It's ugly all over

 I have a kayak trip planned for later today and will be on the road tomorrow for most of the day.  I planned the paddle for today because it's supposed to be HOT here.  Hot here is in the mid 80s, but 40 miles inland the temps go up about 15-20 degrees.  It's not cloudy today.  But, brother, is it smoky today.  The east winds my Utah peeps are experiencing are blowing smoke to the coast and when I woke up this morning, it smelled like a campfire in the house.

Fire, wind, early snow, you name it, and the West has it.  California is on fire.  There was a fire just North of Florence last week.  I saw it when I went to Eugene last week.  I have to do that periodically just because that's where the big stores are.

I'm gonna have a house full of people for the weekend.  I'm good with that.  We could have 24 and all eat off the same dishes using matching silver.  I like that my house is set up to entertain.  I do enjoy it.  

I made a friend here, finally.  I met a nice lady at my church and I'm starting to fit in at my church.  I went to a country gospel jamboree thing they had.  I had a hard time with the guest singer, though.  She was all about the patriotism thing.  I'm all about the patriotism thing too, but I think you can love America and raise a little hell about the status-quo and that makes you every bit as patriotic as the guys who dumped tea in the harbor.

We forget that rabble-rousers started this country.  They're often the ones who invoke change.  Think about this:  Women weren't allowed to vote until about 100 years ago.  I'm not condoning violence or destruction of property at all.  But sometimes, ya gotta get into some "good trouble" to fix the broken stuff in our country.

The other problem I have with patriotism at church is the fact that for a long, long time, the church in America has been part of the problem.  If you think I'm wrong, then trundle yourself down to Ogden SECOND Baptist church one Sunday morning.  I've been blessed to worship there once, but there were some that were as uncomfortable with me being there as I kind of felt going there.  But black churches still exist and it's 2020.

There are Latino churches too, but I think a language barrier sometimes contributes to that.  

Maybe that's something I need to get over.  I have God Bless America plates because I love this country.  I think God has blessed us far more than we deserve.  This is a wonderful land and we've done not a wonderful job of America the ideal.  We want God to heal our land (pray that He does!) but do we cry out at injustice?  I'm finding myself doing that more and more these days.  

Because I know race is still an issue.  I think Fascism is starting to take hold, too.  Someone used the words "cult leader" and I'm starting to think it would explain a lot.  I'm listening to the warnings from those that have extracted themselves from that way of thinking.  They're saying more about what the dangers are to the Republic than they're being given credit for.  They're not fake news.  

So how does that play into patriotism?  Wrapping oneself in the flag and pining for whatever version of America was when you were young isn't going to solve today's issues.  We should, and must, do more.  We've got to pray for our country.  Pray for unity.  Pray for a way forward. And understand why someone would "take a knee" during the national Anthem to peacefully bring to attention that your version of America might be largely different than someone else's.

I'm happy there are patriotic people.  I think we should respect our flag.  I think though, that on top of respecting our flag, let's be people our flag would be proud to represent.