"NOTHING PERSONAL," YOU SAY?

Mother Mary

in my little garden

When disagreements arise in modern life, I have noticed that some people are unable or refuse to put themselves into the place of the other guy, in their imagination. Because they cannot empathize, they cannot imagine why that person on the other side of the debate has an opinion so different from their own.

When engaging in a formal debate, definition of terms often forms a preliminary phase of the debate process so that everyone involved is "on the same page" and talking about the same thing, but modern Americans, set loose on the internet, are not taking advantage of this tool.

Refusing to attempt to understand the actual position of the other side, in a sympathetic light, and making assertions about what your opponents think, believe or want, has become common and is not productive of anything good. It just perpetuates the prejudices and discord.

"Nothing is sweeter than

to think well of others."

Saint Therese of Lisieux

It won't be news to you if I tell you that there is a lot of turmoil in our country right now. I believe that at least part of the cause of this is this disorganized approach to communication among us.

Most of my readers will remember that I am a Catholic convert with a Hindu (Vedantic) orientation. I was raised without any religion whatsoever and participated in many different faiths before converting to Catholicism about 14 years ago. While I believe in everything the Catholic Church believes and teaches, I have a tremendous amount of experience as a non-Christian American. I can easily speak to the point of view of non-Christians, as a result.

When having discussions with some of my Catholic brothers and sisters, I will often object to their characterizations of poor people, gay people, brown people, immigrants, disabled people, and other vulnerable groups. The reply I often get is, "oh, I am not talking about you." As a single, female, senior, divorced, disabled poor person, I fit into many categories of the most vulnerable groups and, having been raised in a non-Christian environment, I am intimately familiar with the lifestyle and beliefs of unchurched people.

But those good Catholic people ARE "talking about" me! They have erroneous, conspiracy-level beliefs about poor people, for instance. There is a huge amount of prejudice about the poor! Right wing people who identify as Christian will often immediately talk about drug addiction and criminality when discussing "the poor."

It isn't that I don't find drug addiction and criminality disturbing, because I DO. Since becoming disabled and poor, and after moving into low-income housing, I have been on the receiving end of quite a bit of the criminality of a segment of the poor. Several of my poor neighbors have stolen from me. The homeless who have encampments in the bosque next to the apartment complex have stolen things out of my garden and my patio, and have rifled through the drawers of the potting cabinet on the patio - looking for whatever might be useful, I suppose. My car has been broken into several times, with no more apparent motive than to scrabble around for change or valuables, leaving me with a broken side window and a creeping sensation of wonder that, although the car was parked right next to my apartment windows, I never heard a thing.

I've had neighbors aggressively try to "befriend" me just so they can get into my apartment and scope it out for possessions they might like to have. One woman spent months telling me I should just "give away" the bed I wasn't using instead of selling it, and then called me one morning and announced that her daughter-in-law had "cried with joy" at the news that SHE would be receiving this bed because she really needed one. I had not agreed to any such thing and was even FURTHER astonished when the neighbor told me she had arranged for a rental truck to come and get it and that it would be at my apartment within two hours! It dawned on me that the neighbor who had pursued my friendship had been "working me" for months, with the express purpose of divesting me of whatever possessions she liked, so I gave her the bed. I rightly guessed she would stop bugging me after she got what she wanted, and I was right. The woman came and took the bed and never spoke to me again.

Anyone who imagines I don't know what I'm talking about when discussing the criminality of the poor needs to take a step back and try another tack. The thing is, despite feeling really bad when someone steals from me or tries to manipulate me for profit, as in the case of the neighbor and the bed, I know that the thievery of the poor is just more obvious and personal than the thievery of the other classes. 

There is a percentage of people in all walks of life who will steal. I have an entirely middle-class sibling who, through a complex con that she worked on me over several months, managed to legally bar me from successfully fighting the theft of inheritance by my father's third wife - just so the sibling could take whatever scraps were available.

The wealthy classes steal from the poor and the middle class in a less direct and less personal way. I would make the case that theirs is the most reprehensible type of thievery because it relies upon the inability of the lower classes to protect themselves. I 

The thievery of poor people is more honorable, in one sense, because it is blatant and out in the open and in-your-face. I know what my neighbor stole from me when I hired her to clean my house. Likewise a second neighbor, the daughter of people I believed were my friends - she ALSO stole from me. I was able to speak to her directly about it.

