Part of the problem of posting articles linking them to the blog, is writing when you've submitted a piece. You don't want to walk over what you already wrote, or to lose out to pieces but I have to remember, there's always more and trust that the more will reveal itself. So, here's a link to my most recent piece over at the Register, on the Lessons from the Lives of the Saints (suitable for November 1st).
I'll also take this moment to remind people to vote on Tuesday, and to consider when you cast your vote, the hard reality of this time we live in, which requires we stand up more than we'd prefer, speak up more than would be comfortable. We don't get to sit in our hobbit homes and worry about doilies. We must go out and have an adventure...and when we do, we will be changed. So vote. Win, lose or draw, hold the people given the reigns of power accountable. Call them when you read about something that troubles you. Ask them to act. Ask them to look into it.
Read what people are doing, even if it frustrates you to read it. Write to them. Write to the paper. Changing the culture, the political climate of the culture will require more than righteous wrath, political fire, or emotional appeals. It will require logos, pathos and ethos, in addition to witness. We cannot presume outcomes, nor should we presume all acts will be in good faith. We must scrutinize the newsmakers and the news, the laws and the lawmakers, and weigh all of them with are they true, are they good, are they necessary.
Irrespective of outcome, we must not despair of either the capacity of our country to do good, to be good, nor of our ability to affect the world. Begin today with whatever moves your heart. Share your five loaves and fishes and trust, God will do the multiplying.
Showing posts with label voting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voting. Show all posts
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
There Isn't a Home
In the arena of America politics, there isn't a home where as a Catholic, I can feel comfortable. I know good earnest noble intelligent caring people across the political spectrum. I know some who say, here is your home, because you oppose this...insert issue A. They are correct, I oppose issue A. It is insufficient reason. I know others who say come over here, it is obvious you don't belong over there. We have issue B and C. It doesn't matter. If my faith is the determinative factor on voting and not ideology, then neither party deserves my support. I cannot reject half of my values to affirm one, or ignore that one for the same reason. I can't. Not if I want to hold true to any of my faith. Not one pinch of incense for either false god.
Neither candidate should hold power. Neither is a good decision, only a negative decision. Whether for Trump or Hillary, I can't give my assent without being tarred by the muck each candidate has chosen to embrace. I cannot support either candidate if giving such support results in having to pretend corrupt isn't corrupt, evil isn't evil, incompetent isn't incompetent, and ignorant isn't ignorant. To support either is to somehow contort one's values and shoehorn them into the slipper for either R or D. For me, neither shoe fits.
These candidates are real people with serious character flaws. I concede, one of these two damaged souls will win but not with my help. Today, I reject both parties and their proposed candidates. I have never not voted, but I don't think in good faith I can assent to either ever. To me, they are both Barabbas. They are both something other than good, and the position of President is something that ought not to be given to one of these two least kind, least selfless, least ethical, least honest or generous candidates to enter the public arena in a long time.
To those who say, "No! You'll waste your vote." No. I am holding my vote. It is not something someone is guaranteed because of their party. It is something that must be earned. No one has done anything to earn my trust, let alone my vote.
Why do I say there is no good choice? It is not because I despair of good in this world or in people. I know I am not the only one who knows many on both sides of the political spectrum. I know I am not the only one to be able to name names of people with R's and D's affiliated to their voting record that are to a person, decent, kind, thoughtful, diligent, people of good character. I imagine most are trying to make the best of a situation they did not choose and do not want.
When I look at the fruits of pledging fealty to either side, both candidates demand too many compromises. Anyone who doesn't fit one's political template is thus exiled to the political equivalent of Hell, for having thought otherwise. Modern politics seems to thrive on this sort of instant US THEM, US GOOD, THEM EVIL sort of nonsense. This sort of rigid dismissal of all who think otherwise must be rejected.
Whatever that is, it's not American or Catholic, or even sensible. It's not healthy for anyone to presume to reading other people's hearts when we cannot even see each other's faces. We are all more than politics, or we're supposed to be, and to be Catholic, we even have to see those we consider our enemies, as made in the likeness of God, and worthy of dignity, worthy of love. It's too easy to give into snark, to vitriol, to declaring the other side willfully ignorant or deliberately evil. It allows us to dismiss whole swaths of others and feel smug in doing so.
We are a diverse nation, with multiple reasons for our decisions, both pragmatic and ideological, social and personal, ethic based and steeped in history. By our very ordinary acts of everyday civility, and the peaceful transition of power from administration to administration, all of us prove, our great capacity for tolerance, our great capacity for diversity of thought, our ability to coexist despite what the political parties believe.
