Tag: Bible

Oklahoma Bible Mandate Abandoned

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Government Failure, Opinion

Oklahoma Stuck with 500 Trump Bibles Already Purchased

Oklahoma has ended Ryan Walter’s mandate to place a Bible in every classroom. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in the wake of Walter’s resignation asked the State Superintendent if he wished to continue the current lawsuit defending the mandate. Walter’s replacement, Lindel Fields, withdrew the mandate this last Wednesday.

It appears much that Walters did while in office will be reversed and removed. I prefer not to think of him as having resigned preferring to think him melted by a bucket of water.

KOSU and NPR have a news article written by Robby Korth and Lionel Ramos.

https://www.kosu.org/education/2025-10-15/lindel-fields-announces-end-to-ryan-walters-oklahoma-classroom-bible-mandate

Ryan Walters’ controversial plan to put a Bible in every classroom last summer almost immediately met pushback. About a year ago, a coalition of parents, teachers and faith leaders filed a lawsuit against him and the state over the mandate.

The suit is ongoing, but because of Walters’ exit, Oklahoma’s State Supreme Court gave his replacement Lindel Fields, the opportunity to withdraw or resolve the case in the next two weeks.

But he ultimately took much less time. On Wednesday, Fields announced he would withdraw the mandate at the heart of the case.

(This is from a book picturing “The vanished places of worship and cathedrals in France from 1917.”)

Oklahoma like much of the United States is a place of many faiths. The Pew Research Center found that there were Oklahomans who practiced the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu faiths besides a bewildering variety of Protestant sects.

Here in Oklahoma we are leaving this chapter, this episode, of the culture wars to return to the very real problems of low morale among teachers and administrators as well as a tragic lack of funding for education in general. We are the 50th state in per pupil funding and I must reluctantly admit, a national laughingstock.

But stay tuned as various investigations into Walter’s conduct are now ongoing and there may be much, much more to see and hear about what passed for administrative decisions in Oklahoma Education.

In regard to business ethics, this is a cautionary tale of a narrow minded ideologue running wild. It is not the last one we will ever see although we may hope.

Salaries were paid to people who barely showed up, the most pitiful propaganda was adopted as if they somehow qualified as “teaching materials,” and the department was run like a personal fiefdom.

I wish the new Superintendent well and pray for his success.

The people of Oklahoma deserve so much better than what was done and a new beginning is called for.

James Alan Pilant

The Search Continues for Victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

On By southwerkIn Capitalism, Government Failure, Opinion

(A picture from the work, “The Boys’ Book of Battle-Lyrics.)

While the current regime claims we focus too much on the history of slavery, in Oklahoma, the City of Tulsa is continuing its efforts to find the bodies of victims of racial violence.

https://www.kosu.org/local-news/2025-10-15/more-tulsa-race-massacre-victims-could-be-found-as-city-begins-fifth-grave-excavation

It’s an effort that could take weeks, Mayor Monroe Nichols said during a press conference at City Hall. Forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield and archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck joined Nichols as he gave an update on the city’s progress.

“This groundbreaking work from our archaeological and genealogy teams is a great mark of success and it tells us where we are, certainly in the right place and on the right track,” Nichols said. “The latest report from the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey gave us very detailed information as to what we believe we have left at the Oaklawn Cemetery.”

The destruction of “Black Wall Street” and the deaths of so many of our black citizens deserve remembrance. That such horrors happened are matters of fact and history which we ignore at our peril.

A free and great people does not fear its history. It embraces its past with a willingness to change and improve.

Ethics and Morality demand that we remember the crimes and mistakes of the past in the hope that we are now a better people who have found a better moral compass and a greater responsibility toward our fellow human beings.

Let us pay attention to the great words of one of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln:

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentiment to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride; how consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral worlds within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

Lincoln didn’t just talk about having more money but assumed that social and political health were also of great importance. He could not have spoken truer words. While we live in an age of the most disgusting and degrading money grubbing and corruption, he calls us to be a great people with an unwavering committment to doing what is right.

James Alan Pilant

Work-Life Balance is a Real and Vital Concept

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Government Failure

(Presumably over the last dime of profit just like our tech bros.)

Billionaire bosses scoff at the concept of work life balance. Squeezing every conceivable sacrifice from the pitiful workers they exploit mercilessly is embedded in their DNA. The cruelty is the purpose. The cruelty is to instill fear and obedience in their worker drones.

