Noun: protocol
1. (computing) rules determining the format and transmission of data
2. Forms of ceremony and etiquette observed by diplomats and heads of state
3. Code of correct conduct
4. A procedure for how an activity should be performed
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How do you handle people that are religious but not godly? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1517).
We have an abundance of protocols that signal we are to submerge ourselves beneath a mode of social artificiality. Even should we encounter the most grotesque pantomimes of death, we are not to utter a peep but remain utterly unperturbed and uniformly behaved and totally silent. Just this morning the Tampa Times reported on a local trial in which a drunk driver killed two people. Yet in America we have a protocol of acceptance regarding alcohol in which it breaks all rules of propriety and decorum to register a modicum of distress--much less vocal dissent--regarding the worship of inebriation in this country. If clammy decorum rules with its glue-like grip even in such extreme and bloody matters such as this, in what many other ways are we behaving like anesthetize lemmings marching zombie-like over a cliff? In what ways are we ordered to shut down our five senses and acquiesce submissively within an unperturbed comatose state?
Clearly what is called for is a Get-Real Protocol. Will someone – will anyone – get real, turn on their five senses, and see the realities before them? And with a protocol of freedom and informality ask: "Do you see what I see? How can we stop this madness? How can we move on from here?" Let us pray there will be hands to shake.
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