So while I don't have any faith or trust in the candidates, I do still hold great hope in the promise and reality of the everyday R's and D's. I'm thinking they would probably prefer to skip both conventions, go to a local watering hole and complain about the candidate they got stuck with for this go around.
We'll survive whoever wins, because we are bigger than any one candidate. Politics would have us always believe this is the critical juncture, (regardless of the year) where utopia or doomsday is around the corner. I reject the damning despair and false hope presented. The universe will go on, as it should, and it will the results of all of our efforts in the every day that determine whether we become a better nation or not.
Neither candidate should hold power. Neither is a good decision, only a negative decision. Whether for Trump or Hillary, I can't give my assent without being tarred by the muck each candidate has chosen to embrace. I cannot support either candidate if giving such support results in having to pretend corrupt isn't corrupt, evil isn't evil, incompetent isn't incompetent, and ignorant isn't ignorant. To support either is to somehow contort one's values and shoehorn them into the slipper for either R or D. For me, neither shoe fits.
These candidates are real people with serious character flaws. I concede, one of these two damaged souls will win but not with my help. Today, I reject both parties and their proposed candidates. I have never not voted, but I don't think in good faith I can assent to either ever. To me, they are both Barabbas. They are both something other than good, and the position of President is something that ought not to be given to one of these two least kind, least selfless, least ethical, least honest or generous candidates to enter the public arena in a long time.
To those who say, "No! You'll waste your vote." No. I am holding my vote. It is not something someone is guaranteed because of their party. It is something that must be earned. No one has done anything to earn my trust, let alone my vote.
Why do I say there is no good choice? It is not because I despair of good in this world or in people. I know I am not the only one who knows many on both sides of the political spectrum. I know I am not the only one to be able to name names of people with R's and D's affiliated to their voting record that are to a person, decent, kind, thoughtful, diligent, people of good character. I imagine most are trying to make the best of a situation they did not choose and do not want.
When I look at the fruits of pledging fealty to either side, both candidates demand too many compromises. Anyone who doesn't fit one's political template is thus exiled to the political equivalent of Hell, for having thought otherwise. Modern politics seems to thrive on this sort of instant US THEM, US GOOD, THEM EVIL sort of nonsense. This sort of rigid dismissal of all who think otherwise must be rejected.
Whatever that is, it's not American or Catholic, or even sensible. It's not healthy for anyone to presume to reading other people's hearts when we cannot even see each other's faces. We are all more than politics, or we're supposed to be, and to be Catholic, we even have to see those we consider our enemies, as made in the likeness of God, and worthy of dignity, worthy of love. It's too easy to give into snark, to vitriol, to declaring the other side willfully ignorant or deliberately evil. It allows us to dismiss whole swaths of others and feel smug in doing so.
We are a diverse nation, with multiple reasons for our decisions, both pragmatic and ideological, social and personal, ethic based and steeped in history. By our very ordinary acts of everyday civility, and the peaceful transition of power from administration to administration, all of us prove, our great capacity for tolerance, our great capacity for diversity of thought, our ability to coexist despite what the political parties believe.
So while I don't have any faith or trust in the candidates, I do still hold great hope in the promise and reality of the everyday R's and D's. I'm thinking they would probably prefer to skip both conventions, go to a local watering hole and complain about the candidate they got stuck with for this go around.
We'll survive whoever wins, because we are bigger than any one candidate. Politics would have us always believe this is the critical juncture, (regardless of the year) where utopia or doomsday is around the corner. I reject the damning despair and false hope presented. The universe will go on, as it should, and it will the results of all of our efforts in the every day that determine whether we become a better nation or not.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Why I Voted For Romney
The election is over. The President has secured another 4 years. I wish him well as leader of our country and hope his stewardship of our nation improves from past experience.
But I thought I should tell you why I voted for Mitt Romney.
I voted for Mitt Romney because I am pro-life.
The President has signed into law the HHS Mandate that requires all Americans with the limited exception of churches --not schools or charities or hospitals, to pay for sterilizations, birth control and abortions even if doing so is in direct violation of one's moral code or religion. If you don't believe me, go read the damn mandate or do a search of it for abortion. I have. It's there.
I voted because the Current President sends unmanned drones to bomb countries in the War on Terror, killing innocent civilians without any more qualm than the prior president did. (And I was troubled then). And I hoped if there was a change, the press would wake up and pursue truth or at least less than the White House Spin. I also thought there would be more desire for an end to foreign wars than there seems to be, or do the deaths of countless innocents abroad and soldiers far from home (2000+ in Afghanistan) only matter if the Commander in chief has an R attached?
I voted because the current President's first act in his first term was to repeal the Mexico City Policy that had prohibited the spending of federal dollars abroad to fund/support abortion.
