Who Won?

I have waited until the election was over and the pundits were basically done with the post election analysis to pen another post. Much to my surprise the punditry goes on and on and on. I occasionally wonder if we need to begin riding horses again so the expression about beating a dead horse would actually have some meaning again.

Now, we have secession petitions in all 50 states. I am not surprised as often, after an election, there are always people who are dismayed with the results. Generally life goes on, people calm down and the usual disagreements with the government go along as before. This time, again, it is different.

Recently this writer has felt compelled on Facebook, my usual form of interaction with my friends, to attempt to explain how government works. Apparently some have come to the conclusion that bills magically appear on the Presidents desk in the night like some form of bill fairy places them there while he is sleeping. As wonderful it would be if there was indeed such a fairy that placed well thought out legislation in the Oval Office at night, that is not how it works.

Unfortunately, part of this post will be boring to some and I will attempt to keep this part as brief as possible.

The President of the United States does not write proposals, submit bills, debate them or vote on them. Congress does that. The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate does those tedious jobs and then, and more aptly put, if they create a piece of legislation, then it goes to the President who either signs it or vetoes it. I am hoping that covers enough of that process for us to go on.

The preceding election campaigns seem to have been long on personal attacks and short on substance. The debates were poorly moderated, questions were framed as softly as pillows and our wars were basically not even discussed.

What was discussed, not by the Presidential candidates but by Congressional hopefuls was far more disturbing to me, personally and on a societal level. Womens rights.

The fact that womens rights were a campaign issue was disturbing to this writer simply because this matter has two clear parts. First, women are people with minds, and intelligence and capable of making their own decisions and attempting to legislate women and how they care for themselves and how they do it, and the means they do it is up to them.

Secondly, the majority of people who wanted to ban abortions, force doctors to lie to their patients and force women to bear unspeakable humiliation and degradation in the doctors office, were men.

The impetus behind every single attack on abortion and birth control, planned parenthood et al is religion. Not one instance on this topic cannot be tied, with little to no research, on the opponents beliefs in God and as such the interpretation of the Bible they read.

This my fellow reader is not government in action or legislation for the good of all, it is the very clear decision by a group of people that their will be done. It has nothing to do with what is right, or fair or best for the country but simply what ones religious beliefs are. I choose not to use moral because morals and religion are not necessarily companions.

Governments set rules and laws for the benefit of all its constituents, not to set ones mind at ease that ones God will be appeased.

This recent election clearly showed one thing to this writer. The future of this nation will not be in the hands of the preachers or the religious zealots, but in the hands of rational people who choose rights over religion, sensibility over zeal and the good of country over good of personal beliefs.

Although this quote is lifted from an old episode of Star Trek, perhaps it is a fictional line that bears tremendous truth and meaning and should be repeated as part of the oath Representatives, Senators, Judges and Presidents take. “ The good of the many outweigh the good of the few”

It Is Easy to Create Hatred

I have been wary to write about this subject, as it is such a derisive issue that has the potential to alienate so many people.  I think it is time to speak before anything gets worse.  I can only hope my words will be able to carry some weight on world views.

Barring the reader being in a state of disconnect from the world, they should be aware of the intense outrage among (predominately) Muslims, the roots of this outrage stemming from a movie showing the Prophet Mohammad’s face, as well as verbally and visually slurring the Prophet.  As a result, many have been injured, even killed over this movie.  Considerable amounts of anger and resentment has been focused towards the United States, and its citizens.

This is where the topic becomes tricky to write about.  The incensed response directed towards the United States in particular would be understandable, if in fact the U.S. had been responsible for the film.  It is my firm belief that the U.S., as a country and/or government, in reality, did not create this slanderous piece of trash somehow called a film.

Yes, this motion picture was indeed produced in the United States.  However, it was created and funded by a group of individuals whose intent, to me, is clear: to inflame religious intolerance (at the least), and create a Holy War (at its worst).

The ties to who funded and created this are easy to follow.  The reader with little or no effort should be able to follow the players involved.  More importantly, the reader should be able to see the multifaceted goals for which this “movie” was made.

Obviously there has been, and there still is a concern with Iran regarding nuclear intentions. This is a concern for every country, as much as any country having nuclear weapons poses a clear and present danger to every living creature on the planet.  Some countries, in varying degrees, have expressed interest in interfering and/or destroying Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel has stated publicly that it will attack the plant, probably before the U.S. elections, and they are willing to act unilaterally if necessary.

The above threat has caused the U.S. and Britain, among others, to make naval maneuvers in the gulf region, ratcheting up tensions further.

Let’s all take a hard look at what I have just written.  Put the puzzle pieces together, and make your own assessment.  To me this is clearly a ploy by one country in particular to create a problem that did not formerly exist, with the intention of promoting a reason to strike at a country.  This country is in many ways is considered extremist to our ways of thinking, yet, at the moment at peace with itself and the world.

The individual players will, or have been exposed to this inflammatory film already, but the long term results remain the same: violence and chaos in the Middle East, directed at the West, created by a country that has made themselves abundantly clear about what their intentions are.

None of what I have written will make a difference in the end; blood has and is being spilled and lives are being lost at the hands of a few, by the hands of many in the name of God.

If I had the power, I would gather all of the world together, set them down and lecture them in things such as peace and coexistence.

We have people starving and dying while others waste food. We have so much suffering by the hands of the few with no regard to consequences. Our wars are not based on political beliefs, but on religion and ideological differences.  It is not even our religions or our religious beliefs that always differ from each other; there are differences in ideology even within different sects of the same religions.

We have a world that is far too willing to enrage another for no other purpose than to further the goals of a few.

No, this writer and this post will have no bearing on world events (as few will even read this). For those who are reading, think of what has been written and look inward. Ask a simple but difficult question. Do I know what is right and fair and what is wrong, and am I willing to speak about the differences?

For truly as the sunsets this evening across the world, we will all sleep as one species and awake the same. That is the one commonality we all share, and that by itself should be enough. If it isn’t, we will go by way of other animals; a footnote in the history of the earth. All that will remain are the bones and artifacts of a civilization that once flourished but in the end destroyed itself over differences in beliefs and greed.