Eating Inauguration Cake

Baking cake is normally a glorious affair because the eating of cake is a bit of ecstasy that can civilize the palate while soothing the suffering in one’s soul.  It is a pleasure that can force a smile from even the cruelest of dictators apparently causing them to forget, at least momentarily, their despotic duties and oppressive obsessions.  It should be somewhat difficult to harm oneself, or one’s nation, with cake unless possibly due to recent economic changes one has to choose between heating one’s home or baking a cake and, understandably, chooses the latter but subsequently freezes to death while in a #CakeComa. But for the record, even if the candidate being inaugurated in January 2025 is not the one that you chose with either your voice or your vote, you should still celebrate this momentous occasion with #InaugurationCake because our nation still actually gets to select a new President every four years.  And on an especially despotic planet like the third one from this sun, which is referred to colloquially as #Earth, a peaceful election followed by a peaceful transition is almost always cause for celebration. Therefore, we should all enjoy some #InaugurationCakewhile America transitions executive teams because the very tenets of totalitarianism and despotism are being usurped by this model, even though it is not perfect, election process.  But if you are, in fact, a loathsome and delusional creature who celebrates #Totalitarian regimes and the tyrants whom run them, then you can skip the cake but please, do not ruin the celebration for the rest of us.

And because election outcomes can sometimes feel unfair, we must be careful to continually provide ample coverage for all citizens under a cloak of #Justice if there is to be any #LibertyCake for all of the people to enjoy.  In order for #Justice to cover us evenly the founders constitutionally positioned our judges to be free from political intrigue by appointing some of them for life and, in a few cases, apparently even longer.  However, once our political beliefs became a de facto religion a class of believers was created that apparently have neither the faith in #Democracy nor the fortitude to abstain from becoming extremists, political cronies, and profiteers.  When our system of justice is poisoned by political intrigue and subverted, oppression is introduced and this can be seen in the now plainly visible political weaponization of governmental agencies.  When political opponents and opposition view holders can be persecuted by those in power, eventually ballot control will be used as one of the tools to procure more power by those to whom providing for fair voting is anathema:  the #Despots, #Dictators, #Oligarchs and their legions of brigands whose only true loyalty is to the opportunity to profiteer in order to gain more power.

In this past election it was even postulated by individual states, in a union of states that is to be ruled by one executive person whom must be elected by all of the states, that a state could dictate to all of the states that one individual could not be included on the national ballot.  This conjecture is so patently partisan that only delusional minions and rabid extremists could possibly believe that it has either any basis in law or any place in this objective reality.1 Notwithstanding that some candidates are more appealing than others in certain locales, and that some locales will have strong preferences for certain perceptions of policy positions regardless to their relevance in the election outcome and subsequent governance scope of the elected, these preferences are often turned into #Orwellian - like slogans to be used when any aspect of a utopic election outcome fantasy is challenged.  But #LibertyCake in a #Republic is the just reward for an involved citizenry committed to adhering to the #RuleOfLaw and attempting to usurp unwanted outcomes of any election with rioting and/or violence undermines the #Republic and every single #Freedom guaranteed by its structure. 

Fair voting is cause for celebration in any society, but this is especially true after an actual dictatorship is dissolved and the people are given the luxuriant freedom of participating in their own governance.  I say ‘actual dictatorship’ in order to differentiate between actual and imagined by referring to the one that ended in Iraq in this era, where an actual dictator practiced throwing some enemies off of buildings while feeding others to lions until he was eventually hung from the neck until dead by his own people.  When this actual dictator is juxtaposed against an imaginary one, whom oddly enough actually transitioned power to the next party peaceably after the last election and whom is to be inaugurated to the office of President after this one, the difference should be clear.  The actions of the citizenry of Iraq after their Dictators removal in voting on how their own #Liberty would be adjudicated, demonstrated a desire for freedom from actual oppression that was so great that they were willing to line up and vote even though the ink used to mark them as having voted stained their hands and made them targets of violence.  And do not forget that many #Iraqis, #Afghanis, and other persons whom were recently liberated from actual oppression have given their lives to help make a cake that they knew they might not live to consume and that our short attention spans and stupid ideas may have actually ruined.  We should therefore be careful with the amount of #Discord that we sow by using either our positions (e.g. buffoonery from the bench) or our platforms (e.g. malignancy-minded media forays into projecting outcomes rather than reporting them) to derail the very democratic functions that serve us all.  To borrow a line of thinking but not an exact quote from Mr. Albert Camus, whom I am reading at the moment and whom I will cite here in an attempt to avoid the degradation of being nominated to serve as President of an Ivy-League University once I have borrowed enough from everyone else’s efforts and honest intellectual pursuits to over-aggrandize myself into acceptance as a leader of those with whom I failed to participate properly as a peer, I believe that it is appropriate to surmise that:  

