The Uncivil Cold War

A friend suggested (a few days before Furguson which I will not further address) that we have been in a Cold Civil War since 1865. What with Jim Crow, KKK, Separate but not really Equal, outright Segregation, and redlining neighborhoods, religious bans on black participation and mixed race marriage, unnecessary voter elegibility crack-downs, and the current conservative push to refuse economic help to the needy because they are either undeserving black criminals or welfare queens (thank you, Ronald Reagan), it seemed like an accurate assessment.

Unfortunately, the term is not unique and is all over the internet including from Glenn Beck, of all people, who cries crocodile tears for his part in tearing the country apart like some TV Evangelist caught with a woman or young boy. I'm not buying it from Glenn. And of course, he continues to stir the pot by predicting that somebody is going to go crazy and start something to turn us all into Civil War warriors and blow this country apart.

On the good news side, remember Timothy McVeigh? He thought he was that crazy guy and his actions did not start up a right-wing revolution as he had hoped. Nope, the legal system addressed the horrendous crime of domestic terrorism and we've almost forgotten the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Some who lost loved ones, of course, will never forget even if they are somehow able to find peace and maybe even some form of forgiveness.

We the People are going to survive this. Eventually, we will realize that we are responsible for the disaster that is Congress. The 47% or so (probably much less) are going to wake up someday and realize they've wasted a lot of time and energy hatin' on the President for no good reason. When all the good reasons are gone, I wonder what we're left with. It's like the person who expressed to me so much hate towards the President because no other President had created such divisions in our country - I guess just for existing because he sure hasn't caused the turmoil of a Johnson, Nixon, or even a W Bush.

Our country is in trouble but it's nothing we can't resolve. I had thought for a long time that it would take another depression of national catastrophe to bring us together again. But after the manipulation of 9/11 for political gain and the most unnecessary war in US History (OK, maybe after the invasion of Granada) with far reaching cataclysmic consequences contrary to the promises of the neo-cons led by Uncle Dick. And then the Great (almost Depression) Recession of 2008 before Obama took office and the legislative bailout to the banks to stop the free-fall also before Obama was sworn in. It's not shared sacrifice that will save us, it will be a return to common sense and common ground.

For instance, the world did not end with legalized pot in Colorado nor will it with the inevitable legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the country. Surprisingly, I have still not tried pot nor same-sex activities and I don't see how either one will affect me anymore than alcohol (which I've never had) or anything else on the admittedly high restrictions I've adopted in conformance with my strong religious belief and practice. (I'm not perfect, but I do lead a very conservative life-style, by choice and faith).

I heard from on older person not too long ago that she just didn't want to live in a world with "gays." My frustrated response was that she already was (and had for all her life) and my position was just to try to figure out how to get along with the world situation we find ourselves in. A clear separation from civil and religious marriage would do it for me, and maybe that's the way this goes.

It generally goes unstated, and it is far from including all Republicans, but I sense there is a segment of the extreme right-wing that just don't want to live in a world with a Black President, or maybe Blacks in general. They certainly are reluctant to support government programs that tend to offer opportunity for better schools, college loans, jobs, etc. They seem stuck in some weird vision that anyone who is uneducated or has need of assistance brought it on themselves and the that government [assistance] encourages that dependency. Really? Who in the government does [or believes] that? Maybe some Southern Senators, sure. I'm grateful for my paid-off student loans, the FHA loan for my first home, child tax credits, and a myriad of government programs that gave me the opportunity to be where I am today.

With retirement eligibility already in case they want to kick me out, I feel more confident in telling the story about how the last administration (W Bush's Republicans) threw me out of my supervisory role in Albuquerque because I had allegedly made "inappropriate comments about how people living together should be married." The irony here, besides the point that the quote is inaccurate, twisted, and out of context is that the W political appointee who told me that was secretly living with our Deputy Secretary who shortly later went to jail for lying to Congress about another woman he slept with who happened to work for Jack Abramoff.* So, I have a very hard time excepting anything like the "moral high-ground" from Republicans.

Democrats still have problems, too. It would be nice if they had a simple agenda that could be presented other than just the basic attempt to actually make government work, failing in this because of the obstructionists in Congress who don't even believe in government or that it could ever do any good. I'm also not happy with Hillary and all the other Dems who voted to authorize war in Iraq. And I'm not happy with the President's drone war, continued eavesdropping and data gathering, and less than open government under the umbrellas and penumbras of national security left to us by the W administration.

What's to be done? Keep on trying, We the People, for that Union based on the Constitutional principles set out in the preamble so that government of, by, and for the People shall not perish from the earth.

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You can find support for this info in the public domain by Googling Steve Griles, Sue Ellen Wooldridge, and a few other of their flunkies and hatchet-men whom I shall not name as they may still have the ability, thanks to legal government burrowing, to make my life difficult.