What Are We Greedy For?

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” 

This is a famous line from the 1980’s movie Wall Street, with Michael Douglas. I often write about the greed of the wealthy and powerful in our government and the control wealth has over keeping that power, but this post is about how greed is in all of us and how it influences our views. 

The other morning, I heard Trump say, “Scientists have a political agenda,” as he spoke about his denial of climate change. The first thought that popped into my head was, Trump’s political agenda is greed. Later in the day, he changed his statement, as he often does when push comes to shove. His initial statement got me thinking about what the political agenda could be for the scientists who are warning about our use of fossil fuels and their effects on the climate. If Trump’s agenda is greed, and I can point to many factors besides this one that inform my opinion about that, could the scientists also have greed as a motivation? My conclusion is yes, they could.

Trump denies climate science and promotes the use of fossil fuels to gain votes from the coal mining workforce, and campaign contributions from the owners of the coal mines. He seeks votes in the oil industry from every worker, campaign contributions from the industry, and support all the way up to the leaders of Arab countries. His personal business benefits from his climate change denials, as well. 

He registered eight companies in Saudi Arabia, a major oil supplier, during his presidential campaign.

He has argued, in the past, that his company could be hurt by climate change if not allowed to build – you guessed it – a wall. This time it was a seawall to protect his golf course. To non-supporters and anyone with integrity, this makes him hypocritical, misleading, deceitful, dishonest, and untrustworthy. With much more wealth on the line than can be provided from one golf course, he has chosen the side of climate change denial. He consistently sides with whatever will get him ahead in each transaction or issue.

His type of greed and that of his wealthy supporters cannot admit climate change is real and that humans are causing it without sounding immoral in their support of fossil fuels. They have to deny the legitimacy of the science because if they did not, people whose finances do not depend on the fossil fuel industry would have no reason to support this part of his agenda. In order to persuade someone who has no financial dog in the fight, you have to give them a reason to ignore your vicious dog. To keep us from looking at their financial motives, they act as if it’s about the financial plight of those who would lose their jobs if we switched from fossil fuels to renewables without helping the industry make the switch on their own. I am not discounting the fear of folks in the industry. If I worked in the industry, I would be afraid. If I worked in the industry, I would want my employer to spend money on retraining me for jobs in renewables. Most Americans support tax incentives to help the industry make the changes. So, why don’t they just make the switch on their own? It is because they already get tax incentives and subsidies for doing nothing, so why should they bother? I’m betting it is far cheaper to deny climate change and keep things the way they are than to change within their field. Especially when other companies have sprung up to compete with them. It is cheaper and easier to squash their efforts, politically. So, they deny the science. 

If one’s agenda is preserving their wealth at any cost, they would grasp at any straw, including pre-historic climate changes, to seem credible as they deny the science that says humans are causing it at an alarming rate. If one is wealthy enough to survive without a job, that person has a lot of power and a lot of political influence. That person’s agenda of greed can cause them to ignore the plight of those who will eventually lose their jobs. In their mind, it’s just business. They may think it is a horrible aspect of doing business, but a necessary part of doing business.

The scientists have an agenda of greed, too. They want to live. They want their children and grandchildren to live. They want all humans to go on living They are greedy for life. Life, as we know it, will not continue on this planet if we do not change the way we supply our energy needs. It might take more than my remaining lifetime to see the devastation, but I doubt it will take more than my son’s remaining lifetime. It certainly won’t take more than our grandchildren’s remaining lifetime. We are already starting to see the effects; effects that have not reached our homes yet, but that will. Greed is an intense and selfish desire for something. As the mom of a man with disabilities, I share the scientist’s agenda of greed. I am greedy for the preservation of my son’s life, his climate security, funding for his needs and the needs of his community, understanding and acceptance of him, and I am greedy for his rights as a human being. I am greedy for the rights of every human being. It is selfish because when everyone else has what they need and desire, then I do, too. The word everyone leaves no one out.  

Greed that includes the prosperity and saves the jobs of everyone is good. Greed for the health of planet earth is good. Greed that promotes survival is good. Greed for life is good. One might even say it is Pro-life. The selfish greed that does not include prosperity and job protection for everyone, and that does not preserve the life of the planet and its inhabitants, one might call that ignorance.

