therealitybalance

[therealitybalance]

You May Be Right. I May Be Crazy.

I'm a dichotomy, or at least I think I am, if I understand the definition of the word correctly. See, I've chosen from the Chinese menu of offerings from both the Left and the Right. And, before someone says it's wrong to use the term Chinese Menu, it's not a slight to Chinese people. It's how menus are structured in Chinese restaurants. There is column A and column B, and you can choose some items from each column. No offense to Chinese people anywhere in there. As a matter of fact, no one on the Earth would see it as a racist comment, except someone hoping to use their righteousness as the tip of the spear to provoke an argument and then feed their righteousness in the other sides response.

We can't function in a world without introspection, if we plan to coexist peacefully. You can be you and I can be me, happily.

See, you can believe in Capital Punishment and Same-sex Marriage. You don't have to follow the playbook of a certain group just because you use their moniker. Actually, letting go of monikers (or glomming on to the safe bet of being an Independent) is our best bet.

The Far Right and the Far Left have been allowed to define what it means to be Republican or Democrat. We need to get back to having civil discourse and tolerating differences of opinions, and not taking them as a personal challenge. In having a media that represents the masses and not panders to the fringes, we can all go back to being informed and making decisions based on rationality and what serves the Country best. If someone has to be "wrong" to make you "right" we are losing out on our potential to serve all people in America.

We have to move beyond the controversy of disagreement. It's ok to have varying opinions. It's actually what society means. We have to stop taking offense over differences, and we have to stop expecting people to see things as black or white. You don't have to choose the Mets OR the Yankees. You can like both teams. Maybe you are just a fan of baseball and want to see it from many different views.

[therealitybalance]

Finding the Balance

As we start this day of observance for the late Martin Luther King, Jr. we also welcome in (and back) our 47th President of the United States.  It’s a rare instance in American history that these two events fall on the same day, occurring for the first, and only time, before today, in 1997 when President Clinton was sworn in for his second term in office.  Unlike then, when President Clinton’s second term was contiguous, we have another rare occurrence, in which a president has taken his second term after a gap from his first term (Grover Cleveland is the only other president to reenter the White House after losing a reelection).  But rather than spending time comparing this new presidency with Presidents Clinton and Cleveland, let’s compare it to the life of MLK.  MLK was a human.  He had flaws, like all of us.  But he was genuine in his conviction that there must be greater compassion and understanding for the Black cause.  He knew, that like today, until everyone in America truly feels free, we are not a truly free nation.  Dr. King also noted that "Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love".  These words are inarguable.  But they are not always easy to uphold within ourselves, in a world where the commitment to charity and to protecting the rights of each other may run counter to our own personal cause (Dr. King experienced this himself, as we learned in the biopic “Rustin” - if you haven’t seen it, you should - where Dr. King felt the need to focus on the Black cause meant not being tied to supporting other oppressed or terrorized groups which might distract from his own goals).

But Dr. King was not the President of the United States (and a single bullet ensured that he never would be).  As President, we, the People, would expect him to put the cause of all Americans on his agenda.  This, historically, is easier said than done.  But it should not be said that we won’t represent the causes of the oppressed or marginalized because not everyone agrees with their cause.  America (in its current form) was “founded” by those who wanted to “escape persecution and oppression” from monarchies and tyrannies, and yet, at times throughout our history, beginning with capitalist explorers, through the Founding Fathers, to past and recent presidential administrations, have repeatedly “persecuted and oppressed”.

The year is 2025.  If we don’t feel that we have enough historical lessons.  If we forget how many of our own ancestors we persecuted and oppressed when they came to, or were dragged to, America, we will continue to run afoul of the intent of this great democracy.  We also will always turn a shade redder as we call ourselves a democracy.  Democracies are built by and for the people.  Democracies represent the free will of the people.  Democracies shine as examples to other forms of government and/or tyranny, that the greatest good comes when all of the citizens of a country feel represented.  Representation does not necessarily mean being the loudest voice intended to drown out the voices of others.  Representation means living in a free society where everyone feels valued, and heard, and, most importantly, heard.

This writing is not meant as a condemnation.  It is meant as a plea.  Not a plea from the Left, not a plea from the Right.  It is a plea from the general citizenry.  We can continue to be a beacon for the world who can take light in the belief that freedom and progress go best, hand-in-hand.  That at our greatest moments in American history, we worked together.  We formed and joined our own universal cause.  We sided, shouder-to-shoulder, with each other to stand up to outside oppressors and, even, oppressors on our own shores.  We strove for the greatest beneficial impact for the greatest majority of Americans.  Americans who each deserve to feel and believe that America not only represents them, but values them; and, most importantly would be a lesser country without them.  That is our ask on this day.  Find a Balance.