My Take

Today’s whole political agenda is frightening in so many ways. One can not read the newspaper (or any other news source) without being confronted with rabid, antagonistic, and largely racist diatribes against people of color, most notably the President of these “united” states and his followers. Truly I am not stupid enough to believe that these ranters and ravers are the majority of our country’s population but their vocal din intentionally muffles the voices of reason without which we do not survive.

Lately I have noticed something of interest. All of these diatribes are not only similar but they are redundant, dialectically and structurally identical, and display a blatant exemplar of faulty or non-existent analysis. Any competent user of the English language would immediately recognize the plagiaristic qualities of cut and paste technology. Cut and paste technology permits lazy thinkers to appropriate words from sources outside their intellectual comprehension, an exercise in faulty, illogical, or nonexistent analysis. My mother’s admonition comes to mind, “It is better to keep one’s mouth shut and let the world think you are a fool than to open your mouth (without thinking) and remove all doubt!”

We as Americans need to wake up and quit squabbling among ourselves. Our survival as a people is not a simple but rather a complex system which has many components. Those components affect each and every one of us. It we allow our inherent, childish, selfish emotions to hide our better nature, we are doomed. The founding fathers spoke of government of the people, by the people, for the people, a clearly stated unity of purpose.

Our early ancestors would reach out and help one another when needs were demonstrated. A forest fire struck the pine woods, the men grabbed needed tools and went to fight the fire. Some of the women fought the fire while others provided food and water. Flood waters came and neighbors came to help families move their possessions to safety. My stepmother wandered out at night and almost fell in the creek. The neighbors snatched her to safety and called me to come home since my father was in the hospital 30 miles away. No one expected monetary payment…payment would come around when a need arose. Those were the times when people understood that we helped each other because only in that way would all of us survive…no questions asked.

A physician we know went to Haiti (through the Dominican Republic) to look for a friend. Although the friend was not found, he did find people who needed help…and he helped because that was part of his upbringing..or as we say…part of his raising. A child needed help and a physician who chose to practice in the ghetto…reached out and did what needed to be done. A hill doctor jumped in his jalopy and drove down hollows , across creeks and bounced between ruts in a dirt road to see his patients. As a child I remember folk paying their doctor bills with a bushel of potatoes, a smoked ham from the family’s smokehouse, fresh canned vegetables, whatever they had to contribute. The community survived and life went on.

The best part of people’s nature is still here but if is being hidden by those who deliberately mislead and misinform others in an effort to disrupt a sane political and governmental response to the needs of ordinary, everyday folk. Corporate America would be willing to ignore the needs of children with handicaps ( a friend who has a child with spina bifida, another friend with an epileptic child…you know those people with pre-existing conditions). It is time to remember what this country is supposed to be about and quit clouding the issues with smokescreens!