Christmas, and Easter are my favorite occasions. While we describe them as “holidays” they are the infinite roots of Christianity. Jesus was born on Christmas eve and was resurrected from the grave on Easter, celebrated worldwide by Christians.
Many local, and area churches, held Easter services that were well attended. I attended Sunday Easter services at Fiddler’s Green for two decades until the pastor passed away, and the event drifted into history. Maybe the event could be resurrected. Red Rocks celebrates their annual sunrise service with a capacity crowd watching the sunrise. No matter how bad things may get, the sun always comes up the next morning.
There is so much trouble and strife in the world. Maybe no more than in past history, but now it gets reported worldwide by media sources around the clock. History is full of strife and war.
The weather also has become turbulent and can be blamed on many mysteries, such as climate change, and some even feel it is God punishing his flock. Whatever the reasons, the weather is changing, droughts are turning into floods, snow falling in new places, and tornadoes lashing cities.
It seems that our children are changing as well; living with their smart phones and games, they can hardly eat an Easter dinner without the phone cuddled close at hand. Adults share the love of phones as well and we marvel how the world ever functioned without phones and the internet. (Actually, quite well, maybe better.)
Children are now engaging with sex-change and a new transgender society is emerging as another political force. There is artificial intelligence looming to replace everything and everybody.
This year’s legislature is focusing on affordable and assessable housing; roofs over everyone’s heads in an attempt to ease homelessness. Some believe that housing should be shared equally that income and hard work shouldn’t allow some folks to live better than others.
Some state leaders want to replace zoning with new state mandates that would disregard local planning and zoning. The state would determine where shelters and homes could be conceivably be placed on larger lots and back yards of private homes.
Cities across Colorado have handled their own zoning throughout history with local governments and P&Z boards to accommodate growth and development. Homeowners should be more careful who they elect to the legislature and that they embrace local values.
Primarily, the free enterprise system created the housing conditions throughout history. The European Feudal system had the royalty living in the castles surrounded by the peasants who lived on royal lands in poverty with forced taxation payments to the crown. America was founded by people escaping such a system, who wanted to worship God, not the King, own property and be free men and women. America provided this breath of free air to the world.
New immigrants are pouring across the southern border, and we must find housing for our newly found guests. Past immigrants have arrived on American shores for centuries and have worked their way into home ownership and financial success. Almost everyone has an ancestor who came to America with nothing but the desire to be free to worship, work, marry, and raise a family. At least in past history the most successful people were those with the best education and intense work ethics. Yes, some people are luckier than others.
Immigrants had to earn their way, and that will also be true of many of our guests entering the United States legally or illegally.
We need the workers, and at this point in time we need to make the best of our visitors offering them food, shelter and education.
I think that is what a Christian nation does, but there are limits to our kindness and generosity. We are still the most generous people in the world to a point.
We need to put away the guns, get out the hammers and nails, and start building affordable housing on land that is less expensive on which to live.
Each city can determine to what extent they elect to host the homeless and where they should, or shouldn’t, reside.
The new residents will be valuable if we give them training and improve their job skills. There is a huge need for expanding vocational training and industrial schools for young and old.
Lingering thought, if America is so bad, why does everyone want to come here?
Work and freedom are the magic words. You can still find them here in a land of great opportunity if we don’t destroy it by apathy.