I voted against Planned Parenthood continuing to receive 300,000,000 in tax dollars to use however they see fit, which is mostly to lobby for more support of Planned Parenthood. They don't do mammograms. They only do referrals. No one would be robbed of the opportunity to get a mammogram by defunding them.
I voted against a man who voted against providing medical help to infants that survive abortion attempts while in the State Senate. You may say, that was a long time ago. I would say, it doesn't matter. He wouldn't help those born if the mother had willed them otherwise.
I object to my nation's treasure going to fund things I KNOW to be evil and immoral even if they are completely legal.
Before anyone lectures me on how Not Pro-life Mitt Romney is, recognize I know the candidate I voted for is imperfect. But the President is an aggressive advocate of abortion.
So one issue voter --you betcha. I had no illusions about repealing Roe-vs. Wade, nor was I entertaining such notions, but I did hope the nation might not think funding them unchecked forever might cause some pause.
For those who say Safe, legal and rare...55 million plus children have been lost...or 1/6th of the population since 1972. 3000+ a day. At what point, does it stop being rare?
I voted in hopes that a new President would stop some of these things. I presume the current President, since he continued or started these things, won't.
Do I sound mad? Yes. I'm disappointed. I knew there would be loads of hard work if Romney won. But there's even more because he didn't. We have a lot of hearts to move if only on this issue, that all life is sacred. All human life is precious, from unborn to elderly. The other issues to me are turf wars and pork barrel projects, fights for bragging rights and titles. I'm pro-life. That's why I vote. That's why I voted.
But I thought I should tell you why I voted for Mitt Romney.
I voted for Mitt Romney because I am pro-life.
The President has signed into law the HHS Mandate that requires all Americans with the limited exception of churches --not schools or charities or hospitals, to pay for sterilizations, birth control and abortions even if doing so is in direct violation of one's moral code or religion. If you don't believe me, go read the damn mandate or do a search of it for abortion. I have. It's there.
I voted because the Current President sends unmanned drones to bomb countries in the War on Terror, killing innocent civilians without any more qualm than the prior president did. (And I was troubled then). And I hoped if there was a change, the press would wake up and pursue truth or at least less than the White House Spin. I also thought there would be more desire for an end to foreign wars than there seems to be, or do the deaths of countless innocents abroad and soldiers far from home (2000+ in Afghanistan) only matter if the Commander in chief has an R attached?
I voted because the current President's first act in his first term was to repeal the Mexico City Policy that had prohibited the spending of federal dollars abroad to fund/support abortion.
I voted against Planned Parenthood continuing to receive 300,000,000 in tax dollars to use however they see fit, which is mostly to lobby for more support of Planned Parenthood. They don't do mammograms. They only do referrals. No one would be robbed of the opportunity to get a mammogram by defunding them.
I voted against a man who voted against providing medical help to infants that survive abortion attempts while in the State Senate. You may say, that was a long time ago. I would say, it doesn't matter. He wouldn't help those born if the mother had willed them otherwise.
I object to my nation's treasure going to fund things I KNOW to be evil and immoral even if they are completely legal.
Before anyone lectures me on how Not Pro-life Mitt Romney is, recognize I know the candidate I voted for is imperfect. But the President is an aggressive advocate of abortion.
So one issue voter --you betcha. I had no illusions about repealing Roe-vs. Wade, nor was I entertaining such notions, but I did hope the nation might not think funding them unchecked forever might cause some pause.
For those who say Safe, legal and rare...55 million plus children have been lost...or 1/6th of the population since 1972. 3000+ a day. At what point, does it stop being rare?
I voted in hopes that a new President would stop some of these things. I presume the current President, since he continued or started these things, won't.
Do I sound mad? Yes. I'm disappointed. I knew there would be loads of hard work if Romney won. But there's even more because he didn't. We have a lot of hearts to move if only on this issue, that all life is sacred. All human life is precious, from unborn to elderly. The other issues to me are turf wars and pork barrel projects, fights for bragging rights and titles. I'm pro-life. That's why I vote. That's why I voted.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Early Voting,
I'd had a lovely conversation with at least six women of diverse backgrounds while waiting for the two hours it took to vote in this election.
As must happen in a line to fulfill one's civic obligation that last more than 15 minutes, we hit the normal notes everyone sings when they meet new people. Married...children...jobs...the storm...and eventually, politics.
Up until now, we'd been a happy group. Then a woman said, "You can tell who the GOP voters are, they're all grumpy. They have no pep, no bubble in their personalities."
"I'm bubbly." I said.
"Well, the GOP is racist."
"I'm not racist." I answered.
"Well no, not all GOP voters are racists."
"But it hurts when you say that. You wouldn't like it if it were said about you. It can't not hurt."
