Forgive ~ Love ~ Succeed ~ Build with Honesty ~ Happiness ~ Do Good ~ Give The World The Best You Have Regardless What Others Say About You

Namaste

Are You Safe In Your Relationships? How To Protect Yourself Against Emotional Blackmail, Bullying, Threats And Violence In Your Personal And Social Circles ~ Be Honest With Yourself

Rule #1:   MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE.        National Domestic Violence Hotline             800-799-7233

Rule #2:   MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE.       National Domestic Violence TTY Hotline     800-787-3224

Rule #3:   MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE.       Abuse Victim Hotline by state                         www.avhotline.org

Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe in all your relationships? Do feel safe in your home? Do you feel safe at your employment? Do you feel safe in your social circles, friendships, affiliations, clubs, including social media? Do you feel safe when you are alone?

Do you feel unsafe in some situations? Do you feel unsafe around certain people? Do you feel threatened or intimidated by anyone legally, physically, financially, morally, or even spiritually?

It is most important to feel safe in your own skin, safe in your own mind, and safe in your own soul.

Much has been written about promoting tolerance, getting along, defusing situations, and compromising for the greater good that can be experienced in this beautiful and amazing life.

But people who have more tender mental constitutions, and weaker willed individuals can be bullied beyond belief by strong personalities, by louder and more demonstrative characters, bowling over all attempts that might possibly arrive at a healed and more whole relationship. This even happens in political and religious circles and can suck tolerant unsuspecting individuals who get their freewill hijacked down into the sewer drain of manipulation.

School children are taught tolerance, but tolerance toward a bully must never be allowed by the victim, the teacher, the school, the employer, nor online, or the opposite lesson is learned, and the bully rewarded. While children and adults alike benefit from tolerance, no one benefits from allowing the bully to go free, emboldening them to attempt more ruthless self-serving feats. Equally unfair is punishing both the bully and the victim of bullying, as if it is all the same. This is the cowards way out and particularly rewarding to the bully.

Sometimes attempt at normalizing bullying goes too far, trying to apply tolerance and compromise to abusive and dysfunctional relationships, when running for the hills should be in order.

Be honest with yourself.

Your feelings and emotions are your accurate, internal measure of what you should do next. Emotional abuse feels bad, makes you nauseous, gives you anxiety attacks, with a generalized feeling of malaise, depression, and low energy. The intensity of your feelings and emotions is a signal that things need to change if you are going to re-gain your mental, physical, and spiritual health.

There is never any reason to tolerate physical, mental/emotional abuse, or bullying as a normal behavior. Physical, mental, emotional abuse and bullying is not a sign of a strong person. It is the sign a of very weak person who thinks he or she cannot get their way by any other means.

This seems like it is common sense, but it is not that easy to the person who is being physically abused, emotionally blackmailed, and threatened by lawsuits or any other kind of fear, obligation, guilt, and/or manipulation. The longer bullies bully their victims, the more debilitating fear cripples the victims. Domestic violence, violence in the classroom, violence in the workplace, or threats of violence online is never OK under any circumstance.

SILENCE IS AGREEMENT.

Freedom comes when you gather your courage and PEACEFULLY STAND UP. Stand up for yourself, speak out to someone you can trust. Do not remain silent. Silence is not golden. Silence is deadly, literally. Bullies do not go away. Bullies get stronger the longer they stay at it. The longer a bully stays a bully, the more brazen they get, and the more their bullying tactics escalate.

An important point to make here is to realize that people with destructive personality disorders most often look just the same as you and me. Mass murderers do not look like mass murderers. They look like regular people, for the most part. Abusive partners also dress in expensive clothing, can be financially successful, and have no tell-tale marks that make them stand out from no-abusive partners. They might even appear to have wide circles of “friends” around them, but the truth is, these are usually superficial trophies. Do not be intimated by any of this. This presentation of how bullies portray themselves is a facade. However, the vengeance the bully feels is very real, and must be dealt with, not ignored.

The question is how to stand up and deal with bullies, emotional blackmail, and threats of mental, emotional, and physical abuse. Again, go by how you feel. You need to get to a safe place on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, and spiritually. If you feel unsafe addressing these problems yourself, seek immediate help from a counselor, police, fire personnel, or shelter. Do not wait. Your health and well-being depend on getting help not only for yourself, but also for the abuser.

