Achuckallen

Instigating Better

God and Country

Careful Criticism

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If you went back to President Bill Clinton’s first term and continued into President George W. Bush’s terms, then-President Barak Obama’s terms and President Donald Trump’s term, you would find two commonalities. First, you would discover that at the changing of the party platforms, radical changes took place. Second, you would find that the party that lost became progressively louder in the disagreement and criticism of platforms and policies.

Please don’t hear me say that we shouldn’t disagree and even disagree with great concern. I will say, however, that we must get a few things done that require some cooperation. The country must move forward and stop spending all of our energies fighting battles among ourselves. At some point, America will experience a significant and horrible challenge that will require left and right, donkey and elephant, black and white, to rally around our most core beliefs and work together.

Following that last paragraph, I am contemplating a complete rewrite. The left is warming up their keyboards, ready to fire off a blistering assault on my alleged intelligence. The right is preparing to continue the string of recent notes of joy that have called into question my faith, my sanity, and my patriotism. But I need to move on.

I titled this article “Careful Criticism.” One of the many problems in our Capital is the full-time politicians and their assault on whoever the “other party” is. It’s a problem because we are electing and paying people to do nothing but gripe, criticize, and complain. We have full-time whiners and news pundits, but very few get-it-done leaders are remaining. You pick the side, and you’ll find whiners, critics, and gripers. At some point, we have to discover some common ground and start moving forward. If we don’t, we will whine, blame, and criticize our way into a debt we cannot pay, a fight we cannot win, or a mistake from which we cannot recover.

I get it. Blue doesn’t want to agree with pro-life Red. Red doesn’t want to agree with green-deal Blue. I am not suggesting that anyone step away from their convictions. I am suggesting that there are areas in which we must fight to discover SOME common ground and press forward toward a better union and better Republic. Again, I am in no way suggesting we lay down convictions. I am suggesting that we lay down our anger, vitriol, and incivility. I mean that we rise as the great nation that we are and elect women and men with love for this country that exceeds their love for power and television time. Come on, America! We are so much better than the childish bickering that seems to keep our airwaves filled with more lavish and unstable hate-speak. To do that, we must stop electing career politicians. We must stop supporting anger-filled pundits, even if they agree with our ideologies, and we must elect leaders filled with integrity, decency, and character. We must also elect leaders that agree with serious campaign finance reform and term limits. If we do not, the stagnation of constant criticism will be rewarded with an ever-growing civil war that will occur every four-years yet change very little. At some point, we will have to elect women and men that have courage without anger. We must accept that no one is clean enough not to have some checkered past. We could use some common sense and some people that have experienced the need for grace and correction. We really could use a few leaders that have received and learned how to extend some grace and discipline.

Whatever it takes, we must move beyond the name-calling, foolish tirades, and attention-grabbing camera bluster of so-called leaders that get nothing done but partisan criticism and positioning. Maybe you should run for an elected office. Perhaps I should run for an elected office. But then, we would be under the microscope of criticism, and maybe someone might ask the question, could we handle the heat in that oven-like kitchen?

America, we must be careful with our criticism. It seems to be at the heart of our battles. We can disagree, and we should oppose other ideations of this land. We are a Republic founded on diverse people, which had, and still has vastly diverse thought. But we are Americans, for goodness sake. Let’s act like it!

Chuck

The Complexity of Reason

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I doubt if it is safe to jump in the
water yet, but here goes.

Looking Back at the Election, I would Like to Offer Two Big Thoughts:

1. President Trump actually has no one to blame for his lost bid for a second term but himself. You cannot continually exhaust people with tirades for four years and expect a country in desperate need of logic and grace-filled leadership to continue to support you. I know that will ruffle my fellow Republicans, but I believe it to be an honest assessment of the last ninety-days of the 2020 election.

2. The Democratic teams of leadership, like Stacy Abrams out-survived the republicans. They put together a strategic plan that provided for legal means to register, gather, and count votes. While I am sure there was voter-fraud in many places, I do not believe the election was “stolen.” If like me, you were on the losing side, you want to believe that was the case, but wishing it to be so is not the same as proving that it is so. I agree with Lindsey Graham when he stated, ” I was told of 10,000 cases of illegal votes and asked for proof of ten. I received none.” I think that has been a truthful statement across the country. The bottom line lesson for republicans? Learn from Stacy Abrams. She is a brilliant human.

