oh, terry, terry! thank you for putting eloquence to the rage that's fueled me since reading that not only was that damn gilded statue erected, but it was CONSECRATED.....your quoting of Foster Wallace and your bringing robinson jeffers into the conversation was, as always, the most eloquent of choices. thank you.
i happened to be in a church early this morning, and nearly catapulted out of my pew when i saw that serendipitously this morning's first reading included these two lines (from acts of the apostles): "The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not living in shrines made by human hands...." AND a few lines later, this: "Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals...."
Terry, your words are a true wake-up call. 🥲 We cannot and will not become a false America. The statue and Mar-A-Lago are like something out of the film Babylon - a corrupt world of excess, vice and narcissism.
Personally I think it started with Ronald Reagan and his folksy personality that sugar coated the message of selfishness and Me First. Itʻs been downhill ever since with a few moments of hope like the Obama era. Even Clinton moved the Democrats to the right. Time for a major readjustment! VOTE.
“We were not supposed to be this way. Something has broken deep in the American character, the nation’s civic soul. We are not the country of just a few years ago. Something shifted, shattered, collapsed.”
This. And it breaks my heart every day.
Or I engaged in magical thinking, and my delusions have been ripped away.
Thank you for your exquisite words and the beautiful poetry.
In the New Testament Romans 8 it speaks of the “Holy Spirit interceding for believers with groaning too deep for words.” That is how I see in our country now. So many of our fellow countrymen have been perverted. I have been distraught over how easily they succumbed to this false god Trump.
Perhaps in our abundance of blessings and wealth as a country we have become lazy. Wanting easy answers, get rich quick, follow the latest fads, laud appearance over substance. What was it that was so attractive to this blustering buffoon, this idiot.? They bought his lie of wealth, success, attraction, power, his easy answers. They were so eager to hand over everything to this self-proclaimed champion who is nothing but an empty gas bag. A sucker born every minute. No ability to discern, to think for themselves, to believe every scam and lie told them. Long has that been set up for years by the conservative and far right (Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Fox News).
Greed, ignorance, bigotry, selfishness, excessiveness of every sort, fear of others, getting less than others, suspecting others of gaming the system that takes away from them. This is what I see and hear within the far right. They even seek it on Sunday with the prosperity gospel in the churches they attend. It is the “What’s mine is mine, I’ll keep it for myself” or the “What’s your’s is mine I’ll take it.” Not the “What’s mine is your’s also, I’ll share it.” Are we lost???????
So to be clear, Pastor Burns, a MAGA pastor, who’s a “leading” pastor in some organization called “Pastors for Trump” declares while literally looking at this “golden idol” proclaiming it’s not a “golden idol” and blessing this monstrosity … Yea, hope the birds and wildlife enjoy their new shitting site…
Unfortunately believe we may have reached the epitome of that 2006 movie Idiocracy in which Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho is the President of an America that is dumber than a box of rocks…
Here’s just two clips of Camacho… excuse the language but what we are experiencing is what Camacho is doing “flipping off” all of us….
Fear we’ve not reached to the bottom yet, and that thought sickens me beyond words. However, am slightly encouraged by those who decided upon this course coming out of that fog. Am not as magnanimous as my mother is for those deciding upon they made a mistake by their choice and current path we are all in. Those individuals need to prove it beyond words and regrets…
What a profound piece of by Robinson Jeffers, “Shine, Perishing Republic”. Thank you Mr. Moran. May your family have a Happy Mother’s Day.
You might "enjoy" reading Elmer Gantry. Could be trump's alias. The book made me so ill about 1/2 way thru thatI had to put it down. Ignorance is a dangerous state of being.
Terry, the movie (50's era) with Burt Lancaster as the sleazy con-artist preacher -- while not quite like to book -- is a treat to see, and it makes the point on the "con-artist" type of personality quite well. Sinclair Lewis was famous for his satire.
Again, thanks for being all you are. You're quite the inspiration.
Book reported, Elmer Gantry, in high school had to get permission from my parents. Sinclair Lewis and the muck raking era of writers would be banned today, I am sure, as he attacked the meat industry, the vacuous business types, in Babbit, and the worshippers of their youth, as mentioned in Wallace's speech, in Dodsworth (also a great movie of another era).
I think part of what is missing in American is the great education we got in our youth--now gone I am told by my nieces who teach--that had authors like Sinclair Lewis, F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The character of Tom Buchanan is precursor to trump, racist, indulgent, adulterer, filthy rich. People often miss the underlying themes in this story. But I digress. John Steinbeck. The Winter of Our Discontent, the degrading of ethics, the betrayal of friends, for awards, for money.
