5-21-18<\/p>\n
Some of you might remember that song title. I am dating myself (which actually is a useless pastime, dating yourself \u2013 you always wind up with half the food going cold and saying things you already know) but it was a movie from 1966.<\/p>\n
It is hardly remembered today. It was the film that made a star out of Michael Caine, and the first movie to be \u201cSuggested for mature audiences\u201d by the Motion Picture Association of America, precursor to a PG rating. Its theme song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David was sung by Cher and flopped; a later release by Dionne Warwick was a hit. The movie was very<\/em> \u201cSixties,\u201d with Caine playing a wastrel and what that age called a womanizer \u2013 #MeToo<\/em> alert \u2013 whose escapades and affairs led to broken relationships and abortions. In the end, Alfie is bitter and alone, very alone, and a swinging theme that trafficked in glamour ends sadly.<\/p>\n Ironically, the \u201cnaughty\u201d and edgy movie presented a moral. Well, that was the 1960s. It was the \u201cMe Generation,\u201d in Tom Wolfe\u2019s phrase, before MeToo\u2026 the social chickens coming home to roost\u2026 which provides us a moment for a detour to mourn the passing of Tom Wolfe last week. As famous as a celebrity for his foppish attire as he was significant as a 20th-century American author, he was able to infiltrate and dissect the fashionable limousine-liberal Establishment in a series of social-commentary essays and novels, as well as flag-waving Americana, for instance in The Right Stuff<\/em>.<\/p>\n And little remembered is that Tom Wolfe also was a brilliant cartoonist and biting caricaturist.<\/p>\n To return to the \u201860s, as I was familiar as a teen with the movie of this essay\u2019s title, What\u2019s It All About, Alfie?<\/em> As well as the tectonic shifts in society around all of us. From trivial things like bell bottoms to substantial factors like relationships, it\u2019s hard not to notice major changes in society.<\/p>\n Or is it? The title song What’s It All About, Alfie?<\/em> went through my mind recently when the unusual name Alfie popped up in the news. Do you remember it? In Mercyside, England, home of the Beatles, Alfie Evans, 23 months old, was dying of a mysterious nerve ailment. In brief, the hospital\u2019s doctors judged that he was brain dead, and ordered life-support removed. Since Alfie responded to stimuli and opened his eyes, his parents objected. A glimmer of hope!<\/p>\n Lawsuits, appeal after appeal, went to the High Court, which also ordered that life-support should end. The parents approached the Vatican, and the pope made an appeal for mercy. The Italian government granted emergency citizenship to little Alfie, that he might be taken to Italy for treatment. The British government barred the boy\u2019s travel and prohibited the parents from attempting any such measures.<\/p>\n In the end, the hospital and the government prevailed. Life-support was removed. Alfie lived another five days on his own, and died.<\/p>\n What’s it all about, Alfie? A generation ago, euthanasia was a taboo subject, yet people pushed the law and argued for mercy killing. Ten years ago, a vice-presidential candidate warned of governmental \u201cDeath Panels\u201d\u2026 and was widely ridiculed by liberals. Yet \u2013 abortion itself aside \u2013 today we have the government preventing parents from exercising medical rights over their children; sanctioned killing of Down Syndrome children (at a 90 per cent rate); and death penalty verdicts for impaired children. No matter what the parents desire.<\/p>\n Yes, Alfie\u2019s case was in England. But we take note because it made more news than most comparable horrors. It happens across Western Europe\u2026 and, more and more, in the United States.<\/p>\n The Founders had to prioritize their major priorities desired for the nation they built \u2013 LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But now unelected bureaucrats and unaccountable judges hold the power of life and death over their subjects. In a different flavor of significance, the Masterpiece Cakeshop<\/em> case has been decided by the Supreme Court, and its decision \u2013 probably with a surfeit of concurrent opinions and dissents \u2013 will be handed down this summer.<\/p>\n That such a case was brought, much less having risen to the Supremes, is enough of a barometer for us to gauge the state of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in the United States. You have heard of the case: a pair of homosexuals sought to have their \u201cwedding\u201d cake decorated in a certain way, and for their nuptials; and having found a Christian baker, Jack Phillips in Lakewood CO, who said \u201cNo thank you\u201d on the basis of his religious beliefs, they and their backers filed suit.<\/p>\n Jack had maintained courtesy, and offered to sell any other cake and any other decoration; and he recommended other local bakers who might accommodate them. But their intention was to sue. After years of court appearances, decisions, appeals \u2013 and a business harmed; a family\u2019s life rocked \u2013 Jack, and the world, are about to learn whether the Founders deliberated, and patriots lived and died, for the sake of cake decoration.<\/p>\n Of course it IS more important than that. Because the Left and Secularists have made it so. Freedom of action \u2013 that a shop owner can exercise his own standards. Freedom of speech \u2013 argued on both sides. Freedom of religion \u2013 can Jack, and therefore all of us, be coerced to act contrary to conscience? Artistic expression \u2013 must an artist, yes, a dedicated cake decorator, be told what he can design\u2026 or not? Civil rights \u2013 are the homosexuals harmed, as Blacks were under Jim Crow laws? Freedom of association \u2013 Rather a different level than public restrooms or seats on a bus or the right to attend neighborhood schools, can a court force people to fraternize, even via simple business transactions?<\/p>\n If the Court says that Jack Phillips must accede to antithetical messages being produced in his workplace\u2026 would it follow that a Jewish baker must fulfill a demand to decorate cakes with swastikas on Hitler\u2019s birthday?<\/p>\n These ARE questions with significant import\u2026 and deeper implications. If the Court decides against Christians who want to act like Christians \u2013 fill in names and beliefs of anyone these days, except the politically correct and approved \u2013 it will let loose the Establishment\u2019s fury against sermons (hate speech?), Bible studies (already proscribed in some San Diego neighborhoods), parental authority (expect more \u201cdivorce petitions\u201d filed by children against parents, yes), more restrictions on prayer in public places\u2026 et cetera, au nauseum.<\/p>\n It is coming. It was predicted in the Bible. No surprise.<\/p>\n And it was forecast in a quirky film in the Crazy 1960s.<\/p>\n