Manipulating behaviors tend to show up ever so subtly in the earlier days of the relationship but can also manifest later in the relationship if stressors change. Pay attention. Pay attention to how you feel when certain things happen. You might even keep a journal of your feelings if you feel safe to do so.

The important thing to know is there is no tolerance for abusive behaviors. Verbal abuse can be even more detrimental to the health and well-being of children, spouses, and everyone living or working under the same roof.

Sometimes abusive behaviors manifest over time, after the relationship is well-established. The person being abused knows that even the abusing person has a good side from time to time, and at the good times, has earned their love. The person being abused wonders if they have done or said something to trigger the abuse. Most often the person receiving the abuse is told it is their fault that the abuser is abusing.

Know this is not true.

Everyone is in charge of their own feelings, emotions, and actions. There is no way you are ever in charge of the abuser’s feelings, emotions, or actions no matter what has happened.

You count.

You matter.

You are a gift from God.

You are beautiful, and I am so very glad you are here.

Namaste

Child Of Mine by Carole King Dedicated To My Five Beautiful Grown Children: Michelle ~ Keith ~ Kevin ~ Marie ~ Kai

How precious it is to see you all grown up. I am so glad I instilled in you the traits I deemed important, independence, integrity, honesty, and virtue. As always, I wish you the best. Know that I am always here for you, no matter how tangled life can get or impossible it may seem. My heart knows no separation from you, not time, nor distance, nor beliefs. I am your Mom, who first held and kissed you, and welcomed you into this world. I watched you grow and now treasure all your lives. In case you have not heard me say it lately, I love all of you. Life is what you make it, so make it beautiful!

God Bless You All

Natural Problem Solvers ~ Peace ~ Honesty ~ Integrity ~ Harmony ~ Love

Have you ever noticed how discord, lies, lack of integrity, anger and hate never solve any problem? All of these approaches to life deflect, deny, and denounce problems, but they are not the right tools to use to solve them. It is only a matter of time before twists and turns against pretend realities catch up to the truth that manifests itself in all situations.

Living in a modern world of audio and video, we can see events unfold right before our eyes. There is no spin or fake news when we observe things first hand for ourselves. Recognize deflection when you see it. Stand for truth, not someone else’s version of truth that you feel you must conform to. Rather stand for the truth you see right before your eyes, heart and mind.

Before any doctor can operate on a patent, the doctor needs to make an assessment, diagnosis, then plan a course of action for the health of the patient. A proper diagnosis is key. There must be a specific plan put in place in order to change the tide of sickness in all its hideous forms.

We can use this analogy in healing ourselves, our relationships and even in healing our nation.

To keep shining a light on the problems we see is like staying in counseling for life, because we are only focusing on the problems. As long as we only focus on the problems, we will remain in the problems. The problem is not the other guy. The problem is not “out there.” The problem is within ourselves and our lack of awareness of how to heal.

As long as we continue to point fingers at others and stay connected to the root cause of any and all dysfunctional issues, like a super magnet holds its intense grip, we will fail to find positive solutions. Positive problem-solving involves flipping the off switch to the things we have allowed ourselves to be bound with so tightly. Then move on. Do not use your free will to stay stuck just because that is the dysfunction that has become what you might think is normal.

You and I are stronger than any problem that presents itself. Whether it is personal issues, government issues, or global issues, there is no problem we cannot solve, especially when we work together for the common good.

Begin with a foundation of peace and harmony within your heart, mind and body. Acknowledging the next challenge that presents itself is different from wallowing in the stifling grip of self-delusion and self-sabotage. Countries worldwide also fall into this trap.

With eyes wide open, see the situation calling for your attention, without stirring the pot of drama, chaos and dysfunction. This is the key point. There is a way to handle problems in our lives with peace, dignity, integrity, honesty and grace.

Make a plan and announce it to yourself, your peers, your country. It is not enough to say, “This is the problem …” with no definite solution in mind. No country will stand, for example, with its leaders saying, “Do not worry. I’ve got this. We’ll come up with the best plan ever,” then not even announce to everyone what the plan is in the light of day.

