Good morning folks. I pray that you have a wonderful week.

          This posting of my blog fills two purposes. The first, and least important on my mind right now, is my health. My hospital stay last week didn’t really tell me much I didn’t already know. I have A-fib. The uneven beating of my heart causes a number of problems, chief of which is fluid retention. They are working on the fluid retention. I had a cardiologist appointment scheduled for August 11 before I went into the hospital. That appointment has been moved all the way up to…..August 11. The difference now is, the first August 11 appointment would have been a consultation to get the ball rolling. Now the ball is rolling, so by the August 11 appointment I will have several tests already done. It is frustrating, but I suppose it is necessary. Meantime, my energy level is very low and my frustration level is quite high. Another lifelong friend has passed away. Her funeral is today. I cannot go. So, I am frustrated. I do want to thank Barry Swanquist for being my taxi service last week and Brian Chamberlain for filling in for me on Sunday. And I would remind all of you men of the Bible study on Thursday night at 6:30, presented by Barry.

          But enough of that. On to the second purpose of this blog. I want to start by saying I absolutely despise people who claim to be ‘faith leaders’ and then use that platform to talk politics. The purpose of being a ‘faith leader’ is to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ. There is nothing wrong with talking politics. Just do not try and link Christ to the discussion. During the time of Jesus the whole area of Judea was seething with political intrigue and unrest. The furthest Jesus went into politics was to say that we give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and we give to God what is God’s. He also called the scribes and the Pharisees a generation of vipers, but that was not a political statement. The scribes and the Pharisees were the faith leaders of the day, and they were involving themselves into politics.

          Again, talking politics is not wrong. Just don’t try to claim that your political belief is also God’s political belief. I try and steer clear of the whole political debate scene because it is important that people see me as an instrument of the Lord.

          Having said that, I am now putting the ‘Pastor’ part of who I am aside. If you have no desire to deal with politics, please quit reading. The views and opinions contained in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of then staff or management of Urbana Yoke Parish. On Friday we will return to our regularly scheduled program. For now, I am greatly offended that the Vice President of the United States of America has suggested that rural Americans are idiots.

          I have been around big city folk when they venture into what they like to call ‘Americana.’ Their concept of rural America. Norman Rockwell paintings. Rustic America. They are amazed at the simple folk they meet. The slower pace of life. In their minds they envision Pa out in the field and Ma churning butter on the porch. John-Boy out in the barn milking ole Bessie and Mary Elizabeth hand feeding the chickens. Simple folks with simple minds. That is what they see because that is what they believe is out there. Maybe John-Boy and Mary Elizabeth have gotten to the eighth grade, but they need go no further. Simple folk don’t really need education.

          In 2007 I was scheduled to speak at a church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster is famous for its Amish population and the Amish population there makes full economic use of that. In the couple of days leading up to the Sunday I was to speak, Marsha and I drove around to look at the countryside. It was Father’s Day weekend, so the crops were in and growing nicely. The farm boy in me appreciated the neatness of the farms and the hard work put into that neatness. Out on a country road we came to the top of a hill and had to stop. Two big tour buses were in the process of parking in the farm yard of an Amish home. The husband/father was directing the buses in while the wife/mother was standing on the porch watching the parking while drying her hands on her apron. The teenaged son was across the road in a small field plowing behind a beautiful draft horse. One of the buses was parked already and the riders had left the bus and were taking videos and pictures of the boy. I started laughing. Marsha asked me what was so funny. Understand, Marsha was, and is, a city girl. She didn’t see it. The middle of June. Crops are in and growing. Yet, here is a teenaged Amish lad plowing a field that has already been plowed, probably many times. He was doing it for the sake of the tourists. It was a small field. They were making a lot more off of it by repeatedly plowing it than if they actually planted anything. Smart city folk.

          While the smart city folk might enjoy their strolls into Americana, they have a very low opinion of the inhabitants. In the last presidential campaign a democratic operative suggested that farm folk are farmers because of low intelligence. They simply cannot rise above their environment. They are easily led by crackpots. Perhaps they shouldn’t even be allowed to vote. Many believe in God. Most own guns. Almost all feel the Constitution holds as much weight now as it did back in 1700s. Clearly simple minded folk.

          So what did the Vice President say? In an interview with BET News (BET used to refer to the Black Entertainment network, until it became public knowledge that BET was wholly owned and operated by white folk. Now BET stands for Breaking Entertainment. You cannot make this stuff up) the Vice President was arguing against voter ID laws. This is what she said, “I don't think that we should underestimate what that compromise on voter ID laws could mean. Because in some people's mind, that means you're going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove who you are. Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don't –well, there's no Kinkos, there's no OfficeMax near them. Of course people have to prove who they are, but not in a way that makes it almost impossible for them to prove who they are." So she wants voter ID laws relaxed because rural Americans have no way to photocopy their IDs. Isn’t that sweet?

          Big city folks, well educated, all worried about us ignorant yokels. I wonder if she realizes that Kinkos no longer exists. It was absorbed by Fed EX years ago. I also wonder if she realizes that Office Max has severely cut back on their copy stores (Copy Max). The reason for that is because so many Americans have printers for their computers that double as photocopiers. Photocopying an ID is a simple process. (if you need, I can copy your ID for you on my printer for a low, low cost) Yes, we simple folk are struggling to get into the 21^st century.

          What really burns me is that these pompous liberals really believe this tripe. We are uneducated and low intelligence. The Vice President served, politically, in San Francisco. She must be smart because San Franciscans are smart. I consider our congregation a decent representation of the overall community. Just in our congregation, the percentage of adults who have some college education is higher than San Francisco’s percentage. The Vice President’s education is good, but not outstanding. The percentage of crime and homelessness and addiction is way higher than here. If you earn $50,000 a year here and live OK, you would need to earn $96,593 to have a comparable life style there. And this one gets me; Wabash County has an earthquake rate 21% above the national average while San Francisco’s rate is 7368% above the national average. Yes. 7368% above national average. How is it that they are so much smarter than we are?

          I have lived in urban America. I have lived (and grew up in) rural America. The first time I saw skyscrapers, I thought, “Why?” And I wonder why those people in urban America are considered so smart while rural Americans are so stupid. Remember it was the smart people who built the building in South Florida that collapsed and killed around 150 people. It was the smart people who wrote the laws that ultimately allows the homeless to defecate on the streets of the big cities. It is the smart people who are defunding the police. It is the smart people who are intent on creating a paradise for non-producers by heaping more and more financial obligation on those who do produce. Likewise, it is the simple minded Americans who respect things like gravity and foundation when we build. It is the simple minded who exhibit charity and do all we can for the homeless. It is the simple minded who respect the police and appreciate their work. It is the simple minded who believe the worker is worth his wage and the one who doesn’t work, out of choice, doesn’t eat.

          But, maybe the whole country is crazy. We elected these elitist people who believe we rural folks cannot get an ID copied. How dumb is that?