On the short drive to mass this morning, I heard the radio host ranting about the on-going vote counts. “The government bragged that voting was now better. This is better,” she raved, “waiting for days to know what happened?” I smiled as thoughts came to me of another close election.
It was 1960 and John Kennedy, a Catholic, was running for president. It was a close race and, as I recall, I even spoke over my Catholic high school’s PA system after morning prayers, urging my high school’s students to get their parents out to vote for Kennedy. “A Catholic president will be so wonderful.” I was so young and naive. (When my dad wasn’t looking, I even put a Democratic Kennedy sticker on his car bumper.) The election night vote counting was taking a long time then also. The election was so close that finally all the counts and projections came down to just one state’s votes, which would decide the presidential winner. That state was Illinois, where I lived. The final tally was late in coming from the city of Chicago. Finally, it was announced that Kennedy had won the state, and the election, by 18,000 votes. I was so excited, and it was all we talked about at school the next day. But then I calmed down and began thinking. Until the vote count from every city in Illinois was known, Chicago seemed unable to complete its count. Then, knowing what was needed to win, the grand total from Chicago came in and had Kennedy winning. In reflecting on what happened, I and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE in the state of Illinois, knew that 18,000 dead people had voted that night in the city of Chicago. Everyone knew how Mayor Richard Daley ran the city of Chicago, and what he wanted done, was done. It’s the way it was.
It’s been over 60 years since then, but it feels as if nothing has changed.
On the short drive home from the church, I heard the same radio host commenting about Michigan’s passage of a new abortion “right” in the state constitution. Michigan now has the most liberal state-controlled abortion policies, perhaps only outdone by China and North Korea, and if necessary, the people of this state will pay for those abortions. The radio host noted that now the pro-life forces will have a different focus, as people from nearby more abortion-restrictive states will be encouraged to rush to Michigan for abortions. Undoubtedly, new abortion clinics will be built near the state borders. “We are going to need to erect signs along all the highways entering Michigan telling abortion-bound visitors the truth” --- which, apparently the majority of our state voters do not believe.
And the Bible tells us of how the pagans sacrificed their children for their gods. Nothing has changed here either --- except we, the faithful, have heard the Truth and believe Him. And now, if necessary, we must give our lives for that truth.
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Two of my nieces were to have arrived in Michigan for a visit from Arizona last Friday, but Friday morning I received a text telling me that they had cancelled. Their father had (what we now think was) a mini-stroke (TGI) Thursday night, and was totally disoriented. They rushed him to the ER, where tests were inconclusive, so they took him home. After a night’s sleep, he would seem better, but --- the next day the two nieces and their father all tested positive for Covid, perhaps the original cause of their father’s stroke. One niece had a severe headache and major sinus congestion. The other niece felt unable to sleep that night, and tested her blood oxygen level, which was very low. She was able to quickly go to an urgent care center, where fluid buildup was seen in her lungs, and heavy antibiotics and steroids proscribed. She was “lucky” she came in so quickly. After 24 hours she was much better, albeit both nieces still are weakened. I asked how she was able to test her oxygen level in the middle of the night, and my niece told me she had a couple of episodes of pneumonia, which weakened her lungs, so she bought the oxygen machine to do regular check-ups. Those pneumonias were very upsetting, I’m sure, but now it seems they may have saved her life.
Many bad things happen to us (and our country), but we need to bear with them; they happen for a reason. They are things beyond our control --- but not God’s. And we are alive in these days to assist Him.
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