Quotable Quotes

“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”
~ E.L. Doctorow

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

- Oscar Wilde

Month of November

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

In which I find the phrase, "the blind leading the blind" apropos...

Lemmings. (See: mindless,hairy rodents who follow their rodent leader off a cliff with no thought to self-preservation or self-thought)

Truth: Lemmings follow mass-migratory patterns over, under, and through many obstacles when their population grows too rapidly for their habitat. This means that the little mammals - who are usually great swimmers - can sometimes miscalculate their own abilities and drown in the rivers they are attempting to ford.

The misconception of mass suicide has been encouraged over the years by the media.

Truth: that's one thing lemmings DO have in common with the American people...mass media says something and we believe every word that's spoken.

(See: Mass media would have the Republican faithful believe that Mitt Romney has the election in the bag...certain sources outside of the mainstream seem to think Mitt Romney is panicking because his lead isn't NEARLY as solid as Fox, NBC, and other major news corporations affirm. In fact, if these outliers have any spark of truth, Ron Paul is closer to the White House by quite a few delegates...)

I don't care really. I know who I am voting for and I am not here to talk about my political beliefs. Heck, I'm not even going to rave about my "religious" views - much...

No, my rant has more to do with how any American Citizen - educated or not - can look at the government and say with complete confidence,

"I love the way the government is being run. In fact, I love it so very much, I am willing to sell my SOUL to believe everything our faithful leaders promise. And I don't mind taking every handout they give me either...because as long as it's not coming from my own pocket, I don't care what hard-working citizen gets taxed to pay for my lazy, greedy lifestyle."

Frankly, these people make me feel extremely unChrist-like. I admit it. I'm human, I'm a sinner by nature of my old self, and being redeemed by God doesn't actually MAKE me perfect. His grace through me and in me are working on that part of the covenant...

My own sinful nature creeps up still to ruin the image in which I was created. I've been struggling it out with my Creator; it's a process that won't speed up or slam to a halt on the views of others who read this post. You don't like what I say here, that's fine. You are free to own opinions and world views. Just don't screw with my worldview when I speak up.

My husband and I went into debt to get our degrees. We fought through years of hard work and meaningless, mundane jobs to get to where we are. We are not independently wealthy by ANY stretch of the imagination, but we work for everything we have. Someday we hope to have that hard work pay off when our children and our children's children can be secure in the knowledge that we stewarded God's abundance well and we've left a legacy of security because of it...

We made mistakes and we lost money and respect for some of our choices. It's part of being human. But we are trying to do God's will as best we can. And we are seeing the rewards of living in that will. It doesn't take care of the consequences automatically, but it does give us hope that our future will be all the better for our surrender.

We help others in need. At some point in our life, we want to expand our abilities to give with open hands to the poor, the widows, and the orphans of this world. It's our God-given responsibility and it's also our responsibility as citizens of this universe. We reach out because we WANT to. We are two people. Hopefully, if our children catch on we will carry on that legacy of servanthood to them as well.

I am not boasting about our successes; just stating fact. We DO what we can with what we have to bring heaven to earth. We want to do more.

You don't like being stolen from right? No one does. It's a violation of our rights as human beings to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You have someone rob you; you are going to feel the pain and violation of that act.

So why is it that by and large the American people - at least the lower class ones - seem to feel it's all right to steal? Don't believe me?

Our healthcare sucks - royally. The insurance companies are out for blood money and they aren't afraid to exploit their customers to get every last drop. Meanwhile health care costs skyrocket, pharmaceutical companies ram more and more drugs down our throats, and the government lobbyists tuck away a pretty penny as well. All the while our taxes go up and we are forced to pay money toward whatever new whims the government decides will benefit us. And we don't ask questions...

Trillions of dollars in debt...with more added to that heavy burden every day. Where does it all go? Because I'm sorry, but I don't really see an improvement in our healthcare, our education, our roads, our security...

Meanwhile our president has taken numerous vacations in the four years he's been in office. I am not counting, nor am I going to give any actual numbers regarding just how many days he's been outside of the White House enjoying himself. As the President of a massive nation, I do not begrudge the man a break to rest and recuperate. Every president that I know of in recent years has golfed, vacationed, and enjoyed luxuries I can only imagine. I don't begrudge a few perks for the Commander in Chief of our nation.

