Rest in peace Aridog.

As some you might know a valued contributor to this blog has passed. Richard Thompson who went by the handle Aridog passed after a long illness.

You will have remembered many of his no nonsense posts. Dick was a veteran and a hard headed realist.  But with all of that he was an idealist and had vast compassion for others. Especially people of other cultures and faiths. Sometimes when I would go off on a rant he would comment and make me stop and think about what I was saying. He was one of the view commenter's who was worthing listening to because he had walked the walk.

Getting to know someone on the internet can be tricky. Some people presume to know you and what you think. What you are. But we all many things. Not all of them are displayed in blog posts or comments. Don't get me wrong. You can tell a lot about a person. For example you can tell that Dick was a gentleman and a patriot. I especially loved  his stories of his time in the Service and his hard won experiences.

Dick was a generous and loyal friend. A family man. Above all a patriot. He will be sorely missed. There is one phrase I always think of when I think of Aridog: "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

Rest in peace my friend. God bless you and your family.

I felt like the "Responsorial Psalm" was in repsonse to my musing.

"The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him"

It was pretty funny that was the psalm this Sunday. I had described the scene I witnessed on Friday on my way to the store. There was the hipster tattooed mom with a seven year old son who refused to do whatever she wanted him to do. It looked like he wanted to dash across Court St. She had a hold of him and they were struggling. She lifted him up in her arms and started to carry him down the street. He hauled off and started punching her. Really hard. In the back. In the head. It must of hurt but he was still a scrawny kid so she just kept walking. How in any universe is it ok to put your hands on your mother?

I mused that we have gone to much to one side of the spectrum. All love all the time without any fear. There has to be a healthy fear of consequences for bad behavior. I think the Church went away from that starting in the sixties. Once they dropped the Latin Mass and started playing guitars and all of that nonsense more and more people started leaving the church. Everyone who thinks they are smarter then me is saying that the old way was the wrong way. That it is much better to have this new way (well not so new way of doing things since it is fifty years old now) is so much better. So what has it meant? Many fewer people in church. Fewer priests and nuns. The end of Catholic education. People saying that they don't have to find God by going to church. That they only had to show up for marriages, funerals, Christmas and Easter.

The thing is there might come a time when they want to go to the church and it won't be there anymore. 

I am not saying we should go back to the nuns beating the crap out of you for your transgression. Necessarily.  Although there are many, many kids that need a ruler across the head now and again. But the way things are now is too far the other way. Every kid and every transgression is fine and dandy. Everybody gets a trophy and a ribbon no matter what they do or how badly the behave. There is no accountability for anything. Without a healthy fear of the consequences it will all go to crap. The President will break the law with impunity. Legislators will get into phony marriages to become resident aliens so they can run for office so they can give their tribe more free stuff. Nobody would pay their taxes. People love their country but they fear the IRS.

Aridog said much better than me: "I think when Trooper refers to "fear" he is really referring to an imbued sense of consequences. Failing to respect others may one day find you face to face in battle, trying to kill each other. Consequences. Failing to be reliable, from a kid's perspective, usually means they won't find adults reliable either. The STFU lesson in discretion is best learned on the block IMO, among your peers. Consequences...trust is a two way exchange. A reliable adult will more easily influence a kid to be the see way...they see positive consequences."

That is the nub of it I think. There is no fear of consequences anymore. So haul off and punch your mother in the face. Nobody is going to say anything. Nobody is going to do anything. Nobody is going to think it is anything out of the ordinary.  It is all of a piece with these couples I see every night sitting in front of the bar with one kid in the stroller and another in papoose sack with their dog tied to the table while they drink beer.  

This is going to be a really messed up place when these kids are in their teens.

Because those precious darlings will have been loved to pieces. But soon enough they will be feared.

Just a little musing on a Sunday afternoon.