America Votes

All North America has a stake in the outcome of the American presidential election, but I’ll never understand the process. I’m sure there are many out there who can enlighten me. Let me see if I can get this right.

Each state selects—not elects—an “electoral college” early in the voting process. Each state has a different number of college electors, I assume representing the number of voters in that state. So far, the process has been decided by a small group of unelected people.

Who will eventually run is not decided by the general voter, but by a political party’s own membership nomination convention. This year, the front runners were crowned at the Republican and Democratic conventions.

But on election day, the voters do not vote for the party or the presidential candidate, but whether they agree with each state’s electoral college’s choice for political party. This way candidates win or lose that number of electoral college votes in that state.

The object of the exercise, then, is not to gain the greater number of voter votes, but for a president-elect to gain the most number of electoral college votes. Confusing even for a two way race, which American elections usually are, how about a three way race like Canada?

Are you still confused like me? Of course, I could have it all wrong!

But this election should engage every Canadian. America has ten times our population, so what an American president decides can have a huge impact on our future, and beyond that the well-being of the whole earth.

Of course, I can’t vote, and really—like many Americans—I don’t know what is going on in the American halls of power whoever is elected. But even a president’s power, like any ruler, is in God’s hands.

So to pray for God’s wisdom to endow a president becomes a necessity. He will need that wisdom to restrain the forces of evil that continually threaten to rampage this earth. Will that be a priority for you and me?

Downsizing

 Don slammed the door with a scowl on his face. He ripped off his boots and propelled them to the floor.

“Didn’t go so well, huh?” Julie ventured.

“They just won’t listen. They’re stubborn. Refuse to face facts.” He ran his fingers through his hair and sat down resignedly, his irritation losing steam.

Julie felt the old frustration welling up. “They give me the same hard time. Like you, I feel so helpless at times.”

“Your parents just can’t cope anymore,” Don added, “ and I guess deteriorating health blinds them to the risks of their isolation.”

He looked across at Julie, who stared at the floor. His resentment turned to sympathy for her. “The situation is taking its toll on you, hon.”

She looked up at him as he continued. “Daily trips to your parent’s house to check and run errands, and,” he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands gesturing openly toward her; “you have to cope with the demands of a teenage family as well.”

“The most difficult thing for me,” she explained, “is their complaint about me every time I try to help. My brother away in California is the golden boy who never does anything wrong.”

“That’s because he’s not available to do anything. He can’t do it wrong” Don gave her a grim smile.

That story can be told repeatedly. Parents in their own home try to maintain their independence while failing bodies and faculties make it increasingly difficult. The baby boomer generation faces increasing oversight of parents, yet not wanting to compel them into more suitable accommodation.

It’s been two and half months since Ann and I moved into about 550 square feet on the lower level of our home. Good storage space, absence of stairs, and a grade level entrance make this convenient. A large living space doubles as an office with desks at one end, and triples as a bedroom with a wall bed at the other end.

A previous bedroom is now a kitchen and dining room, the closet converted into a pantry. The piano is also in this room, giving the atmosphere of an English parlour. A full bathroom and laundry on the same level complete a cosy, comfortable, convenient home.

We have the occasional use of the two ovens upstairs. Two delightful sisters—who could be our grandchildren—rent the upper level and use our lower level laundry. Having someone responsible upstairs, means there is help available in an emergency.

The girls share the outside work such as gardening and snow removal. Ann is still free to potter in the garden she enjoys, but the heavy work is reduced. We still live in our own house and have the use of our car and garage.

Having less space to maintain is a freeing outlook, and we enjoy our writing and other pursuits with continuing independence and ease. 

Thanksgiving: Can We Say Anything New?

Perhaps we can if we live in Facebook. Facebook is the third largest nation on earth, population just over a billion, third only to China and India. Multi race and multi lingual, we can visit with friends instantly anywhere within its boundaries. Perhaps this is something to be thankful for on its own, but its citizens have a lot more to say about thanksgiving.

