The post below is basically a copy/paste from another blog where my words appear from time to time.  I was asked by an acquaintance to spread it around so here we are.  While the requestor is a friend, she was driven to see this article “spread around” wherever it could find a home, so people could see my foolishness.  Friendship is about being obliging…so here we are.

In the past when I have written about my political and social views on Earth Images, I have lost subscribers. That certainly is not my intent.  Nature and photography are my loves and I will be back to that subject promptly. The blog where I originally wrote this piece endured an attempt to hijack my account. I guess we live in times where viewpoints can really only be shared with people of similar thoughts.  I do understand their anger.  Hatred however, is different from anger, and the former is more common these days than the latter.

The story below is the truth, and it was originally shared to stir thought, and to attempt to explain the progression my life has taken.

The most politically freeing moment of my life came several years ago when I decided to stop backing political philosophies and programs just because they made me feel like I was doing the right thing. Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” and the destruction it brought was a big part of it. I watched a large portion of Americans, literally re-enslaved just so people like me could feel like I did the right thing, and so a group of politicians and professional users could hold 10% of our population as a captive voting block. Imagine the wisdom of offering people money to exist on, with no criteria for an independent future. We will give you a raise in “wages” every year, as long as you continue to produce more offspring. The other specific criteria for a raise in wages is that you will only receive that raise if you keep the father out of the picture. We want as many single moms as possible. We the government (really the people) will reward you only if you perpetuate the problem, and create an increasingly larger group of Americans living in this cycle, and living in poverty.

The important part of those programs for me and most supporters was that they made me feel good about myself. That required a suspension of common sense, but that is a small price for me to satisfy my self-image of a caring person.  My caring attitude made me a hero at those Milwaukee eastside Brady Street parties. That is sort of an inside statement indigenous to Milwaukee, WI but you can insert Greenwich Village, Haight Ashbury, the Sunset Strip, Oldtown etc. The only thing longer than the wind that I used to assure everyone how much I cared, was my hair.

I eventually made the decision to listen to people with ideas.

I have never made a switch in political parties, nor have I ever truly embraced any defining terms for my viewpoints. That is because I have never cared about those things and I never will. I respect what my family, friends and others think, but I would never make a political decision to “be like them”, or to be accepted.  I did my time on Brady Street.  I was very fortunate in that I wasn’t brought up to think a certain way….only to think.

My decision was to embrace individuals and groups who actually created ideas that were designed to solve problems not to perpetuate them. I go where the creative thinkers go, but I never, ever support any idea that does not work within the boundaries of my own common sense, or at least work mathematically on paper. My personal commandment was to vote for and support people, programs, and philosophies, that were designed to create opportunities for people, while protecting individual rights regardless of race, creed, sex etc.  Policies that allow you to succeed if you choose. I don’t look for policies that say you will be successful. Nobody of any political party can guarantee you success, as much as they want to convince you they can.  That can only come from each of us. I look for philosophies that believe in the shining light of the human spirit, instead of the cynical view that nobody can possibly make it without being born to privilege, even though we have over 200 years of examples that prove you can.

I would never support anybody or any group that does not admit that the government (us) does need to help those that truly need it. The gift of human dignity and life itself, is important if a society is to be great. In every instance so far, when I have been told by one particular side, that the other side wants to end that, it has been proven (by me and by actions, not political types) to be a lie.

Changing my views to fit my personal growth seemed natural and easy to me. I firmly believe in allegiance to God, family, friends and country, but never to political parties or bureaucracy’s of any kind. I do not suckle from either liberal or conservative crazies, but I do listen to what each side has to say.

Many of those who formed this nation knew only too well, that it was those who would become the government, (themselves) who would be the greatest threat to the success of the nation, and to the liberty of its people. It is why the Constitution and its Bill of Rights and other documents, were designed to protect the citizenry, from the government itself. During the time that this country has existed, the number of people and nations, that have disregarded that belief system, and caused unfathomable amounts of suffering and damage to their nations and those of others, is too large to list here. It is all too easy to succumb to seduction, and all too difficult to reverse it. Ask any drug addict.

We live in an increasingly precarious world. We are nearing the edge of the mountain and each step that we take can easily become final. I love the fact that each of us has the right to evaluate our nation’s future and vote accordingly. Let each of us pray we have many years left to continue in that practice.

“We the people are the rightful masters of the Congress, the Executive Branch, and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. ”  Abraham Lincoln