Do we care about this presidential
campaign? Probably not. The thing has degenerated into such
loathsome nonsense. It feeds the anger in our country. It distorts
whatever facts exist whether good or bad. It pits people against each
other. Makes us choose sides. Prompts us into silly stupid
conflicts that bring out the toxic forces in our human nature and poison all
the ground around us and all those standing there.
I’d like to live in a country that
took care of the sick, the poor, the elderly, the handicapped and disabled and
those who have a tough time taking care of themselves. I simply do not
mind paying taxes and having some of my tax dollars go to help meet those
needs. Why would I? I’m not afraid of expanding social services
that help meet needs I would never be able to meet on my own no matter how much
money I might have.
I think Medicare and Medicaid are
terrific resources for the elderly and for those on very limited income.
Is there waste and abuse in these services? Yes, there is. And I’m
all for cutting out the waste and abuse. But I don’t want to see these
resources simply done away with. Too many of us have paid into them for
years and they actually do so much good for so many of our citizens.
Reasonable solutions are there to sustain Medicare and Medicaid if we care
enough to spread the costs fairly and if we care enough to reduce other massive
expenditures like our military budget in order to pay for these needed
services.
I want to live in a country that is
not completely obsessed with war. Whatever happened to the idea of
working for peace in the world? Did we just give up on it because it’s
complicated and hard to do? We’d rather just hate and kill and react out
of our darkest most fearful impulses rather than attempt to understand what it
is that feeds our conflicts, that fuels the need for war? Are we really
okay with simply enriching the war industry at the expense of our own economic
future? Isn’t that what happened to the Soviet Union when their economy
broke into pieces and they were forced to back off their war games? Isn’t
that what keeps China still from being the greatest economic force in the
world—it’s gargantuan military costs? North Korea keeps its entire
population in abject poverty while it funnels all of its resources into
military spending. Is that a model we want to follow in this
country? We pay out some $700 billion dollars a year in defense spending.
That is more than the next 17 countries behind us combined including
China. What are we doing?
I want to live in a country where
education is valued. Where being smart and informed, curious and hungry
to learn are qualities honored and rewarded. I don’t want lazy thinking
given some place of respect in America. I don’t want to be led by bullies
and dumb asses and people who live only by their impulses instead of their
brains. That’s what we have in our Congress now and most of them are
useless to our future. They are a disgrace to the genius and hard work
and innovative thinking we used to give elevated praise to in America.
And who says only rich people have the right to lead this country? I’m
not impressed with millionaires and billionaires who have become God to
everyone. So they made a lot of money? That doesn’t mean anything
unless what they make has any value to society and not just to them. I want
leaders who possess decency and compassion, who read and love the arts, who
have backbone and independence, who know how to negotiate and mediate, men and
women who have heart and substance and aren’t afraid to love.
I want to live in a country where
religion is not consumed with cotton candy theology and gross ignorance, where
the church is not some laughing farce led by clowns in fashion jeans and
designer shirts. I’m tired of American religion that makes God into some
kind of pathetic neurotic browbeater and antagonizer, who hates gays and women
and is scared to death of liberals and thinkers. I’m so weary of Jesus
being used by disgusting pretenders to get political votes and sell books
filled with baby food ideas and completely ignore all of the real teachings of
Jesus and his gigantic life of love.
I want a better country than what we
have now. Let’s quit pretending how great it is. We’ve got big
problems. It’s time to fix them.
© 2012 Timothy Moody
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