TAKING A SECOND LOOK, ON SEPTEMBER 13

ARE WE LIL WAYNE OR BRUCE SPRINGTSEEN....?

There's always been this debate among both theologians and scientists as to how good human nature really is. Are we an inherently selfish, self-gratifying species as Calvinist theology and evolutionary biology sometime suggest? Or are we in the end more decent than demonic as seen by democratic thinkers like John Locke, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln?

That's like asking whose lyrics do you relate to more -- the Rappers or the Beatles? Lil Wayne or Bruce Springsteen? Stephen Sondheim or Rogers & Hart??

Chances are this depends on where you are in your life at the time. Take your perennial optimists -- they're always the ones who tell you to look up because everything in life is going their way. Still, there are some objective reasons to take hope about old battle-scarred homo sapiens. One in New York and one in Arkansas.

Al Fisher, 75-year-old New Yorker, just passed a milestone when he donated his 320th pint of blood. The records show his grand total is 40 gallons! Al donated his first pint in 1951, because "Some people give money; I give blood." When all is said and done, money is of relative value; blood is an absolute value. Makes you think of the Biblical passage: You can do nothing greater than to lay down your life for a friend.

Then there's pastor Bill Eliff of Little Rock Arkansas whose parish takes in about $32,000 a week in collections. Pastor Bill decided to give some back last month when he put out baskets containing a total of $5000. He invited those in need to "help yourself." The congregation was a little stunned, but then gradually the
needy quietly accepted the reverse-offering. Mostly for unpaid medical bills.

Here's a thought...! Invite Al and Bill to meet with the Congressional committees wrangling over health care reform. The United States is still the only advanced nation in the world without universal coverage. These two guys seem to understand that shame even more palpably than Congress.

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THE SILLY SIDE OF THE LEDGER

Now on the other side of this human-nature ledger, we have two different samples of our species in action. Their recent choices make you wonder where our best angels have fled. If indeed we ever had any....!

Bank of America -- you know the folks scraping by with million dollar bonuses on our tax money -- recently refused to cash a check in one of their Florida banks. They require a thumbprint for ID and Steve Valdez, who wears prosthetic arms, couldn't oblige. Well, like yeah.....!

In fairness to the fully-armed bankers, they later apologized. But you have to ask -- what were they thinking? Or were they thinking! This is where the theologians might refer to our "fallen nature," and the evolutionary biologists to our "aberrant genes." Either way, the bankers in Florida surely didn't help burnish the image of our inherent human nature.

Then there is Scott Mooney who coaches a Kentucky HS football team. Only Scott is a confirmed Baptist on a mission. When he recently drove his players to his church where he baptized nine of them, several of the moms complained to the school: "We feel like he was brainwashing our children." The has not yet taken a stand.

As for Scott himself, he offers both the theologians and the biologists an arguable case-study for good intentions violating good sense. But, then, homo sapiens has been doing this ever since we were kicked out of Eden. You have to wonder if the serpent is smiling....?