Some religious "infidels" are civic citizens

Phil Beaver works to establish opinion when the-indisputable-facts-of-reality have not been discovered. He seeks to refine his opinion by learning other people’s experiences and observations. The comment box below invites sharing facts, opinion, or concern. (I read, write, and listen to establish my opinion as I pursue the-objective-truth.)
Note:  I often connect words in a phrase with the dash in order to represent an idea. For example, frank-objectivity represents the idea of candidly expressing the-objective-truth without addressing possible error or attempting to balance the expression.

The Advocate:

Our Views: The Advocate continually threatens my well-being without any reminders that the state budget of $26 billion has too many giveaways to lobbied special interests.

Today’s Thought. Exodus 20:7 informs us the name is “the Lord.”  Paul argues that it’s mysteriously “God”—a “hidden wisdom.” Dean sides with Paul.

John (5:48) opines, “Be perfect.” Ralph Waldo Emerson opines that the suggestion that a human can perfect his or her unique person, promises a better future, but that possibility is obfuscated by mystery and “hidden wisdom.” It is important for each adult to understand and use his or her chance at life according to personal aspirations rather than other people’s opinions. I am glad that I study the text at emersoncentral.com/divaddr.htm , Divinity School Address.

Immigrants made America (Feinstein). It’s disappointing that so many writers cite narrow histories to make a point. No atheist, but a religious "infidel", I suspect Muslims who'd like to die in battle against infidels. But I do not suspect Jews.

Jews were hated throughout Eastern Europe. However, they found refuge in England, and that spilled over into colonial America. Rothschild bankers flourished in 1777, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_banking_family_of_England, and Jewish influenced increased thereafter: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England#Emancipation_and_prosperity.2C_1800s . Jews helped colonize America beginning in 1621: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Colonial_America#Early_individual_arrivals .

Because of widespread anti-Semitism, perhaps more than any other race, Jews care about Security. Likewise, most Jews care about generosity, civic morality, and religious privacy.

Although the Catholic Church demands exclusions from constitutional law, for example, protection of priestly secrecy in confessionals, I am not aware of Jewish special-demands on the US constitution. Jewish Law is conducted by Beth Din of America, with no imposition on American civic morality. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Din_of_America . Apparently, Jews in America want both mutual civic morality and within their subculture religious morality. Islam, with its attitude that I am an infidel, does not seem to allow for civic morality for all and religious morality for Muslims.

It seems to me, with essentially all nations of the world turning their backs on Israel, Security for living is more important than preservation of religion.

I know nothing, and therefore would appreciate Feinstein’s enlightenment about my concerns.

Climate change (Porter). "I'm gravely disappointed that The Advocate would print this absolute nonsense without running a basic fact-check."

Where do readers "run a basic fact-check" on pseudo-science?

Abortion (Kennard). The church takes a narrow view, saying that life begins at conception. Viable ova are alive and the woman's responsibility until she mates, voluntarily or not.

With 3.9 million live births in 2014, there were 4.4 million natural abortions. Natural abortions are corrections of biological or physics errors that would lead to an unwanted life if medically or mysteriously forced on the child.

Beyond these reported numbers were the untold millions of conceptions that passed from the woman’s body unnoticed by her. Before gestation can begin, the single-cell conception divides and grows to a blastocyst that must implant on the womb. Often, sometime before implantation the conception passes out of the body, again, unnoticed.

The church does not concern itself with facts. It foments burdens on women over the duty and responsibility women have to their viable ova:  It starts with the duty to prevent unwanted birth. This abuse of women is taken granted by the long-standing social morality of subjugating women.

Legislators should stop burdening women over a duty and responsibility women can neither deny nor avoid. Nevertheless, abortion for fun should not be funded by the government.

From Jan. 30 Contests (Hale). IMO President Trump lets the other party determine the civility of talk and intends to win on their turf. It seems to me he treats dishonesty with dishonesty and integrity with integrity. If a round or two of dishonesty reforms the other part to integrity, both parties win. I never expected to encounter such character but I hope I have----in Donald Trump.

To: Greg Thibeaux

Honesty means do what you heartfelt-perceive is right. Honesty supports "your truth."

Integrity means 1) do the work to understand the-objective-truth, 2) behave according to the understanding, 3) publically collaborate for mutual understanding and 4) remain alert to discovery that demands reform. Often, understanding requires the person to admit to self and to the public, “I do not know the-objective-truth.”

IMO, Trump strives for integrity and often rebukes honesty. Each person may either collaborate for public-integrity or struggle for public-honesty.

From Jan 29 Dictators (McMurray). The media vie for dictatorship.

To: Greg Thibeaux

In my eighth decade, I miss the ten-year old Phil Beaver. He could not articulate it then, but he trusted and was committed to the-objective-truth. But he was born into a community of believers. The community, especially Phil’s mom and dad, were so civil (according to civilization) that Phil tried to conform. As his chronology marched Phil began to perceive that the-objective-truth was reliable, whereas civilization was barbaric. Yet Phil realized he appreciated people who demonstrated integrity regardless of the civilization they were born into.

 

Therefore, in his fifth decade, Phil started climbing out of his well of self-indoctrination by reading, on a random path, the world's classical literature. Anytime a professor of university or minister of religion tried to tell Phil how stupid he was, Phil turned to the literature-random-path and public discussion rather than listen to the professor or minister. Eventually, Phil discovered Ray, and listened. Ray focused on civic morality rather than social morality; facts rather than opinion; civic-appreciation rather than civic-love; discovery rather than imagination; justice rather than judgment; self-reliance rather than influence; integrity rather than force.

 

At last, Phil thought Ray's ideas could help a confused and conflicted world discover public-integrity. He started sharing what he had learned. Ray’s principles inspired iterative collaboration by people who listened. Listeners became speakers. The products of the collaboration seemed to offer a more promising future. Phil decided to try to make that future happen by reading and writing and talking.

 

To Bill Paulson: More egregiously, writers report trivia to satisfy personal speculation. For example, reporters imagine Sunday’s shooting in Quebec relates to Trump’s immigration ban. In paragraph three, it is beyond shameful that Tracey Lindeman and Bob Gillies get through the Associated Press system: The suspect “likes” Trump on Facebook. Outrageous!

 

I know nothing about the CIA sharing news from around the world.

 

Rich Lowry column. Trump’s words do not support Lowry’s nation-state image. 

 

Quoting the inaugural speech in the beginning, “Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.” (emphasis mine)

 

And in the end, “We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world – but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow. We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones.”

 

IMO, sadly, writers who do not admit to Trump’s stated ideas have not the character for them.

Dana Milbank column.  Writers who groan at the cost of undoing political correctness never understood the freedom they lost by collaborating for liberal democracy.

Charles Krauthammer column.  What was wrong with George Washington’s vision of not getting involved in other countries wars? Why Truman’s vision? 

 

NATO obsolete and important is a proposal for reform. 

 

Carrying free riders would inspire them to stand with us but does not. They readily forget our sacrifices.

 

Singapore last year threatened the USA, according to John McCain. In yesterday’s WSJ, McCain said beefing up US military is essential. He’s supporting Trump rather late.

 

In it’s Obama-weakened state, the USA cannot lead the world without the world’s help, including citizen Krauthammer.

Together Baton Rouge (Page 1B).  Ed Shihadeh (drug attention tracks crime incidents), John Pierre (reducing minor-drug penalties), and Sgt. Bryan Taylor (building safer communities starts in the home) seem to negate both Together Baton Rouge’s pastoral misguidance as well as Mayor Broome’s race-church leadership.

The revolution (Page 3B). Cancel that LSU tram at $170 million.

Kelly (Page 3A). The democrats may wake up to the notion that Trump needs his cabinet, because Trump intends to get the job done regardless of Washington’s customary do nothings.

Yates (Page 3A). The liberal press, the Associated Press, is so pitiful it does not know the difference between “public dissent” and insubordination. Readers know the difference.

Cabinet nominees (Page 5A). Trump intends to get the job done regardless of Washington’s customary do nothings. The Democrats might fare better with the cabinet members.

Other dialogues:

quora.com/How-should-people-be-in-a-capitalist-world/answer/Phil-Beaver-1

I emphasize a point Rudy made: strive for wages that allow you a civic lifestyle, which includes saving and investing so as to build financial security for both unexpected events and personal retirement. Save & invest is what people in free enterprise miss. Also, the elite class does not mind when workers chose to be only consumers and not owners. Therefore, many in the elite class give lectures on achieving success by work, family, community and faith, leaving out save & invest.

quora.com/How-would-you-define-or-re-define-civic-duty/answer/Phil-Beaver-1

Excellent and civic-person-connecting question. I speculate that 2/3 of American citizens are civic but would not articulate that they are, because they tend to think within their subcultures—-religion, politics, and ethnicity—rather than Security, introduced below.

Happily, you prompt me to do something I should have done a couple years ago. First, suppress my honesty: In my writing, I define “civic” to represent both public and private collaboration in necessary connections and transactions with other people. Second, address my use of “civic” with the integrity of the dictionary.

1. Merriam Webster Online starts with “of or relating to a citizen, a city, citizenship, or community affairs.” For “learners” they add, “relating to citizenship or being a citizen.” I focus on the citizen aspect.
2. Google adds, “relating to the duties or activities of people in relation to their town, city, or local area.” I would add “and beyond” so as to involve the rest of the state, nation, and world.
3. Dictionary.com, I think erroneously, equivocates “civil.” See more, below.
4. Vocabulary.com helps with etymology: “The adjective civic comes from the Latin word civis, which was the word for a citizen of Ancient Rome.”
5. Etymology.com prompts us to consider the noun, civics, "study of the rights and responsibilities of a citizen."
6. Thesaurus.com is exhaustive
1. In synonyms, under “public” I note common, free to all, and mutual.
2. Antonyms were at Power Thesaurus . I note: secret, mystical, classified, exclusive, pastoral, and provincial.

