Response To "Where Does a Democrat Go From Here" At the Huffington Post

This is a response to an article, Where does a Democrat Go From Here, and its many comments on Huffington Post

"got any bright ideas for a brand new structure for this democracy?...one that works and will be well used?.....anybody?.....anybody?....."

We do not need a new structure. The one(s) we have are just fine. We just need to use them, and use them better.

The main problem I see is the generalities used in this discussion. Ms. Williamson talks about "immense unnecessary suffering in the world". And the quote that seems to resonate with you uses the same generality; "they're" "underlying forces" and "suffering". In real, practical terms what does that mean.

You can not address in a meaningful way an amorphous conglomeration of ills. I can say, "My life sucks." That may represent my feelings of frustration with the direction of my life, but it does not help me do anything about it.

Of course, Ms. Williamson is frustrated if she "...see(s) all things political in light" of that generalized conglomerate of ills.

One needs to address issues where one can realistically make some difference. Martin was focused on Civil Rights, Gandhi was focused on Indian Independence. Their approach was simple, you deal with what is immediate.

Leaders of movements have the luxury of focus.

That is what is required here. Our structure of governance has served us well, kind of, for over 200 years. It will serve us well if we use it and take control of our lives rather than waiting for someone else to give us control back.

If I take my money out of a Big Bank and put it in local bank or credit union, it does not do much. If many people do that it has an effect. If I look at my life and see where they money I spend goes and what suffering is caused by the people I give my money to, it does not do much, if many people start to do that it makes a difference.

If I feed the hungry in my town with programs like "Meals on Wheels" or Ms. Williamson's Angel Food, it does not have much of an effect. If many people do them it makes a difference.

One of the forces that brought down Apartheid in South Africa was the push to get major institution to divest in South Africa.

To solve problems on must be clear on what the problem is first. Then figure what people can do to in their daily lives to change the way they do things so the problem is fixed.

We use six times our share of the world resources. Immense suffering can be effected positively just by reducing our use of so many resources. First you have to know where your money goes when you buy certain products. We use too much water and way too much energy.

Finally, get involved in your local politics. If you are a Democrat, find out who the Chairperson is for your political division, for me it a Country Chairman. Then find out who the Precinct Chair is and ask them what they are doing. It is an election year and you can have an influence. If you are not a Democrat most local governments are less party oriented, find out what the problems are in your city and get involved. You will meet people with similar interests and you can work with your town to reduce the resources you use.

There are a thousand ways to make a difference where you are, in your political system and maybe even in the world.

People need leaders. Don't just complain about others not leading, become a leader yourself. All you have to do to be a leader is figure out where you are going, get a plan to get there, and ask others to go with you. Pick one suffering you want to address. Learn about that suffering and find a way you can make a difference while you live your life.

There are may existing programs you can start a chapter for in your community. Homelessness is a huge problem and it affect many areas.

"Family Promise" helps out the transitional Homeless by Churches coming together to house and feed temporary Homeless families by opening up the Church Buildings several weeks a year. It also provides other services to help families get back up on their feet.

The chronic homeless are a major threat to our health care system in that they go to Emergency Rooms in Hospitals. They come in sick and get medication that they do not not take until their condition is cured. They then return to the Emergency Rooms with a more virulent strain to of the original illness.

Just having people to go out and deal with the homeless and help them eat and find shelter goes a long way. If they have volunteer people who deal with them on a regular basis then they are more likely to be able to finish medications, get well, and not become breeding grounds of antibiotic-resistant organisms.

One major problem is that we want someone else to fix our problems. That is not the spirit that built this country.

Gandhi said if you want change, become that change. It will take sacrifice on our part, but it is, after all, our lives, our children's lives and all of our futures we are talking about.

Moving your Money

It can be a wonderful life. But remember moving you money is just one out of many ways to bring control of you life back home where it belongs.



Shop local at individually owned stores and restaurants. Buy Local produce or grow your own. If you have a patio plant a container garden. If you have nowhere to plant, start a community garden.

