You can only live with the pain of concealment so long before you have to stand up in front of your family, your friends, your enemies, and God, and state what you are. If you do not, you will go to your death bed a miserable human being who was always able, but never willing, to reach their full potential. God wants each of us, as his beloved children, to reach our full potential, so, for His sake if nothing else, we must blossom and love ourselves in the open.
And so, I have decided that I cannot live in the shadows any longer. I am ‘coming out of the closet’ right here, right now. Ready? Okay, here it goes…
I am a Socialist! There, I said it! It’s done.
Whew, I feel better, and it really wasn’t that difficult. Looking back on it, I’m wondering ‘what was the big deal?’
Now that I’m out, I understand that my parents, and maybe some of you reading this piece right now, would prefer that I came out as a gay man. Being gay, after all, is more ‘socially’ acceptable than being a socialist.
Please do not mistake my meaning here. I know very well that our brothers and sisters in the LGBT community are subjected to discrimination every day that I, as a white male heterosexual socialist follower of Jesus, will never know as long as the tea party is kept in check (although today the supreme court struck a wonderful blow to the bigotry our LGBT friends have had to face in marriage equality).
What I am saying, is that if you’re at a party and someone mentions me and you say “Did you know he’s gay?” the person to whom you are speaking will brush it off as “Oh, well, that’s cool,” and then perhaps continue with a wink, a nudge, and a chuckle; “I mean who isn’t when you get down to it, right?”
However, if you say “Did you know he’s a socialist?” They will look around for me with disdain and start thinking all sorts of weird James Bond shit. They’ll think things like, “I’ll root out that red mole bastard and turn his ass over to the Un-American Activities Committee myself. I’ll be a damned hero!”
You’ll keep talking to them, but they’ll have checked out. Their eyes will gloss over and they’ll start swimming in an imaginary, fantastical future in which the next republican president will give them a medal and a ticker tape parade…just for turning me in! Unfortunately for your friend (and fortunately for the rest of us), the next republican president is about 18 years out at least, so…good luck to them.
Back down to earth.
I’m going to pause for just a minute and allow some of you reading this who are still trying to cope with the horrible news of my political orientation to tell me what I believe and list off the Stalinist ideas for which I stand. You can yell it if you like, I’ll just sit back and take it. However, when you’re done telling me what I believe, I’m going to turn the table upside down and tell you what I believe, and list many of the social and political ideals for which I stand. That, after all, seems right, doesn’t it?
Okay, ready? Go!
……………………………………………………
Wow, it felt good to get that anger off your chest didn’t it? Now that you’ve ranted about what I believe, let me tell you what I believe:
I believe all people should be treated as equals before the law. That means, among other things, that members of the gay community can marry and enjoy all of the benefits that emanate therefrom. That means that people of color should not be subjected to any sort of racial discrimination; individual, institutional, or otherwise. It also means that women should be treated as equals in this world and not subjected to gender discrimination; individual, institutional, or otherwise.
News flash for white men: You sound more than just a little childish when you cry you are being oppressed by other people when they gain the rights which you have enjoyed as privilege for centuries.
I believe health care and education are a human right and should be universally provided to the nation. From this, I believe that the strength of a nation flows from these twin fountains of human progress. These two aspects of human right and need are the areas in which we should spend the vast majority of our tax dollars. The benefits to our country and, indeed, the entire world can hardly be either quantified or qualified, for people who are healthy and educated are tax revenue creators. People who are continually sick and uneducated are tax revenue consumers. You do the math.
Likewise,
I believe that any country that spends as much money on the weapons of death as the United States of America does will find death to be its reward. Military spending as bloated and out of proportion to other expenditures of government as we have causes several things to happen, two of which are; First, the state, in order to justify such expenditures must continually create enemies and threats to the safety of the nation. Second, the economy of any country that spends as much of its money on weapons as does the United States will eventually collapse from the weight of this hatred.
Therefore
I believe it to be falsehood that the strength of a nation is in any way tied to the state’s ability to bring a preponderance of firepower to any situation. This is a reflection of the power of the state, not the nation. In fact, these two entities are always opposed to each other and a rise in the power of one necessitates a decline in the power of the other. A powerful nation is one that is healthy and well educated. A powerful state requires a nation of people who are sick and uneducated; this is the most assured means of continuous and expanding control.
I believe that diplomacy always trumps force. Diplomacy is the best reflection of how healthy, educated adults solve their differences. They approach each other with the foreknowledge that each side sees any conflict from their own perspective and that the truth lies lies somewhere in between. From this, a solution workable and acceptable to all sides is then achieved. Nobody dies, and control of the situation is always shared and maintained. Force is the best reflection of how third grade boys settle differences after school, or on the playground at recess.
