Where Do We Belong?

MAGA people deride this thing they call “Wokeness.” There they are, grimly charging over hills, swords in hand, in an attempt to slay this rainbow colored monster. The thing is, wokeness has a purpose; awakening as a culture to purge ourselves of those who attack the weak, the different, the person of color. Those who use positions of power and authority for their own gain. Wokeness has a purpose…but some people take it too far, they condemn people for making the wrong joke, using the wrong word. They don’t trust us to be able to discern between someone making a bad joke and someone who is genuinely racist or bigoted or sexist. They want to change the name of a school or a park because it was named after a bad person from the past—wouldn’t that “rebranding money” be better spent on afterschool programs for children or funding a shelter for abused women or a food bank? Tearing down that statue or renaming that school does not change the past, but what you do with your resources shapes the future. 

I know I am not alone in this, feeling somewhere in the middle between the Left and the Right. Personally, I don’t care if you identify as queer or transitioning—who are you as a human being? I think you should have the right to marry who you want, change your gender, whatever. Or not marry. The Jesus I revere wouldn’t give a shit who you sleep with, if in your heart you were born the wrong gender and need to change it, he would love you regardless. I always see him as this awesome hippy character, turning over the tables of the moneychangers and so on—

Which brings us to these “Christians” who look down at the weak with scorn and a complete lack of understanding and compassion. Jesus would love them as well, but would feel a deep sadness for them, as if they were children that had gone astray and closed their hearts. When did we become so capricious, so cruel?

“All those terrible, Liberal cities with their homeless problem!”

Yes, we have a homeless problem. We leave too many people struggling with mental health and addiction issues to their own devices, people who should be institutionalized so they can be cared for. I’m all for sweeping the streets of the homeless…but with compassion and understanding for those who need help.

The predatory homeless, the dealers and the sponges, I have utterly no patience for, I am all for a “law and order” solution when it comes to them.

The reality is, wages and rents have gone into separate directions and lots of people are struggling to keep a roof over their head. We need more housing subsidies, especially for families. People living out of their vehicles need a safe place to park with toilets and showers but I digress.

Where do you and I belong? Those of us who don’t feel comfortable with either the Left or the Right. Who look at both sides fighting paper tigers while snakes creep into their homes. The minimum wage has remained $7.25 for fifteen years and fifteen states still follow it. We should all be railing against that instead of being at each other’s throats. That baseline affects semi-skilled workers, as well, because it’s a baseline. We continue to be governed by people who are (usually) wealthy, who went to school with and are in the same social circles as the heads of “Big Pharma,” and the oil, insurance, armaments, and financial industries. We’re so focused on our disputes with each other we are ignoring them reaching in our pockets, into our savings. Into our futures. Electric cars are a distraction, we’re desperately clinging to a 20th century model a quarter of the way into the 21st century. They are better for the environment (aside from the mining to make them), but we need to focusing on improving the public transporation in urban areas and connecting that to more rural areas.

Oh, and, hey, maybe all of us, Left and Right, should kind of pay just a little attention to the things the Supreme Court is doing. Kind of important.

Again, I digress.

We live in a time where we need to think, not just feel. We need to be rational, not just emotional. We need to accept that everything or at least a lot of what we believe may be—gasp—wrong. Personally, I have no idea where I belong. I feel separate from the culture in Portland, but I could never live in a Red city. I would have no problem if a John McCain or a Bob Dole were President, those old school Republicans were decent people. I miss those days, when (generally) the Republicans and Democrats were selling the same product (obediance to the corporate overlords) in different packaging. MAGA is a different beast, making it acceptable to be cruel and close minded and selfish. I have no love for the Democrats, but I will be voting against the 45th president in November because there is a good reason why I call him “Illiterate Mussolini.” I am a “history nerd,” I have seen groups like MAGA many times throughout the centuries and they worry me. A lot.

But…inflation was lower under Trump! I was making more money!

Our obsession with money is disheartening. People will sacrifice their beliefs, side with forces they really shouldn’t side with in the name of money. All these working people like you and I voting against their own best interests…it just makes me sad. Regret will find them when they are old and helpless:

I need Medicaid, I need Social Security—

Sorry, you voted for someone who gutted it.

IN SUMMATION:

Progressives: You need to lighten the fuck up.

Right wing folks: You need to open your fucking heart.

Progressives: It’s time to be an adult, clean up your cities. You can be both compassionate and pragmatic. And if I hear the phrase “personal pronoun” again I am going to fucking scream.

Right wing folks: Don’t call yourself a “Christian” unless you start following the true path of Jesus. Your capriciousness and closed mindedness would make him sad for you. Jesus is compassion and open-mindedness, if you don’t understand that and embrace it you are not even remotely a Christian.

Progressives: If you “cancel” another film or comedian I love I will piss in your kale.

Right wing folks: In my opinion, it is not the people who sleep with people of the same gender, or are polyamorous, or are gender fluid who are going to “Hell,” it is the people who cannot feel compassion for the weak, the misunderstood, who embrace the opportunity to allow the ugliness we all have in us to flourish. Oh, and Harris is not a “radical  Liberal,” this country has just gone way way way too far to the right. Biden is no further to the Left than Nixon, who voted for a guaranteed basic income for those living in poverty and opened relations with Communist China. If he were running in 2024, MAGA would probably nickname him Red Dick.

Again, I digress...