Here We Go Again!

I have finally figured out the mystery! The most important button on my television remote is right in the middle and is labeled with four letters of the alphabet. Those important letters are M-U-T-E! As we enter this election year, I suspect the mute button is going to get a lot of use. The only button that will get more use is the OFF button!

Shakespeare said it best - "much ado about nothing." The politics in these United States of America has eroded to the point where the prevailing winds are so much hot air without substance. The hot air successfully camoflages the underlying vicious intent of the perpetrators jockeying for power positions. These same perpetrators obviously slept through world history classes in high school and beyond because they are rushing to repeat the mistakes that led to the fall of the Roman Empire.

Church and state should not be mixed in my opinion. Each one of us has the right to choose a church which exemplifies our personal religious beliefs. I have two friends whose personal religious beliefs preclude them from eating pork. Should either of them visit me, I have enough respect for both women to serve no pork when we share a meal. That is common courtesy and neither of them wants to enact a law that keeps me from buying and/or eating bacon, sausage, and ham or an occasional pork chop. Religious freedom literally says that both women are free to believe what they wish and I am free to believe what I want. The fact that I respect their belief choice does not mean I have to live by their choices.

When my son invited a friend to dinner and the friend happened to be a vegetarian, common courtesy for his beliefs shaped a meal without meat. I did not see a guest with strange beliefs, all I saw was a six foot tall young man in his twenties who would be hungry at the end of the day. Since he could eat most non-meat dishes, I simply made sure there was enough food on the table to feed 2 hungry twenty-something men!

Was this a big deal? Not in my belief set. Common sense and common courtesy prevailed and I put a meal on the table that fed both men. The friend later said to my son that for the first time in his adult life, he was invited to a friend's house and was able to share an adequate meal. He seemed amazed. I was glad he was well fed but.....I was also embarassed that this young man would have been so, to me, disrespected in previous social encounters. Has common sense and common courtesy become so outdated?

The only person I have to live with is ME. Could I publicly and or privately humiliate a guest in my house? Being kind and/or considerate of others costs me nothing but being unkind and inconsiderate to others ultimately costs me my personal self respect.

That being said...I must label myself as hopelessly old-fashioned. I do not plan on losing friends because they attend a different church on Sunday, Saturday, or whenever. I also do not intend to argue with anyone over who is walking on a pathway to heaven or whose prayers are heard first. By the time I find out, I probably won't be on earth anyway and there won't be much I can do about it. My beliefs center on the rule..."Do unto others as you would have others do unto you!"

Mean spirited politics bring out the basest instincts in people. Am I supposed to let my neighbor and his children starve because his factory closed and he has no job? Is my neighbor supposed to die because he has no or inadequate health insurance? (That is why I have so much respect for a friend of one of my kids who practices medicine in a community health center in a major city. His patients need adequate access to health care and he works hard to provide it!) Over the years I taught in poor neighborhoods, I saw few doctors who treated the least wealthy and I know how many of my students depended on Planned Parenthood for medical care of the most personal sort.

Often I think of a young man I knew, who worked any job he could get (none especially high paying) to help his widowed sister support her family. He got sick and went to the emergency room in a large hospital. They prescribed antacids and generally ignored his complaints until his very young niece pitched a fit and made him go to another hospital...that same day. That hospital took time with him and correctly diagnosed his cancer.....it was aready too late. He died within the year. His crime...he was poor and uninsured...and now he is dead along with a dear friend of mine from a small Appalachian town. Her cancer was also diagnosed too late and the doctor who failed (refused) to treat her in the early stages of her illness because she couldn't pay....still "practices."

I also think of another physician I know who gathered two friends and went to the Dominican Republic (after the Haiti earthquake) with a plan to sneak across the border to look for a physician friend who had been on a missionary trip to Haiti. They did not find their friend...they found people who needed help...and promptly rolled up their sleeves and went to work. That physician has my eternal respect....he (and his friends) did what needed to be done!

That said....I think I'll move on.