Friday, July 11, 2014

Standing on the political soapbox

By Jeff Orvis

Sometimes I wonder if I'm okay. Having adjusted to being past the age of 60 for a little over a year now, I figured by this time I would profess to being a conservative. After all, many of the folks in my age group post plenty of hateful things about the current administration, while religiously quoting sources like Fox News, Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh as the purveyors of truth.

I guess I've concluded that if this what it means to become older, I never want to grow up. If you asked many of my friends, they would claim to be good Christians and loyal Americans. Then their next statement is in opposition to any amnesty for refugees, especially those attempting to escape the gangs and drug cartels in Central America.

They profess to love their neighbors as themselves in church on Sunday, then by Monday, they are backing candidates or members of Congress who would cut Social Security and other similar programs, that would send every refugee back to their dangerous homeland and applaud a Supreme Court that seems to be in favor of limiting access to birth control.

They hear their pastors preach peace on Sunday, then support the National Rifle Association and support open carry of firearms anywhere in public on Monday.

They hear that the road to Heaven can only be attained by belief in a particular deity, then instead of attempting to understand how someone else can believe something else, they do all they can to put down those other beliefs and limit the rights of those who don't believe the same way, even in a country of supposed equal opportunity and separation of church and state.

It is perhaps unfortunate that when saying the word “liberal,” it's quite possible to say it with a bit of a sneer or sound of derision. But I came across something on Facebook awhile back that clearly spells out why I hopefully never outgrow the label “liberal.”

Entitled “I am a Liberal Because,” it lists eight statements that I fully agree with and I really believe that without the smokescreen of the heavily biased Fox News and others, many of my friends would agree with. I am not going to list all of the points here. You can access it on my home page on Facebook. But some of the points include a belief that no one should go without food, shelter, medical care or an education. It states a belief in an open mind, everyone's right to speak their minds, a belief in wealth and abundance, but not at the expense of others and the belief that we need more things such as concert halls, museums and libraries and fewer weapon factories.

Some of my friends are furious that President Obama has his legal team busy advising him on how much power he has to enact executive orders than wait for Congress to act. If these people would spend their time demanding their congressmen cooperate whenever possible and not have a goal of impeaching the current resident of the White House, we might move forward.

Those of us who have nightmares of the last administration might understand why some of our friends would protest. But I shudder to think what kind of mess this country would now be in if George W. Bush had tried to assume more power, other than sending thousands of men and women into a war that some think was based on lies.

Another favorite campaign for some of these folks is their belief that we should all have the right to carry firearms in public places. Backed by the all-powerful National Rifle Association, they claim they need this right for self-protection. Even with the recent mass murders in this country involving people armed with automatic weapons, their answer is if more folks were armed, these might have not happened. Never mind the possibility of cross fire casualties.

Many of our returning troops are suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. Is it really a good idea to allow these victims to be armed? Do we want a country like Iraq or Afghanistan, where a man isn't a man when he leaves his house without his assault rifle?

For many years, I have not been very vocal on my political leanings. My columns and now my blog have given me an opportunity to speak out some times. I truly appreciate my readers, whether they agree with me or not. I have one friend, a proud longtime union member, who claims that “all Republicans are evil.” Another friend, who has retired after a long career in federal law enforcement, may reply with a lengthy rebuttal to these thoughts. That's why we live in this great country.

We all should stand for something. The end of that Facebook post I referred to says it best for me: “When you call me a liberal, it is not an insult. It is a badge of honor.”