To be sure, we live in a demon-haunted world and some of us have more trouble with the demons than others. Some of us can hardly dwell on some pleasant memory of the past than immediately comes to mind some ugly thing that attacks that pleasant memory. Jack Cafferty: “It’s Getting Ugly out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Destroying America.”

I like Jack Cafferty; he seems bluntly honest. But there is no doubt in my mind I have covered the same subjects he addresses in his book in my own books. Writing is often a catharsis of the mind, of the heart and soul, sometimes a way of attacking our own demons and exorcising them. Having long been a fan of Jack, listening to the interviews about his book, the many things he mentions about dysfunctional family, a dysfunctional society, these are things many of us can relate to. But the one thing that struck me in one of the interviews was his mentioning being only 64 years old. I hadn’t thought about this previously, but here was a relatively young man, at least young compared to me, and he was talking about memories of a Norman Rockwell America, memories I don’t usually associate with someone as young as Jack.

Nevertheless, I have to remind myself occasionally that while America emerged from WWII on an extremely high note of optimism for the future this was quickly extinguished following Russia detonating its first nuclear bomb and the advent of Sputnik. There was the Korean War, the assassination of JFK, Nixon and Vietnam, so many things that were a part of Jack’s early memories he has more than enough to draw from in writing his book. Then to be in an occupation where you deal with the thoroughgoing corruption throughout our government on a daily basis, this alone would account for Jack’s book.

For those of us who have lived long enough for time to cast an azure tint over some of our memories of the distant past, memories that may age gracefully and acquire a pleasant, aged patina to the mind’s eye, we consider it a blessing when the mind works its peculiar magic of smoothing, or even brushing out, the ugliness that may have attended such things in our past. I have many memories from childhood during WWII, and most certainly not all of them are pleasant. But when I reflect on those years long ago, when I write about them, my mind often refuses some of the ugly realities in favor of those people and events that emphasize the good, and perhaps this is how it works in the hereafter as the Scripture has it all tears will be wiped away.

Whatever one’s beliefs about a hereafter, with the passing of Don Knotts it occurred to me how much we need to believe in Barney Fife and Mayberry. We Americans have been blessed with those like George Washington as our heritage, and those of us who experienced a Mayberry, Walton’s Mountain, and Norman Rockwell America prior to WWII are blessed with precious memories of the way things are supposed to be, much as Jack Cafferty points out. However, most of those my age were also blessed with many shared and common beliefs emphasized in the churches of America, and most of us believed in both God and the inherent goodness of America.

I don’t envy those like Jack Cafferty or Lou Dobbs, I don’t envy any who have jobs in the media, especially not those who are trying to do the work of dealing with the truth and presenting the truth to We the People. No matter their “success” in this world, I strongly suspect if there will be any real reward for their efforts it will be in the hereafter. In this world, too many kings remain given to killing the messenger, and in my opinion evil is so deeply entrenched throughout the world we are on a collision course with the kind of destruction only such evil lunacy explains.

For those of us who lived it before and following WWII and know what is missing in America today, what our leaders have squandered and frittered away by betraying such a wonderful heritage, it does seem that the demons outnumber the angels. Those of us who have lived long enough to look back far enough know what has been lost, and we can be excused for grieving over the loss.

It was while contemplating this loss, thinking about Mayberry and other like things my mind turned to something philosophers and theologians have long pondered about a possible “hereafter.” My idea of heaven would be Mayberry, a place where only goodness and virtue prevailed, where there is no place for the evil men do.

One of the things that has made it easier for me to contemplate my own death is the thought there will be those loved ones and friends who have gone on before me, those who are waiting to greet me upon my own passing. But I would not want them to be witnessing the failures, trials and tribulations I go through while in this present life. It could hardly be “heaven” where our loved ones and friends witness our ongoing struggles and are helpless to intervene on our behalf.

We read in the Bible a description of death comparing it to a seed being planted, one that will grow even as an earthly seed planted in the earth. Our earthly body even as that earthly seed is a promise of life coming forth, and will go through a transformation even as that earthly seed.

My own thought is that we will be “born” into the heavenly life much like we are born into this life. Just as we know nothing at birth but become slowly aware of our surroundings, slowly learning and becoming self-conscious and self-aware so I believe it will be in the hereafter. How else to cope with the shock of entering into the hereafter? No earthly seed could possibly survive being instantly transformed into its promise of the life it contains.

The doctrine of the “Rapture” has people being transformed in the “twinkling of an eye.”  But I do not believe this transformation could take place without incorporating that parable of Jesus comparing death and resurrection with that earthly seed. It takes time for the seed to transform, and it will take time for us to transform in the hereafter, to become aware of our new surroundings without suffering the same shock should a seed not be carefully nurtured and given time to grow into its earthly body. It may be our loved ones and friends gone on before us will be “gardeners” tending us even as our earthly parents tended us as babies, and we in turn “tended” our own children.

The Bible presents many thoughts on this subject, among them being that of earthly things being the pattern of things to come. While all of this is metaphysical, only speculation, nevertheless there is the reality of Mayberry. And for those of us who knew an America in which there was a Mayberry, those of us who knew Norman Rockwell’s America we live in hope of a heavenly Mayberry, since there is little hope of anyone listening to those like Jack Cafferty and there is no doubt in anyone’s mind “It’s Getting Ugly out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Destroying America” tells it like it is.

Far from making America safer following 9/11, our own leadership still refuses to secure our borders for the sake of slave labor benefiting only the wealthy, and it would seem those dedicated to the destruction of America have used The Attack on America as an excuse for globalization and profits. Those politicians applauding themselves for frustrating any more attacks like 9/11 all the while dedicated to profits and betraying America in the process are not fooling anyone. But I’m sorry Jack; no “prophet” has ever been listened to or had any honor in his own house.