by Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, Hamilton
Labels and sound bites are pretty much the same thing because they simplify – often over-simplify – reality and stay in our minds when we don’t manage to really think. Two recent letters in the Star are cases in point. One is about wolves, the other about politics.
Wolves are not “killing machines.” Only human beings and things used by human beings can be “killing machines” because only human beings are capable of complex and even malicious thought. Only human beings kill for sport; other creatures kill for food or self-defense.
Wolves can’t just take out a gun and bring down an elk; they risk their lives to do so, and if they kill more than they can eat at the time, it’s probably because they haven’t eaten for a while and they will most likely come back to the kill rather than go after more.
And while every human being is probably an a**hole from time to time, if they are thinking and caring, they are not simply and radically “Republican” or “Democrat” or “socialist” or “fascist” or even “rural” or “urban” or “friend” or “enemy.”
Everyone, without exception, wants to be comfortable, safe, and happy; we just sometimes see different ways of getting there because we live different lives in different places and under different circumstances.
Some people apparently will never be happy until they own the whole world and can do with it as they please. Some people just want to get good care for their kid’s broken leg and/or eyes and/or teeth without going under financially.
I lean “liberal” because I generally like people and want them to be able to be happy in their way and leave me alone to do the same. That’s why I am willing to pay taxes to support a government elected fairly by ALL THE PEOPLE, which means we all talk with and listen to each other and try to understand our various wants and needs and then elect people of integrity who have – not necessarily money but – a broad view and will try to represent all of us and our wants and needs.
It’s complicated. People are.
Apparently some Republicans are being asked to sign a “loyalty oath.” Seems to me that means promising not to think. My husband had a college piano student back in Ohio who actually said, “It’s so nice to be a Christian because I don’t have to think.”
That kind of loyalty and religion are human-made, not God-made. Please think. Please care about all of us. To me at this time that means voting with the Democrats, because at least they profess to care about all of us and are not simply power-hungry and afraid of losing.
May all beings awaken their hearts to one another!