1870- THE PRAIRIE PROPHET
This week I read the book of
Amos.
Amos was a prophet to the northern
nation of Israel- 750-790 b.c. [though he had a few prophecies for Judah- the southern
nation].
He was unlike the other Old
Testament prophets- in that he was an ‘uneducated’ shepherd that came from a
little village [Tekoa] about 5 miles south of Bethlehem.
Yet- Amos knew history.
He railed against the political leadership
of the nation- he spoke up for the poor ‘in the gate’ and condemned the
‘church’ of his day.
He said they were spending all
their time and money on religious celebration- on their own ideas of what they
felt God wanted [Amos says they worshipped the ‘gods that they made’].
And yet justice was falling down
in the street.
Yeah- Amos was a prophet sent
from God- and the people knew it.
I watched [re watched] a
documentary this week on the failed run for the presidency by George McGovern.
Now- as a news buff- I never
really studied McGovern- but have heard so much about the guy [usually
negative] that my view of him was formed by these little clips of his life.
McGovern is famous because his
loss to Nixon in 1972 was one of the biggest landslides in presidential
history.
As I watched the documentary- and
read Amos- I began seeing a type of Amos in McGovern.
McGovern was from South Dakota-
outside of the mainstream ‘machine’ of the Democratic Party.
He was raised in a preacher’s
home- and dabbled at becoming one himself.
He would eventually enter politics-
and also had a background as an historian [Amos].
They called him ‘the prairie prophet’.
He was not the favored candidate
for his party’s nomination.
At first it looked like Muskie
would be their man.
But old Ed didn’t seem to have
the temperament for the job.
At one campaign stop he was
picketed by some gay rights group.
He said- quote ‘If I have to be
nice to a bunch of Soddomites to get elected- then fuck it’.
Unquote.
McGovern would eventually win his
party’s nomination- and lose in the general election.
As I watched the rise of McGovern-
the animosity- and outright hatred- from his own party.
I also saw that he indeed was a
voice in the wilderness at times.
McGovern is most famous for his opposition
to the Vietnam War.
It was said that just the name of
McGovern being said would send Lyndon Johnson into a rage.
McGovern stood steady in his
opposition- and as an historian he had read that other world watchers had
predicted that there would be an uprising in Indo China and South East Asia.
They said the people groups were
growing tired of colonialism- and they would eventually rebel.
So McGovern did not see the
Vietnamese as a communist threat- that left unchecked would have a domino
effect.
After the assassination of Bobby Kennedy
he was convinced to briefly throw his hat into the ring and run for the 68
nomination.
But the 1972 nomination was his
big achievement.
In the book of Amos there are
some choice quotes [not like Musky].
‘Hate evil and love good-
establish judgment in the land’
‘Let judgment run down as waters
and righteousness as a mighty stream’ [MLK’s famous line too]
‘Woe to them that are at ease in
Zion’ [the present day church]
The one that caught my eye the
most-
‘He strengthens the spoiled against
the strong so that they come against the fortress’.
At times in history there are
voices that rise- sometimes they are Prairie Prophets.
Sometimes we don’t realize the importance
of what they are saying- until after they are gone.
Rulers- people in power- they are
not all corrupt- but many are.
LBJ referred to Vietnam as a
‘little piss ant of a country’.
He [and Nixon] bombed the hell
out of the land- not wanting to be seen as week.
A small- little ‘piss ant’ country
in South East Asia.
Hundreds of thousands would die
needlessly.
Men like McGovern- for all their
critics- saw the writing on the wall.
At the present day- as I write-
we have been at war in Afghanistan for around 11 years now.
We just reopened a key ground
[truck] route thru Pakistan- it has been shut for 7 months because we killed
around 30 Pakistani soldiers in a mistaken identity case.
NATO was flying over the border-
we were fired upon from the ground- and we bombed them.
We thought they were Taliban-
they were Pakistani.
Pakistan got pissed off- and they
forbid us to use the key supply route until we apologized.
We just did.
We are now having talks with the
Taliban- to come to some type of Peace Terms with them.
Our goal at the start was to
remove them from power because they gave Al Qaida a place to operate from.
At the start we were warned that
the Taliban [and the Afghanis in general] are a resilient people.
That to enter into a ground war-
in some ‘piss ant’ part of the Arab world would be foolish.
We are now trying to find a way
to untangle ourselves from this mess.
Yeah- after 11 years- our guys
coming home without their body parts.
Thousands dead- many of them
women and children.
Yeah- after 11 years our only
response is.
Well- in the immortal words of Ed
Muskie #$@^%$
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