I watched the inauguration today, and I’m sorry folks. I simply can’t get excited about this ‘extraordinarily gifted man’ that everybody is ecstatic about. I think he’s full of hot air. His speech was a load of platitudes that was probably strung together by Oprah Winfrey. I can’t help feeling that he’s just another canned politician with a slick grin put together by smarty pants media men paid by the guys in the back room.
When I breathe my dislike of the guy people assume that I must be barmy for Bush, kooky for McCain and pie eyed for Palin. (OK, I admit that I was rather taken with Palin but that is for a reason which will become clear) I’m not. I think they’re all full of hot air, that they’re all canned politicos slapped together by their own PR guys and paid by another set of guys in the back room.
This is where my true political colors show. (If anybody really cares) and that is, that my political color is beige. That is to say, I don’t have any political colors. The only reason I liked Sarah Palin is because she was a breath of fresh air from Alaska who stepped on to the political stage as a genuine nobody, spoke her mind, had a nice line in high heels, shot from the hip and didn’t seem to like all the stage managers they surrounded her with.
In this respect I think it is my Amish roots revealing themselves. I distrust politicians of all sorts. In ordinary life I don’t much like people who want to be in charge, and are willing to say anything to anybody to get elected, so why should I like somebody like that writ large? That’s what the Amish are like. They dislike the establishment. They don’t fit in. They thumb their noses at the lot of them with their pinned together clothes, their outlandish beards, their bizarre customs and their kooky clothes. “Keep it!” they cry out, “Keep it all! It’s all a load of foolish worldliness. All of you are full of horse apples. I’m keeping my buggy and my barn raisings and my scrapple and schnitz and knepp and fat ladies wearing bonnets and chicken pot pie and braided rugs and apple butter and my pork and sauerkraut.
Maybe that’s why I like being a Catholic too. It’s the best way to be counter cultural, and maybe that’s why I keep my own outlandish beard, wear my cassock every day and keep turning out the lights.
I wonder if the insurance on a horse and buggy is cheaper than my Volkswagen. Maybe that’s why I bought a VW in the first place…’Volkswagen’ is probably German for ‘horse and buggy.’
Well, here’s the thing: I also grew up very conservative country Pennsylvania close to Reading, but I cannot pretend to be Amish. They truly are a sect apart from all of us. In fact, I grew up serious mainline Protestant, but converted to Catholicism as a teenager–loved the liturgy, and later all the Church teaches.I have to say that I distrust our new President’s history, and abhor some of his agendas, but my faith teaches me to be guardedly optimistic for his conversion. I am going to assume he will act in our best interests, and will discover his larger calling to love and serve God as he serves this country. We all must commit to pray for him daily. To quote St. Padre Pio: “Pray, hope and don’t worry”. Praying, hoping and trying not to worry, I am yours in Christ,Jenny
Oh, yes, and BTW, I drove a VW for 20 years until my family outgrew even a VW bus…!
"Volks" = People's"Wagen" = CarGerman for Horse & Buggy is "PanzergrenadierengefahrenmobelwagennichtzursuschlectsimmerbraudenmaschinenApfeldroppengemachtenzueger" (or something like that — kinda been a while since German 101…)
The nice thing about growing up in southeastern PA was the influence of the plain folk, be they of British extraction(Quaker) or German (Mennonite). A certain public modesty prevailed. For example—if you were affluent, it was always considered bad taste to show it off. Alas, in my county (Bucks) that has disappeared with the growth of suburban sprawl. Well at least the anti-christ (DC) and his minion (W)have been cast down from power. Now we must pray that Obama can be converted to understand the real definition of human life.
No, to be outlandish was not the reason you bought a VW, but it was the reason you bought a motorcycle.
Palin was breath of fresh air.But I do agree with your point. I used to cover politics as a reporter, and I grew jaded after all that I saw and heard. Palin seemed a bit more real than most (though not completely so). So did Huckabee.As Catholics, we ARE called to be countercultural. We are called to challenge the accepted, the easy, the superficial.Oh, and I have a beard, too!
After seeing pols up close for a number of years, I have to agree, sort of. There are some who actually have closely held personal beliefs that they live by, some very left and some right. Tubbs, off subject, but you and everyone might want to read the new President’s first 4 or 5 proclamations: affirms freedom of “choice”, mandates use of federal $$ for abortion, contraception including “morning after”, and Mexico City initiatives. Came out already today. AnneG in NCPS Tubbs, you could be more charitable amd set a better example.
