Eating a chicken sandwich is easy but loving your neighbor is hard.

“Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.”          Ernest Becker

I can’t say that I am surprised that a species that has a history of tribalism, superstition, and provincialism would so easily fall into hubristic and solipsistic identity politics in the 21st century but it is still the case that I am disappointed that it keeps happening to this degree and on such large scales in the 21st century. Rationality and realism are compartmentalized by humans and only useful at certain times while at other times it seems we wallow in metaphysical pride and fear and can’t imagine what we would do without romanticizing our species beyond the animal kingdom with declarations of divine favor and immortality. It takes cognitive work and energy to not fall into the comfortable patterns of our genetic and historical baggage. Caught between the animal and the higher conscious we escape this awkward tension and position by the magic of language, the fog of ignorance, and the protecting and limiting constructs of ideology. We poke out our eyes with self aggrandizement and blind ourselves to other realities so no other light can enter the darkness of a universe where we are the center.  When eating a chicken sandwich by one species of primate somehow equates to part of the ultimate struggle for the God of the Universe it can only strike me as a skewed and limited perspective coming from a creature who believes itself to be the center of the Cosmic drama. Douglas Adams stated, "There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."

It is strange that the creator of the Universe needs to be defended and protected to this extent by this particular primate. This insecurity does not seem to come from a god but from a mortal. It is a sign of insecurity that the faithful have to keep spraying the name of God all over our institutions. A religion that promises eternal paradise and an end where all the Christians win while the rest of us are tortured is a religion where you would think its true believers would feel secure and yet there seems to be some suppressed doubt to this by its adherents that have no patience to wait for the coming paradise and seek to build a kingdom on Earth now and all the while reacting to any challenge with victimization and outrage. It is strange that a higher primate living on a rock going around a single star in this Cosmos needs to eat chickens or burn chickens to point to the superiority of the Creator of the Universe. Those who challenge or offend the faithful are threatened with eternal fire or even at times fire in this life. This insecurity points more to man-made insecurity than a God-made superiority. The religious right in America and around the world is so used to dominance and privilege that even the slightest perceived challenge is thought to be the end of the world and a threat to the God of all the Universe.

From the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution, the Founding Fathers looked to classical history as a reliable guide to their successful experiment in building a lasting republic.
Dr. Joe Wolverton II

Cicero lived from approximately 106 B.C. to 43 B.C. John Adams, in his Defense of the Constitution, said of Cicero: “All of the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united than Cicero…” First as a lawyer, then as a consul and senator, Cicero boldly defended the republic against the rise of dictators.

John and Abigail Adams wrote over a thousand letters to each other during the months (sometimes years) that John was away from home helping found a new nation.

As was the custom of the time, they adopted pen names:

• Abigail was Diana, after the Roman goddess of the moon and later she adopted the pen name, Portia, wife of the great Roman politician Brutus.
• John adopted the name, Lysander, after the Spartan war hero.

The Roman Classical Revival style was promoted and popularized by Thomas Jefferson, who found the impressively monumental architecture of ancient Rome a suitable model for the newly formed nation.   This style was thus a political symbol as well, likening the young United States to the once powerful and influential Roman Republic.  Jefferson designed his own home Monticello, the campus of the University of Virginia, and the Capitol of Virginia in this style, using ancient Roman temples as his guide. (Pennsylvania Historical Museum)

George Washington was sometimes called an American Cincinnatus because he too held his command only until the defeat of the British and, at a time when he could have chosen to exercise great political power, instead returned as soon as he could to cultivating his lands. After the end of the Revolutionary War, a group of former officers in the (now) American army formed The Society of the Cincinnati, taking the name from the Roman general. The city of Cincinnati was named after this organization, and a statue of Cincinnatus stands there today.