A society that sows discord should expect to reap anarchy.2 

The cake we are preparing must be inclusive in ways that are representative of our democracy and must ensure that any citizen, including me or even, perhaps, my dead body after I am lynched for speaking truth since life is not necessarily a co-requisite for either ruling or for voting, could run for the office of President of these United States.  It stands to reason that a #ConstitutionalRepublic ruled by all through the process of an #ElectoralCollege system is more to be desired than governance by individual States that weaponize the very instruments of statehood, especially the #Judiciary, to pursue the punishment of political rivals.  As desirable as it may seem to keep one person or another off of the ballot, or in court on countless charges in as many states as possible, or as the subject of one front page derogatory story after another all manufactured for the express purpose of conducting propaganda campaigns, in order to sway the vote is devilishly despotic, anti-democratic, and downright fascist.  To quote a writer whose words were consequential to Western thought (i.e. #Rousseau) for both better and for worse, and to take the attribution away from the regent upon whom it was improperly bestowed (i.e. #MarieAntionette), as it seems that either some revisionist media mogul sought to further justify the French Revolution ex post facto, or possibly yet another academic glory hound failed to properly attribute a weighty quote to the former source and illicitly placed it upon the unlikely crowned head of the latter, someone apparently once quipped:  “Let them eat cake”3 in reference to the disdain some political leaders had and can have for their constituents.  But I propose that we can should be civil enough of a society to peacefully bake and eat some #LibertyCake together regardless of whomever won whatever election.

Notwithstanding that, particularly in a #Republic, the cake of liberty is designed to be eaten by all but will, undoubtedly, be enjoyed by some more than others during any period of time.  Of importance to the pursuit of happiness element engrained into our national psyche, voting is not an activity that is meant to ensure that your personal enjoyment and pleasure will be constantly maintained by those whom are elected in the voting process.  It is, however, an activity that ensures our essential liberties and freedoms will continue to exist so please, let everyone contribute to making the cake we will eat in 2025 a #Peaceful and #Gracious one.  The making of our national #LibertyCake must be allowed to include ingredients that may be preferred by some while being disliked, and even possibly abhorred, by others.  Some cakes may very well be, either subjectively or objectively, better and more enjoyable than other cakes depending upon your own personal preferences. But our national cake is by design meant to be a collective #LibertyCake and therefore #WeThePeople must demand the peace and stability to bake and eat our own piece of cake within the structure of fair elections regardless of the outcome.  Sowing discord from either the bench or from a state government position by attempting to eliminate a presidential candidate or cancel presidential policies based on partisan politics is simply not within a state’s rights.  In fact, the attempts by some states to dictate to the entire union whom can participate in a national election are egregious errors in judgment and this line of thinking is the antithesis of America because it would “sever the direct link . . . between the National Government and the people of the United States” (U.S. Term Limits, 514 U.S., 822).4  And, therefore, #WeThePeople should demand that the only thing served by our #Judges is #Justice within their specific scope of authority and that our national ballot is constructed without interference from an unrestrained #Judiciary from any state in our Union.  And finally, we must always demand that our media report #OnlyTheFacts as #News and to be 100% accountable when they either misrepresent or manipulate the objective facts in a matter.  After all, the process of voting produces a cake that we all must certainly eat, whether we like it or not. ________________________________________________________________________

