I do not wish to sound sullen but my question for today is what good is trying to lead by example if half the nation refuses to even consider following? Now this is not to say that I feel defeated. Indeed, it is exactly the opposite. True change takes time. It takes patience and understanding and from my viewpoint the next generation will finish what we, my generation, after years of looking the “other” way, topped off by four years of sheer terror and hell have at least taken the first steps to correct.
For my part, if I can give myself a bit of credit, I have always been a consensus builder by nature. I understand the value of compromise if and when necessary and that incremental change is often better than no change at all. Mick was right, you can’t always get what you want. But…you know the rest.
I have always tried to identify the “problem” and fashion a solution I believe might be agreeable to all parties involved. I am also a very strong believer that if you want to lead by example, you should be willing to “go first” so to speak, as in being the person who takes the first step, who takes the first of possibly a series of actions, hopefully reciprocal, toward recognition, reconciliation and mutually beneficial progress.
It is here where my current slightly more than normal discouraging concerns lies and I know I am not alone. Increasingly, I find myself witnessing the frustration of I guess I call us liberals, lamenting that when it comes to the other side, we have no more f*cks to give. This however is not my dilemma as I have no problem caring about, and carrying out what I believe to be in the best interests of America, all of us, whether “you” think so or not.
So, and in a nutshell, my distress comes not from giving multiple fornications, but I truly don’t know how many, if any “firsts” I still have to give without what I perceive to be even the slightest inclination of working together to solve our differences, real and/or at least in my view, imagined.
If I can be blunt, there are just too many persons out there who should know better and yet have voluntarily chosen to live a life based upon outright lies, rumors, memes, with apparently the goal being the more outlandish and unreal the claims the better.
Why, throw in a bit of racism and religious intolerance mixed in with a truly warped sense of patriotism, and who needs boring old reality at all? Why not just ride it out while waiting for the storm where Jesus and his main man Donald Trump ride the coming wave of deist ordered destiny bringing back the times of Biblical miracles and God’s righteous vengeance for all who dare oppose His will?
Admittedly, I still do not see the allure of going back to a time where the ritual stoning of adulterers was a hot-ticket spectator sport, and there was no shrimp on the Barbie to be had, but, there’s always the misconception that everyone in the Bible was lily white with perfect teeth, so there is that racism induced and therefor highly attractive to this crowd of no, nothing and never anything but the latest fever dream to be had as gospel and so regrettably, truth.
I’m for gun control. I don’t own a gun. If you need a weapon for the protection of yourself, your family and your home, I’m for that. I’m not for children dying for your 2nd Amendment rights. Any room in the middle? Can we at least have background checks? According to the Q crazies? No. You just want the “deep state” to have a list of who owns a gun.
I’m for a woman’s right to choose in matters of family planning. I’m also for education, and making adoption and through changes to our economic priorities and values, making it easier for an expecting mother to have her child and raise him or her with dignity. Can we at least admit a woman has a right to control her own body? At least making exceptions for rape and incest? According to the MAGA maniacs? No. In fact, life begins at conception and anything short is murder.
Simple question. Do Black Lives Matter? Should a person of color expect to have their life put in danger as a normal part of a routine traffic stop? Simple because they are black? We don’t need to de-fund the police, but wouldn’t it be a good idea to change policies to include more training and to de-escalate a situation that need not be exacerbated by even the presence of a gun?
According to those who back the blue? No and in fact we’ll continue to find and “take care” of the “bad apples” ourselves, mostly by sending them to another jurisdiction where they can pick up where they left off with no one the wiser, until he (or she) gets caught again and we have to ship them to another unsuspecting location until…you get the picture. Oh, and don’t forget, Blue Lives Matter.
And the issues that divide us, along with the persons and groups who wish to exploit our division for their own benefit continues and perhaps most depressing of all, We, the People get caught in a downward spiral where in the end, there are no winners.
I imagine you see my point, but do not worry about me. I’m going to keep doing exactly what I have been doing for if nothing else, my faith in the American people, in the idea that individuals can come together as a nation and given the right to education, to freedom of religion and yes, freedom of speech will make decisions in the best interests of us all based upon the truth.
For in America, the truth does have a way of winning, sometimes, it just takes time. Forward we go.
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