Here are Two Thoughts on the Attack on the Capital.

1. For those of you that wish to absolve yourself of the riotous lunatics that busted out windows, swung from the gallery of the Congress and stormed the Capital of the United States of America, I totally understand. I heard people trying to justify this insidious action by comparing it to BLM and Antifa’s actions last summer. Is that really a reason to raid your own capital? Those who participated in that action or attempting to deny its stupidity truly express their own lack of knowledge, wisdom, decency, or patriotism. I believe that 99.99% of the people in Washington were there to protest peacefully. I do not believe that the President intended to insight any violence, but we must speak loudly regarding evil, or we will continue to wallow in it. It may be an ancient saying, but it is appropriate for this year, “Two Wrongs Never Make a Right.”

2. While I do not believe that President Trump instigated violence or intended to do so, he does bear some responsibility for this mess. To continue the barrage of insults to his own party leaders that have been so faithful to him over the past years, simply for encouraging him to act like an adult encourages other people to join the fray. Vice President Pence has been far more loyal to the President than any human on the planet. To call and browbeat state elected officials isn’t cool. To continually argue against your own people allowed those that were “on the bubble” with the President to jump off the wagon. Again, see my statement regarding Stacy Abrams. I think the Republicans got outsmarted, out strategized, and outmanned. As a result, they lost. End of story. Rather than “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” maybe the Republicans should see it this way, “sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.” Mr. Trump, you were the President. Your words carry far greater weight than us regular folks. To claim theft and enrage millions of supporters with claims that carried no legal proof was to play a significant role in what occurred at the Capital. Every side has nut jobs. Ours were public and needed to have been reprimanded by the President within seconds of the first act of violence.

I know I’ve made simple claims and elementary statements in this post. Still, now more than ever, the United States of America needs voices of logic, reason, and civility from our leaders. When our voices are shut down simply because we disagree on who we voted for, we have lost our opportunity to express decency and civility. Vocabulary.com states that REASON is defined as, “Reason usually has to do with thought and logic instead of emotion. If people think you show good reason or are reasonable, it means you think things through. If people think you have a good reason for doing something, it means you have a motive that makes sense.” Boy, oh boy, we could use some reason right now. This constant hatred and childish bickering MUST STOP! The right and the left and the middle must put the American people’s welfare – ALL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE – ahead of party lines, party platforms, personal preferences, and petty divisions.

REASON. This great land will return to a voice of reason when we all lay down our pitchforks and words of mass destruction. When we speak to folks with which we disagree with civility tones and seek to understand more than seeking to be understood.

Reason. It’s pretty simple. Then why do we seem to work so hard to make it complex?

Peace, Chuck

America Must Change These 3 Things

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“God Bless America, Land that I Love”

Today’s article is not a political musing! This article is about the three essential changes that America MUST correct if we remain the most prosperous and blessed nation on the planet. There are hundreds of other issues to address, but if I could somehow influence our leaders, I would start with these three.

I would consider myself a patriot. I unashamedly love America. I tear up at the National Anthem. I marvel at our beginnings. Throughout this great land, we have had some pretty bad seasons and some pretty remarkable, heroic recoveries.

We need one of those recoveries right now. We can’t wait much longer. With the new transition of President-Elect Biden, we cannot afford to spend our next four years bickering and feuding over silly, partisan crap! Lord knows that’s what we’ve spent the past three decades doing. Bush fought with Dems. Clinton fought with Elephants. Bush fought with the left, Obama fought with the right. Trump fought with everybody, and now I fear Biden will go to war with the Republicans and hopefully combat the far-left socialist wing of his party. But we have to stop fighting among ourselves and discover some wholesome goodness to attack together.

These three things are non-negotiable as we attempt to recover from a long year of COVID-19, racial unrest, civil unrest, riots, looting, and economic hardships for families across almost every sector of American life. By the way, if you disagree with these three, that’s more than okay. The question I would ask you is, what are three of your ideas to make America all she can be?

