You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine

 

I am a Human Being.

I am a Christian.

I am a Freeborn American.

I am a man.

I am white.

I believe in the Constitution as written.  I am a Conservative, Libertarian, registered Republican who voted twice for Donald Trump only because I understand that his positions were better for America than those of his opponents. 

I am NOT a racist, bigot, nor a White Supremacist.  I am not a Nativist nor a Xenophobe.  I am not a Fascist.  I am not a Cultist.  My political positions are based on thoughtful analysis of political and economic theory, my life experiences, and a lifetime of observing the American condition.  As a Freeborn American I have the God given Right to my opinions AND the Right to express those opinions peacefully, as does every American.

I do not make assumptions about people based on their race, sex, religion, or national origin.  I do judge people by what they say, what they do, and how they treat others.  It is very likely that how you treat me and others will determine how I interact with you. I have preferences, likes, and dislikes that are based in my life experiences – every individual has the Right to their likes, dislikes, and preferences.

You may choose to dislike me because of my words and actions.  You have that Right.  If you choose to dislike me because only because I am a Christian, white, man who believes in the Constitution as written, or voted for Trump you are being prejudiced.  If you want to silence me because I disagree with you, you are a totalitarian Fascist.

I will respect your Rights to the expression of your ideas, in the same manner and to the same degree that you respect mine. 

In America we cherish the Rights to Freedom of Thought and Freedom of Expression.  There was a time when we respected one another and welcomed different opinions.  We followed the Golden Rule, we believed in “live and let live.”  We have become incredibly intolerant of different opinions.  We seem to be dangerously passionate in our belief in the absolute rightness of our positions, even though we can all be wrong at different times. I’d like to see our society return to a state of Grace where you are free to be you and I am free to be me.  Let the chips fall where they may.

Ghostly echoes of “the antenna of our age”, “a friend of us all, Mr. Bob Dylan”:

“Then the time will tell
           Who has fell
                     Who's been left behind
                                When you go your way and I go mine.”

You go your and I’ll go mine.  Walk as Free People.

A Mind Full of Questions and a Heart Full of Despair

If anyone had told me, a year ago, how totally messed up 2020 was going to be, I wouldn’t have believed them.  I truly never thought that I would live to see a time such as this.  The loss of freedoms and fracturing of our society is something I could never have conceived.  How could any of us have imagined the governments closing businesses just because they could, causing an economic collapse on a par with the 1929 crash?  Could any of us have foreseen the anger, the intimidation, or the virtue shaming and accompanying physical violence that is splitting our communities and our families?  And who would have believed, even a year ago, that the Democrats could openly steal a presidential election and that the court system would endorse that steal?

I never thought I would live to see these things.

It is not my purpose to list or chronical the abuses and attacks upon our individual, God – given, once Constitutionally guaranteed rights and liberties.  We each have suffered them, to varying degrees and to various personal conclusions. Rather, I want to raise the question of where do we go from here?

The complexion of the abuse has increased over the months.  In the beginning, the authorities used our willingness to comply to get their foot in the door.  They mistook our willingness to help for weakness.  The threat of “legal action” force quickly followed which gave way to conflicting mandates, confusing changes, and rampant abuse of our liberties.  Most damning, most frightening, and potentially most destructive to our nation and our society is the fact that so many of us have given into the virtue shaming, reporting our neighbors, and taking “give no quarter” positions.

It is one thing to contemplate resistance to tyrannical governments, but how are we deal with those Nazi – like neighbors who are more than willing to strip us of our liberties and our humanity?  When – if – all of this is over, how are we to reconcile with those who are so vehement and vitriolic against us?  Am I just to pretend that you called me selfish and vile because I won’t mask up?  How can we heal?  You can’t un ring that bell.

We can retake our governments through elections or resistance, but how do we heal the families and communities that this un Godly need to control has split?  How do we reconcile those who love liberty more than life itself, with those willing to deny you all liberty in the name of “the common good”?   What is a good compromise between liberty and slavery?

I don’t have any answers, just a mind full of questions and a heart full of despair.  I don’t know if America can, or will, survive.  America was the last, best hope for Mankind on earth.  There’s no place left to run to.