It's become clear to me where the problem in contemporary politics is coming from. Our political discourse has been literally hijacked by proud, and angry people.
What does it mean to say "I am conservative." I am conservative, therefore I conserve. I want to spend less money on government, and allow the people to do what they want more of their day. What kind of lifestyle would one attribute to this? Would you suspect that a conservative, by this definition would stay far away from the political sphere?
Hell to the no.
They're out there, and they're angry. They're shooting guns, and corresponding with their political cohorts, myself included.
I could intellectually take them all down a notch in a public hearing of my peers, and they may just as well be able to do the same in front of their own peers. I think they aren't so different from anybody else, except for the fact that yes, they do hold radical views on politics and the place of government.
They cite numerous instances of hippie, commie punk, entitled EBT, cruelty-free quinoa buying, hippies, I suppose you would call them.
They aren't unreasonable. But they don't agree with my reasons. They seem to get off on ranting their political opinions to anyone who will listen, and I wouldn't feel safe knowing them.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn't just do what he did to save himself. He was, in fact, a martyr. It seems that this world is going to need a whole lot more martyrs before we can hug long enough those pained individuals in our society who would tell a homeless person on the street to get a job, or tell a grown homosexual that he shouldn't be allowed to marry his boyfriend and that his lifestyle is immoral (so is being righteous).
I'm not sure I even started the process, and my feeling is that this blog post will be seen as an attack on the radical right wing. Perhaps it is an optimistic meditation on the work that needs to be done to move this great country into a harmonious future.
I urge anyone who reads this to have compassion towards your neighbor, even if they don't think you know what you're talking about.
To Republicans, I will say, that it might be hard for less political types and the people whose lives you have contributed so much pain to, so much needless agony over things like gay marriage and Just Say No and all the times you defend guns in the face of dying and dead children and every time you call an immigrant an "illegal" and every time you look at your neighbor and judge with the fury of G-d almighty...
It might be hard for them to forgive you, but you have a choice. You can have your convictions, but is it pragmatic to tell someone what they can and can't do all the time?
A better life comes when you start moving forward. We all must move forward together, or we all must fall behind.
What does it mean to say "I am conservative." I am conservative, therefore I conserve. I want to spend less money on government, and allow the people to do what they want more of their day. What kind of lifestyle would one attribute to this? Would you suspect that a conservative, by this definition would stay far away from the political sphere?
Hell to the no.
They're out there, and they're angry. They're shooting guns, and corresponding with their political cohorts, myself included.
I could intellectually take them all down a notch in a public hearing of my peers, and they may just as well be able to do the same in front of their own peers. I think they aren't so different from anybody else, except for the fact that yes, they do hold radical views on politics and the place of government.They cite numerous instances of hippie, commie punk, entitled EBT, cruelty-free quinoa buying, hippies, I suppose you would call them.
They aren't unreasonable. But they don't agree with my reasons. They seem to get off on ranting their political opinions to anyone who will listen, and I wouldn't feel safe knowing them.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn't just do what he did to save himself. He was, in fact, a martyr. It seems that this world is going to need a whole lot more martyrs before we can hug long enough those pained individuals in our society who would tell a homeless person on the street to get a job, or tell a grown homosexual that he shouldn't be allowed to marry his boyfriend and that his lifestyle is immoral (so is being righteous).
I'm not sure I even started the process, and my feeling is that this blog post will be seen as an attack on the radical right wing. Perhaps it is an optimistic meditation on the work that needs to be done to move this great country into a harmonious future.
I urge anyone who reads this to have compassion towards your neighbor, even if they don't think you know what you're talking about.
To Republicans, I will say, that it might be hard for less political types and the people whose lives you have contributed so much pain to, so much needless agony over things like gay marriage and Just Say No and all the times you defend guns in the face of dying and dead children and every time you call an immigrant an "illegal" and every time you look at your neighbor and judge with the fury of G-d almighty...
It might be hard for them to forgive you, but you have a choice. You can have your convictions, but is it pragmatic to tell someone what they can and can't do all the time?
A better life comes when you start moving forward. We all must move forward together, or we all must fall behind.
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