1:56 PM -:- Posted by Allen    

For the People

Let's never neglect the fact that in my most recent blogging (next below, of course), I refer to Doug Kenline as "my friend".

I'm not perfect, and I don't expect my friends to be. I've been wrong lots of times, might even be again. Good intentions, intelligence, great advisors, none of these are gurarantees of rightness. It's okay for you to be wrong, Doug, as long as you are willing to face the music. :-)

"For the People" by itself is not marxist. It's the context that decides. When it's Of, By AND For, with mutual respect, then it is libertarian. When it comes with a sense of entitlement and opportunism, and/or a disregard for the sensibilities of the creators and producers, then it becomes questionable.

But even so, people can be wrong, make mistakes, even do bad things for good reasons. Doesn't mean they aren't still my friends, if they were before. Just means that they'll someday have to get through me.

This leads to a short discussion of how to love your enemies. There's no need to hate someone just because he's destructive or even evil in action. In the final analysis, he's just disoriented, and probably has all kinds of ideas about how he's doing the right thing. You're supposed to forgive a guy like that, for he knows not what he does. Of course, you also kill him if you must. You just don't have to do it with malice in your heart. A guy appoints me his executioner, I execute. If I'm angry about it, I'm only angry that he put that burden upon me. But I do it, with an explanation if there's time. If he appreciates the feedback, then he's recovered his standing with me.

That's his standing with respect to honor; he was never not my friend.

'I'm in you, you're in me, the Creator is in us.'

And we're all in this mess together.