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"We, the people," should demand an honest debate on the issues.

 

The great divide in American politics is the dilemma between the new world we are moving to and the old world most Americans still live in today.  The old world is dying and the great divide to the new world of promise and stability is a mighty river that is impossible to cross without the construction of a viable bridge that allows safe passage.

And this is the problem that our political leadership from either major party is not willing to confront.  Instead we have deadlock while both sides vie for political power.  Our President struggles with the  problems he inherited while promising to build the new industries of tomorrow.  He warns us that we have a long way to go.  This is hardly a clarion call to optimism.

Our loyal opposition promises to stop the President’s programs.  Somehow we are to believe this is going to solve the issue of the great divide.  Obstruction is not a viable program for the future.  So where does that leave us?  I believe in serious trouble unless we find the political will to resolve the current paralysis of our political debate.  

 
The political will to do so is going to have to come from the people.  The initiative must come from the people since our leadership provides us with no alternative.  Do we have the stomach for it?  Do we have the courage to say enough of “attack politics” and demand a return to a reasonable debate of the issues – or are we as stupid as the politicians seem to think we are? 

The problem is further exasperated since a significant number of people are already on the other side of the river, leaving most of the middle and working class behind.  They did not need a bridge since they were on the other side from the beginning. This worked as long as the dying side of the river provided the means for survival for those still there – the gap between the two sides, while uncomfortable, was manageable.   

The financial and tech worlds always start from the good side of the river - the financial world because they control the resources and the tech side because they are the future.  The folks on the other side depend on the status quo to survive – and the status quo is dying rapidly.

 
The tragedy of our political debate is both sides are partially right, but because of the caustic rhetoric and desire for power, neither side is willing to frame the political debate in a clear and persuasive manner.

We need the President’s programs and that should be obvious to all.  The economy was stabilized and the foundation for the future was built.  Then the emphasis shifted to the needs for the future and where we need to go, all admirable and necessary.  However, what was left out was the present and that is what the bridge is all about. 

The loyal opposition is also right.  We need frugality and we need efficiency from our government.  Our future desperately needs well-managed government.  But they overstate their case for political reasons and obstruct any attempt to build a meaningful bridge to the future. 

 
We need the future, we need financial stability, and we need well managed government, and while preparing for the future is critical, you cannot sacrifice the present, especially when the sacrifice is not equally shared. 

Simply said the viable bridge for the middle class is more than a metaphor.  It is rebuilding our infrastructure and the jobs that will create. We cannot ignore the present and expect to have a future.  We still need to move to the future, but we need to travel the road together.  What is missing is the political will and courage from our political establishment to frame the debate honestly.  Our infrastructure is falling apart and because the political debate has made this “old school” thinking, this alarming fact no longer seems relevant to the argument. 

 
All of this takes place while other emerging and established economies around the world are making massive investments in their present and future infrastructures. We might not have a future if we do not save the present. When the American people sense an honest debate, the people will respond.  But even better, we, the people should demand an honest debate on the issues now, or we can expect more of the same – and that can only mean a weaker America.  We deserve better than this.

From Pizzaonia,  Brother Giovanni

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Conjectures of a recovering dilettante - A Christian perspective Bonhoeffer style - "a life of cheap grace" - or?

For those of you who are deeply committed without reservation to your faith – you need to read no further – but for the rest of us……..  

What does it mean to be “Christian” today?  Sounds like it should be an easy question to answer.  How many people who claim to be Christian spend serious time with this question? It seems so basic, or as some have suggested – a question better left to the theologians.  Unfortunately, this is no longer a convenient refuge.

The basic premise is simple: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Well if this is true, a lot of us Christians don’t think much of ourselves when you see how we often treat other people and cultures. It seems safe to say that if this were not true, the world would be a much better place.

I think much of the problem goes back to the premise Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” By that he meant it is easy for us to do the basics of acting out our faith and little else. Our faith becomes more like a background filter rather than the inspiration and challenge it was meant to be.  Our “Christianity” becomes our comfort and our solace, rather than the sacrifice and challenge that Jesus intended.