Hidden agendas are a red light to sabotage what is about to happen, whether it be a relationship you are working on, a political platform, or any other situation you are trying to remedy. In a relationship, the two people involved would not speak in generalities to each other. Instead, they would come up with concrete ideas.

What are your concrete plans to manifest peace, harmony, honesty, integrity and love in your life, and in the world around you? Don’t just read this. What are your definitive plans? Write them down. Look at them each day until you manifest your heart’s desire.

Bring to mind the aspects of peace in your life. What does peace look like? What is the surest way you can achieve peace?

What do you need to do to balance harmony in your life? This life we live is not harmonious by nature. Storms ravage our shores, floods and droughts devastate our lands, relationships have personality and other obstacles to work through, etc. What is our specific goal to bring harmony to a relationship? What are the political points required to heal a broken nation? Write it down. Share these positive aspirations and goals with others in decision making roles. Share these goals and plan of action with the citizens of the nation.

Pick up the cross of honesty, and its close cousin, humility. It takes a humble person to be honest. Anyone can choose to be the biggest puff of wind in the room. But the biggest puff of wind in the room disapates when a window of opportunity opens and a gust of fresh air cleanses the room. The same holds true for personal relationships as it does for honest political aspiration void of devious and dark agenda. Selfishness in relationships and in politics eventually sink the ship of unbounded greed of power and money.

Integrity is the firm foundation in every solid creation of a beautiful relationship and also in a freedom-loving democracy. Integrity seeks to uphold truth, honor and valor as it holds the torch of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. This means standing tall against the ignorant bluster of prejudice. No relationship or government can withstand the free reign of prejudice in all its ugly forms to metastasize as a malignant growth upon the life of any relationship or country.

Love is the only answer to every problem. Love does not allow devious deception by robbing peace and harmony for the good of only a chosen few who hijack the good and goods of the relationship, or the country for themselves. Love seeks to help rather than harm.

Working together for the collective goal of peace, harmony, honesty, integrity and love , in our every thought, word and action is the answer. Love is the only answer.

God Bless Everyone Everywhere

Natural Problem Solvers ~ Peace ~ Harmony ~ Honesty ~ Integrity ~ Love

Have you ever noticed how discord, lies, lack of integrity, anger and hate never solve any problem? All of these approaches to life deflect, deny, and denounce problems, but they are not the right tools to use to solve them. It is only a matter of time before twists and turns against pretend realities catch up to the truth that manifests itself in all situations.

Living in a modern world of audio and video, we can see events unfold right before our eyes. There is no spin or fake news when we observe things first hand for ourselves. Recognize deflection when you see it. Stand for truth, not someone else’s version of truth that you feel you must conform to. Rather stand for the truth you see right before your eyes, heart and mind.

Before any doctor can operate on a patent, the doctor needs to make an assessment, diagnosis, then plan a course of action for the health of the patient. A proper diagnosis is key. There must be a specific plan put in place in order to change the tide of sickness in all its hideous forms.

We can use this analogy in healing ourselves, our relationships and even in healing our nation.

To keep shining a light on the problems we see is like staying in counseling for life, because we are only focusing on the problems. As long as we only focus on the problems, we will remain in the problems. The problem is not the other guy. The problem is not “out there.” The problem is within ourselves and our lack of awareness of how to heal.

As long as we continue to point fingers at others and stay connected to the root cause of any and all dysfunctional issues, like a super magnet holds its intense grip, we will fail to find positive solutions. Positive problem-solving involves flipping the off switch to the things we have allowed ourselves to be bound with so tightly. Then move on. Do not use your free will to stay stuck just because that is the dysfunction that has become what you might think is normal.

You and I are stronger than any problem that presents itself. Whether it is personal issues, government issues, or global issues, there is no problem we cannot solve, especially when we work together for the common good.

Begin with a foundation of peace and harmony within your heart, mind and body. Acknowledging the next challenge that presents itself is different from wallowing in the stifling grip of self-delusion and self-sabotage. Countries worldwide also fall into this trap.

With eyes wide open, see the situation calling for your attention, without stirring the pot of drama, chaos and dysfunction. This is the key point. There is a way to handle problems in our lives with peace, dignity, integrity, honesty and grace.

