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Saturday, February 17, 2018

The Respectful American Party

One of the coolest parts about having your own blog that nobody really reads is having the ability to stand on a soap box and speak some truth.

The driving force for me, a father and husband, for building our homestead, living simply, doing the things we can the way we choose, is that there's an ugly and cold world right outside the door.

I'm aiming to change that. I don't know how, but I do feel compelled to write about my experiences all over, share them politically (occasionally). I'm not aiming to destroy a single person or a party, as much as, I suppose, I'm simply looking to share respect.
Respect is where we start. If, by some fluke, you're reading this, you have probably read other things, like the news. You probably know who the American president is, and what he stands for. You probably don't know what your neighbor thinks. You may not even know your neighbor's name. Start there.

We are a country, a society, of people who are disconnecting from each other. Regardless of faith or belief, we are all connected. Through social interaction, we grow, we learn, we change, we cooperate, and the world becomes a better place. We are denying ourselves that interaction, instead learning to type at over fifty words a minute with our thumbs alone.

The irony if living in a time of social media is that there's so much information, the truth hidden in plain sight from us, all of us. We are so eager to find the next sensational thing to share that somehow, in whatever skewed way, supports the stance we have so defiantly made. Opposition must be crushed. Changing one's opinion doesn't just mean one is weak, it means one is also unintelligent or incompetent. Danger isn't the truth. Danger is the people surrounding it.

We have an opportunity everyone single day to change that. We can talk to strangers. We can help old and disabled and pregnant and young and healthy people alike, because it's the right thing to do. We can work hard, and enjoy the fruits of that labor without leaving behind those whose exposure to people, education, resources, has been marginal at best. We have within us the power to not only fix our home but to explore countless more, in our lifetime.

...so glad I didn't get a chance to read the news before I read most of that.  Love thy neighbor.

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