This isn’t a gloat piece. This isn’t a puff piece. This is from the heart. From my heart. I know these are tumultuous times. Divisive times. But just stomach through this. This wasn’t written for one person, one party, one side. This is for everyone.

For years I avoided the news. I would try to keep up with certain local news, but the media at large was always so negative. The world, it seemed, was also going to hell. Crime, corruption, politics, wars, traffic, accidents, and generally just people being horrible to one another. Add on top of that the occasional natural disaster, disease, localized catastrophic event or pollution. I eventually cut cables entirely, and would avoid the news like the plague. It’s not that I didn’t want to know what was going on or that I thought it was nothing but propaganda. I’m sure a lot of it was. But I would hear and read about these horrible things happening around the world, of which I had virtually no control, only to get saddened, angry, stressed, and dismayed. It cannot possibly be good for ones health to be surrounded by that kind of negativity, all the time.

The election cycle didn’t change the news too much. Still incredibly negative. But social media has certainly changed or at least I finally noticed it change during this most recent election cycle. Social media is also something that for years I have tried to actively avoid but I couldn’t resist the allure of Facebook these past couple months as the political season heated up and finally culminated in the election. As I scroll through Facebook what I see bothers me more than what used to bother me when I used to watch the news: Rampant negativity. But instead of coming from a handful of news networks, this negativity was coming from dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people.

There are a lot of scared people out there. Worried and fearful. Afraid that the sky around them will start falling. As far as they are concerned, there was a tectonic shift beneath their feet.

It takes a lot to genuinely upset me. Namely watching Disney’s Fox and the Hound. But the one sure thing that gets me is the idea or presence of hopelessness. That someone can be so downtrodden that there is no light at the end of their tunnel. No path out of perdition. As I see the posts of friends and family members hurting right now, it breaks my heart. It truly does.

I get that there are concerns about a spike in racism, or sexism, or any other ism. That there is or will be a spike in hatred, or bigotry. There isn’t. And there won’t be. This may not come as much solace from someone who voted for Trump, but it just might. Maybe a little.

Listen, I don’t hate gays. I don’t hate women. I don’t hate Mexicans (I’m half). I don’t hate non-whites, or Muslims. I don’t hate the poor. I don’t hate people on government subsidies. There are a couple billion people in this world and I maybe hate one person, and no, it’s not Hilary Clinton.

The assholes out there were assholes before November 8th. The racists out there were already racists. Those inclined to burn down buildings and vandalize police cars weren’t born on November 9^th. Some people are just shitty, and they don’t need a very good reason to shit all over everything and everyone else. To the people out there whose candidate of choice didn’t win, I feel for you. I really do. But I want to reassure you that the sky isn’t going to fall. You are not less safe now than you were on November 7th.

We need to remember that most people don’t wake up wondering how they can make other peoples’ lives miserable. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from, we wish for the same things. Health, food on our plate, a roof over our head, a safe neighborhood for our children, all children, to play in. We want jobs, pride of workmanship, good communities, and good schools. We want the next generation to have a better life than we had. I don’t think it matters who you voted for, we can agree that we want the same things, it’s just that no two of us can agree on the best way for everyone to accomplish these things. But just because we can’t agree, doesn’t mean we can’t get along.

Trump won the election. He didn’t win the country. This country is still all of ours. It belongs to each of us, even those who feel disenfranchised, ignored, abandoned, or marginalized.

For all the squabbles, and bitter disagreements, we are still America. One America. Sink or swim, fail or fly, whatever we do we’re going to do it together. The person in the cubicle next to you that voted for the other candidate, they are still human. They were a decent human being before the election and they are the same person now that the election is over.

Thanksgiving is coming up and hopefully you have a large, loving family or group of friends to spend the holiday with. Some of those people you may not have seen in a very long time. Don’t botch the holidays over an election. Don’t lose a friend or sour a family event because of a political grievance.

I have my opinions but this specific post is not going to be me telling you how to think, or what to think. This isn’t a political op ed. It doesn’t matter if you are Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, socialist, green, independent, or if you voted for Trump or Clinton or wrote in Mickey Mouse. United, we truly do stand, and divided we will most certainly fall. Each one of us is a tiny red, white, or blue thread in the fabric of this great flag, and if we start tearing apart at the seams this entire thing will fall apart. Lets not allow that to happen.

