I know, I know. I stay away from political items because this is a blog about ideas, saints, history, language, and surfboards; along with some information about parish events and personalities. However, I attended seminary at a time when all of us studying for ordination were urged to be political. In fact, I think we were to be more political than spiritual.
I resisted that, as there are too many of my colleagues who simply want to hear their own opinions repeated back to them, as if we were all in a rather large faculty lounge where every opinion was the same, was the only correct one to have, and was evidence of intellectual and moral superiority over those who disagreed.
Not only do I find that kind of thinking to be distasteful, I also see it as the attitude that hammered Jesus to the cross.
The human experience [oh-oh, here he goes] is to challenge preconceptions and, in the language of the '60's radicals, to "question authority", so that life may be richer and enabled by free will. Since my politics do not fall easily into any simple category in American secular ideology [I'm a demo-publican-tarian], and simple categories are all that seem to be understood in the public square of American discourse these days, I resist boring people in this weblog, in sermons, or in any public venue.
But, as the grandson of a union member who was repeatedly a victim of Pinkerton mercenaries, and also the grandson of a farmer who had to negotiate through the remarkable corruption of depression-era government bureaucrats, I feel that, from time to time, even I may have the opportunity to give my opinion.
What has bothered me about this business with the Gibson Guitar company is that it is beginning to appear more and more as if this were some misguided "punishment" for being on the wrong side of the political structure. There is a rival to Gibson [not Fender Guitars] that uses the same material in the construction of their instruments [remember, this is something about which I have some knowledge], but has never been raided by federal authorities. The only apparent difference is that Gibson's CEO donates to one political party, and the rival CEO donates to the other.
And, by the way, when did the Fish and Wildlife Dept. get its own SWAT team?
Anyway, here's more from The Wall Street Journal:
Gibson Guitar Wails on Federal Raid Over Wood
Okay, I'll go back writing lightweight things about surfboards now.