FINDING TRUTH WITHOUT RHETORIC

Sometimes in the social media, aside from the gibberish of posting other people’s ideas, I come across someone who ‘sees’. To ‘see’ to me means to cut off the excess of rhetoric from either a liberal or conservative bent. To free one’s mind from influence and to think it through without prompting and buying into philosophies that are not thought out carefully. Usually such a thinker uses experience, not emotion to justify their belief, that is someone I admire.

I can’t reconcile my beliefs on one issue being conservative and one issue being liberal in philosophy and call myself either liberal or conservative. There is no way I will buy into anyone party platform, the issues are too important.

For myself, I am neither a member of the Liberal or Conservative persuasion, I don’t subscribe to either the Democratic or Republican point of view. I try to stay away from newscasts and media that hold political agendas and infect what should be free and independent opinion.

Recently I had the pleasure to read an opinion from a former high school classmate of mine, who speaks from the heart and from truth, and she said:

“So hard to find those that truly are seeking "truth." As a social worker (and this is Social Work month), I have leaned toward the Liberal and supporting the disenfranchised. I have worked with the poor, the elderly, the chronically ill, victims of domestic violence and have not seen the Republicans lean in a helpful bent. But, lately, I have been so disgusted with every party. They all play games with our lives, like we are figures in a chess game. The stakes, however, are very high. But, this is still the most wonderful country in the world and we are blessed to be able to have our opinions and disagreements. God Bless us all, and we can only pray that we leave our grandchildren a peaceful and sustainable world.”

I think that we need to support each other, not seek ways to prove others wrong, but to enlighten one another through our experiences and willingness to sit and discuss our differences. Sometimes we are so wrapped up in our beliefs that we don’t see and we don’t hear because we are blindly repeating what sounds good to us without asking the most important person what he/she thinks-ourselves.

I think my classmate is right on, there is too much playing with the wrong people, those who suffer most, who get promises from both parties and are used as pawns only for one thing, the disingenuous plans to gain power on the backs of those who are disenfranchised.