Prepare for Emergency Landing

All day Sunday, I put off writing my column. Weary from a week of writing, I feared I had run out of energy and passion.

Finally, I decided I should keep up the momentum, and chose Palm Sunday as a fitting topic for that day’s blog.

Long ago, I lost my childhood Bible. Tired of its stern brow-beatings – no matter what page I turned to, a bible-thumping was in store – I banished it from one corner to another, until finally, I lost it altogether.

If I thought I was well-rid of it (at the time), my Bible felt the same way about me. I’ve searched my home up and down trying to locate it, to no avail. I’ve cleared every book shelf, looked into every nook. Disgusted with me, I think it ran away from home.

So, I’ve had to resort to a secondary bible, New Testament only, when I wish to quote the scripture. It’s a modern-language Bible, and not one I’ve always had great faith in. But any Bible in a storm.

This Bible, which I picked up in my teens, it turns out, was published in a town not far from me, the same town in which I played percussion in a church band for awhile.

To this Bible I made reference when discussing Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his subsequent teaching at the Temple there.

I cited the Parable of the Tenants and also made reference to some of his teachings regarding the End Times. I hadn’t realized he’d spoken of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and astrological prophecies.

Christians I know have always scorned astrology, I assumed, because Jesus did.

Very interesting. But no matter. I read some other interesting quotes from Jesus, too, which I didn’t include in my blog.

“Be careful,” he said, “or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day (Armageddon) will close on you unexpectedly, like a trap.

“For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always upon the watch and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

Whoa! Heavy duty stuff for 10:30 at night. I saved what I had written and posted it quickly so that it would appear in my Sunday blog. Then I went to watch a little television before I retired.

Channel-surfing, I discovered one of my favorite movies, Titanic. I tuned in during the great ship’s last moments. But this was more doom and gloom, of which I had had enough. I figured I’d watch the last commercial and hit the off button.

A new beer commercial came on. A jet had crash-landed on a remote, tropical island. A dripping wet young woman announced she had discovered the plane’s radio. They’d be able to call for help and be saved.

But then a guy’s voice called out. He’d discovered the ship’s refrigerator, conveniently stocked with the company’s beer. The other idiot passengers cheered in jubilation and danced around, leaving the girl with the radio dumb-founded.

“We’ve been saved!” a passenger cries, kissing the beer bottle.

I suppose it’s funny. I have a sense of humor, just like anyone else. And I would have laughed, if not five minutes before, I hadn’t read Jesus’ admonition about being weighed down with drunkenness.

Those actors didn’t look very weighed down to me. Nor did Sen. Chuck Schumer sound very glum when he told NBC’s “Meet the Press:

“’As people learn what's actually in the [HealthCare Reform] bill, that six months from now, by election time, this is going to be a plus because the parade of horribles, particularly the worry that the average middle class person has that this is going to affect them negatively, will have vanished and they'll see that it'll affect them positively in many ways.’”

Fox News reports that a non-plussed “David Axelrod, President Obama's senior adviser, predicted to CNN that once people get their benefits, they won't want to give them up.”

"’Millions of small businesses this year will get tax credits for health insurance for their employees. Kids with pre-existing conditions will get coverage for the first time. They won't be excluded any more.

"’If people really want to repeal those things, then go and make the case to the American people. After all, that's what elections are for.’"

Evidently, the Liberals figure we’ll see this as our great-grandparents’, grandparents’, and parents’ health care. That it’s in our genetic make-up to accept freebies and not question their cost, constitutionality, or corruptibility.

Fox News ended its report thus, “Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak held a two-hour town hall meeting on Sunday. It was supposed to be an opportunity for him to explain provisions of the law to constituents. Instead, he got an earful from voters who said the bill will bankrupt America and shred the limited government intent of the U.S. Constitution.”

We may lose our labor in the repeal process. But we are obligated to make the attempt all the same. We must have faith in our fellow Americans’ good sense and virtue. We must pray they don’t take the devils’ bait.

Of course, it will be hard work. We must convince thick-headed, beer-swilling neanderthals whose idea of retirement planning is playing the lottery that our country is trillions of dollars in debt. There’s a good chance they’ll just laugh and ignore us.

If they do, however, we must break out the life preservers and prepare for an emergency landing.