You might say, “James, you don’t seem to like them very much?”

“No, I don’t.”

And I will tell you why. These individuals with their enormous wealth larger than most of the world’s nations’ annual budgets have it in their power to make their workplaces worker friendly, a paradise and continuing benefit to the nation. They could provide day care, scholarships, travel and most importantly, a guarantee of employment as a reward for loyalty. Instead they impose pain and hardship as a means of getting every last dime even thought they have billions upon billions of those “last dimes.”

When I was a young man I read a lot of history. I still do. There is the story of George Pullman. He created the Pullman Car. It is a train car that allows passengers to travel in comfort and sleep while traveling. He made many millions of dollars. Like today’s billionaire bosses, he wanted every last dime. So, he built a “model community” for his workers where they had to live and where every action and every expenditure could be controlled. A horrible cruel dictatorships that demanded moment by moment obedience punishable by immediate dismissal for any failure. He could have built a paradise just like our beyond all human understanding levels of greedy tech bros could but they won’t.

I think they relish the power. The idea of doing good of doing what is right is repugnant to their openly fascist belief systems. They take and they take and they take — and that is all the rationale they need. They want and have created a nationwide atmosphere of fear to keep wages and worker demands low. And in case, we forget for a moment their power they sail their yachts before us, fly their planes above us and buy our politicians cheap.

Am I wrong?? Show me the kindness of these men. Show me at any time where their workers were a priority. Show me.

We should expect more of the wealthy. We should expect more of Americans. We all have duties to each other as citizens and as members of human kind.

It is painful to write about business ethics when the prevailing mood in the business world is crass exploitation.

And I’ll tell you something else. Right now in the halls of power both in business and government, the idea of obeying the law is greeted with merriment and scorn.

But verily, verily I say unto you, they have their reward and it may well be coming sooner than they think.

James Alan Pilant

What Power Does Art Have In a Time of Crisis?

On By southwerkIn code of ethics, Editorial, ethics

I found this article online at the Sojourner’s web site. It is called: Can Poems Push Christians to Stop the Suffering in Gaza? The article is written by Ryan Duncan.

The article discusses a book of poetry and its author and what this use of art does. You might say, when we read this we are discussing the power of language and in particular, the power of poetic language.

Below is a link to the story and a short but effective quote.

https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/can-poems-push-christians-stop-suffering-gaza

After reading Forest of Noise, it becomes apparent why Abu Toha’s public appearances are often marked by moments of sorrow and anger. In one MSNBC interview following his Pulitzer win, Abu Toha fell into a tense back-and-forth with journalist Catherine Rampell when she pointed to some of his social media posts and suggested he was questioning the status of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.

“I’ve never denied anyone’s suffering,” Abu Toha remarked sharply, “I know that everyone is suffering, Israelis and Palestinians, but why are our sufferings not acknowledged? Why are we called terrorists? Why are we called prisoners of war while the Israelis who were kidnapped from Israel are named hostages? Does this give them more humanity, because they are Israeli, while my loved ones are being named prisoners and they are tortured?”

Why indeed. 

It’s a pretty piece of writing and I hope you read the whole article.

Now for my take on this.

We live in a period in the United States where words have been weaponized. Our current regime’s leader will reach thirty thousand documented lies in just a week or so. In addition, he has made insults a standard part of his particular brand. He likes “Low IQ,” “Communist,” Marxist”, etc. His pitiful flock hangs on every insult, every lie and every appeal to their lowest and most base instincts like hogs wallowing in mud and excrement squealing in delight.

But words don’t have to be evil and wretched to have power. How about these:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

“By sun and candle-light” is a very pretty little phrase. Words can exalt. Words can heal. And yes, words can heal and guide us.

Let’s try some healing works from history. This is Lincoln’s first inaugural address.

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Good words. Our current’s regime’s leader is incapable of forming those kinds of sentences, of attempting to unite the American people in love and common purpose.

But we can work to make this a united and great nation in spite of our lack of competent, intelligent and spiritual leadership. We can find our own words. America is full of great words and great thoughts.

Try these:

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Even before this current set of horrors we must endure end and even before our suffering is assuaged, we can still find the great and healing words here in America, in many ways more of a dream and an aspiration.

Let us remember what we are as a nation in our highest and strongest longing.

