There I got mom, apple pie and God in one paragraph along with Democrat and patriotism and the roof didn't cave in and the computer didn't break. Now if I survive my next trip outside and the lightening doesn't strike me I could actually think God is on my side. I would rather think that he was on her side though, come to think of it. She is a lot closer to a saint than I ever want to be. She neither smokes nor drinks, nor has she ever, and I sometimes indulge in both of those minor infractions of self-indulgence. Mom is a woman of great faith in God. She and Dan her husband of over fifty years who died in February devoted their lives to him. When my wife was a child she lived in dangerous places in dangerous times because of their lives as missionaries. Singapore was less safe then, as were Vietnam and several other places in that area of the world where they worked and traveled.

Mom was raised in a family without any money; they were poor by any standards used to judge such things today, but never poor of spirit. The women in that family have made an impression on my life that will never fade, that is because my wife is one of them and as stubborn as any of them. Grit cannot begin to describe how they approach the effort they exert in living every day regardless of what disappointment and pain it may bring. No mountains will stand in their way as long as they are doing what they believe to be right. As my wife told her mother this last mother's day, "the gift you gave me is that stubbornness you use, if a mountain is in your way you will go around it or over it or blow it up or just wear it down." Then she went on to say, "I wish I could do it with a smile like you do." Now I think my wife is optimistic, but her mother is profoundly optimistic, to the point where sometimes I used to worry about her sanity. Mom is sane, she loves God and her country without believing that war is a good way to exert your power in the world. She has worked to help some of the poorest people on earth, binding their wounds and bringing them medicine while Dan helped them organize churches and build congregations.

She believes in the separation of church and state because she is wise enough to see that when church and state are in conflict the only safety for religion is in being outside the control of the state. Support for religion coming from the government always carries a price eventually, usually a bigger price than truly religious people are willing to pay. Iraq is a good example of what happens when the state uses its power to suppress religions. The clerics making their way back into Iraq from Iran and other nations that offered them refuge could tell you about government and religion in graphic terms. They are the survivors of a destructive use of state power to suppress the largest religion in Iraq. The state is never the friend of religion unless it can use it to reinforce its power over the people. Our founders knew that, and they knew that religion was a private matter between an individual and their God.

Now mom and I don't always agree about things, but she knows I will be there for her if she needs me as will my wife. We believe in family even though we are far to the left of most of the Democrats running for President. We may even vote Libertarian or Green Party this time around. It may be twenty years before the word liberal can be spoken in polite society in this nation again, but that time will come. When it does it will take a few years to shovel out the Aegean Stables full of debt and anger against this nation that the current administration is piling up. Hopefully it won't be that long but it may, and we patriots of another variety will abide, loving our God and our nation each according to our own lights. That is the miracle of Democracy; change will come even if it takes a generation or two. Our revolution is reborn with every election and never dies. God bless and keep you, mom, our troops, our patriots of all kinds and our foolish, fearless leaders safe now and always.