All political parties have an agenda of greed. All scientists have an agenda of greed. Sometimes the personal greed mixes with the political greed in good ways, sometimes it mixes in bad ways. We all see issues through our own personal agenda of greed. It is our job to figure out what makes up our own personal greed, notice if that aligns with our moral values, witness how that influences our political views, and hold our politicians accountable for the ways their actions are influenced by their personal greed.

Take care, Friends! 

Check out my recommended reading post at the top of the menu. I hope this blog helps you to create a more peaceful life. Keep in touch with the following methods: Use the links under the archive menu to subscribe or follow by e-mail. Help me get this message out by sharing it with your friends on social media! If you enjoyed it and were helped by it, they will, too! Write to me with your comments and questions at mindchange4all@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Free Speech: An Argument For Using Your Voice

Freedom to speak out against the government is a right we enjoy very much in America. It is a right many people around the world do not have. Their ability to freely say how they feel, without worry of imprisonment, is stifled by the people with power over them. So, when I see someone on social media say they don’t talk about politics on social media, it breaks my heart. Not only for those around the world who are not allowed to but for my precious son. He can’t speak at all. He can’t communicate very well at all. He has difficulty telling me what he wants, and he can’t tell me at all when something hurts inside his body or if someone has abused him. I have to look at his behaviors to figure things out. He has to suffer until I, the one with the power to help him, can figure it out. And I love him. I don’t want this power over him. I want him to be independent and able to care for himself. I want him to be able to shout to the world everything he wants and needs. Especially, to our government because he is being ignored by both sides of the political spectrum. 

Many states do not allow people with intellectual disabilities the right to vote. You might think that is okay because you question their ability to understand the policies. That is the language of discrimination. It is an ableist attitude. Some worry that helping them vote will lead to abuse and a second vote by the helper. That could happen by either party. Someone else’s criminal behavior should not keep a fundamental right out of the hands of others. Isn’t that the argument against gun control? Many people with intellectual disabilities do understand – better than some people without disability – the policies and how they affect them. They advocate for themselves. They should have the right to vote in every state and every country around the globe. 

Imagine living in a country where you are not allowed to speak about what hurts you in your country because your government does not want you spreading an idea to anyone else. They don’t want a person with a heart, a mind, and a soul to touch other hearts, minds, and souls because then a movement would begin. A movement that could take them out of power. I’m thinking of countries like North Korea now. Or, it simply could be that your leader’s ego can’t handle it when people speak against him. He might call fake news to anyone who reports what he does, even though he is the one that did it and they are simply reporting it. Or he might say protests are not allowed because he thinks it’s embarrassing for the country. Whatever the reasons are, imagine not being allowed to say how you feel about injustice, or poverty, or guns, or abortion because your government wants to keep its power over you; not out of love for you, but so you will remain dependent and powerless. 

Some people say they won’t talk about politics on social media because the debate gets out of hand and people say nasty things to each other. Yes, that happens. So? There is a simple solution to that: Don’t engage with that person. Say how you feel and let it sit. You don’t have to defend it or justify it. You have the right to say your truth without defending it. THE Truth – with a capital T – needs no explanation anyway. You simply say I think this president is a horrible human being. He acts like a child. He is all ego with no integrity. He is power hungry and, while I might like some of his policies, I cannot stand him and the way he represents our country around the world. When someone pushes back and says Yea, but… in defense of his deplorable behavior, you can ignore it. You don’t respond. It’s that simple. Now, I’m sure you may be thinking something like, it’s easier just not saying anything at all. I don’t want to add to the drama that’s going on so I just scroll past all political posts. I talk to my family about it and that’s enough. I understand that. You have every right not to speak up about politics on social media if you don’t want to, for whatever reason you have. You use your vote as your voice and that is private. 

My mind goes back to all those folks around the world who don’t have a voice or a choice, including my son. They would love to have a choice like you. That choice is a privilege. When one chooses not to speak or has no political right to speak about things they are passionate about in their heart, really bad things can happen. History has proven that - The Holocaust, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, imprisonment and experiments on the disabled and mentally ill, just to name a few. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that and encouraged white Americans to speak up for the civil rights of black and brown people in America. He urged them for their support because “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter… The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people… In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends… Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere… The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” His words are Truths we can choose to ignore, but that eat away at our souls.

