I hate all the whining, the polarizing, and the name calling. There. I said it. When did we stop caring about the life lessons that were taught, nay, DRILLED into us in elementary school? We don’t solve the issues by drawing lines in the sand, building up walls between us, or hurling insults at one another like a food fight in a lunch room. When we start hurling labels and group stereotypes around, we are missing the point.
The government is not out to get us; the government cannot save us; the government is made up of individuals that don’t have all the answers, can’t predict the future, and still have to make decisions based on their motivating factors. Sometimes those motivating factors are temptations. Most of the time, however, those motivating factors are goals, beliefs, principles, and ideas, much like the rest of us. And, much like the rest of us, those goals, beliefs, principles, and ideas are not all the time, 100% in agreement with their constituents or with each other.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hold our elected officials, and even the appointed ones, accountable for their actions and decisions. We should hold each other accountable, too. We should hold ourselves accountable. We should start thinking in terms of “I can; I will; I did; I must,” NOT “THEY did this; THEY are responsible for this entire mess; THEY are making ALL the decisions for me.”
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Ghandi
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Democrats are not all uber-progressive bleeding hearts that are going to spend us all into debt filled oblivion and feel the need to play mommy and daddy by taking all of your money and distributing it like a giddy Robin Hood scheme going horribly awry.
Republicans are not all fear-mongering, hypocritical, racist, callous tight-wads that care more about profit than social responsibility.
Wealthy people are not all greedy or entitled misers that care more about themselves than those around them and try to cheat their way into making lots of money for little or no work.
The poor did not all go broke because they were on drugs, gambled, popped out too many babies after unwed unprotected sex, were lazy and lacked ambition or work ethic, partied all the time and dropped out of school, or spent all their money on luxuries rather than necessities.
Some people did indeed become wealthy by inheritance, dumb luck, or even dishonesty. Some people have gone broke because of unfortunate or even stupid life choices. Some have a particular pay grade because they deserve it, some take more than they deserve, and some are paid or given less than they deserve.
The first really rude awakening we receive when we are young is that life isn’t always fair. Ideally, we then learn to still act in the name of fairness, empathy, justice, and personal responsibility to strive toward a world that is more just with the understanding that it will never be completely perfect.
The world is not yes or no, all or nothing, black or white. The world is a lot more complex than that.
Even if someone fits into a political or social caricature, while it indeed gives us the right to question their actions or call to light the issues at hand, it does not give us the right to belittle their humanity. They are still a human being. Not a monster. Not the boogie man. Not a parasite. They are a human capable of the full range of emotions and decisions.
We should work against fraud in all its forms.
This could be the CEO gleaning vast bonuses gained from bailout funds while those on the bottom rung of his or her company barely scrapes above hunger and homelessness and (s)he forgets the responsibility (s)he has to the general public for its investment. This could be a fully capable, non-disabled adult feigning job hunting in order to sit on their laurels while accepting welfare and unemployment checks because they just don’t feel like working. This could be someone that drives an Escalade, has a jewelry box full of diamonds, and shops at high-end clothing stores while accepting food stamps. This could be someone that drives an Escalade, has a jewelry box full of diamonds, and shops at high-end clothing stores who then pressures his/her congregation to give more and more of their funds and live up to the commandment to tithe all “in the name of religion and the church.” This could be anyone that pretends to be perfect or ethical or entitled or destitute just to get what they want without working for it; these are the people that take as much as possible and give as little as possible. Their “me” muscles are overdeveloped and they have ignored the exercises of generosity and service.
Stop calling anyone and everyone you don’t like “Hitler.” This goes doubly or more for those who have never studied the beginnings of World War II, don’t recall the names “Himmler, “Goebbels,” and “Mengele,” conveniently forget genocides in places like Rwanda and Cambodia, have no clue how the film “V for Vendeta” could ever connect to the history of Argentina, do not know how to look at both the sum total and the individual parts of a political movement, and/or have never delved into the political zeitgeist of the rise of significant political movements rather than relying on romanticized folktale style celebrations of glory or “evil” regimes and events that are told in the ilk of nightmarish ghost stories.
Politics and movements are far more complex. They also require the involvement and decisions of more than one figurehead individual, regardless of the government’s systematic structure.