Fret not. Even if I disagree with you, I still want the best for you. We are still America.

As I’ve stated before, when I started this blog I originally intended it to be a place where I could vent about things that are controversial issues being discussed in society, but which I thought were too long to post on Facebook, and I certainly didn’t want to argue with strangers on the internet.

Like most people I am a bit reluctant to talk about controversial stuff. Many people who know me would probably disagree with that statement. But it’s true, I am reluctant. Very reluctant. But I push past it.

There’s a lot of controversial things out there which have flared up in recent years, even this past year (2015). Especially with it being all about the 2016 elections, we have every buried issue getting unearthed all at once.

What’s more is that in addition to people thinking I’m some loud mouth, I feel like a lot of people, even my close friends, think I’m an asshole for saying it. I’m an asshole for thinking it. For believing it. For wanting to share my thoughts about it. And that’s the hush hush world we live in now where though police shame people who disagree with them into not expressing themselves.

But I don’t think I’m an asshole and I want to let everyone know what I think about the issues of our time, because I have a voice, and I think it matters.

Generally Speaking

I’m a libertarian. I’m all for live and let live. Legalize and regulate. Keep things simple and practical. Individuals must be responsible for themselves. And individuals must be responsible for only themselves. That’s the gist of my approach and I try to be as consistent as possible in how I apply it.

Now for the juicy stuff.

Weed

I don’t see what the big deal is. I don’t smoke weed. I have smoked weed, but I don’t smoke weed. Does that make sense? I’ve done it but I’m not a habitual user and I can probably count the number of times I have used wee on my fingers. It’s not for me, but then again neither is pistachio ice cream. Weed doesn’t hurt anyone, but if it does, it’s only the person using it. I think it should be legal.

Whose bright idea was it to take something horrible and turn it into a dessert?

Apparently there are even medicinal purposes for it. But I don’t think someone should be required to have a special medical card or prescription to get weed. I think it should be fully legalized for recreational use for anyone 18 or over.

That being said, I think it should be treated like a mixture of alcohol and cigarettes. You can drink, but you can’t drink and drive. You can drink, but your ass might get fired for showing up to work drunk. (Not me, because I’m awesome and drink at my desk regularly). As much as I think you have the right to use weed, I think that employers ought to maintain the right to hire or fire based on whether or not you use it, with the exception being legit medicinal purposes, and not just “glaucoma”.

Abortion

First off, let’s walk briskly past the whole life of the mother thing. Yes, I got it, if the mom faces health problems, or the baby is missing half a heart or something then no argument there. Do what needs to be done.

This is a tough issue though, it really is. Of course we’ve got the whole “women’s rights” and that whole spiel. (Oh, on a side note I do have a tinsy winsy thing I’d like to inject here, for the sake of keeping this semi-short, please refer to my future blogs)

But then let’s be real, there is the very real baby thingamajig inside the womb. Here’s a thought… if a woman who had every intention of coming to term fell down a flight of stairs and lost her child, no one would dare say “oh well it technically wasn’t even alive yet.” because they’d be the biggest most heartless douchebag in the world and run out of town. But when a doctor does it surgically, it’s considered by some to be less horrible. So it is at least disingenuous to play the whole “it’s not a life” card. A fetus might not meet the textbook definition of a life, but it’s definitely not nothing either.

If abortion was illegal, there arises the dilemma of coming up with a suitable punishment, and that’s a can of worms in itself. A mom with two kids gets an abortion because she can’t afford to feed a third mouth? Whatcha gonna do? Throw her in prison and deprive the other two of a mother?

My thought is that no legal punishment will have as much of a lasting effect as someone’s own sense of guilt. The picketers, the rioters, possible jail time. All of that pales in comparison to the weight of such a decision.

The truth is every pregnancy is different. Ever set of parents and their life situation is different. But what all of them have in common is that getting an abortion is probably not (hopefully not) an easy decision, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. And for those who feel no guilt, the ‘repeat offenders’ who have no qualms whatsoever about abortions…. Just maybe the world is better off without them as parents.