I know all of that and I agree with it, but if I speak one word publicly about my own party or someone in it, the other side might win the next election. That is a possibility, but not a probability. Your voice can change your own party back into one you can be proud of. The Democrats fought hard to keep people with black skin in slavery. Now, they are fighting for their rights. Do they go far enough? No. Do they fight hard enough? No. Some of them may even be doing things behind the scenes to keep things just the way they are. That is deplorable and should not happen. Your voice can change that. Your silence gives others the sense that it is okay with you. Right or wrong, your silence gives people a perception about your views and what you will tolerate. That silence becomes your voice. You don’t have to be cruel with your words. You don’t have to be divisive with your voice. You simply and eloquently say, ____ is not okay. ____ is unacceptable. I will not tolerate ___ from my political party. Period. Then you call your local representatives or the White House and you tell them, too. 

But, if I call my representatives and the White House, why do I need to say it on social media? The answer is because our children are watching. Our children are on social media reading our words, hearing our videos, and viewing our shared memes. And not only our children but our friends who might be inclined toward a dark side if no one around them is saying anything in dispute of it. Everyone is watching the negative things, and many are responding favorably to it. This idea is reinforced in me each time my voice is critical of my party and I get way more reaction to it than when I say nice things about my party. It is a sad but true fact of human nature. But, I choose to be nice most of the time. I plant seeds of love so the seeds of hate planted by others will not be the only things growing. 

Recently, I have been brutally truthful about the actions and inactions of some of my friends. My last blog post, Female, was a satirical commentary on what I have seen on Facebook. I have offended people, intentionally. I do not apologize for that because, sometimes, some people need to be spoken to in a language they understand. Satire can do that. I don’t believe women are inferior to men, but saying, satirically, that my friends have convinced me of it, and pointing out all the ways they “convinced me” was my way of giving them a verbal smack on the head. It appears to me they misunderstand the language of liberals when we speak, but they do understand the language of Trump, so I used mockery in my own way. I did not say anything untruthful and they may not like my opinions, but I come by them honestly with research to back them up. 

satire | ˈsaˌtī(ə)r | noun 

the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

You don’t have to use satire. You don’t have to talk about what you don’t want to make your point. Just say what you do want. I want a president who has integrity, morality, compassion, a willingness to listen, this one does not possess those qualities. I want a president who is respectful to those he disagrees with, who sees no person as defective, who brings peace through understanding, who tries to understand the other side of the argument… Say it. For all those here and around the world who can’t. 

One thing you may want to be aware of: The Trump administration, in America where speech is still free, has proposed a rule to limit where people are allowed to protest or tax them when they protest in front of him. They do not want people protesting outside of the White House. This is a first step toward limiting free speech in America and makes me wonder if all the extreme gun advocates have a point about needing to defend themselves against our own government.  

Proposed Rule

I don’t understand most of that mumbo-jumbo legal language so here is an article about it in plain English. 

The undemocratic idea behind it

I will end with this: Stay silent if you dare, but remember that silence is also a form of speech and your silence just might get you what you don’t want. 

Check out my recommended reading post at the top of the menu. I hope this blog helps you to create a more peaceful life. Keep in touch with the following methods: Use the links under the archive menu to subscribe or follow by e-mail. Help me get this message out by sharing it with your friends on social media! If you enjoyed it and were helped by it, they will, too! Write to me with your comments and questions at mindchange4all@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Female

They say arguing on the internet will never change anyone’s mind. I believe that. We must teach by example. That is a spiritual law that Jesus taught. I have been watching American conservative women these past several years. Ever since I opened my Facebook account I have learned a lot about how wrong I have been. Many of my closest friends and family members are conservative. I have argued with some of them many times since opening my Facebook account, and never once have I convinced them to convert to my views. They have converted me, not by personally arguing with me, but through their example. The women I have watched posting their conservative views and explaining to me why they feel that way have taught me a lot. Watching these women post about their votes at election time and standing up for their convictions has shown me that they and the men they love are right. 

I must say, there is one area where I never needed convincing: abortion. I have always known that is wrong since I first heard the word and discovered what it meant. To take the life of an innocent, unborn, vulnerable baby is a horrible thing. And the women I have been watching and listening to and arguing with on Facebook have shown me how important that one issue is. It is THE most important issue in the mind of every conservative voter. Liberals believe that sex education and birth control will solve the problem without infringing on the rights of women to control their own bodies, but I will show you what my conservative friends have shown me.

