Month: October 2016

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questions for the candidates – part 1

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There’s a debate going on; perhaps you’ve noticed. There’s actually more than one… there’s the debate over who should be President, the debate whether each/either has the necessary integrity, and then there are the actual, formal debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Due to the observations that substance seems secondary to style and objectivity seems scarce, I solicited the help of 10 likely voters, each persons for whom I have tremendous respect. They are a diverse group — in all demographics — including equally left, right, and somewhere in between. But they are each politically active and interested, committed to education and respect, and earnestly desiring of solution. I asked them what they’d like to ask the candidates. Here is Part 1…

One side is never all right; the other side is never all wrong. Tell me something the other side has right.

What do you believe are America’s top 2 strengths and top 2 weaknesses? How would you invest in America to improve in all of these areas?

Many people claim that they don’t have faith in either nominee. If elected, how would you unify the country so we can make progress both in our areas of strength and weakness?

In your professional life, have you ever faced a decision that was at odds with your religious beliefs, and if so, what was it and what was your decision?

Do you support term limits for members of Congress, and if so, how committed are you to fighting for that legislation during your first term? 

Do you think it is necessary to limit the amount of time a person can serve in elected government, and depending on your answer, why or why not?  What should the proper time frame be if your answer is “yes”?

Candidates and incumbents discuss how they are for campaign finance reform, and as soon as the election is over, it is ignored. What are you willing to pledge to do to ensure that real reform happens and that these changes are enforced?

Where do you stand with abolishing Citizens United and getting the money out of our political process?

Is reversing Citizens United v. FEC necessary to purify the election process and get rid of all the impurities of special interest? If not, please explain.

Based on recent traffic statistics are you willing to push for a nationwide ban on hand-held devices while operating a motor vehicle?

Do you believe that the cost of higher education is out of control, and what if anything do you plan to do about it?

Why is the interest rate on student loans higher than that of buying a home or a car?

With the decline in manufacturing jobs and good paying jobs for non-college bound high school graduates scarce, how are we creating livable wage jobs for that segment of society?

Please discuss our crumbling public school systems and what type of ideas you have to work with local and state officials to help stop the brain drain in our schools.

Do you believe that the current level of standardized testing in our public schools benefits the students?

Explain how bureaucrats in the Department of Education are more qualified to determine curriculum than the educators at the local level?

Do you think it is appropriate to use children that are not yours in campaign ads to vilify another candidate?

Do you feel it’s appropriate to vilify your opponent? Or is it a necessary evil? If the latter, please explain your justification for evil.

What would you do to improve very strained race relations in our communities?  What are three steps that can be taken to implement your idea?

How do you reconcile the concepts of black, blue, and all lives mattering? How do you lead wisely, making all groups feel valued and heard, violating no one’s civil rights?

Do you believe in reparations for slavery? Please specifically explain your answer.

Is white privilege real or really a partisan talking point?

How are your policies going to make life easier for the middle class?

How will you balance keeping us safe without becoming “Big Brother” and compromising our freedom and privacy?

How is it conscionable to leave our children $20 trillion in debt? What specifically are you going to do not only to get the federal budget under control, but to start paying down the debt?

There is quite a spirited debate concerning illegal immigrants and the rights and services that should be extended to them. With a national debt that is spiraled out of control, what are you willing to cut to offer those services and how is that going to affect those with legal citizenship? 

How is a plan to cut taxes not going to increase our national debt?

Social Security and Medicare have no prayer of being solvent after the tsunami of Baby Boomers hit retirement, yet any politician who even brings up trying to address this is immediately portrayed as trying to take away seniors’ benefits, to their political ruin. How can this problem be fixed in this political environment?

Are you politically brave enough to stop kicking the “reduce-the-debt” can further down the road?

Can you stop arguing about climate change? What is fact and what is not? What can we do that doesn’t burden us with increased debt?

Politicians used to campaign hard against each other, then govern together. Today, politicians are in constant campaign mode. If the other side has a good idea, it is automatically opposed, because we can’t allow them to get political points. How will you roll back the vitriol that is the current state of politics?

Stay tuned for more on Sunday… gun control, terrorism and more will be covered…

Respectfully… and with great respect and gratitude to our 10 diverse contributors…
AR

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redemption

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First, from Dictionary.com:

redemption

[ri-demp-shuh n]

noun
1. an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed.
2. deliverance; rescue.
3. Theology. deliverance from sin; salvation.
4. atonement for guilt.

Then from other, more blog-oriented, subjective sites:

… “the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil.”

… “the act of buying something back, or paying a price to return something to your possession.”

… “It means bought back, redeemed.”

Best I can tell, colloquially speaking, it means a person screws up — meaning a significant, seemingly character-defining, severely negative mistake — and then over some course of time, they change. The change is marked not only by the grieving of their own error/sin/offense, but they also make amends (as able), ask forgiveness, and they commit, as best as possible, to “sin no more.”

