Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Whose values?

American Values


While the politicians scramble to protect their turf by hedging it in with their carefully tested "values" -- or not so carefully tested, depending on who you're talking about -- America is asked to choose one extreme or the other.

Americans can be forgiven for feeling that we have no other choice but these:

"Family Values" means little more than being anti-everything that doesn't pass the litums test of the Religious Right. Anti-abortion, anti-gay/lesbian, anti-anyone who isn't prepared to take the not-so-nonexistent religious test the Constitution prohibits.

"Liberal Values," once the sturdy cable with which FDR wove the social contract that protected the sick, the elderly and the poor, have come to be described as the ability to possesses and use the qualities of empathy, the ability to nurture and create and defend community. Uh-huh. Give me FDR, but it's not likely anyone will.

There is another compass by which our nation should steer its course, our true moral compass that has never led us astray and can guide us back to the firm ground on which this nation was built, on which it stood from the day after the Revolution ended to the day the Supreme Court stopped the counting of votes in the 2000 elections and ordained a President.

You will find this compass in The Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of the United States.

And, lest anyone doubt, we still hold these truths to be self-evident.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Welcome, come in and think a while



Welcome to Just Sayin' where I'll be writing from time to time about my thoughts and feelings on the state of the nation.

I've never accepted the Red state/Blue state dichotomy as anything more than divisive. I won't be giving that dichotomy credence on this blog.

I'll be writing about America and by extension all Americans. We are the heirs to what our ancestors fought for -- a nation of states united as one

I'm not ready to see those united states crumble, I am not ready to let this legacy be torn to shreds by the politicians presently installed in Washington.

I'm here to write about my ideas, my suggestions and my hopes.

This isn't a conversational blog, there are plenty of those and you probably won't miss one more. This is a "community of one" looking out at the larger community of America.

You've no doubt noticed that the Comments function is turned off. That's for a reason. It's not like I don't enjoy a good chat or heated argument. I love 'em. But I feel that a lot of energy is being spent talking on blogs, energy that could be better spent putting boots on the ground, as the saying goes.

Why is everyone angry about the state of things ... yet no one is taking to the streets about the state of things? Taking to the streets? Yes, and by that I mean working for local campaigns, GOTV, canvassing -- and protesting when you have to do that.

I don't really know why no one is taking to the streets, but I wonder whether part of the reason could be that we're finding our satisfaction blowing off steam on our favorite blogs.

Just sayin'.

So, if you don't like what you see here . . . well, there it is. You'll have to content yourself with shouting at the monitor, or finding a more congenial place.


But if you do like what you see, take it away with you and talk to others about it -- off-line, please.

It's time to do some serious thinking, some serious talking and time to take some very serious action.



Nancy

THINK then ACT