Purple State, USA

Thankful We Are So Different.

I have been thinking alot about Thanksgiving this week... its origins, its impact on the nation that would later be conceived on these shores, what meaning it still holds today. This week I watched our president welcome the prime minister of India, I saw replayed in the news Adam Lambert's provocative kiss with his male keyboardist, and I was saved a thousand times over by the grace, experience and diversity of my own acquaintances, friends, and family.

I wonder at the first Thanksgiving, at how tentative and a bit scary sitting down with people so different from themselves must have felt for both the pilgrims and the Native Americans. Perhaps under the festive celebration of the harvest, each side even secretly hoped they could more conform the other to their own beliefs and ways of life. Perhaps with time at least some realized why everyone was better off if they didn't.

It would be so much easier if we were all the same, wouldn't it? If we all held the same beliefs, the same fears, the same guiding principles, the same flaws, the same strengths, the same thoughts. We wouldn't have much to talk about, but certainly there would be the peace and predictability that our lives generally lack as we open our minds (sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not) to ideas different, even more uncomfortable, than our own.

A friend told me a couple weeks ago that he often enjoys a drink with his neighbors, listening as they talk about the neighbors that aren't there. These people, I presume, are at the very least upper-middle class, yet I almost choked on the sudden realization that white trash can exist at every economic level. They are, in all likelihood, still good people who have simply fallen into the trap of judging and compartmentalizing anything existing outside their comfort zone.

We are often afraid of what we don't understand, aren't we? In our rushed, always-on-24/7/365 lives, we seek, often desperately, to quickly and cleverly summarize lives, beliefs and actions different from our own. We do this even when we haven't bothered to gather the knowledge necessary to understand anything other than what we see at the surface. We do this perhaps to gain a laugh from our friends, but to the detriment of our society.

My challenge this week to all of us is to take a step outside our "normal" realities. Take the time to get to know more about an idea or a person that makes you uncomfortable. When you find yourself reacting in anger or defensiveness to something someone is saying, ask yourself why? and then commit to listening harder. Seek to understand. See if you can find a way to appreciate a new perspective or enhance your life by looking through the eyes of another.

At worst, you'll find you were right to be uncomfortable (I mean, really, there are some pretty serious nut-jobs in the world), but--at best--you might find another reason to be grateful this Thanksgiving for the diverse nation we are fortunate to call home.

The Myth of Robin Hood

The legendary story of Robin Hood is that of a man who stole from an authoritarian government money and items of value it had taken from its people. He then gave it back to those it rightfully belonged to. His actions, given the situation, are admirable. What I find unfortunate is that the story has lost context in the minds of many and simply been translated to: the rich are bad and corrupt, while the poor are good and more deserving.

I've been without money. I can remember counting pennies to buy a bag of Cheetos as my food for the day, washing my hair in fast food restaurant sinks and reading at Barnes & Noble until it closed at 11 PM on hot, summer nights so that the car I was sleeping in would have an opportunity to cool off at least enough to be bearable. I can remember sleeping in the driver's seat, keys in the ignition and utility knife in hand--just in case the wrong person might wake me up--on those nights so sweltering I had to leave the windows down.

Some have mistakenly assumed that my own history might lead me to accept the more generalized summary of Robin Hood. It does not.

You see, we don't live in an authoritarian state. We live in a land of tremendous opportunity. People often believe these to be pretty words for patriotic songs--but I have seen it with my own eyes. As a foster child and senior in high school, I sat in a classroom of my peers and watched them all ignore a man talking to us about an opportunity to try whatever career we might have an interest in, regardless of experience level. They ignored him. I walked up afterward and spoke to him, finding my first job in the IT industry and my way around the fact I couldn't afford college at that time.

I think of those peers whenever anyone tries to tell me that I somehow owe more to them because I make more. I think, "Why?" They were sitting there too. Why do the choices I made--the hard work, the long nights I made through with sheer will, fueled by no incentive but my hunger to be better--mean that I owe anyone anything? Why does it mean anyone with a similar story owes anything to those who simply chose a different road?

We've talked about the slippery slope of America before. I believe it is essential to a civilized society to treat each other with dignity and respect. I believe that we have a moral responsibility to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. I also believe if someone has consciously decided that they don't want to do that--don't want to work or re-train themselves for a job more in demand, that if they have decided they would rather do nothing--then there the burden on the rest of us should end. No where in any document on which this country was founded does it say it is our job to take care of those who are simply too lazy or unmotivated to take care of themselves.

I have kept an open mind about the health care bill, but when a friend told me about a version that suggests we all pay a portion of our yearly income as premiums I almost choked on such a socialistic notion. Yet it occurs to me that my choking may be a bit late... After all, aren't we already doing that with income taxes? Our government certainly needs money to undertake all that we task it with... but is there truly no better way than by punishing the most prosperous--and often also the most innovative and productive--among us?

Something to Think About.

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.'

"You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free."

-Excerpt from the 1995 movie, The American President

The Police Put Their Guns Down. And Got Shot Anyway.

The second amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

I have to confess... I like the feel of a handgun; I enjoy shooting clay targets in an open field with a rifle or a shotgun. Likewise, I love the sight of all things U.S. military, from the U.S.S. Constitution to a B-2 Bomber to an F-22. Despite that, I have zero desire to point a firearm at anything living and cause it harm without a damn good reason. 

I realize that not everyone who gets their hands on these weapons is as thoughtful or as deliberate as myself, so it's not hard to grasp why there is so much controversy around this amendment. I understand that in our desperation to prevent violent shootings it is tempting to suggest the elimination of guns entirely. Some even have fantastical notions that perhaps if the United States would just disband its military, then the rest of the world might follow suit.

We conveniently forget that the world has suffered violence for centuries prior to our country's inception; that we are not, in fact, the originators of all of this globe's problems. We forget that the majority of gun owners are responsible, vigilant individuals we would want well-armed if the situation ever called for it; that there's a reason we don't send our police or our military out to fight the bad guys with simply a note stating they are unarmed and, therefore, any scrupulous criminal will extend the same courtesy. We forget that drugs did not disappear the day they became illegal; likewise, guns will not disappear if they are outlawed. The only people impacted would be the people following the laws to begin with. 

I don't want my children living in a violent world anymore than anyone else. The problem is--the reality is--, they do. They do. And limiting their ways of protecting themselves, of not becoming victims, isn't the way to prepare them for it.

Freedom has many enemies, but none so great or so potentially devastating as fear. We simply cannot allow those who abuse our civil liberties to strip us of them. We aren't in elementary school; we have to figure out how to punish Johnny for his offenses, not the entire class.

Our forefathers gave us the right to bear arms in order that we might be able to protect our way of life... to deter an undemocratic government, help defend against invasion and aid with self defense--as necessary--in our individual lives. Is that not still a legitimate need in our society? And, even if some might contend it's not, can we say with 110% certainty that it never will be again? Anyone want to guess whether it would be easier to keep this right or try to get it back once we realize we need it?