Here are some samples:

Thankful that the things I used to fear that have become the things I treasure most.

Thankful for the beauty that remains when we are purified by the trails of this life.

Thankful for the people God has given me.

Thankful for the freedom that comes from THANKFULNESS.

As we eat through this CANADIAN Thanksgiving weekend, we will thank God for each one of our loved friends and family members, ... just before dropping into a Glutton Coma. (It's nice to be blessed, but much better to be forgiven.).

The ability to think and reason and have interesting conversations with people. And the ability to write about my thoughts and feelings! Every time I write a new blog I think... "I should write more often."

Way too many blessings to count, yet family & friends to share them with day after day.

Celebrating 14 years of marriage to my best friend. Thank you, my friend, for loving me unconditionally. I thank God for you!

For the comforting thrill of waking to morning silence, instead of a beeping alarm . . . Thank You (for Saturdays).

Thankful for my family.

So very thankful . . . words cannot really express.

Cheers for all the quarter century birthday wishes, another year needing to grow up. I got to get onto dat.

For sisters to bake with . . . thank-YOU.

Join them with your own expressions of THANKSGIVING.

Defeat of Bill 312

Sunday, September 30, 2012

 

It seems to me that knowing when human life begins is a fundamental cornerstone of justice. The idea that this should be pursued was rejected in parliament this past week by a margin of more than two to one. This result clearly illustrates Canada’s decline in the preservation of human life.

Of course, the motion was rejected on the basis that it might interfere with the convenience of abortion on demand, clearly declared by a common media message that it was an anti-abortion bill. Discussion on abortion would certainly have been an outcome.

It’s common knowledge that a human must be designated a “person” to be accorded basic human rights. Personhood has always been denied to oppressed segments of society, most notably slaves, blacks, and women, to maintain a convenient status quo.

Maintaining the “freedom,” so valiantly fought for, to dispose of unwanted growing human life within the womb, will be defended vociferously as the Commons vote shows. It is a dreadful commentary on our deteriorating society that this procedure is so widely supported by our MPs.

Currently, no law exists in Canada to protect a child so long is he or she still has one toe in the birth passage. Thus Canada is the only western democracy not providing protection of the unborn at some point in their development. In this, we ally ourselves with nations like North Korea and China.

But nearly one third of the vote was for the motion. Clearly, abortion is still a major moral issue, and by all accounts I follow, the number and volume of voices against this horrific procedure are growing. And the majority of these voices are Christian.

Naturally, this gives rise to the cry that “we don’t want your religion stuffed down our throats.” But the declining value of human life in our culture loudly declares the failure of secular beliefs, while Christianity gains credence by its continuing voice for all human life.

Everyone Has Faith

There is a misconception in the general population and, unfortunately, among many Christians, that it is only religious people that need faith, because they cannot prove their beliefs. Certainly, without proof of one’s beliefs faith is necessary.

As much as we would like to think the existence of God, and our Christian faith is provable, there is only circumstantial evidence. That may be sufficiently supportive of our Christian belief, but if there was real empirical evidence, faith would be unnecessary.

The lie spread by those who claim God doesn’t exist, or is irrelevant to our life on earth, is that they base their values on what can be known, not on what cannot be known. Sounds logical, until we recognize the non-existence of God cannot be proved either.

Thus, their whole basis of belief is based on an erroneous assumption: God’s existence cannot be proved, therefore He is irrelevant to life on earth. But an unproven God is not proof He doesn’t exist—simply put: absence of proof is not proof of absence.

Any assumption that cannot be proved requires faith. Thus the secular mindset of our culture is as much a faith position as any religion, yet strikingly inferior to faith in God. The changing values and opinions of secularism betray its lack of substance and coherence.

Humankind has not changed since Adam and Eve. So human needs have never changed and the Bible has met those needs for millennia. It’s shadow will always threaten the shifting sands that undermine the secular mind.