This is Viewpoints for Friday, July 22, 2016

Petty?

How petty can we get? Yes, I said petty. We need to wise up. After learning a truck plowed into a crowd of innocent people in France celebrating their Independence Day, instead of having rallies in the U.S. on Black Lives Matter, we need to be coming together on concerns that American Lives Matter. Killers and terrorists couldn’t care less about anybody’s life including their own.

Not enough paint

It is no wonder that there was such difficulty defining the word “ is” after reading the very long letter by van Hestervelt trying to explain/confirm Hillary’s “honesty.” When an object is flawed it takes a lot of paint to cover the imperfections, just as many words and reference to side issues/statistics are so often used to try to conceal a person’s flaws. The sub-surface flaws remain under the paint as revealed by the guile utilized to conceal the ultimate private server revelations.

Plagiarism, Giuliani and the media

The media political news today is funny, and if the world was not in such turmoil it would be hilarious. A speechwriter for Melania Trump, wife of GOP nominee Donald Trump, used the exact words in a presentation that were used earlier by a speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama. That’s the major news line and has been for the past 24 hours. Albeit, that a simple computer inquiry will instantly produce hundreds of other speeches, novels, poems, songs and literature with the same or similar wordage, and that speechwriter Meredith McIver has acknowledge using the similar words for Melania’s presentation.

I’ve seen very little reporting on the fiery speech by Rudy Giuliani on crime in our country at the GOP convention, and how Trump’s administration will address that issue. Giluliani will make us a great Homeland Security chief, and he will reduce much of the today’s violence as he did when he was mayor of New York City. Very little is being reported on how the Republican Party is beginning to coalesce around Trump, and how the political polls are now showing Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a virtual tie. Perhaps most amazing is the absence in media comments of President Obama and his administration declining multiple request to light the White House in blue in remembrance of our fallen police officers, as it was earlier honoring gay rights with rainbow colored lights and women’s breast cancer with pink lights. Most of us strongly believe blue lives matter, too.

Fair and balanced news is not the domain of any media source now in America. The majority of outlets are heavily weighted toward the liberal candidates, and it tends to support and cover for that party. By most standards Clinton is considered a flawed candidate with excessive baggage trying to follow Obama into the Oval Office and continue his policies and programs. Perhaps the wahoo over Melania’s speech by the media is nothing more that another feeble effort to keep Clinton out of the news for another day. And Melania could fluently tell reporters that in five languages, if she chose to do so.

Second Amendment logic

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Democrat from New Jersey, claims that the Second Amendment applies only to muskets, therefore she feels it could be perfectly reasonable to ban modern guns. That is an absurd statement on many fronts. First, “repeating rifles” (although rudimentary) were first offered to the U.S. government in 1777. That means the framers were aware of weapons advances past flintlocks and still adopted the Second Amendment years later. Coleman may be a representative, but she is a lousy history student as are most Democrats.

Estimates of the number of cannons used by our revolutionary militia/soldiers against the world’s strongest army reveal that as many as 80 percent were furnished by private individuals. So, the Second Amendment clearly would include cannons, which means lighter weapons that would evolve over time would surely be covered. The Second Amendment was passed to assure the people’s unfettered access to the First and all other amendments and to assure that government would fear the people rather than the other way around.

Coleman has no logical argument against the feared “black rifles” she desperately wants to ban. True military weapons are already banned for American citizens and only used today by terrorists, drug cartels and governments. Apply Coleman’s logic to the First Amendment, and only quill pens and hand presses could be employed to get out the news.

Implied facepalm

So let me get this straight, Mayor Robert Richert and Macon-Bibb County are still pushing forward the idea of getting a minor league baseball team? They’re considering building an amphitheater? This the same area that lost multiple minor league sports teams partially due to lack of support. This is the same area that can’t even support having two movie theaters. This is the same city that lost the GHSA state basketball championships in part because they allowed the Coliseum to fall into disrepair.

Macon-Bibb County? A popular internet meme featuring a cross-looking Tommy Lee Jones describes the idea best of all. Implied facepalm. When something is so ridiculous that a full and proper facepalm is not even necessary.

Never again

After listening to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton repeatedly state “if she had to do it over again, she would have never set up a private server,”one can only think, “gee that’s funny. That’s exactly what convicted rapist, pedophiles, murderers, bank robbers, etc. say.”

Nobody wins

If we were all born with transparent skin we would see we’re the same. We also would know what’s really important is what comes from the heart. Whom then can we blame for our actions and deeds, for all of our blood is the same when we bleed? We are made in God’s image, and he is not pleased when we mistreat others. We cause him to grieve. When we stand before him, he will judge what we’ve done in our treatment of others one by one.

God gave the command that we love one another. That means all of us. So just remember if you judge by the color of skin, everyone loses and nobody wins.

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 8:37 AM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Friday, July 22, 2016."