Of course, The Grapes of Wrath. A Death of A Salesmen. I guess the trump kids our ok knowing their father cheated on their beautiful Mom, unlike Willie Loman's son who is crushed and disillusioned by the knowledge his father is an adulterer.
By time I was 14 or 15, I had read all of these, and more, in school assignments.
Step forward, readers, if any of your kids are getting this in their English class assignments. I would be delighted to know this.
They deny that it's worship they are doing . . . it's "honoring." Later, possibly after they depart this mortal coil, they will take the long view and realize that it was worship after all. It's a cult.
And you know, perhaps the other evangelicals who aren't quite so culted, will take a look at this comic tragedy, and have a doublethink about where they put their emphasis. It might actually be a positive lesson.
The picture of the golden statue, golden ballroom and the golden oval office bring to mine one thing and one thing only... Decadence and corruption. It brings to mind oil rising to the top on water. Corruption has and always will rise to the top like oil if we allow it. Our democratic system is not gone but needs to be rebuilt with better safeguards that do not allow the decadence that has long been building in our system to surface to the top. Mar-A-Lago, the golden statue, the golden ballroom and the golden oval office are symbols of the corruption that has risen to the top. Thank you for your beautiful poem Terry.
Feeling especially emotional on Mother's Day, this poem and the sentiments that precede it touch me and remind me that goodness and beauty still exist though hidden for now beneath the gilded idols. I have to believe that we will find them again.
The First Commandment:
You shall have no other gods before me.
Also the hefty gent's. Sigh.
oh, terry, terry! thank you for putting eloquence to the rage that's fueled me since reading that not only was that damn gilded statue erected, but it was CONSECRATED.....your quoting of Foster Wallace and your bringing robinson jeffers into the conversation was, as always, the most eloquent of choices. thank you.
i happened to be in a church early this morning, and nearly catapulted out of my pew when i saw that serendipitously this morning's first reading included these two lines (from acts of the apostles): "The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not living in shrines made by human hands...." AND a few lines later, this: "Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals...."
Terry, your words are a true wake-up call. 🥲 We cannot and will not become a false America. The statue and Mar-A-Lago are like something out of the film Babylon - a corrupt world of excess, vice and narcissism.
Yes—this moment is a signal fire than any sane, decent person surely can see.
Personally I think it started with Ronald Reagan and his folksy personality that sugar coated the message of selfishness and Me First. Itʻs been downhill ever since with a few moments of hope like the Obama era. Even Clinton moved the Democrats to the right. Time for a major readjustment! VOTE.
So true, Maui.
“We were not supposed to be this way. Something has broken deep in the American character, the nation’s civic soul. We are not the country of just a few years ago. Something shifted, shattered, collapsed.”
This. And it breaks my heart every day.
Or I engaged in magical thinking, and my delusions have been ripped away.
Thank you for your exquisite words and the beautiful poetry.
Terry is quite a poet himself. Lovely expression here. Thank you, kind man.
No, it cannot be the American future.
Thank you.
Fabulous article, Terry. Thanks for sharing the wisdom.
I'm so glad I decided to invest in your column. I see how excellent thinking and writing is done. Glad to be a supporter.
Best wishes to you and yours on this Mother's Day.
Thank you, Diana! That means a lot.
"Golden calf" indeed
We made everything about money and winning and pride, this is the outcome.
In the New Testament Romans 8 it speaks of the “Holy Spirit interceding for believers with groaning too deep for words.” That is how I see in our country now. So many of our fellow countrymen have been perverted. I have been distraught over how easily they succumbed to this false god Trump.
Perhaps in our abundance of blessings and wealth as a country we have become lazy. Wanting easy answers, get rich quick, follow the latest fads, laud appearance over substance. What was it that was so attractive to this blustering buffoon, this idiot.? They bought his lie of wealth, success, attraction, power, his easy answers. They were so eager to hand over everything to this self-proclaimed champion who is nothing but an empty gas bag. A sucker born every minute. No ability to discern, to think for themselves, to believe every scam and lie told them. Long has that been set up for years by the conservative and far right (Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Fox News).
Greed, ignorance, bigotry, selfishness, excessiveness of every sort, fear of others, getting less than others, suspecting others of gaming the system that takes away from them. This is what I see and hear within the far right. They even seek it on Sunday with the prosperity gospel in the churches they attend. It is the “What’s mine is mine, I’ll keep it for myself” or the “What’s your’s is mine I’ll take it.” Not the “What’s mine is your’s also, I’ll share it.” Are we lost???????
