Acceptance

Today’s word is ‘acceptance.’

This post is in response to my “Questions” post on Marla’s Musings.    I want to thank the several ladies who took time and wrote honestly in response to some of my questions.   I am being sincere.   Thank you.

You may not think I learned anything, but I did.

First, and most importantly, what I learned is that we all want a better government.  It’s a starting point of unity.    We all have been disappointed with our Congress.  Respondents to my questions stated that Congress was made up of a bunch of liars and that we need to get rid of them (drain the swamp) and we need term limits.    I think it is safe to say that Americans, of all political parties, believe we need renewal, and we need to emphasize the fact that congressmen and women work for us.   We are the ones who put them in office.  We pay their salaries.     Right now there is a real disconnect between the people and ‘the power’ in DC.   We need to stop the ego trips and push them forward on working for us.

*My thoughts:  I’m thrilled we have a common belief!   Of course, It saddens me that our voter turnout is so low for every election.  We could vote more of those “career” Congress people out if we just showed up at the polls.

I think gerrymeandering needs to be against the law.  We need to put trust back into polling locations.  We need to do everything possible to make sure polling is safe, and accurate.   When someone is caught messing with the polls & with votes, there needs to be serious consequences.   Even though I always vote, I admit that I now think my ‘vote doesn’t count’ sometimes, or never leaves my county due to the Electoral College, and with the news we get (the latest in NC) I question the accuracy of  the results.

The respondents to  my questions mentioned the following:   Lower unemployment numbers,  being pleased with the overall economy, liking relations with North Korea,  tax cuts,  wanting to keep Judeo Christian beliefs,  having different immigration and wall beliefs, and tired of a bloated government.

* Their answers were not out of alignment with mine.  More people to work is absolutely wonderful!  Less unemployment and less people needing government assistance is what we strive for.  So, yes – I am happy about that!    One response specifically mentioned better relations with North Korea.  I would like to broaden it a bit and say I want to see the US have  good relations with all other countries.  It’s a global economy now.   It’s important to have friends around the world – to share research, new ideas, to calm down threats of war.   This is one place where I see the Trump rhetoric of being a “lone” country and pulling away from international pacts, etc. not a wise decision.

*On to tax cuts, and yes, this is where the Republicans and Democrats have varying platforms about how much to collect, and in what ways to use tax money within our government.   There are two different philosphies as to what works better:  1. Less tax taken out, leaving more in a paycheck for an individual to use. Or,  2.  A higher tax that will cover more national concerns and programs for all.    Republicans like #1.  Dems support #2 generally.      Now, neither side wants to see blatant waste.  Neither party wants to make it impossible for any person to have left after taxes, not even enough money to live a ‘middle class’ life.     Agreement, on that, right?

Living the American Dream is to have a ‘middle class’ life.  It’s having a job that will pay for living expenses, for medical care, for education, for putting a little away in savings for the future.    Again, I think we all agree on that.      So, the people we vote into Congress should work for us on attaining that.  If they don’t, then they should not get re-elected.   (PS:  I know we disagree on which programs to fund.)

*Religion.   Yes, we had a respondent who said she hoped our country would go back to judeo-Christian beliefs and live ‘like it used to be.’    I’m paraphrasing.  And I get that.    There used to be a time where more Americans attended church, and took their kids to Sunday School, and people were raised to  love and fear (adore) God.   It seemed like we were all more alike back then.  Right?

Well.  Here’s one topic where from day one of the founding of the country there has always been a separation of church and state.  We are given freedom to worship however we want, and worship whom ever we want – without persecution.   So, as much as those of us who know and love God want to spread His word of peace, we can not make it mandated in America. We can not force religious beliefs on any American.  And, we therefore, must allow all kinds of churches, temples, synagogues, and the like.

* Immigration and the wall.   I actually belief that most of us see that we need immigration reform.  We have a concern (I would not call it an emergency) at the border because we are not able to process people fast enough who are looking for asylum.  Our legal system is letting them down.   When they leave their homelands to come here (for that American dream) they are desperate.  Many are fearing for their own and their families lives.  Do they run  across the border?  Yes.  Why?  Because it takes too long to sustain themselves waiting to get in legally.  So, we need to fix that.   We need to train and hire more to  process people faster.   Due diligence of course but with  timeliness and compassion.   Yes, in general the Dems and some Reps do not want to spend the billions on a wall.  All kinds of polls have shown that.   If the process is fixed less will ‘sneak’ across anyway.

Drugs coming in will continue with a wall or not.    Period.    I have never heard of a drug lord giving up millions of dollars because there is a concrete barrier in the way.

* Last on the list that I read about from my respondents was a bloated – wasteful – government.  Again, we are all in agreement that we do not want our tax money thrown away, or thrown into programs that will not be successful.   I guess that goes back to electing the right people to serve us, and also going with one of the taxation paths mentioned above.     The government is a MASSIVE enterprise.  There will be some mistakes.  But, there is no reason to believe we can’t make the system work better.   Agree?  Agree.

So, if you go back to my post (the one before this one) with my questions, you will read some that were not answered.   Yes, I know I asked a lot on that post.   But, I wish I could have heard more about reactions to the man Trump and his language – and his tweets.   It leads me to wonder if those who answered 1. Don’t see/hear it, 2. Prefer to overlook it, or 3.  Like the style he uses and dont want to admit it.    It also leads me to believe it has no effect on the respondents over what makes him a good president or not.     And, I think that is where the abyss about him is.   Many  people think that he is disrespectful and even racist. He speaks badly of friends and foes.   He has lots of turnover in the White House due to his  egotistical manner.   He belittles all kinds of people, women, the handicapped, his political opponents, world leaders even!     This is totally unacceptable to some of us,  but obviously not to others.

I also asked questions about the media.  No one answered those.     And I asked about President Obama.   Crickets there also.

And silence speaks…      for me it makes me wonder WHY at least say ‘no’ or ‘yes’ on if you believed the birth certificate claim that Trump started.

All politicians lie.  (Sad but true.)  But many of us believe that Trump sets the record for lying.

The past couple of days I have had a few hurting comments said to me  through Facebook.   I’m not very thick skinned. I admit.  I was called names.  I was wounded.  If that was the intent, well done.

A part of me says that the only way we can learn to understand each other is to  ask questions, to hear life stories, to learn what makes people lean politically one way or another.   Hmmm.  Maybe it’s like homosexuality:  you are just born that way!!   (Sorry. Not sorry.  Joke. Not a joke.)

Both political parties have used lies, and scams, and all kinds of one-sided political ads, subversive messages on found on social media. Both sides are guilty!!   Media in general has lost objectivity.  I watched the interview by Lara Logan after I was asked to watch it.  I agreed with much that Lara said.  Yes, a lot of the news reporters are liberally-minded.  Duh.   That’s not a surprise to me.  In fact, I understand it – because they are there every day on the frontlines and they listen to our Congress men and women, and White House staff – and they get an ‘inside view’… and they reach their own understanding.   Lara is right that they are bias.   I watch CNN at night (those are people giving OPINION – and I know that. )  I hear what they say and I then use my brain to take what is true from it – best that I can.  Remember those days:  I miss only the 30 minutes of pure news reporting at 6:30pm.  We trusted the “Big 3” and were heard truth. Facts.  It’s hard to find it now – in our media, and from our president.   Trump uses the term ‘’fake news’ to declaim any and everything.   So… who knows REALLY anything anymore?

My heading for this post is called “Acceptance” because I did this whole endeavor, asking questions,  to help me with acceptance. It was to help me ‘see the other side.”  Even my honest effort was laughed out. And I was called names.  But, I wanted to get more understanding.   I think I did.  All in all,  I know I have not changed my core beliefs and I know you have not either.  And that’s okay.

I continue to work on acceptance.