As we grow up we are taught right from wrong. We are also taught that if something is legal we can do it and if it isn’t we shouldn’t. Most of us, as adults, understand that there is a grey area in this line of thinking. Unsurprisingly for most of us, we recognize that what’s legal is not always moral. We recognize when our actions have repercussions and harm others and we act in a moral manner first. Just because you can legally do something doesn’t mean you should or that it’s a moral decision. I know that and most decent people know that. One of my pet peeves are people who declare that they have the “right” to take an action without any thought or care as to the morality of the action. They think legal is the same as moral. This occurs all the time in the business world; especially with the elite businessman or woman. Trump is a perfect example of this. He had a legal right to file multiple bankruptcies whenever he got himself into a monetary bind and so he did. He sees nothing wrong with that no matter how many people were hurt by it. After all, it was “legal” therefore, to him, it was his right to do it. Every action he takes relates directly to his well-being and only that. He lies to everyone but feels no remorse because it’s legal to lie and if people are dumb enough to fall for it then it’s not his fault, right? He told blatant lies throughout his campaign about other people, namely Hillary Clinton and he goaded people into revealing their racism without so much as a tingle of conscience because he had a “legal” right to do it. To him, it doesn’t matter that he indirectly caused the deaths of multiple people by inciting or legitimizing violence and hate. It was also “legal” to frivolously send multiple young soldiers to their deaths right after he was elected, so he did. I doubt he gave it much thought except as to how powerful it would make him look. He needs money for his wall so he gets rid of Meals-On-Wheels for the elderly, the NEA and school lunches for poor kids while his wife and daughter parade around in jackets and dresses that cost the equivalent of a year’s salary for one family. He puts haters and bigots by his side and billionaires in charge of departments he knows they will destroy. It’s not illegal after all. He hates Democrats at the moment, so he destroys all the programs they think is important. He can’t STAND the thought of a non-white person outdoing him so he takes apart the ACA no matter how many people get hurt and replaces it with..well, nothing. But hey, it’s legal so it must be moral, yes? His budget will tax the rich less and raise taxes on the poor, but it’s legal. We have to keep the wife happy in her $54,000.00 jacket while we cheat on her behind closed doors, but that’s legal too. Sadly there are many people in this world who think like this, most of them are either wildly financially successful or in prison. There isn’t a whole lot of difference in their characters. Trump has gotten away with this sick behavior his whole life by “playing” the legal game through the benefit of being born to a family with money who can buy their way out of trouble. When he is caught, he buys people off. One thing he can’t buy is integrity, honor or any semblance of humanity. He, legal or not, belongs in prison where he can’t kill or hurt any more people. Let’s make that happen and soon; it’s the moral thing to do and you know it.
A Few Words of Wisdom
Let’s start today with some literary wisdom:
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” — Joseph Heller, Catch-22
The Problem with “Willful Ignorance”
In many parts of this country, ignorance isn’t stupidity, ignorance is a choice. Sometimes it’s a community “mindset”. Sometimes it’s an individual decision. Willful ignorance isn’t born of lack of resources, its a product of laziness, fear and a desire to fit in. While lack of education feeds ignorance, the decision to stay ignorant is a personal one. We all have choices no matter how limited our resources. Ultimately, we can choose to be intellectually curious or we can choose to be lazy. We can choose to rise above our current station in life or we can choose to stay there. We can choose to learn about the world or we can choose to sit back and let the world take care of us and complain about our situation in life. We can blame the government or we can stand up to our communities and make changes. No matter our economic and educational level, we can drift along and pretend that everything will be alright and make bad choices or we can take action and educate ourselves on the issues. We can willfully believe fake internet sites because they fit our comfort zones or we can learn to Google facts. Our ignorance today is tomorrow’s future and tomorrow’s future is the future of our children. Do you care? It seems to me that those who stay willfully ignorant are the real traitors to this great country. They are the one’s who got us into this mess. Let’s fix it. Call Congress and let them know that the masses still have plenty of Americans who reject willful ignorance and are not going to let them get away with suppression of us or our freedoms. This is not a partisan issue, this is a human issue, a rights issue, a cake baked of complacency, denial and fear with a huge dose of bigotry for icing that is the foundation for suppression of human freedoms for those in power. Believe me, those in power know it and they will use it. Let’s not let them.