I’m not pro abortion. I’m not anti abortion. I’m thankful I’ve never been in a position where I had to make that choice. And heaven forbid I was, I sure as hell wouldn’t want an already complicated situation compounded and exacerbated by politicians.

Also, this song.

Guns

My more left oriented friends probably think I’m a gun nut. To them I say, you’ve never met a real gun nut.

Again, my stance is legalize and regulate. I think guns should be legal but just like with the law, the rule ought to be innocent until proven guilty…or in this case, incompetent.

By default everyone can have guns, but then we set up some parameters like you have to be of age, you have to be mentally sound, you can’t have committed a violent crime, and you can’t have a restraining order against you. Stuff like that.

I’m also for digging a little deeper. I think people with a history of reckless driving behavior should probably undergo some extra scrutiny. Do we want a guy with 5 accidents, 8 tickets and a DUI handling a gun? Guns are deadly, no argument there. And just as doing stupid shit can cost you your license, I am surprisingly not opposed to it costing you your right to bear arms.

Honestly, I can name a few people who shouldn’t be anywhere near a firearm, and for good reason. As a gun owner, I’ll be the first person in line to admit that yeah, guns are dangerous in the wrong hands.

And now for what I consider the ‘peripheral attacks’ on firearms. The big distractor, the go to red herring used by ‘gun control’ advocates is the fallacious argument that “no one is trying to take away all your guns”. I call bullshit.

There are literally laws in the U.S. that restrict:

how long or short a gun can be
how long or short the barrel can be
what type of bullets can be fired
what materials a bullet can be made of
how many bullets a magazine can accommodate
the physical mechanism for releasing a magazine
the shape of a rifle stock
whether or not a rifle stock can extend
how many guns you can buy at once
how long you have to wait to pick up a gun you purchased
how you can store guns
how you can transport guns
features that are purely aesthetic or ergonomic in nature have been outright banned, such as a barrel shroud, a muzzle brake, or a flash suppressor.

The truth is most guns in this country sit in a safe 360+ days per year collecting dust. In 2011 there were about 8,583 gun deaths in the U.S. There were about 270-310 million privately owned guns, both legally and illegally. The population coincidentally was about 311 million. Using that figure there is/was a .00275% chance that a gun/gun owner would shoot you dead.

That same year, 32,479 people died in car accidents. Almost four times as many. When four times as many people are dying accidentally, as are being murdered intentionally, I think that shines a light on the larger problem.

Why are you arguing with me? Willy Wonka said it, goosh…

I don’t think gun laws are the problem, therefore I don’t think more gun laws are needed. I think this country has a cultural problem, and gun violence, rape, texting and driving are all symptoms of that one illness.

Immigration

I don’t think it’s outlandish to claim that a country can’t just let in anyone and everyone. I don’t know that we need a fence along the entire border, but I also don’t think that enforcing your borders is xenophobic. It’s just prudent.

Pretty much every country in the world enforces its border, or at least those with the resources to effectively do so. But in the U.S., such a practice is considered racist.

I think of a country as a giant house, and the citizens as a giant family. If someone broke into your house (crossed your border) and squatted in your garage, do you think you should be obligated to leave them be? Now imagine that person broke in and had a bunch of kids? Are you now required to let them all stay? Are you required to feed them? Pay their medical bills? Pay for their kids school supplies?

But I’m not heartless. Think about how dire your situation has to be that you would risk life and limb, and even the safety of your family, to abandon your home for a land where you have nothing, know nothing, and don’t speak the language. Most of the people coming here are looking to provide for their families and I give them a hell of a lot of credit for that. They’ve crossed a desert, crossed a border, to work. I know some American born people who at times couldn’t be bothered to cross the living room to apply for a job.

That being said, the law is the law. If you got caught sneaking into Mexico, fat chance you’d be treated as a victim. And no one calls the Federalis xenophobic. I think we should allow more people to work here without necessarily being citizens. Give them a higher income tax rates to encourage US businesses to hire domestic first, but at least make the process legit.

Conclusion

It’s late. I’m tired. I’ll write some more later.

Can You Believe That Guy?!

Tag Archives: election year

We Are Still America

My Stance on Issues: Part 1