Reflections on Losing America

(A revised reprise from my Facebook postings in March 2012)

Class Wars? The underlying message I keep getting from the “Conservative Republican Religious Right Tea Party of America” brought to you by The Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and others (if I may lump them all together) is that the poor, the working poor (and less blatantly, the middle class) are a drag on this country. Why should the "hard working" class (people with very good paying jobs, positions and power) subsidize those lazy, good-for-nothing slackers in our society? The "hard working" Wall Street executives, stock traders and bankers see "big government" as their enemy. Big government taxes them unfairly and redistributes their "hard earned" wealth to the undeserving in our society. Big government regulates things that impede their businesses, banks and global corporations. Big government takes their money and provides things like public education, student loans and safety nets like Social Security for the elderly. And how dare big government use their hard earned wealth to provide healthcare for the masses! All this government money (their money) going to what they consider the most unworthy and most unproductive segments of our society makes them angry. Is it any wonder they are calling for smaller government, less regulation and the elimination of "Obamacare” or by its correct name, The Affordable Healthcare Act? 

It would appear that after day 3 of unprecedented hearings, the 5 conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are leaning toward gutting the Affordable Healthcare Act or tossing the whole law altogether. The conservative right wing should rejoice at their apparent victory...but then what would THEY propose to replace this law that would have improved everyone's access to healthcare and make it more affordable? I suggest that the opposition has NOTHING. They  would leave things as they are... preexisting conditions leading to "cherry picking" who can get coverage and higher and higher premiums so that eventually only the wealthy and the powerful can afford healthcare.

Will the Supreme Court show its own "activism" (the conservative’s constant complaint about the lower federal courts) by overriding the will of the Congress of the United States? Then, it was the high court that overrode the voters of this once great land in the 2000 Presidential Election. The U. S. supreme left us with George W. Bush as president, who after 8 years helped to bankrupt and crash our economy. Or will this court decide to uphold the greatest good for the greatest number of Americans and keep this law whole and in force? I guess we will have to wait and see.

Recently, I talked to visitors coming to the Alamo from Canada and Europe and they were very puzzled at America's reluctance to cover healthcare for all its citizens, as they have it in their countries. They don't know why the issue would even come before the Supreme Court. Don't we Americans see this as our collective responsibility to all of our citizens? I did not know how to answer them. When did Americans stop caring? When did we develop the mindset: I've got mine now you go scramble for yours? When did education and healthcare for all citizens become an alien concept, something to be done away with? When did we become a nation of US vs THEM?

Make no mistake, America, we are in a Class War. I feel that the voices of reason and moderation have been drowned out by those of wealth and power who have lost their compassion for the common man, who no longer believe they are their brother’s keeper. If the poor and those who are in need in this society are of no value, then soon what value the struggling Middle Class?  And once the Middle Class is destroyed...the bridges from poor to rich will have been burned. Pray for our Supreme Court justices and vote wisely in November 2012.

Food for THOUGHT…

Reflections on Things Left Undone

If I should get hit by a bus tomorrow, would I have regrets for things left undone? Would I feel cheated that I did not do something or experience something? My brain, now on the other side of 60 keeps giving me flashbacks of things I’ve done as well as things I wish I had done or done better or smarter. My 60 year old body has started to rebel and remind me that the 15 year old kid that used to live within…doesn’t live there anymore.

Do I have regrets? Yes, I guess I do, but then who doesn’t over a lifetime. Some things I did very well and others…not so much. I have regrets that I was not always honest with myself and others even though I put great stock in honesty. I regret that I did not try things in my career. If I had had the courage to follow my heart and my interests, I might have been an artist, an engineer or an archaeologist. I regret that I was not a better son, brother, husband and father. Looking back there are so many things I could have done better. I regret that I let fear guide so much of my path which allowed me to have the illusion of “safety,” but in reality denied me of so much of Life’s blessings, joys and adventure. I regret that I did not travel around and see more of the wonders of this world. I regret that I was not kinder and more compassionate to my fellow beings on this planet.

If my faith dictated that I had but one life to live and at the end of that life everything that I had done or left undone would sentence me to eternity in Heaven…or Hell, I might be a tad concerned. I’ve long since given up a belief in Heaven and Hell. It stopped making sense other than to scare the living into being “good.” The concept does not work for me. Why should we (our souls?) only be given a blink of an eye in all of Eternity to get things right? Based on one chance, one lifetime, we would spend the rest of Eternity floating on a cloud and walking down streets of gold or burning in torment forever and ever.

I’m reminded a lot these days that I’m no longer a young kid or even a young man in his prime, if indeed I ever was. I have diabetes. I have to watch what I eat. I have to force myself to exercise. I get tired and have to pace myself more and more. I have aches and pains that I constantly second guess. When you are 15, you think that you will live forever, but when you are 60, you begin to accept that life on this plane does not last forever. At 60 I can look forward to perhaps another 20 years, perhaps more, if I stay in reasonably good health. This life is finite and yet our essence (who we really are) is infinite. Our bodies and the life we lived will pass away. One hundred, two hundred, three hundred years from now who will remember our existence unless we were some great historical figure? What evidence will remain of what we held so dearly in this lifetime? There must be more to life than this one chance to get things right, this one chance to see and do it all.

I’ve come to believe that we get many chances, an infinite number of chances to get it right. We get many lifetimes. Each lifetime is a workshop, time and space to work things out. It never stops. Since we cannot go back and change the past and the future is always in the future, we therefore only exist in the here and…NOW. Each moment is a chance to do it better, get it right or to learn and grow. We have the “Power of Now” according to the New Age author, Eckhart Tolle.

I’ve also come to believe that we are all connected. We share a collective consciousness, a Oneness with Our Creator. Yes, I may no longer believe in Heaven or Hell, but I still believe in God. We are like the fingers of a giant hand, all connected, all with a purpose and yet seemingly independent at times. It is this vision of independence, of not being connected, of being an island in a sea of fingers that can lead some fingers to feel superior, more important than other fingers. That vision can allow for “us” and “them.” That illusion can allow war, genocide, poverty and discrimination. We miss the bigger picture of a hand, each finger with a purpose for being, grasping and together getting things done. God must surely feel sadness when our vision becomes so narrow, so focused on separation and thinking “what’s in it for me.”

I think after 60 years of life it is good to stop and reflect on things left undone. It is a good reminder of just how much more there is to do. May God bless this endless journey of life, learning and most definitely…discovery. And may we realize that all of this is just the beginning.

Food for THOUGHT…