Misunderstanding

Pardon me, but I feel a little chatty today.

I have noticed that there seems to be a huge misunderstanding out in the world. Much more than I have seen in the past. Things look ugly, and feel tense. People for some reason feel a need to spew their hate without acknowledging the fact that it is indeed what they are doing.

I can't not lump individuals into a solitary group. I know too many people that claim to belong to a certain "group" yet don't fully identify, or defer in opinion with that group, for me to do so.

I watch several different news stations. If they can be called news anymore. And have noticed a theme of us against them. Why? I have my opinions, you have yours, I will not call you names to feel better about my views. But even when our own President attacks his own people, I get concerned. All of us should.

We claim to be a melting pot, yet we treat each other as enemies. For whatever reason, some people feel that it isn't ok to be this melting pot. And no I am not just talking about Neo-Nazi's or KKK members. I am talking about anyone that feels the need to attack any group of individuals because of their belief. And I am talking about the tea parties being mocked by their own government.

And then there is this story;
World Net Daily

"On April 10, 2009, Good Friday, a female countyemployee came to the Joneses' residence. The county employee appeared in the front yard and proceeded to take pictures of our clients' home," the letter said. "She noticed the Joneses' daughters in the front yard and asked to speak with their mother. Although she did not provide any paper work or identification, subsequent information obtained by the WCLP leads us to believe that the county employee who went to the Joneses' residence was Code Enforcement Officer Cherie Cham."

"Do you have a regular weekly meeting in your home? Do you sing? Do you say 'amen'?" the official reportedly asked. "Do you say, 'Praise the Lord'?

The pastor's wife answered yes.

She says she was then told, however, that she must stop holding "religious assemblies" until she and her husband obtain a Major Use Permit from the county, a permit that often involves traffic and environmental studies, compliance with parking and sidewalk regulations and costs that top tens of thousands of dollars.

What? Now this is bad, very bad. We can not continue to criticize the American people, nor should we penalize anyone for their beliefs. What happened to the America I grew up in? I never thought I would see the day where my President doesn't have my back.

I grew up in a Marxist household. A household that taught the religion where for people that were afraid to die. I grew up in a house that believed in Socialized medicine, that taught a civil war of class was coming. I remember being told that when the middle class is no more, people will riot. This was out of the mouths of socialists. They were for the people, they believed that the government should help run their lives to an extent, but not as much as what has been happening over the past several years. These people also encourage us to test the world, to seek out individuals with differing opinions, to learn from them and teach them. To try different religions to see if any of them fit our life. None of that was discouraged. Now I see a man that many people are calling a Marxist, not behaving as one. Marxism looks good on paper, but not in life.

I grew up and moved on from that system of belief, and many of the others that use to sit around our kitchen table have as well. They learned to embrace America with all her flaws, and conflicts. You become a much happier person when that happens.

America is a melting pot. Legal immigrants teach us new things, and we teach them. We are allowed to voice our opinions without being labeled and placed on a list. And I have been on a list for years because of my parents. I have no fear of it. If they come for me, so be it. I went from the communist list and probably on the terrorist list now. It makes little difference, once your on the list you stay on it, the header changes with the times, but little else,besides more names.

I can accept our President and the Congress for their opinions. Mine differ from theirs. I never call them names, or ridicule. No wait, I have said that the House was behaving like toddlers and they should stand in the corner for timeout. I disagree with many things that comes out of different speakers mouths, but that doesn't give me the right to personally attack them.

As preppers the only thing we really have in common is a boyscout motto. Not every one that writes for the Network is Christian, or conservative, or loons. Some don't own guns, some are survivalists and some are homesteaders. If we are able to get along, with our vast differences, the same types of differences that polarize other groups, why can't we be respected, and given the acknowledgment that we are entitled to our opinions? Only one thing brings us together. We have found that common ground and respect each other because of that. What is the need to bash and harshly criticize another for opinions? Now when we are talking about laws that will negatively affect us as a person or nation, that is fair game. We all want our rights for personal freedom, for our personal choices to matter to us, to be allowed to live the life that our founding father's envisioned for us. But they also envisioned the downfall of our lifestyles.

We now take too much for granted. We have been taught to be self indulgent, we have been taught that there is no need to fight for ourselves and that we needn't struggle. And even though I grew up in a Marxist home, there were somethings that were so ingrained into my parents that they unwittingly taught me. We love Israel, and will always stand up for them, you work hard to get things in life, work makes you a better person, education and work ethic make you stronger, that you have to stand up for yourself and your beliefs with out resorting to mockery, that we are a free nation and although I don't like your opinion I respect it, that your duty is to serve your Country, and that freedom isn't free.