There are always other options.

 The following isn’t a simple rant in reply to one person or group, but it a reasonably thought out article dealing with all the things that have been littering Facebook and the Internet in general for years now.  Believe it or not, the more rationally minded of you may actually understand where I’m coming from…even if you don’t agree.  I know my diatribe below may not change your mind, but sometimes a man just has to lay it out on the line.  I’m sure you understand.

Enough is enough already!  Gay marriage is a done deal, Abortion is a done deal, and gun rights are a done deal.  Do you honestly think you’re going to be able to change things to match your worldview and personal interpretation of what is right and wrong?  Good luck with that, and while you’re at it…get me a few lottery tickets.

Gay adoptive parents,
giving kids a home and love. 

Ask yourself one thing.  How, in what way, will two men or two women getting married directly impact your life?  Will it change your career?  Will it increase or decrease your pay?  Will it affect the value of your home?  Will it magically give you an erection lasting more than four hours?  Will the skies turn black and will Hydrochloric acid rain down and create the most nasty bald spot on your head that is known to mankind?  Will it affect the quality of your beer, whisky, food, gas mileage or any other thing in your life?  It probably will not affect anything. Since this is the case…why on god’s green Earth are you even worried about it? 

Personally, I have conservative values, and I also have liberal values.  I think the way I see things actually makes up a good chunk of our nations population and the protesting, whining and complaining is made up of a rather vocal minority on both sides. There are too many people all caught up in the business of others when it is none of theirs.  Life goes on, things change.  Deal with it.  Their very simple gangs…if you don’t like something, don’t do it.  If you are against guns, don’t own a gun.  If you’re against same sex marriage, don’t marry another person of the same sex.  You have no right what so ever to interfere another human being’s pursuit of happiness.  This kind of behavior puts you right up there with the likes of the Westboro Baptist Church.  If you’re a self-professed Christian, it makes it even worse.  The Nazarene was all about love, yet some of you show hate towards those who you feel are breaking the commandments of God.  Well, guess what...your interpretation of God’s will may not be exactly right.  Why do you think there are so many denominations of the Christian Church?  Its simply because no one can agree on exactly what the Bible says.  If there were one universal truth, there’d only be one Christian church and you all would be standing around, holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

Freedom.  Not the campy, over emotional Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart” kind, but one of the base principles our nation was founded upon.  The rights of the citizenry superseding the rights of the Government is the most important concept ever implemented involving government on the face of our globe.  The Government’s main job is to protect the rights of the individuals. In the United States, individuals can marry, own guns, pick their nose, be secure in their personal effects, not incriminate themselves and worship as they see fit.  Nowhere in our Constitution does it state that Christianity is the faith of our nation.  There is a reference to Nature and Nature’s God in the Declaration of Independence, but while it is a very important document, it is not law.  Once Christian law or any other religious system’s morality is encoded into our legislation, our nation starts tipping towards becoming a theocracy. 

Looking at the issue in Kentucky recently, Kim Davis and the marriage licenses.  She was elected to do one job; that job is to act as the clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky. 

No License For You!

She has failed in performing the duties of her job by refusing to issue marriage licenses.  Okay, okay my Conservative friends…before you go off the handle let me explain it like this.  The Supreme Court of the United States has put this issue to bed via the process of Judicial Review…you know, part of the whole Checks & Balances thing.  Unless and until this is addressed via new legislation, she must issue these licenses.  She has no choice.  It is a part of her job.  She is using her religion as an excuse not to do a part of her job.  If she can’t handle it, she needs to resign.  If the situation were reversed and there was a county clerk issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples without the Supreme Court backing this, some of you would be blowing an aneurism.  Wait…didn’t that happen already?  On a related note, there is now a Muslim woman (recently converted to Islam) working for a small airline who is refusing to serve alcohol because it is against her religion.  Her employer has tried to make reasonable accommodations for her but due to the size of the airline, she may be the only flight attendant on duty…thusly no one gets their booze.  This does not make for happy passengers.  She needs to either suck it up and ask Allah for a pass, or get a different job.

There have been plenty of SCOTUS decisions that favor the conservative side...its time for the Liberals to have their win.  Call it, striking a balance if you will.  We tackled the gun issue in DC not long ago.  Sit back and smile.  One of the nice things about our nation is the diversity of ideas.  You can’t win them all, but if one side did it would be awfully boring around here.  Besides, there is no need in throwing a temper tantrum because you don’t get your way.  You’re supposed to be adults, not 4 years old.

This whole thing of a person in civil service being allowed to claim “God’s Law” is above the laws of our nation sets a dangerous precedence.  We all know that the Islamic State wants to take over and impose Sharia Law upon everyone.  What is the difference, I ask?  Davis’ actions are not dissimilar.  She is using her office to impose her beliefs on others.  Times change.  We can’t get away from that.  This change, however, has no impact directly on anyone except for those who want to become wed.

There is another solution; get the Government out of the marriage business all together.  It may seem like a logical solution…strange to some because of how we were raised, but once one starts looking at the history of marriage in our country, licensing of marriage is a relatively new thing.  Unfortunately due to the legal benefits of marriage, I don’t see big brother getting out of the revenue generating marriage license business.  Insurance, benefits, tax deductions, etc. have all become so intertwined with legal marriage that it is a necessary institution at this point in our culture. 

