Politics

For the last week or so I have been actively resisting saying anything about politics.  I wanted to keep this blog about the walk and nothing else.  Some part of me wanted the purity of the project to preserved.

I have my personal reasons for this.  For most of my life I have been the odd man out.  I have been beaten for my beliefs.  I have been persecuted, shunned, penalized.  My family does not speak to me because of my beliefs.  My 'friends' have turned their backs on me.

I am a child of the 80s, of that slim generation caught between the Baby Boomers and the so-called Generation X.  I belong to neither.  I sometimes envy my children and the current generation for being able to be more open about their beliefs with less persecution and pain than I had, even though their pain is still considerable.

What are my beliefs that are so heretical?

That ALL people deserve respect and care regardless of any other consideration.  That ALL children should be cared for, provided with food, water, education to their capacities, and most of all they must be loved.

That no religion has a monopoly on truth.  That art and science enrich our lives.  That no class, ancestry, or gender of people inherently deserves praise or condemnation for accident of birth.

Social justice is not limited to one gender or another, and so I cannot be feminist.  All genders must be protected equally and there MUST be a level playing ground.

We are one species, and so I cannot promote one so-called race above another.  ALL people must be accorded the same respect.

Love cannot be limited by gender, religious belief, social mores, and most especially by law.

That it is the responsibility of each of us to make our communities, environs, and the world itself better for our having been in it.  That our children should enjoy better than  we were given and that they in turn bear that responsibility for theirs.

We can no longer afford to be selfish, nor enthocentric in any of their forms.  We never really could.

Why have I been condemned for these beliefs?  Because there is no 'ism' or 'ist' label that does not violate them.  We are all guilty.  I am condemned because I expect people to at least attempt to rise to the greatness and wisdom that we could hold instead of descending into material or self-righteous comfort.  I expect people to do the work to make things better for ALL instead of promoting their own limited views, interests, and comforts.

I may be expecting too much from us, but it is easily within grasp.

If only we would reach for it.