A Real Post

So my class at church is studying the story of David and I picked up an interesting tidbit there I'd like to share.  Did you know that we wouldn't even know the story of David -- or many other Biblical stories -- without the Muslims?  Islamic scholars believed that these written texts were sacred and worth preserving, so they not only copied the Bible but preserved it (or them -- no one should pretend there was one version of the Bible) during holy war after civil war after holy war. Now, isn't that interesting? The very people whom Americans fear most -- and have no idea why, except to make the blanket statement that all of them are terrorists -- are indebted to them for the preservation of the Christian tradition, the very same tradition some fundamentals invoke to justify war with the East. (I also wonder how widely known it is that Muslims and Hindus believe wholeheartedly in peace as an integral part of their religious faith system; what's broadcasted from Baghdad, Qatar, etc  is the opinion of an angry few.)

On a lighter note -- or perhaps not -- I heard a news report say today that milk in NYC is $7 for a gallon in some places.  Gasoline here is $3.18 and in 2005 alone there was a 233% increase in eggs, the most basic staple of grocery foods.  And yet, I heard political officials on TV this morning insisting we weren't in a recession, suffering from inflation.  Stagflation! The worst -- when your income goes down and the price of food goes up.  They might as well call that starving.  What upsets me isn't so much that there is a problem but that I feel like everyone has  gone stark raving mad to deny we have one.  I feel like someone in a glass box beating on the inside of the walls saying "HEY! COKES ARE $6/BOX! AND I CAN'T AFFORD TO DRIVE TO WORK ANYMORE!" and the people who can do something about it are -- literally -- tapdancing on the stage.  

Perhaps the most frustrating part about feeling this way is that somehow, as if the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 have been called up from their watery graves, questioning the situation has become "unpatriotic." Like a little critique from people like me invokes a cough under the breath that goes something like: "you-must-hate-the-flag."  But what's more "American," more democratic,  than demanding your nation be run by the will of the people, and not the will of the few?