Is This Freedom?

~ GregWW
Protesters at the Michigan state capital.

Is it Freedom to to carry military weapons to your state capitol and thus intimidate anyone who disagrees with you?

Is it Freedom to glorify the ownership of guns when your nation is suffering from repeated mass shootings, many of them in schools?

Is it Freedom to drive the biggest pickup truck when the planet is dying from carbon pollution?

Is it Freedom to not wear a mask or social distance when the doctor and nurse who will treat you in the hospital may get sick and die, along with your grandparents and the old lady next door?

Is it Freedom to go to a bar when 75,000 Americans have died of the disease you may be transmitting?

Is it Freedom to be so critically inept and so psychologically needy that you believe that a world-wide pandemic is a hoax and conspiracy?

Is it Freedom to stand next to Nazis and Racists and call for the end to tyranny?

Is it Freedom to pray to a just and loving Christian God after he (not she) has killed by suffocation 270,000 people in 4 month worldwide plague?

Is it Freedom to be an American and vote for a president who purposely ignores experts and leaves our nation seriously unprepared in these crises?                                                                                        

Is it Freedom to turn a worldwide health crisis into a partisan political issue?

Is it Freedom? No, it is more like ignorance and irresponsibility!

Responsible and Intelligent (thelist,com)
Kind (nationalnewswatch,com)
Social Distancing by The Beatles! (thanks to rockcellarmagazine for the image.)
Opps! Even with the best of intentions, Things Happen! (dailydot.com)
Logo by Marty

10 thoughts on “Is This Freedom?”

  2. The God I pray to does not kill by suffocation- that’s Nature’s job (sometimes aided by misbehaving Humans).

    And I do consider it freedom to pray to Her or Him or Them.

    Lumping Nazis in with Christians in with Assault rifle enthusiasts and anti-vaxxers… Greg! What gives?!

    These are indeed strange and trying times. There are more than two jerseys being worn in the world, but so many fights seem to start over the notion that if somebody is A then they are also anti-B. That perception keeps the conversations we can all have nicely stuck in a kind of permanent fist-shaking at each other.

    Yesterday I shared a link to a film that questioned the official take on the Current Event. I did not claim to support the film, I just asked for opinions, as it had made me think. I was called an anti-vaxxer for sharing the link, even though I had not claimed the link to be my own stance, and the person in the film explicitly said they were not anti-vaxx. It IS freedom, apparently, to paint people quickly with the same broad brush.

    I hope for a day when there is less Us vs Them among Us.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Mike, thanks for the feedback. Would not want to offend you personally; you seem a very sincere and thoughtful person.
      Nazis, racists and Fundamentalist Christians are not essentially the same. That was not my intended point, but each are mistaken (“ignorant and Irresponsible”) in a different way. Good, line: “It IS freedom, apparently, to paint people quickly with the same broad brush.”

      To get real literal with one’s Christianity—or most other institutional religions– is, to me, just no longer intellectually tenable. I, myself, am religious in a far-flung and highly revisionist manner —which I will get to soon in my posts. I just have great difficulty justifying to other people any deep and sincere relationship with “Jesus” or any other traditional God. Hell, years ago my oldest daughter and I went to a Krishna Temple and ate good vegetarian food, talked with devotees and banged on a tambourine and shook our hips for about two hours in 90 degree heat as the devotees danced and chanted. It was a great experience, but the existence of Lord Krishna is no longer justifiable. It does not fit with the modern world, In that sense it is incoherent. Any thoughtful person has to fit their beliefs and modern life together better than that. In my opinion.
      Well, or they could withdraw from our world, like the Amish or the devotees, that would be more consistent and responsible, too.

      Does that help? I agree with you, we need dialogue on the nature of religion and many other things. Name calling, stereo-typing, fist shaking and shunning is not helpful generally—-except maybe in reference to Nazis other racists many of whom seem to be beyond the pale of society.
      I will check out your link to that film. I’m concerned, those anti-vaxers can be pretty whack.
      Thanks

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Thanks Greg, understood and yes agreed that religious belief needs to acknowledge scientific evidence at the very least. Beyond that, religion/spirituality can be a good placeholder when science can’t (yet or ever) provide direction. Like any tool or concept, what a person does with these things determines the worth of the thing.

        Looking forward to reading your latest stuff. Onward 🙂

        Like

      2. Will do! But I’m going to try to think of the religious as more than just “a placeholder” until science advances. I do not believe that religion has to be about the Super-natural; I think Nature has its own and more natural transcendent element.
        Thanks again. Hang Tough

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Thank you! Likewise. I do wish I had your “Doses” series in printed gazetteer / magazine format. I am at my limit with screens these days (programmer by trade). I desperately want to read the things I want to read in old timey paper form.

        Like

      6. Gee, Mike, I am flattered. Just about all I read is in paper. I’m afraid that you would be the only one to want it. I have given some thought to try to self-publish something and am currently collecting material and improving style. Thanks a lot!

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment