August 20, 2017

Phil Beaver works to establish opinion when the-objective-truth has not been discovered. He seeks to refine his opinion by listening when people share experiences and observations. The comment box below invites readers to write.

Note 1:  I often dash words in phrases in order to express and preserve an idea. For example, frank-objectivity represents the idea of candidly expressing the-objective-truth despite possible error. In other words, a person expresses his “belief,” knowing he or she could be in error. People may collaboratively approach the-objective-truth.
 
 Note 2: It is important to note "civic" refers to citizens who collaborate for the people more than for the city.
 
A personal paraphrase of the preamble by & for Phil Beaver:  Willing people in our state routinely, voluntarily collaborate for comprehensive safety and security: continuity (for self, children, grandchildren & beyond), integrity (both fidelity and wholeness),  justice (freedom-from oppression), defense (prevent or constrain harm), prosperity (acquire the liberty-to pursue choices), privacy (responsibly discover & pursue personal goals), lawfulness (obey the law and reform injustices); and to preserve and cultivate the rule of law for the USA’s service to the people in their states.
 
Composing their own paraphrase, citizens may consider the actual preamble and perceive whether they are willing or dissident toward the preamble. 
  

Our Views (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_77f6cb54-81c5-11e7-8a00-236cedc8015b.html)

Readers may be grateful and nominate The Advocate for a Pulitzer Prize on the Gov. John Bel Edwards storied management failings.

To the Cain privations, adding poorly prepared appeals for federal flood relief, socially-convicting on TV police officers who have not been indicted, the disastrous politics of Medicaid, failing special legislative sessions, “. . . there are too many others for the [people] to ignore.”

  

Columns. (The fiction/non-fiction comments gallery for readers)

  

No journalism writers! (Rich Lowry) (nationalreview.com/article/450470/charlottesville-virignia-robert-e-lee-statue-remove-right-decision-confederate-monuments-museums)

I wanted to nominate this column as the first journalism I have seen on the monuments debate. Alas, Lowry did not reference reliable sources. My mind was opened to the possibility of agreeing with Lowry, but closed on the evidence that he did not report all the facts readers can find: Christianity is at fault in Lee’s arbitrary victimization.

I cannot rely on radgeek.com/gt/2005/01/03/robert-e-lee-owned-slaves-and-defended-slavery/ or civilwarhome.com/leepierce.htm (reliable as it seems) or http://observer.com/2017/08/alt-right-march-charlottesville-robert-e-lee/.

However, I am on the side of taking Lee monuments down, if that’s what a civic people choose among competitive expenditures, provided this quote, born in Lee’s theism, is accurate: “The painful discipline [the blacks] are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things.” It seems the quotes come from a letter by Lee to his wife about President Pierce on December 27, 1856 --- five years before the crisis.

The facts remove my past impression that, in 1861, Lee faced a sudden decision to defend his state: He personally held the “more erroneous religious beliefs” over which the Declaration of Secession claims its justice. Just as a wise citizen builds his Louisiana home on high ground, the physical and psychological evil of slavery might have informed an 1856 homeowner to move to a free state. However, beware the power of religious beliefs!

If my second URL is accurate, why did Lowry withhold the erroneous, religious, part of Lee’s considerations? “Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influences of Christianity than from the storm and tempest of fiery controversy. This influence, though slow, is sure. The doctrines and miracles of our Saviour have required nearly two thousand years to convert but a small portion of the human race, and even among Christian nations what gross errors still exist! While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress as well as the results in the hands of Him who, chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day. Although the abolitionist must know this, must know that he has neither the right not the power of operating, except by moral means; that to benefit the slave he must not excite angry feelings in the master; that, although he may not approve the mode by which Providence accomplishes its purpose, the results will be the same; and that the reason he gives for interference in matters he has no concern with, holds good for every kind of interference with our neighbor, -still, I fear he will persevere in his evil course. . . . Is it not strange that the descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom have always proved the most intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?”

Human beings are too psychologically powerful for other humans to “convert” them. The heartfelt fears one person learns cannot be transferred to another person by either persuasion, coercion, or force. The very idea that a soul is more important than a person’s person is a hard sell.

Informing the people about the facts is journalism, according to my selection from Meriam-Webster, “writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation.” A journalist for the opinions page works to keep the people from having to contend with lies. If Lowry had cited his sources, I might have been willing to regard him a journalist.

Nevertheless, I care less about loss of Lee commemorations after reading Lowry’s column and trying to verify the Lee quotations. Yet, I rather label the monuments so as to commemorate the-objective-truth; for example, label Lee monuments noting victimization by Christianity. As for the higher cost of removing monuments and revising the sites, in Louisiana, I’d rather spend the time and money on better drainage and elevating homes. How willing people of the United States accommodate the decades of our lives for ourselves and our children and theirs is more important than forced, sudden, arbitrary disposal of relics of the past, even if they were placed for erroneous reasons. Establishing temporal peace is no excuse for ignoring the key issue in a millennia-old debate.

I care about the American culture overcoming the losses and miseries that result from religious beliefs imposed on civic morality. I speculate that Lowry is a victim of Lowry-theism just as Lee was a victim of Lee-theism. Otherwise, Lowry would have disclosed what I discovered from his references.

Erasing the Confederacy, from here to Boston (James Gill)

I think it is immoral to quote David Duke in order to denigrate President Trump’s statements about Charlottesville.

  

The monuments are a record of what a civic people of the United States experienced. Our time and money could be spent on better roads, better rain runoff and drainage, protection of children from abuse, adult education, on an on and on.

Journalists who capitalize on ignorance should be shamed by the people who counted on them for the facts.

 

LSU does not deserve more tax money (Jeff Sadow) 

(theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_179dca9a-82cf-11e7-b874-7758707add5f.html)

I agree. 

How does the LSU administration get away with it?

(Michael Gerson) "He's no Jack Kennedy, but he's what we've got"

At last you are beginning to perceive President Trump’s talent: administrator.

Let President Trump carry on and let Gerson continue trying to imagine what Kennedy would have done.

  

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