So, what was it my conservative female friends did that convinced me, finally, that I have been wrong all these years? Recently they have been posting videos of very attractive females explaining to me why I should not believe the lies of Dr. Ford as she accused the Honorable Bret Kavanaugh of trying to rape her. These were very convincing videos, of women, pretty blonde women, one of whom even said she was the victim of a sexual assault and then went on to explain why Dr. Ford’s assault should have no bearing on Mr. Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Some of my female friends - both conservative and liberal - questioned Dr. Ford’s credibility because 

1) She waited too long to come forward, 

2) Someone other than Dr. Ford started a GoFundMe account to raise money for her legal fees, 

3) She could not remember every detail exactly the way it happened more than 30 years ago, 

4) Dr. Ford did not go about handling her sexual assault exactly the same way they did when they were sexually assaulted, and in their minds, that proves she’s a liar. 

Some have convinced me through Facebook memes like this one: 

When I think back to my teen years, Good Lord! My female friends and I were sluts. 

I always thought we were pretty decent girls, but according to what I’ve learned, I was wrong! We mostly wore jeans and T-shirts and tennis shoes. We never dressed like the actresses in that photo, but in the summer, we sometimes wore shorts! Who could blame those boys for wanting to get in our pants? Once, I was stupid enough to wear shorts to school in Jr. High, so, clearly, it was all my fault that a boy grabbed my ass as we were exiting math class one day. I really should be thanking him for teaching me such a valuable lesson: never wear shorts to school. That poor boy had to sit somewhere behind me for an entire 40 minutes seeing my bare legs. It was just too much for him! It was also my fault that he went around telling the other boys the lie that when he grabbed my ass his finger slipped up into my vagina – I’m pretty sure he used a different word. Boys will be boys! Some of those boys asked me about it, not out of concern for me, but to see how high they should place his pedestal. I’m sure they placed it high, choosing to believe him and not me. And it was not the fault of the boy who spread a rumor about me that I had “gone all the way” with my boyfriend. I should not have ever allowed myself to be alone with my boyfriend and his friend who spread the rumor, even though I thought they were trustworthy. Stupid naïve female! I never “went all the way” with him – a fact he never tried to correct. Again, boys will be boys, never guilty about anything they do. And it was clearly my fault the time my top was pulled down, exposing my developing breasts. I was wrong in wearing a tube top – the current fashion in female clothing, the summer between my 6^thand 7^thgrades. Thank you, Young Man, for teaching me that valuable lesson! I was at fault for being naïve enough to stand near him as we conversed for the first time ever. To think that all these years I thought the boys were at fault! Come to think of it, it might not have happened at all. You see, I cannot remember that guy’s name. Not remembering every detail is a sure sign I might be wrong about what actually happened. Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen, for setting me straight. 

Yes, my teenage female friends and I were loose with our clothing and morally impure for kissing boys. We should have never fallen for those boy’s lies. They said they loved us – or at least had “feelings” for us – and we were stupid enough to believe it! Our dads never told us about how teenage boys think or that we should pay more attention to a boy’s actions towards us than his words, but why should they? We would not have believed them anyway. All good conservatives know – and now I do, too – that the female brain is incapable of making good choices. We proved that in our youth with our clothing and slutty behavior. The boys were just being boys and we were at fault. I see that now. We’re lucky they did not rape us. Thank you, teenage boyfriends, for not raping us! We females should have had more self-control. It is morally imperative that we control ourselves because boys should not be expected to control themselves. They are males and therefore superior.

Looking back, I should have been convinced long ago of my wrongness. For years, they have been posting nasty things about liberals and complaining about the things liberals say about them. But, I now see that Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Cathy Griffin, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, and all the other females who spoke out for women’s rights, including me, are just bitches. We are. We are bitches. Some of our arguments make sense, but the way we go about getting them across is just bitchy, as opposed to all the pretty blonde ladies on Fox News Channel. They are assertive, like men. It’s okay to be assertive, like a man, if you have a conservative view, but not if you have a liberal view. It’s not assertive then, it’s bitchy. And liberal females should just keep their mouths shut.  

