Summer of Hope

May this be a summer in which Americans finally get it! Here it is, captured neatly by Stephen Colbert:

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was 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.” 

Amen, I say! Perhaps we should just admit we are hypocrites and be done with it. But then we will need to shut our traps about a lot of other things as well. Are we ready to do that? 

Here’s another thought, not far from Colbert’s comment, this time from Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899):

“Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.” 

‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ remember that biblical phrase, commandment really, and admonition undoubtedly told you many times by your parents while growing up? It is the same phrase today as it was back then. Also the same meaning. Really, it is!  

Why then do we make distinctions among the rich and the poor? The comfortable and the needy? Women and men? Gay and straight? Black and white? Immigrant and native? 

And the last item – immigrant and native – really? Immigrant defines America. Always has. Before we all came to this land, North American Indians lived here; still do. They are the natives. Not us. America is a nation of immigrants. It is what makes us strong. Our diversity. And yet there are narrow minded people who declaim this very principle. Why? Do they feel that threatened? Do they feel that much less than others that they have to denigrate someone else just to make themselves feel better? 

Oh puh-leeese! Get a grip people. Before and after criticism we are the same people. Nothing has changed. We still eat, sleep and work. We still think and feel. We have physical relations with others (that’s sex, folks; a three letter word; it is common to us all!). We have similar DNA. We share a lot of history and cultural heritages; some different a little, some a lot. But we share them in the common pool we call America.  

Why can’t we just get along with one another? Respect each other. Get to know each other. Lend a hand, not grab a handout. Determine what’s in it for us, not me?  

Bernie Sanders, Independent Senator from Vermont has said:

“Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America.” 

Sen. Sanders point is simply, no handouts to billionaires; don’t kill off the middle class, the very people who make everything else possible, who work and create, who save and spend, who raise families and pay taxes, who support the charities and civic work in their towns and villages. They are the market who buys product and makes profits for corporations. They also buy and sell stock as investments for their kids’ education as well as their own retirement. Turning the nation into rich and poor will kill the entire nation. The middle must be saved and nurtured. For everyone’s sake. One plus one makes two; less two makes zero. Pretty simple, huh? 

With Memorial Day 2012 now a memory, summer is here. Let us use these next several months to regain strength and self respect. Let us reacquaint ourselves with family, friends and neighbors. Let us get to know them more fully and allow our differences to percolate and enrich the soil of our social order. 

Fall will come soon enough. But by then let us believe in ourselves again. Trust in our history of equality and justice. Understand that we are in this together. Together we Americans can survive disaster and war, plague and ignorance. We can invent fresh solutions to old problems. But first we have to listen to each other, hear each other, and trust one another.

Let this be the summer that America puts on a new fresh face to the world. We are the land of opportunity and tolerance. We are the land of justice and fairness. Shut down the voices of negativism and illogic. Believe in our possibilities and move forward beyond the fall elections.

Of course I’m a supporter of Obama for re-election. But your vote is your responsibility. I just ask that you examine your core beliefs and be true to them as an American. Reject the hypocrisy. Cancel out the intolerance and hate. Vote for truth and justice.

May your summer be one of discovery and victory over prejudice!

May 30, 2012