1.      Primarily the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment made it illegal for a state to pass laws "which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States... [or] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, [or] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." And while Section 3 does provide for the barring of certain persons with regard to insurrectionary activities by stating that no one can hold office that “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof;” it also clearly states in Section 5 that “[t]he Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” So even if the law were interpreted so as to make Mr. Trump an insurrectionist against himself, oddly, as the President and Chief Executive at the time of the alleged insurrection, it must be the Congress of the United States that enacts legislation to remove any person from a national ballot and clearly could not possibly be a power given to individual states of this Union.  Also, the argument to remove a candidate from the national ballot by an individual state would be negated by the same 14th Amendment cited for justification of the removal of Mr. Trump, in that a state level removal would be without due process if done without the involvement of Congress and it would also subsequently violate the equal protection clause if this was not made to be uniform in all of the states, once again, by Congress. 

2.      This quote is attributed to the author of this article as far as I know, but I cite a work by Albert Camus, Resistance, Rebellion, And Death (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1961), 208 in order to credit him in some way due to the similarities of our individual quips.  What Mr. Camus actually wrote, that I was reading again recently and that made me feel that I should mention Mr. Camus and his work even if what I quipped in this blog is not so closely related to his topic and his work other than they both involve politics, was that “[t]he State that sows alcohol cannot be surprised to reap crime.”  Even if the similarity does not warrant a citation perhaps it will inspire one reader to pick up a book by Mr. Camus (in particular this author recommends The Stranger), or any other book by almost any author in any time period and actually read it, then the citation is more than worth my time and effort.  Because while I do not often agree with either the political ideas or the individual beliefs of Mr. Camus, I always agree that his writing is especially excellent and should be read, and subsequently discussed, by all persons whom believe in liberty and freedom enough to actually discuss alternative views without vilifying the person from whence they came. 

3.      Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions, (1782).  Mr. Rousseau made this comment some years before the French Revolution actually began in 1789: “At length I remembered the last resort of a great princess who, when told that the peasants had no bread, replied: "Then let them eat brioches." The quote seems out of place to attribute to Marie Antionette because of the concern she demonstrated for the poor in spite of the extravagances of the royal family.  According to Wikipedia the first mention of this being attributed to Marie Antionette was by Alphonse Karr, a French Journalist, writing in Les Guêpes of March 1843 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake).  It is therefore not known who actually said it first, but it is doubtful that Marie Antionette ever said it in the context of the revolution as Mr. Karr described.

4.      Add on:  Since the 14th Amendment was framed with the intent of limiting state powers rather than expanding them, as some seemed to believe based on the litigation attempts to kick a national candidate off a national ballot in places such as Colorado and Maine, in all of the preceding litigation it is crystal clear that allowing the state’s to determine whom could be a national candidate would “sever the direct link that the Framers found so critical between the National Government and the people of the United States.” (U.S. Term Limits, 514 U.S., 822) Interested parties can read the succinct and unanimous 9-0 verdict by the U.S. Supreme Court on the Colorado effort to remove Mr. Trump from the ballot in Trump v. Anderson, 601 U.S. ___ (2024), here:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-719_19m2.pdf

A Vaccination for the VOTED-24 Virus

Let me begin by saying that my world view is decidedly much broader than the narrow issues that are drummed up during any given election season, and believe that yours is also. In 1929 a great historian, and a good philosopher, by the name of Will Durant said of our democratic efforts that, "a politician is worth nothing if [they] cannot invent some interesting and unimportant issues to divert the eyes of the populace from the problems actually involved.”(1) And he continued shedding light upon the state of our nation by saying that our elections have become nothing more than “a contest in fraud and noise” where “sound arguments make the least sound” and our one hope for salvation, the absolute truth, “is lost in the confusion.”(2) No wonder that after the election ends we all feel like Pontius Pilate and, after washing our hands of the innocent blood of truth that has just been convicted to die by the hand of our pride, we should ask the greatest question ever queried: “what is truth?"(3) Perhaps our dear Roman prefect should have tried harder to obtain an answer for us so that we could all know whether or not there is such a thing as objective truth. One day we may choose to throw out this constitutional republic in toto in order to import and crown a King of #Truth, and I may even go along with it for awhile if only to avoid the election spin cycle and the constant volatile bickering about our bipartisan ideations. Voting season now creates a kind of #Pavlovian response in all of us as we eventually go into the booth to press buttons and frantically fill in circles in a desperate attempt to make the overflowing stimuli being spat into our faces from every media interface finally stop. There is always the potentially that we get “shocked” by the outcome of our attempt to do the right thing anyway, so we do have to be careful managing our own expectations in order to not end up slobbering uncontrollably in the corner unable to respond once the election “test” cycle is over.

