Sunday, January 20, 2013

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

As I read through today's inaugural tribute in the Salt Lake Tribune by Barb Guy, I shuttered as I revisited the true hardships and divisiveness this country has already incurred under President Obama and will likely  incur over the next four years at the hands of the same admin. Some new Cabinet faces, yes, but without doubt the same secretive and likely anti-Constitutional policy decisions nonetheless.

I also realized in utter amazement after reading the same Op Ed just how different people think, filter and interpret information — both factual and fantasy. I am truly fascinated.

How, after a still unresolved and fatal foreign policy travesty like Benghazi where multiple Americans including an American ambassador died; small business-killing legislation rammed through by political shenanigans called Obamacare; four years of the highest unemployment numbers in decades; an Obama admin.-backed and hypocritical charade disguised as love for America's middle-class or 99% called Occupy Wall Street; the premature drawing down and lack of support for our military while supporting al-Qaida and terrorist linked organizations such as Muslim Brotherhood, does Ms. Guy feel that we as a country should be celebrating publicly tomorrow?
For the record, ABC reports that while the country is in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it isn't stopping rich donors and the government from spending $170 million, or more, on the inauguration of Barack Obama.
Obama eked out this election because a few million Conservatives who voted in 2008 chose not to vote for Romney in 2012. Shame on them and shame on the RNC for not getting out the vote like it needed to.  

Ms. Guy praises Obama's cash for clunkers (a failed Federal program), signing a nuclear weapons treaty with our "frenemy" Russia that further weakens the U.S. ability to protect itself and allies, Obama on gun control that does nothing to solve the actual gun violence problem in America, and so many of our current President's wrongful economic and social policy failures.

I just don't get it, I suppose I never will. 

Ms. Guy, of course, has the right to speak her mind (Gotta love the First Amendment) and write about it, and the Salt Lake Tribune has the right to publish it (ditto!). I just thank God each day that I still have the right to say my piece too (even if no one reads it!).  

My 18-year old nephew (a college freshman) tells me people who hold on to tradition (aka, the Conservative) and believe whole heartily in nation-changing documents such as the U.S. Constitution are paranoid, even slightly freaky. A sad and prevailing attitude of many youth these days that I like to align with years of biased and liberal academic indoctrination but we'll leave that topic for another time.  We debate all the time. I really have come to enjoy these mostly civil debates regardless of how frustrating they can be at times. Lucky me, I am able to still neutralize him some times with: "Oh, it must be nice to be so young and naive." After all, he is only 18. 

I avoid text debates with my nephew at all costs. His fingers are much faster and nimbler than mine. I can't win for losing on the digital front. However, I do keep sane knowing deep down that he is an inherently smart boy/man and that one day he'll come to learn that "reading between the lines" and asking lots of questions are critically important skills to have when it comes to good politics, policy and most important to saving our country as the last haven nation that deeply believes in each individuals unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.   

I suppose opposing ideas are what ultimately make this country great and vital no matter how frustrating the debate can be or how much we might differ in opinion.

Frustration aside, I'll vote to remain a paranoid freak if that's what it takes to get through the next four years or decades for that matter.

Happy Inauguration ("Enthronement") Celebration Day!