Social Responsibility

Been a while. As usual. I was fired up a month and a half ago but sometimes life has a way of knocking the wind out of you and make you not feel like blogging. Or... you feel a lot like blogging, but you don't want anyone to actually end up reading what you're likely to write.

Anyway, there's lots to talk about. I've seen several issues come and go since I was on here last, but what's making the news right now is our nation's debt. We had weeks of debate throughout July, and just last Friday, August 5th, our nation's credit rating was downgraded.

You've heard the arguments if you've been paying attention. But I want to react to things slightly differently:

I saw a few people on my Facebook post about how sad or unfair it is that unemployment benefits are being slashed. I've also visited several websites where, in the comment section, the Left accused the Right of wanting to stop taking care of the sick and the elderly, and to "kick grandma out into the street." I also was a part of a surprisingly pleasant discussion, where one of the participants suggested that social programs were what made America great. That without taking care of the poor and less fortunate, we would not be as classy or as first rate of a nation.

Also, this quote from Stephen Colbert has been making the rounds a lot lately:

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus is just as selfish as we are or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition. And then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

I adore Stephen Colbert, and I watch his show regularly. I think he is brilliant and I am fascinated by his wit and his intelligence and his obviously well-rounded education. I've seen him start talking fluent German in the middle of a "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" improv scene, and he has made references on the fly during interviews on his "Colbert Report" show that I have had to Google on my smart phone. My point is that I respect him immensely and though he is a comedian, I take him very seriously. And I am fairly sure he is Catholic and that his words are sincere.

So, first of all, I want to respond to that quote. We've all heard the phrase, "You can give a man a fish, and feed him for a day; or teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime." I ask, then, would a Christian better serve a poor man by propping him up with social crutches that keep him perpetually poor? Or would it be better to encourage that man to enable himself? Would a man rather be given milk, or would he be prouder to work for his own wages and buy that milk for himself? Now, I know this is very simplistic and there are arguments about uneven playing fields and all of that (which I can get to*), but this is one example I offer of why it is not necessarily fair to accuse Christians who oppose certain social programs of being un-Christian.

Further, why must charity be government mandated and controlled? Can we not be trusted to be charitable? Must the government step in and make sure Christians act like Christians? If I want to help the less fortunate, why can I not give to a private charity of my choosing? Why does it have to be the government? What about churches? It's fun to bash them, but there are a lot of hospitals and schools out there named after Saints. There are ways to be charitable without the government ever getting its hands on the money. And I firmly believe the government is often a lousy and inefficient alternative. When Jesus was teaching, he stopped and personally helped the sick and the needy. I don't remember scripture passages where he collected money from everyone and set up a social program.

And that brings me to this idea of kicking grandma out on the street. It strikes me that these social programs, and especially the ones for our elderly, are extremely impersonal. We write a check to the government so that we can essentially group of all of our older citizens up in hidden little communities, away where we won't have to see them or deal with them. Many spend the last years of their life surrounded by nurses and strangers. The same goes for our poor. Everyone is someone's relative or neighbor. Whatever happened to looking out for each other? Would we rather write a check and look away rather than invite a down-on-his luck neighbor into our homes?

There was a time before social programs. And yes, it was imperfect, and yes, there were unfortunate souls in need of help. But it was also a time when multiple generations lived under the same roof. It was a time when you knew everyone who lived in your small community, and you could stop by with some extra food, or you could invite them over to do a few odd jobs for some extra cash accompanied by the dignity of performing a task.

Our country has some serious choices up ahead. And it may be that we can no longer afford some of these social programs in their current state. We may have to have grandma live with us. We may have to let a laid-off uncle stay in the spare room for a while. We may have to babysit the neighbor's kids while he can only find 3rd shift work. Sure, there will still be those with no friends or relatives to turn to, but imagine the huge burden we would take off of government programs if we just swallowed our pride and asked our community for help, or if we allowed ourselves not just write a check but to help others, even when it's not "convenient."

We are pooling our money, and going into debt, to collectively ignore our social problems and keep them out of site and out of mind. Rather than collect taxes, and confiscate other people's money so we can throw our poor, sick, and elderly into a "program" and forget about them, we may have to become a community that truly and personally cares for our less fortunate. We might even get a chance to better know our friends, family, and neighbors. And would that be such a bad thing?




*This got long... I'll save the "even playing field" for another time.

Politickin'

"Politics" comes from the merging of two root words: "Poly," which is "many," and "tics," which are bloodsucking parasites.

