Values Of Sacrifice, Society & Connection Require Our Efforts—At Least In England People Are Fighting Back

In the United Kingdom, people protest when drastic budget cuts raise college tuition by astronomical rates.

Above you see a picture of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker reacting when even the royal car was attacked and knocked about during protests in London.

In the United States, we do nothing at all when one of the two major political parties has no greater concern than tax cuts for the most wealthy in a time of recession and war.

We allow the hours of our lives we spend working and spend caring for the people in our lives to slip away, while the powerful few preach on and on about austerity and tough choices.

Sacrifice has value. We are all part of a society. We are all connected.

These values of sacrifice, society and connection will carry the day only when we work hard and fight back against what is taking place in this nation.

Morality Is In Large Part About Our Views On Public Questions

My friend David Jennings, a top conservative blogger and reflexive mouthpiece for the so-called Tea Party here in Houston, wrote the following in his blog Big Jolly Politics a few days ago–

“Remember folks: these vile, vulgar, angry bigots on the left HATE YOU because you try to live clean lives and do right by other people. No amount of coddling to their wishes will change that.

The post was about a liberal blogger in town that Mr. Jennings feels is off the mark in a variety of ways.

I’ve been thinking for a few days about these two sentences from Mr. Jennings.

I live a clean life by conventional standards. I’ve been married for ten years and have never cheated on my wife. I don’t do any drugs. I don’t smoke. I drink in moderation. I go to work five days a week and I pay my taxes. I vote in every election. Regular readers of this blog know I never use obscenities in the blog. Anybody who has ever shared a meal with me  at a restaurant knows that I’m as polite as could be and that I tip 20%. I am, in fact, quite conservative in many respects.

I live a clean life and try to do right by other people. And from what I know of Mr. Jennings, he values courtesy and hard work as well.

Here’s the difference between a conservative and a liberal —-A conservative likely favors repeal of the recently Health Care Reform that—Among many other helpful things— will help millions of Americans with the elimination of lifetime caps on policies, and the prohibiting of the practice of kicking people off insurance because they get sick.  A liberal does not likely favor repeal of Health Care Reform.

I’ll side with the person who puts human life over small government ideology.

Let’s say that a conservative  is in his or her own private life a wonderful person. I suppose this is possible. No type of person has a corner on right living. But what good will the private conduct of someone on the right do for our fellow Americans when health insurance is needed? Or when we need social security? Or when we need parks and libraries that are sufficiently funded?

Lot’s of really bad people love their spouses and love their kids.

Politics is about how we will run our society. It is about far more than private life.

In addition to how you live your private life, a test of character is are you willing to pay the taxes required for a decent society and not just for your own perceived gain?

The right wants to privatize every aspect of our lives. A view of good conduct that stops at private conduct is an insufficient view.

Character is about how you view the public sphere just as much as about how you conduct your private life.

We are obligated to each other by the simple fact that we exist.

Of course we must work if we are able. We must be kind to the people in our lives.

We must also see that morality involves progressive taxation, needed investment in our schools and parks, acceptance of people of all faiths, and Health Care Reform that will help millions of Americans.

These are aspects of morality just as much as how we live our private lives.

Public Toilet

I was driving around Houston a few days back when I encountered this public toilet.

Maybe it was a commentary on society.

Here is a website dedicated to public toilets.

Here is a history of public toilets from PlumbingWorld.com.

Street Corner Democracy—The Things We Need To Communicate Are All Around Us

Here is 72 second video I filmed a few days ago where I list 7 points I feel relevant to the consideration of democracy.

I made this video on a public street corner, with words that I wrote, and with an inexpensive Flip Camera, because the things we need to communicate and to be creative are all around us. They are accessible.

In the background you see a street sign, a stop sign and fire hydrant. We live in a society. For better and for worse, we are one person among many.

Why I Oppose Legalizing Marijauna

I oppose the legalization of marijuana because I can’t imagine any more idiotic behavior taking place out in open society.  While I realize people already are smoking marijuana, making it legal would mean even more people would smoke marijuana and that public conduct would become even more dumb and offensive. 

I favor legalization of medical marijuana.