Make a plan and announce it to yourself, your peers, your country. It is not enough to say, “This is the problem …” with no definite solution in mind. No country will stand, for example, with its leaders saying, “Do not worry. I’ve got this. We’ll come up with the best plan ever,” then not even announce to everyone what the plan is in the light of day.

Hidden agendas are a red light to sabotage what is about to happen, whether it be a relationship you are working on, a political platform, or any other situation you are trying to remedy. In a relationship, the two people involved would not speak in generalities to each other. Instead, they would come up with concrete ideas.

What are your concrete plans to manifest peace, harmony, honesty, integrity and love in your life, and in the world around you? Don’t just read this. What are your definitive plans? Write them down. Look at them each day until you manifest your heart’s desire.

Bring to mind the aspects of peace in your life. What does peace look like? What is the surest way you can achieve peace?

What do you need to do to balance harmony in your life? This life we live is not harmonious by nature. Storms ravage our shores, floods and droughts devastate our lands, relationships have personality and other obstacles to work through, etc. What is our specific goal to bring harmony to a relationship? What are the political points required to heal a broken nation? Write it down. Share these positive aspirations and goals with others in decision making roles. Share these goals and plan of action with the citizens of the nation.

Pick up the cross of honesty, and its close cousin, humility. It takes a humble person to be honest. Anyone can choose to be the biggest puff of wind in the room. But the biggest puff of wind in the room disapates when a window of opportunity opens and a gust of fresh air cleanses the room. The same holds true for personal relationships as it does for honest political aspiration void of devious and dark agenda. Selfishness in relationships and in politics eventually sink the ship of unbounded greed of power and money.

Integrity is the firm foundation in every solid creation of a beautiful relationship and also in a freedom-loving democracy. Integrity seeks to uphold truth, honor and valor as it holds the torch of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. This means standing tall against the ignorant bluster of prejudice. No relationship or government can withstand the free reign of prejudice in all its ugly forms to metastasize as a malignant growth upon the life of any relationship or country.

Love is the only answer to every problem. Love does not allow devious deception by robbing peace and harmony for the good of only a chosen few who hijack the good and goods of the relationship, or the country for themselves. Love seeks to help rather than harm.

Love seeks justice including law and order, as happened today, to stand up in the face of homegrown terrorism, as is the case today when the FBI agents thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The alleged plot involved reaching out to members of a Michigan militia, according to a federal affidavit filed today. 

“All of us standing here today want the public to know that federal and state law enforcement are committed to working together to make sure violent extremists never succeed with their plans, particularly when they target our duly elected leaders,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge of the Western District of Michigan said today.

Working together for the collective goal of peace, harmony, honesty, integrity and love , in our every thought, word and action is the answer. Love is the only answer.

Namaste

Whose Ethics? Now Is The Time ~ What Do You Stand For?

When I was co-chairperson of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, I suggested introducing an ethics class to go along with the newly accepted sex-education course that was being taught to that year’s sixth graders. The answer I got back was, “Whose ethics?”

That answer, as if it were a viable one, is what stood between teaching with and without ethics.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ethics as: “the discipline with what is good and bad, and with moral duty and obligation.”

The other answer I got at that same meeting was, “If we teach morality, whose morality should we teach?”

We see this today on the world stage, as if different sides can interpret ethics and morality differently.

We see this in the movie and television world, where each year, we reach certain tolerance levels addressing crime, violence and bloodshed. Once those limits are set, it seems more detailed crime, violence, and bloodshed is required to maintain the status quo of an increasingly bloodthirsty audience.

We see this in the ever-infringement on innocent youth for the invading and decending language, as well as inappropriate dress, as if it is normal to send prepubescent students to school in the same clothing as ladies of the night.

The government of the United States of America is also not unaffected by sweeping away ethics and morality, claiming immorality as morality, unethical behaviors as ethical behaviors, lies as truth, and always claiming that it is “the other guy” who is lying, even when videos and facts prove otherwise.

Remember, even Pilate asked the famous question, “What is truth?” We all ask this same question when we do not like what we are hearing, and have our own agenda.

What do you stand for?

Do you close your eyes to dishonest practices because they serve you in some way?

Do you sell out your integrity for the bottom line?

Is your political career more important than the lives you hold in your hand with the swipe of your pen?

