Editor’s note: Recently in The Voice, the announcement was made of the death of the conductor of the column, Ask Grandpa, which provided readers with 503 weeks of sage advice, humor, and continuity. Below is the repeat of the February 4, 2021 column. The Voice will continue to offer previous columns. We invite special requests of previous columns.
Grandpa,
I take exception to your answer to the guy whose brother will not introduce his bride-to-be to the family. (See The Voice, December 10, 2020) Why won’t she meet the family? There has got to be something awfully wrong with a woman who will not meet her intended’s family. She must be out for his money and does not want to get tripped up, or she has a very shady past. Or she is just so ugly that she does not belong out in public. In any case, there is something she is hiding. I’d say they should not get married.
Grandpa says: Maybe you have a point. Or, is it possible that he is ashamed of his family and does not want to risk losing her over them? Anyone can dream up scenarios. Sound moral advice cannot be based on trumped up scenarios. Grandpa stands by the advice to open up lines of communication within the family. It is a well-known fact that love blinds a person to potential problems. Hate blinds people to opportunities. The only cure is open and honest communication. Grandpa did not advise them to marry or not. Grandpa did advise the brothers to talk.
Grandpa,
I sent you an E-mail asking that you not shove your religious crap down our throats for Thanksgiving. (See The Voice, Nov. 12, 2020). I was hoping you would put it in the Thanksgiving thankful stuff column, but you didn’t. That is okay because the way you bashed the Catholic Popes was even better. (See The Voice Nov. 26, 2020). And you call yourself a Christian! I knew you are just a regular Joe like the rest of us.
Grandpa says: First off, yes, I am just a regular Joe. That does not mean that I bash people. It means that I respect my fellow man. Grandpa was referencing one man in the Thanksgiving Day column. The impact of that one man and how his speech set off a war of 925 years was not a bash or demonization of the office of the papacy. Grandpa’s intention was to show that words of ignorance and hatred have a very far reaching effect. I suspect that you saw the column as you did because you are looking through the haze of hatred, distrust, or atheism indicated in your first letter to me. May you have a long, pleasant, life, cradled in the love of your Creator.
Grandpa,
Why do you keep saying, “All lives matter” instead of “Black lives matter”? Are you being racist against the black people who need to have police recognize that Black Lives matter?
Grandpa says: I completely understand your point. Let us examine the underlying meaning of the origin of the phrase, “Black lives matter.” Whenever any group of people get put down, mistreated, or abused, a cry for fairness arises, because it should. But division is what causes particular groups to become vulnerable. In an attempt the wipe away the inequality, we must first wipe away the divisions. All Lives Matter includes all people without regard to ancestral history. God Bless.