However, we have all paid for this circus of #freedom with either our taxes or our blood, and some of us have possibly even paid with both, so please, by all means eat the bread of liberty and cast your vote for whomever you so choose whenever you choose to do so. I have personally watched people in other countries line up to vote after some arbitrary, and decidedly temporary, liberation effort of ours has granted them some degree of momentary self-governance. And these recently empowered citizens would come out in droves in spite of actual threats and even when there was a great risk to themselves just for being there, in order to just to have a say in the outcome. Therefore, all citizens of this country with the power to #vote should cast one but then, if I may be so bold as to ask for civility in a purportedly civil society, how about we all just keep quiet about the choices that we make in the privacy of the voting booth? Why do we have to #virtuesignal, in an obscene use of the term “virtue” while I struggle to place a name on the rampant “opinion signaling” that I see everywhere, what we believe? It is a free country so signal away, but I am asking the sign wavers why you care that I know what you think? Is it, possibly, to keep me from speaking to you if I think differently than you on a certain issue or about a certain politician? If this is even partially true, then I feel obligated to point out that #freespeech is meaningless without access to contrary opinions. I do not think that the founding fathers conceptualized an America where honest debate is muted by dishonest moderators and biased media while the citizens clothe themselves and their belongings in apotropaic opinion marks in order to ward off the evil people whom might think differently.

If I had a dream for #2024America it move to a space where there aren’t any political signs in our either yards or on our cars, where angry slogans are no longer yelled at those fellow citizens whom we feel may have voted differently than us, and we would all be content to just quietly plod along in our own pastures where we would happily, as the Voltarian character #Candide once opined, “cultivate our garden[s].”(4) I personally recommend implementing a “don’t ask, don’t tell”(5) status with regard to voting because I think this silent treatment policy would work better in an election context rather than in the military dating and mating context in which it was originally used. Frankly, I believe that whom you choose to vote for should be a private matter because the fanatical support of one candidate or another is just a distraction from the real business at hand. And the business of this nation is piloting this #libertyship for the good of all citizens as well as for all of the citizens of allied states. It must navigate through international waters and amidst all hazards, known and unknown, and so your vote should weigh these facts and other security factors heavily as they enable the existence of all of the election season television #talkingpoint issues. Your pet issues, and mine for that matter, are deeply disturbing and problematic if they become either the defining characteristic of an election outcome or of ourselves. It is most probably a certainty that the pet policy issue dearest to you and your candidate’s heart will have no bearing on how the person you voted for will govern all of us as the head of the entire state. In my personal opinion, the isolated issues that you are either “for” or “against” are not a suitable metric for for picking a candidate to pilot the ship upon which #wethepeople, all depend.

Adopting die-hard policy positions as must have criteria becomes even more ludicrous in light of the fact that we, the people, did not choose the #candidates on the #ballot in the first place but rather a small committee of insiders actually decided for whom you and I can now vote. If you don’t believe me then try to get your name, or even mine, listed on the ballot for any national office. J.B. Crozier quipped that “those who nominate, govern”(6) and this should be even more apparent after this election season. And because you and I did not even pick the candidates, we are not actually in the field of play for this spectacle and are really only watching it unfold from the stands. If you happen to be a semi-professional #politicalminion you may feel differently, but be advised that when this election circus is over you will start to feel that your usefulness is waning, unless you can continue to stir up controversy as needed by the powerful #oligarchs whom you serve. So, if you actually have been chosen by one party or another to travel from town to town, rally to rally, and riot to riot, you are still not a player in this great game but rather you are a puppet to be manipulated and used up like so much cannon fodder. And when your expendable status finally sinks in and you wake up to some kind of less than awesome future despotism that we will eventually obtain through our hard work and arrogant efforts, consider this from #Carlyle: “[d]emocracy is, by the nature of it, a self-cancelling business, and gives in the long run a net result of zero.”(7) You are, at least in the abstract, freer in this country than you would be in any other but that also includes the freedom to be fooled into becoming a fool, so do not become one: calmly and discreetly #voteyourownconscience and then, just as calmly, move on with the work of life and endeavor to find true joy in your life.