Every couple of weeks or so, I drive on a local highway here in Houston around midnight on a Saturday night. I don’t have much choice but to drive at that hour. I’m convinced at least 25% of the drivers I’m sharing the road with at that time are drunk or, at the least, have been drinking. Isn’t that enough? Do we now need stoned people (or even more stoned people) on the highway to go with the drunks and drag racers and assorted nuts?

Just look at how people behave as a general matter. Even when not drunk or stoned. Isn’t it rotten enough already? Should we legalize acts that will bring about even more bad public behavior? Aren’t things idiotic enough?   

I don’t favor harsh penalties for drug users. I support drug courts that work to get people to stop using drugs. 

I don’t want to have to share the public space with a bunch of stoned people when going out into the world is often maddening as it is. 

If you can find a way to legalize marijuana with a law that nobody can leave home while stoned, I might consider supporting that. By this I don’t mean not driving while stoned. But not being able to leave home at all while under the influence of marijuana—With a big fine for being out after smoking weed.

Stay the hell away from me when you are smoking weed.  There are enough hassles already. 

(Here is a history of marijuana use.)

A Painting Of People At Work

The painting above is called “Kitchen.” It was painted in the 1580’s by Vincenco Campi.

I enjoy blogging, hopefully I have some skills in expressing ideas, but I wish sometimes that I could paint. Among other things, I’d paint people at work and people as they are in life.

Along these same lines, I wish we had a greater respect for the labor of others. We need to recall that all work has value and dignity.

I Called My Veteran Father To Remind Him Old People & Veterans Are Despised In This Society

I called my father today for Veterans Day. My father, now 77, was a medic in the Korean War. He also saw combat.

Dad was not home so I left a message. I told him our society despised old people and veterans because they are often not economically self-sufficient. 

Dad called back to say that he saw most people as “simply indifferent.”

I suggested that if what he was saying was true, that apathy was a bigger insult than dislike and as such, as I said, he is despised. Dad said that view might have some merit.  

Veterans Day has brought my father and I toghether.

Here is the Washington Post report that broke the story of poor care at Walter Reed.

Here is an Anderson Cooper report on homeless Iraq War veterans.

Here is a USA Today story reporting that one in four homeless people are veterans. 

Here is a link to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

Aggregation Or Association?—The People We Spend Our Time With

  

The National Audubon Society Guide To Marine Mammals Of The World uses the word “aggregation” to describe dolphins that come together only for purposes of feeding. These dolphins are linked in this case by a practical purpose and will break back down into more stable and normal social groupings once they eat enough fish. 

In Jean-Jacques Rosseau’s The Social Contract, Rosseau uses the word “association” to describe people in political union or unified in some way transcendent of immediate needs.

I was reading both books around the same time. Seeing both words used in these ways got me to thinking about why we spend time with the people we spend time with.

For example, on a city bus you have an aggregation. The people are on the bus only until they reach the right stop.

At work, you might have of mix. At core it’s an aggregation because you are the there to get a job done and earn a living. But with time, as relationships form and the common purpose, possibly, takes on more meaning, an association may exist.        

When I hung out at punk rock bars, I always felt that many of us had something in common—If only various types and degrees of alienation. That would be an association.    

At a hotel bar you would have more of an aggregation. People just passing through.

How about school? For some it is an association with real meaning and substance. For others it is an aggregation as the days are counted down to summer vacation, graduation or dropping out.  

People today can be linked today by computer and e-mail. You might have a substantive association with others far away, while you feel the people you spend your time with daily are no more than an aggregation. 

Jail would be an aggregation. Tough I suppose a widespread plot to escape could turn it into an association.

I see society itself as an association. People on the right might see it as an aggregation.  

You might see the distinction between aggregation and association as a kind of academic exercise.

However, I’d say it is important to realize who we feel we share a common purpose with and who may be more incidental to our lives. Having such knowledge would provide a more clear sense of what is important in life and what is worth your time. 

On the level of society as a whole, the more people we feel as truly connected with in an association of fellow citizens and fellow human beings, the more likely we are to pursue fair and humane policies of basic social justice.