Florida

By Dean Baldwin

Florida might be one of the worst states in the union, in my opinion at least, and goodness knows I have plenty of opinions. I’m down here in Orlando visiting my older brother and sister for a couple weeks before I head back to my final semester of college. It has been nice, but it is still Florida. Here are some things that stink about this state:

• It is flat–no hills = ugly
• The grass is as smooth as sandpaper–For a rural New Yorker who grew up in bare feet during the summers, this is just plain unacceptable.
• Fire ants–they are everywhere and they bite everything. Another reason bare feet are right out.
• Florida drivers–As bad as any drivers I have ever seen. They speed like the dickens and don’t use their blinkers. They also honk like there is no tomorrow and try to kill bicyclists whenever they can.
• Don’t even get me started on their voting systems…

Speaking of voting systems…I watched a documentary two nights ago about how corrupt the Diebold company is, a company that supplies many of the voting machines our country uses in major elections. The documentary, entitled “Hacking Democracy” explains how easy it is to manipulate today’s technology in order to alter American votes. Americans espouse one of the things that makes our country great is our free elections and the right every citezen has to cast his/her vote. Its pretty scary that your vote might not really mean anything.

The bottom line seems to be that human beings are corrupt. Our founding fathers did understand that when they created checks and balances in the US consititution. But there is only so far checks and balances can go. Our current system has decayed into corruption. Capitalism has destroyed democracy. There is no part of our system that is above the corruption of Mammon. As long as there are lobbyists, there will never truly be free elections.

These thoughts seem to be pessimistic or cynical at best. If my hope was in humanity, these would be thoughts full of despair. But there is hope, in Jesus Christ and his coming kingdom. As Christians we await a day when our good king will usher in a kingdom far above our corrupted earthly kingdoms. A kingdom where the lion and lamb lay down with one another, where there is no hunger, thirsting or the shedding of tears. No there is a kingdom I could pledge allegiance to.

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