PS Pfarrkraftwagen is horse drawn buggy, I think. AnneG
Yes, a bit like our own whiter-than-white, nulabour Tony Blair.The Daily Telegraph actually described Obama as ‘messianic’!!Time to be worried…
I can’t see it either. I can’t see what anybody sees in him at all. He has never accomplished anything and yet everyone seems to think that he can move mountains. I just don’t get it. I guess he’s got charisma but it doesn’t work on me… I don’t feel any magic when I look at him. I don’t feel anything at all. He seems smart and slick, a regular politician.My next door neighbors are black, and they had a party election night. Everyone went whooping into the street at midnight when he accepted. But… being black doesn’t really explain it. Condoleeza is black. Colin Powell is black. No one went whooping into the street over them. And I’m not a George Bush fan. He screwed a lot of things up. But Obama???? I’m just not seeing it.
Your role as a priest could be best served, it seems to me, with all due respect by praying for our president and for our country, and for the conversion of both. You don’t have to like him but he is the leader of the country in which you — and all of us Catholics — live. I did not vote for Obama either but I respect the meaning he has for my African-American friends and neighbors, and I also respect the fact that millions of people voted for him and see in him something of hope and transformation they did not see in our previous president, who I also did not vote for. You might not like politics, Father, and I respect your opinion, but I also wish you could extend the charity of wishing this man Godspeed and pray for him to provide leadership.
The kind of people who want power are the last ones who should be given it, that’s one of the pitfalls a democratic system based on universal suffrage. The only people who end up with the power are the kind of people who lack virtues such as humility, because no humble man would engage in the kind of self promotion necessary to hoodwink the masses in order to get elected by a majority of people who have never even met them.In this system you are nearly always going to end up with anarrogant liar with power over your life.
Change has come to the White House. Turns out the new occupants are a bit nastier than the former.From the official White House website:”President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.”http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/additionalWith all due respect President Obama, you’re our president. Time to lead.
I don’t believe in politics. Period.Democracy’s greatest contribution is that it has provided proof that the common man is no better than the king.
I watched the inauguration for the sake of history being made, on CNN/Facebook and was amazed at the number of comments saying “I’m in tears” and “I’m crying.” Like you, I just don’t feel it. While I respect what this means for my African-American fellow citizens, I think that way too many people of all colors are expecting way too much of “just another canned politician”.
Amen, Alleluia, say it again brother, while I hope for the best, I am afraid we are headed for the worst, a cult of personality has taken hold in our country, think Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin, this man is dangerous, pray our congress grows a spine.
HAHAHA! I loved this, and there is little else to say. You whipped it (like a horse pulling a buggy)… whipped it good! 🙂 A grin ear to ear, that is what I’m wearing. I’ll let the old A-teamers know there is a Catholic who thinks well of them in the south. Not that they will care :DI was agreeing with it all. Can’t think of a better statement on this, and I’m not just brown-nosing! What would it get me anyway? HERE HERE!-g-P.S. I love and hate my own Volkswagen… excellent drive, but pricey on the upkeep!
I’m with you, Father. I’ve supported politicians and voted for them, but I’ve never worshiped them. Usually when I vote I support the lesser of two evils–human beings are fallible and fallen creatures! Even the best of politicians haven’t inspired in me the thrills that so many people, especially in the news media, get from Mr. Obama. The messianic feelings about our new president are creepy and frightening to me. Of course, I pray for his conversion, but I also remember that Mr. Obama has free will, which so far he is abusing by actively supporting and promoting the killing of the unborn. And now he is using my tax dollars to do it. Yes, pray for his conversion, AND also work against these horrible policies!
Politics is part of being human as a social animal. One can’t play ostrich and pretend it doesn’t exist. It is present in the church, and in the secular government.GWB was pretty good on protecting embryos. Alito and Roberts were great supreme court picks. Without those picks the court would have been sadly imbalanced towards the left. I like Clarence Thomas and the other conservative justices too. Overall, the GOP has performed when it comes to the supreme court.With all due respect father I think you are deluding yourself that you don’t care for politics and that you don’t like Obama just because he is a politician.Your blog has reams of political discourse. You’ve despised Obama from day one, mostly because he has a horrific record on life issues. Bush’s horrific record on adult life issues are simply not enough to tip the balance for you, or to soften your heart towards Obama. You despise the man. You refer to Obortions and call him an Obamination. It’s almost as if the culpability for every abortion in the USA if not the world has been focused on this man in your heart. In short, you hate abortion, and Obama=abortion in your mind, therefore you hate Obama.
I agree Father! I don’t ally myself wit any party. In fact, I’m beginning to think politics is a bit of a waste of time. Not Amish in anyway, But I do go to Reading Terminal. I think that counts.
You have the formula correct, Uncle Marcus–so, what’s your point?