All my life I bought into the whole feminism thing. I mean, seriously! It’s partly my dad’s fault, but I don’t blame him. He is just as much a victim of liberalism as I have been. My dad told me I could be anything I wanted to be when I grew up. Conservative dads tell their daughters that, too. Quite possibly, those conservative dads are doing their duty of instilling patriarchy into their daughter’s minds, which is a noble thing. I have learned from my observations of my female conservative friends, you gain a female’s confidence and loyalty by making her feel secure in her ability to think for herself so that she won’t notice when you undermine her politically. You know she can’t think for herself, but as long as she thinks she can, all is well with the world. The trouble with my dad, though, is that he believed what he said. Some men, like my dad and Keith Urban, get it wrong sometimes. Keith has this song about the awesomeness of females. It’s called Female. With my newfound wisdom, I’ll never hear that song the same way again. :-(

Anyway, I have learned that if you convince a female she can think for herself, you can convince her that THE most important issue – abortion – cannot be fixed by birth control because females cannot be trusted to be moral, especially when they have access to birth control. When put to her this way, the female thinks back to her morally reprehensible behavior as a teenager and knows you are telling her the truth, despite the fact she never got pregnant and turned out okay. This theme really gets etched in her mind in church, where she is told that only morally bankrupt women get abortions and morally bankrupt liberal men want to avoid taking responsibility for the baby. Once the female is on a high moral ground, believing that the only way to end abortion is to outlaw it, she is ripe for everything else you want her to believe: 

Subservience is good for her and society; 

men are always the best leaders; 

God made women inferior; 

her religious liberty is threatened by liberals; 

wealth is good, poverty is caused by immorality; 

people must support themselves without any help from the government including higher wages; 

ignore your instincts and stick with conservatives because they have the moral high ground as pro-lifers; 

she must help support her family outside of the home and take responsibility for maintaining her home and her children’s care; 

men are too stressed to help around the house, but she is a strong woman who can handle it all; 

if we can end a woman’s right to get an abortion we can start to work on feeding the poor and caring for the elderly and disabled; 

when we fail to help the needy after abolishing abortion, we will convince her the liberals are to blame; 

she will believe it because we have taught her not to think for herself, even though she thinks she does.

The way females bend over backward:

to keep from seeing all the lies and manipulations by conservative men who only want money and power, 

to convince themselves that conservativism is good for females, 

to keep taking their children into Catholic churches - or any church - even though they know priests abuse children at an alarming rate, 

to continuously vote against their own interests and the interests of poor children, 

to keep letting them convince you that most of your tax money goes to people who cheat the system (well that part is true, but it’s not who they say it is, so let me rephrase), to let them convince you that individual people with drug problems are cheating the system when it’s really the wealthy people in power who are doing it, 

to let them convince you that Fox News Channel is real news and everything else is fake news, 

voting and bragging about voting for a vagina grabbing, disability mocking, labor cheating, bullying liar, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera,

bending over backward to convince themselves and others that their vote for him was okay, 

supporting people who voted for a pedophile (to be fair, this is ingrained by many churches – see above reference to priests),

supporting Bret Kavanaugh and defending his hysterical outbursts while vilifying his accuser who was calm and rational, 

losing their minds when a liberal celebrity does something bad and keeping silent when a conservative does the same exact thing, 

worshiping a flag while ignoring the abuses of people of color, 

cutting the funding of a place women can go to get birth control so they won’t need an abortion, 

overlooking that fact because that clinic performs abortions,

fighting to keep sex education and birth control out of schools because they are afraid their daughters will use it to be promiscuous, which is also an unconscious excuse to cut funding for Planned Parenthood (don’t think much of their own daughters, do they?), 

fighting to make sure the unborn get born and then turning a blind eye to their plight…

Watching my female conservative friends and family doing all of these things and more is what has finally convinced me that females are inferior to men. At least some of us are. 

I pray that one day all females will learn to think for themselves. Until then, I will fight for us and I know my liberal friends, both male and female, will fight for us so that American women don’t all end up with our rights stripped away, new legislation about acceptable women’s clothing in public, and need the constant escort of a male family member to remain pure. 

P.S. Some of you may not realize this is satire, so rest assured, parts of it are. It is up to you to figure out which parts. If you need help, ask a liberal.

Women discussing women in 1961 - Australia

You know you want it!

Check out my recommended reading post at the top of the menu. I hope this blog helps you to create a more peaceful life. Keep in touch with the following methods: Use the links under the archive menu to subscribe or follow by e-mail. Help me get this message out by sharing it with your friends on social media! If you enjoyed it and were helped by it, they will, too! Write to me with your comments and questions at mindchange4all@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.