Ultimately, in order to further avoid the very harmful cerebral virus known as #VOTED24 which can create a kind of salivating madness that alienates you from friends and family alike as you regurgitate the same tired political slogans at each and every opportunity, I propose that we all tune out the election noise by turning off the inflammatory media propaganda machines so that we can dig into things of actual substance. If you have ruined relationships with your dogmatic opinions, in spite of being warned by the wise #Voltaire that “opinion is the fickle empress of the world,”(8) then swallow some of that pride and make an effort to mend the fences that your (hopefully) temporary election insanity has caused. If the insulted parties will not reconcile with you after a sincere apology, then their own fragile belief system is more important than a relationship with you and you are now free from the time drain that they represent in your life. But you should make an effort to employ enough #grace to make amends for your harsh critique of their reason, and also look to give that opportunity to those whom may have offended you in the same way. The Party is actually NOT your friend and you do not need clones of yourself spewing your own opinions back into your face. That will only create the same thought silo that academia has taught you to create, at great expense to your parents and as a serious detriment to your growth and maturity. You do not need to become an echo chamber of some professor’s protected ideations about a dynamic reality that they are hiding from, while constantly seeking the pseudo-safety of tenure (which is only offered to the very best institutionalized parrots by the way, and this makes their interactions with students and quests for publication credits competitive in nature), because academic theories often bear no resemblance to the truths that one discovers from actually living in #objectivereality.

Another idea that I feel compelled to share is that we should all learn to think our own thoughts while also developing the skill to engage with people who will tell us the truth about their own opinions. They should not have to think like you, dress like you, speak like you, or even look like you in order to be considered either your friend or your colleague. The type of thinking that herds people into group-think #thoughtsilos comes from sources such as governments, the tech industry, and the media. These entities seek to segregate you into opinion groups for their own nefarious purposes, and for reasons that should be rather obvious, all people with any modicum of freedom left should try to avoid being corralled at all costs. Therefore, it is in your direct interest to find friends who lack capacity for mendacity when it comes to analyzing the world and, specifically, you should actively seek out those whom may think differently than you and even possibly follow some of them on social media to see what they say. Iron certainly does sharpen iron, but wall paper parrots do not sharpen anything, including their own wits, and can add nothing of value to a real conversation about substantive issues. You and I should both seek people outside of our normative thought silos to help us look at the world through a broader lens, because the problems that are impacting this oblate spheroid of a planet are far too big to be distilled into one political point of view or another. And besides, the #globalviews that add color to our experiences here can only be found through befriending and engaging others whom are different than ourselves. And it is that commitment to accepting a #diversityofopinions that will helps us each grow stronger as individuals while we begin to grow progressively better as a nation state.

So here are some free ideas to occupy your time during the coming post-election hopelessness-apocalypse that are healthier than either frantically mourning your political “loss” or wallowing in the fruits of some pseudo-political “victory” because this or that person was “elected” to either this or that office. First, read some books that may impart wisdom instead of spewing propaganda like the online world. I have cited The Pleasure of Philosophy by #WillDurant in this post but I recommend reading anything by him and especially his excellent histories, or anything from the mountain left by Voltaire will also be good for your brain, and I also recommend books by those whom think outside your thought silo, like #AlbertCamus was for me. He certainly came to different conclusions than I did on some issues, but he is a brilliant writer and can outline his reasoning so well that he should be read more broadly than simply by those whom swear the same political allegiances. And you should also read books by authors who are shunned by the publishing media and have to be self-published through #Amazon, #Archway, or other digital commerce venues like my first book #TheArtificials (9) was published. This will quite probably be true for a soon to be published second book as well, and of an unpublished children’s story, and about a book or three more of almost poetic musings, unless a #publisher accidentally reads this blog and wants to give a #militaryveteran a publishing opportunity. Knowing that this is about as likely as getting myself elected to public office, and furthermore knowing that both publishing contracts and public service can lead to either the burning of one’s #effigy by rabid mobs or the stretching of one’s neck by former constituents, this is not a complaint but rather an observation of probabilities on my part.

