Where Is Our Common Humanity?

I recently watched a three-part program on National Geographic television about the 1995 terrorist attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City. 

Toward the end of the program, former President Bill Clinton talked about what happens when we lose our common humanity. It has become abundantly clear to me that the United States has in fact lost its common humanity. I think we have been losing our common humanity for a while, but the current regime has made it more obvious that our common humanity has become very, very endangered.

This country is incredibly divided along political lines. There appears to be no effort to, as the saying goes, work across the aisle. I blame one party, and one party in particular for this. Followers of this party think it's okay for them to assassinate or attempt to assassinate representatives of the other party?  I clearly remember when both Democratic and Republican members of the US Congress set aside their differences, came together and worked for the good of the American people.  Where is the common humanity now?

We are now controlled by a regime -- executive, judicial and legislative -- that thinks it's okay to terrorize immigrants in this country simply because they happen to have brown skin. They are tased. They are kidnapped off the streets. They are shipped off to what some have described as concentration camps before being deported to countries with which they have absolutely no affiliation. Where is our common humanity? 

We have one political party that is doing everything in its power, whether legal or illegal, to protect the leader of the regime from serious charges that he was involved in a child sex abuse operation. The ongoing attempts to deflect the American public’s attention from this issue are so far being met with failure. Where is our common humanity for the girls who were induced or tricked into this ring of sex abusers and perverts?

The current regime in power has, apparently with no concern for those impacted,  canceled life-saving programs that have provided food and medicine to the poorest of the poor overseas. This same regime will eliminate health care for some 10 million to 12 million Americans. Where is our common humanity?

The fact that this regime is cutting food support to hungry people, including children, the fact it is costing women's lives with its draconian rulings that prohibit pregnanet women from getting live-saving care simply because they are unmarried or because their fetus died in utero, is unconscionable. Where is our common humanity?

Thousands of people in Gaza are being starved while the world stands by and watches. Tons of food supplies are waiting, undelivered, as people starve. A 4-year-old-girl died this week of malnutrition and starvation. Where is our common humanity?

Russia continues to target apartment buildings and other non-military buildings in Ukraine. Where is our common humanity?

Maybe some day we humans, allegedly a superior species, will wake up and find our common humanity.

Some Thoughts About Words

There are certain words and phrases I simply dislike.

Here are the first to come to mind: 

Sales event 

Moderate to severe 

Terms and conditions 

Cookies (the computer kind, not the edible kind)

Travel consideration

Snacks

Why is every car sale advertised as a 'sales event'? First of all, I don't believe that cars ever go on sale. And what makes it an event?

The term moderate to severe is heard numerous times every day in every commercial for every prescription medication. Is every disease moderate to severe?

Terms and conditions is another phrase used everywhere, from Web sites to online. "You must read the terms and conditions." "Terms and conditions apply." The terms and conditions always include multiple pages of small type, or they are repeated verbally by someone who must be an auctioneer.

Cookies. Why are these things called cookies? Real cookies are good. These electronic cookies, small bits of text placed on any website I visit, store information about my Web browsing activities. How does this benefit me? I'm not sure that it does. I routinely reject cookies on various sites, and I have seen no change in my browsing experience. 

What does travel consideration even mean?

And snacks is a word I have always disliked. There is simply something irritating about the sound of the word. 

This is true for several words that end in -y-or -ies. For example, the word patty, as in sausage patty. And what's wrong with using the word underwear rather than panties. I understand that panties is a diminuative of pants, but it is such an annoying word, especially when used to refer to women's, not children's, underwear. To me, it infantilizes women. 

As you probably can tell, the proper use of the English language is important to me. And it's more than spelling and grammar. It's also the sound of the words we use.

How Much Is Enough?

How much money does one person need?

Really, how much wealth is enough? 

When you have enough money to buy absolutely everything you want, be it houses or airplanes or yachts or private islands, or even a presidential election, how much money do you need? 

Based on America's richest people, I guess that number has no limit. A million dollars? $10 million? $100 million? A billion dollars? 100 billion dollars? There seems to be no upper limit to what these people want.

Just look at how excited they are about getting their 2017 income tax cuts permanently extended. Other people, including the lower and middle classes, pay their fair share of taxes. And they will pay even more under the recently enacted tax legislation. Meanwhile, the uberwealthy pay nothing or next to nothing in taxes.

Some billionaires, including Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, leave most of the money to charities. Others, such as the current resident of the White House, are so greedy they even steal money from a children's cancer charity.

Singer/songwriter Taylor Swift is a multibillionaire, but she does a lot of good with her wealth. She makes a substantial donation to the food bank of every city where she performs. She gives large bonuses to her stage crew. She has contributed to disaster relief, education, cancer research, women's rights and LBGTQ rights.

