I find it
astonishing that in this country we have political and religious leaders who
seem perfectly fine creating a society that dismisses the poor, the sick, children
in crisis, and the frail elderly who don’t have enough resources for their many
medical and prescription needs.
These leaders have
no interest in providing a safety net for the most vulnerable people in our
country.
They talk about
cutting social spending but are fine with bloated defense budgets. They want the government out of their lives
but are happy to get Medicare. They want to pay little or no taxes but then
scream the loudest when the system doesn’t work for them. They are fine shutting down agencies of care for
people desperate for help, all the while they tell us how righteous they are.
They quote random Bible verses and use them as validation for their
indifference to others. They lift themselves up in pompous claims of religious
fervor even as they detest those who differ from them in color or creed or
conscience. They wave the American Flag in obscene arrogance as if it belongs
only to them mocking the freedom for all it was created to represent.
They refuse to
welcome gays into the full rights of society and work to hinder any progress
society attempts at giving them a better life and recognizing them as brothers
and sisters in our human family.
They talk about
“family values,” but then have no interest in understanding or help preventing
the destructive forces that poverty and joblessness have on poor families and
how it often makes them vulnerable to crime and addictions which become
attractive alternatives to the grinding barrenness of their lives.
They scoff at
public education and mercilessly criticize its weaknesses while doing
everything they can to keep public schools from receiving the financial
resources they need to succeed, ultimately betraying the children of our
country by refusing them a first rate public education in a safe and
stimulating learning environment.
They love guns
and dismiss gun violence by spouting banal references to their Second Amendment
rights without the least bit of concern for the fundamental rights of the
innocent who are killed by careless gun owners, criminals, and the deranged
every day.
They preach
freedom and patriotism and Christian living but actually behave in ways that
promote consumerism, greed, prejudice, intolerance, and narcissism.
These
sanctimonious political leaders, these religious amateurs, these pretending “Christians,”
are bad for our country. Whatever pure motives they claim to possess, their
actions are just the opposite: mean-spirited, ugly, unkind, selfish, insensitive
and defeating. They are not leaders who can help us.
Forget for a
moment giving them names: Republican. Tea Party. Democrats. Independents. Green
Party.
Just look around.
Just notice. Just observe. Just listen. Anyone fitting the behavior I have
described is not a leader this country needs. Think of the actions and not the
Party affiliation.
If you can
honestly do that, whatever your politics, then I think it will be clear who
these people are. Don’t vote for them. Stop promoting them. Quit defending
them. No longer follow them.
They are not
leaders we need.
© 2013 Timothy
Moody
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