James Alan Pilant

Meaningful Prayer

On By southwerkIn ethics, morality, Opinion

Often on Facebook, I am asked to pray for a number of causes, often a pet or family member, sometimes a cause. I usually comply. When someone or a pet is ill, I would very much like them to get better.

Those prayers are private and I hope they do some good. But you and I both know that much public religion is little more than grandstanding. And here in the United States, many politicians wish the mantle of Christianity. We often, very often, see them fail to uphold the behavior of a follower of Christ.

The Pharisees are one of the earliest practitioners of the “public” prayer. They would go out on the street and pray publicly and loudly to demonstrate their piety. Jesus Christ called them out for their false religion and said they would have their “reward.”

But we have in our modern age, “Thoughts and Prayers.” This is a media strategy to divert criticism from a total and complete lack of action most often in regard to firearms. While children are being stacked up by so much bullet riddled cord wood, the solemn intonation that they have the thoughts and prayers of a prime recipient of National Rifle Association votes and money are solemnly reported by a compliant media.

Do the children, dead and wounded, deserve prayer? Yes, absolutely. What kind of prayer? Why don’t we see what a professional says?

Pope Leo XIV called for the “pandemic of arms, large and small” to end during a weekly public prayer with crowds in St Peter’s Square on Sunday that also addressed the plague of mass shootings in the US.

The first US pope in history, a native of Chicago, spoke in English as he prayed for the victims of last week’s shooting during a Catholic school mass in Minnesota which saw two children killed and others seriously injured.

“Our prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school mass in the American state of Minnesota,” he said. “We hold in our prayers the countless children killed and injured every day around the world. Let us plead God to stop the pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world.”

Michael Sainato writing for the Guardian reports in an article entitled (and quoted from just above this passage) Pope Leo demands end to ‘pandemic of arms’ after Minnesota school shooting

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/pope-leo-minnesota-school-shooting

The Pontiff didn’t just offer “Thoughts and Prayers,” he addressed the root cause of all these small dead bodies. He’s calling for action, constructive and intelligent action to stop this kind of violence.

Let me explain about meaningful prayer. If you want children to be fed and they are nearby – like outside your door, feed them. Prayers is just spoken nonsense when you know what needs to be done and you don’t do it.

Prayer is never to be used as an excuse or substitute for action. We are justified in the eyes of God by what we do or fail to do. Your faith in God is demonstrated by works. What you do shows what is in your heart.

And using “thoughts and prayers” as political cover is horribly impious and wrong.
James Alan Pilant

What Comes After Trump?

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism, Economic Justice

(The Great Seal of the United States is a public domain image.)

Several articles have been written about what comes after the current regime ends. One recommended that we create a “truth and reconciliation commission” in the manner of South Africa to restore civility and union. I deeply appreciate the sentiment but I do not believe that is possible in the United States, not any more. Another one I read called for mass prosecutions and prison sentences for the massive fraud, self-dealing, and law breaking that is a daily part of our news perpetrated by this administration and its sympathizers. That is very likely to happen and I expect it will happen.

Before I write any further, I want to make it clear that I do not believe that victory over these neofascists and their dim-witted followers is in any way guaranteed. I have to admit there are days when I think they just can’t be stopped. The lies, the impudence, the confidence and their unrelenting attitude of righteousness would cause all the saints of history to lose their composure. Some days it certainly ruins mine.

But let us assume for a few moments of optimism that we, the good guys, prevail over this scum. We know that we must act whenever and wherever possible to protest and throw barriers in the way of this regime. But let us talk just now of what comes after victory, after Trump is done, perhaps condemned and imprisoned.

I have been reading a book pictured below, a picture which I have borrowed from the internet. I believe this is okay under a fair use exception and since I am mentioning both that I read it and recommend that others buy it and read it, that I may perhaps be forgiven for using it.

This book by Daniel Todman is a very detailed history of Britain at war before the entry of the United States.

Why mention it here? Because just after the British had stopped the Germans from gaining air superiority over England, a number of people from the labor party as well as a group of the intelligentsia began to agitate for and develop a plan for after victory.

And that plan was very largely enacted and put in place when victory was won.

Can you imagine?

Great Britain stands alone. They are being bombed nightly by the Luftwaffe. Hitler has not yet invaded the Soviet Union and the United States seems to see no urgency in joining the conflict. And yet they assumed eventual victory. They had faith. I wish I had that kind of faith now. I wish we all did.

