The next four months are going to be a wild ride. An ugly political campaign will weary this country and divide further an already divided country.
I make no apologies for being liberal. I believe in living in a country that values what everyone brings to the table, sometime that means that some of us bring extra because someone is struggling to put food on the table, pay the rent, afford to put gas in the car to get to work. I DO NOT believe that those people are in their circumstances because they drink beer and smoke cigarettes or that they use drugs and are lazy.
I do believe that we all start out in different places and at some point everyone of us will need to turn somewhere for help. When I needed help my parents, none too thrilled I had just become a and unwed mother, were on the road in four hours from Idaho to Texas to rescue me from an impossible situation. A situation that I created myself, I was in over my head and scared. My parents cared more about my safety and of Jacob than they did that I had turned away from the way they raised me.
Not everyone has such a tightly woven safety net and sometimes even if they do unforeseen circumstances require that people ask for help. I want a country that provides a safety net, a place that sees helping others as an investment in them. Providing the kind of support that helps move them toward something better. Some people won't ask for help, that's fine participation isn't compulsory, but don't decide who and who doesn't deserve help. Have you walked in their shoes? Faced their choices? Frankly I don't care why someone needs help, because if I'm ever there again I would hope that someone wouldn't stand harshly in judging why I need it.
Are you confident enough of your own hard work and righteousness that you think you might never need help, or that you haven't already benefited in ways you won't acknowledge from a safety net that protects us all?
I am so disappointed that Mitt Romney has chosen the path of least resistance in vilifying the poor. His attacks about "welfare reform" being undone are outright lies and with little research anyone who wants to know the truth can fund it, but it is a convenient political target and we should expect more from any political candidate. I cringe watching both side pillory each other, it almost makes one too cynical to vote. ALMOST!
Monday, August 13, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Ramblings of a mad woman, and I don't mean pissed
Okay, maybe a little pissed. I am on a posting hiatus on facebook, mostly because I'm having a hard time figuring out how we move past where we're at and I feel like I'm just too deep in my own head to not take things so personally when people respond to what I post.
I have a hard time understanding how those in power, Christians, the rich, the straight feel so picked on these days, when in recent US history have the seats of power not been held by straight, white, rich, christian men? And, when did Christianity become about vilifying poor people? If, a nation, a people, whatever, are willing to hold so tightly to their interpretation of THE CONSTITUTION, why isn't there the same willingness to really follow the teaching of the Christ so many of these same people believe in? When did religion become more of a reflection of politics than anything else?
I understand that belief systems are deeply held and very personal so forgive me for sharing mine, here, assuming anyone will read this- and apologies to those of you who may be hurt or offended by this.
When I left the LDS church it was largely because I had a crisis of faith, I couldn't hold to the faith that if I was a good girl here in this earthly realm that I would be rewarded with children and an eternal partner on the other side, IF I was good, and faithful enough here. I wasn't willing to wait and made a very deliberate decision to live my life another way. I also left because I could not reconcile my personal political beliefs with the tenets in my faith in regard to women, race and sexual orientation. My faith wasn't strong enough to carry me through the doubts, the anger and the disappointment I felt in an organization that I spent 18 months proselytizing for. Over the years what I've learned is that I have to live my life as close to the truths I hold as possible. I know that what I believe is just that, what I believe. The personal irony for me is that what I do and the way I choose to live my life is deeply based in faith. I can't really even explain exactly what I mean by that. But what I believe to my core is that people have a right to basic needs, food, shelter, health care, and that there will always be people who will exploit opportunities. What I don't understand is why some people think it's okay for the well heeled and those who have had every opportunity to exploit people and systems to get ahead but resent every penny used to help people have even a pittance of an existence, deserving or "otherwise".
I'm tired of the notion that if you are poor it is somehow your own fault and that if you are rich you got there through hard work, damn the destruction in your wake.
I am having another crisis of faith, faith in the goodness of my neighbors, faith in my belief that we can find common ground and figure out how to solve problems.
Don't try and make sense of it, just refer to the title of this post.
I have a hard time understanding how those in power, Christians, the rich, the straight feel so picked on these days, when in recent US history have the seats of power not been held by straight, white, rich, christian men? And, when did Christianity become about vilifying poor people? If, a nation, a people, whatever, are willing to hold so tightly to their interpretation of THE CONSTITUTION, why isn't there the same willingness to really follow the teaching of the Christ so many of these same people believe in? When did religion become more of a reflection of politics than anything else?
I understand that belief systems are deeply held and very personal so forgive me for sharing mine, here, assuming anyone will read this- and apologies to those of you who may be hurt or offended by this.
When I left the LDS church it was largely because I had a crisis of faith, I couldn't hold to the faith that if I was a good girl here in this earthly realm that I would be rewarded with children and an eternal partner on the other side, IF I was good, and faithful enough here. I wasn't willing to wait and made a very deliberate decision to live my life another way. I also left because I could not reconcile my personal political beliefs with the tenets in my faith in regard to women, race and sexual orientation. My faith wasn't strong enough to carry me through the doubts, the anger and the disappointment I felt in an organization that I spent 18 months proselytizing for. Over the years what I've learned is that I have to live my life as close to the truths I hold as possible. I know that what I believe is just that, what I believe. The personal irony for me is that what I do and the way I choose to live my life is deeply based in faith. I can't really even explain exactly what I mean by that. But what I believe to my core is that people have a right to basic needs, food, shelter, health care, and that there will always be people who will exploit opportunities. What I don't understand is why some people think it's okay for the well heeled and those who have had every opportunity to exploit people and systems to get ahead but resent every penny used to help people have even a pittance of an existence, deserving or "otherwise".
I'm tired of the notion that if you are poor it is somehow your own fault and that if you are rich you got there through hard work, damn the destruction in your wake.
I am having another crisis of faith, faith in the goodness of my neighbors, faith in my belief that we can find common ground and figure out how to solve problems.
Don't try and make sense of it, just refer to the title of this post.
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