Marvin the Martian was a real hit with me and millions of others from the time of his first Looney Tunes appearance. If you do a search of Marvin you might be surprised at how many web sites are dedicated to the cute little extraterrestrial. And as we anxiously await news of the Phoenix Mars Lander hoping it will be successful it isn’t so much the many SciFi scenarios of life on Mars that come to my mind as the various cartoons with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig dealing with Marvin.

For those of us who saw War of the Worlds when it first came out in 1953 the special effects were chillingly awesome at the time and acknowledged by winning an Oscar. And though I’m old enough to recall the Orson Welles 1938 broadcast that panicked so many continuing to be a topic of interest among several of the adults around me back then, it was Walt Kelly who pointed out in Pogo there was no need of worrying about Martians destroying the world, that we earthlings were quite capable of doing the job without any outside help. Obviously Walt had a pretty good grasp of the situation; it wasn’t Martians or an Andromeda Strain we had to worry about doing us in; it was our own species. As per Walt, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Now while in my whimsy I continue to hope Klaatu will come and save us from ourselves, there is no denying the barbarism of our species that continues apace even as portrayed in the film. While literally billions suffer from ignorance and poverty, from the insanities of wars, religious and political fanaticism some are able to do such wondrous things as constructing that Phoenix Mars Lander and the Large Hadron Collider.

Western Civilization has produced the greatest works of science in history, and no small amount of this has been due to the kinds of people like Newton that had a Christian orientation. In seeking enlightenment of their Christian beliefs, Newton and others began to delve deeply into looking for answers to help them understand the mind of God in Creation and the place of us humans in our relationship to God and his Creation. It is obvious that without this Christian orientation there would not now be any Phoenix Lander, HLC or many others of the greatest achievements in science despite the Devil in the Details. For example, along with advances in science the ugly and foreboding specter of slavery and profits overshadowed many of these.

The Industrial Revolution bred of science came at a great human cost. It bred a kind of factory slavery that caused Henry Thoreau to comment having a Southern overseer was bad, but having a Northern one was worse! Nearly thirty years ago I wrote an article in which I pointed out the seed of America’s destruction was sown in slavery, calling particular attention to Benjamin Franklin’s failed attempt to deal with this by our Constitution. And following Lincoln’s War with a needless 600,000 casualties in this horrifically bloody attempt at national suicide pitting brother against brother and resulting in a Federal Triune Dictatorship the situation has only become worse as Henry’s Northern Overseer holds millions in bondage to slavery whether of welfare or other today, a kind of slavery worse than that of any Southern Overseer despite the propaganda of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, etc.

It did not surprise me that MLK was shot. It will not surprise me if Obama is shot and I expressed my fear of this from the first notwithstanding his making enemies of the Clintons; it was as though he was asking for this from the very beginning; my only consternation comes from those that have supported his running for president. What could possibly have been his and their thinking? Then it came to me; while God can’t be bribed and tempted by offers of a better deal, Satan can. Remember Kelly’s Heroes? Don Rickles had it right: you offer that staunch fire-breathing, fanatical Fuhrer and war-loving Nazi tank commander a “deal, deal;” and how we laughed at the expression on his face when told of the gold and the next scene showing the doors of that bank being blasted open by that good Nazi’s Tiger Tank cannon. God isn’t open to a deal, deal, but Satan certainly is. No matter the depth of betrayal involved, Satan will always be open to “the better deal.”

Even if it means betraying America, the followers and servants of Satan will always be open to “the better deal.” This was something I believe Benjamin Franklin had to be aware of if even unconsciously when he attempted to have slavery renounced by our Constitution. But even among the Founding Fathers it seems they went for the “deal, deal:” Slavery and profits. And perhaps Franklin realized America would eventually be made to pay the price for this “better deal.”

As things stand America is divided and fragmented in so many different directions many of which are racial, all our institutions based on standards of honor, excellence, and morality failing and seeming to fall apart, I don’t see how our nation can possibly survive. So, I wait in expectation and hope of that Phoenix Mars Lander being successful. It won’t be our salvation, but at least it would provide a bright spot in an otherwise dreary and dismal forecast. Yet, as we acknowledge those that have been sacrificed to the gods of war for the sake of “vulgar musket-worship” this Memorial Day I have good cause to wonder; what has it all been for? Certainly many have died in a just cause, but if the dead of our wars could be called to the bar of justice to pronounce judgment what would they render as a verdict on our species?

Gore Vidal’s Lincoln is one of my favorite films, and I thought Sam Waterston’s a marvelous performance. But when told the dead of his war would rise and vote for him if they could Lincoln vehemently denied it: “The dead! No! They would never vote for me!” But even Lincoln was plagued by the thought of Emerson who rightly said in regard to aimless nations and seeking purpose in life, “Must we not suppose somewhere in the universe a slight treachery and derision? Are we not engaged to a serious resentment of this use that is made of us?”

Perhaps science will yet provide us an answer to Emerson’s question unless we run out of time. In any case, I will continue to put my trust in God. And despite my natural resentment of this use that is made of us, despite my often anger and frustration, the many questions that plague me I won’t ask God for a better deal.