1. We Must Find Common Ground to Build On

I don’t say this lightly, but I cannot say it loud enough. We must come together for the greater good. Our broken political, educational, spiritual, and financial systems are dying from a lack of common purpose and the greater good. There was a day when we rallied around a familiar opponent and joined together to conquer that obstacle. Today, that obstacle is ourselves. We are the house divided, and the walls are crumbling. Not because of presidents, members of Congress, or senators, but because of our lack of common purpose and open, shared accountability.


“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions
of its members.”
—Coretta Scott King

The common good is and should be
focused on three areas.

Education. Put our kids first, and get our educational systems in the top three in the world in science, math, reading, and technology. If a traditional education path isn’t for a kid, then have skill-based education that can raise a generation of steelworkers, welders, artisans, artists, and builders. Education must become a central theme of rediscovering the wonder of this great land!

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Education is the first step for people to gain the knowledge, critical thinking, empowerment and skills they need
to make this world a better place.”
– Nelson Mandela.

2. We Must Solve Our Desperate Debt Load

Never before have we faced a reckoning like the one we face as we look at a continually escalating debt. As of this writing, the national debt of the United States is more than $27,265,000,000,000. That is more than $218,000 per taxpayer and almost $90,000 per US citizen.

Payday is coming, but we MUST reel in our spending. I’m not a nationalist in the sense that we should button down everything except what we spend in the States, but we cannot continue to fund the world. Pet projects are at the heart of this crisis. The reason pet projects exist is the ongoing political system in Washington. If your future and sustainability are dependent upon reelection, you will – by human tendency – please who you need to for reelection. Term limits and complete transparency on pork-laden bills of legislation much stop!

“We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we
haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt
because we spend too much.”
― Ronald Reagan

3. We Must Recover our Patriotism and Honor

When we were fighting the Nazis and were drawn into World War II, we knew our enemy. We rallied around an American pride that leads to Americans fighting for Americans and fighting a common enemy. In the war on Communism, we knew who we were attempting to defeat. In the war on terrorism, we knew we were in a common fight. The days following 9/11 brought us to common ground.

But what if we need common patriotism as opposed to “common complainism?” I know that’s not a word, but you got the picture. We are at war! We are at war with a world that does not see the freedoms and American ideals as essential. We are in a battle for our republic and the democracy that it upholds.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”

Somehow, someway, we must engage a different bank of leaders. America is in desperate need of leaders without political aspiration, but aspirations of selfless service. We need to return to a people with a vision for freedom and equality, but not at the sake of losing the soul of our country.

Loving your country shouldn’t be a label by which you are considered old fashioned, out of touch, or simple-minded. Loving your country should call out the best of us and mold us into leaders that influence what is good, healthy, and wise.

Why not return to the days of American exceptionalism? Why not return a sense of pride in our great country? The answer? PRIDE & SELFISHNESS. We seem to all want our rights, the credit, and our due. The truth is that we need to return the “In God We Trust” to our hearts and actions, not just our currency. Jesus had a good word for our leaders and ourselves. “Whoever wants to be great among you, let him become a servant to all.”

“In the beginning of a change, the patriot
is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him,
for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”
—Mark Twain

I know there are so many things to work on, but this country is worth it. She is worthy of laying down our logos and our egos to serve our children and their future well. She is worthy of course-correcting our out-of-control waste and spending. And she is most undoubtedly worth serving others in the name of righteousness and goodness.

When I think of race relations, economic challenges, political upheaval, civil unrest, riots, looting, and a pandemic, I realize how urgency has taken center stage with these issues. But friends, we must start attacking these issues shortly or we will crumble as a society. Our kids and grandkids need us to fix our mess.

-AChuck

Happy Yucatan Christmas

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Happy Ichmul Christmas – You’ll know what this is as you read further!

I was sitting on a wall, just a quarter of a mile from what seemed like the end of the world, in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula, just last month. Me, my buddy, Mauricio, and a handful of young men and kids looking at the small covered court that Mission House had built for them. Next to it was a literal thatch-roofed hut that served as their church, where several of the guys in the group had met Christ.

