Who or what is a socialist?

If you use SOCIALISM as a pejorative label after reading this essay, you are definitely one of God's loved ones.  God loves the ignorant and gullible, He made so many of us.


Ted Clarke, Via the Internet writes:

Question:

I was pondering this past week about the right wing fundamentalists and their real fear of anything that smacks of socialism. For me, the word socialism means that the society cares for those who are marginalized, who have major difficulties coping with basic life issues, the poor, etc. My understanding of Christian belief is that this care is at the core of our belief - to care for those who need our care, our support, our understanding. Why do those who are “fundamentalist” refuse to see this as part of the Christian gospel? Or am I missing something?

Answer:

Dear Ted,

Thanks for your letter. Socialism is one of those words bandied about today rather loosely. To you it means care for the marginalized. For members of the Tea Party in America, it seems to mean having the government control one’s life down to telling us when one must die. I do not believe that using loaded, easily misunderstood words is helpful to dialogue, so let me approach your question from a different angle.

I do not see any economic system devised by human beings that does more good for more people better than capitalism. Capitalism, however, devoid of social conscience that expresses itself in making sure that the wealth of the nation is not limited to a very small number of people at the top of the economic pyramid on one side and that no one falls through the safety net on the other, simply does not work. This means that I support things like a graduated income tax, Social Security, mandated universal health care and the regulation of institutions to guarantee fair and equal opportunity in wealth creation for all citizens. If capitalism is not tempered with these restrictions then I am convinced that the capitalist system will drive toward the revolution that Karl Marx predicted. So socially responsible and democratically established legislation is today necessary if capitalism is both going to endure and to be effective. This means that it is essential that capitalism develop the means to allow the wealth of this nation to be spread more equitably and thus allow capitalism to continue to be the best economic system yet devised by human beings.

We are in fact mandated by our faith to care for the poor, to feed the hungry and to tend the sick. We are also enjoined to love our neighbors as ourselves. I do not see how those ideals can be served if we allow capitalism to develop an underclass in which poverty is never escaped and in which the basic elements of a caring society do not exist. Christian history, which includes the development of capitalism, also reveals that we have not only violated these ideals, but we also have been anti-Semitic, anti -Muslim, anti-people of color, anti-women, and anti-homosexual. That is a strange way to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors.

What is going on in America at this moment is the political manipulation of basic human fears in order to gain power over others or to have power, which the ruling classes believe they have lost, restored. One manifestation of this is that the white Anglo-Saxon population that claims to be the “first families” of America is facing the fact that the United States now includes enormous numbers of citizens whose ancestors migrated not from Europe, but from Africa, Latin America and Asia. We are thus engaged in an internal struggle between the American spirit of inclusion and the vested interests of the earliest settlers. The anger in our political system today also reveals our latent racism, our greed and our xenophobia. When these fears are coupled with unstable economic forces that cause the future to feel insecure, the problems are compounded.

I believe we will get through this time in our history. We need long term stability in our government so that the big problems in energy, financial reform, health care and the environment may be addressed. Whether we will have that long term stability is the question. My sense is that with an economic revival and the creation of jobs, the fears will subside. Will that economic upturn come before the election of 2012? I do not know, but that election will be crucial to our future as a nation.

John Shelby Spong

National Health Care?

The “news” on television does not give a person any real information.  Instead, they parrot a “sound bite” which is a quick phrase that gives a powerful, negative, and opinionated bit of propaganda.  The sound bite usually does not have any basis in fact, does not need to be true, and is most effective with the ignorant and gullible.  A sound bite is like a rock thrown through your window.  It is a favorite weapon of the politicians.   Like a bullet out of a gun it is effective, it cannot be ignored, it does not need verification, and a response is futile.  A good example is one that I have heard repeated several times lately: “Obama’s Health Care Program is a job killer!”

An excerpt from Bishop Spong’s essay on 12/29/10:

“They exhausted the administration in the Health Care fight, while prohibiting the Public Option, which was the one thing in the original Obama health care proposal that had any possibility of lowering health care costs. Once that was defeated they began their attack on "the government's takeover of health care." It was strange logic and observers noted that the price of the stock in the private health care companies went up during and after the health care debate.”

