Same-Same

Same-same. I was so surprised to see this title on a children's book cover last week. It was an expression that many of our neighbors often used oh so many years ago in Yalova, Turkey. It could mean, "I get it. I understand. We do things that way too." Same-same.

A new front has opened in the war we seem to be waging against one another as fellow Americans. Last week, Rush Limbaugh said, "This administration is not your average presidential administration. This is not a garden party. This is not a lecture at Harvard or any other university. We are in the process, we are in the midst of an administration that is trying to totally tear down the institutions and traditions that have made this country great."

Really? Totally? Even a half percentage of hyperbole there?

A few days ago, there were Tea Party demonstrations around the country. Hey, I guess you could call me a liberal; but I've been for fiscal responsibility since long before conservatives seemed to adopt it--and then abandon it. But the Tea Party folks had more on the table. One man across the river in Vancouver said, "Our freedoms are under attack."

If either of the above quotes are true, or even partially true, then let me be the first Minuteman taking to the streets to cry, "Not on my watch!"

But what institutions and traditions, specifically? What freedoms are under attack? Substantively how and by whom? If those questions don't have specific answers are are not supported by hard evidence rather than opinion, are they helpful? Isn't that how Germany ended up with the Holocaust of 11 million people (6M Jews, 5M non-Jews)?

"Demand to be shown," said a card included with the first life insurance policy I ever bought back in college. If somebody told me they had something better, or that what I had was no good, I shouldn't just believe their words. I should demand to be shown. Sage advice in any age.

It was once a tradition in our country that women could not vote or own property. Once we had an institution known as slavery. At the time, many folks would have said those two things supported our economy and made our country great. But if instuitutions are not working, are actually keeping us from being what we are to be, shouldn't those be torn down? Shouldn't a new tradition replace an obsolete or destructive one?

Are there times when we can't afford to be real same-same? Is our current struggle over the cost of health care in the U.S. precisely one of those times?

There are a couple of "freedoms" that I hope actually are under attack in our country because they don't work in a free and modern republic like ours:

1. The freedom to be ignorant and uninformed.

2. The freedom to act on opinion and suspicion rather that solid information.

3. The freedom to let fear keep us from actually taking a hard look at new ideas.

4. The freedom to refuse to hear and respect each other.

5. The freedom to be dishonest.

These "freedoms" aren't in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. I hope they never are. On that score, I hope we're always real same-same.

Pax,

Roger

They hate our freedoms...

TGIF, PDX!

TGIF. It was an expression before it became a resaurant/bar chain. Ubiquifood. Can you tell the difference between Applebee's, Chili's, Chevy's and Red Robin?

THOF. "They hate our freedoms." That's what former Pres. Bush often said about why the US was attacked by terrorists. Having not just crawled out from under a rock, having lived a few places besides here, and having read a little bit of history, I could never keep a straight face when I heard George W. say that. I think it had more to do with how the West has messed around in the other parts of the world.

You can't explain the clash of a Medieval world view with ours and a bunch of ugly history of Western inteventions on the basis of other people's ideas about women's suffrage or whether people of color are actually human or not. After all, we've been pretty doggone confused about these things ourselves here in Consumerland.

THOF. Ain't the question. Question is, do we? As in, "Do we hate our freedoms?" Do we love them enough to actually exercise them? Since that's what the Afghan and Iraq wars were supposed to be about, are we actually living like free people? When we say that the young (mostly) troops died in the deserts and remote mountains of the Middle East and Central Asia to keep us free, do we really mean that? Do we mean it enough to lift a finger?

When was your right to vote, speak, read, write, associate or worship put into jeopardy by Saddam Hussein? The Taliban? Al Qaeda?

When did you last exercise one of these rights? If you tell me last November I may become ill.

This morning I again contacted all three of my (our) representatives in Congress. It took me 11 minutes to send a two-paragraph original message to all three of them. I started a week ago. I've been doing it every day this week. "Nationalize the banks," I say. "Get going. The longer we wait, the more our economy slows, the more people suffer, the longer we delay a turnaround. The more unprepared and unable we are to meet the challenges of a future, crowded world. Call an emergency summit on the economy. Today."

I've told my reps that if there is no action this week to make things better I will contact them 10 times a day next week, 100 times a day the week after. Don't know if I can do it, but silence is not an option.

No military on earth can keep us free if we refuse to be, if we refuse to act like free people.

11 minutes. That's all it took. Faster typists with faster computers could easily do it in about five. How hard is that?

THOF? BS!

The question still is, do we?

Shalom,

Pastor Roger