The End Of The World

My friend Ed called me today and asked, "Do you think it's the end of the world?" My response to his question was, "It's the end of the world as we know it." Now, I know that there is a cute REM song that uses this as a title and repeating lyric that turns out just fine. But here, off the MTV screen, life doesn't work like that.

Ed said, "Well, my aunt says that it's the end of the world." This is a great fear for his aunt, a serious church-going, God-fearing, somewhat judgmental Pentecostal lady.

"Ah!," I responded. "She's talking about Armageddon. Well, this is a sort of battle between good and evil. But I don't think it's the end times. Just the end of the world as we know it.

"You must 'splain,' Lucy."

"OK, here's why it's the end of the world as we know it."

It was unimaginable that a president would start a war for no politically viable reason , attacking people who had not attacked us. We've been fighting that war for 10 years, sacrificing the lives of our killing our youth and some innocent Afghans civilians for 10 years.

It's the end of the definition of war as we know it.

It was beyond our wildest imaginings that a presidential candidate would boast of the benefits of separating church and state, and state succinctly that multicultural America must be celebrated as a Christian nation. We now have two candidates who find this viewpoint reasonable. While candidates have always expressed their religious views, they related to personal faith and their prayers that God would bless our secular nation. No longer. Thomas Jefferson's 1802 Letter to the Danbury Baptists be damned.

It's the end of the "wall of separation of church and state" as we know it.

While it is a perfectly fine demonstration of our First Amendment rights to yell our discontent about or disdain for government from outside capital walls, it is anarchy to become an elected official with the goal of destroying government.