I've been really angry about the Georgia indictment. Maybe because it includes several people who I happen to know professionally, who are the furthest thing from criminals I can possibly imagine. Maybe because the indictment includes ordinary political speech, meaning that people like me could be next in line for voicing our opinions.
What happened to the America I knew? I grew up in the liberal Chicago suburbs, where we learned to prize freedom of speech as the ultimate virtue. What happened to those Democrats?
The worst are Republicans like Brian Kemp, who are piling on with their "I told you so" lines about the 2020 election. This isn't about the 2020 election. It's about the perversion and politicization of justice in their own state, which they evidently care nothing about.
I'm bummed. And I hear the notes of defeat. I hear the voices telling us Republicans will never win another election because of vote-by-mail, and how Democrat billionaires have bought the media, and how AI will replace us all anyway so we might as well prepare for that.
Then I hear -- or don't hear -- from people in other contexts who otherwise would have every reason to respond to me but who have gone totally radio silent because they have found out I am a conservative and they can't handle it, so they'll just let me hang.
And I could let this get me down. And I get I have let it get me down, for a few hours. But I went for a run in the California sunshine -- which they haven't ruined yet -- and I swam in the wild sea and I realized that this is the kick in the pants I needed before next week.
Next week I will be in the spin room at the Republican debate. And I'm not going to ask about policy. I'm going to ask what these guys are doing to deal with the threat that the left's perversion of justice poses to all of us. Because that's the only thing that matters now.
This week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
