I have often said that offering one’s opinions for people to read, is cathartic in nature. It is freeing. Below is Encarta’s definition of the word cathartic. I will “eliminate” (pun intended) number 2, and ask you to focus on number one.
1. purifying: producing a feeling of being purified emotionally, spiritually, or psychologically as a result of an intense emotional experience or therapeutic technique
a film that had a truly cathartic effect on me
2. having purgative effect on bowels: describes a medicine that causes emptying of the bowels
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The thoughts below are my opinions, pure and simple. They are quite pointed and of course you can always take them or leave them. I do just that with the opinions of others every day of my life.
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My beliefs, of which I share often on this blog, are a statement of what my brain and common sense, as well as my sense of justice and equity tell me.
My political, social, religious views are not for sale. As friends and co-workers have come and gone in my life, my opinions or political affiliations have never changed to accommodate those people. Not to be more like them…or more liked by them.
That doesn’t mean that who I vote for, or what groups I support or deny can never change. They have changed greatly in my lifetime. Seasoning from life itself moved me to support success over failure. Freedom over government bureaucracy. Those charged with the job of protecting me, over those who would threaten me. A strong nation with righteous ideals over a weak one born of human flaws.
My opinions change slowly. I do not change them to accommodate the world around me personally, or the world at large. If that were true, it would surely mean that my opinions were shallow and of little value in the first place, or I valued personal popularity over truth.
I have seen the question asked, why is the news media so totally liberal biased, Fox News not withstanding? Even liberals no longer deny that it is.
People want friends, family and co-workers to like them. They want to be a part of a group. The elitist media leaders who began appearing from our (liberal) colleges in the late 1950s/early 60s, cast a shadow over those who were near-by who often capitulated to those leaders, wanting to be like them, and to be liked by them. The trickle down theory is real, and piece by piece, newspapers, news magazines, TV news, and the rest, became more liberal. Common reporters and celebrated journalists alike, slowly gave in to the liberalism they found around them. Now they were one of the crowd. Life is easier that way, I will admit.
Through the years there have been some unapologetic moderates/conservatives in those newsrooms, but one bit at a time, they were beaten (metaphorically) to death. Horror stories from those who were “different” on the New York Times, the Boston Globe, NBC News and other places, have been divulged and are now legendary.
Believe what you believe, be it conservative, liberal or in between, only because your brain, your common sense, your moral standards, and your sense of “true” justice dictate it to you. Not because of what “the other kids” are doing or saying.
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All the furor about former slave and supporter of freedom, Harriet Trubman, being put on the $20 bill in place of former President Andrew Jackson, is fairly bemusing to me. I mean both sides of this dispute are a bit off their path.
Andrew Jackson is being bemoaned because he was a slave owner. Presidents Washington and Jefferson were also slave owners but in all fairness, they lived and served this country in an era before most people of power, had stopped that practice.
Despite his personal kinship with slavery, Jackson was a legitimate war hero, and the last……that’s right the last…….U.S. President to balance the budget, and do so with no outstanding national debt. I can honestly say, that I am not sure America would exist without him. He was however, as reported by those who knew him, a nasty sort of person.
President Obama managed to find not only a prominent black, but a woman. Her name is indeed Harriet Trubman. I am not at all against the premise of honoring a woman and/or a person of color on our money, but I wonder if Mr. Obama realizes that Harriet was a gun toting (certainly against gun control) Republican, who railed against the government running the lives if its citizens and being oppressive. While I admire and give credit to Andrew Jackson, I must admit that I think I would have liked Harriet Trubman even more. It would have actually been a pleasure to have known both of them for their toughness, and uniqueness.
I have to say, in some respects, it seems that conservatives and liberals are both lining up on the opposite sides of their own ideologies with this issue.
For once, I will abstain from an opinion and allow both conservatives and liberals to duke it out on their own.
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As our nation gets closer to making Marijuana (weed, grass, pot, stash, etc.) legal nationwide, I am entertained by the support and denial from both sides of the spectrum. I always enjoy the argument that weed should be legal because the most problem causing addictive drug in America is alcohol, and it’s legal. So our biggest addictions are with what we’ve made legal and culturally OK to use, so that’s what we should do with weed. There is nothing like logic to carry the day (sarcasm). Maybe those who support making it legal should stop using it just long enough to make their argument coherently, and then they can light up and eat a cake or something.
It is quite a legacy that our current president is leaving behind. A lot of liberal supported ideas or lifestyles are becoming a part of our daily lives because of him and his ideas, but nothing of substance. He is sort of the trivial “stoner” from America’s past. Quite a legacy.
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I see that another icon of the music industry has passed on. As I write this, it is being reported that he was treated a few days ago for a drug overdose. Actually I never really thought of Prince, as a music icon, but everybody including our current president is using those terms, so I must be wrong. Our omnipotent King, has enough power within his monarchy that he often “speak things” into law, so he must be right about Prince.
I did like his song When Doves Cry (this is what it sounds like, when the doves cry), lyrically. I can also say that I have liked one or two songs from hundreds of others who will not be called music icons.
His death is a sad thing, but once again we make another music maker more important than he ever was. The “Artist Formally Known as Prince“, as he once insisted that the world call him ( I guess we can call him Prince again now), is certainly worth remembering, but he is also worth being kept in perspective as far as his accomplishments and effects on the world are concerned.
I seem to remember performing a similar eulogy when David Bowie died. I do believe that Bowie had a more profound influence on the world of music though.
When I write articles filled with my opinions as I have today, I know it often sounds like I am being guided by my own ego. I simply know of no other way to express my thoughts other than to come right out and state them. In other words, proclaim strongly, that this is what I think.
Now that I’ve managed to offend a large segment of future readers of this blog, I will bid you goodbye, and wish you a fine day, Wayne
Earth Images Blog by Wayne Nelson 