Cicero, “dimly remembered”

I spend time with the indomitable Hebrew Prophet Jeremiah. I spend hours with Charles Dickens. I’m adding the Roman, Marcus Tullius Cicero to my list of heroes that I want to learn. Anthony Everitt in his CICERO, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ROME’S GREATEST POLITICIAN, states that the middle name was Anglicized to “Tully.” Everitt explains that with the disappearance of Latin from the classroom, Cicero is only a “dimly remembered figure.”

I’m fascinated by the greats who looked to Cicero. I paraphrase Everitt. The early Christian fathers considered Cicero a good pagan. St. Jerome fasted in order to be permitted to study Cicero. Petrarch’s rediscovery of Cicero gave a poweerful steer to the Renaissance. By age 16 Queen Elizabeth I had read all of Cicero. Samuel Johnson and Edward Gibbon had prose styles both influenced by Cicero. The cadences of his oratory can be heard in the speeches of Jefferson, William Pitt, Lincoln and Churchill.

Note: Let us look to Cicero who wanted not a monarchy, an oligharchy or a democracy. Rather he wanted a combination of the three with a balanced constitution.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
October 5, 2012

“Services available for needy”

On Wednesday, October 4, 2012, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution ran an article written by Jeremiah McWilliams that appears in the Metro (B) section of the paper. “Services available for the needy” is the caption of the article continued on page B3. McWilliams has quoted two Atlanta City Council elected officials, Bottoms and Bond. These quotes capture the gist of the article.

Councilperson Keisha Lance Bottoms says “This is not a heartless piece of legislation.” McWilliams paraphrases Bottoms “She said judges would be able to make assistance available for people who need social services.”

Michael Julian Bond who teamed up with the Mayor after some adjustments by the mayor of an earlier version, is quoted and cited by the reporter. I quote the final paragraph, “This legislation protects our citizens from those wolves who – – to the detriment of those truly in need – – cloak themselves in sheep’s clothing,” he (Bond) said. For those who need it, they will be able to obtain the help and services they so desperately require.”

Note: I wonder why Bottoms would use the words “not a heartless piece of legislation?” If it’s not heartless it must be heartfelt. Surely it’s heartfelt to arrest a citizen, put that person in jail, drag that person in front of a judge and THEN, make assistance available. How heartfelt!

And Michael Julian Bond’s reference to wolves in sheep’s clothing gives one pause. His quote implies this legislation is going to protect those “truly in need” from the wolves who are not homeless, rather professional beggars. So TEAM GOLIATH led by Central Atlanta Progress, the author of this legislation is concerned for those downtown who “are truly in need.”

I wish Reed and Bond and Bottoms and CAP would go to the heart (no pun intended) of the matter and just remove everyone that they don’t want around to be seen by tourists. They can do anything they want. They can legally arrest everybody for something. They charge me $300 a month for water and call it sewage something. Save the tax payers money with your worthless hearings and spare my reading this drivel in their newsletter.

Did Michael Julian Bond really use the metaphor of “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” In Atlanta’s City Hall he spoke those words?

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
October 5, 2012

Just Once, Get It Right!

Joe Beasley and Chuck Steffen and Anita Beaty spend hours, yea days, in the hallowed chambers of Atlanta City Council. I congratulate them for their tenacity, their faithfulness in continuing to stick their fingers in the dike. I can’t do that. I don’t have enough fingers. I don’t have enough years. As long as there is a book I’ve not read, I’ll spend my waning days in my library. Hearing their reports having worn themselves out at that horror show of injustice that we misname City Hall, I’ll cast my few pearls elsewhere.

Hearing of the draconinian antics of Atlanta leadership for years now, I think of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s last words as the assassins came to murder him as an enemy of the state. He said,”There is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly.” Cicero was murdered by his government on December 7, 43 b.c.e.. As TEAM GOLIATH kills all of us, please, please God, let them do it properly. Just once, get it right.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
October 2, 2012

Jerusalem/Judah And Its Legal Authorities

The Legal Authorities in charge in Jeremiah’s day came under the scrutiny of judgement and fell short. Jeremiah 2:8 condemns four categories of leadership: priests, prophets, legal authorities and the people themselves. Jeremiah 2:8a specifically calls out those in the arena of the LAW.

New Revised Standard Version: “Those who deal with the law did not know me.”

New American Standard Bible: “An those who handle the law do not know me.”

The New English Bible: “Those who handle the law had no thought of me.”

King James Version: “And they that handle the law knew me not.”

New International Version: “Those who deal with the law did not know me.”

The New Jerusalem Bible: “Those skilled in the Law did not know me.”

The Amplified Bible: “And those who handle the law [Given by God to Moses] knew me not.

New Living Bible: “The judges ignored me.”

Is each judge or legislator or lawyer under the moral law of God? Suppose a judge or legislator or lawyer is an avowed athiest. Why would that Legal Authority come under the Ten Commandments given Moses at Sanai? Because that Law given at Sinai is the plumbline, the standard of all righteous law. Categorically, all legal authority is under that standard. Wrong laws are as corrupt as the corrupt legal authority that initiate them.

Note: The Atlanta City Council on October 1, 2012, passed unanimously a draconian panhandling statute that is unconstitutional. That is not surprising these days. Law makers from the White House to the Outhouse (Atlanta City Council) pass laws that could never pass the test of constitutionality. That is of no concern these days to the buffoons that lead us. What does surprise the naive person like me is that two veteran councilpersons stated that this statute is wrong, not right, but added “I’m going to vote for it.” Pass the noodles, please.

Why don’t the Mayor and Central Atlanta Progress just lock up ALL undesireables downtown and save the trouble of stupid hearings about their more than stupid laws? City Council under Mayor Franklin decided to charge me $300 a month for water; I’m sorry that was for sewer usage. This Council under the sterling, principled leadership of Reed/Bond can do anything they want. Ask my cousins in Chastain Park and Buckhead about their water bills. “Those who handle the law had no thought of me.”

James Wilson Beaty
October 2, 2012
Jeremiah 22:16