Let’s face it – following the teaching of Christ is not easy. It means putting everyone else above ourselves. This is relatively easy for those we love - but for strangers? The problem is that all of this seems so obvious it does not require much thought or serious reflection. This is why so many religious orders require a daily “examination of "conscience" by its members. It forces you to examine honestly your life each day - to see how you are measuring up to what you purport to believe.   

It all comes down to this  - what do we actually believe and act out – the message of Jesus, a life of love and tolerance – or Bonhoeffer’s claim that many of us have settled for living a more convenient life of “cheap grace.”

Brother Franco

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 In Pizzaonia intersecting triangles and light with open space symbolizes the presence of the Creator.

August 2016

Today in a one on one interview, former Supreme Pizzaonian, Brother Giovanni, explained why the “Golden Rule” no longer works and how Pizzaonians evolved to a more advanced culture by realizing this simple observation.

Brother Giovanni elaborated, "Do unto others as you would have then do unto you" is a concept that requires similarities in culture to be effective. As we know, it was rendered in a time when most world views were tribal and provincial. The Golden Rule requires a universal sense of a world community that probably never existed..

As the world expanded and grew bigger with each new discovery, and contrary to popular opinion, it became virtually impossible for people to keep up and to see beyond their tribal perspectives. Everyone’s moral compass went awry. How else do you explain how historically a group of people could be so loving with each other, and than go down the road and slaughter every man, woman and child in a competing village? And, I am not sure on a grander scale, this same question does not apply today.

When I portalized to the beta-world it became clear that Pizzaonians had evolved to an effective and more advanced interpretation of the Golden Rule. Since they are an ecumenical culture and accept all beliefs, and yes, including non belief, it became clear to avoid escalating conflicts they had to develop a way of respecting each other with a universal concept of charity and mutual respect.

Since they are a mercantile culture revolving around the making and selling of pizza, their elders came up with the inspired concept of "customer" as a sacred trust. Since then the Golden Rule for all of Pizzaonia is ‘do unto your customer as you would have your customer do unto you.’

The concept was accepted immediately by all. The concept of customer service transcended religious, ethnic and regional differences. As the concept evolved, they went further and extended the definition of “customer’ to include everyone, not just people you dealt with in business. So your customer became your friend, your family members, literally everyone. As a result, today we find ourselves with a society that has all the problems you have - but, unlike you, the moral mechanism to deal with and resolve all conflicts.”

Brother Giovanni

GiovanniandFranco.com is a division of the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, Diverti Mento, editor

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REFLECTIONS ON THE AMERICAN POLITICAL PROCESS

Some time ago a funny thing happened in the United States on the way to the polling place.  Voters stopped taking their political leaders seriously.  To some extent they still try to pay attention to their elections and keep up with what’s happening in the political arena, but for the most part they no longer believe what they see or here. While information is king, facts are no longer relevant.

What replaced their need for facts is a nebulous, intuitive feeling on how the events they are witnessing affects them.  If they are agitated enough, they vote on this feeling, if not, they can wait for another day. If you think this is the way it always was, you might be right. 

However, what makes this time more alarming is the degree to which this phenomenon is now unfolding and shaping present and future events.  Information overload has taken its toll.

All of this is not lost on the opinion makers.  Today they are able to get information out to millions of people in minutes.  That information does not have to be accurate.  What it does have to be is good enough to create the negative or positive impression they are trying to place in the public’s mind about a candidate or an idea.

No longer do you see serious attempts to bring reform and positive change.  Now what you get is tacit acceptance of the system as it is while the manipulators without restraint use new, ingenious methods that exploit the situation to further their self-serving point of view.

Unfortunately, exploitation of public opinion has become the true art form in the United Sates. This includes the constant manipulating and bombarding of public opinion by innuendo, half-truths and lies all packaged to be made palatable to a mass audience. 

This is now endemic to the culture here and has become so pervasive, cynicism is considered normal. Will they change this? - Only when it stops working – and I can see nothing in the immediate future that suggests that is going to happen.

