QUARANTINE BLOG # 345

March 10, 2021

Myanmar’s military-controlled government is seeking to suppress media coverage of protests against its seizure of power as journalists and ordinary citizens strive to inform people inside and outside of the country about what is happening.  Authorities on Monday canceled the licenses of five local media outlets that had been offering extensive coverage of the protests, attempting to fully roll back such freedoms a decade after the country began its faltering transition toward democracy.  The crackdown comes as the military has escalated violence against mass protests. 

👉  Today is International Bagpipes Day.  It has been observed annually since 2012.  Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag.  People have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Anatolia, the Caucasus, Northern Africa, Western Asia, and around the Persian Gulf.  A sculpture of bagpipes has been found dating to 1000 BC.  Here is a combined bagpipes band playing “Amazing Grace.”

👉  It started during World War I as a way to conserve fuel – daylight saving time.  After World War I, Congress abolished summer daylight saving at the federal level, although it remained a local option with some states continuing to observe it.  During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated a year-round daylight saving time that was commonly known as “War Time.”  In 1966, Congress made it mandatory, except in states who go on standard time permanently.  

Fifteen states have enacted legislation to make daylight saving time or standard time year-round, ending the practice of changing our clocks twice a year.  Georgia can’t make up its mind.  There are two bills pending: one to make standard time permanent, and the other to implement permanent daylight savings time.  Maybe we can have another run-off.  Until your state passes a permanent time designation, or until Congress repeals the Uniform Time Act, get ready to “spring forward” at 2 a.m. Sunday.  Oh, you don’t actually save daylight because the amount of daylight doesn’t really change.  It just switches from morning to evening. 

👉  Here is a Sunday panel from Peanuts.  Maybe Linus was thinking about the following piece when he sighed.

👉  The rising “Cancel Culture” is opposed to anything that speaks against their predetermined point of view.  And it just goes on and on.  Amazon pulled a documentary film about Thomas, “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words.”  Amazon pulled Ryan T. Anderson’s book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” but continues to offer books which support the transgender movement.  

In 1937, Vanguard Press published “And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street,” Theodor Seuss Geisel’s first children’s book under his pen name Dr. Seuss.  The depiction of one character in the book of “A Chinese boy who eats with sticks” is the cause of the book being discontinued by its publisher who says they are protecting the author’s legacy.  

By the way, the New York Public Library says it will keep the books in circulation “citing its duty to ‘ensure accurate and diverse’ collections.  Public libraries do not censor material.”

In case you are interested, as of this writing, there are 843 “sold” listings on eBay from folks who were taking advantage of the law of supply and demand.  There were 609 copies available when I wrote QB 339.  Today there are fewer than 100.  And one blog reader tried to list a copy and received this back from eBay – read below:

Over 800 copies were sold and eBay made money off of each sale, but now it’s offensive.  What hypocrisy!

And now the cartoon character “Speedy Gonzalez” is being called out as a racist image offensive to Hispanics and Latinos.  This time there is some push back.  Consider these comments: “I loved watching Speedy Gonzales growing up.   He always outsmarted the ones trying to catch him or attack him.  I’m Mexican.  I don’t want him cancelled.”  Or this one: “Most, if not, a MAJORITY of us Hispanics and Latinos freaking LOVE Speedy.  I grew up in a Mexican/Salvadoran household in which we ADORED him and still do.  He ain’t offensive. STOP IT!!!”

Lord Justice Bean and Mr. Justice Warby in a case before the British Court of Appeal, said: “Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.”  Our society no longer promotes free speech.  As a society, we are afraid of it. 

👉  Light.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.  Ahead of us are so many choices.  Some are easily made because they are basically insignificant.  Others are difficult because they demand our full attention and our total commitment.  All of us are on the edge of some crucial decision with a deadline fast approaching.  What’s the next step?  Which way do we turn?  Is our decision the best one, or something that is just adequate?  And when you’ve made the decision, how will you know you’ve made the right one regardless of what happens?

All of that means we need guidance through the darkness of our decisions, through the chaos of our choices.  Up ahead there is light, not the light at the end of the tunnel, but the Light of the world: “I am the light of the world.  If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12 – NLT).  In a world that is complicated by shifting attitudes, twisting morals, not to mention a global pandemic that has changed almost everything we used to call normal there is one very simple answer – Jesus, the Light of the world.

Years ago I saw a bumper sticker that was supposed to express skepticism: “If Jesus is the answer, what is the question?”  I saw that on the car ahead of me and shouted, “That’s exactly right!”  You see, that word Jesus used, “follow,” implies faithfulness, obedience, discipleship, and companionship.  That bumper sticker should have been reversed: “What’s the question?  Jesus is the answer!”

The people who heard Jesus that day had no doubt what he was saying.  That statement, “I am the light of the world,” or “Yahweh, the light of the world,” would have been very clear to his listeners.  The word light was directly synonymous with God himself.  The psalmist said, “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1).  “In thy light do we see” (Psalm 36:9).  “Send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me” (Psalm 43:3).  Isaiah prophesied, “The Lord will be your everlasting light” (60:19).  Micah said, “When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me” (7:8).

And so for us, discovering our direction, discerning the Lord’s will, and making our decisions all begin with living and walking in his light.  You can chase away the darkness because, “In him was life, and his life brought light to everyone” (John 1:4).

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