Debate Don’t Hate

Well, we started the New Year off with a shooting and among the victims was a popular Democrat, a U.S. congresswoman. The shooter was another lone gunman with mental delusions who buys a weapon (easiest thing in the world) and dreams of making headlines. It has been interesting seeing all the politicians running for cover and pointing their fingers. Who is to blame? It’s all the vicious, political rhetoric! It’s the media: Glenn, Rush, Sarah and Fox News! Blame! Blame! Blame!


It has been curious listening to many of the politicians calling for body guards and extra security to protect them when they go out into the public (at the taxpayers’ expense, of course). Perhaps they should have thought about the dangers of public life before they ran for office. And maybe they should have thought about pissing off the public with all their partisan rhetoric while accomplishing little, other than adding to the national debt and enriching their friends as well as themselves with pork.

All this finger pointing and hand wringing aside, I have a solution. It is called the “Politician Mobile.” You see the Pope had a good idea with the Pope Mobile. He gets to ride around in the back of a pick-up truck while he’s encased in clear, bullet-proof glass. No worries about gun toting crazies. It’s simple. Now, we put our politicians in one of these babies and they can go riding through whole crowds of angry constituents while smiling and waving to their heart’s content. What’s more American than riding around in the back of a pick-up truck? We could outfit them with mechanical arms so they can reach out and shake hands and hold babies… (Well, maybe the baby thing not so much). But the point is, they would be safe and we could see them. It might be hard to hear them inside their glass cases… but that’s okay. Politicians seen and not heard? That might just work better.

Okay, that’s a bit extreme, but so is the idea of taxpayers paying for all the congressmen to have security and body guards when they are out and about in public. So what to do? Well, perhaps everyone should just take a deep breath and realize that civility, courtesy and respect go a long way to getting things done in Washington. The spewing of hatred and fear just gets people stirred up. It comes back to bite us in the butt. Let’s all just take a big step back from the precipice. Take a deep cleansing breath and think good thoughts.

Let’s try something really radical… let’s debate instead of hate. Otherwise, I’m investing in that company that makes those Pope Mobiles.

Food for THOUGHT…

Change and Changing

As 2010 comes to a close, I note that the one thing that remains constant in my life is… change. Nothing remains static forever. Even the mountains wash to the sea in time and seas dry up and become deserts. Life is conceived, born, lives and eventually… dies. So is the circle of creation and dissolution with birth and death constantly moving, changing and evolving, one generation preceding the next. The Universe rolls on.


We live in chaotic, changing times. Political leaders struggle for our hearts, minds and souls and yet their empires crumble and fall. It is the Present moment that is timeless. The past is gone and the future hasn’t happened yet. All we really have is the Now. It is one of the biggest concepts I’ve had to wrap my mind around. Like many of us, I suppose, I have fretted things in my past and feared things to come. In the process, I’ve missed being fully in the present. Too often, I have missed smelling the roses, enjoying sunsets, tasting a well prepared meal and listening to what people have to say.

But each year we get another chance to get it right, to set things straight. We get a whole new year as a do over. So Happy New Years everyone!

Food for THOUGHT…