Information from Wikipedia:

In the first two bills the public option took the form of a Qualified Health Benefit Plan competing with similar private insurance plans in an internet based exchange or market place, enabling citizens and small businesses to purchase health insurance meeting the minimum federal standard. Persons covered by other employer plans or by state insurance plans such as Medicare would have not been eligible to obtain coverage from the exchange and therefore could not obtain this form of federal health insurance. The federal government's health insurance plan would have been financed entirely by premiums without subsidy from the Federal government. The plans stated in the Senate HLP Committee and H.R. 3962, the two that contained clauses establishing a public insurance option, required the repayment of "seed money" to the Treasury over a ten year period.

Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, who represents the 18th congressional district in Houston, has said, "Surveys show that nearly three out of four voters want a public health insurance plan." She also has said that "73 percent of doctors and 1,000 state legislators favor health reform legislation with a public option. The American people want a strong public option heard in Congress... because their voices have been drowned out by insurance company propaganda and disruptive tea-baggers at health reform town hall meetings."

President Obama elaborated on his reasons for a public plan in his seminal September 9 address to the Joint Session of Congress:

“I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business... the insurance companies and their allies don't like this idea. They argue that these private companies can't fairly compete with the government. And they'd be right if taxpayers were subsidizing this public insurance option. But they won't be. I've insisted that like any private insurance company, the public insurance option would have to be self-sufficient and rely on the premiums it collects. But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits and excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers, and would also keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better.”

Tragedy in Arizona yesterday

Here is a comment related to the shooting in Arizona yesterday in which a Congresswoman was wounded and six people were killed - politics at its worst.  Now you will know why I call Mrs. Palin "Scary" - her view of Christianity is certainly very different from mine.


Dem Rep Giffords shot in head in Az. Sarah Palin had put CROSSHAIRS/ BULLSEYE on Giffords on her website! OUTRAGE! http://mmflint.me/fcHmJf

When Rep Giffords voted in favor of health care bill, her office in Tucson was attacked & vandalized. http://mmflint.me/hKYtR7

Palin "set gun sights on 20 Dems (including Giffords)." http://mmflint.me/fcHmJf Palin site now seems 2 b taking down crosshairs map!

In 2009, another gun nut showed up where Rep Giffords was speaking (at another Safeway) & dropped his gun http://mmflint.me/gPnApk

Giffords opponent held June event 2 "Shoot a Fully Automatic M16" to "Get on Target" & "Remove Gabrielle Giffords" http://mmflint.me/hF1BN5

When Palin put crosshairs on a map w/ Rep. Giffords & 19 other Dem congressmen/women, she urged followers to "reload" & "aim" for Democrats.

RT @RichardKimNYC Giffords was impt brave ally in fight to defeat 2006 AZ anti-gay marriage initiative. i covered in brief http://tinyurl.com/285hk92

Past photo of alleged Tucson shooter (in background) http://yfrog.com/h5oq9gj

Stunning admission by Tucson sheriff: Arizona "a mecca" of hate & bigotry which unhinges the unbalanced http://mmflint.me/hOlRG8 Wow.

Thanks, Keith, 4 ur powerful Special Comment just now & 4 mentioning Glenn Beck's violent fantasies: http://mmflint.me/eTc1LC

Christina Green was the 9yr old killed. She was born on 9/11. Was on student council & only girl on baseball team. http://mmflint.me/dOs1oY

If a Detroit Muslim put a map on the web w/crosshairs on 20 pols, then 1 of them got shot, where would he b sitting right now? Just asking.

The election FWIW

So Wyden and Huffman spent almost $9 million dollars to get elected. The congressional race in our district blew approximately $3 million. There were more than 500 congressional seats up for grab - multiply this by $3 million and it comes out to $1.5 to $2 Billion. Getting elected is more important than education, infrastructure, health care, and several other critical items. Nationwide, how many Billions did this country spend on the election - a TOTAL WASTE.  AND, the national legislature is a complete disaster! We, the voters, are nothing but ignorant, stupid and arrogantly dumb!! God truly loves the ignorant and gullible, He made so many of us!