She put her arm around me for a moment. "You're okay." and I wanted to point out, I know lots of people. They're okay too. Racism is a hatred born of the human heart not the political party. What I said was, "We are all flawed, we are all broken. Politics promises to somehow right the fallen condition of the world via a solution that causes no pain. Anyone who believes they can through policy create a Utopia where every need is met and all is good, has forgotten the fundamental nature of the human heart. We're sinful creatures. We fail because we're fallen." They all agreed. I wasn't trying to sway votes. I was just reminding them that these sorts of sweeping statements, be they about Catholics, immigrants, handicapped, parties, economically disadvantaged, the rich, the whoever, do a disservice because they paint everyone who can be lumped into the category as an unworthy of being known other, and thus allows whoever posits the sweeping statement to ignore alternative understandings/questions about alternative outcomes that may come from policy and politics.
Our conversations drifted back into happier places, whether the hype of the storm was real, why couldn't school be cancelled later? How much someone could make running a concessions stand, particularly if they sold beer. We laughed.
We're all Americans. We're all voting. We're all so committed to voting, we've been here for two hours away from home, away from doing chores to help get ready for the storm. This is a good.
Yet politics always promises the lure of perfection without the work/sweat/time/pain involved As the noted great Pirate Roberts said, "Life is pain. Anyone who says different is selling something." There are no easy answers. There are no easy quick fix solutions. Tough problems require tough decisions and will be hard, both to pass and to enforce.
Here we were, standing in line for two hours and had grate conversations about all sorts of things before we went to our separate voting booths to cast our ballots. We had far more in common than politics would pretend. After two hours of talking heart and head to heart and head, we did not see monsters and we could disagree and while the world is not changed in a big way, maybe it was changed in a little.
As a nation, as a people, we've grown. 300 years ago, we were not yet born. 200 years ago, we were fighting the war of 1812, Less than 100 years ago, we were gaining the right to vote for women, followed by the civil rights acts a mere 44 years later. We are still an adolescent nation, testing what should be held true. But I trust her people and I don't have to agree with everyone for that to remain firmly true.
As must happen in a line to fulfill one's civic obligation that last more than 15 minutes, we hit the normal notes everyone sings when they meet new people. Married...children...jobs...the storm...and eventually, politics.
Up until now, we'd been a happy group. Then a woman said, "You can tell who the GOP voters are, they're all grumpy. They have no pep, no bubble in their personalities."
"I'm bubbly." I said.
"Well, the GOP is racist."
"I'm not racist." I answered.
"Well no, not all GOP voters are racists."
"But it hurts when you say that. You wouldn't like it if it were said about you. It can't not hurt."
She put her arm around me for a moment. "You're okay." and I wanted to point out, I know lots of people. They're okay too. Racism is a hatred born of the human heart not the political party. What I said was, "We are all flawed, we are all broken. Politics promises to somehow right the fallen condition of the world via a solution that causes no pain. Anyone who believes they can through policy create a Utopia where every need is met and all is good, has forgotten the fundamental nature of the human heart. We're sinful creatures. We fail because we're fallen." They all agreed. I wasn't trying to sway votes. I was just reminding them that these sorts of sweeping statements, be they about Catholics, immigrants, handicapped, parties, economically disadvantaged, the rich, the whoever, do a disservice because they paint everyone who can be lumped into the category as an unworthy of being known other, and thus allows whoever posits the sweeping statement to ignore alternative understandings/questions about alternative outcomes that may come from policy and politics.
Our conversations drifted back into happier places, whether the hype of the storm was real, why couldn't school be cancelled later? How much someone could make running a concessions stand, particularly if they sold beer. We laughed.
We're all Americans. We're all voting. We're all so committed to voting, we've been here for two hours away from home, away from doing chores to help get ready for the storm. This is a good.
Yet politics always promises the lure of perfection without the work/sweat/time/pain involved As the noted great Pirate Roberts said, "Life is pain. Anyone who says different is selling something." There are no easy answers. There are no easy quick fix solutions. Tough problems require tough decisions and will be hard, both to pass and to enforce.
Here we were, standing in line for two hours and had grate conversations about all sorts of things before we went to our separate voting booths to cast our ballots. We had far more in common than politics would pretend. After two hours of talking heart and head to heart and head, we did not see monsters and we could disagree and while the world is not changed in a big way, maybe it was changed in a little.
As a nation, as a people, we've grown. 300 years ago, we were not yet born. 200 years ago, we were fighting the war of 1812, Less than 100 years ago, we were gaining the right to vote for women, followed by the civil rights acts a mere 44 years later. We are still an adolescent nation, testing what should be held true. But I trust her people and I don't have to agree with everyone for that to remain firmly true.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Political Gadfly Designed to Make Everyone Miserable
Watching the debate last night made me angry. I've been busy this morning so I don't know how it played with the rest of America and frankly, it's irrelevant. I don't shift my mood to suit the country or my party.
