How did Lincoln see the Civil War? As the war went on and the lists of dead and maimed grew beyond what anybody thought possible, he came to see it as a blood sacrifice demanded by the god he worshiped, the God of the Israelites, of Abraham and Isaac.
Slavery, he concluded, was a sin so abominable, and we had gone on with it so long, that normal acts of penance couldn't wash it away. God demanded blood, and bodies. Think I´m all wet? Read or listen closely to the short speech at Gettysburg.
Fast forward to America´s second great sin. It began at Hiroshima, exactly 69 years ago next Wednesday. And we´ve obstinately clung to our god of war way too long. Like slavery, the war machine will destroy us if we don´t pull it out by the roots.
Maybe, as Nietzsche once wrote, God is dead. But the fact is, Nietzsche is dead, and if there is a god, he, she, or it will require a sacrifice.
Think of it like you would an amputation. Why amputate a limb? To save a life, obviously.
And by the way Ron, guess what flag I fly in front of my house? It might surprise you. Oh, and I tried to read Saul Alinsky once, cause wingnuts kept telling me I´m a disciple. He was a crashing bore, and not radical in the least.
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