California, the Land of Enlightenment
I live in California so I am labeled “an enemy” by Trump. I am also labeled a “lib-tard and many, many other names by people who have never lived or even been to California. Let me tell you a bit about California. Yes, there are hot-tubs here and wine and many here live the good life. We also have the lower class and people on the dole and some homeless but not nearly to the extent of the “red” states. California has the 6th largest economy in the WORLD. Much of the state is rural, beautiful farmlands. I’ll post some pics at the end of this article. I was born at the renowned Presidio Army base in San Francisco and my first home was one of the famed “Pilot Homes” over-looking the Golden Gate bridge. I was raised all over the world as an Army-brat and settled here many years ago when my father retired. We had previously been stationed in Hawaii so, at first, California was a let-down. Over the years though, I have come to appreciate it’s beauty, not only the geography but the diversity of its people and culture. We have come a long way and I was here for most of it. I was here when Gays were “perverts” and anyone who looked different was an outsider. I was here when abortion was illegal and watched people I knew die because of it. I was here when it was okay for men to grab my breasts or my “pussy” because it was just “boys being boys”. I was here when it was difficult for women to get any kind of job in science or any man-defined job. I was here when a divorced woman was an “exile” from polite society so married women often stayed in horribly abusive marriages just to avoid the stigma. I was also here when those things slowly changed. When foreigners were embraced for the beauty and diversity of their cultures. When Gays fought for equal rights and people began to realize that being gay was a normal part of being human. I was here when women demanded protection in the workforce and were allowed to shine in all jobs from astronauts to scientists to stay-at-home Moms. When divorce became an option without blame, when women were given rights over their own bodies and souls. California flourished and blossomed and grew and the people with it. I was here when Christianity became just one of many theologies, along with the right to say “I’m not religious” without being demonized.
Yes, I was here through that and I treasure every moment of that awaking. I try every day to embrace knowledge and fight against hate. Trump stands for hate and we are not going back to that. We just aren’t, sorry. Next time you start to bash a Californian, I invite you to come here and learn what you are missing. It’s a wonderful world to live in. Trumpsters, I’ve been where you are, I’ve lived in the heart of Texas and Ohio and several other states. I know what you are missing but you have no idea. Stop being so afraid of change, you might learn something.
Just Because I’m a Democrat…
Just because I’m a Democrat…
1. Doesn’t mean I want to pay for our citizens to lay around and not work. We do need Welfare reform and quickly. I believe that every able-bodied American should have a job. I also believe that once we do have welfare reform more people will have jobs.
2. Doesn’t mean I want to take away gun rights. I fully believe that the average citizen should have the right to carry a gun. I also think that person should know how to use that gun safely and gun training should be mandatory. I think we need better cross-state communication so the wrong person can’t get their hands on a gun simply by crossing state lines. That was the MEAT of Obama’s proposal by the way, not taking away guns. I recognize that in certain states gun use is a necessary part of life and I will defend that.
3. Doesn’t mean I like abortion. No one LIKES abortion. The fact is, that since abortion was legalized, fewer babies are being aborted through education and the options given them by planned parenthood. Abortions will happen anyway and more babies and young women will die without legalization.
4. Doesn’t mean I want to take away your religion. On the contrary, I want everyone’s personal spiritual beliefs to be respected and protected. The ONLY way to do that is through separation of church and state. History has shown that when churches get involved in government, freedoms are lost. American Christians, the fastest way to see your religious beliefs disappear is to vote in a demagogue like Trump who wants to take away rights. I don’t think he is even a church-goer.
5. Doesn’t mean I think there is no danger from terrorist attacks. Of course there is. It’s always a possibility. No human being can protect you from that, no one, not Obama, not Clinton and especially not Trump with his unstable personality and trigger finger. But I do have to say that there haven’t been any serious attacks in this country during Obama’s presidency so you might want to think about that. That doesn’t just “happen”, our current government is doing a great job to make sure it doesn’t happen. Let’s not forget that 9-11 happened in Bush’s presidency along with a farce of a war which killed thousands of good American and European men and women.