I asked a simple question. Is Santa Clause a thing here? They laughed like I was the only guy that didn’t speak Spanish…which was true. Their answer was, NO! Santa is a thing everywhere, but not here in the Yucatan. It’s simply another day. There’s no gifts, money, stores, or provisions that would come close to “Christmas in the States.” That’s not a bad thing, I thought to myself, but what if somehow, each year, for the next ten years, we could provide Christmas for every kid in Ichmul? What if we could have food (rice, beans, and corn) for the families? I know. I get it. AChuck, you can’t feed everybody, and you can’t provide Christmas for every kid. Okay, but where I know that I can feed three hundred plus families and provide 325+ kids with Christmas for less than $15,000? You’re doggone right, I’m gonna try!

So here’s the deal:
If you can’t or don’t want to help, no sweat!

CLICK HERE IF YOU CAN HELP BRING CHRISTMAS TO ICHMUL

Every penny of these funds will go straight to food and Christmas for families and kids in the Yucatan. I’ll even send you a video from my next visit there so you can see the impact you’ve had.

I thought I was closer to my goal yesterday, but I’m still about $5,000 short. Will you jump on board with a little help?

Now, the rest of the story. I left that gathering and went to see a man that had once been a big man. A man among boys kind of guy. He has built a good business that builds ironworks not far from Ichmul. He was diagnosed last year with a debilitating disease. He told my friend Eli that he was going to see a witch doctor for help. This poor guy has a wife and three kids. We stopped at his home, and his wife brought some oatmeal/cream of wheat kind of soup out to us in a plastic bowl (see picture above).

I immediately started thinking about the upcoming battle with Montezuma. I had to eat it, so, like everyone else, I sipped. Not a single flavor – nothing. Then she came around and put some homemade hot sauce in it. I took the next sip and got 100% hot sauce. That must have been a funny sight to see this gringo struggling to find breath. I was looking for oxygen in a big way! She then thought it might help if she poked her finger into the soupy creation and stir it for me. I think that my mom warned me about this at some point in my history. But hey, when in Rome!

After that short trip through Kaopectate Valley, we went to this man’s shop and prayed with him. I’m talking Jesus take the wheel kind of praying and God got in the thick of it in that ironworks shop in the middle of nowhere. This dude is crying, I’m crying, Mauricio’s crying and we all got the full meal deal of God’s goodness. I told him to take a bottle of oil (think Wesson) and hang it in his shop to remind him that oil is a picture – a reminder – of God’s Spirit that is a gift to him from Jesus. AND HE DID IT! Here’s a picture.

The bottom line is this. I know most of you cannot go to a place like Ichmul right now, but those folks need to be loved on and supported and given a chance to do life as fellow Followers of Christ. They can be living in the freedom only Christ gives them. And those kids, well, I want those kids to know, for years to come, that Christmas is a lot more than presents…but when you’re a kid, presents matter!

I’ll keep you up to speed over the coming weeks. But will you help me meet this need? If we get more gifts than the total of $15,000, we will provide another round of food for these families in January. Please consider a gift of whatever you can give today. I leave for the Yucatan on December 5 and we need to purchase as much as possible in Cancun and not pay taxes on the shipping from the States.

GIVE HERE FOR CHRISTMAS IN YUCATAN

Tomorrow, I’ll share my thoughts on where our country needs to make a few significant changes to move forward in something called unity. See you then.

—AChuck

So Much for Super-Spreader Events

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So Much for Super-Spreader Events by Chuck Allen

Not that we need any further opinions on the pandemic, but both sides seem to be tossing verbal grenades at one another regarding gathering in large crowds. With masks, or without masks, we all need to take a breath.

The problem with lobbing hand grenades at whoever those other folks are, is you have to be willing for it to come back to you. Verbal sparring isn’t a new phenomenon, but it seems to be brand new in each political cycle.

The Blue side was stunned that the Red side would meet in those arenas and stadiums to get fired up in their rally. Each media site that leaned blue just had to use the term “super-spreader.” But then the Blue team won, and the Red team threw a hardy “well look at them.” I couldn’t hear super-spreader after hearing “Na-na-na-na-na.”

