Building on my thoughts in the last blog post, it's been increasingly occurring to me that most of us are thinking wrongly, as Americans.
We are, I believe, each of us, thinking that we, each of us, is the example of an American. We're egocentric in our thinking about almost everything but, certainly, about our being American. And, I can tell you that I, personally, am just as patriotic as anybody who needs to call themselves a Patriot.
What we forget is that our Constitution is for ALL Americans, not just for me or for you. It's for every single person that sickens you. It's for all the Karens in the country. It's for all the noisy neighbors. It's for all the neighbors who have noisy and dangerous dogs. It's for everyone who can't afford to keep their property maintained. It's for everyone who has multiple junk cars in their yard. It's for men and women. It's for black Americans. It's for Jewish Americans. It's for evangelical Americans. It's for atheist Americans. It's for trans Americans. It's for Mexican Americans. It's for Iranian Americans. It's for liberal Americans. It's for conservative Americans. It's for rich Americans. It's for poor Americans. It's for Democrats. It's for Republicans.
The Declaration of Independence says: "all men are created equal," Of course, that's not literally true and it goes on the clarify that we all have certain "inalienable" rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Life is fairly obvious; liberty and the pursuit of happiness; not really. It's, more or less, saying to 'live and let live'. The Constitution aims to "insure" defense, liberty, welfare, union, tranquility, and justice. Quite a tall order and we have, or the majority has had, for nearly 250 years that. But, there will ALWAYS be born individuals who want to think themselves above everyone else, better than everyone else and they have lead and are leading our country into division. This direction will be the end of democracy and this country.
The Truth is, Democracy is for EVERYONE. It isn't democracy unless it is for everyone.
It's been occurring to me, more and more frequently and, more and more obviously, that our divisions will destroy us eventually and the fracturing has been speeding up; mostly because there is nobody in leadership who is truly democratic. The parties each have ideology contrary to the opposition. It's no longer possible for the country to operate that way. We have to get back to real democracy.
The Vision of America that I had as a kid is still possible but it means sacrificing the "me first" thinking.
Some version of "The Golden Rule" exists all over the world, in every country, on every continent, because it's about the attitude of individual human beings about other human beings. It's about fairness and goodness and decency. One simplified version is: Treat others as you want to be treated. It's really the attitudinal basis for democracy. We have to get back to that.
Right now, in this country we're being lead by men who want just the opposite; who want to be above everyone else; who want to control everyone else. What's really insane and ridiculous, is that each and everyone one of them would screw each other if they got the chance; if it meant they would end up on top. They should be considered insane; pathological.
Right now, in this country, American citizens are being rounded up and shipped to other countries or put in detention facilities run by highly paid corporations who want to have more money and be treated better than the citizens they are detaining. Children are being kept from their parents and are not protected from abuse by their jailors.
Right now, in this country, our government is doing the opposite of what our Constitution insures for We The People; and have become our greatest enemy.
This country has to return to Democracy where citizens are the most respected and the most important class of person in this country and where officials understand that their role is to SERVE their fellow citizens; ALL of the citizens.
Republicans and Democrats are not better than each other; they're just citizens; they're just people. The Trumps, Musk, the Koch brothers, millionaires and billionaires are not better than anyone else; they're just people, regardless of what they might think. Christians are not better than anyone else regardless of what they've come to believe; nor is anyone of any other religion.
I'm not better than you and you're not better than me. We each have the right to live our lives and be left alone while doing that. Every person I despise, for whatever reason, has every right to live their life and for me not to interfere with that - as long as they live within reasonable laws and do no harm to me or anyone else.
We have to get back to people having respect for each other and understand that our government is for each and everyone of us regardless of how we feel about that person. Obviously, those who do harm to someone else must pay the consequences.
We need to get back to thinking of our Constitution's basic function which is to ensure that each of us can live our life as we want without interference or harm from anyone else, including from those in government.
