“…Won’t you be my neighbor?”
“I like you just the way you are.”
I’m of the generation whose children watched Mr. Rogers. I watched some, too, and loved his tackling complicated, real-life happenings.
“…and love your neighbor as yourself.”
I spent about 20 years as a practicing Christian – a Catholic convert at almost 40. Even though I am no longer a Christian, certainly not Catholic, I do hold with the loving your neighbor teaching, and I truly believe that we are all neighbors – all faiths, all genders, all races, all nationalities – all of us.
Until recently, I have been outspoken about our (that’s the US) country’s need to have liberals and conservatives. The liberals have new ideas for a better way of life for all of us. The conservatives put on the brakes so that the liberals don’t get miles down the road and realize “we did not really think this through." The touchstone, the practical application of this is the sitting down and negotiating – some of this, some of that – with the conviction that both sides, all sides have one goal in mind the betterment of the country and the people.
I have now learned that that began to change under Reagan and now decades later we are experiencing divisiveness, anti-neighborliness at levels we have rarely seen. We had two Trump supporters in our family – one died (natural causes) and the other, though still a conservative, will not support someone who whipped up insurrection against the government.
There are some people in my life that I cannot with talk about politics. They are few. Unlike more generous Dippers, I have difficulty regarding them as neighbors. I keep remembering that even at the time of the revolution, a third of the colonists were loyal to the king, a third didn’t care one way or the other, and only one-third advocated and fought for freedom and a new form of government. I know that our government – we the people – have not yet lived up to our expressed aspirations. I’d like to keep trying.
— Marmar
“I like you just the way you are.”
I’m of the generation whose children watched Mr. Rogers. I watched some, too, and loved his tackling complicated, real-life happenings.
“…and love your neighbor as yourself.”
I spent about 20 years as a practicing Christian – a Catholic convert at almost 40. Even though I am no longer a Christian, certainly not Catholic, I do hold with the loving your neighbor teaching, and I truly believe that we are all neighbors – all faiths, all genders, all races, all nationalities – all of us.
Until recently, I have been outspoken about our (that’s the US) country’s need to have liberals and conservatives. The liberals have new ideas for a better way of life for all of us. The conservatives put on the brakes so that the liberals don’t get miles down the road and realize “we did not really think this through." The touchstone, the practical application of this is the sitting down and negotiating – some of this, some of that – with the conviction that both sides, all sides have one goal in mind the betterment of the country and the people.
I have now learned that that began to change under Reagan and now decades later we are experiencing divisiveness, anti-neighborliness at levels we have rarely seen. We had two Trump supporters in our family – one died (natural causes) and the other, though still a conservative, will not support someone who whipped up insurrection against the government.
There are some people in my life that I cannot with talk about politics. They are few. Unlike more generous Dippers, I have difficulty regarding them as neighbors. I keep remembering that even at the time of the revolution, a third of the colonists were loyal to the king, a third didn’t care one way or the other, and only one-third advocated and fought for freedom and a new form of government. I know that our government – we the people – have not yet lived up to our expressed aspirations. I’d like to keep trying.
— Marmar
And the Loyalists more than occasionally had to fear for their lives! Lately I've managed to keep from getting in arguments about politics or religion, but maybe that's because I got off of Facebook for a while... (Macoff)
ReplyDeleteHere's to your spirit and the desire to keep trying. I love the word compromise as it is stretched to coming with promise. We need more people trying. Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing this. So well stated. (lkai)
ReplyDeleteThank y'all!!
ReplyDelete