But what can I do about the thievery of the rich who give one another tax breaks and talk about "trickle down economics" that no one believes is true because nothing has ever trickled down from these accomplished con artists? Millionaires and billionaires buy more luxury goods and properties for themselves while the rest of the people scrabble around for bread.

The fact is that there are no higher a percentage of criminals in the poor populations than there are in society in general. In fact, it may be quite a bit lower, because most poor people are poor because they're disabled or elderly. There is no more drug addiction among the poor than in society as a whole. It's just that people who are successful criminals have enough money to shield themselves from punishment. Drug addicts who are rich, famous, or have solid families have enough resources to support expensive rehab programs.

How many alcoholics do you think exist among the middle class and wealthy? Quite a lot. They can afford the booze. They can also afford to make it 'look' better. I have a relative who is an alcoholic. On the outside, it looks like she's a nice middle-class lady. She's got the trappings of respectability. But she is a terrible drunk. The packaging is just more attractive. She can afford to drink herself into oblivion inside an attractive home. She can also lie, cheat and steal under cover of apparent "respectability." You won't find HER in the gutter, slurring her words and vomiting her stomach contents onto the road. She does it behind closed doors.

This is why, when discussing the middle class or the wealthy, alcoholism is not the first thing that unkind people will talk about. It's the first thing mentioned when the topic of poor people arises, though. Why isn't it the first thing one hears when discussing the other socio-economic groups that have this problem? Americans are prejudiced against the poor in the same way the British in Dickens-era England were. Nothing has changed.

People want to justify their prejudice against the poor.

I am far from a perfect person, but I am not a drug addict. I don't drink. I'm not a criminal. Heck, I haven't had so much as a parking ticket in 44 years! I do not live on welfare. I have Social Security into which I paid for more than 30 years of constant work. I have no tattoos. I have lived as a celibate religious for almost two decades. I am nothing special because, aside from my formal religious vows of sannyas, I am very typical for a woman of my age. MOST poor people are like me. They've done the best they could with their lives, and they are struggling to make a go of it on very little income in their old age. 99.9% of us are NOT homeless people begging with big signs on the street corners, and shooting up drugs at night. They're the exception, not the rule. But even if ALL poor people were drug-addled, alcohol soaked n'er do wells, I ask you to remember that Jesus did not put any requirements upon poor people before they were entitled to the compassion of Christians.

"The poor man has one plea, his want and his standing

in need: do not require anything else from him; but even

if he is the most wicked of all men and is at a loss for

his necessary sustenance, let us free him from hunger."

St. John Chrysostom

Most of us have no help whatsoever. We receive "too much" income from Social Security, thanks to our work histories, but certainly not enough to pay for our needs. Some of us get help from our families, but an awful lot of us are not getting crucial needs met and are dying much sooner than necessary, as a result.

While it is common for most bloggers to avoid talking about themselves, I am taking the opposite stance, partly because my previous confessor taught me that my personal experiences can be used to advocate for others in my position.

"He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord,

and He will repay him for his good deed."

Proverbs 19:17

In my own way, I am fighting the prejudices and bigotry that are so endemic in the cruel America of today. I hope to be able to help that segment of American Christians who are mentioned, above, to be able to identify, even a little bit, with those who are less fortunate than they are, and with those who disagree with them politically.

Put yourselves in my shoes, my American brothers and sisters, then survey our land through my eyes and my experience. If you can do that, you may disabuse yourselves of some of your prejudices.

God bless us all.

Silver "Rose"
Sannyasini Kaliprana

BARABBAS IN THE MODERN WORLD

I chose Christianity, not because of childhood indoctrination, but because I read the works of some Catholic mystics while I was living as a Hindu-style nun, and became inspired. Considering that my value system also resonated with Christian principles of morality and social justice, it made sense to explore the faith. I thought I might become a Catholic nun. So I left the Hindu convent, went back to work at a law firm in Beverly Hills, and started RCIA classes in a nearby Catholic Church. I could not do anything else, because I had found The Truth and, although I loved my life in the Vedanta convent, which provided an ideal mix of group living and independence, I could not remain there. I felt I had found the higher truth.