Do you have any part of playing God by separating children and babies from their parents, putting all of them in cages, those who are seeking refuge at our borders?

Do you make yourself complicit in human trafficking by selling stolen children from their parents and selling them through adoption agencies?

Do you mandate SARS CoV2 (COVID-19) numbers be sent to the US Health and Human Services, which are said to be manipulated into more palateable numbers for public consumption, rather than mandating they be sent to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for accurate expert, medical opinion and dissemination?

Do you close your eyes to global warming and climate change because you receive some benefit of money or endorsements?

Do you listen to medical doctors or pharmacological companies in your decision making process?

Do you trample upon the Constitution of the United States, and what the Statue of Liberty stands for as imprinted on her base, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Do you stack the Supreme Court with judges who truly serve justice blindly, remembering Lady Justice wears a blindfold signifying that justice is truly blind when it comes to race, skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, ability, or disability?

Do you stand for equal pay for equal work, regardless of people of different race, skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, ability, or disability?

Do you value people over things?

Where do you spend your money?

Where do you spend your time?

What do you think about?

Where you spend your thoughts, time and money; there is where your heart is.

Each of us, whether we are in public office and have a direct ability to make just laws for all citizens, or whether we are citizens making a living at our life’s work, or even currently without work or home, we can all take in the news of the day and create more just and civil societies right where we are.

The recipe for our life may need to change depending upon the variables at hand. We can always use our free will to uplift rather than put down, heal rather than inflict pain, listen rather than ignore pleas for help, listen without an answer running (which is not listening), and feed the poor rather than close our eyes to the plight of hungry humans.

Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. Sometimes it seems easier to give than receive. But receiving is necessary for balance of greed running rampant. It is odd that those who truly are in need of receiving have a harder time receiving what they need, as opposed to the wealthiest among us, not in need, who seek to usurp receiving to fill their gluttonous desires.

Bloom where you are planted, even if you are the only one blooming.

Namaste

LOVE Is Not Weakness ~ LOVE Is The KEY

Have you ever heard anyone say, “Oh, he (or she) just loves everyone,” as if that’s a bad thing? Or, “Don’t say you love him (or her) because then you will be hooked (had, reeled in, sunk). It seems as if by admitting to loving, you have somehow lost the upper hand in the situation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Some people use “love” as a stragetic move, manipilation, guilt trip, obligation or means to an end. In reality, this is not “love,” nor is it strength. This is the height of weakness. This is a malformation of the Divine Law of LOVE by smuggly ignorant or conniving folks with agendas to fulfill. Genuine LOVE is something altogether different.

Love is one of the primal attributes of Life. Love is the Key to every question, every time. The fruit of LOVE is harmony, peace and joy. True LOVE brings with it LIGHT and LIFE from the very Presence of God, Source of ALL LOVE.

With this Divine Law of LOVE comes:

• Strength
• Integrity
• Magnaminity
• Honesty
• Security
• Justice
• Fortitude
• and a host of noble qualities.

LOVE is not afraid of the LIGHT, and grows in Wisdom and Power. LOVE does not need to hide. LOVE is not a counter-point. Love is the Foundation.

When we restrict or cease to LOVE, we sow self-created discord. We reap what we sow. Lack of LOVE does not carry its own burden, but casts off its share unto others, then blames them for not doing what it itself did not do. This, again, is weakness. This is often used as a bully gimmic in relationshops, resulting in a boomerang effect in the self-created seeds of discord that were sown. This is the beginning of the blame and slander-slur game. It assinates reputations, that is, if the one being assaulted refuses to stand in LOVE.

If this has happened to you, LOVE is still the only answer. You are not the sum of what others think, say or do to or about you. Be the LOVE. Trigger the Love, the Love, the LOVE. Be the LIGHT. Trigger the LIGHT, the LIGHT, the LIGHT. What someone else thinks, says about you is actully none of your business. It is a self-sabotaging technique that tells more about them and the malformation of Soul within a person than it says about you. Stand in LOVE. Stand in LIGHT.

Let go of any and everything that is not for your Highest Good. Why worry about the opinion of others? Build yourself up in LOVE, not weakness. Anyone can sink to the lowest common denominator, gossip untruths, assinate characters and the like. Small minds in small towns are full of these. Rise above, carried on the wings of LOVE, LIGHT and LIFE.