Neither man showed themselves to have a strong enough or steady enough moral compass to be given the power the Executive branch now wields. I know as a Pro-lifer, I'm not supposed to upset the apple cart when Mittmomentem is surging toward Election day. But a person who talks openly about killing with Drones, is not pro-life. A person who designed the government health care program used in Massachusetts that used state taxes to fund abortions, is NOT pro-life. A man who keeps "modifying" or "evolving" his position on being Pro-life, is pro-life only on some occasions, which is the same as Not Pro-life. He keeps saying he'll defund Planned Parenthood. Absent a line item veto (unlikely in the extreme, didn't someone else propose this, doesn't everyone before now propose this and then not get it and not be upset about it because it lets them sign whatever such that now it's not even been proposed), how is he planning to do this?
I can hear my friends in the Conservative Political blogoshere's heads exploding. "SHHHHHHHHH! SSHHHHHHHH! He's better than the alternative." It is a question of degrees.
I can't think my friends on the liberal side of the political spectrum are so happy either, especially when the guy in charge for the past four years keeps pretending none of us pay attention to his actions or words and how they disconnect...often. I know they aren't happy with the employment rate. I know they're troubled by Fast and Furious, by the Drone strikes, the complete break down in security in Benghazi, the continued existence of the prison in Guantanamo, the 2000th death in Afghanistan, 900 + executive orders to end run Congress, and the erosion of civil liberties including religious civil liberties. Not to mention the trivialization of women as the sum of their parts.
So I'm mad because while the moderator tried to ask about foreign policy, the men stayed on their stumps, got out their sound bites about bayonets and budgets. We didn't have a mature discussion in the arena of ideas. We had two grown men trading high school smug shots at each other while preaching to their laundry list of followers about the Bogey man the other one was and all the goodness that would follow in their elected wake. It made both men look small and the world much more than either could handle.
Part of our problem is not so secret substituion of the 4th estate with Folger Crystal versions of journalists. Do we honestly believe we'd be in this state if the media hadn't picked a political side rather than to serve truth first? We've been living on a fast food diet of op-eds from talking heads that sing to our own personal tastes so long, we don't know how to recognize anything but our own choices as having any validity in application of policy or politics.
Where are our real political gadflies that sting everyone? Shouldn't the press be discussing the total abdication of duty by the Senate to pass a budget in now 4 years? Shouldn't the press be discussing the true unemployment rate and why what is political is not what is right, true and necessary for the country's growth.
Shouldn't someone argue that while all spending may be stimulus, if it is a zero sum game, then for the government to expand, the private sector must shrink. Shouldn't someone ask beyond slogans of paying your fair share and cutting taxes for small businesses, what is the limit/scope of government and what should be the limit/scope of taxes to ensure maximum liberty while fulfilling civic obligations? Shouldn't this be somehow, discussed? If all spending is stimulus for the economy, doesn't that argument eliminate the acknowledgement of any government waste?
Likewise, anyone who says they'll balance the budget but there will be no pain is also woefully wrong or disingenuous. It can't happen without actual pain. It is a bit much however to see a leader who presideded the past four years over a stratospheric surge in spending, talk condescendingly toward anyone who proposes that anything done in the past four years might possibly have been rash, wasteful or excessive. You can't say you will work to ballance the budget when the budgets you've proposed didn't garner even one vote in the Senate....from your own party. You're not serious. You're not even trying.
Lastly, an unpopular question to be sure, why would anyone who doesn't pay taxes, vote to have some? Shouldn't everyone have to kick in at least a dollar? If everyone must pay in something, then everyone feels keenly the need for the government to be a good steward of our treasure. Our government has been a poor steward. We have a 16 trillion dollar deficit and we didn't even get invited to the party. If we're serious, really serious about this, we need to know what we bought with that 16 trillion.
Shouldn't the press be screaming Screaming, SCREAMING about the Executive having a KILL LIST? Shouldn't the press be camped outside the home of every person involved in the decision not to provide security or send help in the 7 hours after the initial attack on our embassy? Shouldn't the press be investigating the 2,2 million in illegal donations and why a 15 million dollar loan was needed from Bank of America? Shouldn't these things be the subjects of investigations from our supposed "Truth detectors?" Do we have any way of knowing if subsequent scandals and problems for whatever administration follows will be covered up or blown up to suit the political ideologies of those doing the investigations? If we continue to devolve into having right and left fact checkers, we might has well simply surrender the ground. We're going to be entitled to our own facts. All other facts will be ignored. In which case the slogan for our new Non-representative republic should be: Vote ignorant. Vote often.
