A pastor’s musings on fatherhood, religion, life and everything

     Received an email from my dad yesterday informing me that Phil Riegle was basically elected Hancock County commissioner.  Checking the Findlay Courier's website, http://www.thecourier.com , my worst fears were confirmed that 4,265 people had sold their souls to the devil.  Without a Democratic or Independent challenger in the fall, he has all but won the county commissioner race.

     What are people thinking in Hancock County?  Obviously, 4,265 must not be doing a whole lot of it or they would have voted for someone, anyone else.  I mean who, except for his parents, would vote for a candidate who lives so far in the past that he thinks Jim Brown still plays professional football?  Reading through his website and tracts, err I mean flyers, it is not hard to figure out that he's afraid of the twenty-first century.  Re-establishing conservative, Republican leadership in Hancock County?  As if, the county is not conservative enough it must be re-established?  You've got to be kidding me, this is one of the most conservative counties in the whole state and perhaps, United States.

     So let's read between the lines a little and try to figure out what he's really saying in his propaganda.  Not so surprisingly to those of us who aren't Amish, it is 2006 or according to Riegle-ese, it is no longer the "good ole days."  Now I'm not really sure when these "good ole days," were supposed to have been but I assume he's talking about when white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, heterosexual men ruled the day.  A time when there was no reason for any one, much less a politician, to worry about women's issues because women couldn't vote.  The only rights that women had were the ones that their husbands gave them.  Abortion wasn't an issue then because men made all of the decisions for their wives.  The only thing women really had to worry about was whether to have beef or chicken for dinner.

     During the "good ole days," there weren't gays or lesbians it was a time when men were men and women were women.  A time when denial was not just a river in Egypt but played a big part in the lives of most people.  During this wonderful time in American history the only ones who could vote were white men.  If you weren't the color of mayonnaise, then I'm sorry but you couldn't vote.  It was a time when there was two of everything – one line for whities and one line for our African-American friends. (although they used different words then)

     It was a time when we were a "Christian" nation.  A person really only had to worry about whether they were a Baptist or a Lutheran and regardless of what you chose, you were convinced everyone else was going to hell.  It was a grand time for Christianity – a time when patriotism and religion were so close that they had a child and named him, Pat Robertson.  A time that still exists in Riegle-land.

     Choices were simple back then, it was either a or b.  There was no middle ground, there was no gray area.  Those were the good 'ole days.  A time that Hancock County is trying to get to by electing Phil Riegle as its commissioner, and it's going to get there even if it has to drag along the other 6694 who didn't vote for him.  But that's okay, it wouldn't be the first-time when people had to make a decision at the end of a sword.  So remember those of you who voted for Phil, stepping backwards to move forward makes progress a whole lot more difficult.