Vote for Joe

As mentioned in the last post, the Blessed Virgin Mary has been appearing around the globe in the last 100 years with urgent messages for a mankind tremendously adrift in a sea of sin. For instance, she allegedly told Fr. Stefano Gobi, and Italian priest, that television is the “false idol” referred to in the Bible’s “Book of Revelation.” While the technology in and of itself isn’t inherently bad (St. Clare is actually the patroness of television in the Catholic Church), what many of us have chosen to do with it is bad. For one, a majority of us spend way more time watching it (tv, I-phones, etc…), than we do with prayer, focused family interaction, community outreach… And two, by our watching habits (the shows a majority of us watch drive advertising for more of these types of shows), we have allowed Satan to incrementally manipulate the content to become more, and then more, and then more… sinful. And now we’re at the point where a majority of the “invisible air waves,” if you will, are saturated with sexual imagery, violence, partying (alcohol and drugs)… And wouldn’t you know, now sharing those “invisible air waves” is: a killer virus. First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have other gods before me.” Simple enough. Note: I would use the presidency as what’s referred to as a “bullypulpit” to get this message across.

I was just listening to an interview with a college admissions counselor who said the coronavirus crisis is playing havoc with high school seniors who would be in the final stages of college trips and picking a college for next year. Now, not only are the campus trips scotched, but with growing economic uncertainty, a good number of students are rethinking going away to a four year college. Good! See, our current paradigm is for kids to grow up in a community developing strong rapport with parents, siblings, neighbors, church members, teachers, coaches… Then, at age 18, a majority head off to distant four year colleges — detaching, more and more, from the people they were close to. After college, the fragmentation continues with the graduates then heading off to the highest paying jobs — wherever they might be. In other words, solid community is often traded in for money. God’s plan? This crisis is giving us the opportunity to realign. Hopefully, more and more of these high school graduates will go to the local community college and live at home, or close by, continuing to work on local community building. In addition, our administration would propose Two-Year-Fast-Track-Associate Degrees that included education streams specific to a person’s field of study, without electives, and such, that are pushed in four-year liberal arts colleges. (Those electives — Who really needs analytical philosophy anyway? — are not so much about a student becoming more “well-rounded,” as they are about a college “making more money.”) So with this realignment, there’s naturally much less student debt and local community building has continued to grow. In addition, in valuing the latter more, there’s much more of a possibility the college graduate will then look to stay around the community to work. Note: The Bible said the early Christians were inspired to “live in community.” So it wouldn’t take a Biblical scholar (versed in analytical philosophy no less), but rather just an “average Jonah” (versed in spiritual common sense), to figure God would be for things that enhanced community. (The Amish have figured this out, and they only go to school through 8th grade.) For more on this, as well as other outside-the-lines “education” platform points, see…

Our energy gluttonous First World lifestyles are ‘fueling’ global warming at an alarming rate, forming, in essence, an ‘invisible’ bubble around the globe that’s trapping more and more of the sun’s heat. What’s more, scores of people are dying now in more arid countries because of global warming related drought and famine — as just one, of many, dire climate change examples. So, in a very real sense, we are breaking the 6th Commandment by being responsible for these deaths. It’s just that we haven’t been spiritually confronted about it — until Pope Francis showed up on the scene, that is. God allowed this man to become the “Vicar of Christ” on earth. He, in turn, released this pointed environmental encyclical rebuke (“Laudato Si,” translated: On the Ecology, subtitle: “…on care for our common home”), and yet seven years into his pontificate, few people are heeding his words. Or for that matter, they’re also not paying serious attention to alarming sea level rise, massive forest fires, more and more severe weather… So, what’s next on God’s ‘Wake Up Call’ agenda? Could it be an ‘invisible’ (like the ‘invisible’ atmospheric bubble) viral pandemic that’s coming to kill us? Connecting the ‘invisible’ dots, one would wonder, huh. My presidency would tackle this issue head on, and the following is a look at the drastic measures we’d take. See, destroying the planet is, indeed, a big deal. And even more, killing people is even a bigger deal — especially in regard to each of our eternal souls.

During the Great Depression, unemployment peaked at 24% — in regard to all those eligible to work. President Roosevelt, in turn, scrambled to enact the “New Deal” that allowed for a lot of “public works” projects. We stand at the tipping point of another Great Recession, if not Great Depression. And now would be the time to pause and think this through on a spiritual level. Many in society these days, almost across the board, are workaholics (we just don’t see it that ways, as most addicts don’t). We, at breakneck pace often, are consumed trying to ascend higher and higher, making more and more money, to buy more and more stuff… With commute time, most of us are at 50, 60, 70… hours of work a week now. So what gets shorted? Time with God, time with our spouse, time with the children, time doing volunteer work… So as we descend further and further into what inevitably looks like Recession/Depression this time, do we just arbitrarily create a bunch of, for the most part, superfluous jobs to, again, weather the storm? Or do we realign to create a “New Economy” and a saner society spiritually? And what would be one of those components of the New Economy? Job sharing, which, actually, England does now to a degree. That is, you simply split a job (and you could do this with many) with someone else. You come in from, say, eight to noon and they come in for the afternoon. Or you work until Wednesday at noon and the second half of the week goes to the other person. Or any number of other combinations… In essence, you’re working 20 hours a week and, in tandem, learning how to live much more simply, and creatively (maybe house sharing, just as one example). This frees up way more time for God, for family, for community… Note: At this point in our society, we have to stop trying to simply, and metaphorically, “…rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic.” But rather, we need a leader who knows how to steer the ship away from the iceberg altogether. For more of what I’ve written on job sharing, see...

Global trade. An economist on one of the news shows today said that America opted for it because it spelled faster growth in this country for industries, and it spelled cheaper products for consumers. Meanwhile, this paradigm creates Third World sweatshop conditions, gigatons of carbon dioxide release from international transporting, and looking the other way when it comes to blatant human rights abuses in countries (ibid. China, as an example) that we’re benefitting from. This is called “greed,” and our American First World “collective” is, indeed, fueling all of it. The Vatican recently came out with a list of new sins in the context of a global community. One is “…contributing to the divide between rich and poor.” With some of the “supply chains,” and such, breaking down worldwide with the coronavirus, we need to take the opportunity to realign. That is, to go back to predominately “buying American,” while exponentially ramping up our foreign aid to help other countries become as sustainable as possible in their own localized economies. Note: This is, indeed, a spiritual issue each of us in America will be called to account for at Judgement. For some, it will be knowing all of this, yet still contributing to it. For others, it will be about not taking the time to learn about it — because we were too busy buying the next cheap item.