I believe that it is not a fundamental right to carry firearms with you at all times. Of course, this argument falls apart if you are Conan the Barbarian and live in a world illustrated by Frank Frazetta. We do not live in such a world, and therefore, I do not believe the the right to keep arms as expressed in the Constitution of the United States of America extends to bearing them with you at all times. This only makes the world a more dangerous place.
News flash for white men: Guns do not keep a people free. It is the will to be free that keeps a person or people free. It is voting your conscience that keeps you free. Guns have nothing to do with freedom and everything to do with death.
I believe every abortion is a tragedy. I also believe that it is a woman’s right to choose that option if her conscience allows it. I also believe that the most effective means by which to prevent abortion is accurate and comprehensive sex education in our schools, as well as easy and universal access to contraception.
For all but a minuscule percentage of the population, sexual activity is an inevitability; therefore, our young people must be taught the potential results of, and the responsibilities regarding sexual activity. We cannot leave this to mom and dad; in 99% of all families they won’t do it right, and we’ll end up with more unwanted pregnancies, more abortions, and teenaged mothers abandoned and/or beaten by teenaged dads.
I believe that a republic functioning by the democratic process is the best form of government. I also believe that the United States of America no longer fits that description (if it ever did, which is in doubt). The United States of America is now a corporate oligarchy.
As part of this, I believe that the greatest threat to what is left of what may have been our political heritage is the tea party and their allies in the fundamentalist christian right wing. It is an alliance of evil and we see the results of what their intentions for this country are every day in their legislated war against women, minorities, the poor, and the planet; all of which are the very people and things Jesus commanded us to protect. I used to think the tea party and the ‘christian right’ wanted to take this country back in time to the 1950s. I was wrong and I apologize. I now understand that they want to take this country back in time to the 1850s.
I believe that voting and the ability to affect the political system under which one lives is a human right. From this I believe that no person legally allowed to vote should be denied the right to do so. The draconian voter ID laws the far right in this country are enacting are nothing more than an attempt to deny the poor their human and constitutional right to vote. They have falsely created ‘voter fraud’ problems in order to disenfranchise an entire class of people.
I believe that Hitler and Stalin were both totalitarian assholes. These people and others like them were crazy, power-hungry shit heads. They were not socialists.
I believe Thomas Jefferson was a total bad ass. Aside from owning slaves.
I believe Pope Francis I is a total bad ass. Almost makes me wish I was catholic.
I belive in and support the union movement. The right of the workers to organize in order to secure for themselves and their families a fair wage, retirement benefits, health benefits, and job security against the brutality of the ‘at will’ employment culture is just that; a right.
However, the membership of such organizations must be ever aware of the potential for corruption in the leadership, and not allow it. They must also understand that moderation in their demands on employers creates a lasting and truly productive union movement.
I believe that both the republican and democratic parties have an interest in the creation of a permanent under-class in this country.
I believe in the redistribution of wealth. I believe in this not to the point that comrade Marx might find justifiable; making everyone equal in the eyes of their bank accounts, but rather to the extent that we can make equality and opportunity truly available to all people in this country. I believe the words once spoken by supreme court justice Louis Brandeis: “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have its wealth concentrated in the hands of the very few, but we cannot have both.” I’ll take the democracy, please.
Lastly, I cannot conclude this piece without a word or two…hundred on taxation.
I believe in a progressive tax system, meaning the the richest pay the most and the poorest pay the least. I also believe that in terms of the total amount of revenue taken in by the government, this country may be just about well financed. There are loopholes for the wealthy that must be closed, loopholes for the poor that must be expanded, and gigantic corporations must have their loopholes completely shut down.
It is a falsehood to create a correlation between the personal taxes on the wealthy and job creation. If a person owns a business, give their business the tax incentives necessary to create more jobs and generate more wealth. To cut the personal taxes on the individual merely concentrates wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people, helping to create the corporate oligarchy under which we now live.
The ‘flat tax’ proponents offer nothing more that an attempt to shift the revenue burden from the wealthy to the ever shrinking middle-class and the poor. This is also done by shifting revenue acquisition to licensing and fees. The poor cannot afford this, the wealthy can, and so it is done.
I believe America can be a great country someday.
I believe in what Jesus taught. Both the state and the church should take responsibility for caring for the widows, orphans, and the least of these in general. After all, as we do to them, so we have done to Him.
I believe that the institutional christian church has lost its way and has become concerned almost solely with that which only Satan can give it; political power and influence. It has forgotten the design for living Jesus outlined for us in the ‘sermon on the mount.’ If the institutional evangelical christian church in America is still part of the body of Christ, it’s the asshole.
I believe lots of other things too..but I’m going to leave it at that for now.
Peace and Love to all,
Niemand