Yes, Alyce. It’s a deep rot, and perhaps indeed it started setting in as we enjoyed our abundance and lost touch with what matters.
So to be clear, Pastor Burns, a MAGA pastor, who’s a “leading” pastor in some organization called “Pastors for Trump” declares while literally looking at this “golden idol” proclaiming it’s not a “golden idol” and blessing this monstrosity … Yea, hope the birds and wildlife enjoy their new shitting site…
Unfortunately believe we may have reached the epitome of that 2006 movie Idiocracy in which Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho is the President of an America that is dumber than a box of rocks…
Here’s just two clips of Camacho… excuse the language but what we are experiencing is what Camacho is doing “flipping off” all of us….
https://youtu.be/aeXge9S4-3g?si=_jHFv2N3w8FO-lSX
https://youtu.be/ig446isvXlI
Fear we’ve not reached to the bottom yet, and that thought sickens me beyond words. However, am slightly encouraged by those who decided upon this course coming out of that fog. Am not as magnanimous as my mother is for those deciding upon they made a mistake by their choice and current path we are all in. Those individuals need to prove it beyond words and regrets…
What a profound piece of by Robinson Jeffers, “Shine, Perishing Republic”. Thank you Mr. Moran. May your family have a Happy Mother’s Day.
Thank you for the film clips. Too appropriate.
Agree
Dear Terry - thank you deeper than I can find words to express.
Worship is one thing but hypocrisy demeans it.
I love that poem. How anyone could possibly choose to worship that malignant toad is absolutely beyond understanding.
You might "enjoy" reading Elmer Gantry. Could be trump's alias. The book made me so ill about 1/2 way thru thatI had to put it down. Ignorance is a dangerous state of being.
Never read it. Thanks for the recommendation.
Terry, the movie (50's era) with Burt Lancaster as the sleazy con-artist preacher -- while not quite like to book -- is a treat to see, and it makes the point on the "con-artist" type of personality quite well. Sinclair Lewis was famous for his satire.
Again, thanks for being all you are. You're quite the inspiration.
Book reported, Elmer Gantry, in high school had to get permission from my parents. Sinclair Lewis and the muck raking era of writers would be banned today, I am sure, as he attacked the meat industry, the vacuous business types, in Babbit, and the worshippers of their youth, as mentioned in Wallace's speech, in Dodsworth (also a great movie of another era).
I think part of what is missing in American is the great education we got in our youth--now gone I am told by my nieces who teach--that had authors like Sinclair Lewis, F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The character of Tom Buchanan is precursor to trump, racist, indulgent, adulterer, filthy rich. People often miss the underlying themes in this story. But I digress. John Steinbeck. The Winter of Our Discontent, the degrading of ethics, the betrayal of friends, for awards, for money.
Of course, The Grapes of Wrath. A Death of A Salesmen. I guess the trump kids our ok knowing their father cheated on their beautiful Mom, unlike Willie Loman's son who is crushed and disillusioned by the knowledge his father is an adulterer.
By time I was 14 or 15, I had read all of these, and more, in school assignments.
Step forward, readers, if any of your kids are getting this in their English class assignments. I would be delighted to know this.
Any Sinclair Lewis will work—Babbit, Main Street, It Couldn’t Happen Here, . . .
yup. read em all in high school. I think part of what is missing is that they don't teach these in schools anymore.
I don't believe I've read the book. Loved the movie with Bert Lancaster, Shirley Jones, and several other big stars. Way back in the 60s..
They deny that it's worship they are doing . . . it's "honoring." Later, possibly after they depart this mortal coil, they will take the long view and realize that it was worship after all. It's a cult.
And you know, perhaps the other evangelicals who aren't quite so culted, will take a look at this comic tragedy, and have a doublethink about where they put their emphasis. It might actually be a positive lesson.
The picture of the golden statue, golden ballroom and the golden oval office bring to mine one thing and one thing only... Decadence and corruption. It brings to mind oil rising to the top on water. Corruption has and always will rise to the top like oil if we allow it. Our democratic system is not gone but needs to be rebuilt with better safeguards that do not allow the decadence that has long been building in our system to surface to the top. Mar-A-Lago, the golden statue, the golden ballroom and the golden oval office are symbols of the corruption that has risen to the top. Thank you for your beautiful poem Terry.
That’s well said. Thanks, Catherine.
Feeling especially emotional on Mother's Day, this poem and the sentiments that precede it touch me and remind me that goodness and beauty still exist though hidden for now beneath the gilded idols. I have to believe that we will find them again.
And Happy Mother’s Day!!
Amen, Tina.