If you want control of your life no one else is going to do that for you. It is up to you.

Holding Families Together by PFLAG San Diego

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Part four:

Existence

When I was young struggling with the glaring inconsistencies of the Bible and behavior of men I started down the road of rejecting God.

I used at that time a phrase that I still hold to, that in the beginning was man and man created God in his own image. I believe that phrase to be true quite apart and separate from the belief that, in fact, God does exist and mostly exists outside of the ability of man to comprehend Him.

When I hear/read people talk about Heaven and Hell, I can only think to ask where we were before we were on earth? There is this thing about the illusion of being that we think that once we exist we will always exist without ever giving a thought about our state of existance before we were born.

One of the idea I hold to it that infinity is just that, infinity. It does not go just one way. So if we will be here forever, forever includes before as well as after. So one can not have infinitely big without infinitely small. So that opens the question of where were we before being born into this three dimensional world.

One really has to have a concept about who and what God is before we can determine our relationship to Him. We are trapped in reference to a three-dimentional linear world. That is our experience and our vocabulary. So we have to expand our use of a limited vocabulary to shape non-linear, non-three-dimensional ideas and concepts.

We have to deal with idea that do not fit the rules of our world and that create large contradictions, viewed from our sense of existence.

When we hear the words that describe God as the Alpha and Omega, what does that mean? Beginings and Ends are part of our finite world not God's infinite world. God exists in a timeless expanse where everything happens at once. In His Timeless expanse he made a universe that has fixed dimensions. In our world it is three dimensions.

It is my belief that this three-dimensional world exists only for us, that in fact it is an illusion of existence. I think that there is evidence in our own sciences that point to non-existence in the way we use the word.

I use an example called the "Incredible Shrinking Man". There was a movie in the 1950's about a man who went through a radiation cloud and began shrinking. I take this story past the movie and wondered about what would happen to that man as he shrunk if he lived a very long time.

So, I put this shrinking man on the palm of my hand. If he stays there he will eventually get so small that he will fall through my skin and into my hand. He would continue to land on and then fall through surfaces forever, if he were able to live forever. If he were to fall at a specific rate he would fall inside my hand forever never falling out the back of my hand.

There are many implications of this idea. If this is true then there is as much space in my hand as there is in all of the universe. We have no problem understanding going forever in to space and never reaching the end of space. We can understand that because we can see out into space and it is bigger than us. It is hard to understand that there is infinite small because it is hard to visualize.

It also means that there is no smallest particle, hence nothing real in our existence. We "exist" becasue of a electromagnetic force that holds things in place to create the appearance of existence.

So to get back to heaven and hell, if we do not exist physically, a non-existing physical birth does not create a spiritual being that does exist. A spitiual being that exists forever, needed for being in heaven, does not have a begining or it can not be infinite. So where were we before we were born? Are we not still there and is that not where we will be when this non-existing physical illusion dies?

The spirit that we identify with being "us" in fact a part of God. I view creation as God taking a part of Him, a being that is one, undivided, and ripped a tear in Himself creating a duality that we "exist" in.

I am sure you have at sometime played with magnets. If you get two properly chaged magnets together and pull them apart there is force between the two magnets that can affect things around that force. That force is a yearning to be one. It is part of God. But for us to exist God had to place an opposite force into the mix to counter the stronger force to be one. One is the "natural" state.

So strong are these forces that they affect everything, even the way we non-existing people think. We live a "existence" that is dualistic. It is in all we do.

Finally we and all we know was with and part of God prior to being part of this three-dimensional existence and we return to being with and part of God when we leave it

Philosophy, Theology, and Economics and God

God's purpose for us on earth is to serve Him. How we deal with our lives each day has to be a function of Serving God. God calls us each to Him from a different path with the same destination. There is but one "door", the example set by Jesus, but Jesus is not a bottleneck where all roads meet, He is a portal that opens along any path, at any place, when a person calls upon Jesus to open that portal.

