All in the Family: Conflict of View and Opinions

Like most families there is great diversity in mine. We have the strong conservatives whose greatest challenge is to listen or respect differing opinions. This description is not meant to minimize or invalidate their opinion, but their shot comes across the bow at you like a knife "you liberals!” It then becomes my challenge to participate in the discussion and not be out yelled. These are indeed the very habits I have learned in my efforts to get my voice heard that I have been working so hard to unwind. I need to listen more, keep my voice down and present as many facts I can assemble from my gray matter in rapid succession. There is a fine line between knowledge and sounding arrogant. It can all be in the presentation.

My brothers have been my greatest inspiration for fact finding, but even today for them facts do not matter because I am labeled by them as a “liberal’ in their attempts to invalidate anything I may bring to the  table. This is the dance that has been repeated through the last 3 decades that has been mostly fun even when mom pulls out the hose because our 15 minutes are up. I find that as my knowledge has multiplied, I am becoming addicted to information.

This is for my brother. These are the words he would not let me get out. He is a smart man, brilliantly talented and doesn't always know what he is talking about…just like the rest of us.

Killings in Aurora, Colorado bring on the discussion. My argument, who needs an AR 15? It is meant to kill man at maximum capacity. I was telling my sister that I encourage my sons to get their permits, to know how to handle a gun, but really I see little need for weapons of mass destruction. Our founding fathers could not have imagined the carnage and self inflicted tragedy the future would bring. Our second Amendment was intended for "common defense" not a free pass to kill at will. My brother then moves on to say the guy was crazy and it is because of us “liberals” that the mentally ill are not locked up because “you liberals” thought “every crazy should be free”. I did my best to acknowledge and interject that de-instutionalization was prompted by “liberals” because of the dismal conditions of institutions, but he then let into shouting at me even though I had my hand up to signal that I was done talking.

So here, for my brother, I will finish filling in some of the blanks he did not wish to hear because, after all “I am a Liberal”. The word liberal meaning that I am open to new ideas or opinions, I consider the consequence to all individuals not just what are the cultural norms and my own ideology, I consider freedom a right for all, and that injustice for one is injustice for all.

There are multiple reasons for deinstitutionalization. First, closing institutions was championed by liberals after investigations into the poor and often abusive conditions were made public. Second, many of the mentally ill were misdiagnosed. Third, new pharmacological treatments like anti-depressants, mood stabilizers and antipsychotics now allow many previously institutionalized patients to function normally in the community. Most importantly in today's environment, there was a change from a largely state funded to a nationally funded support system that now does not allocate money to these kinds of social programs driven largely by the republicans for "budgetary reasons".

The end result are the homeless mentally ill, those that cannot afford their medications, no capacity to institutionalize them, many in jail for mental illness, and people like the guy who shot up Aurora. There is minimal help even if it is sought after. So for my conservative brother, you support those who do not support the very social programs that you say we need. They call it socialism. A very simple inconvenient truth. We, as a society, have to choose what we spend our money on based on our values, not just rhetoric. The question is always, will they match up?

Irresistable Quotes

Economist Bruce Bartlett began his political career working for Republican Ron Paul in 1976. He went on to work for Reagan, helping to shape the economic reforms that became known as Reaganomics.
This mantra of cutting taxes in any circumstances, rather than setting policy in response to economic realities, is more akin to religious belief than sound policymaking, Bartlett says.

''And I don't think it is a coincidence that the Republicans have become the party of religious fundamentalism,'' he says, arguing that once you have accepted a set of ideas founded in belief rather than reason, it is easier to transpose similar thinking to politics.

Fighting the right: conservatives find Republican party line hard to follow. Date: July 14 2012

Nick O'Malley

Irresistable Quotes

Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard, argued in an email to the Times that a merit based system can quickly convert into an entrenched hierarchy as a result of the accumulation of excessive wealth and income:

The greatest danger is that high inequality creates a society in which wealthy ‘crony capitalists’ dominate corporate and government policies and use their wealth to subvert market competition and to corrupt democracy in order to maintain their position atop the income hierarchy

Thing Said:

When Wall St crashed the economy in 2008, no one got fired, no one had to pay back a dime for bad investments, no one lost their bonuses, and no one went to jail for the fraud and theft they committed. NOW that JPMorgan made some bad investments that are NOT getting bailed out, they fired the whole department, canceled their bonuses and want 2 YEARS of salary back~~!! Privatize the profits and socialize the losses...who says Wall St and their republican allies don't like socialism??

Irresistable Quotes

Governor Huntsman (R)"I encourage a return to the party we have been in the past," he said, "from Lincoln right on through to Reagan, that was always willing to put our country before politics." "I will not be attending this year’s convention, nor any Republican convention in the future," Huntsman said, "until the party focuses on a bigger, bolder, more confident future for the United States — a future based on problem solving, inclusiveness, and a willingness to address the trust deficit, which is every bit as corrosive as our fiscal and economic deficits."