Freedom Fighters

Short post today because I did an 11 hour drive.

I keep an American flag in my truck. I try to monitor for veterans and active duty military stickers and show them the flag as I drive by.

Today, I did that for a disabled Vietnam veteran.

As I did so, I realized that this man went to war for freedom. He was injured for freedom.

As I waved my flag, I realized:

We are all freedom fighters now.

Make Your Own Rose Ceremony

My wife watches The Bachelor, so of course, I do too. Watching the rose ceremonies I was struck by the tension and desperation in the faces of the women, waiting for their judgement.

It occurred to me that the rose ceremony was an excellent metaphor for big government.

Here we have a group of ladies waiting for a rose from a man who has singular power over their happiness. How sad for the women to know that they are limited to this one source for their future. Imagine how empowered they would feel if they could freely search for their own source of happiness, if they could look out at the world and see unlimited options, unlimited roses.

This is the paradigm of big government. With big government, you will get a decision, but you might not like it. And in order to get that decision you must submit to the cattle call, you must submit to judgement.

With small government you might not get a judgement, but you will arrive at the end with the knowledge that you made your own path, that you made your own rose ceremony.

With Brotherhood

In the Super Bowl pregame show today the Sandy Hook Elementary Choir sang America the Beautiful. One of the lines in that song includes the phrase, “…brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.” This, I think is the paradigm that we should return to, that is an American brotherhood.

I don’t expect everyone to get along. I expect everyone to have respect. I expect us all to understand that the reason people who think differently can live together is because America respects all points of view. Because we have a legal system that is designed to apply the law regardless of your social standing or the color of your skin.

America’s not perfect, and that’s because the people (us) who comprise America aren’t perfect.

We’re not perfect, but we are brothers.

Whether you like it or not, we are all Americans, even those you disagree with.

When you criticize America, you criticize yourself.

We need to return to that reality.

For in reality, we are all brothers.

It’s Not All Black and White

Whenever I have to fill out a document and identify my “Race,” I’m always presented with choices like “White,” and “Black,” and “Hispanic.” Usually, there’s also the choice of “Native American.” At this point I realize how stupid race identifiers are, because I have Anglo-Saxon and Native American ancestry. Am I white? Am I Native American? No. I’m both. So why do I have to choose something that’s just not true?

In this context, I also realize how stupid race-based policies and politics are. We are truly being used as rubes by those who need us to be divided so they can continue to cultivate power and wealth. We should realize that none of us can identify as belonging purely to one race. Are we going to go back to the days of the middle ages where you needed to prove your lineage in order to find your role in society? Ludicrous.

Just because you see me walking down the street and I have white skin is no reason to hate me. You don’t know me and you don’t know my heritage. Hate based on color, or any emotion or policy based on color is a fabrication, a ruse, a lie.

Imagine asking someone, “Yeah, you’re black, but how black are you?”

Two Murders, Two Colors

Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a country where we are supposed to be equal under the law, where justice is supposed to be blind. But we all know that isn’t the case. Explicitly or tacitly, the law is applied differently based on the color of your skin, or where you live, or your education, or how much you make, or who you know.

We live in a country that spent 100 years defeating slavery, then another 100 years defeating prejudice, and you still want a justice system that decides cases based on the color of your skin?! I want to live in a society where we live together knowing that even though we look different, we are all equal under the law, and thus we are equal in the fabric of society. And make no mistake, laws are the fabric of society. Without law, society cannot exist, civil society anyway. And a society of laws in which those laws are not applied equally is not civil either.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are on a precipice. We are faced with a choice. We can choose civility and harmony. Or we can choose chaos and misery.

We can choose to return to the rule of law, to equality under the law, to blind justice. No more affirmative action, no more discriminatory welfare programs, no more race-based education opportunity, no more racial identity at all.

Or we can choose to selectively enforce the law based on circumstance, to “interpret” the law, to be “sympathetic” to certain people. Though this choice might have the appearance of being “fair” or “right,” it is actually a rejection of law, a rejection of civility, a dissolution of society into chaos where being on the good side of the law is determined on a whim. Where one man determines the fate of another based on nothing but a superficial trait.

That poor black boy murdered that man because he was hungry! He needed the money to buy food! He deserves parole for good behavior!

That rich white kid murdered that man because he’s crazy! Death penalty!

Two murders. Two colors. Chaos. And misery.