Thursday, January 23, 2014

Appointed, Not Anointed


The government; yes I’m sorry to say, the government, that paragon of virtue, has become nothing more than a curse in the lives of most of the American people these days.  It finds its way into our daily lives most inappropriately, and at the most inopportune time.   New laws, taxes, fees, regulations, requirements of every kind.  Listening in on us, tracking our every keyboard stroke or smart phone transaction.  Millionaires, most of them, they party, and cavort unabashedly, with the Hollywood elite, Hip-hop, rock and pop stars, and CEO’s of the largest corporations on the planet (Facebook, Google, etc.).  They exempt themselves from indignities that common Americans are faced with (drug testing, Obamacare), and crimes that you or I would be imprisoned for.  They pass bills that they have never read which contain laws that threaten our freedom, but not their own.  
We must remind these ‘public servants’ that they have been appointed by the people, and not anointed by some holy one as they would like to believe.  

Besides being way too big (all-encompassing, really), the main problem with government is that the politicians actually believe their own fiction.  They are as deluded as the general population of most mental institutions, and yet hold court as if they were anointed, rather than appointed.  They consider themselves to be loyal, moral and ethical pillars of the country working hard on our behalf, and yet they wallow in their own self-importance stroking themselves, and each other, for gratification, all the while thinking that we see them as they see themselves.

The truth is, we can see them, for who they actually are.
But we don’t care.

And that, my friends, is the real tragedy.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Ideology


 It sickens me how so many have a need to label others as liberal or conservative, right wing or left wing, with the attendant name calling, perpetuating the revulsion of one side for the other.  It is not an intelligent perspective; it is not conducive to any kind of personal dignity, and it does not advance the position of any of us as brothers and sisters, neighbors, and fellow travelers on this planet. It only divides.  It only separates.  It only tears down, and tears away from the good of the whole.  If truth be told, we all have some liberal in us, and we all have some conservative.  That we are afraid to recognize in ourselves the side we wish not to be known as, and only recognize in others the side that we wish to demean says even more about our own inadequacy than it does about our ideology.

Can we stop blaming others for our own unhappiness, and begin to find some common ground for agreement for a change?  There is no honest dialogue anymore because there is no longer a wish for common ground.  There is only the need to be right.  And it has proven to be devastating to the psyche of our families, our communities, and our country.

When is the last time you heard someone say, "Y'know, you may be right?"  When is the last time you said those words to someone else?