6. Doesn’t mean I think we should have uncontrolled immigration. No country has uncontrolled immigration. With all the hype out there about how Democrats are going to open the borders is the fact that we already have a tough vetting system for new in-coming immigrants. We already have a WALL. Yet, because of the internet conspiracy theories the stories spread. There is already a vetting system in place for any immigrants from the Middle East. Chill.
Just because I am a Democrat doesn’t make me a leftist any more than it makes the average Republican citizen a right-wing fanatic. It also doesn’t make me vote along party lines although I have to say I will make an exception this year. This year, the GOP has mutated so badly to the far right that I no longer can support it as a party at all. It’s an embarrassment and ALL citizens of America should be ashamed to have let it get this far.
When I Was Younger
When I was younger, I remember when abortion was illegal. Women were forced to go to dirty clinics to have abortions and many sickened and died. Others tried to self-abort only to die as well. Many lives were saved by making “choice” an option for women. No one is pro-abortion, no one. No one wants to see a fetus aborted under any circumstances. The fact is, it’s going to happen whether or not it’s legal. By making it legal, many babies are being SAVED by offering options, like adoption, to women who come in to places like Planned Parenthood and who otherwise would have aborted their pregnancy. They are also counseled on different options for birth control that many were ignorant of thereby reducing the chance of a repeat pregnancy. Abortions are way DOWN since it was made legal. So, if you are for saving lives it makes no sense to go back to it being illegal, none. No matter your religious beliefs, in this country, you are free to decide for yourself, you just can’t decide for anyone else. I have never met ANYONE who is pro-abortion, just pro choice. There’s a huge difference…
The Degeneration of the GOP
Donald Trump is the GOP’S last act of sheer desperation. The party has become like a wild animal trapped in a corner of its own making and will now drop its last ounce of civilized behavior in order to break free and survive. Gone is the Grand Old Party we used to know and, even over differences, still had respect for.
For me, it started when Obama got elected. In years past, if we didn’t like the results of an election, we still respected the office and the person in it. I remember being so ashamed to have George W. Bush as our president. He just came off as, well…not presidential material and I always had the lingering sense that he was a puppet. Still, I respected our laws and the way the government worked and gave him his due. I recognized that he was a politician with experience and a certain degree of ethics. After some initial grumbling, so did the Democratic party. There were differences but no obstructionism. The government worked as it should. During Bush’s term, we then went through 9-11, a useless war and a terrible economy. We dealt with it. Then, when Obama got elected, the GOP went crazy and, well frankly, acted like a bunch of spoiled brats. By the GOP I mean the elected officials, not the average American citizen. There was a no-holds-barred attack on Obama from every direction. He was called names, town hall meetings became shout-downs, there were no limits on how he could be treated or what could be said to him or about him and his family. I think someone actually threw a shoe at him and got away with it. I remember being shocked at the behavior and wondered what the hell was going on. Was the GOP actually behaving like that? That behavior was the beginning of what I call the YAKivist. You know, the yelling, screaming, ignorant, in”DUH”vidual shouting insults at everyone who didn’t agree with them. Pretty soon there were hoards of them and most of them were Republican conservatives. Sorry, but they just were. After a time, we would see more Democrats retaliating in a like manner, but the insidious behavior was born in the GOP. We then suffered through EIGHT years of abysmal behavior from the GOP toward Obama. Horrible racist things were said and cartoons so racist they made me sick. All the while the Obama’s kept their cool, dignity and conducted themselves admirably. I admired them even more. Then the Tea Party crept into the cracks made by this political atmosphere like rats in a sinking ship, only these rats stayed and started chipping away at the hull of that ship. In my opinion, a crazier, more fanatical, bunch of loonies had never before walked the halls of Congress. Most American people, gob-smacked, like myself, just sat there and let it happen. I mean, what could we do? I think we were all hoping it would go away and just stop. It didn’t. For EIGHT years, through a 2nd term, when