Sunday, August 30, 2015

Little Feathers: Roots (and Rants)

Little Feathers: Roots (and Rants): The noise in America is deafening. How can we have come so far from our roots as human beings that we can listen to, or make, some of the ar...

Roots (and Rants)

The noise in America is deafening. How can we have come so far from our roots as human beings that we can listen to, or make, some of the arguments that are clogging the airwaves? We have made political arguments out of some issues that have no business being political. They are simply matters of human decency.

How can anyone argue the point that guns must be kept out of the hands of lunatics? Seriously. I don't hate guns. I don't think guns are evil. But I think guns in the hands of criminals and crazy people is an insanity of its own. To say you are against all gun control is incomprehensible. How can we take back our safety? I don't know. I hope to God someone has an idea that will work. To make guns illegal will ensure that only the criminals have guns. To do nothing ensures that another shooting of innocent men, women and children will happen again and again. It isn't Democrats vs Republicans. It is anyone who wants to feel safe sending their children to school, or a movie, or to work on TV.  We have to stop arguing about this and do something that matters. No more kneejerk reactions to "for" and "against". Stop the rhetoric. Is there anyone out there who is for the murder of innocents? Besides the ones who have no right to a gun, I mean? It isn't political. It is human rights. The right to live through the day.

There is a black market for fetus parts. It makes me cry. There are women who get pregnant and sell the aborted fetus to pay for their drug habit. Do I want the government to tell me I can or can't get an abortion? No. Do I want someone to address this atrocity? Yes. It isn't political. It is human decency. The talking heads are mucking up the picture terribly. Drawing lines in the sand about an issue that is intensely divisive and inherently personal. It isn't Democrat vs Republican. It is much more elemental than that. Who will step forward to defend the woman and the fetus? Who will do that?

Politicians, do you know anyone who is gay? If you do, you are not going to be able to lump them in a group and decide what rights they can or cannot have. If you know anyone who is gay, you know an actual person. Someone with every bit as much right to the same freedoms that you enjoy. If you don't like their lifestyle, fine. You can go around disapproving. You just can't go around feeling superior. Because you are not.

Mr. or Ms Candidate, if you are not Native American, you live here because your ancestors had the freedom to settle here. People fleeing to America now are in grave danger. Children arrive dehydrated and starving. Their parents had to be desperate to leave their homes and make the journey. And you would turn them back. How compassionate of you. What does our Statue of Liberty stand for now? Give me your tired, your poor...baloney. Pass some legislation that makes immigration work. Turn away the drug lords and terrorists. Turn away the pimps and child molesters. They have made their choice. But do not turn a blind eye to the families in grave need of sanctuary. Please.

Whether or not the climate is changing due to human pollution, the fact is that we should not be poisoning our earth. We should not be trashing our home. Is there a person out there who disagrees with that? Is there someone who thinks it is just fine that China is so toxic that millions get sick and die from it? Is there someone who doesn't realize that the air over China doesn't stay over China? China isn't the only one. Pollution isn't a political talking point. It is just common sense that it has to stop. 

What is left? If we take those arguments out of the grab for voters, what is left? What are our roots as humans? In a nation that has prided itself on its values, we are drifting far, far from the core. Who are we as a people? Stand up and say something that matters. We the people stand for decency, for compassion, for freedom to make the decisions that affect ourselves without hurting our neighbor. We the people stand for a society that promotes opportunity for everyone, not just a certain ethnicity. We the people stand for accountability, for personal responsibility to take the opportunities given and make a life for ourselves that contributes to the good of the whole. We the people see our own culpability in the problems of this world, and work to clear the smoke of self-aggrandizing to see the issues as they are. Not as reported by special interests. It isn't politics. It is survival.

Easy to write a blog. Easy to sit back and judge. What work am I willing to do to right the wrongs that are building up like a sludge over our collective conscience? I'll admit I don't know. I only know I want to get back to the truth. Boycotting politics won't fix anything. I hope a candidate will emerge who is more interested in truth than in their party's rhetoric. I'm praying hard for America. I'm praying hard that my feet will match my lips. Our roots are in the Garden of Eden (metaphorically or literally, it works the same way). We are born innocent, hopeful, creative, vulnerable. It is a tragedy if the only vestige of that in our adult lives is the vulnerable part.