My sense is the scenario that allows for redemption is an incredibly ugly thing. My sense is that it also has the potential to be incredibly, amazingly powerful.

Here, though, is the problem…

While personally when we screw up (because yes, we all do), we believe in redemption — we know we’re capable of better and we want to grow and become wiser — we withhold that from other people, especially public personalities.

It’s like we say “I saw them when they said ______… I watched them when they did ______…” And then we forever put them in that box, so-to-speak. We forever act as if we know who they really are… and we don’t give them the grace and space to grow and change… even though we reserve that grace and space for ourselves.

Chuck Colson is the first person I think of… a man who was known to be politically ruthless, termed by one Slate Magazine writer as “the evil genius” of the Nixon administration. When he later repented and even founded Prison Fellowship in 1976, “the nation’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families” today, I wonder how many held onto their own, previously held position, the “in-my-box” idea that Colson was still that ruthless man, because “I saw them when…”

I think, too, of Pietro Maso, the Italian man — 46 now — who bludgeoned his parents to death with heavy kitchen pans and then suffocated them, all to receive his inheritance when he was 20. For such a crime, I’m certain many would aver “no way is that guy ever changing!” … except in prison, he repented. In fact, Pope Francis called him after he was released, acknowledging his changed heart. Maso has now dedicated himself to helping others.

It makes me wonder… who else are we putting in a box?

Who else are we withholding the right to grow and change?

Who else do we believe is incapable of redemption?

(Scary thought. We can be a little judgmental sometimes…)

Respectfully…
AR

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piercing the “normal”

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Sometimes a day interrupts the “normal.” It interrupts the “normal” so much, it shocks us back into remembering what’s most important.

I imagine that’s what it was like the day JFK died. I wasn’t born yet, but I know the news spread quickly, as the sitting American President rode through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, assassinated just after noon. It was November of ’63, and while Kennedy had not formally announced his re-election plans, it was clear he was gearing up to run again and seemed confident he would win. That moment, though, pierced the “normal” of the time, thinking our leaders were always respected and safe, when they were not.

It’s what obviously happened on 9/11. America had always, so beautifully embraced the idea of being a “melting pot,” a land that lauds its diversity, welcoming all tired, poor, and people with their accompanying demographics and beliefs. But that “normal” was disrupted by 19 men who took terror into their own hands in the name of their religion. Not all religion is the same. Not all adherents are wise. We were reminded that not all believe in a good and righteous God.

It happened, no less, again last week. There was a young, major league pitcher who played for the Miami Marlins, José Fernández. The 24 year old lost his life in a boating accident. Fernández was a star — the ace of the pitching staff. But Fernández was more than just a focus of the far-more-than-casual-sports fan. Note the below excerpt from ESPN Magazine’s pre-season cover story…

In an interview with rising MLB star, Bryce Harper, Harper was discussing how baseball’s “unwritten code” dampers self-expression. He singled out Fernández:

“You can’t do what people in other sports do. I’m not saying baseball is, you know, boring or anything like that, but it’s the excitement of the young guys who are coming into the game now who have flair.

José Fernández is a great example. José Fernández will strike you out and stare you down into the dugout and pump his fist. And if you hit a homer and pimp it? He doesn’t care. Because you got him. That’s part of the game. It’s not the old feeling — hoorah … if you pimp a homer, I’m going to hit you right in the teeth. No. If a guy pimps a homer for a game-winning shot … I mean — sorry.”

In other words, Fernández’s flair was not a sign of one-up-manship; recognized or not, it was instead a manifestation of the joy of playing the game — what should be the “normal” of baseball. When Fernández’s boat and body were recovered early Sunday morning, it reminded us that a game is just a game; life is more important. The tragedy thus pierced our “normal” that gets so out of control, as contemporary society focuses far too much on celebrity, status, and winning. The Marlins cancelled their game that day; winning didn’t matter. They were shocked into remembering what’s most important.

What strikes me this day is the potential for other “normals” that may also be pierced one day… shocking us at our core. You see, the piercing elevates the important.

Perhaps you, too, are struck by the “normal” in the current political environment. Sadly, there exists a glaring lack of civility. There is such a demandingness; that is our “normal.”

There seems this crazy, disrespectful acceptance of “if you don’t think like me, you’re either (a) wrong, (b) an idiot, or (c — and most likely) both of the above.” Our “normal,” friends, is that we have lost the ability to respect the person who doesn’t share our perspective. The current election season, the reaction to “Black Lives Matter,” the debates over gun control, socialism, minimum wage, a living wage, abortion, healthcare, centralized government… our new “normal” is that good-thinking people justify thinking “both of the above.”

I’m concerned.

What’s it going to take to pierce that normal?

It will be something. I’m fearful of what it may be. But I do pray it shocks us into finally remembering what is most important.

Respectfully…
AR