Weather, wives and liberal politics

Bloggers sometimes wonder about whether people read their stuff. For me, the question was resolved the other night when a friend I’d not seen in months asked why I’d not written anything since August. While I was honored by his observation, his question reminded me that I should be posting more often.

The first thing I’d like to talk about this morning is my politician wife. It’s 7 a.m. and this lady is on her way out the door to go to work. It’s snowing outside and there will be 19 miles of rural roads to travel before she arrives at her Cripple Creek office. That’s 38 miles a day, five days a week, for the last 18 years, in all kinds of weather. Not bad for someone her age.

Connie promised to do her best when she was elected almost 20 years ago. She ran for the right reason -- she felt taxpayers deserved more from their elected officials; she also thought she could do a better job than her predecessor. She will leave office two years from now secure in the knowledge that she’s served with competency and integrity.

That’s more than can be said about the Rev. Donald Armstrong, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs, where I worshipped for 15 years before becoming a Roman Catholic. A vestry chaired by a Springs banker hired Armstrong some 22 years ago. Today, personnel resignations, a split in the congregation, and allegations of financial impropriety will tarnish whatever reputation Armstrong had when he arrived here.

Media reports say Armstrong and the vestry voted to join an Anglican diocese based in Nigeria because the American church had become “too liberal and gay-friendly.” The vote came as a surprise to parishioners who knew nothing about the plans. They also didn’t know the diocese was investigating Armstrong for what it called the "misappropriation" of thousands of dollars from dedicated church funds, and that the rector had used parishioner money to support a non-church institute which he headed.

The congregation essentially split down the middle, with half the people, one priest and most of the choir leaving to worship elsewhere. However, this group remained loyal to the Episcopal faith and has filed suit to reclaim the venerable church building they say belongs to the diocese.

Being Catholic and without a vested interest in what happened, I stayed out of the line of fire. Prior to the split, however, and as a long-time member of the church’s Taylor Choir, Armstrong asked me to serve on a search committee to hire a replacement for an organist/choirmaster who resigned suddenly taking his retirement funds with him.

The committee recommended, and Armstrong approved, hiring Gordon Stewart, a concert organist from the UK, to rebuild what Armstrong called the church's "choral magnificence.” It didn’t take Stewart long to discover there was no money for music. He also found out about the diocesan investigation, which, until then, only the vestry and office insiders knew about.

Stewart resigned and went back to England. His assistant remained and helped choir members move music and new robes (previously bought by a choir member) to a new location. From the musicians' standpoint, an era of musical excellence going back to the 1940s had ended.

But time moves on and so do we. Barack Obama will soon to become the country's Dear Leader. Whatever change he brings had better leave this country as safe as when he found it. The terrorists are still around and he knows it. One 9/11-type attack and BHO will be toast. The media will still fawn over him, but people won’t.

That’s what makes this country great. We grew tired of George Bush, corrupt Republicans and outrageous Congressional spending programs. We figured if Republicans were going to act like Democrats we might as well vote for Democrats. And we did.

But we’ll vote Republican the next time around if Democrats don’t (as Bush might say) do what’s right. Voters instinctively know what’s right already and they’ll hold Obama’s feet to the fire if he goes too far astray. I can promise that if Democrats dink around with free enterprise they’ll be on the outside looking in four years from now.

My bet is Obama’s campaign rhetoric was just that – rhetoric. Now that security professionals are telling him what he needs to know, he’s singing a different tune. He’s backing off on closing Gitmo immediately and also on his pledge to end the Iraq war before the country is ready to be turned over to Iraqis.

But Obama is a liberal and there will be new social programs and higher taxes to support them. The government will print more money to pay for his recovery programs, and that will leave the country deeper in debt than we could have imagined. These chickens will come home to roost in 2010 and 2012 and, depending on how quickly the economy recovers, it might be a good time to be Republican again.

That concludes my catching up for now. I thank my friend James for pointing out how lax I’ve been in posting regularly. I’ll try to do better in the future.