There was a motto for Pittsburgh back....starting in the late 1960s....Someplace Special. Everyone near my age would remember it....and Pittsburgh was indeed someplace special. It just seemed to be the right mixture of people and ethnicities as we struggled with a dying steel industry. Our on-air personalities were almost likely family back then. Talk radio was a big part of our day. Mr. Rogers settled into the middle of the city....and even with our sports....how could you get more family than Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente and Joe Greene and Arnold Palmer? It was truly a special city....it took decades but the glacier of cold ice eventually made its way over the Alleghenies.
All over America today....on both sides of the ideological equation....we are told who our friends are to be....and we obey. On our side John and Robert Kennedy are our enemies. I can remember conservative talk radio at times over the past six years literally tearing limb from limb these two men....cancelling them....but in over a half century of following politics I know of no politician more caring for the poor than Bobby Kennedy....and none of us that I know of today....and who would not want JFK's wisdom over what we have in Washington today? Jimmy Carter was given no quarter. We are not debating....we are dismantling and razing the evidence of historic figures. Ironically....we now do what we have long accused the other side of doing....we have taken up their strategies!
So today we have Martin Luther King Jr, Day. I turned on conservative radio earlier....6 am....something I haven't done in maybe six months....which in itself is astonishing to me since I had been a talk radio person since the those late 1960s....and the show today is a special presentation...not on Martin Luther King Jr.....not even a mention of his name....or the day....but a compilation of about nine or ten interviews from a recent Turning Point USA conference....a group targeting conservative youth....not educating them on the very difficult issues of the day....but indoctrinating them....to go out and be soldiers.
I did notice that the host still begins his show with the date....along with...."in the year of our Lord"....this is what we have become on the 'right'....an icon set up in a corner of the room....as hate and greed and laughter fills that room. In the last interview of the show....the one interviewed....twice said that he...."hates"....the elites on the other side....emphasizing the word....'hate.' Folks....it was striking to even someone like me who has for years dealt with this....turning point in our affections....to use that term....where we left the high ground of integrity....to just as someone on that show today said....do politics the same way that they do politics!
That same interviewee....ending the show....made this comment....and if you give it some time to meditate upon....you might weep at what we have become....and where we are encouraging our youth to go....for he admitted that he had predicted that it was going to be a Republican wipeout in the 2020 election....but upon reflection on what did happen said...."So maybe God knew what he is doing"....in other words....God is on our side....most of the stuff in his word about love and forgiveness is useless in politics....but he might just be on to something here....lose the election to get us fired up?
Addendum: Would that you could experience what I just did. After listening to most of the morning talk radio show that I referenced above....I listened to John Piper's Sermon of the Day. The contrast in my spirit was sobering....the constant....fast-talking....nerve wracking incitement to anger....to the peace and hope-filled gospel of Jesus Christ. These are the two lives available to the Christian....the one led by the spirit of this world....and the other by God's Spirit. I guess that you could duplicate this by turning on talk radio for an hour....or maybe Tucker Carlson or Hannity in the evening....and then follow that up by Googling John Piper....Open My Eyes That I May See. There would be helpful truth in some of what they say....for so many of us for decades have tried to bring sanity into our government....but they distort the narrative....cherry-pick and isolate....purposely ignore and obfuscate that which would give us a balance in that we have all failed miserably....all need the wisdom that only God can give...and all need our eyes open to whom is our only hope....to whom only we can trust and follow in this storm that is upon us.