Once that portal open and we freely pass though that portal, just as we are by yielding our lives to the service of God, we accept his Love, given freely through Grace, and God begins lead us toward his plan for us to have a fulfilled life. He with us changes what we need to change in our lives and strenghtens what is unchanged. His work in us is a process that does not end until we leave the worldly state and unite with Him.

As we build, with God, we this fulfilled life on earth, deal with worldly things in a spiritually controlled body that has worldly duties and obligations.

One of the great influences upon me in college was a book, "The Worldly Philosophers" by Robert Heilbroner. It was a simple but profound book that treated Economics as Philosophy. It treated Economic as it was in its formative stages, about ideas of how man handled the production and distribution of scarce resources. That is about as good a description of Economics as there is.


In regard to Theology, I will use my definition of Theology as man's attempt to understand, and most often over-understand God. We have a great tendency to make that which is simple, very complicated. There is good reason for that.

Principles are simple, the application is complicated. When we turn to Matthew, among others, we read that there are but two commandments. Those are to Love God totally, and Love your neighbor as yourself. How much more simple can it get?

The problem is how do we Love God, a being that is larger and more powerful than anything we can conceive. How do we Love our neighbor when our neighbor wants and is working to get what we have. How do we love another being that we can never really know when we have to live in a shell that has immediate needs and wants that we can not ignore. (the later can be a description of both God and our Fellow Man)

The answer is to over compensate. We do it all the time. We have a problem in one of our temporal challenges and we create a "God view" that is designed specifically to to deal with that one issue. That "God view" is most often rigid and ultimately causes great conflict.

God has over time revealed Himself to us as a father would to a child. When you are talking to a 4-year-old about why one doesn't take off their clothes in the middle of the street, you don't go into great detail about the human body and its functions, the ramification of viewing the naked body, the dangers of people who might hurt them, the danger of being in the street, the highway systems, highway laws, and how cars work.

No, you tell them, "Don't take off you clothes when you are out in front of everyone, and don't play in the middle of the street." You may even attach a punishment to that instruction. When a child is 12 they have different issues and different understandings of the world, and as we age those issues and understandings change. What does not change is the "Law" as stated above. We change, the law does not. Our relationship - as a person and a species - with God changes, God does not.

Economic and Money are things of the world. Capitalism is a form of running an economy. I do not intend here to get into a prolonged discussion about Capitalism. It is not important. While we are on this earth we will have to work to feed ourselves and our families. This is clearly God's will.

As man has gone from nomadic tribal life to city-states, states, nations and national alliances, our needs in respect to feeding ourselves and our families has changed. The forms of running an economy have changed as we also changed how we organized our political systems. We (the western world) decided in the 1700's that the people were better at governing their lives and their economy than were Monarchies and Theocracies. Capitalism provided a system that worked with a free people that governed themselves. (As you can read in my other writings I am no great fan of Capitalism in the Post-War United States)

It does not make a difference if I am a Capitalist, a Socialist, a Communist, or a follower of any economic "ism", there are two overriding requirements to be Christan and that "ism". First, that system has to serve God and God's will for man. That includes providing for man what God wants man to have. Second, man must serve God and yield unto God what he asks.

God has no need for money or production, but he does have a need for us to follow him. Jesus gave us that model. Jesus says repeatedly in the four Gospels to leave behind work, family, and the lives people were living and to follow Him. That is what God wants for us, and He will guide us to what we need to leave behind.

Jesus told us that if something distracts us from His will then we should get rid of it. Some people can deal with private property and profit motive just fine; some can't. Some people can deal with Socialism or any of many collective ownership systems just fine; some can't. It is not up to man to decide what others can and can not deal with, He has a hard enough time just determining what he can or can not deal with.

When we make such judgment based upon our understanding of how the world works, we assume a wisdom that is possessed only by God. God know each of us and accepts us where we are. It is His responsibility to determine with us what we can do and can not do.

The question "Can one be a Capitalist and a Christian" is not a useful question. A more useful question might be "What are the dangers to a Christian's Faith in being a ___________________" . Fill in the blank with what ever economic or political system the world can offer. They all have dangers for they are all of the world.