Hitler was reputed to have once said that if you tell a lie often enough, people will start to believe it. We are certainly going through that right now, having been told that it was Ukraine’s fault that there is a war going on when it was Putin, with his dreams of reestablishing the old Soviet Union again, tried to pull a blitzkrieg. Pulling back a bit yesterday, Trump did acknowledge that Putin was the invader.
We Americans have become so complacent especially since the 1990s when we were lulled into believing that all Russia – and China -- needed was a dose of American consumerism. After all, we thought, it’s how we live. The old Cold war was over and we just needed to get rid of little problems. But that’s not the case.
Becoming more like our adversaries, which is what’s happening here at home, will not solve the problem. Oligarchs, people whose net worth is more than the budgets of several nations put together, think they can run the country. They should remember what happened to Russian oligarchs under Putin and how Xi controls China.
Prayer for the Day
So many lies and untruths about so many things being said,
Our heads swirl around us and we even question the idea of truth;
Blitzkriegs do not just happen with tanks in countries far away,
But here at home with the destruction of our institutions.
Save us, O God, we cry as did the people Israel in ancient times,
But we know, that as prophets said, we must change first.
In the name of the One who can transform us,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Our struggle, the American people’s struggle, is to protect democracy and the rule of law. Equally important, we must end oligarchy and create an economy that works for all, not just the few.
Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator (D-VT)
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lord Acton in his letter 1887 (1832-1910)
But they do not consider that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their deeds surround them, they are before my face.
By the wickedness they make the king glad and the officials by their treachery.
They are all adulterers, they are like a heated oven,
Whose baker does not need to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough
Until it is leavened.
Hosea 7: 2-4