When I first read about the angry mobs who screamed for Jesus to be locked up, and again when they chose Barabbas instead of The Lord, I read these passages with the sense that these people were obviously a primitive lot because no one would be so stupid as to pick a common criminal instead of Jesus. I had picked Jesus, and I was nothing special. Even I could see his greatness. I mistakenly thought that 2,000 years of Christianity must have civilized us to the extent that those angry, misguided people who chose Barabbas over our Lord were just a whisper of dusty history. I was wrong.

The mob howls for Barabbas

The angry mob is here with us today, but, again, instead of choosing the way of our meek and loving Jesus, instead of loving one's enemies and one's neighbors and doing good to the poor, hungry and naked, they're shrieking their approval of a carnival barker styled conman who encourages their selfishness, xenophobia and prejudices.

Trump supporter gives "the finger" to journalists

at a Trump rally 

Donald Trump is not a criminal mastermind. Instead, he is a bumbling Anti-Christ whose callow self-interest and massive narcissism is broadly displayed for everyone to see. Evidently, that is his appeal. The crowd sees him as an everyman like themselves, scarfing cheeseburgers and sodas in his ubiquitous red sports cap so evocative of the common man who toils for his living.

The fact that Trump has never toiled, having been given millions of dollars by his father to start a business, is ignored by the mob. It is enough for them that Trump appears to be like them in a few deliberately cultivated expressions.

It is a relief to them to feel free to express their closely guarded prejudices against immigrants, brown people, gays, and the educated classes whom they dub "the elite." Trump has given them permission to celebrate their basest instincts. He says complimentary things about white supremacists, neo-Nazis and dictators, and they eat it up because the crude and brutal tactics of the authoritarian do not require any finesse, tact, diplomacy or intelligence.  They're tired of waiting around for the fruits of diplomatic discussions. It is beyond their comprehension, and they have no patience for it.

I am not suggesting that the Democratic Party is synonymous with Jesus. It is more faithful to the commandments of Jesus, at this point in time. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, and educating the masses are favored by Democrats. The Party of Trump, which used to be the Republican Party, favors an opposite in the extreme.

There is a pretense of the G.O.P. being a "pro-life" party - but it was a Republican majority Supreme Court that legalized abortion in our country, and the Republicans continue to fund Planned Parenthood to this very day. They have no intention of criminalizing it and are only claiming to be pro-life in order to capture the votes from a sector of the Christian community that is obsessed with the topic of abortion and would vote for a cheese sandwich if it had "pro-life" written on it - spelled out in bacon bits.

In fact, the Republican Party violates the entire spirit of the commandments of Jesus who would NOT condone building a wall to keep out refugees and hungry immigrants. He would NOT rip families apart at our borders, kidnap their children and incarcerate them. He would NOT take food out of the mouths of poor families by cutting food stamps, and he would NOT think that giving rich people big tax breaks at the expense of the poor is a good idea. These are obvious truths, but the selfishness of the human heart is so captivating that some people will eat it up if you whitewash it with a patina of fake religiosity.

Donald Trump himself is not Christian. He is not now, nor has he ever been, a church going man. He spends his Sundays on the golf course, at considerable expense to the American public that pays for his entire entourage to be accommodated at luxury resorts. Prior to becoming elected, he criticized Barack Obama for golfing. Trump claimed he would not ever golf when he became president. He would be too busy for that. Like everything else, it was a lie, but his people do not care. As in every cult, they listen raptly to his voice but never call him to account for himself.

"I'm gonna be workin' for you. I'm not gonna have time to

go play golf, believe me." ~ Donald Trump

Trump's apologists sometimes call him a "baby Christian," but Trump does not behave as if he has experienced any kind of conversion.  Instead of expressing remorse for his completely immoral life, he lies about paying off porn stars and models to keep them quiet about his extramarital affairs, and slanders the reputations of more than a dozen women who have come forward with detailed descriptions of his sexual assaults against them. He is the same man who, on an Access Hollywood videotape, bragged about assaulting women by grabbing them by their genitals.

