Ok, darlings. I am finding it evermore difficult to hold my tongue during this barrage of political yammering that is the Republican nomination season. And so…
For several years now, and ever-increasingly during this political maelstrom, I keep hearing that “we need to take our country back”.
My goodness, “back” from what, exactly?
As I look over the history of this country, what has made us strong, vibrant, and desirable (much like me) is our growth, adaptation; our desire to, and for, progress. And now, it would seem, listening to the rhetoric being blasted all around us like piercing shrapnel, we have progressed too far; we need to go back, we need to stop this bold march into the future and return to the values and ideals that “made America great!”
This seems a conundrum. Well, not so much a conundrum as simply misinformed blather. How can we return to what made us a shining example for all the world – albeit lately somewhat tarnished – when what made us great was our desire for progress? How does one go back to go forward? Well, I suppose it is a conundrum. And one that hasn’t been addressed at all in this season of condemnation.
Call me crazy – and many have – but I like my right to vote, my ability to choose what I do with my body. I like to know that the food I eat is reasonably safe to eat; that there is some attempt to assure that the air I breathe is relatively non-toxic. I am comforted by the fact that, while not perfect, our education system is not just a crazy quilt of philosophies and methodologies. I like that I have friends of many varied beliefs, religions, orientations, and pet preferences. And I like that we all have the right to be different; to march to our own drumbeat; to follow our own path.
And that is what made America great; the ability to be who we are without interference. And sometimes, paradoxically, one has to implement controls in order to make sure those freedoms are not trampled upon. Yes, darlings, sometimes we need rules in order to be free; wrap your head around it: even chaos has an order.
When I hear these folks running for office say they want less government interference, it seems to me what they are really saying is that they want greater ability to interfere without restriction or consequence.
And that, my dears, would be a truly frightening step backward in the progress of this great country of ours. Regression is for cowards; progress is what keeps us alive. And I, for one, love being alive!
Love, Jane