SOUNDING OFF:

Rumor has it that the city is up in arms over the Piecemakers’ flying the flag upside down as a warning to the people of our country in distress. Mind you, they are not alarmed about the condition of this country but upset over being warned that this country is ready for its demise.

What has happened to the people who make up our nation? Have the good times and blessings put us into a deceitful stupor, or have we become so hardened toward reality and the truth, that we find comfort in looking through the rosy colored glasses of illusion supposing this is the way things really are?

“If you do not like it, go to another country,” is such a worn-out crock of garbage. I am glad George Washington did not feel this way. I am appreciative of all the other great people who were brave enough and wide awake enough to detect the enemy with a measuring rod of truth and justice. Truth and justice are a condition of the heart and the hearts of God’s people have waxed cold.

We do not need an atom bomb. We need God to come and cause us to repent or perish. Trust me. We will have one or the other. And the way things go depends on the way we go. Will we dare take the blinders off our eyes and see the things as they really are, or will we be faced with praying for the rocks to fall on us before we come to our senses?

Perhaps the flag flying upside down did shake the city from its slumber. As typical Americans, we look for a scapegoat for our paranoia and blame the Piecemakers much like Bush blamed Saddam for God’s warning us with the destruction of the towers. We have a replay of the towers burning to the ground 2,000 years ago, and when Jesus was asked what sin the people committed to be killed in that tragedy, He replied simply, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” He did not play a “Where’s Waldo” game, trying to find the terrorist.

When we have a country where the government owns the businesses, as we do in America, we need a change. When we have taxes taken from the people to make them part of the corruption going on, we need a change. When we see our prisons filled with people who are no more corrupt than every government worker, we need a change. When we see the church as corrupt as the government, we need a change. When we see a dictator in our country who is going to change the world much like Hitler intended to do, we need a change. Yes, we are a sad, disgusting example of a Christian country and God has let us hang ourselves. So perhaps it would be a good idea to take our flag and burn it, as it no longer carries the message it was intended to carry.

MARIE KOLASINSKI is from Costa Mesa.