What more can I say?  I have not posted any comments in this blog since October.  However, I thought that I should make a comment on the recent national election.  If, sometime in the far off future, the voters should become wise enough to limit the money spent on elections, we might once again have a decent, at least responsible, national and state legislature.

Where do we go from here?

Monotheism is evolving.  It started out in Egypt about 3500 years ago, was introduced into the Canaan territory by an Egyptian exile (Moses) who established the Hebrew (Jewish) religion.  The next big step was the work of the Apostle Paul in establishing synagogues that promoted the story of Jesus Christ throughout the Middle East.  Our present day Christian religion was really initiated by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD and then Christianity began a long, contentious, and bloody extension into more than 3000 denominations.

Thanks to a few leaders like retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong there is a chance that Christianity may eventually evolve into a more reasonable and useful religion.  I agree with him that atheism is not a solution.  There is a Supreme Being.  We human beings just do not have the intelligence or imagination to be able to conceive of the real thing.  Also, most of the time, we don’t have the imagination or intelligence to take full advantage of the unconditional love provided by this Being.  We are just conscious enough to be one step ahead of our dog.

We need to think about how we can help Christianity evolve into something that would truly be “God’s Kingdom on Earth”.

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest . . . a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.  (Albert Einstein)

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I don’t know why I use the term “Christianity”. There are already more than 3,000 “Christian” denominations, the title is almost meaningless.  I guess we need a new Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, or someone like that to show us the way.  The term “unconditional love” keeps coming up in my musing.   If unconditional love could be a major force in our culture, its source would be the Invisible Being that we are a part of.  It is there, it is available, it  just needs to be used as a basis for our daily behavior.

Jesus often promoted unconditional love: the Good Samaritan, turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, touch the unclean, love one another, remove the beam from your own eye, etc.  In that same vein, Bishop Spong’s admonitions “do not diminish another” and “give wastefully” would qualify.  This would require true humility.  To me real, sincere humility is a sign of strength, not an indication of weakness. With the egos we all have, and the culture we live in, true humility is probably one of the most difficult personality traits to acquire and maintain.

Jesus Christ was not a power broker.  Instead, He promoted unconditional love, prolific  generosity, and true humility.  “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven!”

Who is a socialist?

I have been called a “socialist” because I believe that every person in the United States (regardless of their birthplace) should have the same kind of medical care and education that is available to me and the members of my extended family at the present time.  I also believe that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are worthwhile programs and should be continued – that is also a “socialist” opinion to the conservative Republicans and the Tea Baggers.

The dictionary says that ‘socialism’ is: “a system of society or group living in which there is no private property.”  Who says that I want to give up everything I own?  If we want to get into name-calling or pejorative labels I would call my critics “fascists”.  The dictionary definition of ‘fascism’ is: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and race and stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Our fundamentalist conservatives and the Tea-Party have a political philosophy that exalts our nation (no one is as good as we are), is racist (Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks), wants a small, autocratic, centralized government (NO, NO, NO, unless we are in control), pass laws that create social regimentation (abortion, homosexuality), and use smart bombs to subdue the opposition. This is very close to the dictionary definition of fascism.  Now, all we need is a dictator.  Perhaps Mr. Cheney or Mr. Rove would qualify.  They ran the Bush administration from the back seat for eight years.

A reminder: Jesus Christ was not a power broker.  Instead, He promoted unconditional love, prolific generosity, and true humility.  “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven!”

A beautiful story

Thought you all might enjoy this!

In an article from the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle,
reads a story of a female humpback whale who had become
entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was
weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to
struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope
wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her
mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands
(outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for
help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined
that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and
untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and
eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in
what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and
every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently
around as she was thanking them. Some said it was the most
incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the
rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole
time, and he will never be the same. May you, and all those you
love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who
will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.
And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude