☀️Unidentified Flying Sun
Friday, September 15 - 2023 Week 37
Friday is here, so is the Sun. Live it up, Marysville!
☀️The Marysville Bike Shop
It’s great being a grandpa (and my wife says the same about being a grandma). It’s even greater to have grandsons that live so close. Many days our daughter brings her two boys to our house and we go for a walk together. Family (that likes each other) living close to each other for the win.
A couple weeks ago we noticed that a couple of wheels on the double-jogging stroller were flat. Turns out that enabled us to realize a bigger problem, as the front wheel had lost the axle nut and washer on the left side. The only thing keeping it in place was providence.
Fine. My wife is handy, and she went looking for a similar washer and nut in our plethora of extras, but none would fit. How hard could it really be to find the right size? It was hard, actually.
We kept walking, we also kept watching the wheel. One morning we saw the washer right in our way. Maybe it was due to looking down more. Perfect! Now we needed only the nut.
My wife went to Home Depot. Bupkis. She stopped by Lowe’s. Nothing close. She looked online—and she’s quite accomplished at internet searches—but found no obvious replacement parts on Amazon or almost a dozen other sites. The best option was to order a multi-pack in hopes that one might work. It seemed a little nuts, pun intended.
So earlier this week she stopped by the Marysville Bike Shop at 1511 Grove Street. She explained the problem, got friendly help, and got the right size. When she went to pay for it, the lady said there was no charge. It was too small of an item to pay for.
Here’s the thing about it: not only are we walking more securely (ha!), we’ll be back to buy some other stuff, whatever. We need some new bike helmets, and while we do shop at Walmart, we’re excited to give the Bike Shop that business.
They sell bikes and bike parts, skateboards and skateboard stuff, and offer repair services. The Marysville Bike Shop has a Facebook page, an Instagram account, and a great review on Yelp. Check them out.
☀️Why Don’t (Very Many) Good Candidates Run For Office Anymore?
by Ben Smith
[Editor’s note: the Sun welcomes this contribution by Mr. Smith who has provided voter recommendations for our last few election/primary cycles. He gives, and has given, a lot of effort toward finding and promoting good political candidates.]
Or, Where Have All The Good Men Gone, And What The Heck Are They Up To?
Why is it that so few good candidates run for political office in America anymore? Why do we have so few leaders that make the cut? Certainly we see this problem in parts of Snohomish County and other WA counties, for Washington State-wide offices and a similar lack of good leadership in other states. It’s glaringly obvious at the federal presidential level, and for federal offices in our state and many others. Surely we can do better than a crop of leaders of our body politic and society riddled and infested with parasites, blighting our amber waves of grain with incompetence, unqualification, immorality, ungodliness, tyrannical ignorance, promoting effeminate degeneration and perversion, denial of conscience, denial of the two sexes, denial of the reality of marriage, insincerity, selfish greed, taxation levels increasing toward the level of theft, denial of the manifest place of family and the church in the public square, corruption, and clouding our purple mountain majesties by bloviating a reeking vapor of endless lies, obfustication, bad religion, (anti) racism, promotion of envy, compromised institutions, bureaus and agencies, encouragement of hallucinogenic drug use, dishonest colluding media, indoctrination in place of public education and mindless entertainment in isolation.
The necessity of basic government is not in question. There exists the need for certain actions and tasks such as the facilitation of trade, road maintenance, law enforcement, defense, and at least an assist in the upholding of public morality (gasp!), to be taken care of through official group efforts of citizens in our society, funded by taxed monies. That is: to promote and do good actions and punish wrongdoing and evil acts. These are important tasks, delegated to authorities to carry out by God Himself. We know that it's vital to have as many respectable, trustworthy, moral, and dare I say it, competently capable administrators and leaders in place to accomplish these missions as possible. Our republic and our people need good leaders. Our system of government has been observed as one that is only fit for a morally upright godly people, being completely inadequate for any other sort. It has frequently been pointed out that a people becomes more like its leadership, and conversely that a people get’s the quality of leadership that it deserves. (Ouch.... We’re in a lot of trouble, aren’t we?).
Yes. Yes, we are. Living life and reading the news in our local little slice of cozy-yet-damp near-paradise here on our climatically mild American West Coast, I’m daily reminded of the ancient and snarky Eastern curse: “May you live in interesting times”. Thanks, ‘friend’. And to think I used to despair of reading the news and finding much of note in the comparatively and retrospectively blessedly boring mid- and late-nineties, back when we were at the “end of history” according to some.
Where are the good candidates? Why do we consistently not have a strong stable of reliably strong front-runners and plausibly iconoclastic dark horse candidates in races for office? All too often we seem to be afflicted with betting on a steady stream of broken-legged nags fit to fill the knacker’s corral. At this point we find ourselves hoping for a Mister Ed or a Francis to preserve us from another lap with one of Balaam’s noble steeds.
We’re going into 2024 and the next presidential election, and not only do we not know who will win, it appears neither major party truly wants any of the major candidates, or for that matter really know who some of those major candidates will actually be on the ballot when this all comes down to the wire. Will Biden get bumped by the Democrat Party at the last moment? This seems increasingly likely, and the beginning of the primaries is only four months out. Will Trump get the nod, or get bumped? A third party candidate? How many October surprises? An international crisis worse than any currently percolating? Will the Republican Party completely drop the ball, again? Will the Democrat Party seek to fascistically weaponize more compromised federal, state and local agencies to achieve desired results? Will they turn loose another wave of BLM or Anti Fascist thugs? Another manufactured Chicken-Little sort of hypochondriac health emergency to suppress voting and civil society activity?
