Wow. It has been a hot minute since I have posted in here. A lot has been going on, and I just feel like I have opinions to rant about. So, this one may be long.
First of all, in recent news, Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle were murdered. I grew up with a lot of the movies he directed as some of my favorite movies ( "Misery," "The Princess Bride," "This is Spinal Tap," etc.) along with his role as "Meathead" in "All In the Family." His death was tragic. However, our president had the gall to blame Rob Reiner's political views as a reason he was killed.
Also, recently, this year was the death of Charlie Kirk. Now, before he was assassinated, I didn't even know the name Charlie Kirk, what he stood for, etc. As I found out later, he was a very strong Republican and one of President Trump's fans. There were people who viewed his death as poetic justice too... I, also, felt his death was deeply tragic.
One thing holds true in both of these deaths. THEY WERE TRAGIC. Period. There is no excuse for viewing the murder of innocent people as "poetic" or "deserved" or "justified because of political affiliation." NEVER SHOULD THIS MENTALITY EXIST. Unfortunately, this is the extremist world we live in.
This brings me to my current topic: MAGA. This is an acronym, "Make America Great Again." Ok. Back when this acronym was penned, this sounded like a great promise. As Americans, we want America to be great. This is a common belief everyone in America can get behind. However, as time has gone on... I feel everyone has forgotten when America was actually great.
In a great America there is no extremism. There is bipartisan collaboration. People have different beliefs, different views, but are willing to compromise because by working together, that is when growth really truly happens. It does not matter if you are on the far left, or the far right... your views are on the fringe. And normally, those views (in a normal, mean situation) would usually be excluded from the mean. Unless those voices are the loudest, which is now the case.
In a great America terms like "retard" to refer to people with disabilities or "people of differing beliefs [this does include the use of 'libtard' as a portmanteau of liberal & retard]" in the political hellscape, would stay gone. It is absolute BULLSHIT that that term is being brought back. A word that has been used in a derogatory sense towards people with disabilities. People like myself, who happen to be autistic, but are smarter than what negative terms like that seem to suggest. I had thought that our society had evolved into a society that was starting to treat people with disabilities with respect and support. Now, that THAT word is being brought back into public consciousness, BY OUR OWN PRESIDENT, I worry that society is now devolving instead of being better.
In a great America people could talk freely without the worry of being canceled. Late Night talk shows are being systematically targeted to silence free speech. News stations, public TV, are also being targeted, with some being silenced due to difference in political opinion. This is something that sound like the suppression of free speech. Free Speech is one of our rights. It is the first guaranteed right in our Bill of Rights. The attack of Free Speech is something that EVEN conservatives should be against. It is literally one of our earliest principles that America was founded on. Our speaking up against the harsh taxes from the British and the fight to gain our independence was literally based on our rights to speak out against policies that were unfair to us. Free speech gained us our independence and a loss of the right to free speech would literally be a slap in the face on how our county was founded.
In a great America, the quote on the Statue of Liberty would actually mean something again.
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
This was a quote that suggested that we welcomed people from all over to come and enjoy freedom. America used to be "The Great Melting Pot" because people from all walks of life, from everywhere could come here and enjoy the freedoms that come with being an American. Now, closed borders and deportations are the law of the land. The quote on the Statue of Liberty is now a lie.
In a great America the tragic deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, Charlie Kirk, and frankly any other innocent person would be seen as what they are, tragic. In a great America, extremism would exist at the far ends of the bell curve, as progress is made by discussions that happen in the middle, instead of right now, where the bell curve has shifted so far to the left, the extremists run the country, and the people in the middle just stay quiet.
In a great America, MAGA would still mean what we thought it meant when it was promised to us. Now, the term MAGA gets thrown around extremist circles... recruiting more extremist ideologies of what people feel would make America great. Honestly, I think the term "MAGA" has lost so much of its original meaning, it should just go away. If we want to make America great again... let's first define what made America so great in the first place. If we want America to be great, then we as Americans have to be "great." We as people, rule this country. The president's job is to serve the people, and to represent our country to the world. Do not claim for a second that wearing a MAGA hat, and blindly following people who aren't "great people" will do a damn thing to make our country "great again." It will not. That is delusional thinking. If you want America to be great again, then be "great people." Great people help others, they lead others, they be charitable and humble. Great people do not put people they feel are inferior down, they help people who are down, rise.
If you want want America to be great... be great Americans.
T.E.V.
