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Imagining a Vain Thing

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During the Vietnam War, former Beatle John Lennon penned an ode to atheism that is annoyingly catchy and still ubiquitous.You can hear “Imagine” while walking down a grocery aisle, over the radio, or, as has been the custom since 2005, in New York City just before the ball drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

One leftwing activist, Kevin Powell, wants to replace the “Star-Spangled Banner” with “Imagine” as our national anthem.  He made the suggestion after rioters in San Francisco toppled a statue of Francis Scott Key.

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too

ImagineWe don’t have to imagine what life would be without hope in Heaven, a nation of laws to secure life, civil rights and property, or faith in God to keep people from worshiping the state, themselves or other idols.

It would be Hell.  Psalm 2 begins by asking, “Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?”

It’s been in front of us ever since protests of George Floyd‘s killing on May 25 morphed into a violent revolution and societal cleansing worthy of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

In Seattle’s downtown, we saw a government-supported experiment in madness, triggered by the “Imagine” mentality and exploited by ruthless Marxists.

On June 8, they created an “autonomous” zone eventually called CHOP (Capitol Hill Organized Protest), and expelled the police.  The hapless residents had none of the safeguards we take for granted in a free republic, such as courts of law, rules of evidence, trial by jury of one’s peers, sanctions for intimidating witnesses, or the freedoms of speech, religion and press. Anyone not toeing the Black Lives Matter line was assaulted and silenced.

This was an urban version of “Lord of the Flies,” with rapes, robberies, looting, businesses destroyed, beatings and shootings. The police were ordered to stay out as Democrat Mayor Jenny Durkan joked about this being the “Summer of Love.” Two black teen-agers were slain, one of whom was only 16.

It was only after her own house was spray painted and the 16-year-old was gunned down that she “woke” to the cost of anarchy and ordered police back to secure the area this past Wednesday. By then, crime had soared 525 percent over the same period last year.

Likewise, in progressive Minneapolis, where mobs burned a police station and rioted for weeks after Mr. Floyd’s death, the city council voted unanimously to dissolve the police department. Three council members obtained private security at a cost of $4,500 to the taxpayers whom they had left to the mob’s mercies.

So it goes in Democrat-run cities, where police are maligned and defunded, crime is skyrocketing, and Black Lives Matter (BLM) has become a quasi-religion.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, an outspoken Marxist and ally of communist ingenue U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), disbanded the plainclothes division and cut $1 billion from the NYPD budget.

Gotham used to be one of the safest big cities following the Giuliani administration’s adoption of “broken windows” policing of even minor offenses. Not anymore, with 500 shootings since the New Year, including 55 last week alone.

In Chicago, more than a dozen people, nearly all black, were murdered every weekend in June. At least 541 people were shot, more than double the number in June 2019.

Imagine all the people
Livin’ for today
Aaa haa
Imagine all the people
Livin’ life in peace

To Black Lives Matter and Antifa, we can live in peace all right – so long as we genuflect to them, acquiesce in our history being torn down, and watch as countless public figures and institutions parrot their libel of a uniquely evil America.

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
and the world will live as one

In his later years, even John Lennon may have reassessed the foolish sentiments in “Imagine.”

In his last interview, published in 1981, he said, “I’m a most religious fellow. I was brought up a Christian and I only now understand some of the things that Christ was saying in those parables. Because people got hooked on the teacher and missed the message.”

Close, but no cigar. Jesus IS the message. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

Still, it’s intriguing to consider an older, wiser Lennon.  His personal assistant, Fred Seaman, recalled that Lennon “was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he’d been when he wrote ‘Imagine.’ By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy’s naivete.”

Mr. Seaman told filmmaker Seth Swirsky in “Beatles Stories” (2011), that, “John basically made it very clear that if he were an American, he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on Jimmy Carter.”

If he were alive today, would Mr. Lennon be appalled by the violence and communist kleptocrats and vote to Keep America Great?

We can only imagine.

Robert Knight’s latest book is “The Coming Communist Wave:  What Happens If the Left Captures All Three Branches of Government”

This article was originally published at WashingtonTimes.com.



Kneeling Down for Our Anthem is Standing Down on Our Responsibility

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Written by Joe Paschen

One could make the argument that the most important documents of the United States, hailing it as the most unique and blessed nation in the world, are The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

However, most Americans are more familiar with and can recite our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. A musical essay of words that reminds us of the love Americans have for this unique country.

The author of those words was Francis Scott Key, a gifted amateur poet and a professional attorney hired to negotiate the release of an American civilian imprisoned by the British at Fort McHenry, that fateful second week of September in 1814, during what many historians refer to as the “Second War of Independence.”

The poem was written while he was stranded on a ship in Chesapeake Bay, witnessing the lengthy British bombardment of the American fort and those defending it.

Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner out of the emotions that welled up from seeing Americans being unjustifiably persecuted, and with every ounce of strength they had, rise up and fight for their freedom and their God-given rights. They knew what was at stake! They stood up and fought back against unsurmountable odds.

They didn’t take a knee.

We stand when The Star Spangled Banner is played because of the freedoms and rights our country offers, but more importantly, we stand to honor those who gave their lives to defend those rights and keep those freedoms intact.

Are we a perfect nation? No! But as important as it is to protect the right to peacefully protest problems that exist in our society, it is equally important to recognize that as others offend us, they lose the opportunity to find solutions to those very problems.

Commissioners and owners of pro sports teams have let this politically incorrect protest spiral out of control.

It is like a parent letting the kids run the house, or animals run the zoo, or yes, inmates run the prison, as Houston Texans owner Robert McNair was quoted as saying recently.

There is a time and place for bringing forth issues in our country that could be improved.

Protesting disapproval is taking a stand, not a knee.

The platform given to those very blessed performers, athletes and politicians comes with an unwritten humble expectation. Do Your Job! Protesting concerns on your own time is on you. Dividing a nation should not be one of those activities.

Some columnists have criticized the use of the National Anthem prior to games as a tool to protest and divide and thus shouldn’t be a part of a sports event.

But where have you ever gone, or ever seen, over a few minutes when small groups (youth sports) and very large groups (college and pro stadiums) of people stand together to honor one nation under God?

The National Anthem above all other poems, songs, documents or moments in American history has stood the test of time as a unifier, not a divider.

That’s exactly why it should be played, to remind us to stand in a unifying moment and remember we live in the greatest country in the world.

You want to protest? Use your First Amendment rights to peacefully protest your concerns. You’re an athlete who makes millions per year? Organize a group that agrees with you. Millions of people before you have fought and died for you to have that right.

David Hildebrand, the director of the Colonial Music Institute has studied the words of The Star Spangled Banner for years.

He calls the lyrics from Mr. Key, a modest churchman, a hymn of redemption. “It’s a hymn of, ‘We’ve been saved! The fact I can see the flag means the fort has not been taken.’ It’s the ultimate statement of relief with a capital R, and that emotion gives the song a really strong appeal.”

In the fourth and final stanza of the finished anthem, Key writes, “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto- “In God is our Trust.””

Joe Paschen is a born again Christian husband, father of 7, USMC veteran (1973-75), free-lance broadcast-journalist for over 40 years (who has covered all amateur and pro levels of sports), a researcher of history and a veteran bartender for over 40 years.

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