Musings on the Week: Here, There, and Everywhere

The Russia collusion investigation continues on. Believe what you will, and certainly let your position be factual, but at the end of the day, it's a witch hunt. Dirty, ugly, maligning, vindictive, vengeful, yes, its a witch hunt for sure. The trial has been supported by the fervor of individuals who stand to gain much from prolonging the trial itself and not in a verdict being decided. Most feel as if nothing will be found, as nothing close to a smoking gun has been found yet, but yet on it goes. It has a life of its own, far away from justice and reality.

In other events, I had the opportunity to listen to a Wheatley Institution speaker. The Wheatley Institution's core focus is promulgating and defending religious freedom, so the speaker, Robert George, spoke along those lines. His remarks were in part about the erosion of sovereignty of private institutions. Initially his speech centered around private institutions', such as a family or a church, intrinsic value and comparing that to public institutions, which are created for the extrinsic value, or the services they provide. This he noted set a limit on their, public institutions, domain of sovereignty. The idea of subsidiarity was also discussed, it being the idea that local problems should be fixed by the most local organization. As any good discussion on spheres of sovereignty will inevitably reference the bible of American dual sovereignty, The Federalist Papers, this did as well. I had read the referenced paper before, number 10, but forgotten its key message. In speaking of controlling a government we empower, James Madison noted that the first restraint upon government power was the people, and the design of the government, what we often call the "checks and balances", was only an auxiliary precaution.

To finish, a beautiful simile from the book of Isaiah (55):

10 For as the ^arain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and ^bbread to the eater:

11 So shall my ^aword be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Zootopia

It's time for another movie review. That sounds as if their is some regularity to the movie reviews I conduct, but since my last review occurred well over 6 years ago, make no mistake, its not a regular thing. You're in for a special treat, a treat rarer than Christmas or a leap year.

Again, its another animation movie surprising a casual watcher. Much like Aesop's Fables, though you wouldn't guess it at first, Zootopia follows the ambitions of a young rabbit and her yearning to become the first rabbit police officer in the metropolitan of Zootopia. This movie is set in a world where predator and prey have learned to live together peacefully, yet they don't fully trust each other. There is a deep seated distrust and an instinctual divide between the two groups which is a key theme in the movie.

I won't recount and divulge the whole plot; its a movie worth watching with your kids. I will share some of the themes I saw as I watched this movie. The movie's core theme is about learning to trust those who are different from you. Countering that, we see those who would entice racial strife for personal gain. In a country where racial strife fills the evening news 50 states wide, the ideas and principles explored in this movie are quite timely.

As you watch this movie, hopefully you can see the deeper meaning. In doing this, there is one thing to avoid comparing to real life. A pop singer in this animal universe named Gazelle, voiced by Shakira, is an advocate for seeking understanding to the issues at hand rather than emotionally charged reactions. If Gazelle is supposed to be representative of hollywood and their wisdom, the movie missed the mark. Overall though, I really enjoyed the movie and its message.