Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Benefit of the Doubt...

A few times over these past few days I’ve been tempted to close my facebook account. At other moments I’ve thought about deleting about half of my “friends.”

It’s not because we have a difference of beliefs when it comes to health care. Believe it or not, I don’t have a problem with that. As a former liberal I can understand how a person can believe what the far left believes. And I know that you can be a wonderful, compassionate person and be a democrat.

I know that most of my very liberal friends support health care because they feel that it is the compassionate choice. With many of them there’s a good chance that they haven’t given much thought to the issue of abortion, but they’ve given a lot of thought to the problems with health care in our country (and I agree 100% that there are huge problems and that reform is needed).

If you don’t really think about abortion you can follow the party line that “it’s not a life, it’s a choice.” If you delve much deeper the logic falls apart pretty quickly, but it’s really a subject that most people don’t want to take a long hard look at. It’s too ugly.

I try to give my friends the benefit of the doubt.

I wish they would return the favor (and I’m sure some of them do, however since they’re not loud and obnoxious, they aren’t the ones that stand out when I check my account).

In the past few days I’ve seen every person who doesn’t personally approve of the health care bill demonized and bashed. It’s kind of interesting that the worst attacks started after the bill had passed. If Life had won out I would have been celebrating and dancing around, not going on line and thinking up nasty things to write about the other side.

I’ve seen Christianity and Conservatives bashed and the logic behind the attacks makes me wonder if my “friends” are ever actually around either group. Maybe not. You can live in certain parts of California and have your exposure to non-radical groups be pretty limited. And when you do happen to run across someone who doesn’t share your beliefs you can make fun of them, or demonize them, or do both.

A lot of people seem to think that only the rich have a problem with this bill. That’s possibly why it seems to bother some people out there that I write about being pretty poor and disapproving of the bill (don’t I know I’m supposed to be grateful!). They can’t seem to understand that life is about more than money and that there are things other than money that motivate both sides.

I believe that most of my friends are motivated by compassion for the poor. That’s wonderful and I agree that something needs to be done in our country. I just wish they wouldn’t support an act that was intrinsically evil in their search for social justice. Social justice will never come from evil. The end in this case does not justify the means.

We need to think of the lives that will be lost, as well as the lives that will be saved and understand that the two can be reconciled. Just not with this president and this congress. They’re too devoted to keeping murder legal. And social justice will never exist when the blood of innocents are being poured out for votes.

6 comments:

  1. Ah, yes, facebook--the social networking site where I've had many a "friend" un-friend me because of my anti-healthcare bill position. Amazes me every time that people can end a friendship over something like this.

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  2. hmmm.... There is so much to say about this post. You sound sad, lonely & frustrated. With Paul away at school, trouble in the world, living in the boonies, and most of all - having a conversion & making life changes - well, add it all up & I think I get the first half of your post.

    It certainly is irritating when people cannot discuss an issue without resorting to personal attacks. However, when a soldier goes into battle he expects to get hurt. Yep, politics is dirty business. So, I'm not surprised that you ruffle some feathers. Hopefully though, when the feathers get preened back in place, perhaps it will be done right (not left).

    I have more, but must save for later because now I must go shopping (ugh) with Kay.

    Take care & God bless!

    Oh, and a prayer sent for Paul to finish slogging through Origen. :)

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  3. I understand what you're saying. If the only bad thing about this bill was that it multiplies and funds the evil of abortion, then those who don't see abortion as evil can at least be applauded for their compassion in other areas. But the truth is that this bill is sour from beginning to end. It has the potential to throw our country into economic ruin. It is one of the largest attempts at government takeover in our country's history. We cannot help the poor by destroying small business or large private corporations. We cannot help the poor by leveling crippling taxes on the middle and upper classes. We cannot help the poor by making them permanent wards of the state.

    We are witnessing a complete government takeover of health care. Is that really what we want? Even if Obama's pro-life concession means anything (which it doesn't) what pro-lifer is fool enough to believe that this administration wouldn't use it's new control to put it back in? We have given them the power to abuse by electing them. We expect that we can hand them the authority to piddle in the details of our lives and that they won't do evil with it.

    I'm not opposed to certain reforms. Torte reform would have been a nice way to start. But Obamacare is a complete and massive tragedy. Your friends are wrong not only because abortion is evil but also because the rest of this health care plan is a disaster for all Americans, rich and poor, because it strips away wealth and freedom. I commend their commitment to social justice but doubt from their reactions whether they really understand that social justice will only be ultimately thwarted by this thing.

    Abraham Lincoln had it right:

    "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
    You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
    You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
    You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling the wage payer down.
    You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
    You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
    You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

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  4. Just want to give this post a hearty thumbs up! You've articulated exactly what I've been thinking.

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  5. Completely agreed. I have a pretty good mix of friends on mine so I see comments from both sides lol. Thankfully most of the liberal friends I have, have been a little more polite than yours have been. A couple here or there make me want to bang my head against something, but not many...

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  6. Liberal here-and I really appreciate this post!

    Yes, really. I too have friends on both sides of the health care issue, but I've been fortunate not to see much in the way of demonization (well, other than the pro-choice league screaming about Obama's concession to the pro-life side, but I pretty much expected that).

    I used to live in a country with socialized medicine, so between that and living in the States I've had the opportunity to see the advantages-and disadvantages-of both systems (US and Canadian).

    I believe that the intention behind health-care reform is good. There are many, many millions in this country who suffer for lack of care. Something had to be done, definitely. There are a few good things in the reform bill, and a few bad, and a few ugly.

    Call me a flaming socialist hippie if you will, but there's something wrong if the supposedly most powerful country in the world cannot protect its most vulnerable citizens, both born and unborn.

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