Daily Verse | 2 Chronicles 3:1
Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David.
Put another week and month into the history books. It’s Friday and the end of April. When no one is looking I play bagpipes in a kilt.
I wrote yesterday about the Big Guy’s speech to an audience about half as large as Donald Trump’s first SOTU speech drew. The Resident’s 81 million “voters” can’t stand to listen to him either I guess. I sat through it because it’s culturally and politically relevant and fits with the purpose of this blog. Otherwise I would’ve just read the reports.
What I didn’t watch, and wish I had stuck around for, was the Republican Party’s rebuttal given by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). So I watched it today and, just as many others have said, it was an earnest and principled response to the pablum that Joey “You Ain’t Black” McMumbles fed us.
I want to note first that Tim Scott speaks plainly throughout his speech about his Christian faith.
“This past year, I’ve watched COVID attack every rung of the ladder that helped me up. So many families have lost parents and grandparents too early. So many small businesses have gone under. Becoming a Christian transformed my life — but for months, too many churches were shut down. Most of all, I am saddened that millions of kids have lost a year of learning when they could not afford to lose a single day.”
He refers to his “prayin’ momma,” original sin, and ends his speech with lyrics from a worship song. Faith, culture and politics—all rolled into one speech!
In his rebuttal, Scott first took Biden to task for promising unity, that he would be a president for “all Americans,” as if Trump been the divisive one. But as is quickly becoming clear, it’s Resident Biden and his Band of Junior Commies who are waging war on us.
He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted. That was the pitch. You just heard it again. But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together.
But three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further apart.
Scott then set the theme of his speech: “I want to have an honest conversation about common sense and common ground. About this feeling that our nation is sliding off its shared foundation and how we move forward together.” I don’t think anyone on this side of the aisle would deny that it’s more than a feeling that our nation “is sliding off it’s shared foundation.”
I encourage you to listen to the whole thing. He’s not a super-polished speaker, but he’s sincere, thoughtful and a voice of reason.
The most poignant part of his speech, in my opinion, was when he addressed the issue of race relations in our country. Yes, he says, racism does exist in the United States.
Nowhere do we need common ground more desperately than in our discussions of race. I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason; to be followed around a store while I’m shopping.
I remember, every morning, at the kitchen table, my grandfather would open the newspaper and read it, I thought. Later, I realized he had never learned to read it. He just wanted to set the right example. I’ve also experienced a different kind of intolerance. I get called “Uncle Tom” and the N-word — by “progressives.” By liberals.
This is true. In fact, as if to help him prove his point, “Uncle Tim” was trending on Twitter for 12-hours before being pulled down by Jackboot Dorsey and his Marxist minions. Scott then exposes the nonsense behind the division.
When America comes together, we’ve made tremendous progress. But powerful forces want to pull us apart. A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic — and if they looked a certain way, they were inferior.
Today, kids are being taught that the color of their skin defines them again — and if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor. From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress at all, by doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal.
You know this stuff is wrong. Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country. It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.
His admonition that you don’t fight discrimination with discrimination reminds me of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” But the anti-Americans aren’t interested in logic, reason or reality. They’re only interested in power and forcibly cramming their Marxist ideology down our collective throats.
Scott draws his speech to a close with an uplifting vision of what America is and can be.
Our best future won’t come from Washington schemes or socialist dreams. It will come from you — the American people. Black, Hispanic, white, and Asian. Republican and Democrat. Brave police officers and black neighborhoods.
We are not adversaries. We are family! We are all in this together.
And we get to live in the greatest country on Earth. The country where my grandfather, in his 94 years, saw his family go from cotton to Congress in one lifetime. So I am more than hopeful — I am confident — that our finest hour is yet to come.
Original sin is never the end of the story. Not in our souls, and not for our nation. The real story is always redemption.
It’s a compelling story and one that our country desperately needs to hear. But to read the hostile responses to Scott’s speech suggests that those who need to hear it have rejected it.
Tim Scott is a living example that America’s defining feature isn’t racism, but personal liberty and responsibility. Don’t let the loudmouths have the last word.
Have a good weekend.