Sigh.
The checks and balances of our system have all bounced.
I know, put not your trust in princes. But I'd like a better option than what we have and a diet version what we have, where you get the same things but with 25% less conviction. Who wants to vote for ME or me too?
Yeah. The debates depressed me. Go Vote Anyway and pray for our country regardless. Yay America. Rah.
Neither man showed themselves to have a strong enough or steady enough moral compass to be given the power the Executive branch now wields. I know as a Pro-lifer, I'm not supposed to upset the apple cart when Mittmomentem is surging toward Election day. But a person who talks openly about killing with Drones, is not pro-life. A person who designed the government health care program used in Massachusetts that used state taxes to fund abortions, is NOT pro-life. A man who keeps "modifying" or "evolving" his position on being Pro-life, is pro-life only on some occasions, which is the same as Not Pro-life. He keeps saying he'll defund Planned Parenthood. Absent a line item veto (unlikely in the extreme, didn't someone else propose this, doesn't everyone before now propose this and then not get it and not be upset about it because it lets them sign whatever such that now it's not even been proposed), how is he planning to do this?
I can hear my friends in the Conservative Political blogoshere's heads exploding. "SHHHHHHHHH! SSHHHHHHHH! He's better than the alternative." It is a question of degrees.
I can't think my friends on the liberal side of the political spectrum are so happy either, especially when the guy in charge for the past four years keeps pretending none of us pay attention to his actions or words and how they disconnect...often. I know they aren't happy with the employment rate. I know they're troubled by Fast and Furious, by the Drone strikes, the complete break down in security in Benghazi, the continued existence of the prison in Guantanamo, the 2000th death in Afghanistan, 900 + executive orders to end run Congress, and the erosion of civil liberties including religious civil liberties. Not to mention the trivialization of women as the sum of their parts.
So I'm mad because while the moderator tried to ask about foreign policy, the men stayed on their stumps, got out their sound bites about bayonets and budgets. We didn't have a mature discussion in the arena of ideas. We had two grown men trading high school smug shots at each other while preaching to their laundry list of followers about the Bogey man the other one was and all the goodness that would follow in their elected wake. It made both men look small and the world much more than either could handle.
Part of our problem is not so secret substituion of the 4th estate with Folger Crystal versions of journalists. Do we honestly believe we'd be in this state if the media hadn't picked a political side rather than to serve truth first? We've been living on a fast food diet of op-eds from talking heads that sing to our own personal tastes so long, we don't know how to recognize anything but our own choices as having any validity in application of policy or politics.
Where are our real political gadflies that sting everyone? Shouldn't the press be discussing the total abdication of duty by the Senate to pass a budget in now 4 years? Shouldn't the press be discussing the true unemployment rate and why what is political is not what is right, true and necessary for the country's growth.
Shouldn't someone argue that while all spending may be stimulus, if it is a zero sum game, then for the government to expand, the private sector must shrink. Shouldn't someone ask beyond slogans of paying your fair share and cutting taxes for small businesses, what is the limit/scope of government and what should be the limit/scope of taxes to ensure maximum liberty while fulfilling civic obligations? Shouldn't this be somehow, discussed? If all spending is stimulus for the economy, doesn't that argument eliminate the acknowledgement of any government waste?
Likewise, anyone who says they'll balance the budget but there will be no pain is also woefully wrong or disingenuous. It can't happen without actual pain. It is a bit much however to see a leader who presideded the past four years over a stratospheric surge in spending, talk condescendingly toward anyone who proposes that anything done in the past four years might possibly have been rash, wasteful or excessive. You can't say you will work to ballance the budget when the budgets you've proposed didn't garner even one vote in the Senate....from your own party. You're not serious. You're not even trying.
Lastly, an unpopular question to be sure, why would anyone who doesn't pay taxes, vote to have some? Shouldn't everyone have to kick in at least a dollar? If everyone must pay in something, then everyone feels keenly the need for the government to be a good steward of our treasure. Our government has been a poor steward. We have a 16 trillion dollar deficit and we didn't even get invited to the party. If we're serious, really serious about this, we need to know what we bought with that 16 trillion.
Shouldn't the press be screaming Screaming, SCREAMING about the Executive having a KILL LIST? Shouldn't the press be camped outside the home of every person involved in the decision not to provide security or send help in the 7 hours after the initial attack on our embassy? Shouldn't the press be investigating the 2,2 million in illegal donations and why a 15 million dollar loan was needed from Bank of America? Shouldn't these things be the subjects of investigations from our supposed "Truth detectors?" Do we have any way of knowing if subsequent scandals and problems for whatever administration follows will be covered up or blown up to suit the political ideologies of those doing the investigations? If we continue to devolve into having right and left fact checkers, we might has well simply surrender the ground. We're going to be entitled to our own facts. All other facts will be ignored. In which case the slogan for our new Non-representative republic should be: Vote ignorant. Vote often.