He has lied to and/or mislead the American public more than 3,000 times since becoming President and, despite every Christian being fully aware that the father of all lies is Satan himself, some of them continue to give Trump a pass on his wretched behavior because, "after all, who among us has not sinned?" and other such ridiculous nonsense. He is a completely unrepentant pagan who, when each offense is discovered, doubles down and lies about it, but he feeds his base a mockery of pseudo-Christian pretense that lets everyone off the hook. They all get to fantasize about a great Christian revival in our government while taking food out of the mouths of hungry people at the same time.

Meanwhile, Trump is trying to squash the Mueller investigation while his campaign chairman is being tried in court for conspiracy with the Russians, and all evidence leaked so far indicates that Trump himself conspired with the Russians to hack our political system in order to assure a win for himself. We have videotape of Trump inviting the Russians to do it, but what's a little treason among friends?

Satan tempts Jesus

"I reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises."

~ Baptismal Vow ~

Choosing Jesus and rejecting Satan is a daily task, and it isn't easy because nothing presents itself as purely Satanic or purely angelic in our world. Everything is mixed. Like Sisyphus and his boulder, we have to get behind that which appears to tend more toward the good and push it up the hill toward heaven.

This particular choice was easy for me to make. I did not choose Barabbas. Will you?

Silver Rose

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR WHEN YOU'RE VOTING

Teacher hugs a child at Briarwood Elementary School after a

tornado destroyed the school

{NY Daily News}

Here is the situation: The Russian government infiltrated our political system and installed a corrupt businessman as president, by manipulating social media, broadcasting lies and propaganda, secreting bad actors into our system, and generally wreaking havoc with our democratic process. American co-conspirators remain in place in our government, though 19 have been indicted and 5 have pleaded guilty to their part in the conspiracy and subsequent attack on the American people. We need to clean house in order to restore our freedom to choose our own leaders. Our freedoms are permanently limited, if we do not do this. Once the conspirators gain control of the government and populate the House, Senate and presidency, getting them out may never be possible.

I read in The Washington Post this morning, however, that some leaders of the Democrat Party are underestimating their constituents. People like Senator Sherrod Brown, who is "running for reelection in a state Trump won," thinks that his constituents are more interested in "jobs and health care." He, and others like him are afraid that, if they talk too much about the Russian conspiracy and attack, Americans will tire of it and they will lose votes.

The idea is that they think that Americans only care about themselves and their own "kitchen table" topics, i.e., the things they worry about and talk about over their kitchen tables. Even though it would be extremely dangerous to leave these Russian co-conspirators in place to destroy our entire way of life, these leaders of the Democratic Party are focusing their energies on more pedestrian topics.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and

with all your soul and with all your mind and with

all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your

neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment

greater than these."

Mark 12:30-31

Our country is not built on pure selfishness. Yes, there ARE some narcissists who only care about themselves and their personal fortunes, but those people do not define our national personality. We are, historically, a Christian nation based on enlightened Christian values. [This does not mean everyone has to be a Christian to be an American. Christian values help, support and nurture everyone. Even organizations that are specifically Christian typically help all people, regardless of faith.] The most important commandment, according to Christ, is to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.

When I vote, I vote in a way that I believe will benefit everyone. I have the confidence that most Americans also do this. Even those with whom I disagree about method have good intentions. Many of my friends voted for Donald Trump with good intentions. I trust that. I disagree about him, obviously. He is terrible for our country, but I think that, were it not for malicious propaganda and manipulation of "news" outlets, such as Fox News and The Heritage Foundation, those friends might have voted differently.

What we need is MORE information about the criminal acts of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators. This information needs to reach more people, and it needs to be clear. 19 indictments. What does that mean? 5 people have pleaded guilty, and there are more to come, who will either be proven guilty or will admit to it without having to go through the trial process. The legal ramifications for these individuals needs to be advertised. What these people did needs to be detailed publicly.

We are not a selfish people, and we do not need to be coddled with topics that are more personal or more fun. The state of our government is in our hands because our votes determine who serves us in Washington. We need more information in order to make informed choices, not less.

Silver Rose Parnell