In which I get my rant on, which is slightly out of character for me, but that's what I get for following the news.
I was raised by Eisenhower Republicans. My parents taught me personal responsibility and the value of hard work. They taught me to treat others with kindness and respect, and to be honest and fair in my dealings. They taught me to love my country and believe in its promises of freedom and equality -- that whatever its imperfections, ours was the best system of government in the world.
Such an upbringing did not prepare me to cope with the barrage of ugliness, irrationality and willful ignorance currently in circulation in American society, of which the current kerfuffle over the so-called Ground Zero Mosque is just the latest example.
When I was around ten years old, my dad overheard my sister and me using an ignorant slur while talking about some Mexican kids we had passed on the street. "Don't ever let me catch you saying anything like that again," he said. I never forgot that moment, and I never wanted to say those ugly words again, whether I thought he would catch me or not.
I can't swear that my folks were free from any and all prejudice, or that they didn't oversubscribe to certain stereotypes based on race or ethnicity. But they did not tolerate racist talk in their home, and for that I'm grateful.
My parents were devout Christians; my mother even worked at our church for many years, as the office administrator (I spent a lot of after-school hours hanging around the church, and started playing piano and organ for services at the tender age of twelve). Yet they didn't find it necessary to bad-mouth people of other faiths. They would admit, if pressed, that they disagreed with beliefs that differed from their own, and that they believed their religion came closest to the "truth." But they simply wanted to practice their faith in peace, and had no desire to interfere with others' right to do the same.
In short, they taught me to be nice to people. And though they never said it outright, I absorbed the message that if I was nice to others, they would be nice to me. (I continue, in my foolhardiness, to believe that and act as if it were true, despite copious evidence to the contrary.) I also inferred from their example, though no one saw a need to state it explicitly, that intelligence is something to be valued, and ignorance is not something to be embraced.
As a result, I am gobsmacked by the way criticism has been conflated with censorship (e.g. Carrie Prejean, Dr. Laura, et al). I don't see how anyone who graduated high school could fail to understand why civil rights are not subject to majority approval. I lament that so many people who are able to vote and drive cars so thoroughly misunderstand the function of the judiciary branch of our government. And I cannot wrap my head around the level of self-delusion and narcissism that enables a person to see a threat to their religious freedom in the mere existence of someone of a different faith, hoping simply to exercise that same freedom.
It's painful to contemplate, now that I'm all growed up, that these wholesome, sensible, Golden-Rule-based values I was raised with in are, in fact, not shared by a large swath of my fellow Americans. (It particularly galls me that many of these folks claim to follow my homeboy J.C., even as they make a mockery of everything he taught, in my estimation.) I feel ill-equipped to navigate reality when the road map I was given appears to be so hopelessly out of date. I always thought my parents had done an admirable job with the moral compass they bequeathed me, but now I'm beginning to feel like they screwed me up big-time!
I've lived a sheltered life – I admit it. The values my parents instilled in me as I grew up seem hopelessly outmoded, idealistic and naïve given the way the world works today. Nevertheless, stubborn little idealist that I am, I still believe in them. I know I have to face the dispiriting possibility that what my parents taught me about our country's greatness has never really been true. But Goddammit, it should be.
Plenty of pundits and politicians will pay lip service to the idea that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world. I would like to ask them, when are we Americans going to start acting like it?
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Comments
Rated for speaking your mind.
You and I are from a previous era that believe in looking at people as people first, long before looking at their skin color, beliefs, lifestyles, etc.
-R-
Miss, I'm an early boomer in your generation and with very similar parents. And the same general teaching/upbringing.
I was Republican in my very early adulthood but made a major change after Reagan. I think, (hope?) in some ways, I advanced toward full adulthood - became a fiscal Repub, a social Democ.
Now, I can't believe what a schism between the two parties has occurred. Nothing of what appealed to me yesteryear exists in the Repubican party.
I can only hope that within my relatively short life time, some sanity/intelligence/equilibrium can be achieved.
After all, I have children and grandchildren
Lezlie
It's that insane right wing faction, expanded to include more elements of paranoia, that now owns the conservative movement and controls the GOP.
I want my Country back too, from the ignorant, the prejudiced, the rude, and the self-centered, for starters. I believe GWB should never have even been nominated for President, let alone elected.
Rated
(R)ated for cognitive resonance in the field of social and political discussion.
The sex education thing, on the other hand, yeah, that one I'll go for.
Of course, I don't really have an explanation for that belief, just a good strong gut feeling that's backed up by a whole angry mob of pitch fork carrying friends.
they lied, and never. there's another history of america, one the texas board of education does its best to keep away from children, lest they don't swallow the lies you and many others had burned in your brain.
but lies are shaky ground, and false history no protection from reality. some of that reality is the cause of the 'necessary' war, the 'terrorism' and consequent fear that fuels the erosion of what americans imagined were rights.
too late to enlighten you, i suspect. maybe if they put cameras on the nose of drone bombs you would be less casual about making war for other people's land. but a great many americans would watch what happens with avid glee. their lives have been barren since the kkk became inactive.
I am so tired of being embarrassed by my fellow countrymen. Loyal opposition? Hardly loyal to any of the ideals I remember.THANKS FOR THIS PIECE! r
Perhaps it is a test of faith - to resist the deafening call to join the stampeding herd, when they hijack and pervert all the symbolism we were taught to believe in. It's easy enough for anyone who chooses to do so to separate the words of these jackals from the disastrous results of their actions. Don't lose heart. Just because the other side have bigger mouths doesn't mean they are the dominant influence in this culture. There are many others who share your values. We will endure these fools until they destroy themselves. You mentioned you were Christian. Take solace from the sermon on the mount for what values are worth embracing. And many other stories from the bible as proof that the foolishness we're witnessing is as old as time.
Thanks for an excellent post. Many, many of us feel the same. The extreme and ugly attitudes reflected the discourse in the media focuses on does not represent the views of all Americans. People like you need to be HEARD. You give me heart.
I was born in 1939.
This country does not even resemble the country in which I lived as a kid.
It is no longer my America.
As far that dumbung down, you merely need pay attention to what constitutes spelling, grammar and the like in so much online drivel.
Lawrence is also correct about the PC bullshit.
Not only has it stifled expression, it has become exceedingly expensive in dollars and cents to say nothing of sense as in "common".
Someone says something with an innocent intention and someone else "invents" a meaning so that they can whine about some imagined slight.
There are legitimate reasons why it is impossible to calmly discuss politics and/or religion.
They are corrupt systems of control.
The saying, "Religion was invented when the first fool met the first charlatan" is absolutely correct.
I have an appliance repair business.
I sometimes do things totally free for elderly, poor people.
I had done this a couple of times for one really poor old lady and, when I came out to put my tools in my truck, the 3 axe handle wide ass nosy neighbor came over to tell me that she knew what I did for her neighbor and that I'd surely go to heaven.
I told her that I am an atheist and, without batting an eye, she said, "Oh, you're going to go to hell".
I left before I laughed in her face.
Is it more important what I think or what I do?
And, as for liking Ike, I'm a golfer;-)
"As far that dumbung down, you merely need pay attention to what constitutes spelling, grammar and the like in so much online drivel."
Ha, ha~~"dumbung".
My Freud is alive.
Too many of them today are bungholes.lol