the American people voted once again for Obama, through a much better economy (fact), less unemployment (fact), and no major terrorist attacks (fact), we had to suffer obstructionism (a tidy word for racism), and two shut downs of the government at taxpayers expense, because the GOP kept having temper tantrums over Obama’s election. Yes, GOP, we noticed what you were doing. After all, Obamacare, was a terrible thing. Why? Because frankly many of the GOP leaders owned those cheap useless, scamming insurance companies everyone loved, that is until they actually needed insurance then read all the fine print. For EIGHT years Obama endured obstructionism from a bunch of fanatics. Then, when he finally gave up on them and started getting things done without them, they accused him of misusing the office and threatened to sue him. There were no lawsuits pursued because they didn’t have a legal leg to stand on. EIGHT YEARS of this crap.! During this time, it became more and more acceptable to tear apart, abuse and use our political system in ways that were so unimaginably insane and disrespectful of our American values it made me cringe. The conspiracy theories started taking hold because it was absolutely acceptable to say anything, no matter how outrageous, in the media and on the internet. So here we are, a demagogue like Trump sees the opportunity to step in and become “King of America” and before you know it the GOP has suffered a internal coup they can’t get out of gracefully and the average American has a racist, hating, unstable monster like Trump to contend with. So what does the GOP do about it? Do they do the morally right thing and get rid of Trump at all costs? Nope, they whisper and grumble and then cave in and start endorsing every hating, lying, thing they can find to hurt the opposition. After all, it’s bad enough to have a BLACK man in office but a WOMAN? NEVER!!! Yes, it’s the last desperate move of a despicable, dying animal. Good riddance!
What is a Democrat?
What is a Democrat?
I used to be a Republican. Yes, it’s true. I switched parties because I liked the ideals of the Democrats more. They seemed to fit the ideals of what I wanted this country to become. While, at the time, I respected the old world values of the Republican Party, I recognized, at least for myself, my values were more encompassing of, and more closely matched, those of the Democratic party. My posts here on this page reflect those ideals.
My parents were Republicans. I saw a lot of prejudice in their hearts and a lot of hate there which turned me off. At the same time they considered themselves “Good Christians”. My heart couldn’t reconcile the two points of view. It just wasn’t right. I have studied the Bible, the Koran and the Torah along with Buddhism and Hinduism. None of those religions promote hate. None of them promote violence. It’s PEOPLE who promote violence and hate in their abuse of religion.
So I became a Democrat. I felt good about it and I still do. As the Republican Party fell into more of a “hate” party with the advent of the Tea Party fanatics, my feelings were affirmed. When the GOP attacked President Obama and his family in a visceral way that was so obviously racist, then obstructed absolutely everything he wanted to do for this country including shutting down the government at taxpayer’s expense, that sealed my deal with the Democratic Party. I was already appalled by the GOP’s behavior and encouragement of shouting down other people’s viewpoints, I already despised their tiny hate-filled minds, but that really did it.
My feelings were further affirmed by today’s GOP’s encouragement and use of conspiracy theories, outright lies and fueling the biases of the uneducated along with their use of fear-mongering tactics and other outrageous lies in order to manipulate the less educated in this country. Those tactics should make any American sick, educated or not. Their blatant misuse of the internet to anger people who should know better, but don’t, is what enabled a monster like Trump to get as far as he has. If the GOP of today really cared about this country, they wouldn’t stand by and let a crazy, incompetent, irresponsible, bigoted, ignorant moron even have the remote possibility of getting into the White House. Along with that is their misogynist attacks on someone like Hillary Clinton, who, while not perfect, hasn’t actually done 98% of what she is being accused of.
As a Democrat, I have been called many names, “libtard”, left-wing crazy, tree-hugger, you name it. The truth is, I am just someone who has pretty moderate views. I think the majority of Democrats are the same. We could, in many ways, be considered the “Old Republicans” with some newer, progressive ideas. I believe in a lot of the ethics the GOP used to stand for, I just can’t get behind the hate-filled, bigoted, misogynist party of today.