I admit that many books written today can be formulaic and are simply pedantic diatribes cobbled together for commercialized entertainment, but then there are those treasures that you can find by going to book fairs and meeting the author or even, I dare say, by going into your #publiclibrary and browsing, that are beyond thought provoking and will add immense value and perspective to your life. I choose to try and provide an entertaining story that serves as a back drop for the consideration of deeper issues for the reader, but you can formulate your own opinions on my, or any other author’s work, after you actually read them. To be clear, there are a lot of books from which to choose so I recommend reading the ones that were specifically not on either your high school or college reading list, especially older works, because none of these human problems and delusions are actually new. Read a history book that will make you thankful that you live in this time, like The Killer Angels by #MichaelShaara, or one that will make you wonder how we actually got here in the first place like America Before by #GrahamHancock. If you are at all philosophical then definitely pick up a book like The Portable Voltaire by #BenRayRedman, or perhaps stretch your brain with the mathematically gifted philosopher #NassimNicholasTaleb in one of his consequential works like Antifragile. Or you could even read a whimsical novel like Breakfast of Champions by #KurtVonnegut that is both ridiculous and profane enough to make you laugh out loud and that now even has an Audible version that is read by #JohnMalkovich; or even an impactful book about AI and technology like The Alignment Problem by #BrianChristian in the hopes that we can re-learn how to think well as we try to teach computers a framework for “independent” thinking. I am re-reading both of these last two books now as I purposefully change the narrative from whatever nonsense our mainstream media, as well as the other ratings chasing media outlets from around the world, are spouting now. Stretch your brain muscles and they will grow and the world will be better off from having another enlightened soul who just may, one day, ostensibly think for themselves while constantly striving to maintain the utmost respect for others who seek to do the same. If we seek opportunities for #civildiscourse, then we can at least meet some of our obligations for having been gifted freedom of speech in the first place.

And you should be sure to spend time with your #family this #holidayseason, regardless of their voting record, because elections last only a short time but families are intended to last for a lifetime and even longer. Do you really want to be remembered as the political fanatic who never spoke to someone in your family again because of an election result that, in the end, will not really matter that much in the grand scheme of your short life? Your beloved political figure will not attend your funeral, but the relative whom you have insulted and cancelled just might, and your reconciliation with them may provide some solace and hope for other family members. Then invest time in pursuing #friendship with those whom may not have the same political outlook as you. Go and drink a #beer with a conservative, if you can convince them to do so if only for the health of the relationship and the improvement of the economy, and slowly gain trust by showing respect for positions that you may not personally hold by asking for, and then listening to, the substantive reasons they hopefully can present for each position they have taken. Learn how to share ideas without harsh pre-judgments and fiery condemnations and you will be doing better than most of the candidates and all of the media. So, go and throw some darts at the pub with a communist (while being mindful to keep all of the prepositions in that part of the sentence in the correct place) and actually listen to their take on big problems. Practice sharing opinions and #exchangingideas without being argumentative and condescending and this may actually change how your own ideas and opinions are received.

