“You are right about that”. Words both sides of the divide desperately need to see and say for a united country.
“You are right about that”
Bureaucracy has become a tangled ball of red tape choking out any common sense and drowning out the original purpose. Yes – there is corruption and “pork” on both sides. Let’s examine it and validate its impact or redesign or remove its thread. But keep an eye on those who exploit the removal. We do need services as a society that are important to our communities. A healthy budget looks at what needs to be paid first. Priorities need to be our Indigenous tribes (the people who really were invaded), Veterans and First Responders, children, elders, and the disabled. A healthy and caring society doesn’t make them beg for the necessities of survival. And we all need the roads and infrastructures and other expenses that are NOT optional, but rather an investment in who we wish to be. “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt. Giving tax cuts to the wealthy goes in the opposite direction.
“You are right about that”
The pharmaceutical industry has seized too much power without looking at the consequences. The opioid crisis – (one of the real reasons we have a fentanyl problem) was a lesson in that – we did not learn from.
Part of the reason Covid hit so hard in America was the fine print warnings of the overwhelming number of prescriptions being taken that even doctors don’t pay attention to, of “increased risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them”. We simply labeled those deaths as caused by underlying conditions, rather than saying what the true cause may have been.
RFK Jr.’s right about us needing to address the chemicals and toxins in our food, our environment, as well as our vaccines. Constant multiple viral mutations are not best handled with an abundance of vaccines. Yes, those such as polio were effective at its prevention, but the flu and covid vaccines have not prevented flu season. It may even have made the flu more severe. The overwhelming amount of antibiotic use creating ‘super bugs’ could have taught us that, but we can be slow to learn when profits are to be made by those recommending them. Even some physicians sound more like a pharmaceutical rep than a doctor. Nature has answers to even that – but we ignore her value when we need it the most.
“You are right about that”
Racism has become empowered by this administration. But it is not true of those who voted in desperation for change. We need them to speak now. Otherwise, silence condones it. If we truly don’t want a Hitler regime, we must act against its construction, which has begun.
We are not a white man’s country club. We are a country built on a constitution with the premise of diversity, equity, and inclusion for all are created equal with the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Removing DEI doesn’t create equality, it destroys it.
“You are right about that”
We don’t want a king. The White House official social media page seems to believe we do. The President seems to believe he is in his quote and is working towards making that a reality. Never before has our government embraced the ego stroking of one man, like the tale of The Emperor’s Clothes. It is already right before our very eyes. We must each test our own integrity and courage to speak out against it. Our democracy depends on it – so does your ability to call yourself a Patriot. People died to fight against the rulings of a king.
A true leader serves his people and admires those that do (President Zelensky is an example of that). They do not aspire to be like the dictators of the world whose actions are a result of their unending thirst for power both within and outside their country. “I want what you have” as a motive to attack and invade others, whether by army or coercion are not the actions of a true leader. They are Depraved Indifference to the suffering it causes. Putin is that example. We are heading into being an example of that ourselves. Our neighbors and our allies need to be treated with value and respect, or we become the bullies of the play yard. Even our allies can teach us about unity and respect for one another.
Perhaps the Danish of the past can inspire us now. These are the words of Kim Malthe-Bruun, a young member of the Danish resistance in the letter he wrote the night before he was executed by the German occupying power: “… and I want you all to remember – that you must not dream yourselves back to the times before the war, but the dream for you all, young and old, must be to create an ideal of human decency, and not of a narrow-minded and prejudiced one. That is the great gift that our country hungers for, something every little peasant boy can look forward to, and with pleasure feel he is a part of – something he can work and fight for.”
In Number the Stars – a book by Lois Lowry – “Surely that gift – the gift of a world of human decency – is the one that all countries hunger for still. I hope that this story of Denmark, and its people, will remind us all that such a world is possible.”
As Mr. Rogers reminded us in challenging times, ” Look for the helpers”. Perhaps then we can also become one of them.
Written by Melody Belliveau
The Social-Commentary.Com 