But $4,000,000 vacations? Are you kidding me? The taxpayers are footing the bill for vacations they will NEVER see in their lifetimes and we're okay with this just because he's the President?

Not a chance. $4,000,000 could have fed a nation of starving children for life...and the next couple generations at that...

I take care of the family budget. Sometimes I do a poor job of it, but I have to BUDGET every penny for months or weeks in advance just to pay for a $400 vacation. And I feel the harshness when those dollar bills leave my hand, thinking of what good it could have done for someone else. Does this mean I hem and haw and fuss over that money after all's said and done? No. I DO however, know the value of every dollar that I've spent on pleasure.

Now tell me, because this is the argument I hear regularly from the Obama health care supporters...

If Obama was such a SAINT for helping redistribute the wealth to the poor with his policies and laws, why on earth are you not charging him with hypocrisy? Because I'm not even going to mention that HIS healthcare insurance is completely paid for and will be his for life even after his term runs out - and it's a hell of a lot better insurance than any normal American citizen is ever going to get, Obamacare or not...

He just spent $4,000,000 of your hard working dollars on a VACATION...and you think he's going to save you money on insurance costs by ramming his own version of nationalized healthcare down our throats.

$4,000,000 could definitely give the poor in our country some decent health care. So why are you  so willing to argue that the rich in this country should be redistributing their wealth more equally among the lower classes - like the wealthy don't deserve what they've worked for - and yet you do not see how Obama IS exactly what he complains the top 1% of our nation are - a greedy, undeserving, money-hungry miser.

And don't even get me started on the argument that this whole screwed up mess is a racial issue. I find it fascinating that the Obama worshippers are the most vocal about all the racial issues...

Obama is not even a full blooded African American. He's a mutt. Just like I'm a mutt. I have a bit of Native American in me...it doesn't mean I'm gungho to start scalping people or start throwing all the blame of my money problems on the government because they shoved my ancestors onto tiny little reservations. I have Irish in me. I have Polish in me. I am French and English, and a bunch of other strange and wonderful and awful and beautiful ethnicities...I wish I did have a little African in me...maybe some Chinese and Japanese just to round myself out a bit. Each one of these ethnic groups has seen both good and bad in their history.

Unfortunately, they all seem terribly adept at repeating the bad in their history and not quite so good at learning from their mistakes...Caucasians included.

I don't give a flying fart about what percentage of melanin is in my President's skin. He can be black, white, yellow, red, orange, green or blue. Heck, I like the color purple even. I don't care if the leader of our country is male, female, young or old, married or single. She can be the most beautiful woman in the world, or she can be an ugly hag...He can be charming and charismatic or he can shock the pants off the people with his vulgar, backcountry hick speech.

I DON'T CARE...

What I do care about is that our President represent the people he leads. That means - in my book - servanthood, sacrifice, understanding, unconditional love, and selfless service that transcends ALL boundaries. I want to follow a man who represents the greatest and best parts of being human. I want a man who is not apologetic about the freedoms and standards that our country should - and once did - stand for. I want a man (or woman) who is the first to lead the charge against tyranny and oppression and the last to retreat in the face of other's bigotry and prejudice.  I want a President who shows by his character and moral uprightness that he will not be overcome by corruption and bribery and scandal. I want a leader that I can be PROUD to follow, not one I'm ashamed to even look at.

I want a leader who is more concerned about setting an example of service and sacrifice than a leader who feels ENTITLED to $4,000,000 vacations and other's hard-earned paychecks. I want a leader who lives with his/her hands OPEN as an expression of just how much he or she is willing to give to others without expecting anything in return. I want other nations to look at ours as a beacon of hope and humanity, a small piece of heaven on earth when all other countries struggle with hopelessness and despair, war and hate and death and disease. I want a President who is the first to eat meager rations during war time and the last to enjoy the luxuries of hot water and health care and fine clothing. I want him or her to be the first to donate the firstfruits of their wealth to meeting the needs of the poverty-stricken.

I know that whoever leads this country will be far from perfect. It's inevitable, unless we've decided that God's going to take over the kingship again, we will get an imperfect human being in office.

I just want that human being to stop playing God. Stop thinking with his wallet and start thinking with the heart that God gave him or her. I want them to stop seeking the power for their own gain and start seeking how best to use the power they've been given to meet the needs of the people they lead.

Lemming_pledge

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