I hope the above may establish a basis for understanding my usage of “civic.”

First, “civic” is not “civil” as “civil” represents conformity to a civilization, statutory law, class, or other political imposition. Thereby, a person must conform to dominant opinion rather than justice. For the same reasons, civic morality defers from social morality.

Second, “civic” represents voluntary trust and commitment to the-objective-truth. This dash-connected phrase is a novel expression of reality beyond human evaluation. Thus, neither ultimate truth, absolute truth, nor settled truth constrains the-objective-truth. People who perceive that mystery guides them to the-objective-truth may be delusional for their lifetime. The idea that Supreme Court opinion is more than imposition is false. Many “decisions” have been reversed.

Third, humankind is on an inevitable, ineluctable march toward discovery of the-indisputable-facts-of-reality. The object of discovery is physics: energy, mass, and space-time from which everything on earth emerges. For example, the earth formed as gases some 4.6 billion years ago; the first human species speculated it was flat. Now, humankind understands the earth is like a globe. Anyone who insists that the earth is flat is lying about what they know. Thus, physics exists, humankind discovers, and speculations, a human consequence, become obsolete. Both the-discovered-facts-of-reality and lies originate from the human endeavor to discover physics and its derivatives—-cosmology, mathematics, biology, psychology, and everything else. Albert Einstein wrote that we do not lie to each other so that we may communicate in order to lessen pain and loss.

Fourth, members of humankind each have perhaps 85 years in which to accumulate personal preferences that lead to possible perfection of their unique person. Each person, within fidelity to the-objective-truth, must have freedom from tyranny such that they may exercise the liberty to pursue their unique hopes and dreams—-their perfection. Note that fidelity to the-indisputable-facts-of-reality may exclude harmful choices. As humankind’s discovery occurs, individuals may need to reform. Since humankind is not omniscient, the person may take risks in pushing the envelop of civic morality and must not be constrained by capricious civil morality. For example, “only birds may fly” could have delayed the risks that led to aerodynamics and jet-propulsion. Privacy is essential to civic morality.

In summary, with civic integrity, people utilize the-discovered-facts-of-reality to iteratively collaborate for broadly-defined-civic-safety-and-security, hereafter Security. However, much of the-objective-truth is undiscovered or unknown. A civic people admit personally and publicly the unknowns. They collaborate for Security practices that best conform to the interrelated discovered-facts-of-reality without preventing the risks of discovery.

With the above definitions, we may now consider a civic culture—-a culture to which a civic people willingly commit and by which they nudge statutory law to establish civic justice. In civic justice, only dissidents, criminals, evils, and other aliens to the-objective-truth invite subjugation to statutory law. A culture that delineates a civic people and nudges the rest of the people toward civicallity has public-integrity. (I hope “civicallity” gets into the dictionary.)

A civic culture is both public and private. For example, there are controversial trends in human bonding: monogamy and promiscuity. Recall civic morality seeks Security. Monogamy may be heterosexual or homosexual, but homosexual monogamy precludes procreation. In other words, partners with children are not monogamous, because they contract other adults to benefit the partnership, perhaps compromising child Security. What was private became civic. All parties might keep it civic by not causing harm. However, when there is real-harm, the need for statutory law is invoked. Humankind does not yet have data on Security affects on children, but risks, like a child falling in love with one of the partners, may easily be listed. In promiscuity, there is the same issue: with real-no-harm, there is privacy and otherwise civic obligations may lead to statutory law. Privately contracting sexually transmitted disease is a civic offense that may lead to statutory law.

Similarly, a civic culture neither condones nor discourages religion that does not conflict with civic morality. When religious doctrine conflicts with statutory law, the law may be considered with appreciation for civic justice and upheld, or revising the law may be considered. In the meantime, the religious institution must conform to statutory law. In this regard, preserving the imposition of Judaeo-Christianity as surrogate for civic morality is erroneous.

The above essay is a consequence of the past thirty months of local, public-library meetings, initially to promote use rather than lame reference to the preamble to the constitution for the USA. That sentence defines a civic people. Here’s my paraphrase: we the civic people, to protect our state constitution, yet iteratively-collaborate for the seven goals stated herein specify a limited USA. This 1787 sentence limits neither civic rights nor personal thought and promotes individual-independence. On this sentence rests the possibility for achievable civic morality.

Universally, the civic duty is to collaborate for morality according to the-objective-truth rather than dominant opinion. In the USA, the civic duty is to read, comprehend, practice, and promote civic morality based on the preamble to the constitution for the USA.

I do not know the-objective-truth. Please collaborate to improve these ideas.

Phil Beaver does not “know”. Phil trusts and is committed to the-objective-truth of which most is undiscovered and some is understood. Phil Beaver is agent for A Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana, an education non-profit. See online at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com.