woke – All In A Knight's Work

Chivalry is a code of conduct which enables men to navigate through the society in which they live. I have always thought of it as the guidelines which give me the ability to know how I should act in any given situation. Chivalry is a choice to do the right things, at the right time, for the right reasons. But does the society we find ourselves living in now even want chivalrous men? The code I like the best I found in the movie Dragonheart. It says,

A knight is sworn to valor. His heart knows only virtue. His blade defends the helpless. His might upholds the weak. His word speaks only truth. And his wrath undoes the wicked.

For many decades now there has been an all out assault on men. Culture, the media, even hell itself has been working tirelessly in an effort to put men into this box labeling them as idiots, children or predators. And while this has been going on, most men seem to have been asleep, or possibly worse than asleep, they’ve believed the lies; accepting as fact that these were the only options available to them, going ahead and becoming the very things society has accused them of being. I’m not saying men are just victims and should be given some leniency for the stupid things they have done. I believe every man should be held accountable for his actions; this is one of the core values of chivalry.

On the other hand I do think we’ve got to get to a place where as a society we stop laying blame and staying so focused on the past. The culture we’re in right now seems to place more emphasis and energy trying to erase the past, rather than using it as a tool for learning what not to do again. As George Santayana is quoted as saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It seems we can’t forge ahead into a newer and better future because society is too focused on past failures and working to change and rewrite history. And if we lose our history, then we are condemned to a cycle of repetition.

When I see statues or paintings of historic figures, they cause me to want to read and find out what the person did. Just this week I saw this picture of a young lady defacing a statue of Matthias Baldwin. (The picture was taken back in 2020) Now I must admit I didn’t know who he was and figured from all the BLM rhetoric, he must have been a slave owner or something. So I did a quick Google search, and you know what I found out? Well here, let me show you:

Baldwin was a devout member of the Presbyterian Church and a consistent donor to religious and secular charitable causes throughout his life. In 1824 he was a founder of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1833.

In 1835, he donated money to establish a school for African-American children in Philadelphia and continued to pay the teachers’ salaries out of his own pocket for years thereafter. Baldwin was an outspoken supporter for the abolition of slavery in the United States, a position that was used against him and his firm by competitors eager to sell locomotives to railroads based in the slaveholding South.

Baldwin was a member of the 1837 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention and emerged as a defender of voting rights for the state’s black male citizens.

Why on earth then would this lady vandalize his statue? I mean it appears he was all about black lives mattering, long before BLM was a thing. Probably because she doesn’t have a clue, and our woke society believes in removing anything they deem negative in this world as a way of showing they no longer celebrate it. When this happens, they remove any hope of people actually finding out what these historical figures did; both good and bad.

When a society doesn’t trust its people to come to the correct conclusions for themselves, just wanting everyone to take the loudest voice’s word for it, isn’t this kind of squelching free thought; which by the way is protected in the United States Constitution. It’s interesting to me that for a group of people who say they are tired of hearing what we “boomers” have to say, telling us in effect to just shut up, they are ironically doing the very thing they’ve been accusing us of doing all along; telling everyone to believe their narrative just because they say it’s the right one.

It’s time for those of us who strive to be chivalrous men, to stand up to the intolerance and begin once more to adhere to the code of conduct laid down for us so many years ago. It’s time we start to treat women, all women with respect; opening doors for them, showing our children that their mother is the most important woman in our lives, getting off of our butts and going to a job to provide for our families, speaking the truth always, and defending the weak and helpless. Being men of our word, owning what we say and do for what is best for society not just ourselves. Only when we as men step up and live by this code of conduct will the world change and become a better place.

For the Kingdom and the King, shalom.

Let me say right here at the get go, I may piss you off. Understand this though, I’m not trying to, but if what I think and write down today makes you mad, then so be it. Sometimes a fella just needs to get some things off his chest, and today feels like that kind of day for me. The world we live in now is upside down, and not in the cool way we saw in Stranger Things, no this world has no sense of itself anymore. We’ve got people actively trying to silence other people because they don’t agree with their position on a myriad of topics ranging from kid’s books to politics. This time on planet Earth has seen an increase of social awareness which is unlike any other time in the history of mankind.

Social injustice isn’t new, but it is the new thing people have jumped on. It sickens me to see anyone being singled out and treated differently for whatever reason. I understand it too, I have been singled out for my love of all things Star Wars, or enjoying the entertainment industry too much. Those who have done this to me think as a man I should be enjoying things like sports, cars and women who are not my bride. I kind of live by the attitude, if it’s important to you, then I’m happy you’ve found something which brings you joy. Just because I don’t happen to like it, doesn’t mean it is my place to make you feel inferior because you do. And herein lies the problem, this time we live in seems to be, if I disagree with you, then you’re wrong until you change and see it my way.

Take for instance this term “woke”, and don’t even get me started talking about how it is a grammatically incorrect way to use this word and makes you sound like an idiot when you use it. (I told you I might piss you off, here we go) This word “woke” isn’t new either, it started being used in the 1940’s, it’s just seen a resurgence in the past few years. Basically the term “woke” means alert to injustice in society, especially racism. And before you think I am a racist fool, let me say right here and now, I don’t have a racist bone in my body, I think and believe ALL men and women are created equal and have the same rights given to us by Almighty God. As I’ve always said, if you don’t have what you want in life, then get in God’s Word and find out what is promised to you. I’ve read through the Bible many, many times and I have never found anything about the Word of God only working for one people group.

The thing which makes me mad about all this nonsense going on in our world right now, is the double standards of it all. I mean there was a time where people were wanting to rename schools and airports, tearing down statues and dismissing anyone who didn’t agree with their ideals, all in the name of righting wrongs which happened hundreds of years ago. Now I don’t know about you, but this is silly, when right now in our society we have some of the same people screaming about the death of black men at the hands of the police producing materials which is socially offensive and just down right crude.

I hear people screaming about being offended that a bottle of syrup has a black woman’s image on it, but then Cardi B puts a song out last year titled WAP, which is an unadulterated piece of vocal pornography. There is screaming about past social injustices done to all ethnicities in the world, but when are we going to hear about the social injustices done today? It seems as if the people screaming want to change the past, but ignore what’s actually going on around them right now. I’m not saying what was done in the past was right, it wasn’t, and I cringe when I hear about the atrocities which happened, and I pray they never happen again. But as writer and philosopher George Santayana has been quoted as saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (Interestingly enough he was Spanish born too.)

Removing things which happened in the past doesn’t change the past, it just leaves a void in which we are not being reminded about things we should not repeat, ever. It seems the things people really want changed are all the bad things white people did in the past, but let’s don’t talk about the horrible things being promoted and sung about in the pop songs of today. Let’s don’t talk about the rampant drug use, sexual abuse of children, sex trafficking, broken homes, nonexistent fathers, how the most important thing women can do is twerk and be used for nothing more than men’s enjoyment. Yeah, don’t be “woke” about that, but be “woke” to the fact George Washington had slaves and tear his statues down.

To summarize here, I am not racist, I don’t believe anyone who owned slaves should have, nor do I believe women are men’s play things. I’m not a neanderthal nor from one of those skin headed whites only groups. I am a God fearing, husband, father and PopPop who just thinks things have gotten out of hand and we need to go back to some of the true values the Bible speaks about, and give all this social justice stuff a rest for a while. I mean if we did what the Bible said to do and love God and love our neighbors, there wouldn’t be any need for all the screaming, shouting and nonsense we’ve seen in the past years.

Yeah, so now you know what I think, hope it didn’t piss you off. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King, shalom!