Well Summer is winding down. Have to say it's been rather uneventful. Mini-me went to Florida for the Summer and did so many things that I wish I were a kid again. He learned to scuba dive, snorkel. He also went deep sea fishing..and what is a trip to Florida without spending an inordinate amount of time at the House of Mouse..aka Disneyworld..
I on the other hand, worked myself to death. In a real sense, having mini-me home is a godsend. All work and no play makes Dad miserable. When mini-me got back..I was surprised at not only the physical growth which happened in 2 short months, but the intellectual growth as well.
As I noted earlier, I am a history geek ( you still need to get over it!) and I used to love political season. Think about it for a second...it's a blood sport. It's a net-zero game which has devolved into war where one side "has to win" only if the other side loses. In reality, all sides lose.
I've always believed that the most basic fundamentals of government is that people basically want to be left alone to live their life. Having said that however, I see one side which wants to dictate how corporations conduct themselves, and, on the other, how people live their life...this gets me back to mini-me's intellectual growth.
We were talking the other day and he asked me what I disliked about the decades I have lived in...80's: Big Hair, 90's: the embryonic stage of rigidity, 00's: the hatred by and against everyone..and lastly,10's the wholesale adherence to ideological rigidity..His response to the last was.."That's stupid! It takes a whole lot of pride to assume that your opinion is an absolute truth" Never have I have been so proud of him.
I readily admit, I do not get along with some family members only because of politics. They are so rigid in their ideology that they seek to label others accordingly. Every day I hear from them how there is a "War on this" or "A war on that." Case in point, the brouhaha over the owner Chick-Fil-A statements on gay marriage./rights. According to family members, this is a fight over Free Speech.
Here's my take on it. 1) there are no Absolute Rights. I use the capitalized version because I seek to make a point..rights are not God-given. We were not born with the right to unequivocally be right. We protect those rights when we allow a minority to express an opinion which is diametrically opposite our one.
My second point is perhaps the most important..speech, like actions, have consequences. A person can express whichever opinion they like, if they are so inclined. But they have to remember that there are consequences. Need I remind people of the parable of the Boy Who Cried Wolf?
Am I done with politics? No. We live in political times where even our silence is a statement. My silence on statement is that things have to change. The need to provide what I call "rube bait" needs to stop. It does our nation a great disservice that a 30 seconds sound bite is more important than actually thinking, critically about what faces us. Hatred of the other side needs to end. No "Wars on..." are taking place, insofar as no " they are taking away our rights" The more one believes these accusations, the more one falls for the "rube bait".
