The Meat and Potato’s of Easy Button Change Politics in an Age of Intolerance
May 20th 2009 11:49
It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear. . . . It's like being between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to.
~ Marilyn Ferguson
~ Marilyn Ferguson
In today’s conversation I’m looking to have a discussion about change.
This discussion won’t be tempered around any specific dogma of a political party nor will it involve the dissection of one political figures belief of everything our society could or should be versus another’s belief of how dangerous our society has become.
What I’m looking for out of this discussion is the simple and raw facts of how one man or woman's vision of change could be another man or woman's albatross.
I find it hard to believe or see anything wrong with the American people taking stake in their country by shaking their fists at a government run amuck with corporate corruption and greed.
The problems I do see beyond the smoky haze of everything we’re told change “should” involve are within the blinding glitter that is stifling conversation.
The conversation that is no longer on the main stage because “we got everything we wanted” out of election “08” and have no reason to fight the system.
The conversation that has been twisted and says that everybody who didn’t support “the change we can believe in” is living in some cave that serves as a speed bump to progress.
The conversation that says all of our problems with the rich getting richer on the backs of those less fortunate, our racial divide, famine, disease and the lack of conversation along the lines of race, sex, religion and sexual orientation are all magically solved with the tune of the Pied Piper.
The election of a man of hope and change is no reason for us to put down the candle that burns for the voice of dissent nor is it a reason to close our eyes and ears to the people who are providing us with warnings of the dangers to come.
In the day’s weeks and months after election “08” a wall has been erected along the lines of those who bleed blue and those who bleed conservative red leaving the voice of those in the middle out in the rough pasture.
The pasture that says you’re either with us or against us as one side forms the “conversation of truth’s” against the other.
The conversation that says all liberals are socialists hell bent on changing the ink of the Constitution and the other side saying the only conservatives left in politics wear overalls on their weekend’s off with the confederate flag flying from the bed of their quad cab.
This is far from the occasion that involves an in depth conversation of flags and the cause of socialism.
This is the time for each and every one of us to open our eyes to what’s going on in our country and world.
Time for the left to admit that the “oil men” are out of the White House and we’re still dealing with same spike at the gas pump that occurs every summer.
Time for the right to end the war of placing labels on the other side and rally behind the basic principals of limited government that made every Republican sign up to be part of the Grand Ole Party that gave America Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
When it comes down to brass tax each and every American man, woman and child needs an individual wake up call that doesn’t come from the lips of a politician who is looking to sway us from one side or the other.
A wake up call that gives us the clear and plain truth about the dangers of industrialization, the grave state of our environment and finding a better way to have conversations about a society that has to respect the institution of religion but not run a government based on the tenants of any specific dogma.
The screaming on the street has been quieted by a storm like no other our nation has ever scene.
We can continue to have elections every four years and swoon over the winners with the expectation that everything is going to be ok with the prick of a piece paper next to a D or an R or we can rise up and admit that this is not the best logic to bridging the great divide in this nation.
The best logic is and has always been when we open our minds and expand the conversation.
Solutions based around winners and losers only build animosity among the populous and turn the story of great men into partisan wrangling from one side or the other.
It’s time to stop the search for comfort and the cozy fit of “easy button” change and allow the voice of dissent to tell the whole story of what’s happening on the streets of America.
Every election cycle tells a story of a great man or woman who defeated another to achieve national prominence.
Within this story is always a sub plot of the group who didn’t vote for the side who won because of disagreements in political or social ideology of our future leader.
The key to getting past these bitter feelings is for the “winners” to respect the diversity in our vast nation and the fact that we will not always agree as well as it is the duty of the group whose candidate did not get the 51% of the vote to respect the decision of the American people and carry that voice of dissent back to Washington as the other side of the conversation.
The ability to get it right will always be on the table but it is the choice of the American people and those who represent us to eat the vegetables of compromise as well as the meat of the issues, potatoes of legislation based on common sense and ultimately the sweet taste of dessert in doing what’s right for the American people.
| 28 |
| Vote |
