No Connection

No Connection What is to be done now that America has become unhinged from reality? There’s no connection between morality and behavior, freedom and responsibility or parents and parenting. So if your life is being used up by drab or passionate pursuits, be aware that outside your circumscribed world, reality is being compromised. The opening of Iron Man, an escapist film, pulls in over a $100 million dollars but the murder of our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans is disconnected from the White House and accountability. A brief, childishly produced anti-Muslim video and a terrorist attack in Benghazi are not connected except as a video fantasy of the Obama administration. In Ohio, questions are now being asked why no connection was made between a crazy sex pervert and the abduction of three women a decade ago. No connection exists between natural disasters and man’s influence on them. No connections exist between giving back to community and taking care of yourself or between hostage situations and neighborhood evacuations. Why do lawyers connect an accident to manslaughter when filing charges? Justice is no longer connected to the swift and sure. Are you fooled by Chris Christie claiming his weight loss operation is connected to a concern for his family? Put to rest the false premise that gun ownership relates to violent crime Health care does not connect to healthy living. Food banks and food cards cannot foster healthy eating. Food and obesity can obviously be disconnected with smaller portions. Where is the connection between an education degree and good teaching or government spending and improved test scores? Does large student debt relate to a good job? Can a standardized test test what a student has not learned? Are sports programs connected to character building or just the price of skipping homework and intellectual achievement? Reality, however, does seem to reveal a strange connection between students and teachers having sex. How many amber alerts find missing children? What is the connection between a basketball camp for 3-6 yr old girls other than a community get-together for parents and children ( who won’t be tall). Ohio’s recent shame was the passage of an exotic animals law totally unrelated to the crazy man who released his charges before committing suicide. After a horse escapes from the barn, it’s too late to lock the gate. No connection exists between the new law and a possible recurrence of the tragedy. Shame on you, grandstanding Ohio politicians. Where was PETA? Symbols do not change realities. Pink ribbons for breast cancer, walks for awareness and slogans on bumper stickers simply represent causes and promote emotional gatherings, not cures. Giving to United Way does not ‘unite’ donors. A celebrity like Heidi Klum who is paid to “stand up for cancer,” cannot guarantee wise use of your money. Teddy bears at a makeshift memorial do not reflect the status of the victim’s soul. As a memorial to caring, residents in Sandy Hook just voted for a $40 million dollar rebuilding of the elementary school. Can there be any active lifestyle in nursing home living? Do you believe that GE cancelling its financing of local to gun shops will prevent gun crime? Do you believe plural families, polygamy or gay marriage connect legitimate marriage partners? Not unless you re-define marriage. Are you not tired of every crime being reported as ‘alleged’ and every criminal ‘allegedly guilty?’ De facto guilt cannot be connected to a crime. We are all know an adult who has struggled with abuse or problems in childhood. It goes with the territory. We also know there’s no necessary connection between youth and criminal behavior later in life. Programs like DARE for drug and alcohol prevention don’t connect to prevention because testosterone and estrogen eventually conquer adolescence. To summarize the status quo. Our culture’s unhinged like a liberal from reality and politicians and advertising from truth. What is to be done? Living in the dark or with a bag over one’s head to avoid reality seems a depressing option. I suggest employing a pattern of behavior inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘imp of the perverse.’ Flip the coin. Just do the opposite. If reality discourages a God-connection, fight back with Faith and pursuit of God’s teachings. If reality encourages consumption without a connection to responsible spending and borrowing, just spend less and give more. Whenever government asks for your money or liberty, just say no. Look out for valid connections - as positives - with friends, family, career, co-workers or God. Assume that your watchful time on earth is the only watch that counts and fear that you will be connected to your actions after death. Comedian Earl Pitts, our greatest living philosopher, wakes up America with his incisive, humorous observations. He exposes rather than denies our human foibles and cultural discrepancies. He connects us to reality. Yes, we flawed mortals have a right to be stupid, but only ‘really’ stupid.