Save us from the madness – Barry Black on Government Shutdown
Rear Admiral Barry C. Black (RET) is the chaplain of the United States Senate who spoke these words in his morning invocations in the Senate at the beginning of the Government Shutdown:
- “May they remember that all that is necessary for unintended catastrophic consequences is for good people to do nothing.” Tuesday 10/01/13, the morning of the Government Shutdown
- “Unless you empower our lawmakers, they can see the ideal but not reach it; they can know the right but not do it; they can comprehend their duty but not perform it.” 10/02/13
- “We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness and our pride. Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable.” 10/03/13
- “Remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism. Forgive them the blunders they have committed.” 10/04/13
Thank you, Admiral Black. You are a good person who did something.
It is not only the USA that teeters on the edge of a precipice. “Look to your consciences and remember that the……world is wider than the realm of England”, the words of Mary Queen of Scots during the conflict of interests between her and England’s Queen Elizabeth I in 1586. Perhaps, the parties in this conflict of wills and interests should look at their consciences and remember that the world is wider than the Republic of the USA?
Thanks for this quote, Peter. Unfortunately, these people in the US Congress don’t care how wide the effect of their actions is.
Leo