We’re the crew scanning the horizon and the docks (even the seedy part) for a few steady hands to captain the listing ship of state taking on water at the pier. Concerningly, we’re arriving at a realization that our arms are getting tired of slinging the bailing-buckets, and can’t any longer ignore that a large proportion of the crew’s officers and men aren’t very interested in bailing any more, and actually seem to be actively pulling on the bilge plugs.
It’s difficult for many well-qualified capable candidates to get elected in many states. It can be hard to get on the ballot in the first place, or want to go through the hassle. The almost one-party rule in some US states leads to the ossification of the dominant party and removes much sense of urgency for the best candidates to work through the complacency or the established networks and cliches or the corruption. In these states, the long-term electoral success of the larger party often masks the reality that if those who have been discouraged out of full participation due to repeated defeats were to re-engage, the state would very well be in play. Quotas on political party committees for men and women don’t help anything either. Male/female quotas only discourage involvement, and it drives away qualified men who see the distasteful nonsense and determine that the political parties are too compromised to spend effort on or in. (Or for that matter male/female quotas in corporations, classrooms, police forces or houses of government). Many well-qualified individuals are spending time in activities seen to be more rewarding and less distasteful than the grind of politics and the rewarding but quiet rounds of civics. We need capable administrators, exhorters, encouragers, efficient organizers and energized operators in government as well as in business and private leisure. The parties need to be a place where all types of capable Americans want to congregate and associate, or our overall dearth of good leadership will continue. Our top talent needs to be encouraged to do more than work hard and seek to try to retire early at +/- 55 years of age to pursue private interests and check out of society. It’s not success to have our best leave in their prime and abandon the rest of society, while clutching close all of what we can’t take with us.
We need leaders who are good men, strong men. Not one or the other! Our society is so safe and prosperous excepting a few heavily blighted cities and neighborhoods, that most of the good strong men have plenty else to do than mess around with politics and leadership. The strong man who is good has a wife, a family, valuable lovable souls that he cares for, and enjoys spending his presence, time, loving kindness, money, and strength on them. A nice little namby-pamby city preacher boy is great as far as that goes, but we need more than only being harmless, non-confrontational, polite and retiring no matter the cost. We need more than the good man doing everything right, but keeping to himself and his little circle of private influence.
A strong man is great as far as that goes, but he needs to be good, not just muscular, independent and headstrong. We need strong men who do more than just cause a ruckus and avoid commitment on his time off. The good men don’t want to dirty themselves by getting involved in politics and cultural leadership. The good man asks himself: ‘Why would I want to polish my ego in politics, since it seems to be increasingly what the proud and bad men and women are doing, so how can that be worthwhile?’ The strong men don’t want to waste their time hanging around in volunteer committee meetings after work is over. A strong man asks himself: ‘Why would I want to spend my strength in politics, since it seems to be increasingly what the weak and bad men and women are doing, so how can that be worthwhile?’
The good strong man sees the sorry state of our politics and society, knows that he should get involved because we need the leadership of his kind, but he considers the negatives and doubly recoils. He thinks: ‘Why should I confidently and humbly lead in politics when it has become the haunt of sickly shadows of corrupted evil men who puppet master from behind the scenes and the prowl of caricatures of “strong independent women”? Well, if he doesn’t eventually and joyfully step up to the breach in the hour of need to preserve civilization and protect the helpless, then he can no longer count himself among the good and strong. No longer can his republic or his people, either. That’s why he must man up and take his place in the gates alongside his sons, defending the honor of his fathers before him. Founding, family and faith, we must honor our fathers.
I wish that I really had all the answers to our shortfall in leadership. If I did, it would follow that I had 100% guaranteed efficacious solutions all figured out and ready to deploy. We all want a better choice than endless rounds of parsing repeat contests of (t)Rump vs Bide(n). I’m confident and completely hopeful that this too shall pass, and God will see us through no matter what. Our nation is still the last best place on Earth. America and its people really do have it made. We have the best overall institutions, amount of influence of Christianity, strategic geography, historical national legacy, economic structure, position on world trade routes, and for all of our many huge faults the most dynamic and powerful culture of any current major nation on the planet. America remains the ideal and best place to be on the globe, and the Lord is completely trustworthy, whether we have these American blessings or not. Father God, help us all. Jesus Christ is in fact Lord and Savior, and everything will be alright, no matter what happens in this life or the next.
☀️Near Here in the Near Future
The city announced on their Facebook page that Jennings Nature Park is closed for the next six weeks in order to bring in new playground equipment.
Marysville Presents: Mt. St. Helens 40 Years Later - Eric Wagner, author of After the Blast: The Ecological Recovery of Mount St. Helens (Amazon) will be speaking about the blast and what’s happened since then at the Marysville Opera House on Tuesday, September 19, 6:30pm. More info at the event page here.
Repair Cafe - Saturday, September 23, 10:00am to 2:00pm at the Marysville Library. From the event page: “Bring your vacuums, lamps, bikes, jewelry…anything you might have and one of our volunteer fixers will diagnose the issue and do their best to make it usable again. They will show you their process, order parts if necessary, and help you learn how you can do it on your own with videos or one-on-one instruction.”
☀️Friday Fun
Anything in the “category of chunky drinks” has already lost. There will be NO BUBBLE TEA for me, let alone like this:
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