Have I ever mentioned this before?

Years ago Frank Sinatra sang a children’s song, not his usual venue. It featured a “silly old ram.” An optimist, he thought he’d punch a hole in a dam. No one could make that ram scram; he kept buttin’ that dam. With his high hopes, he did not relent but triumphed against the doubters.

Have I ever mentioned in this column that it would be a good idea if we spent less than two thirds of the discretionary federal budget on weapons and war, and instead on social goods like affordable housing, quality education and medical coverage for all? This is what we sleep-walkers routinely allot every year since World War II, through administrations of both parties, through congresses liberal and conservative. We do this as other nations, allies and enemies, capitalist and communist together do not spend as much on arms. So they have proportionately much more for social goods. Their higher standard of living reflects this. And too they know we are nothing if not reliable, so they can count on us to defend them, at our expense. We have to make the excuse that those other first-world nations are socialist because they tax progressively, taking more from the rich and less or nothing from the poor, and lavish it on the ordinary folks. We do the same, but nowhere near to the same extent.

And have I ever mentioned that gun control is imperative now more than ever after first-graders, movie-goers, gays and lesbians, soldiers, police officers and many more are gunned down mercilessly by gunmen hiding behind a Second Amendment written to protect 18th-century police forces called militias? We claim to know more than nearly every other nation except Yemen, since the sensible nations outlaw handgun possession without disregarding hunters, collectors or target shooters, and therefore without the gun carnage reported daily by our media. The National Rifle Association exercises more political pull than do our somnolent religious bodies, protected by the First Amendment, but happy to offer prayers for the slain. If German libertarians could be convinced that speed limits save lives after decades of 130-plus mph on the autobahns, ours can be moved beyond our absurd refusal to limit the ownership of hand-held machines designed only to injure or kill. When the NRA hollers that the civil rights of terrorists and psychotics are being denied when they are barred from guns, we can reasonably laugh at it.

And have I ever mentioned, as Pope Francis has observed, that refugees fleeing Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan by the millions are also human, just like us, and therefore qualify just by that fact for equal treatment and access to the basics of life? Probably because we have long since pushed out of consciousness the Latino immigrants who flood our borders but who also work the menial jobs we cannot fill with native born laborers, we stay aloof from their misery. But, good gracious, some object: they are illegal. So is the breadwinner who breaks a bakery window to feed his starving family, and whom any decent judge will exonerate. Extreme need preempts sensible laws against breaking and entering. It is stunning: we decide that money matters to us more than people facing death, and we have no moral hic-cup about it. The shameful xenophobic “Brexit” vote firms up our resolution to throw refugees to the sharks rather than rescue them.

American humor long has characterized different states by local attitudes and behaviors. Missouri is the “show me” state. And don’t Alabamans thank God for Mississippi? So does Italy, which patched together a nation of 21 provinces under Garibaldi in 1870. Some of Italy’s humor is mordant, or biting, because it too is based on the poverty of the south. For instance, one poor province will look down on a neighboring poor province by saying we steal horses but they eat them. Or else, Milan works but Rome eats. Calabria is at the southernmost part of the boot. The Calabrese are said to be hard headed. My ancestry is one quarter Calabrese. Could it be that I have banged my head against these issues and others like them for nearly four decades here because of my descent? Oops, there goes a billion kilowatt dam.

Nineteenth-century abolitionists were seen as ridiculous activists who had as little chance of success as suffragettes. But then, the Holy Spirit works quietly and powerfully to make good happen in our secular world since it all does not depend on us.