Purple State, USA

Purple State Citizens' Favorites

This week most of us are out enjoying the (finally!) Spring weather, so I decided to take the opportunity to share some of the more lighthearted political quotes, cartoons and pictures we have received from you this week.

Quotes:

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." -Albert Einstein

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." -Benjamin Franklin

"Sometimes I think our entire society needs one big collective hobby. Just a group activity to calm our nerves. We're all so angry. Seriously, what do we have to be so angry about? My supermarket sells eight different kinds of salsa. Whatever." -excerpt from an article by John DeVore on criticizing others

Cartoons:

 
  (for all our pilot friends...)

 

Pictures:

(in honor of next week's blog--thanks, Cody, it's perfect!)

 

How We Hurt Each Other

A double post this week, if you'll permit me...

I've heard it said that people can only hurt us if we let them. While I'm certain there are contexts in which this statement is brilliantly insightful, as a more generalized statement I find it to be crap. The unfortunate uncertainty about sharing our lives with other imperfect people is that we are bound to get hurt and to hurt others along the way. The only way to truly not get hurt is to refuse to share our lives and our experiences, but what would be the point of that?

Let me tell you how I failed this week.

First. I have a friend who left for Afghanistan last Wednesday. Though I'd made a trip to visit her a couple weeks ago and despite having that date burned into my head as unbelievably significant... somehow it wasn't until the actual day that I remembered she was deploying. I realized too late to call her, which is something I am certain she noticed and something I am certain hurt her in a way I didn't intend. Though my heart and my mind are with her, I get that my actions did not convey that.

Second. In my honest attempts to deal with some issues related to a very good friend of mine, I inadvertently put myself on the wrong side of the fence when he was hit by a proverbial train this week. It some ways, it underscores the concerns I'd had for quite awhile... but that doesn't lessen the fact that it hurts not to be able to help a friend and a family who so definitely deserve only happiness.

Fortunately, no single moment is the sum of any of our lives or relationships, though certainly there are moments when the trees in front of us overshadow the surrounding forest.

I know I could tie this to politics, as most posts on here strive to do, but I'll let you draw any parallels on your own at this point. For now, I want to tell you that I love these two friends and their families deeply. For next week, I am simply going to try to do better. I don't know if that will be enough, but it's all I can do... so I guess it will have to be.

Expectations

Most individuals have expectations of the people they let close and rely on. For me, it's honest communication. I have had people express that my ability to throw five well-articulated paragraphs onto a piece of paper in almost as many minutes intimidates them. It shouldn't. I am a writer and I have zero expectation for most to communicate as I do.

No, what I mean by honest communication is much simpler. Let me provide you some examples: If I communicate about an apple, but get an unrelated response about tires... I don't understand; If I ask a direct question and don't get a direct answer... I don't understand; If anyone claims they were less than honest so as to spare my feelings... I don't understand; As much as I love words and believe in the power of words, word games... I don't understand.

These things--I've learned--can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for some people.

For the most part, my communication requirement simply prevents me from getting close to the wrong people. We can likely still be acquaintances, but best buddies we will never be. I think this is fair and logical. There's a reason best friends are best friends after all.

The trouble starts when part of me makes the leap of caring deeply about someone before realizing they can't communicate in any way I understand. It's rare, but it does happen. In those situations, I am left anxious, uncomfortable, and far out on a limb wondering how I got there. Articulate goes out the window, logical isn't even a vocabulary word and all of any intelligence I have is focused on getting off the limb with minimal damage.

In short, anything less than honest, succinct communication Makes. Me. Crazy.

Enter the country I fell in love with long before I realized she has as much going against her as for her. Enter Washington, D.C., enter every state capital, every municipality. Is there any group of people so good at saying so much without saying anything? Does anyone really believe the health care issue is separate from the employment issue is separate from the immigration issue is separate from the education issue is separate from the terrorism issue is separate from the environmental issue is separate from the national defense issue?

I understand the need to simplify to a degree, but the half-truths, back-room deals and partisan bickering that has become as much a symbol of our government and our country as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Well. It Makes. Me. Crazy. We deserve better. When are we going to start demanding it?

Exercising the Right to Learn

Buddhists have a belief about this moment. That it's important. Right now. Not what you did a minute ago or what you're contemplating doing in the next minute, but what's right in front of you, right at this minute. That screen you're staring at as you read this? It's real. Touch it. The chair, bed, floor you're sitting on as you work on the computer? It's there. Feel it. The breath passing in and out of you? It's giving you life. Notice it.

Is this where I share with you I am a Buddhist? No. Because I'm not. Besides being raised Baptist\Presbyterian, I have also taken classes on Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and other religions that don't come immediately to mind. Am I a student of theology? I certainly am not. My field of choice is writing and software development.

Then what, you wonder, am I? What's my "religious label"? It's pretty simple. I am an American who doesn't have to have a label. One who can understand why individuals without religious freedom don't have knowledge of any religion outside the one their government dictates... but who can't understand why so many of us as Americans don't know more about the religions that color our country and our world.

So many people across the globe have no options in this area. No opportunity to learn, to confirm or to disprove what they believe. You and me? We do. Let's not take it for granted. If our beliefs--whatever they might be--are correct, then what do we have to fear from knowledge? We have so much to learn from each other, even if we don't ultimately agree. That's not scary... it's exciting!

Most exciting? In other parts of the world, people have to be willing to risk imprisonment or death for such religious freedom. But us as Americans? Thanks to that little thing known as the first amendment*, all we have to do is make the decision to explore, to learn. Pretty sweet, right?

*Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

545 People (by Charlie Reese)

I received this last week from a former colleague. I want to share it with you here...

545 People by Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives  does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its  Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They  have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a  president to do  one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or  reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault.  They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall...  No normal human being would have  the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the  President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the  supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted--by present facts--of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable  directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy,"  "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.