But in any case, what their example shows is that planning for after the struggle is vital and every bit as important as the struggle itself. There must not only be a cause worth fighting for but a set of goals to be achieved, a further set of purposes beyond simply prevailing.

I have some simple suggestions. But I want you to know that I am going to research and think about what is possible and what can achieved, so I may very well return to the topic on multiple occasions.

But here goes –

  1. Fix the mess at the Supreme Court. Add six justices, impose term limits and a code of ethics – it has to be fixed.
  2. Raise the minimum wage.
  3. Universal Health Care, it’s time.
  4. The end of the Imperial Presidency, a comprehensive set of laws and perhaps a couple of constitutional amendments to prevent this kind of power grab from ever happening again.
  5. A complete overhaul of campaign law and among many other things no dark money ever again.
  6. A National Guaranteed enforceable right to vote. No more of this gerrymandering nonsense.
  7. A graduated income tax
  8. Free college education
  9. Free vocational training
  10. And as 8. and 9. imply, a national never ending focus on the development of human capital in American.
  11. We should be building a society devoted to the development of each individual so they they can live a full life of achievement.

At least, that is my poor opinion about what is necessary.

I am going to write about this more at length.

You may share your thought if you wish, but I have approval on all comments so post accordigly.

James Pilant

Why We Fight – Civilization

On By southwerkIn moral philosophy, morality

What is worth the struggle? Why should we fight for what is right and oppose what is wrong?

Civilization is one of the values that form our rationale to practice business ethics.

What do we mean by civilization? And more particularly, the unique creation, American Civilization?

Let’s start with one man, Jack Benny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od92sWRELSc&ab_channel=BuckBenny

He is famous for many reasons among them his self-deprecating humor, his creation of the television situation comedy and immense continuous charity work. I learned studying his career that when it came to comedy, he was very learned when it came to his craft and he discussed the books and authors he valued as a comedian.

He started in vaudeville and renamed himself so as not be branded as a Jewish comedian, a dangerous thing in that now far off era. His family like so many today were immigrants. His father came to the United States from Poland and his mother from Lithuania.  

Civilization manifests in many ways. Benny was a comedian who drew upon the earlier currents of American writing for ideas. He started on the stage in vaudeville but as technology developed he became a success in radio and films. And then when television became a reality he became a huge success there as well once again adapting to a new medium.

Cultures are enriched propelled by infusions of not just new ideas but the thoughts and customs of other and older cultures.

Benny was born in the United States but his ancestry combined elements of Polish and Ukrainian backgrounds. And, of course, he was Jewish, a considerable handicap at a time when Jews were often thought of as subversives and criminals particularly prone to organized crime.

Ideas develop and spread through cultural mediums like Vaudeville. I live in a small Oklahoma town, yet the local historians tell me there were no fewer than three theaters where entertainers plied their craft. They sang, they danced and told jokes. There were dog acts and family acts and old-fashioned melodrama.

I live in an apartment building which was once a hotel just off the rail line and here Vaudevillians stayed. Jack Benny, George and Gracie Burns and countless other famous entertainers may very well have occupied the same space I live in now.

Of course, those cultural mediums evolve and change.  Vaudeville is now regional and little theatre. And our main cultural impetus may well be social media and streaming services.

We live in a river of ideas, cultures and peoples. Few nations have as much movement and excitement as the United States.

But our development is under threat from a foolish movement to create a white majority dominant theme, a movement that seeks to mute the differences that add value to our culture and remake all historical knowledge in the image of white cultural supremacy. And that is wrong and damaging.

It may seem harmless for conservatives to say that it is obvious that Santa Claus is white, to call a mixed race woman, Pocahantas, to ridicule her very real cultural background, to claim a non-existent “War on Christmas,” but these are all techniques to push the idea of a single culture without development or nuance that makes the doddering elderly and the foolish feel comfortable in their prejudices and cultural poverty.

It is important and right that we appreciate and cultivate our developing civilization. It is vital that we actively oppose attempts to limit cultural development like book banning and limits on what can be taught and discussed in the classroom.

Virtually every cultural element of our lives has come under attack at one point or another. Look at the history of Ragtime, Jazz, Rock and Roll and even Country music. Virtually every kind of book and publication has been assaulted by the right wing media machine at one time or another. Motion pictures once had to submit to a code that pretended that all crimes were punished, that all marriages were forever and that single people were always chaste. They pretended that child abuse didn’t exist and that there was nothing but racial harmony in the United States. And now teachers, professors, colleges and universities are under organized assault because of what are obviously the needs and wants of a greedy and prejudiced white majority.

