The winner is...Freedom...by a nose.

Election year. Fun times.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one in this nation right now feeling inundated by the words "liberal", "conservative" and "moderate". The monikers are stamped on this politician and that one over there too. They label themselves, each other, voters, states, ethnic groups, races, religions - you name it- with a big rubber stamp. They're buzz words. That's about the extent of it. They simply designate what areas of our lives that each group want the government to have too much power over.

"Liberals" want too much control over your money, your right to earn it and what you can and can't do with it. They want to make sure that none of your honestly earned private property harms any allegedly endangered flowers, rats, dung beetles or (God forbid) bats. They also want to make sure that everyone, regardless of willingness to produce anything, never misses a check or an episode of Jerry Springer.

"Conservatives" want too much control over your personal private life. They want to say who you can and can't marry, what you can do with your own body and take every step to make sure that you and I are not "terrorists" (whatever that word means this week) and that no one gets on an airplane with fingernail clippers...unless they're in a sandwich.

"Moderates" are too weaselly to have a spine so they just agree with both sides to let the government have whatever power it needs to be too powerful in every area of your life.

The thing these groups have in common is that they believe that the power to make all these decisions can only be seated in Washington. It is as if they don't even realize that there are 50 states in this Union and that every single one of them have their own capital, complete with legislature, chief executive and court system.

So I have to ask, what are these institutions for? What purpose does state government serve? Why do we bother operating large bureaucracies that are only allowed to do what Big Brother tells them to?

I want to look (briefly) into history for the answer to this. I want to mention the Articles of Confederation. I know, I know, there goes that delusional Georgia boy carrying on about the Lost Cause and those slavery-crazed rednecks and their misguided rebellion again. Hang on...not that rebellion. Our founding fathers began composing this document in 1776 and the approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. It was ratified by all 13 states by 1781. The Articles served as the law of the land in the United States of America from March 1, 1781 until it was replaced by the Constitution as ratified on June 21 1788, nearly 12 years after the Declaration of Independence.

The United States fought a successful war as an assembling of rag-tag backwoods colonies against the most powerful nation on Earth, perhaps the most powerful ever on Earth. They lobbied major world powers of the time to gain support, funds, supplies, etc to help the war effort. They cooperated (admittedly with some difficulty) with each other to bring success in the war effort. They fought the war for a year before declaring independence and then fought until 1781 and the war did not officially end until 1783. They did this with little, if any, central government. The states did this. And we are told in school that the Articles of Confederation were "not strong enough". Eight years of war. Many of which with no binding document and a few under the Articles. And it worked. You do the math.

My biggest point in this is that all 50 states are in this together but at the same time, we hinder each other. Our problems are at the Federal level. We can't mind our own business. We see an issue and think "the government needs to do something about this". Never the state government, always Washington. Gay marriage, abortion, education, welfare, transportation, the environment, energy, all of these are micromanaged (or attempted to be) by the Feds and all of them are dismal failures. They aren't Federal issues but we can't stand the thought of some other state doing something we don't agree with. We can't pick our own boogers. We have to shove our fingers up someone else's nose.

What is the result? We stay mad all the time. All 50 states have small nostrils and big fingers. So, in our pain,  we use our other finger to point and pass blame elsewhere. We call names, we fight, we sue. We have to realize that Washington isn't really protecting us (and couldn't even if they really wanted to). We need freedom. That was the point of this Union to begin with. We need to go to our own states, pass our own laws, watch each other's backs but mind our own business. We need to take our finger out of our neighbor's nose, fold it down and then raise the one next to it towards Washington. After all, they're the ones egging us on to pad their own pockets and justify their own existence.

This nation was born in Antifederalism and only that principle can lead us back to freedom.

By the way, I'd wash my hands if I were you.

Out of the Blue

Frustration. That's the only word I can think of. And I mean the "I was going to get my haircut tomorrow but I pulled it all out" kind of frustration.

I have found some serious peace in avoiding the topics of church and religion in my writings lately and my hair has grown thick and lush. My stress levels have dropped and I had recently approached a mentality that some people might describe as sanity.

Then another teacher was suspended for reading a book to kids. Then there was a similar incident that hit a little closer to home. And finally a blog post I read today:

http://donmilleris.com/2012/03/21/the-christian-movie-establishment-vs-blue-like-jazz/

I can think of very few messages right now that could be more needed by the modern evangelical movement in America than the one portrayed in the movie Blue Like Jazz. I cannot think of one evangelical Christian in any corner of the United States that does not need to see this movie.

As the rolls of churches plummet as people pass on or, as in my case, walk away, there seems to be no introspection in the movement. There is no intention of changing the very behavior that drives us from the church. There is never that moment of looking into the mirror and asking, honestly, "what are we doing wrong?"

As for the misrepresentation of what is and is not in the trailer for the movie, you may view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GOglQgyxYkI

And the context is so very important. Because what our young protagonist faces in this movie is real. It is not the milquetoast world of Christian cinema. These are real problems that real people (LIKE MYSELF) are facing out here in the real world, with real doubts, real fears and real characters. We aren't facing the pliable villains and Velveeta story lines that show up on big screens at churches all over this nation. We are up to our necks in reality, searching for God in a world growing ever darker while you face your giants and fireproof yourselves.

And then comes something like this. A chance to bridge the void, to reach those of us that look at the church and say "Hey, I saw one of these before." And, like ol' Mick Dundee seeing "I Love Lucy" come up on the screen say "Yep. that's what I saw." Click. You turn away, unwilling to look at yourself and seek a real answer to the question "I wonder why he/she won't come to church with me?"

Really, it's ok. Don't watch the movie. Blackball the people that made it. Don't invite us to watch THIS movie with you. Just knock on our door again, offer us the "plan of salvation" again and invite us to your Sunday school class again.

Who needs hair anyway?

To Err on the Side of Liberty

"A man with a clear conscience can sleep all night"

I've heard that from various sources and it is exactly what I'm about to do. You see, the Georgia Primary was today. "Super Tuesday" they call it. In this primary I got to do something that I'm probably going to get used to. I voted my conscience.

In the general election of 2008 I voted for John McCain. I chose him simply because I knew, even then, exactly how bad Barack Obama was going to be for this country. however, if I'm honest, I literally held my nose with my left hand as my right index finger (come to think of it, it might have been the bird) tapped the square on the touch screen before me. In reality, I knew McCain wouldn't be much better.

But today I had a choice. I could pick from the polypropylene smile of Mitt Romney, the self-proclaimed "underdog" named Rick Santorum, the Quasi-Georgian Newt Gingrich or I could vote my conscience. And so today I smiled, breathed deep through both nostrils and proudly tapped the square next to Ron Paul's name.

I'm one of the 6.5% of Georgian voters that did so. If we're honest, we'll admit that our guy was not going to win the state and wouldn't come close. And I can't speak for all of the others but at least for me, it was exhilarating to vote FOR someone, instead of AGAINST someone else. Today I can say that if I was in the wrong, at least I erred on the side of Liberty. And that is my new political ethos.

And now it's time for bed. I can sleep well knowing that I didn't vote for a charlatan, a socialist, a phony, an "extremist theocrat" (to use his own words about others) or Newt Gingrich. I voted for the right man at the right time. I stood with a finite minority in doing so but I know that the continued erosion of Liberty is not on my hands this time.

Goodnight.