My #worldview was expanded through getting to know people from around the globe who challenged my thoughts and opinions. But it is also true that these people with whom I discuss matters of import did not hate me for thinking differently. However, I have also had tea with many whom disagree with the very concept of America, and even with some who admittedly hated Americans and, in one case, gleefully alluded to my impending death “tomorrow” when we would certainly be enemies again while we sipped the tea. And even worse than the bad manners is the fact that the tea was not even good enough to cover up the not-so-veiled threat. Good manners and drinkable tea are both important and I want you to know that I have respectfully waited for service that never came in restaurants with signs that banned “ #Americans ” from entering and, though I was never offered service of any kind, I managed to offer my presence as something of a contradiction to their strong pre-judged opinion against “ #mykind .” Please note that if I was asked to leave by either the proprietor or the police, I would always respectfully leave without a word of protest, but the point is this: we learn nothing from each other if we erect #borderwalls from stereotypes and fail to engage others when and where they are willing to communicate with, and respectfully engage, us. Because through the very personal experience of not only being fired upon by enemies but also from losing many friends to the wars that people with different opinions start after communication stops, I know that the freedoms which we all enjoy are not now, nor have they ever been, provided to us free of charge.

Actually, a very long line of someone’s whom you never knew were willing to risk every single tomorrow so that you and I, the free persons benefitting from #freedomofspeech, could have peaceful elections and respectfully share different opinions today. Why don’t you pay the gift you were given forward by finding those with whom you disagree and engaging them in non-condescending #conversation, and by neither starting to throw stones at others nor picking them up to throw back if they are thrown at you? Neither physical nor metaphysical stone throwing can create an atmosphere where different ideas are shared and discussed. I personally find it odd that in the #informationage, when more information is at the fingertips of humanity than ever before, we cannot seem to share differences of opinion without conjuring up rabid hate speech and denouncing our fellow human thinkers. As citizens of the same nation, we all have an obligation to not be injurious of one another and so denigrating conduct is out of place in our land of liberty and freedom. As #JohnStuartMill put it in 1859, “everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit, and the fact of living in society renders it indispensable that each should be bound to observe a certain line of conduct towards the rest.”(10) Let’s commit to the practice of a new line of conduct, whether online or in person, when approaching those with whom we disagree and let’s do it with as much respect and grace as we expect to receive in return. Putting any and all #electionrhetoric and name calling behind us will enable us to begin moving forward as #onecivilnation, rather than as two hateful ones.

_______________________________________________________________________

1. Will Durant, The Pleasures of Philosophy: An Attempt at a Consistent Philosophy of Life (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1953), 296.

2. Ibid.

3. Ben Ray Redman, The Portable Voltaire: Selections from the Philosophical Dictionary (New York, Viking, date unknown), 215.

4. Voltaire, Candide (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 1966), 77.

5. This is a reference to the Clinton era policy implemented in 1993 by the US Military regarding sexual preferences for military personnel. It was an attempt to fulfill a presidential campaign promise rather than a bold war cry meant to either intimidate adversarial nations or bolster recruiting efforts for the military. But perhaps we can reinvigorate this 30-year-old slogan for use as a new societal norm in those whom seek to advertise the dogmas of the politically religious.

6. J.B. Crozier, Sociology Applied to Practical Politics (University of California, Longmans Green, 1911), 48. You can read this and other political thoughts at your local library for free, but it is also possible to obtain this as an e-book through Google without cost if you google this title.

7. Will Durant, The Pleasures of Philosophy: An Attempt at a Consistent Philosophy of Life (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1953), 295.

8. Ben Ray Redman, The Portable Voltaire: Selections from the Philosophical Dictionary (New York, Viking, date unknown), 215.

9. The Artificials can be purchased in print or as an ebook at Barnes&Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-artificials-morrison-west/1143492090

and in print and as a Kindle edition at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Artificials-Morrison-West/dp/1665741791

10. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Mineola, Dover Publications, 2013), 63.

Memorial Day

in pace requiescat

Take me out to Flanders Fields,

And roll me in the dirt;

Pin fading ribbons upon,

The breast of my best shirt;

Lay me in a wooden box,

Salute my corpse and say:

"The old soldiers never die,

They all just fade away."

Place me in formation amongst,

Those whose lives have been lost;

Paying the price for even those whom,

Don't know of freedom's cost;

Bring our children to visit us on,

Each Memorial Day;

Tell them how we gave our tomorrows,

So they could have today.