Second POTUS, John Adams

Our government is a secular government.  We are not a Christian Nation…no matter how much you want to spin it.  While Christians, or those who claim Christianity, as their religion make up 70.6% of the population, this does not mean that the Christian faith has the right to impose their beliefs upon the rest of the nation, nor does it mean that we are a Christian Nation by design.   In larger population centers, one will see a number of faiths represented.  Everything from Asatru to Zoroastrianism can be seen or heard about. (It is convenient how the “A to Z” example worked out so well there). The only way to insure the freedom of EVERYONE in our borders, including Atheists, is to remain a secular based government. This is one of the reasons that we don’t have a State Religion like many other nations…the preservation of freedom.  I’ve never been a Christian myself yet I’ve served our nation in the hopes that our freedoms and way of life would be protected for everyone within our borders.  What is my faith?  That’s not really important.  What is important is that I’m an American Citizen and Disabled Veteran who would, despite my injuries, jump back in my uniform to protect our nation again at a moments notice.  I’ve got a bad back, bad knee, bad ankle and PTSD…but my trigger finger is just fine.  Our nation may be generally a Culturally Christian Nation, but legally (where it really counts) our nation is a Secular Nation.

Now, for my Liberal friends…stop it already.  Stop what you ask?  Easy.  Stay out of my pocket, quit telling me that I’m not enlightened because I don’t see things the same way that you do.  Quit trying to lead me towards a more socialistic view of things (not all of you do this, but many do.)  Quit bitching about my guns, how and where I carry them and how I owe this and that to my Government. 

Quit complaining that the 1% (whatever that really is) does not pay enough taxes. While I agree that it is kind of screwed up that they get away with paying minimal if any income tax, there are other things they do pay for. I’m sure they paid an ass-load of taxes on that new yacht or Bentley. You can’t really blame them that that they’re not paying enough taxes.  The tax code sets that all up.  If you’re really that upset about it, let your representative in DC know.  They’re the ones who write the tax code.  The poor don’t pay any income tax at all and they take advantage of most of the government assistance out there.  How fair is that? 

Karl Marx
Philosopher and Santa impersonator

The concept of income redistribution via taxation is utterly screwed up…I mean, Karl Marx was a huge proponent of the concept of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.  Admittedly the concept sounds cool at first, but when you're the one being robbed...it isn't such a happy place to be in.  I work to earn my money, and it is mine…not yours, not the Government’s…it is mine.  What is my motivation to become successful if I know that there are some rabid people out there who want to take up to 80% of my earnings away?  Why do I claim so much?  Well, there is Bernie Sanders who wants to jack up the tax rate on the rich, and it also includes ALL the taxes paid by an individual. Income, self-employment, FICA, Medicare/Medicaid, vehicle registration, alcohol, sales, various embedded taxes…the list goes on.  I don’t have time for that.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is why you have the top earners putting their money in offshore bank accounts and avoiding taxes as much as they can…because you can’t stomach someone being more successful than you are. 

These people aren’t rich because of some magic substance or spell.  They’re rich because of John Q. Citizen.  The rich people made a product or service, put it out on the market, John Q. liked it, bought or used it then spread the word.  If you want to see who is responsible for the rich snobs looking down their nose at you, just look in your own mirror.  I’m guilty of it too.  I’m typing this on an Apple Computer using Microsoft Word and will be publishing it to the Internet via Comcast cable Internet service.  It is just the way of things in our current society.

Quit forcing your idealistic views down my throat.  I’m good with equality among everyone but some of you get downright crazy with wanting to protect some spotted cockroach that is exclusive to an area when there is a development project slated to be built on the spot that would employ thousands of people. 

Some of you are just as bad as some Christians trying to help me find Jesus.  I don’t need to find Jesus.  If I want to find him I’ll just go down to the nearest Home Depot and hire him to do some yard work.  While I appreciate many of the things that the liberal side of the house has to offer, there are other things that make me grit my teeth…simply because some people don’t understand basic concepts…like “illegal alien”. 

The dangers of undocumented workers, or as they should be called…ILLEGAL ALIENS are varied and real.  I do not buy into the concept of open borders and letting people come and go out of the country without knowing what is going on.  Remember this little thing called 9/11?  News flash guys, Terrorists don’t like us.  A person from the Middle East can easily blend into a crowd of Latin Americans because of the similarity in their appearance.  I understand that the honest migrant workers are just trying to get by like the rest of us but that is no excuse to blatantly break the law and circumvent the system that is in place for immigration.  Don’t tell me that the current system doesn’t work.  It does work.  People are sworn in as new citizens in our country every day.  Some people are just impatient. 

Just trying to make it...like the rest of us.

Additionally, many these migrant workers really don’t care about becoming citizens.  They just want to make some money and go home.  Mass deportation is unrealistic but there is a solution that is a bit more workable.  Put together documentation teams.  Administrative personnel, medical, etc…everything needed to do a quick health screen in the field and issue, on the spot, a Migrant Worker Visa.  This way we know these people are healthy (not spreading disease in our country), documented (so they can be protected from unfair labor practices by unethical employers) and clear of an undesirable criminal record (no outstanding warrants, murder convictions, etc.)  I believe that if you think about it for a minute, you’ll see how this benefits everyone involved while eliminating a major concern about undocumented workers/illegal aliens.

I could go on for long enough to create a book on these subjects…and one day, I might.  Today isn’t that day.  We have enough going on in our nation without being at each other’s throats.  I have an idea!  Try this on for size.  All of you…both Left and Right.  Quit trying to take away the rights of your fellow Americans and focus on what is REALLY important.  Exercising your rights, preserving the ones that you have and minding your own business.