Sigh.
The checks and balances of our system have all bounced.
I know, put not your trust in princes. But I'd like a better option than what we have and a diet version what we have, where you get the same things but with 25% less conviction. Who wants to vote for ME or me too?
Yeah. The debates depressed me. Go Vote Anyway and pray for our country regardless. Yay America. Rah.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Religion and Politics, Politely Discussed
I kind of gave up writing on politics on this blog a while ago with only occasional tips of the hand as the spirit moved me. Part of it was personal, the irritation I felt was not worth the time it took to craft pieces. Part of this was, I did not wish to fall into snark, it wasn't me.
But we're one year from the election and so, I return to the fray not to tear down candidates, but with a plea for all my readers, particularly those who are Catholic and hold their faith dear. Vote.
The world as always, sets up a false dichotomy: help the poor/end war and save the unborn.
We must act. But that begs the question: when we vote, how can we, how should we, if our vote would be informed and guided by faith? Poor, war, and the unborn shall always be with us. How do we weigh this? How do we choose?
What we must do with our vote, is view it as the starting point of our witness in public life, not the exclamation point that only need be dusted off every four or two years.
So if you must vote for the DNC for any reason guided by your conscience, say, trying to improve the lot of the poor, you must remember not to overlook the unborn or justify overlooking them by the fact that the GOP at least pays lip service to not paying for or enabling the killing of children in utero. You have the challenge to pray for the end of abortion, to be a witness to life from natural beginning to natural end, and to encourage the leaders that come from your vote to do the same. It's hard to go against seemingly popular will and objecting to a law of the land, but it is the essence of what we are called to be; to speak out for the defenseless, the speechless and the helpless, not because it is easy but because it is right.
Likewise, if you vote for the GOP, you cannot rest, pat yourself on the back as a good little Catholic and be content with the status quo. There are people who will be less served, who need you now to show that you will extend yourself for the least of these, just as much. You will also need to hold the elected officials feet to the fire to care for the sick and the poor in a just and ethical manner. You must work for peace. You must stay involved and invested in peace, seeking it in your lives and those around you to start. You must also pray for peace and fast for peace with the same fervor you hold for hoping that all human life will be considered precious. And you must surrender some of that autonomy you cherish, by giving of your time to those for whom autonomy is either not possible at this point, or a dream they haven't yet reached. You must serve the poor, the needy, the homeless and the sick. You don't get credit for this, you just get to do it because it is right that you sublimate your time for them. It is part of being Catholic, to surrender all to follow; and that surrendering begins with little surrenders, done via service, done via generosity, done via time.
No one gets a pass. No one gets to say, I did my part, I did enough, I do enough. We have to remember, whatever we've done, is always baseline, it is only expected. We cannot love beyond God's love or sacrifice beyond God, we can only hope to approach and improve our imitation of God's love. This is probably making lots of people uncomfortable. Politics do that, but Catholicism, living Catholicism, should do that even more. To be Catholic is to be uncomfortable except in the presence of the sacrament or receiving one. Our hearts and minds should be restless, until they rest in Thee.
In this country in particular, we have allowed political blinders to limit our vision of the other, to divest our faith from our politics or to switch our political allegiance for our faith. It is a poor substitute, like aspartame for sugar; it causes a cancer of the soul, it is unnatural and unhealthy. If we would be more than the convenient voting block of local color enthusiasts for whatever political machine we follow, we must recognize that neither party has a lock on virtue or vice; that both are as severely limited as we individually are, and that serving the whole of the world through thoughts, words and deeds, with charity and good humor, zeal and generosity, is a day in, day out process that does not end with election day, indeed, there is no end. There is no "winning" there is only our next step towards holiness or not. (Cue Yoda voice).
Now, for those who then think the third option of not voting is the most Catholic. To not chose between two evils, to do no harm, to not be engaged in things of this world, it sounds very high minded and sophisticated to opt out.
It isn't.
It shows a lack of courage and commitment. It demonstrates an unwillingness to embrace the cross, to cut away perpetually at whatever serves ourselves first, and resistance to the weeding that our public realm, our government, our society, needs if it is not to become overgrown with self oriented interests, warring factions and increasingly polemic bromides that only satisfy the echo chamber choirs that already exist.
Catholicism requires we not be comfortable in our thinking, our votes, or our lot; it requires we engage, we be involved, we invest in being those lights to the world and salt to the earth. We can't do that by being coy, by pretending that our non participation is anything but a symbol of despair; that we cannot affect the world, that we cannot be part of the world. It is ivory tower in the worst possible way, pretending to be contemplation, when it is capitulation.
For my state:
http://www.elections.state.md.us/get_involved/index.html
For both parties:
http://www.gop.com/index.php
http://www.democrats.org/
For Issues:
http://www.catholicvote.org/index.php
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
― St. Catherine of Siena
But we're one year from the election and so, I return to the fray not to tear down candidates, but with a plea for all my readers, particularly those who are Catholic and hold their faith dear. Vote.
The world as always, sets up a false dichotomy: help the poor/end war and save the unborn.
We must act. But that begs the question: when we vote, how can we, how should we, if our vote would be informed and guided by faith? Poor, war, and the unborn shall always be with us. How do we weigh this? How do we choose?
What we must do with our vote, is view it as the starting point of our witness in public life, not the exclamation point that only need be dusted off every four or two years.
So if you must vote for the DNC for any reason guided by your conscience, say, trying to improve the lot of the poor, you must remember not to overlook the unborn or justify overlooking them by the fact that the GOP at least pays lip service to not paying for or enabling the killing of children in utero. You have the challenge to pray for the end of abortion, to be a witness to life from natural beginning to natural end, and to encourage the leaders that come from your vote to do the same. It's hard to go against seemingly popular will and objecting to a law of the land, but it is the essence of what we are called to be; to speak out for the defenseless, the speechless and the helpless, not because it is easy but because it is right.
Likewise, if you vote for the GOP, you cannot rest, pat yourself on the back as a good little Catholic and be content with the status quo. There are people who will be less served, who need you now to show that you will extend yourself for the least of these, just as much. You will also need to hold the elected officials feet to the fire to care for the sick and the poor in a just and ethical manner. You must work for peace. You must stay involved and invested in peace, seeking it in your lives and those around you to start. You must also pray for peace and fast for peace with the same fervor you hold for hoping that all human life will be considered precious. And you must surrender some of that autonomy you cherish, by giving of your time to those for whom autonomy is either not possible at this point, or a dream they haven't yet reached. You must serve the poor, the needy, the homeless and the sick. You don't get credit for this, you just get to do it because it is right that you sublimate your time for them. It is part of being Catholic, to surrender all to follow; and that surrendering begins with little surrenders, done via service, done via generosity, done via time.
No one gets a pass. No one gets to say, I did my part, I did enough, I do enough. We have to remember, whatever we've done, is always baseline, it is only expected. We cannot love beyond God's love or sacrifice beyond God, we can only hope to approach and improve our imitation of God's love. This is probably making lots of people uncomfortable. Politics do that, but Catholicism, living Catholicism, should do that even more. To be Catholic is to be uncomfortable except in the presence of the sacrament or receiving one. Our hearts and minds should be restless, until they rest in Thee.
In this country in particular, we have allowed political blinders to limit our vision of the other, to divest our faith from our politics or to switch our political allegiance for our faith. It is a poor substitute, like aspartame for sugar; it causes a cancer of the soul, it is unnatural and unhealthy. If we would be more than the convenient voting block of local color enthusiasts for whatever political machine we follow, we must recognize that neither party has a lock on virtue or vice; that both are as severely limited as we individually are, and that serving the whole of the world through thoughts, words and deeds, with charity and good humor, zeal and generosity, is a day in, day out process that does not end with election day, indeed, there is no end. There is no "winning" there is only our next step towards holiness or not. (Cue Yoda voice).
Now, for those who then think the third option of not voting is the most Catholic. To not chose between two evils, to do no harm, to not be engaged in things of this world, it sounds very high minded and sophisticated to opt out.
It isn't.
It shows a lack of courage and commitment. It demonstrates an unwillingness to embrace the cross, to cut away perpetually at whatever serves ourselves first, and resistance to the weeding that our public realm, our government, our society, needs if it is not to become overgrown with self oriented interests, warring factions and increasingly polemic bromides that only satisfy the echo chamber choirs that already exist.
Catholicism requires we not be comfortable in our thinking, our votes, or our lot; it requires we engage, we be involved, we invest in being those lights to the world and salt to the earth. We can't do that by being coy, by pretending that our non participation is anything but a symbol of despair; that we cannot affect the world, that we cannot be part of the world. It is ivory tower in the worst possible way, pretending to be contemplation, when it is capitulation.
For my state:
http://www.elections.state.md.us/get_involved/index.html
For both parties:
http://www.gop.com/index.php
http://www.democrats.org/
For Issues:
http://www.catholicvote.org/index.php
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
― St. Catherine of Siena
“Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.” ― St. Catherine of Siena
Which means, we don't have any more excuses. Now is the time, to start the big push.
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