I grew up in a blue collar middle class family in Flint, Michigan. I was one of 5 children, and we certainly were not rich. Like most Flint families in those days, we came from deep GM and, consequently, Democrat roots. One of my mother's favorite stories of her childhood involved being passed through the shop window into the waiting arms of her father, who hadn't been home for awhile due to his participation in the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37. But roots of our "Catholic faith" and "family" were instilled much deeper than some blind following of a political party.
My dad was a City of Flint cop, a Detective-Sergeant on the homicide squad. We always had family dinners, sometimes with my dad still in his sport coat and tie, the bulge from his .38-caliber service revolver clearly visible on his hip. He used to like to quote an old Air Force drill sergeant from his youth while in the service:
"You woiks(work) until your back hoits (hurts). you woiks until my back hoits. And THEN you gets the gravy." Of course, my dad taught me much more by his example then by speeches and pithy quotes. He imparted to me the core values that I hold dear. He always told me that I could be anything I wanted to be if I was willing to work hard for it. He never said that it should be given to me, nor was I ever made to believe that anyone had a right to take what was rightfully mine.
I was brought up with these simple values: to love God; to love my country; to work hard; to respect the law; and he taught my brothers and me that if someone messed with one of us, they messed with all of us. None of these values can be found in today's Democrat party.
Sundays were set aside for church, where I learned from Jesus early on that
"'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.' This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'" That is why I am generous in my charitable contributions through my work and through my church. Not only is charity my responsibility as a member of this human family, it is my absolute duty as a Christian to help those less fortunate.
A Catholic priest actually said the following to my wife recently when discussing the choices in the upcoming election:
"I'm pro-life, but I am also for helping the poor." Was he trying to imply that the two concepts are mutually exclusive? That you have to choose one or the other, but you can't have both from the same candidate? That's insane! Even if I were to buy this ludicrous premise, does the sanctity of human life
EVER take second place to
ANYTHING? The answer is "NO".
But the premise is a false one, for Jesus also said to
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s." In this, Caesar represents government, and Jesus does not tell us to give EVERYTHING to Caesar so that Caesar can then redistribute the wealth to the poor. That was Obama who said that, and contrary to what Obamas' followers think about him, he is not the messiah.
As for Obama's confiscatory tax plans, he will minimize, if not take away entirely my ability to make charitable contributions. I, and millions like me, will no longer be able to afford it. How will that help the poor? Small businesses will not longer be able to hire additional workers because of Obama's Marxist strategy. Sincerely, I ask again, how does this help the poor exactly?
The confused Catholic priest who responded to my wife in the above manner should
listen to this, from Father John Corapi (no, he is not really Jean-Luc Picard):
We not only have the right, we have the absolute moral obligation to know our religion, to form our conscience in accordance with that religion, and yes, even to vote in accordance with the a well-formed catholic conscience... You must form your conscience to church teaching... This is a no-brainer. This is not rocket science. I continue to be amazed at the gross ignorance of so many catholics, and there is no excuse for it. The Bishops have clarified this... there is an overriding preeminently important issue that concerns a right. It concerns the right to life. No other issue takes precedents over that. It's amazing the inane arguments that come forth. Presidential candidates that say, "well a woman has a right to choose." Parroting that sick, hackneyed expression over and over again. You want to ask... Choose what? Have you ever noticed it's the only case in language where they don't finish the sentence? The right to choose? CHOOSE WHAT? The right to choose to kill an innocent human being? Is that a right, or is that a destruction of a right?
Beam me up number one!"The holocaust that is abortion" continued:
Here's what the church teaches. Life begins at conception. That's a fact. Number two: A single abortion is a homicide. Since Roe versus Wade in this country we have had more than 48 million abortions. Homicide now has become genocide. This country is guilty of genocide, by definition. And what's the persecuted group? Unwanted, unborn children.
A Catholic cannot be said to have voted in this election with a good conscience if they have voted for a pro-abortion candidate. Barack Hussein Obama is a pro-abortion candidate. End of discussion.
I recognize that not all readers of this blog are Catholics. For you, it would seem the choice would still be pretty easy. Obama wants to turn this country into one giant soup line with his socialistic spreading of the wealth. He will absolutely destroy the will of the American worker, and along the way, the American dream itself with these extremist policies of punishing achievement and equal misery for all. His Supreme Court appointments will garauntee a continued crumbling of the righteous foundation on which this nation was built. Roe v. Wade will be locked in for another generation ensuring that this abomination, this usurping of the Constitution, will stand as the fulcrum point on which this Republic's moral pyramid totters.
There is still time. Now go do the right thing.
