I Believe

I believe in the freedom of religion and the freedom from religion.

I believe in the right to keep and bear arms and firearm background checks.

I believe in free markets and powerful public oversight against corruption.

I believe in animal conservation and licensed  hunting.

I believe in the right to choose abortion and to picket abortion centers.

I believe in the sanctity of marriage and the right to marry anyone.

I believe in powerful law enforcement and reduced imprisonment.

I believe in the right to privacy and the demand for transparency.

I believe in national pride and humble respect toward other nations.

I believe in establishing companies and strict limits on mergers.

I believe in health care access and dismantling the health industry.

I believe in a strong national defense and a smaller standing military.

I believe in funding correctional facilities and dismantling private prisons.

I believe in effective border security and more legal avenues to citizenship.

I believe in the right to petition and the prevention of lobbying.

I believe in political fundraising and no anonymous donations.

I believe in a free press and severe punishment for misinformation.

I believe in probation for thieves and imprisonment for fraudsters.

I believe in the right to free speech and public redicule of liars. 

Some may think me a walking bag of contradictions. Actually, I’m a patriot who still believes in many of the ideals this country’s founders envisioned.

Our country was never great, never perfect; it’s still not perfect today. However, the goal was to continually strive to be more perfect, more fair, more honest, more respectful, more equitable, a process that never stops. We, the people, lost sight of this and allowed rampant bullying of every minority we could label and drag into the town square. In turn, those bullies kept becoming more powerful until we welcomed the rich and powerful bullies to enslave us.

Therefore, our country has become the bag of contradictions.

We pledge allegiance to a republic but say we are a democracy. 

We established a firm separation of church and state but eventually allowed “God” to be printed on our currency and inserted into our Pledge of Allegiance.

We tell other countries to solve their own problems but station or move military forces in or near each one as pressure for decisions in our interests.

We promote the toppling of governments but reject the resulting refugees.

We laugh at proposed conspiracies but consider real corporate conspiracy as “just business”.

We stopped respecting one another but act shocked when one of us snaps and kills a crowd.

We claim to be a nation of peace but spout hateful, saber-rattling rhetoric and live in fear.

We take pride in being a melting pot of “huddled masses” but mistreat immigrants seeking a better life.

We defend letting the free market correct itself but bail out corporations and banks that fail from unchecked corruption.

We stump about political integrity and honesty but allow hidden and overt funding to control our politicians.

We claim science and engineering as our future but shut down factual education and scientific research that challenges existing beliefs or profits.

I doubt I’m the only one who sees this or believes as I do. Matter of fact, I suspect the number of such like-minded people are growing. Eventually, we will overpower the loud minority, but those with the power today would be fools to allow it.

They’ll come with pseudo claims of safety and security, if we just give up a few more of our dwindling rights that remain. Besides, most of us don’t vote, don’t participate, don’t want our voice heard, so we don’t need to the right to vote. We should just give up and let the rich decide, unchecked, what we are allowed to do or say or be or, or worse, who should be arrested or deserve a fair trail.

We only wish to be entertained and distracted from being enslaved by the rich. After all, the only way one can become rich and powerful is by being smart, kind, respectful, humble, generous, caring, all the positive virtues we hold dear and have instilled in every religion on the planet.

Those who failed to sense the sarcasm in those last sentences have already given up, checked out from being part of “We the People” and signed over their freedoms to unknown slave masters bent on keeping them just poor enough and ignorant enough to complain but not revolt, not care, not know any recourse other than submitting to the silent slavery.

Instead, I call for the guillotine. I call for we, the people, to take back our country, to hold every one of our representatives accountable and vote our true, honest representatives into office to fix the mistakes that have lead to this train-wreck of an experiment. Citizens in other countries have created better systems that better represent and serve their people and not corporations or the rich. That was what America was suppose to be, but we lost our way, got lazy.

While other countries surpassed us, we kept looking at a romantic version of our history so much so that we never really cared about who we should become. We just became disinterested and dumber as we ignorantly react spontaneously to each foreseeable crisis catching us by surprise.

America today stands as the laughing stock of the world; we are a standing joke controlled by a gang of unruly school-yard bullies who don’t think about their words, consider their actions or care about consequences, so long as they feel powerful and respected. That perceived respect is trepidation, fear that their next careless, callous action will harm even more people, maybe even the world, and we lack the leaders with courage to stop it.

Today, our moron in chief plots to join another mindless pissing match in the Middle East, an area full of people who have been at war with each other since before written history. Instead of being a stalwart ally for peace, America has ensured the area remains unstable, greedily trying to play all sides to sell weapons and take oil profits. Our plotting will be our downfall, and maybe, this time we’ll irritate just enough people that nations will start forming coalitions and declaring war on us. We would deserve it, and if it escalates into an out-of-control world war, “peace-loving” America would be responsible.

I believe we, the people, should be better than this, deserve to better than this, could be better than this. But we gave up those rights so long ago when we were told it didn’t matter if we voted and we believed them, when we were told giving up a bit of freedom was for our safety and we believed them, when we were told going to war was for peace and we believed them. Now, it just might be too late. Maybe we, the people, will finally standup and take back the country we allowed to be stolen from us, or maybe, we, the people, will have to pick up the pieces and try again, if we survive, I believe.