LOVE has no doubt. Doubt, the great monster of relationships within and without the heart, along with its nefarious associates, incliding ignorance, pride, ridicule, skepticism, fear, and many other useless barnacles, has so fastened themselves upon the mentality and feeling of humanity, they have become like fungi hanging from a tree and rotting its trunk. These are the qualities of the weak, not the strong.

LOVE is one of the legs of the tripod of LIFE. The other two legs are FAITH and HOPE. But the greatest of these is LOVE. So, carry on in LOVE, in LIGHT and in LIFE. You will feel better, using your free will for good. Only use your free will for good. This is the beginning of healing everyone and everything.

Namaste

Virtues Mean Good Habits ~ Part I ~ Teaching Children Up To Seven Years Old

Character education with our children begins right from the beginning of them opening their eyes to the world, the people in it, and how they respond to it. Routines help children know the boundaries of natural or acquired virtues, much like the boundary of the lake helps the lake to be a lake, not a swamp.

Consistency is the key.

The sooner we institute good habits, otherwise called virtues, the easier children know what is expected of them. If we are beginning late in the process of teaching good habits, know that it is possible to retrain our habits. It takes 21 days to change a bad habit. Just stay with it.

That also goes for teaching our children good habits. It helps to take a healthy daily dose of empathy and patience with our morning vitamins. We know how hard it is for us to change lazy habits or our own bad language into life-affirming good habits. Our children need the same time frame of 21 days of positive reinforcement to begin to see positive results.

How do we begin with children up to seven years of age?

The key good habits to build upon, according to David Isaacs, author of Character Building, are:

• Obedience
• Sincerity
• Order

Since young children have no sense of time, you can encourage children to put away their things:

• before the music stops
• beat the clock – before the big hand reaches the 12 (or next clock number that is five minutes away)
• beat yesterday’s time
• use a five-minute hourglass

You can also give them choices with sticker rewards:

• Do you want to pick up the little blocks or the big puzzle?
• Play “I Spy” and see who can pick up the most arts and crafts debris.
• Who can put away five items the fastest?

“Until they are seven, children scarcely have the use of reason and therefore the best they can do is obey their educators and try to fulfil this duty with affection,” says Isaacs.

Low-grade motives for obeying parents prior to seven-years old can include obeying because they are afraid or because there is no way out. If children learn better motivation, being encouraged to obey out of love, to help their parents, then the children are on their way to developing the virtue of generosity.

Sincerity also is related to honesty. Children need to learn the benefits of the fruits of being sincere, as opposed to negative reinforcement such as being punished for telling the truth.

It will help children to be asked to be orderly and tidy up after themselves. An early start in this lesson creates a life for children where they learn how to be responsible for putting away their toys, clothes and treasures, with the help of caring parents and caretakers. This is not to be confused with the parents doing all the putting away of toys, clothes and treasures, thus training the children that in coming years, “That is not my job,” in the self-sabotage mantra.

“A sense of duty is another reason for being orderly – for example, when being tidy is linked in with carrying one’s weight by doing one’s chores.

“These three virtues will form a solid basis for moving on to other virtues at the next stage,” Isaacs says.

For children in grades five through eight, now is the time to begin teaching The Virtue of Virtues, by Linda Hourihan. It has been taught as a CCD curriculum. However, it is a seven-lesson Christian tool parents can use one hour a night for seven days, one hour a week for seven weeks, or one hour a month for seven months.

Each chapter is uses thought-provoking reporter questions for children to search for and discover truth and morality in each lesson, while they learn how to apply the virtues to their daily lives. Virtues are based on ethics and values that move past the popular opinion of the day to a solid foundation of unchangeable virtues given to us by God, exemplified by Jesus, and bolstered by the Holy Spirit.

This book is available at: https://www.iuniverse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/809142-the-virtue-of-virtues

God Bless

Freedom, Social Responsibility, And Honesty ~ Nursing Homes

It seems like it’s feast or famine. We say we want freedom of speech, until someone

I’m telling you we still have freedom of speech in this country, even if we do not like what is being said. Truth has no opinion.

speaks. We say we want tolerance, until we have to stand up. We say we can’t legislate morality, until someone does or says something that offends us.