Holy Hell. It's been almost a year since I last blogged?? Wow. And, I still owe you a Furry update, don't I? I still owe you a lot of things. Damn. Hopefully we'll get there.

Ok, so - I am back. I wanted to take time out and comment on all of the commenting I've been doing lately, mostly on Facebook, a few web forums, and in "real life." Political stuff has just been coming up more often, it's been more at the forefront of my brain, and I think a lot of other people's brains, too. Mmmm. Brains...

Anyway, when I first made the big switch from MySpace to Facebook, it was probably somewhere around 2007-2008. I was astounded by all of the political stuff that was flying around. Facebook was way more political than MySpace, or it at least seemed that way, given the format. It was easier to make status updates and have links that showed up in everyone's news feed. On MySpace, people pretty much had to come to your page to get insulted by you. Or, you had to actively write an insult on their page. And, obviously, 2008 was a big election year, so there was all of that going on as well.

I couldn't believe how willing people were to just spew their political garbage into the ether (a lot of it being really, really nasty), with no regard for who may or may not be reading it To me, social networking sites were akin to a "giant dinner party." And we all know that at a polite, networking dinner party, you don't bring up religion or politics. You just don't. You don't know everyone that well, and you don't know whom you're about to anger or upset.

So, while I had very strong political opinions, I did my best not to throw a lot of it out there. I didn't make the political post very often, and when I did, I was sure to surround it with some links about the Muppets or Star Wars or something. Also, being involved in academia, music, and the performing arts for over 15 years, I quickly learned how, for the most part, to not get into a fight every 5 minutes. In the months preceding the 2008 election, I even tried to start a Facebook trend/movement to "Just Shut Up," and challenged whoever to just refrain from assaulting their friends with unwelcome political opinions.

I basically stuck to this for a while. I remember being accused of being "too political" sometime last year, and I was especially shocked given my sincere efforts to not be. I later determined that this person was not reacting to the overall quantity of my posts, as I had to go back about 6 months to even find something political that I'd thrown up on my page. She had simply branded me as "political" because I did disagree with her, and therefore I stuck out in her mind as "the enemy." My suspicion is that the smug political comments her politically aligned friends make with more frequency get overlooked and do not register as an occasional post of mine might, as they do not stick out or set off any "enemy-alert" alarms.

All that said, I confess to becoming more politically vocal in this most recent stretch of my life. I think this is for a number of reasons. We do live in very politically charged times. That's getting more extreme, not less. I'm also getting older. Maybe I care more or take more notice than I used to. And, I'm back in Missouri and around my family, so my conservative roots are probably showing a little more than I ever let them in college or in Chicago.

But also, I am done. I am done biting my tongue. I am sick of letting some of the crap I hear slide without calling people out on it. I am tired of hearing how conservatives are all inbred, mouth-breathing, uneducated, uncultured, knuckle-dragging, redneck morons. I am here to tell you that we are not. I am tired of hearing how science, reason, logic, art, music, and beauty are all solely in existence in the enlightened domain of the left. I am here to tell you that is simply not the case.

I am a thoughtful, intelligent, college-educated, and well-cultured conservative. I help my family run a business. I am a classically trained opera singer. I read. I watch the news. Then I read and watch the other news. Then I read and watch some more. I absorb information whenever I can and I formulate my own opinions. I digest these opinions and make them my own before repeating them. I do not simply regurgitate the same garbage I heard someone say on the radio.

I am willing to, but I don't want to fight. I want to actually engage you. If I can't persuade you, I at least want you to understand where I am coming from. I will do my best to understand where you are coming from as well. I won't be spewing any empty rhetoric, so spare me yours.

And I challenge you... I challenge you to actually be as open minded and intelligent as you claim to be. I have heard your point of view for 15 years, but I don't think you have ever really heard mine. You've heard sound bites and quotes from the most radical and unintelligent of the right... sound bites that were hand selected to be easily knocked down.

I am not Glenn Beck. I am not Sean Hannity. I am not Rush Limbaugh. I am me. Talk to me. Engage me. Fight with me if you must. But listen to what I have to say. Don't listen to what Bill Maher said that Glenn Beck said, and then fight that imaginary idiot straw man twice removed from a real person in your brain. Mmmm. Brains...

****

And... my computer crashed while typing this. I lost my momentum. But you get my drift.

Let's play nice with each other, but let's actually get some legitimate, open-minded debate going on. On like Donkey Kong.