As Straws in the Wind

As one bell upon another
tolls for those of my generation, the
generation that entered college in the early to mid 1950’s
with the future of the entire world in our hands, we know another
one of us is missing from this life and has gone on to eternity.
The movie stars of our youth, the broadcasters who shaped the
minds of the next generation (for good or bad, as one’s
viewpoint dictates), the politicians without whom things would
certainly crash about us ... gone from our sight. At one point
some of these icons were the movers and shakers upon whose
opinions and insights we directed our course. Or they were role
models for the things we ourselves had to accomplish, to carry
out the great mission of ensuring that the world survives for
more generations. What a heavy load to carry. What a noble cause
for which to sacrifice. That was the mindset of my generation ...
no one assigned these responsibilities to us, they "devolved"
upon us as the youth, the future of the world. We inherited
responsibilities and stood up to challenges.

Looking at today’s world, we obviously missed the whole
point ... our responsibilities were a lot more limited, our
spheres of influence were smaller than a city block and our
passing is hardly cause for someone to say a half-hearted "oh too
bad."

The world we didn’t have in our charge and control is a
sloppy mess filled with evil and violence. No, don’t call
us or any generation "the greatest" one of all. There is none
such upon the earth filled with flawed men and women of hubris or
hopelessness. We were just another generation, perhaps filled
with more exuberance than the youths of the Great Depression who
didn’t know the way out, or who had to drop their dreams
and pick up their shovels to eke out any kind of living. We lived
in the most respected nation in the world in 1952, but instead of
making it greater, we and our offspring (if any - I have none)
have let the new era scallywags and carpetbaggers run off with
our taxes, our retirement, our medical care and the control of
our government which was supposed to be a people’s
government. Those of the baby-boomer generation who have
positions of leadership are diluting our culture by leaving our
borders open, and under the guise of giving us security have
taken the liberties so many of my generation gladly handed over
to prevent being discomforted by terrorism.

Unbelievable? I wish this were a nightmare rather than the
description of a page from today’s scenario of life in the
United States, Planet Earth. Some folks notice the past ten years
have seen an advancing, accelerating decline in morality,
educational "outcomes" (aka dumbed down kids), and a terrifying
loss of personal liberty. My grandparents owned a homestead south
of Bisbee, Arizona, in 1905. They owned it unconditionally. No
property taxes. No limits on fencing their property against one
set of heathen neighbors who wanted to use it to run their
rustled cattle through to the site of re-branding. Grandpa was a
man other men feared. He would protect his family and was
expected to do so ... no explanation needed for shooting a
malicious trespasser who would harm his wife and daughters.
People could even protect their property at gunpoint in those
days. Criminals weren’t the poor victims in those days. Up
was up, down was down, everyone understood "is" and while there
were evil people around (and have been since the fall of Adam)
there was frontier justice, swift and final.

Now people own everything conditionally, subject to paying
taxes to the governments (local, state, federal) to be able to
keep owning it, which isn’t ownership at all. Property
taxes, auto licence lieu taxes, boat taxes, income taxes, death
taxes, all manner of taxes make ownership conditional upon paying
our own government tribute to allow us to live! That isn’t
freedom, and few people ever give it a thought. And yes, I pay my
property taxes to keep my condo and the auto lieu tax so my
current tags let me drive where I need to go. I’m just
mindful that my paid-for property isn’t really mine as long
as government has the right to set the tax rate and, if so
inclined, set it so high I cannot keep my property. File that
last statement for reference. Few people "get it" that the
government has no source of revenue other than what it extorts
from the people by way of taxation and redistributes by
entitlements socalled. Few people feel that licensing is a form
of tax vehicle, not a source of order and protection. Now, with
today’s technology, it’s a source of snooping as
well! Oh yes, we need to catch all those terrorists who are just
waiting for the right time to give us all bird flu. And
it’s probably some violation of "hate speech" law to
suggest that the terrorism just may have its source at home
rather than abroad.

The Black Plague that hit Europe in the 14th century still has
not been definitively identified as the bubonic. It supposedly
was carried into Europe by Mongols who brought goods from the
Orient to Europe, along with rats infested with infected fleas.
However, the disease spread faster than the rats, so
there’s some question as to whether the virus/bacteria
became airborne. We know it decimated Europe and everywhere else
it hit, so that long before today’s "sustainable earth"
depopulation goals were formulated, depopulation occurred by war,
pestilence and famine. The Four Horsemen have been riding across
the earth for centuries. Even without war, famine and pestilence,
death comes to all, and few names survive the shifting sands of
time. One Pythagoras, one Alexander, one Galileo, people whose
contributions really do affect the way life is lived today. One
Jesus Christ, Lord of All to those who believe in His redemptive
work.

Kingship is something ingrained in a human being’s "need
box" inside the spirit. Why? Because there is but one "King" and
the earth has always rejected Him in favor of lesser gods and
little petty kings. His own people rejected Him long before
Christ was born, when Israel rejected the Judges, in the days of
Samuel, and cried for a king. The problem is, people don’t
want a true king. They want a kindly father who will grant them
all their wants and wishes, to which there is no visible end.
They only cry to this father figure as a "god" when they want
deliverance from danger and the evils of this world, and at that
point where their spirits must leave this earth, allowing the
body to return to dust and the soul to go forward to its destiny
in eternity. They have to make that trip alone, no human can
accompany them. Coming into the world involves a mother, leaving
it demands a father to meet them and guide them safely home. The
problem is, few have met the correct "father" to do that job, but
have relied on every manner of idol, statue, carving, human
usurper of divine status, and humanly-devised government system
that attempts to take the place of the True King.

Recent natural disasters have proven the worthlessness of
government to save us from the hurricanes, tornadoes that
devastate in less than sixty seconds, storm surges that topple
buildings, winds that snap trees like match sticks, snows that
bury and floods that wash away our bodies like roadway debris.
We’re humans and we stand helpless before the power of
nature’s forces ... fire, earth/mud, wind and water. Crying
to government for help is calling to equally helpless humans,
whose power exists only in being able to command the forces of
force (the law and the military) to move the herds around. Their
power looks good on the media. It looks useless in the face of
something like a Category 4 or 5 hurricane or a 20-foot storm
surge. Government? That’s security? No, it’s force
... in times when force can be exerted. We’re straws in the
wind, all of us. Seldom known to one another, we’re all
known to God. He has known us since before the foundation of this
world.

We do well to get that straight, because there is no other
refuge or fortress, no other power, no other King with the
ability to give life, resurrect the body and make all things new.
Without that hope, life is a sad lottery of fools on fools’
errands in a meaningless universe so large that we scarcely
exist. Remembering that we are only straws in the wind, except
for God’s grace, is indeed the beginning of wisdom and the
only worthwhile perspective that has a guaranteed future as well
as strength for each day. Begin with humility, there is no other
road to triumph.

© 2005 Dorothy A. Seese
Printed by Permission