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“R convention delay due to Isaac: I guess God has ways to
shut that whole thing down.”
— Tweet from
Jennifer Granholm, former Democratic governor of Michigan, Aug.
25
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Some Republican
partisans are all atwitter about that remark, but I think it’s
pretty funny, coming from a Democratic partisan who is reacting to
issues promoted by some Republican religious conservatives.
Obviously, she’s joking. I’d just had a similar irreverent thought,
but mine was, how can this be happening? I thought God was on the
Republicans’ side.
Actually, I imagine God
annoyed with both parties for using him to attack the First
Amendment’s separation of church and state. Some social
conservatives want constitutional amendments to make all Americans
define human life and marriage using their churches’ teachings. Some
liberals object to public schoolchildren singing Lee Greenwood’s
“God Bless the USA,” want to remove “God” from the Pledge of
Allegiance and prohibit government employees from saying “God bless
you” when someone sneezes.
None of these is
joking. One group doesn’t acknowledge that the Founding Fathers
didn’t want either the Church of England or any other churches
connected to our government, and the other groups think this means
America shouldn’t worship, mention or cite God in general. Heaven
help us.
But staying with the
hurricane theme, and trusting in Wikipedia: Yosef, a prominent
ultra-Orthodox Israeli rabbi, declared Hurricane Katrina to be
“God’s punishment for President Bush’s support of the August 2005
withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza strip.” Protestant
evangelical Jack Chick, in his fundamentalist comic book, also
explained the hurricane as a sign of God’s wrath over U.S. pressure
on Israel. Not to be outdone, al-Qaida in Iraq declared of the
hurricane that “God attacked America, and the prayers of the
oppressed were answered.” Minister Louis Farrakhan asserted that
Hurricane Katrina was “God’s way of punishing America for its
warmongering and racism.”
Televangelist Pat
Robertson was reported implying that the storm was God’s punishment
in response to America’s abortion policy, because he’d said similar
things in the past, though this time Wikipedia notes he was
misrepresented. Liberals keep using this inaccurate reference to
attack Christians in general, though.
Regular folks who read
Erik Larson’s book “Isaac’s Storm,” about “the deadliest hurricane
in history,” know that hurricanes are caused by temperatures usually
from Africa that warm the ocean and Gulf waters. Isaac Cline was the
resident meteorologist who experienced the 1900 Galveston disaster;
it’s just a coincidence that this present storm is named Isaac, but
it’s my chance to recommend a great summer read.
I wish I could also
recommend the musical I saw last weekend at the North Shore Music
Theatre, but it’s gone now. Hope you get a chance someday to see
“All Shook Up,” featuring Elvis’ songs in an original romantic plot
set in the ’50s: fabulous voices, great fun and, for me, a necessary
escape from the 2012 election coverage, which gets crazier every
day.
Look, there’s CNN’s
Anderson Cooper interviewing Democratic National Committee
Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In a heated exchange, Cooper
charged that the Florida congresswoman “misquoted” the Los Angeles
Times in a letter, while misrepresenting Mitt Romney’s stance on the
Republican Party’s abortion platform plank. She just kept defending
her lie. You can see this interview at politico.com.
Look, there’s Romney
talking to his hometown crowd, enjoying himself, joking that his and
Ann’s birth certificates are available from local hospitals. Oh no!
Here come the Democrats, calling him a “birther!” even though when
serious he’s said he believes Obama was born in the U.S.
Look, here’s a twofer.
There’s Obama, campaigning in Iowa, quoting Romney joking about wind
power, saying, “You can’t drive a car with a windmill on it.” The
president responded, “He’s had other things on his car.”
The “Seamus in his
carrier on the Romney car” jokes are getting old, but they’re still
popular in both liberal (“Doonesbury”) and conservative (“Prickly
City”) comic strips. I laugh out loud reading the latter. The two
main characters are young consultants to an evil rabbit/independent
presidential candidate, and the liberal coyote pup has to ride to
political events on the top of the conservative Hispanic girl’s car.
I also laughed at a cartoon showing Ann Romney’s horse returning
from the Olympics on the top of an airplane.
Seriously, folks. Mitt
did the dog a favor by finding a way to take him on vacation with
the family. Obama shouldn’t be attacked for eating fast food on the
trail despite Michelle’s lectures on nutrition. Both candidates
should be allowed to crack a joke without the media equating this
with vicious Democrat ads that have Romney killing a woman with
cancer. It’s convention time: Let’s get down to the serious issues.
Undecided voters, who
are just tuning in, will hopefully find a clear picture of the two
different visions of America. If I were advising a party, I’d
suggest it forgo the silly hats yet try to keep a sense of humor.
My theory is that God
wants us all to have evolved into rational human beings who can
solve our political problems without divine intervention.