Bad decisions do not always come from a bad person, and good decisions do not always come from a good person. Intelligent people can make dumb choices, and ignorant or uneducated ones can have moments of brilliance.
Not everyone that considers themselves to be Libertarian or ascribes to ideas of the Tea Party movement are blindly religious, judgmental, extremist jerks. Not everyone that is part of the Occupy movement is a tattooed, pierced, neo-hippy, bored college student with money from their parents and a naïve view of the world.
Some of them fit the stereotypes. Some don’t. Broad generalizations are tricky and sometimes even dangerous.
Many self-described Libertarians (and, yes, perhaps even “Tea Partiers”) also have a strong belief in volunteer work, social responsibility, and equality. Many who are involved in OWS are former soldiers or business people who think hard work is an essential component to combating corporations that are indeed greedy or corrupt, because you can’t complain about laziness and unjust entitlement while embodying those same qualities.
I have met conservative tree-hugging heathens and liberal devout Christians. I’ve even met some tree-hugging Christians that are fiscally conservative and socially liberal and have pagan friends. People don’t fit into convenient files.
All in all, we are not the 99%, the 53% percent, the 1%, the 50%, or any other percentage you want to throw out there. We are the 100%. We are 100% human, 100% full of potential, and 100% capable of changing ourselves, our communities, our country, and our world. We are 100% able to discuss issues without turning it into a temper-tantrum filled toddler fest. We are 100% capable of disagreeing without name calling, disrespect, rudeness, or violence. We are 100% able to use our rights: our right to speak out, to protest, to vote, to write letters to our governmental officials, to create our own media, and to chose to spend our money with corporations we believe in rather than those we feel are corrupt.
We are the 100%. We have the right to respect others rights. We have the right to be grown ups and build a better world for those who have yet to reach adulthood. We have the right to a dialogue rather than an unintelligible shouting match. We have the right to argue diverse ideas and beliefs while simultaneously celebrating that we are the 100%, that we will call out hypocrisy and fraud and greed, that we will work hard for our goals, and that we will fiercely uphold our rights and the rights of others with dignity, grace, maturity, and humane interaction.
Sometimes, we will find common ground. Sometimes, we will agree to disagree.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." – Evelyn Beatrice Hall (on Voltaire)
The government is not out to get us; the government cannot save us; the government is made up of individuals that don’t have all the answers, can’t predict the future, and still have to make decisions based on their motivating factors. Sometimes those motivating factors are temptations. Most of the time, however, those motivating factors are goals, beliefs, principles, and ideas, much like the rest of us. And, much like the rest of us, those goals, beliefs, principles, and ideas are not all the time, 100% in agreement with their constituents or with each other.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hold our elected officials, and even the appointed ones, accountable for their actions and decisions. We should hold each other accountable, too. We should hold ourselves accountable. We should start thinking in terms of “I can; I will; I did; I must,” NOT “THEY did this; THEY are responsible for this entire mess; THEY are making ALL the decisions for me.”
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Ghandi
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Democrats are not all uber-progressive bleeding hearts that are going to spend us all into debt filled oblivion and feel the need to play mommy and daddy by taking all of your money and distributing it like a giddy Robin Hood scheme going horribly awry.
Republicans are not all fear-mongering, hypocritical, racist, callous tight-wads that care more about profit than social responsibility.
Wealthy people are not all greedy or entitled misers that care more about themselves than those around them and try to cheat their way into making lots of money for little or no work.
The poor did not all go broke because they were on drugs, gambled, popped out too many babies after unwed unprotected sex, were lazy and lacked ambition or work ethic, partied all the time and dropped out of school, or spent all their money on luxuries rather than necessities.
Some people did indeed become wealthy by inheritance, dumb luck, or even dishonesty. Some people have gone broke because of unfortunate or even stupid life choices. Some have a particular pay grade because they deserve it, some take more than they deserve, and some are paid or given less than they deserve.
The first really rude awakening we receive when we are young is that life isn’t always fair. Ideally, we then learn to still act in the name of fairness, empathy, justice, and personal responsibility to strive toward a world that is more just with the understanding that it will never be completely perfect.
The world is not yes or no, all or nothing, black or white. The world is a lot more complex than that.