It is more important to speak and live the truth than to engage with a fantasy of what life should be.

It is more important to understand and appreciate the people of this nation and their varied backgrounds and talents. It is a wonderful truth, a wonderful reality, a powerful and motivating history that continues to build.

We live in a nation that has been and continues to come to grips with its racist past and now the present. We live in a nation that ever more thinks in terms of the varied cultures that thrive within it. We live in a nation where free inquiry and scientific methods have produced a massive amount of profit and technological change.

That is a lot to be proud of and it gives me some comfort to think that the strength of those currents may well survive our current regime.

James Alan Pilant  

What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis? Part 5.

On By southwerkIn business ethics
(This picture of the Liberty Bell is borrowed from Wikipedia with my thanks!!)

Embrace Your Rage!

You have decided to resist the current regime.

One of the strangest things that I continually encounter is that we must be civil, kind and forgiving of our opponents.

Not only that, but we must also be careful not to exaggerate the threat. We are told over and over again that such “exaggerations” play into the hands of our enemies.

And so instead of saying that a man who tried to violently overthrow the government was a threat to democracy, we should admit that there are two sides to the argument and spend endless hours on television news shows interviewing his devoted followers in the hope of understanding their grievances.

No more. I’m not interested in their point of view. They are violent, foolish and a threat to American democracy. That is all the analysis I need. It is all the analysis you need.

And yet I look on my internet feed and I see people who voted for the new regime who lost their jobs or their homes and their businesses and now they are sorry. They are on podcasts and network news and many other places. I don’t care and no one should.

It took a massive amount of moral and ethical indifference to vote for the current president. They wanted to “shake up” the system. They wanted to “own the libs.” They did this to themselves with their indolence and stupidity. Victims of this regime deserve sympathy, not the enablers and cheerleaders of the regime. Their just reward is what is happening and what will happen.

Our intelligentsia, our ruling class and business executives across America have walked us into the hands of a lunatic and his barely rational associates. The intelligentsia assured us that at all times our words must be measured and academic. Our ruling class is almost completely absent even the tiniest shred of moral authority or for that matter any interest in any form of morality of any kind as long as they are protected from the great unwashed masses. And above all, you have to admire the complete absence of intelligence and judgment in our business class who signed on with a madman in the hope of a crypto profit bonanza and a juicy tax cut.

If you feel that the nation that you love is being devoured by a deranged lumpen pile of carnivorous maggots, you are not alone. And it is not surprising that you feel enraged about it.

You are entitled to your anger. 

Be enraged. Every day a band of foolish narcissistic clowns is making policy for the United States. What has been called the “Cradle of Liberty,” a great powerful and respected nation now appears as international source of humor, ridicule and satire. Everywhere we are pitied and the absence of what we were is lamented.  

Any good, God fearing, patriot would be angry.

Our enemies are rejoicing and our friends planning on a world without us.

Yes, you are entitled to your rage.  

We must act.

We must resolve to never allow these neo-fascist goons access to our government and its powers.

We must resolve never to allow the foreign nations that hate and fear us access to our elections.

We must resolve to end the corrosive influence of money in our elections and restore the power of the American voter.

We must resolve to end forever the revolting, rotting sewer pit of social media that poisons every aspect of our lives.

We must resolve to live our lives with wisdom, resolve and righteousness while facing the incoherent ravings of madmen and fools, knowing that this will be hardest of all.

God bless you for your willingness to join the cause of freedom and liberty. God bless you for courage and bravery. And God bless you for continuing the creation of democracy for our generation and all generations that follow.

A Very Bad Neighbor or When Fire Chiefs Go Wrong

On By southwerkIn business ethics
The wrong way to deal with neighbor.
New Jersey fire chief vandalizes neighbor’s rare car with rocks — and it was caught on video

Business ethics demands that a human being behave as a person of reason not subject to outbursts of rage or radical responses. This act caught on camera, a very foolish act, is a failure of behavior and judgment. It is also a moral and ethical failure for which there must be penalties. As of the current date I am writing this, charges have been filed and I suspect there will be a civil suit as well.