A Campaign of Fear
Over the past few weeks, in reading all the posts here and some comments on “right-wing” sites, I feel I need to examine the concept of how “fear” plays into this election. We all know that Trump’s entire campaign is composed of hate-mongering and fear tactics. Hate-mongering legitimizes people’s hidden bigotry and misogyny and makes it “okay” to hate. Hate will bring internal conflict to this nation and break us apart. It has already done so thanks to the media these past few years, and yes, to the far right Christian Evangelists. With the Evangelists, fear is their weapon. They preach that Islam is out to destroy Christianity, it isn’t, but even if it were, that’s why we have the laws we do regarding the separation of church and state. No religion can dictate their beliefs on others in this land or make laws against other religions who are here lawfully. So, bottom line is, Christians can’t force religion on anybody and neither can Muslims or any other religion. That’s why separation of church and state is one of the most brilliant laws ever made. Throughout history, whenever personal beliefs were in power over the people, terrible things happened and freedoms were lost. Then there are those who fear Sharia law. The very concept of Sharia law is against our laws and therefore would not be accepted in this nation.
So…is Isis coming to the United States? Not lawfully, no. Yet, I hear over and over how Hillary is going to “bring” Isis here. What?
Isis is, relatively speaking, a small band of fanatic criminals just like Osama Bin Laden and his cult. Isis does not represent Islam. Hillary and Obama “took care” of Bin Laden, did we forget?
Can we promise that we won’t have any more “terrorist” attacks in the United States? No one can promise that. Trump, who doesn’t seem to understand the basics of running this country certainly can’t. Hillary and Obama? Well the last eight years have been relatively peaceful, aside from some isolated incidents, none of which have been attributed to Isis. So I think the answer is, so far so good. Yet people who should know better are so fearful they would have us jump from the frying pan right into the fire of a Trump presidency where an unstable man could surround himself with fanatics and have his finger on the nuclear button. That, my fellow Americans, is something to fear.
In closing, I’d like to suggest that if we are going to fear something it should be a crazy, lying, bigoted, unstable man as president, and, oh yes, another crazy man, Kim Jong-un in North Korea playing with his nuclear weapons, one’s that COULD reach our shores very soon. Now that’s something to be afraid of.
I Get It, I do
An Open Letter to the GOP:
Dear GOP,
I get it, I do. You want the United States of America to go back to the way it was oh, 65-75 years ago. At that time, it was controlled by white people who had pretty much the same mind-set. “Queers” were to be ridiculed, blacks were sub-human, women belonged in the home raising kids and anyone of any other race was an “outsider”. Christianity was the ONLY religion and anyone who didn’t fit that mold was shunned. Men all had short hair and wore suits…pretty much how the recent Republican convention looked this year.. I get it, really I do. The Japanese were hated. I remember much of it. I remember when things began to change too. All of a sudden, I, as a woman, had the right to do something with my life other than get married and have kids. My Dad was very disappointed in me. My Mom was confused by it all. I actually had the right not to be beaten by my husband, or raped by my husband or anyone else. Blacks and Gays had the right to be heard after centuries of abuse. Children were protected from hidden sins like incest. Men started wearing their hair in different styles. Women could actually have careers, the horror! As time went on, immigrants who came to this country began to be accepted, their cultures blended into the actual beauty of what this country was supposed to represent. I saw all this happen and, you know what? It was like a breath of fresh air. People were no longer hiding in fear of their true selves or desires.
So yes GOP, I get it, I get that you are all a bunch of hypocrites to the ideals of what this nation is supposed to be. I get your hatred, your bigotry, your greed, your small petty minds. I get it, I do. Here’s the problem, we can’t go back, the people of this country don’t WANT to go back to being suppressed, beaten, ridiculed or raped. Sorry but it just isn’t going to happen. We live in a different world and it’s called The United States of America, it’s the melting pot it’s supposed to be and it’s been a long road, but now, even with all the lingering issues,it is truly GREAT.
The Litmus Test 