Resolutions & Reflections

The holiday season is coming up in the rear view mirror.  The curbs are littered with the remains of Christmas cheer, and just around the corner looms the annual chance for rebirth!  People are busy making their robust resolutions, and planning how to improve their station in the universe.  All of these things compel us to take command of our hindsight, and inspect the passing year for all the things that have made us better, and all to often, the things that have to be left behind.  

Holidays are notorious for infecting people with either immense joy, or cumbersome sorrow.  We remember the family and friends we so treasure, and the sadness in the ones we’ve lost.  Times of reflection are never so intense, as when we are planning change.  We review the relationships that are newly begun and how wondrous they may turn out to be.  We also reflect on relationships that have ended, and take our bitter education from it.  As a society and individually, it is incumbent upon us to take a hard, long look at the accomplishments made, and opportunities lost.  It’s certain there are always plenty of both.

The year 2010 has been a transformative year.  We are concluding one of the most bountiful and contentious sessions of Congress in recent memory.  Our representatives in Washington have enraged us with bickering & partisan games.  Yet, they have also ushered one of the most productive legislative sessions since FDR‘s New Deal.  Though many of the issues that have slogged through the halls of Congress didn’t result in the ways we precisely wanted, we have made progress.  I could give you a diatribe of the President & Congress’ great successes and failures.  The Healthcare Reform that has languished for 60 years has now become a reality.  The Economic Stimulus that prevented a global financial meltdown.  Pay Equity, Hate Crimes Prevention, and a litany of legislation that was far too overdue.  All of these are incredibly laudable accomplishments, but there are many more good works to do.  2011 will usher in a new Congress.  Our increasingly bitter bicameral body will be a house divided.  Republicans will control the House and Democrats will marginally hold the Senate, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Perhaps now, more of our ‘leaders’ will take responsibility for ‘leading’ our nation.

We, as the citizenry, also bear new responsibilities in the coming year.  We must bear the weight of our civic duty to remind those that govern, that the governed do indeed have a voice.  We must make that voice heard.  I’ve heard so often over the years, “I don’t pay any attention to that crap, it doesn’t effect me!”  For those that have uttered those ubiquitous words, I challenge you to make take that position now.  The decline of our economy has effected all of us.  We have seen family businesses struggle in decline.  We have seen ourselves or our loved ones out of work and grasping to the hope of survival.  I can’t seem to remember a time that the politics & actions of our leaders are more impacting on everyday lives.  This is my plea to you for your resolutions this year:  

Take an interest. Use your voice. Make a stand.

Those 3 statements may seem vague & abstract, but they are something that resides in each and every one of us.  So often people recuse themselves from the things that go on around them.  These resolutions aren’t necessarily pointed at politics.  They can be applied to almost every aspect of your life.  Instead of turning your head from someone in trouble, and thinking, “This is none of my business.”…  Take an interest and do what you can to help.  If you see someone bullying, abusing, or treating others like less than human: Use your voice.  When you feel the passion in the deepest part of yourself rise up in response to something that lightens your heart, or induces rage: Make a stand.  We are responsible for the world we create.  And that world includes the people around you!

I wish you all a safe and Happy New Year.  May you find the love, opportunity, & success that you so amply deserve.  I welcome the New Year & the great experiences to come.  I hope you do too!

Don't Ask, Don't Tell... Demand the future!

Let’s get started by saying, “Thank you for reading!” Secondly, let’s get right to it, shall we?

This past Saturday, December 18th, 2010, brought a historic change in the United States.  The Senate passed a bill that will lift the antiquated & culturally archaic form of discrimination known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Over the last decade or so, the cultural attitudes towards the LGBT community have evolved in a generally positive direction.  We’ve seen the majority of Americans raising their hands in support.  They have said in many places, with one voice, that creating a second-class citizenry of the gay community is not something that meshes with the ideals and intentions of our great country.

But from my vantage point, we still have incredible strides to take to reach full equality.  There is something fundamentally wrong when a United States Senator stands on the floor of that (formerly) hallowed hall, and asserts that allowing gays to serve openly in the military insults the injured veterans & weakens us a military power.  I don’t know Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), but I would suggest that those who advise this modern-day Strom Thurmond, grab a calendar, and let him know where & WHEN we are as a country.  I’m not attempting to imply that the senior Senator from Arizona is facing the lesser side of senility.   I am, however, stating openly that this bigoted and embittered man go down the street and get himself a reality check.  I find it truly depressing that a man who devoted so much to his country, could be so completely out of touch with it.  Let’s not focus simply on Mr. Mean & Bitter.  We have a regular chorus line of Republican and “Conservative” politicians that spew hate speech like a speaker at a 1939 Reichstag rally.  Senators Jim “Demented” DeMint, Jon Kyl, Mitch McConnell, Rep. John Boehner, and list goes on.  In my opinion, there has never been a group of politicians so enraged, so crazed as these.  I should add a caveat to that.  Not since desegregation of the Armed Forces have you heard a group of politicians like these.  When President Truman ended racial segregation of the military, similarly inclined politicians railed on about the end of America’s dominance in the world.  We had just won the biggest military battle this planet had ever seen.  America’s might was unparalleled.  This, in no small part, was attributable to the service and sacrifice of the African-American service members who fought and died.  They were ordered to the far reaches and  protected the ideals of a country that saw them as inferior.  When it became incumbent upon our leaders to give those fighting men the same treatment as all the others, people lost their minds.  The same thing is happening now.

In modern times, however, we can battle this discrimination the previous generations never could.  We can speak out in ways that were never possible for them.  We must make it clear to the politicians who represent us in government, that it is neither acceptable or tolerable to treat any people with the disrespect and malice that they show for the minority communities in this country.  We all have a voice.  We all have the right to use it.  It’s about time we let the bigots & the antiquated among us know, we won’t stand for this….  But we will STAND UP!



I’d like to thank you for reading my first blog.  Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, thoughts, or whatever!  I look forward to reading all of them!