You Can’t Fix Stupid

We all know about the stupid jokes. Comedian Ron White is famous for the one in my title.  I’m wondering how many of us have actually looked in the dictionary for the exact meaning of the word, “stupid”.

Webster defines stupid as brainless or airhead, but one of the synonyms for the word is “uninformed”.  That really struck a chord with me.  I thought of Americans today and the many funny shows on television pointing out the stupid or uninformed citizens prevalent in our society today.  When people are stopped on the street and asked questions about current events, their response is blatant ignorance.  They know that Barack Obama is President of the United States but beyond that everything is a blur.

So let’s touch on the word “uninformed”.  Basically it would be the opposite of informed, knowledgeable, resourceful, insightful, etc.   So why does it appear our present generation of Americans choose to be “uniformed” rather than informed?

As I was writing this blog I received my third phone call within three days from a foreign person indicating they were calling on behalf of my software company to fix my computer.  I know that is a scam to reach into my private files.  Yet it keeps happening over and over.  I’m sure they must have some success in duping others into believing their lies and thus are able to steal pertinent information from many people.  The thing that baffles me is why they keep repeating the same mistake of contacting the same person who already knows they are a scam.  Apparently, they don’t  have any type of system for tracking whom they have called once already.

They haven’t done their homework.

Let’s discuss the recent Supreme Court decision regarding gay marriage and the surge of religious objection to the court’s judgment that gay marriage should be a legally accepted right.   We have people who are willing to stand up and voice their opinions so strongly they are arrested and jailed.  I refer to the clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple.  Few people are probably aware that many judges all over the country have made the same decision but they have done it in such a way that they cannot be arrested for it.  Instead of just banning gay marriages they have removed themselves from the duties of performing any marriages to avoid compliance with the law.

Now we are a country that proposes to believe in the rule of law yet we only express those beliefs with ardent enthusiasm when the rule affects our personal opinions.  The clerk in Kentucky broke the rule of law as defined by the Supreme Court but the judge that sentenced her without bail for any reason except his personal belief was also breaking the rule of law.  Is that then acceptable?   The Federal Government breaks the rule of law consistently by allowing sanctuary cities to exist where illegal immigrants can avoid arrest and then take the lives of innocent Americans.  Are we really ok with that?

Should our elected officials have the right to decide which laws they will enforce and which laws they will ignore? Apparently, it seems they do.  Our Constitution allows for a system of checks and balances by providing three branches of government:  Judicial, Legislative, and Executive.  They were designed to prevent one branch having all the control. Suddenly we are faced with a dilemma as to which branch takes precedent over the other and which of the laws that are to be enforced and which are to be ignored? We have become a nation of contradiction.  On the one hand, some people are jubilant over the Supreme Court decision to allow gay marriage but they blissfully ignore the laws are being broken everyday by the Federal Government itself.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not sitting in judgment of those who have chosen a particular lifestyle.  Their accountability is not to me or anyone else.  Their accountability is to God. He tells us not to judge lest we be judged. I believe the Bible teaches us to love our neighbor as we do ourselves, but it also teaches us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.  Is one sin different in the eyes of God than another?  Is adultery worse than fornication?  Is lying worse than stealing?  We have all broken God’s law, but because he Is a just God, he offers his forgiveness to all who repent.  If we are a nation that follows the rule of law and we profess to be “one nation, under God”, then are we not to take God’s law into consideration?

I believe there will be people surprised at the harvest of souls.  Many of those thought to be wheat will be burned up as tares and many of those thought to be lost will be the sheep who know his voice.  We need to stop judging others for their beliefs and their choices.  They are accountable to God for those choices just as each one of us.  If we are to allow rights to those whose lifestyle we deem ungodly, then shouldn’t they in turn respect our right to speak the truth as we believe it to be and shouldn’t they then respect our decision to honor those beliefs?

Remember the quote always attributed to Voltaire, “I do not agree with what you are saying but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”  This wildly popular quote was not actually said by Voltaire but only a summary written about his writings.  This was pointed out by the English author by the name of Evelyn Beatrice Hall who wrote under the name Stephen G. Tallentyre. 

My friends please do your homework.

You see I believe we can fix “stupid”.  We can become informed.  We can read; we can listen; we can open our minds and hearts.  This nation was founded on “In God we trust”.  It was founded on the rule of law.  We need to find a way to justify the two together or someday we will find ourselves living an existence based upon the opinion of nine people who were not elected but appointed to the highest office in the land.  The highest court in the land appears to be turning into a court that makes the law instead of interprets the law.  If we do not do our homework and elect officials that will confirm those judges in an appropriate manner, we will find ourselves living in a godless society without any rule of law.

If we make bad choices and continue on the pathway of complacency and indifference that we appear to have chosen today, we can only agree with mentally challenged Forest Gump when he said something like, “Mama always says that stupid is as stupid does”.