Put me in coach, I wanna play!
To be informed about the inspiration for this article, please read: The Wait Is Over by the very talented author Karen Cafee. Thank you Karen for motivating me with your creativity and honesty.
Karen, "Everyone has some skill to contribute to resolving problems." hits the nail on the head. Everyone has a need. Everyone has a concern. Everyone will have to live with the outcome. Yet anger and apathy encircles and entraps us at every juncture. Some are too mad to talk about it, while others have simply given up. That's usually a result of ignorance. By ignorance, I don't mean un-intelligent. I mean ignorant...to be 'unaware, or uninformed'. To have any level of discussion about a subject you must at a minimum be informed. Ignorance has no race, color, or religion. It just exists. The best I can figure is that there is no reason for it, other than to thwart the efforts of the informed. The only way I know to fight it is to...well... be informed.
For example...I didn't vote for Barack Obama.
I came to the decision not to vote for him AFTER I read his book, and listened to it on MP3. I just didn't like what I heard. That's all. Consequently, whenever the discussion came up before the election and someone would say 'You're not voting for him because you're a racist!' I could say 'That's not true!"
The next question was always 'Then why aren't you voting for him?' I knew that the answer 'I read and listened to his book. Did YOU?' could only be met with one of two responses.
I support him now, not because I believe everything he says is right, but because I've been INFORMED that he is the President and I believe that's what Americans should do. I don't have to AGREE with him, but I MUST support him.
There's no denying that he has accomplished great things…and guess what… that makes him a great man. Like it or not, that's the way it is.
Besides; from what I've seen, if we were to meet, we would probably wind up pretty good friends. The kind of friends that tell other friends 'Next time you see Barry...tell him I said 'Du-Huh'.
We wouldn't agree on everything, but that's ok. At least both of us would be better prepared, more informed and therefore a little less ignorant, each time we parted.
That's what friends do…"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17". Besides all that, he is the President, so from where I stand if you don't support him, you don't support the country. That's pretty simple math.
When it comes to Health Care, yes, I think we must have reform. I don't know that HR3200 is it though. I haven't read all of it, and neither have most of the people voting on it. I have read enough to know that there are a lot of non-facts being thrown around by people who are unaware. According to the dictionary, that makes them ignorant. That means I don't have to talk to them. All I have to do is say 'Have you read it?" and watch them scamper off and join the other miscreants in their never ending battle to unwittingly destroy the country. It's what they do. After all their ignorant.
So, it's simple really. In order to get back to 'We The People" we need to fight ignorance. We need to be informed, and we need to inform. I'll start first.
Karen, "Everyone has some skill to contribute to resolving problems." hits the nail on the head. Everyone has a need. Everyone has a concern. Everyone will have to live with the outcome. Yet anger and apathy encircles and entraps us at every juncture. Some are too mad to talk about it, while others have simply given up. That's usually a result of ignorance. By ignorance, I don't mean un-intelligent. I mean ignorant...to be 'unaware, or uninformed'. To have any level of discussion about a subject you must at a minimum be informed. Ignorance has no race, color, or religion. It just exists. The best I can figure is that there is no reason for it, other than to thwart the efforts of the informed. The only way I know to fight it is to...well... be informed.
For example...I didn't vote for Barack Obama.
I came to the decision not to vote for him AFTER I read his book, and listened to it on MP3. I just didn't like what I heard. That's all. Consequently, whenever the discussion came up before the election and someone would say 'You're not voting for him because you're a racist!' I could say 'That's not true!"
The next question was always 'Then why aren't you voting for him?' I knew that the answer 'I read and listened to his book. Did YOU?' could only be met with one of two responses.
- Either be a jaw dropping, stunned, deer in the headlights look of ignorance as they muttered 'Uh...no' and looked around for easier prey.
- Or a big ole' smile and 'Yep. What part of the book did you misunderstand?"
I support him now, not because I believe everything he says is right, but because I've been INFORMED that he is the President and I believe that's what Americans should do. I don't have to AGREE with him, but I MUST support him.
There's no denying that he has accomplished great things…and guess what… that makes him a great man. Like it or not, that's the way it is.
Besides; from what I've seen, if we were to meet, we would probably wind up pretty good friends. The kind of friends that tell other friends 'Next time you see Barry...tell him I said 'Du-Huh'.
We wouldn't agree on everything, but that's ok. At least both of us would be better prepared, more informed and therefore a little less ignorant, each time we parted.
That's what friends do…"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17". Besides all that, he is the President, so from where I stand if you don't support him, you don't support the country. That's pretty simple math.
When it comes to Health Care, yes, I think we must have reform. I don't know that HR3200 is it though. I haven't read all of it, and neither have most of the people voting on it. I have read enough to know that there are a lot of non-facts being thrown around by people who are unaware. According to the dictionary, that makes them ignorant. That means I don't have to talk to them. All I have to do is say 'Have you read it?" and watch them scamper off and join the other miscreants in their never ending battle to unwittingly destroy the country. It's what they do. After all their ignorant.
So, it's simple really. In order to get back to 'We The People" we need to fight ignorance. We need to be informed, and we need to inform. I'll start first.
- I'm here to inform you that when somebody calls me a racist because I don't like something or somebody, my ears close up. It brings out the redneck me and I go full bore into the 'I ain't gonna lissin tuit' mode. Don't do that. Please. It's ignorant.
- I'm here to inform you that when somebody tells me they are entitled to things I worked for because of their greed and not their need.... I'm going to do everything I can do to stop them.
- I'm here to inform you that if you need something, just ask. I'll do everything I can to help you get it.
- I'm here to inform you that if you are going to hold me responsible for the mistakes of my elders, I'm going to hold you responsible for the mistakes of your children.
- I'm here to inform you that you have cousins just like mine. Ignorance for them comes naturally. Don't make a determination about me based on something they said or did.
- I'm here to inform you that if I did anything to you that wronged you personally, I am asking you to forgive me and help me be a better person.
- I'm here to inform you that I believe in God and nothing you can say will ever change that.
- I'm here to inform you that if we fail in this, it is what we will be remembered for in history.
- I'm here to inform you that "Dialogue is what counts and you have to be in the conversation to be in the game."
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