Even if someone fits into a political or social caricature, while it indeed gives us the right to question their actions or call to light the issues at hand, it does not give us the right to belittle their humanity. They are still a human being. Not a monster. Not the boogie man. Not a parasite. They are a human capable of the full range of emotions and decisions.
We should work against fraud in all its forms.
This could be the CEO gleaning vast bonuses gained from bailout funds while those on the bottom rung of his or her company barely scrapes above hunger and homelessness and (s)he forgets the responsibility (s)he has to the general public for its investment. This could be a fully capable, non-disabled adult feigning job hunting in order to sit on their laurels while accepting welfare and unemployment checks because they just don’t feel like working. This could be someone that drives an Escalade, has a jewelry box full of diamonds, and shops at high-end clothing stores while accepting food stamps. This could be someone that drives an Escalade, has a jewelry box full of diamonds, and shops at high-end clothing stores who then pressures his/her congregation to give more and more of their funds and live up to the commandment to tithe all “in the name of religion and the church.” This could be anyone that pretends to be perfect or ethical or entitled or destitute just to get what they want without working for it; these are the people that take as much as possible and give as little as possible. Their “me” muscles are overdeveloped and they have ignored the exercises of generosity and service.
Stop calling anyone and everyone you don’t like “Hitler.” This goes doubly or more for those who have never studied the beginnings of World War II, don’t recall the names “Himmler, “Goebbels,” and “Mengele,” conveniently forget genocides in places like Rwanda and Cambodia, have no clue how the film “V for Vendeta” could ever connect to the history of Argentina, do not know how to look at both the sum total and the individual parts of a political movement, and/or have never delved into the political zeitgeist of the rise of significant political movements rather than relying on romanticized folktale style celebrations of glory or “evil” regimes and events that are told in the ilk of nightmarish ghost stories.
Politics and movements are far more complex. They also require the involvement and decisions of more than one figurehead individual, regardless of the government’s systematic structure.
Bad decisions do not always come from a bad person, and good decisions do not always come from a good person. Intelligent people can make dumb choices, and ignorant or uneducated ones can have moments of brilliance.
Not everyone that considers themselves to be Libertarian or ascribes to ideas of the Tea Party movement are blindly religious, judgmental, extremist jerks. Not everyone that is part of the Occupy movement is a tattooed, pierced, neo-hippy, bored college student with money from their parents and a naïve view of the world.
Some of them fit the stereotypes. Some don’t. Broad generalizations are tricky and sometimes even dangerous.
Many self-described Libertarians (and, yes, perhaps even “Tea Partiers”) also have a strong belief in volunteer work, social responsibility, and equality. Many who are involved in OWS are former soldiers or business people who think hard work is an essential component to combating corporations that are indeed greedy or corrupt, because you can’t complain about laziness and unjust entitlement while embodying those same qualities.
I have met conservative tree-hugging heathens and liberal devout Christians. I’ve even met some tree-hugging Christians that are fiscally conservative and socially liberal and have pagan friends. People don’t fit into convenient files.
All in all, we are not the 99%, the 53% percent, the 1%, the 50%, or any other percentage you want to throw out there. We are the 100%. We are 100% human, 100% full of potential, and 100% capable of changing ourselves, our communities, our country, and our world. We are 100% able to discuss issues without turning it into a temper-tantrum filled toddler fest. We are 100% capable of disagreeing without name calling, disrespect, rudeness, or violence. We are 100% able to use our rights: our right to speak out, to protest, to vote, to write letters to our governmental officials, to create our own media, and to chose to spend our money with corporations we believe in rather than those we feel are corrupt.
We are the 100%. We have the right to respect others rights. We have the right to be grown ups and build a better world for those who have yet to reach adulthood. We have the right to a dialogue rather than an unintelligible shouting match. We have the right to argue diverse ideas and beliefs while simultaneously celebrating that we are the 100%, that we will call out hypocrisy and fraud and greed, that we will work hard for our goals, and that we will fiercely uphold our rights and the rights of others with dignity, grace, maturity, and humane interaction.
Sometimes, we will find common ground. Sometimes, we will agree to disagree.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." – Evelyn Beatrice Hall (on Voltaire)