We live in a civil society. We have an opportunity every day to reject the law of the jungle and live as brothers and sisters, joint citizens of a nation and a community.

Disputes don’t have to escalate to violence or the destruction of property. I taught for many years. One of my subjects was business law. I told a story of a very large company. They had a minor dispute over the boundary line between a huge factory and a home owner. The leadership of the company handed the problem off to the legal department who filed a lawsuit. I explained that was probably going to happen every single time you handed the problem off to legal. Let me explain.

“What should you have done in the CEO’s position?” I asked. And then I had to explain because they thought what was done was okay. “How about simply asking the neighbor, the home owner, if the problem could be settled by an agreement?” Now, maybe it couldn’t and we wind up in court anyway. But I believe most of the time that minor property disputes should remain minor disputes and not major legal cases that can last for years and cost a lot of money. Besides, why not act as a good neighbor and in fact, be a good neighbor. We don’t have to go to war over every dispute.

The man above did not act as a good neighbor. The acts we see on camera are those of a pathetic fool. I bet he thinks of himself as an “alpha” male and had a lot of laughs with his buddies over the thousands of dollars worth of damages he did to the neighbor’s car. Just another bully. They are a dime a dozen, strutting their pretend machismo. We see a lot of them these days.

There is a better way. Be a good neighbor. Behave as a good member of your religion if you have one. But above all remember you have a duty to act as a lady or a gentleman is all circumstances.

James Alan Pilant

Royal Nonsense.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

By Jr JL – This file was derived from: Duchy of Lancaster-coa.png:, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39911069 —- This was found on wikipedia and I gratefully acknowledge their kindness in letting me borrow the image. As you can see I have quoted in full the attribution they wished attached. JP

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68882308

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/24/royals-william-kate-camilla-honours-monarchy-archaic

Recently, the King of England has decided in his infinite wisdom to hand out honors. Awarding honors to the deserving is an important function of all mature and intelligent societies. We wish to encourage and recognize acts of bravery, benevolence and sacrifice.

In the course of human events, many are called to heroic deeds. An examination of the news over a period of a few days will disclose people who selflessly risked their lives. For instance, just last week a teacher, Darrell Campbell, at Amman Valley School in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, responded to a stabbing in which three people were injured and wrestled the knife away from the attacker and then subdued the attacker. That is courage worthy of recognition and honor. (The news story is linked to below.)

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/12540784/major-incident-ammanford-school-police

But the King’s ceremony and the award of honors wasn’t for him. You see, the King realized that he knew very well who was deserving of honor and recognition in the name of all that is royal in the realm of Great Britain. The honors were awarded to his wife, Camilla; his son, William; and his son’s wife, Kate.

(From the article:)

Prince William becomes Great Master of the Order of the Bath. Catherine is now a Companion of Honour, which recognises achievement in arts, medicine, sciences and public service. And the Queen becomes the Grand Master of the Order of the British Empire, once held by the King’s father, Prince Philip, and grandfather George VI.

So, the King decided that while there were undoubtedly thousands of people who deserved honors for the great deeds, it was his wife, son and daughter in law, who merited these attentions. As Mel Brooks announced with great joy in “History of the World, Part One,” — “It is good to be the King.”

Apparently it is also very good to be married to or be an offspring of the King, because the money, the property and honors never stop flowing like an endless stream of benefits paid for by someone else.

Great Britain is similar to the United States in some ways, a semi-common language and some customs. However, the founding fathers directly placed in the Constitution a prohibition against this kind of thing. To quote from the United States Constitution:

Clause 8 Titles of Nobility and Foreign Emoluments No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

And so we don’t in general have this kind of nonsense. And God be praised that we don’t.

We now live in the 21st Century and the idea that there are Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses is a relic of an illiterate, ignorant and moronic age, an age where people actually believed that God had ordained some people to be rulers, not on the basis of any moral or mental quality but simply by accident of birth.

Darrell Campbell, an actual hero, is far more representative of the greatness embodied in the British people than any of these bejeweled fops lauded daily in the press and possessed of incredible wealth and influence taken from the people of the empire. In any society with a shred of dignity or intelligence or judgment, it is he who should stand before the nation and be given honors for his deeds.

It is time for us, all of us, to stop paying attention to these silly royals who have stuff just because of who their parents were.

We should be valued by our own merits as demonstrated in our own lives because that is what is just, and true — and, indeed, worthy of honor.