Our political systems reak of the rot left in the wake of our foul-mouthed hatred and venom.

Here’s a thought. How about we determine that we all have sinned in our past, and we ALL have a history. That we also (hopefully) grow and develop the ability to speak the truth and know the truth, and live in reality. No, seriously. Okay, one can hope.

Let’s get back to the point. When it comes to calling out the other side like a pair of toddler twins, be careful what you scream about. It always comes around to bite you in the butt.

Jesus had a word for the most self-righteous folks that were ready to stone a young lady that had made some deplorable choices with her life. He said, “If you have no sins, yourself, throw the first stone.” OUCH! That had to have left a mark! It should leave a mark on us as well.

Can’t we clean up our junk, bitterness, anger, and insecurities – Before we go into attack mode? I hate it when I violate this rule. I always pay the price, someday, someway. Jesus has this way of reminding us that we love to point out the dust in somebody else’s house while we have mold on the dirty dishes in our sink.

Here are two good rules to follow when we want to toss our “gotchas.”

  1. STOP! Give yourself three seconds to determine if what you are about to say will help the situation at all? If not, hang onto it and drop it in the mental trash can.
  2. Remember that you might need to take a quick peek into your past or even your future. Is it possible that these words are coming back like an Australian boomerang and will potentially decapitate you?

Have a great day! Remember your dishes and count the cost of your words. You’ll be so glad that you did.

Peace, AChuck

Ps. See you tomorrow on the 4forFRIDAY!

 

 

Who is the President, and Now What?

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by Chuck Allen

Who is the President, and Now What? By ACHUCKAllen

It’s the craziest season I’ve ever seen. Presidential election foolishness. Pandemic politicization and zero civility in this great land of ours. Here are a few thoughts on where we go from here:

Holy cow! Amid a worldwide pandemic that has affected every human on the planet, we here in America chose to focus our airtime and smack talk on whether or not you wear a mask in your car. I cannot bring myself to believe the left or right conspiracy theories. I refuse to bite on the idea that the President can still win, regardless of my vote. I am, however, confident that the president has the right to recount and investigate. If they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, in court, that the election was stolen, then you’ve got that opportunity. The same was said four years ago. If you cannot prove that, then move on and let’s fight and scream as we change sides over the next four years.

The real question is, how will people of faith respond, regardless of their vote? My encouragement? Pray for our leaders. Get involved and serve your community, or stop your griping, mostly if you didn’t vote. If you aren’t in the arena, I beg you to hush. Speak the truth when in a place to make a difference. Speak with grace and with graciousness. Stop the hate speech, and get busy serving and making a difference. We must stop this barb throwing and hate-mongering or we will never move beyond the stagnation built over meaningless, petty political bickering.

Let us stand up these next few years as adults and let the childish rhetoric remain seated. Honestly, I voted for Trump. I didn’t vote for the President because of his personality. I voted for unborn babies. I voted for recovering our economy. I voted for economic and educational advancement for my black and brown neighbors. I voted for judge appointments like the three Justices appointed over the past four years. I voted for a bullish stock market, less corporate regulation, law enforcement, and several other policies. I didn’t vote for Twitter tantrums, foul-mouthed rants, bullying, gross depictions of brown people seeking asylum in America, or the constant banter across aisles.

But if you didn’t agree with me or my vote, that is more than okay! You, as a fellow American citizen, HAVE THAT RIGHT!! Your vote doesn’t define you. It is your opinion. For any of us to place any other human in a cubbyhole of hate resulting from their vote is horrible.

Where do we go from here?
If you are a Democrat, pray for the president, serve your community, make a difference.
If you are a Republican, pray for the president, serve your community, make a difference.
If you are an American, pray that we have better candidates that will run for the land’s highest office. Don’t surrender your mind to the pundits that preach their biased and baseless rancor. Pray and stand for democracy, free markets, safe vaccines, the restored order in our streets, and the women and men that fight for our freedoms.

As for me, I am determined to hunker down and get even more involved in making where I live and lead a far better place than it is today. Are you with me?

Peace, Chuck