My Cup Overfloweth
There have been many subjects, most influenced by media or pod casts I listen to, that have been running through my mind as of late. Living away from the friends I would normally talk with about these subjects has caused me to sit alone with these thoughts. This is sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always useful.
So here’s a brief rundown of a few of the many subjects I have been pondering:
Gay Marriage. Not really sure why the Mormon Church, or any church for that matter, has amassed huge sums of money to “fight” against the right for gay couples to be married. I’ve heard many irrational, unscientific, panic ridden arguments for those opposed to gay marriage but not really anything that strikes me as an informed argument. What is the fear here? Does anyone out there know something I don’t about gay marriage? Will America somehow implode in on itself the day gay marriage is made into law? I encourage you to listen to this pod cast (it’s basically about a Mormon high priest who is so against his churches stance on gay marriage that he is willing to face banishment).
White People and Guns. So America has elected its first black president. I am more than ok with this. But apparently many white folks are so scared of, yet again, god only knows what that they are flocking in droves to gun shops. They are not only buying guns and ammo in record numbers but buying assault weapons, assault weapons people!!! Is this for real? I don’t listen to any of the hate radio jocks so I have no context for where these people might be getting their misinformation from. Misinformation like “Obama is going to take all of our guns away from us.” Do these people know something about Obama that I don’t? Am I missing something here?
Welfare and Wealth Distribution. With at least 12.7 percent of America’s population living below the poverty line you would think this country would recognize the need for a better social welfare system. It hasn’t. If anything, it’s become increasingly harder for those struggling (self included) just to make ends meet over the last 20 years. The cost of everything (food, shelter, energy, healthcare) has gone up while wages for a large number of Americans have remained stagnant. What is this information alerting us to when the richest country in the world also has the highest percentage of those living in poverty amongst any of the other “developed” nations? Guess we’re not as “developed” as we purport to be.
Last rant:
Infinite War. Iraq. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Iran. Syria. Russia. North Korea. The list goes on. How much longer will America feel the “need” to be the world police? What does “winning” a war look like? How much longer will the American people continue to watch their tax dollars, dollars that could be spent on welfare reform, public education, healthcare, be made into bullets and bombs which stuff the pockets of “defense contractors” (a.k.a. criminals that should have been imprisoned long ago) with our tax money and destroy the lives, families and communities they are dropped upon?
Agatha Christie said it like this, “One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing: that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.”
Any thoughts?
So here’s a brief rundown of a few of the many subjects I have been pondering:
Gay Marriage. Not really sure why the Mormon Church, or any church for that matter, has amassed huge sums of money to “fight” against the right for gay couples to be married. I’ve heard many irrational, unscientific, panic ridden arguments for those opposed to gay marriage but not really anything that strikes me as an informed argument. What is the fear here? Does anyone out there know something I don’t about gay marriage? Will America somehow implode in on itself the day gay marriage is made into law? I encourage you to listen to this pod cast (it’s basically about a Mormon high priest who is so against his churches stance on gay marriage that he is willing to face banishment).
White People and Guns. So America has elected its first black president. I am more than ok with this. But apparently many white folks are so scared of, yet again, god only knows what that they are flocking in droves to gun shops. They are not only buying guns and ammo in record numbers but buying assault weapons, assault weapons people!!! Is this for real? I don’t listen to any of the hate radio jocks so I have no context for where these people might be getting their misinformation from. Misinformation like “Obama is going to take all of our guns away from us.” Do these people know something about Obama that I don’t? Am I missing something here?
Welfare and Wealth Distribution. With at least 12.7 percent of America’s population living below the poverty line you would think this country would recognize the need for a better social welfare system. It hasn’t. If anything, it’s become increasingly harder for those struggling (self included) just to make ends meet over the last 20 years. The cost of everything (food, shelter, energy, healthcare) has gone up while wages for a large number of Americans have remained stagnant. What is this information alerting us to when the richest country in the world also has the highest percentage of those living in poverty amongst any of the other “developed” nations? Guess we’re not as “developed” as we purport to be.
Last rant:
Infinite War. Iraq. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Iran. Syria. Russia. North Korea. The list goes on. How much longer will America feel the “need” to be the world police? What does “winning” a war look like? How much longer will the American people continue to watch their tax dollars, dollars that could be spent on welfare reform, public education, healthcare, be made into bullets and bombs which stuff the pockets of “defense contractors” (a.k.a. criminals that should have been imprisoned long ago) with our tax money and destroy the lives, families and communities they are dropped upon?
Agatha Christie said it like this, “One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing: that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.”
Any thoughts?
posted by Corey at 1:54 PM
4 Comments:
regarding infinite war: i wonder if this is how we keep capitalism going. capitalism has this hunger for destruction that has to keep moving, otherwise it'll eat itself. i just don't understand why u.s. citizens keep falling for the same tricks decade after decade.
i agree with you. War seems to be a sufficient lubricant to keep the wheels of capitalism spinning.
i think a big part of citizen inaction stems from the break down of committed communities actually banding together and speaking out against the way the government spends our money.
the social landscape of America has been ripped to shreds over the last 30 years. most people feel very alone in what they think or believe (unless of course your into religious fundamentalism, which seems to have seen a significant rise in numbers over the last decade or so).
i would guess that many people feel afraid to speak out without the community support and solidarity they seek.
i think it's really hard for people to imagine a social and economic landscape that's different from the one we have now. when we're children, we're told that the united states is the best country on earth. when we're young adults, we're told that our democracy (republic) is flawed, but it's the best government in existence. and i'm sure that's true for the top 5% who own anything, though it seems to be easy to be one of those people no matter what country you live in... when i critique capitalism around someone who doesn't have much imagination for anything different, they always respond with critiques of communism, as if it's BUSH or STALIN we've got to choose. which is ridiculous. i just don't understand how human beings can be so scientifically imaginative (hover cars! roller coasters! hadron colliders!) and so unimaginitive when it comes to creating new social organizations & making them work. though i suppose all you need is one smart/manipulative person who's only in it for what they can gain personally to mess it all up.
you bring up a really good point and one i've wondered about for some time: why is there such a lack of imagination for anything beyond Stalinism or Crapitalism?
I watched a doc recently about how divided America has become (this doc focused mostly on politics and even then mostly on democrat vs. republican) and although much of the doc was kind of blah i was really taken in by what they had to say about how Americans have all but lost the fine art of civil discourse.
They talked about how we as a people don't discuss our differences in a polite or even respectful way. We have become fundamentalists in the way we respond and believe. there is no place for dissenting, or even different, points of view.
Out of all the things the media tells us we should fear i would put ignorance and the unwillingness to discuss differing points of view in a respectful manner at the top of the list.
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