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C O N S T I T U T I O N – D A Y

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Today is the anniversary of the ratification of the U S Constitution on September 17th 1787. You would think it would be a day that conservatives would venerate, though I'm not sure about these days. The last big wave of amendments occured in the 1960's with the passage of the 23rd amendment giving DC residents the vote. The 24th amendment abolishes the poll tax. The 25th amendment straightens up some loose ends as far as Vice Presidents assuming the roles of President in a crisis. The 26th amendment gives eighteen year olds the vote. That went into effect at the end of 1970 when it was too late for me to have voted in that off year election. Some people point out that nothing in the amendment rules out sixteen year olds from voting. Though as I have said, I don't believe that is a good idea because teenager's brains aren't fully formulated and they are too vulnerable to far out or extreme ideas they regret later. Finally is the 27th amendment insuring that Congressmen get paid enough. I hardly see why they needed an amendment for that. Today there are no constitutional amendments looming on the horizon. Those half baked ideas about the fourteenth amendment won't go any where. Some people want to chuck the whole document and start over, you know - like the health care plan - "just start over with a blank piece of paper". Conservatives today seem to have little respect for the constitution. The constitution places the legeslative branch first and when you read it, you get the sense this branch has the most power. After all they even have the power to impeach Presidents and Supreme Court judges. I guess it was Ben Franklin who said "You have a republic, madaam, if you can keep it". We didn't have a monarchy. And the people who live here are "citizens" and not "subjects" as Thomas Jefferson crossed out in an early draft. As citizens we have both rights and responsabilities. Thomas Jefferson highly valued an educated man, a jack of all trades. This would be a much better country if more people had a proper liberal arts education. There are certain aspects of US history you about have to go to college for because they no longer teach them in High School. Perhaps you readers can come up with a list of new Constitutional amendments that would prove usefull. We have been in a decades long lull period but if some of you people collaborate perhaps you can come up with some good ones.

I plan to investigate further this rally that will be taking place in Washington DC on Saturday October 2nd in just a few weeks. You know the conservatives had their shot. Now it's our turn. Apparently there is going to be some comedy radio face off or something. I hope there is substance to this rally. My hope is that we could quadrupple their attendance numbers. Perhaps if it gets favorible media coverage (and that's assuming a lot) perhaps we can start a ground swell of opinion and get a progressive tide going on November 2nd. It is my hope that we get our colorization back on this posting so you can see the heading in red, white, and blue.

Today in class we talked about two attributes of God. There is transcendance. This is the attribute that says that God is beyond our space and time. Dr. Levy liked that definition. Of course this means that since God created space and time he is beyond space and time and is not bound by space and time. In Jewish thinking it is improper to suppose that God has a body or any "form" at all. Neither is it proper to say that God is "invisable". This would presuppose that God has some sort of body or form if we were only able to see it. I would carry that a step further to say that God is not Alive either. Neither would I say that "God is Dead" like many liberals used to. Being "Dead" presupposes that as some time God was "Alive". I don't think words such as Alive and Dead can be used in a realm where there is no time. Another aspect of God we talked about is Imminence. This word should not be confused with Eminence. This referrs to propriatory rights or somehow taking ownership or Lordship. We speak of eminent domain or so and so being the pre eminent authority in such and such a field. The term implies that this Professor or whoever pretty much "owns the field" or at least his realm of it. Neither should Imminence be confused with Intimate. If you said God is Intimate I would be the first one to stand up and object. As you know in my theology Intimacy is the last attribute I would attribute to God. The word is Imminence. This has to do with "immediacy" such as being in Imminent danger. I am not ready to dismiss this as an attribute of God. Although it would be more proper to say that God's WORKS are Imminent. This means that if God has willed it in the Master Script, he can manifest events in the next five minutes that you will never forget the rest of your life. That is, if He has willed that to happen. It's wrong to say that "Everything is God" or "The Divine is in everything". However it would NOT be wrong, in my oppinion, to say that we are surrounded by Everything that God caused. I think Dr. Levy has the idea when Mormons say that "God was once a man" and "God has a body" as meaning that Jesus Christ somehow "earned the right to call himself God in the resurrection". I did not bother to press the point. Dr. Levy pretty much made it clear that the Book of Revelation was out of bounds.

Some of you may be curious about my married life. Let me answer the question on everyone's mind in that once I got a divorce I did not immediately jump into a lot of sexual flings. In fact as measured on the callendar it was years I went without sex after my divorce. There are a number of reasons for this. First of all I was older. I was more introspective and circumspect. I tried to see the end of events before the beginning. In John Lennon's words, "I found out that Love was more than just holding hands". Also I went back initially to the Bosc house but with Henry Replacing Ron and Frank replacing Bobby and Pike replacing Pete- - it was a different and somewhat younger crowd I hung out with. If I thought I was better than my piers in the seventies, the situation was magnified now. It wasn't mainly the house mates but the people they hung around with. These were a bunch of immature teeny-boppers, right wing ones, I'll grant you. I saw most of them as flaky and imature. And Screwy Louie was a guy who I overtly clashed with. The two biggest occasions were in February of 1986 as the Bosc House, and the other was September of 1986 in class. This was the day that me and Frank were just standing around in the dark after class and there was this squeeling sound that Frank thought were bats. But I think they were swifts. It was kind of eery, anyhow. Frank was about the only person of any intellect I could still talk to. Neither Jim Cooper nor Pete Richards, people who knew me, were all that available to talk with about religious matters. Oddly, Laura was one of those people who like Randy Rhodes believe "Once you're married, that's it". I had gotten fired from my job (by her mother) as bookkeeper about a month after divorce proceedings were initiated. By the fall of 1986 things were going to hell in a handbasket. I had moved out of the Bosc house in early May into my own apartment. But I only lasted till about mid August because I had talked about throwing little kids off a second balcony ledge into a swimming pool. But I never did it. I did jump off myself quite often because the balcony was so tantelizingly close to the pool. At any rate I got kicked out and did the old richochet back to the Bosc House. I had thought Bill Gunderson would move in, too, but he made some excuse and backed out. There had been some talk of Pike moving out. (Pike is the guy I LEAST wanted to leave) At any rate things wern't going well in the fall of 1986. There was that UFO experiance I had in late September with "missing time" and all. I only wish I had been abducted. Things headed south. First the TV went out. (my parents had another) Then the dryer began smoking and conked out. Then the oven door fell off and nobody knew how to get it on. Also I lost my landscaping job in the fall. One wonders seeing things so adverse whether I thought of suicide. It never entered my mind. However just when things seemed worse- - Laura's mother called to say I could have my old job back at an increase in pay. I was overjoyed. Laura herself became more friendly and I had her over to the house several times, and she even showed up at a friends house with me a couple times in the summer (of 1987) But that rule she had about marriage applied even to me about "trying it once and never again". It was February or whenever that that "Russians" thing was on TV about the Soviets taking over America. The Bosc house was packed with people gathered around the tube. Henry had invited most of them. I was glad Laura was there. But also in January of 1987 parents decided to have the two big pepper trees removed. None of us four house mates liked that but we had no say in it. The roots wern't causing problems or anything. My mom just did it. From then on Frank would ask me, "Marcus, are your parents planning to sell the house?" That was a very apt question- - and they eventually did.