What has caused this?  And why do people here feel the way they do about politicians and political events?  That will be for scholars of another generation to determine.  As for now we can only speculate.

As Edward Murrow said, “The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.”

 

Brother Giovanni

We also recommend "The Pizzaonian" 

Posted at 10:45 PM in POLITICS | Permalink

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"Reaching for the light" Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator (C)2010)

 

In both our business and personal lives, we seek successful relationships.  Much has been said and written on the subject.  And yet, for many, successful relationships seem to elude them.  The question is always, why?

At the heart of every human dilemma is the need to connect with other people.  When we are in touch with each other, we find ourselves fulfilled, life seems worth living – experiencing and sharing with others completes us as human beings. 

Many of us, other than the most cynical, would agree with this.  Then, why is it difficult to find this kind of fulfillment?  I suspect the problem revolves around the concept of trust.  To reach out to other people, you are going to have to trust them to accept you.  

And many times, the people we reach out to seldom respond in the way we want them to act. We can be offended and hurt by their response. 

Some things to think about the next time you reach out to another person, and they do not respond to you as you expected.

1. When you believe yourself to be a broad-minded person, think about it – you are probably not as unbiased as you think. This is an area of great, personal self-delusion - the notion that we are open-minded and right is an insidious state of mind that can destroy most relationships. 

2. We can be patronizing and condescending without realizing it.  Make sure, when you're reaching out to someone,  it is not done with a sense of your superiority.  This is easy to do. Be aware of this glaring fault most of us have from time to time.

3. Make sure you are reaching out for the right reasons. Frequently we reach out to satisfy a need we have rather than trying to help someone else with a need they have. Sometimes we refuse to accept another person as the person they are; we expect them to be the person we need them to be. When we do this, we are both narrow-minded and selfish.  

Most of these problems are caused by a lack of trust in others.  However, just maybe, the lack of trust we fear the most is in not trusting ourselves. 

To have faith in yourself is to be a complete human being.  This means we embrace our wisdom and practicality along with our foolishness and inconsistencies. 

To see the absurdity in life and in ourselves is a gift from heaven - to be able to do this is to embrace yourself as fully human.  By accepting our inconsistencies, we become compassionate and more open to those around us. 

Then and only then do we become valuable to other people for we can accept them as the rich fabric of life they really are - not as we want them to be.

 

Vera V. Veronica, commenting for "MUSINGS"  a divison of the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, Diverti Mento, editor

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Fact or Myth? - The relevance of being Christian

 

The most difficult concept to accept emotionally as a Christian is the need for relevance.  We live in a culture where we feel the constant need to make a difference, to be relevant and to find meaning.

 

 

As a Christian, certainly not one as often described from a modern, secular church perspective, but more from the authentic vision of the itinerant carpenter that we choose to worship, we are as heirs to the kingdom, already as relevant as we need to be.

 

 

Now this is difficult to accept emotionally, from the perspective of self, and from the perspective of how we choose to see everyone else in the world.  Because if I am relevant simply by being, so is everyone else.  And by everyone, it means everyone, from the homeless beggar to the President. Now where does that leave us?  I believe as equals, regardless of position or station.  And this is where the trouble begins.

 

 

Most of us are agreeable to the notion that we are equals in a spiritual way.  But equally relevant in this world, I think not. Judging from the state of Christianity today, I think somehow we have missed the central Christian point of equal relevance for all.

 

 

Which leads to another issue and that is the question of how important is Jesus in today’s world.  To paraphrase Andrew Greeley from his book, the Jesus Myth,  if Jesus is not relevant to society at large today it is nothing new.  After all, Jesus was not very relevant to the society he lived in.  They did crucify him as a common criminal.

 

 

So somewhere along the way the notion of relevance and meaning, as defined from the original Christian perspective, became seriously perverted.  It has been said many times, the Good News is simply too good to believed. 

 

 

The idea that to love your God and to love your neighbor as yourself takes care of everything else, including making your life immediately relevant and meaningful, is too simplistic and difficult for most of us to be real.  Then again, how would we know? Judging from the state of the world most of us have never tried it.

 

Brother Giovanni

 

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