The
America where I grew up taught me a lot, and I am the proud product of a public
school education. One thing I recall is
that we were taught that friends should never discuss politics or religion, especially
if they wanted to stay friends.
More than that, however, is that we
were taught that government and religion must and should always be totally and
completely separate. When we recited the
pledge of allegiance, or when we always bowed our heads for an invocation or
prayer at every public gathering, we never thought of that being contrary to
the law (but, I suppose it is, in the strictest sense). We just took it for granted that this was
part of the package.
Of course, some of that has changed -
by law - since those days. But, one
thing that remains inviolate in my mind is that no governmental entity should
ever pass a law that interferes with or represents any particular religion. Therefore, whatever my religious beliefs may
be, I am free to pursue them, as long as I do no harm to others. Likewise, no religion should ever make any
effort to get any laws passed that tend to support that religion's beliefs over
any other.
Now, today we seem to have a very
sharp division between certain people who want to impose their religious
beliefs on everyone, and by using the law to do so, and others who simply want
to be free to pursue happiness in their own way. This attempt to get the law to support your
belief over mine is simply wrong. It is
a blatant disregard for what our Constitution represents, and what we were
taught as kids.
Compounding our errors, we also seem
to have grown a generation or two of people who are so narrow minded that they
cannot realize, or refuse to see, that times have changed, and the world that
created our Constitution no longer exists.
That is not to say that the document itself is no longer pertinent. It is, very much so.
But, consider that even the most
sacred of religious texts have undergone change since they were first
written. I submit to you that the King
James version of the Bible was very different from the original Greek
versions. And, of course, there has been
a more recent update of the Bible, as well.
I believe that most so-called Christians are aware of this, and
accepting of it. In short, the changes
that the Bible has undergone as times change, as thinking has evolved, were
indeed necessary.
So, too, is it necessary to update
some portions of the Constitution, since certain people seem to want to take it
too literally (just as some want to take too much of the Bible too
literally). In particular, I am thinking
of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
Actually, and realistically, I will
agree that anyone who wants to own a firearm has the right to do so. I totally reject any suggestion that the
firearm in question needs to be some kind of automatic weapon, or machine
gun. And, I do not believe anyone needs
more than one firearm. I do not believe
there is any need for anyone to openly carry a firearm, unless we're talking
about a trip to and from a shooting range for the purpose of practicing with
that firearm. There is no need for
anyone to "hunt" any living creature for the purpose of simply killing
it. And, no one needs to go out and
shoot any animal for food, unless we're talking about a farmer, who has no
money to go to the local store for food, and then, he only needs to kill what
he will eat himself.
I'm not going to dissect the 2nd
Amendment here, but I will say that we no longer have need of any militia, and
if we do, the U. S. Armed Forces meet that need. A bunch of idiots getting together to get
drunk and shoot up whatever is in sight does not constitute a militia, and
certainly does not represent a necessary activity.
Just today, June 18, we learned about
yet another pointless, hateful mass shooting, this time with hate crime written
all over it. I'm talking about the
shooting at a landmark AME church in South Carolina, of nine innocent people,
including the pastor, who also happened to be a State Senator. And, my Facebook was full of memes against
the violence, against the widespread ease with which whackos can still get
their hands on guns. Sadly, early on,
most of the posts were from one person.
Later, during the day, as the
President weighed in, the comments got nastier, until I couldn't stand it anymore. There are still people out there trying to
use the false claim about criminals and guns, and clinging to the mis-interpretation
of the Second Amendment where they overlook the reality of then (when the
Constitution was written) versus now.
Here's a little hint for y'all:
We have no need for a citizens' militia, well regulated or not, since we
have the Armed Forces. OK? So, no citizen has need to own a firearm.
Now, a very vocal portion of our
population also wants to block any efforts to legalize any sort of union
between two consenting adults who just happen to be of the same sex. They cite religious reasons for this. And, I have to ask, why? Why should the government be involved in
anything to do with religion, when religion is prevented from being involved in
government? Under the laws of more
places than just the U. S., marriage is not necessarily a "sacred"
anything, and no state in the union allows for only a religious marriage. As a matter of fact, every state requires a
marriage license to be obtained, and every state has government representatives
who perform marriages. Furthermore, for
those who insist on a religious meaning for marriage, it is important to point
out to them that not even the most holy of Priests, or Rabbis, or Pastors, or
Preachers, or ministers can perform a marriage ceremony, without being
sanctioned by the state! So, let's be
clear. Your opposition to gay marriage
has no basis in any religion simply because it is not your church which
legalizes marriage. Beyond that, show me
exactly where in the Bible does it specifically say that two men cannot marry,
or two women.
Another big issue has to do with women
and their (female) health, and, of course, for those extremists out there, that
means abortion. Speaking as a catholic,
who has been condemned by other catholics, I must say that while my church
teaches that abortion is a sin, my church does not speak for the entire world. For the record, let's remember that there are
many more people in this world who are NOT catholic, than there are who are
catholic. And, since that is true, and
being an American, I believe that it is not my place to dictate to anyone else
what is right, wrong, good, bad, or otherwise.
If I am free to believe what I choose, than I have to allow you the same
freedom.
The republican party has taken the
words of FDR, the words that used to bring comfort to so many, to heart, and
twisted them so that now their major platform is built on all kinds of vague
and not particularly important fears. It
worked so well for W that he got elected twice, and took us into two disastrous
wars. Now, they are successfully using
an unfounded fear of gay marriage, and another of the thought that some women
might choose abortion, and another having to do with a non-existent effort to
take away the guns from the 2nd Amendment freaks, to drive their campaigns, and
to distract voters from what is really important.
All of this fear mongering is designed
to take our minds off the important issues that we really need for Congress to
address. Instead of focusing on repairing
our infrastructure, controlling defense spending, or ending our involvement in
wasteful wars, we are busy arguing about these other issues that should not
even be connected with politics.
Abortion is not a political issue!
It is religious in nature! Gay
marriage is NOT a political issue, and it is not a particularly religious
issue! It is strictly a legal issue, and
if the laws get changed to allow it, there will be NO effect on anybody's
religion, and NO effect on anyone else's marriage! Gun ownership is legal and political only
because we need to reword that portion of the Second Amendment that is out of
date, to make it fit the times we live in today.
We need a Congress that will work on regulating
and controlling Wall Street's crooks, to end corporate welfare and tax breaks, and
to fairly tax the very richest. We need
to see our middle class restored to what it was sixty and more years ago. And, a big part of what would do this is to
pass real jobs bills that would people to work rebuilding and repairing our
infrastructure. We need to force big
corporations to retool to making machines that can serve a peaceful purpose,
instead of all the weapons and war machines we now make. We need to control Big Pharma and the
Healthcare Insurance industry. Regulate
communications giants, like Time-Warner and ATT, and all the other cell phone
and internet providers, please! We need,
in short, a Teddy Roosevelt, who can come out and open a great big can of
whoop-ass on these monopolies and crooked monsters.
