Tag Archives: January 6 Committee

Democracy

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

July 12, 2022, Grapevine- I didn’t have anything on my agenda today, except uploading more Newfoundland photos to my Flickr account and just enjoying the company of Son and Daughter-in-Law. There was, as it happened, joining a Zoom call for Spiritual Feast, in the evening. I am playing it by ear, as to joining Baha’i events, while here, but the Universe made it happen, this evening.

I did watch some of the January 6 Committee hearing, today. For years now, I have disagreed with those who have said, “We are not a democracy. We are a republic.” I get that Athenian-style democracy would be unwieldy, in a large, complex nation. The Romans found that out, but sadly, in their case, the oligarchs carried the day. Authoritarians can be efficient, in SOME areas, but people are people-whether wealthy and ambitious, or humble and complacent. No one is without flaws. Nonetheless, every citizen’s vote matters. All citizens, not just a select few, have the right to weigh in on matters of public weal.

A child must be taught to consider the needs of others to be as valid as his/her own. A child also must be validated, affirmed, as to personal power, strength of character and legitimate achievements. No child should have to grow up in an environment of ridicule, emotional deprivation and parental sleight-of-hand. To be so subjected leaves the child to grow into a self-centered, survivalist being, whose watchwords are “My way or the highway”. So we see the present spectacle unfolding before us.

Let us remember that a republic IS a form of democracy. Mine eyes still see the Glory.

“The Crypt is Breached”

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

June 10, 2022- I did not watch the live broadcast of last night’s January 6 Committee hearings, preferring to wait until this morning, and viewing the key elements on You Tube. One of the most disturbing points involved the storming of the Crypt, below the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, and it was largely downhill from there. The Washington’s Tomb was not disturbed was most fortunate-and all the more so was the fact that ALL members of Congress, their staffs and the Vice President of the United States were kept out of harm’s way.

I do not discriminate against anyone, for their ideology, any more than for physical attributes, creed, sexual orientation or anything that the media might seek to use to foment discord. Those on the far right are as human as those on the far left, and anywhere in between. I cannot, and will not, however, excuse violence-especially on the order that took place on January 6, 2021-or for that matter, at various points during the summer prior.

While I also do not condone cheating in the electoral process, I also recognize that some will go to excessive lengths to re-work numbers and make it look like their side won, even when after two dozen audits, only about a dozen or so violations, at the local levels exclusively, have been unearthed.

I do not condone removing the rights and freedoms of one group of people, so that the rights of others can be preserved. Here’s the thing, though: Except in the minds of demagogues-and those of their most deluded followers, this need not happen in the United States of America-anymore. Freedom is not a zero-sum game. Lower and middle class whites should not lose their freedoms, but by the power of their own misdeeds. African-Americans, Latinos, First Nations members, Asian-Americans and anyone else “of colour”, likewise deserve the same freedoms, and should not lose these, but by the power of their own misdeeds.

We will all see what transpired, on January 6 and in the weeks and months both before and after it, in the hearings that take place over the coming weeks. The wheels of justice, whose gears grind in a way that makes frozen molasses seem like Niagara Falls in June, will eventually get the mission done, maybe even within the tenure of the current Attorney General. As my late father-in-law often remarked: “Hope springs infernal”.

My hope for all is that each of you do more thinking before acting than was done by anyone who breached the Capitol building and grounds, on that cold, sad day.