Being Liberal in the Time of Conservatives

          It’s difficult being a liberal when you grew up in a conservative area.  I pay my taxes.  There are days I cringe as I put my signature on a check that is actually more than my mother brought home in a year.  Yet even though it hurts I feel I am doing my civic duty in writing that check.  I have family members who have relied on welfare, food stamps, and disability. 

          When I was younger my mother made $4 more a month than was allowed to receive food stamps.  We were lucky she knew how to stretch a dollar and she had a mother who would loan her some cash, I do mean loan not give, only IF things got very tight.  Which is why we ate a lot of spaghetti and tuna noodle casserole.

 I worked from the age of 13, granted initially it was babysitting, but I have worked in restaurants, a nursing home, hotels, and libraries.  Which is why I believe in vocational training and that any legal job is worth doing if by doing it you can feed, clothe and house your family.  While as an adult, I became a homemaker and a volunteer.  I have been blessed with the ability to choose to stay home and raise my children and the core belief that I must give back to those who were not given the opportunities I was.  

          While I wish abortion didn’t exist, I believe I do not have the right to tell someone else how to handle a pregnancy that comes with issues, physical, mental, or emotional.  I don’t believe life begins at conception.  Studies have shown that at least 10-20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage within the first trimester and it is believed even more happen before the woman even knows she is pregnant.  Why would God waste so many souls.  I don’t see it.  No one is pro-abortion, no one says let’s get pregnant so we can abort it.  However, sometimes a decision that no one ever wants to make is made.  For whatever reason, it’s not my place to tell another person that their reasoning is wrong.  I personally may not agree with their logic, but I am not in that person’s shoes and that is why I am pro-choice. 

          I have family members who have issues with people of color.  I’ve never seen color.  In fact for some strange reason when I was a kid, I thought that the first man on the moon was black.  I can only think I got Neil mixed up with Louis.  I thought that when I moved to India I would leave all these skin color issues behind, instead I entered a society where the shade of someone’s skin can be a talking point.  I know women who have bleached their skin to lighten it.  I know people who have refused a matrimonial match only because the other person was “too dark”.  I even had to ask my mother-in-law to stop comparing my children’s skin to hers as she would say “see how dark I am, see how light you are”.  How did pigment in the skin become a great divider?

          I have no problem with immigration, I do think all emigres should come in legally, but I also think there needs to a statute of limitations.  If someone has lived, worked and raised a family for 10 years or more and immigration hasn’t found them and they haven’t broken any laws, give them a green card.  Sending a father back to his country when his wife and children are all living in the US just doesn’t make sense to me.  If they are asking for asylum, put them through the process, but do it with heart. 

          I am a Christian.  I have been to many denominations as my family never attended church.  I had to go looking for it.  What I think many denominations have forgotten is that Jesus came to replace the old laws.  He said the greatest thing in life was love.  How can they say they are Christian and yet spend so much of their time spewing hate.  Love fills the spirit and gives energy.  Hate takes energy and is exhausting.  I actively disliked a woman for a long time, the only person I hurt was myself.  I devoted too much attention to her while she blithely went about her life.  I had to take a step back and release all that anger to the ether before I could heal. 

I am no angel.  I am no saint. What I try and do, most days, is to be a better person than I was the day before.  Sometimes I fail.  However, eventually I pull myself up and start all over again. 

In this time of extremes and polarization, I wish people would take a look around and instead of focusing their attention on ways to bring someone down that they would find activities that would bolster people.  I wish people would stop denigrating people who need welfare and/or food stamps.  Sometimes through no fault of their own people need a little help.   

Yes there are people who abuse the welfare system, yes there are people who fake disability. Yet most people who avail of these systems would love to be able to work or get an education.  Why can’t we as a people concentrate on helping others to improve the quality of their lives.  Why can’t we stop thinking that someone is getting something for free when often all they need is a helping hand for a short while as they try and get on their feet. 

Before someone says it, yes it is simplistic and yes I understand that there are bad people in the world, yes there are grifters whose sole aim is to take what doesn’t belong to them.  We have military to protect our way of life, police to protect individuals.  We should let them do their jobs while we as citizens try and improve ourselves and the lives of our fellow citizens by using our individual strengths to help those who need help instead of using our strengths to tear down those who are already on their knees. 

It’s difficult to stop pointing fingers. It’s difficult to take time away from my family and give it to an outsider. It’s hard to hand over my hard earned cash to a government who refuses to spend it where I think it is needed. It’s difficult to realize that people I know hate for the sake of hating.  It’s difficult to know there are people who would get rid of welfare.  It’s difficult knowing people who don’t believe all people are equal regardless of gender, orientations, financial status, or nationality.  It’s difficult to listen to people who believe other people’s rights should be withdrawn simple because they are different. It's difficult to live in a world where families have to become impoverished because healthcare is so expensive.   It’s difficult being in a world where polarization is the norm. 

It no longer matters what country I live in.  It no longer matters where I am from.  The news from all parts of the world is filled with nationalism and intolerance.  It is so difficult to be a liberal in world where liberals are considered the enemy.