Dolly Parton is another person who does a lot of good with her millions. Her charitable works focus on childhood literacy (the Imagination Library, for example), disaster relief, college scholarships, medical research and other causes. 

There are millionaires and billionaires who do good things with their immense wealth. Sadly, many do nothing but hoard money and do everything possible to get more, regardless of who gets hurt in the process.

I am not wealthy, but I believe that those who can afford to help are morally obligated to help.

Not Celebrating This Year

 

America's Independence Day is just one day away.

But this is not a day to celebrate our traditional freedoms, which are rapidly being stolen by a Republican regime hellbent on remaking our democratic republic into a theocratic cult of personality where anyone who isn't white straight and male doesn't matter.

Women continue to lose the freedom to choose when or whether to bear a child. A woman who suffers a miscarriage can face criminal charges. Women will die when unable to get the medical treatment they urgently need because physicians fear being criminally charged. The far right zealots want women to know their place, stay home and have multiple children.

I saw something online recently that said that the 4th of July has been canceled due to a shortage of independence for women.

Deark-skinned people -- whether US citizens, legal immigrants or immigrants here illegally -- risk being rounded up and shippted off to other countries where the unforunate people have no history, no knowledge of the culture and don't speak the language. This is not deportation.

Now the regime is considering revoking visas and the citizenship of naturalized citizens. Cruelty, it seems, is the point.

Trans people are being forced out of the military, and those who recently completed training at a US military academy will never be allowed to serve. How is this making America great again?

Voting rights are at risk, as are the rights of asylum seekers and immigrants.

The right to peaceful assembly and protest, as guaranteed in the US Constitution, is at risk. Congress and the legislatures of 19 states have introduced 52 bills that would limit the right to protest.

Freedom of speech is at risk, with the regime demanding the firing of those who speak against the regime.

The right to due process is being violated daily when immigrants are snatched off the street, shoved into a vehicle by unidentified masked men, and deported to a prison somewhere in the world without an arrest warrant, criminal charges or appearance before a judge.

Freedom of religion, as well as freedom from religion, is a joke as the regime and its allies push to make this country a Christian nation. Actually, make that a christo-fascist nation. Courts have consistently shot down state requirements to require that the Ten Commandments be posted prominantly in school classrooms and in courtrooms.

The regime has caused the firing of tens of thousands of federal employees for no real reason.

The regime is slashing international, life-saving food and medicine. The regime is throwing millions of Americans, many of them children and the elderly, off Medicaid. The regime is sladhing food progams millions rely on for their survival.

The president continues to be an embarrassment to this country (those who aren't cult members). He continues to grift and to lie about everything.

So, while I love my country, I do not love what it has become. America has been, and should be, so much better. 

What Kind of Person Are You?

I ran across this question in a book I read recently, a biography, of notorious Nazi concentration camp guard Maria Mandl.

The question was asked of the author of the book by a survivor of the notorious Nazi concentration camps. She was not interested in the author's credentials, but rather in knowing what kind of person she was. At the heart of the question is whether someone would be the kind of person to hide a Jewish person from the Nazis, at the risk of losing their own life.

I think this is a wonderful question, something each of us should ask ourselves every so often. Not the part about hiding a Jew from Nazis, but more widely. What kind of person am I?

I'd guess that most of us consider ourselves to be good, caring people. But are we really? From my point of view, far too many Americans are anything but good and kind.

I once was Facebook friends with a woman who commented that she had health insurance, so why should she care about those who don't? I ended our 'friendship' at that point. Should I state that I have access to plenty of food, so why should I care that some people in the US, and even more around the world, don't have enough to eat? That's not the kind of person I am. And that is why I support organizations such as Meals on Wheels, World Central Kitchen and Roadrunner Food Bank, which provide food to those who cannot afford food. 

We're not talking about luxuries; I don't care if someone can't afford a luxury car or a mansion. I'm talking about health care, housing, food and other necessities. How can I not care?

Would I, had I lived during World War II, risked my life to hide a Jewish person? I have asked myself that question. And honestly, I don't know the answer. I like to think I would have, but I don't know whether I would have been brave enough to take that risk. Fortunately, I am not likely to ever find myself in that position.

But I do think I am a good, kind person. I have adopted 16 dogs. I adopted my daughter from an orphanage in Siberia. I donate to a variety of charities throughout the year. I care about the environment. I pick up trash in my neighborhood, I drive a hybrid vehicle, I recycle everything that is recyclable where I live. I donate to a variety of non-profit organizations in the US and internationally. 

I think this world would be a much better place if more of us took a close look at ourselves and asked, "What kind of person am I?"