I don’t believe the soul is some sort of mystical thing. I think of it as a person’s
humanity, the very essence of who we are. I see a person’s humanity as their deep and abiding connection to
themselves and to others. So when I see how many American citizens out there have so little regard for their fellow man I am truly and deeply disturbed.
It's no secret that the political climate today is a mess. There's so much backroom dealing, manipulation and good old fashioned mud slinging that I can't help but be frightened by the notion that these are the people running our country. I can't deny my liberal leanings and bias. So I'll get that out of the way right now. I am staunchly liberal socially... but I am surprisingly moderate fiscally. But nothing bothers me more than when I see comments like this:
Oh, I know you are in that half of the country that pays no taxes.
I know I've talked about this before but it bears repeating. That "50% who pay no taxes", is actually paying quite a bit of taxes. The tax they don't pay is Federal Income Tax. What conservatives conveniently leave out is the WHY. I'll tell you why. They don't pay federal income tax because their incomes are so ridiculously low they don't qualify to pay it. When conservatives stop spewing their "50% pay no taxes" line as some sort of justification for millionaires paying less percentage in taxes than their secretaries, and start focusing on how to FIX the low income problem, then we might see that deficit start to move downward and a higher percentage of Americans paying federal income tax.
That's the rub, the secret, the hypocrisy. They don't actually WANT to fix the problem. They want the problem to go away. Not be fixed, but to simply vanish. And by vanish they mean end any and all expenditure that helps the poor and disenfranchised. Conservatives are hopeful that these people die off or move somewhere else so they wont have any taxes spent on them because contributing to someone else's well being, helping someone who is down, is somehow a bad thing. Actually fixing the problem means higher wages for workers and more jobs. That is the last thing corporations want. They want as much profit for as little investment as possible and employee wages and benefits are the biggest expense out there. That's why they keep shipping jobs overseas and destroying benefits for workers here.
With that in mind, I go back to my first statement about humanity. I think the first step of a life choice lies in asking “Am
I trading my humanity for something else? The “something else” could be
material gain, hedonistic gain, or an idea among other things. If the answer
to that question is yes, then you should stop. The acts of these conservatives are cruel towards their fellow man. Many of them purport to be Christians but they are anything but Christ-like in their actions. Jesus was all about caring for the poor and the sick and the disenfranchised.
When we are cruel towards ourselves or others we damage our humanity instead of
supporting and strengthening it. Among the most damaging forms of that cruelty are those that use distinction and
labels as a rationale to promote treating others as outsiders. That kind of
cruelty and selfishness is a direct expression of “casting aside your connection to others”. As
such it is fundamentally opposed to the well being of a person’s humanity.
When I see comments like this:
I've worked two jobs, sometimes even three at a time to make ends meet. It made me realize at a very young age that hard work is the only way to make it and get ahead. I was referring to the people who expect cradle to grave entitlements for doing nothing but sitting at home and making babies like it was a hobby.
I really have to wonder how conservatives can spread such poison out into the world. Conservatives put it in peoples heads that someone else is getting a free ride on their back that somehow that someone is taking advantage of them and laughing at them for their naivety. It is manipulation at its most dark. It plays humanity against itself. This type of manipulation divides us as a people and this division between us as human beings damages our collective humanity as a whole. We are a nation that cares for our poor and disenfranchised. I can agree we need less of that... but to achieve that we need to reduce the number of poor and disenfranchised people out there. Conservative policies do the exact opposite of that and in fact pushes to get more power and wealth into the hands of the powerful and wealthy while ensuring those without stay without while more join their ranks.
When people like the above quoted individual simply assume that those who aren't doing as well as they are aren't struggling to get by or aren't making an effort and simply not succeeding, and are just trying to bilk the system for a lifetime of handouts, I know I am seeing first hand the toxic talking points of conservatives poisoning the very humanity of our country. I am seeing the connection to ourselves and others being eroded because of greed and selfishness.