Oh, the outrage.

Isn’t it odd, in this day and age, in the United States of America, that the public outcry on any given opinion columnist who dares to speak out the opinion for which he or she was hired, has to defend himself or herself, because of the most vocal opinionated voice of the public.

The public voice is often outrageously irresponsible, narcissistic and weighed down by vested interests.

One tactic narcissists use is to bend their voice from moment to moment, regardless of the truth in the matter, to their personal benefit. Pretend truth and made up truth is not truth. It is a lie. Truth matters.

Fantasy truth does not help a family, state nor any country. Narcissists forget that in these days of social media and public and recorded television and news stories, complete with sound, video and pictures, the public can see and repeatedly see the truth of what was said at the moment in time in which any statement was made. History reveals who knew what, when. Honesty matters.

We seem to want freedom only when it is convenient, or popular, or when we get to wave our outrage flag. It would almost be comical if it did not destroy the livelihood of opinion columnists, opinion talk show hosts, and government officials who speak the unpopular truth in the face of opposition based on lies. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Freedom of speech is not meant to be only the current, popular group think tank consensus, spoken by popular personalities.

Freedom of speech is not meant for only particular religious groups, lobbyists, banks, millionaires, CEOs of companies, presidents of anything, or heavy-hitting advertisers who use their dollars to buy the opinions they believe in and wish to promote at any and all costs.

Money is not the bottom line. People are. Speech and policies that promote or tolerate human death as an acceptable means of getting what they want is unconscionable. People are resilient. We can bounce back, but not if we are dead. Money matters, but not if we are dead. Then it is just a pile of money. What we say has consequences. What we say matters.

Freedom of speech is freedom of speech. We all need to use our voice to state our opinion, or voice our stand on a political issue that matters to us. Here in America, others have a United States constitutional right to say any and all opinions they may have. We also have freedom of speech, and are able to voice our opinion on any and all subjects.

What neither side of any issue has no right to do, is to attack the person, go after that person’s job, in attack smear campaigns, or break laws. This is childish. In some cases it is slanderous and/or criminal. Name calling and attacks on a person’s character is something parents deal with when their children go off to first grade. And it does nothing to address the subject at hand.

We all must stand up and be socially responsible. Often, rather than stand up for what we feel is right, or use our freedom of speech to make valid and important points vocally, we turn into cowards and verbally attack the person who has the opinion we don’t like. This is a warped and childish sense of power.

Boo hoo.

Someone has hurt my feelings.

When did “someone has hurt my feelings,” turn into, “They have no right to say that” (whatever it is we do not agree with). What are we, children? We are acting like it.

This may not be a popular article.

It is easier to jump on a bandwagon, any bandwagon that has momentum, rather than tackle a sensitive issue ourselves.

What will our friends think?

Will we lose any public standing if we say what we really believe?

Will we lose our jobs?

There is so much penalty to voice an opinion contrary to the popular public opinion. It is so much easier to character assassinate the individual or group stating something we do not agree with.

We need to activate our freedom, our voice and social responsibility actions. We need to grow up. We need to step into our personal power, and stop giving it away in the tornado of destruction caused by our attacks on others, no matter how insane we believe them to be. Not speaking and acting when we need to, these omissions, also matter. Lives are at stake. Words and actions matter.

People’s words and actions give them away. They do not need us to make them look foolish. They do a good enough job of that themselves.

I am using my God-given freedom of speech, acting with social responsibility, to suggest everyone what I see as a solution to a growing problem sweeping this great nation of ours. It is imperative we regain our freedom of speech. We are on the brink of losing it.

I would like to add one last point. It seems to be the far-right American who is currently claiming to be Christian. I say “claiming” to be Christian because to be Christian is to follow Jesus Christ and the words He spoke. The words Jesus spoke said to take care of the poor, the sick, and according to the Ten Commandments right-wingers like to say they stand on, we are to take care of our mothers and fathers, many of whom are in nursing homes these days.

If money is really the bottom line, then we can all do what Scrooge said to do in A Christmas Carol, and let all the poor, sick and the elderly die, including our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles, and decrease the surplus population.

Money is not the bottom line. People are. At least let us not lie and say we are Christian, then turn around and acts as though we were not.

God Bless