election Day”. (Yes, he is rounding the sick up and throwing them down their own well, keeping them out of sight). As you see, pure foolishness, part stupidity and absolutely pure deceit. Like a good spy doing recon, I report these findings to this viewing group on several platforms. While many of us can see what is going on, I did encounter 2 serious cracks in our armor that should cause concern. I call it the nun and the nurse problem. If you lose this type of crowd to hysteria, the climb up out of the well will be even tougher.

              I had a Facebook friend, we shall call her Sr. Mary (That is her name, but I am leaving out her last name as she is a good woman, just has taken a temporary leave of her intellect). She is a nun, in full habit, who has the right take on issues of consequence. She and I have had countless conversations on the issues affecting the Church, the sanctity of all human life and even the foolishness of identity politics. We even agreed on the virus panic, that is, until this past week. I made the mistake of challenging her newfound belief that the “virus is the beginning of dark days ahead with deaths of biblical proportions”. I asked her where she was obtaining such a grim take on everything, when the numbers don’t match her level of panic. (This was an open Facebook thread). She forcefully replied to me; “I have a priest in my order who just died from this and two others who are sick from this. Do you think this is some game Brian!”. My reply was just as forceful when I asked her “how old were they Sister, and were they sick beforehand? (Her order cares for elderly priests as part of their mission). In pure Hillary Clinton speak she wrote “What difference does that make”. With that, I felt compelled to bring her back to reality and explain it has everything to do with it. Quarantine the groups at risk or who are sick. Why put healthy people under house arrest?  Before I could do so, another friend of hers, a leftist who has chastised her Pro-life beliefs time and time again, chimed in. “He is baiting you”.  She quickly embraced this silliness and latched on to someone willing to exploit her recent pain, in order to validate her new misguided acceptance that we are all at the end of days. I was met with a quick unfriending and a block. Someone she had total agreement with on almost everything, banished off one exchange. Fear is a powerful thing. (Here’s to the one-day Sr. Mary returns to being Sr. Mary). I fear there are a lot of these in the making, as the media posts death counts and sends out texts every time someone has a positive test. (Although this is never done when someone dies from or obtains the flu…go figure)

              Probably the most discouraging exchange came with a childhood friend the other day. (We will call her “Dee”). As a nurse she is witnessing some pretty severe and ugly realities, as people pass away from this virus, and I am sure she has witnessed this from other diseases before this ever occurred, and will witness again long after Corona is gone.  Her argument against me was purely one of raw emotion. She herself has battled back successfully against cancer and feels at risk being a nurse while this virus is around. All perfectly understandable concerns, but where she went off the deep end, without the life preserver, was her employment of very descriptive and misleading terms such as “Tsunami” and “Dire”. Can anyone really claim a tsunami is coming, stacked with death and sickness when the world numbers are still only 400 thousand?  Worldwide we had about 54 million flu cases this season, 25 million doctor and hospital visits, 800 thousand hospitalized and 59 thousand dead. (All CDC Numbers for anyone who wants to fact check me, again).  If Corona is a tsunami, then for the flu we should have appointed a modern-day Noah and start regathering the animals two by two.

The worst part came when her emotion really took hold and she said I was “belittling and dismissing the elderly” (She has since walked back dismissing the elderly but belittling still stands). If simply citing real statistics, proving that this disproportionately affects elderly and the sick, is deemed “belittling”, then we cannot have an honest debate. If refusal to accept basic facts are off limits, we as a nation are never going to move past this.  It is a fact that almost half of Italy’s deaths from this disease are, OVER 60 AND HAVE 2 OR 3 OTHER SERIOUS ILLNESSES.  (This is what happens when you sell your soul to the Communists in China, who have their people eating bats, snakes and rodents, and then are allowed free passage in and out of your country. I will instruct the new Noah to leave these things off the new ark).  Should we be scaring the bejesus out of children and otherwise healthy people who will recover even if they contract the illness? Is it morally responsible to say we are all the same when we aren’t? As I told her, “you are staring at your trees right in front of you, while ignoring the rest of the forest. Those who will not get sick but who are being scared and economically destroyed. (That’s a destruction that hits all age groups). By the way “Dee” was the third smarted person in our grade (First two were off the charts). If you needed to cheat, you sat as close to her as you could. Fear is a powerful thing, even when very smart.

Church Bells all are Broken

              With a daily onslaught of the jackals in the media sending out tweets, texts and emails trying to convince us all about our inevitable fate, coupled with trashing the President, one would expect to seek at least spiritual shelter in the arms of their church. (I am going to reference my own Catholic leaders here but freely insert yours,  if your faith is different.)  That assumption of spiritual comfort would be dead wrong. Right now, across the nation and the world, Bishops are instructing their pastors to close all masses (services) and suspend all sacraments. This includes confessions, (wonderful way to save souls, no?) weddings and funerals. Some funerals are being held with no one in attendance. The mass for even the most popular person is now in the category of the funeral for Eleanor Rigby.

Perhaps one of the most iconic songs in America is; “American Pie” by Don McLean. A song steeped in Catholic identity and imagery. A song not so much about the loss of Buddy Holly and others, but rather a song about the innocence of the music Holly and others created, being overtaken by the darkness of the new Rock n Roll of that time. Artists such as the Beatles (after their drug style appeared) and more specifically the Rolling Stones. McLean despised what the Stones symbolized. He considered Mick Jagger a Satanic figure because of songs like “Sympathy for the Devil”. He was outraged their concerts were policed by active members of the “Hells Angels” and their music littered with constant sexualized imagery.  The song is really about America and her rapid decline away from faith, and towards despair and darkness. McLean was livid over quotes from John Lennon, where he proclaimed the Beatles were “Bigger than Jesus”, as well as Time Magazine declaring “God is Dead”.  McLean saw the spiritual sounds and the sounds of innocence being silenced. Hence the “Church bells all were broken”. So now look at today. The first sign of despair did the bishops or priests stand up and be real leaders of men, or did they simply turn away and turn their backs on those in need? My parish pastor is one of those. A seemingly nice guy but simply not a leader. He sends the parishioners videos of him and some parish priests eating dinner together, (like we care) and streams masses with none of us allowed to attend, while they all receive communion. (This is the new trend). Something is seriously broken. The chosen ones get to receive while we watch them on TV. Imagine being hungry outside a McDonald’s, and watching through the window, as your friend is free to eat and then he tells you, “I need to stay healthy in order to be there for you and offer guidance as you starve”.  You would be done with them. Well Catholics are starting to feel that way as well about their leaders. What should be pure defiance of the times, has now shown us that our leaders are part of the elite who aid in getting us into these wells, but doing it so convincingly. A friend of mine reminded me that during World War II, people went to mass with bombs exploding outside, without fear and with faith. Where is that from the leaders of all faiths? It is missing and sadly as McLean feared, “The Church Bells all are broken”. We need real men to lead. We do not need overweight priests being socially cool using Facebook videos to convey that image. We do not need priests cancelling the sacraments…we need more of them. When in uncertain times, why would you wall off the most precious thing this world has? Our faith is the same as it was the day Jesus founded it and we love our church, but we really are starting to dislike our leaders. Not a word of the effect on the average person being financially and socially deprived. No one publicly questioning the policies that will cause people to lose their jobs, financial security or ability to provide for themselves and their families. Today in the mail I received my weekly envelopes. You know what Father Fluff? I will gladly resume my gifts once you reopen my church for mass and stop cowering in the rectory, awaiting cash from the next bailout. Speak up about the poor and the charities that will not get money or donations because the money supply is being dried up, as you say nothing, and go along to get along, preaching fear and despair. While you have nothing to do,…. perhaps climb the ladder and fix the bells.

Non-stimulating Stimulus

              While the fearless leaders all get ready for their bailout cash, which has now ballooned to 2 trillion dollars….yes trillion (Just 2 months ago 1.5 trillion of student loan debt to be paid off was absolutely off the table, but now we are 500 billion more in the blink of an eye?), we have leaders, who I call “The Podium Posers”, making wildly outrageous claims of an 80 percent infection rate of the population. This number was just uttered yesterday by non-other than “El Supremo” Cuomo.  A political prostitute who gives two or three conferences a day in order to bolster his standing in the Democratic Party. A guy who had the unmitigated gall to actually say “We will not put a dollar figure on a human life”. Yes, the same man who lit up the Empire State building in pink to celebrate the passage of legislation allowing babies to die on a table, unattended, from starvation, hypothermia, a heart attack or all the above. (The same man the rotund Cardinal of the Archdiocese of New York couldn’t find the moral fortitude to excommunicate). This is the guy leading the moral crusade and battle plan around preserving life? We should suspend our outrage over him and believe he is concerned about human life? I’m sorry but I do not believe a word he says. His moral compass is destroyed and to think he is balancing out the moral good is preposterous. He is doing what is best for himself and his base. This includes an exaggerated threat, one that jeopardizes national security. Follow him at your own peril.

              As expected, the 2 trillion dollars is a battle of ideologies. We have a party of Democrats using it to pass through things they could never get passed in ordinary times. Solar and wind credits, Massive expansion of collective bargaining power for government unions, Planned Parenthood funding  (Even though the law under the Hyde Amendment specifically prohibits it), Same day voter registration, Return of the Obama-phone, Funding for the Kennedy Center, $15 minimum wage, No ID for mail in ballots (Say hello to your future President, Hillary Clinton) and extension of immigrant work visas.  What does this have to do with stopping a self-created depression? The short answer is nothing. If you want proof this virus is being used to reshape America, this 2 trillion slush fund should open your eyes. (Perhaps the left can get Peter Gabriel back in the studio to write the sequel to “Red Rain” (A song used to drum up support for the left wing, anti-nuclear arms movement). He could call it “Yellow Strain” and mobilize the Millennials.)  Since the damage is already done this money needs to be in the hands of the people who work for a living. (On the personal front, there should be no income ceiling rather a floor. If you pay taxes, you get it. If you do not, then you don’t.)

              So, where does all this government intrusion and spending end? Are we going to take the country on a ride to nowhere where this thing never ends? The president wants this over by Easter, April 12^th.  Already the left is howling in protest because “We don’t know if this “Health Crisis” will be worse “. In the Democrats world this crisis is just what they needed. They don’t want it to end. This is their attempt to buy off Americans and get them hooked on spending and handouts. Just what their “Doctor” ordered. Make themselves the saviors as they push dependency.  This is a highway that was built by them with no off-ramps. This is the same party that tried to impeach a President over “Withholding aid to a friend in crisis”? The same party that made the phrase “quid pro quo” part of the vernacular, suddenly embracing this for that, and withholding aid until they get what they want? It is a road to destruction and bankruptcy, and it is time Americans call this virus out for what it is. It is a Trojan Horse for Socialism. If you don’t believe me, watch as Easter arrives and the “Podium Posers” ratchet up their condemnation of the President for wanting to return to normalcy, where his policies are better than theirs, and they know it.    As the old saying goes “You freely vote your way into Socialism, but you have to fight your way to get out”.           

“I met a girl who sang the blues, and I asked her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away……..And the Three men I admire most, The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost they caught the last train for the coast. The day the music died”.

Are we about to become a nation that surrenders her liberty and all that goes with it (see the first paragraph) or will we regain what made the nation great and call a halt to the fear mongering and stop the progressive march towards tyranny?  The President has symbolically chosen Easter as a message of a new day and a renewed optimism to climb out of these wells and welcome the return of the “Father, Son and the Holy Ghost”. The Democratic party and the media establishment do not want Easter to ever arrive. They much prefer the confusion and control that a perpetual Good Friday brings….

Now someone please throw me down a ladder…I need social distancing from this hysteria.