Recently, I joined a friend to attend two fascinating scientific lectures.
Both presented the advances in answering questions once thought to be without merit.
The titles alone could have been off-putting: "Splitting Hairs Over the Distance to the Nearest Star," by Dr, Keter M. Murch and the other "Unsung Heroes of Quantum Physics by Michael Ogilive."
Each lecturer was knowledgeable and related scientific information and exploration to the technology we now take for granted. Each lecturer brought an excitement for inquisitiveness and teaching.
As we listened, often to theory and language strange to my ear, I thought of the questions now before us as we go to the polls to vote for candidates and issues that will affect us in very human ways.
Will we vote for our own personal priorities? Do we vote to advance the opportunity for many or do we dictate the "right way" to be designated by a few? Do we question our own responsibility in respecting and maintaining or destroying communal behavior?
So it is that I think of the vote we need to make in the important elections of 2016 and the questions we need to ask ourselves as well as the questions we need to ask of those who want to represent us.
SEE YOU AT THE POLLS!
Friday, October 28, 2016
Saturday, October 8, 2016
"TRUMP, TAXES & CITIZENSHIP"*
David Brooks columnist described the dilemma so many of us face with the 2016 elections.
Sure we believe in following the rules but what do we do when the rules seem to apply to others rather than ourselves?
What do we do when the political process we have seems to have broken down and the only choice we have is to look to the lesser of evils in candidates or political parties?
In his September 4th column Brooks said, "If you are a tax payer your role in the country is defined by your economic and legal status. Your primary identity is individual. You're perfectly within your rights to do everything you can to look after your self interest.
"As Trump and his advisers have argued, it is normal practise in our society to pay as little in taxes as possible. There are vast industries to help people do this. There is no wrong here.
"The problem with the taxpayer mentality is that you end up serving your individual interest short term but soiling the nest you need to be happy in over the long term.
"A healthy nation isn't just an atomized mass of individual economic and legal units.
"If you orient everything around individual self-interest, you end up ripping the web of giving and receiving. Neighbors can't trust neighbors. Individuals can't trust their institutions and they certainly can't trust their government."
So, as Citizens maybe we need to question whether or not the candidate's political rhetoric is in keeping with our understanding of democratic pluralistic, communal life?
How will what we hear and read affect each of us as well as others, increase our broader understanding and participation of the Citizen's role in a democratic society?
And how will each candidate help us meet the changes we will need to make which will affect each of us, our lives our ambition and our security?
No easy quick answers to be sure. But if we shirk from our responsibility to vote as Citizens we are less than we have always been as a people and as a nation.
SEE YOU AT THE POLLS!
*David Brooks, September 4, 2016
Sure we believe in following the rules but what do we do when the rules seem to apply to others rather than ourselves?
What do we do when the political process we have seems to have broken down and the only choice we have is to look to the lesser of evils in candidates or political parties?
In his September 4th column Brooks said, "If you are a tax payer your role in the country is defined by your economic and legal status. Your primary identity is individual. You're perfectly within your rights to do everything you can to look after your self interest.
"As Trump and his advisers have argued, it is normal practise in our society to pay as little in taxes as possible. There are vast industries to help people do this. There is no wrong here.
"The problem with the taxpayer mentality is that you end up serving your individual interest short term but soiling the nest you need to be happy in over the long term.
"A healthy nation isn't just an atomized mass of individual economic and legal units.
"If you orient everything around individual self-interest, you end up ripping the web of giving and receiving. Neighbors can't trust neighbors. Individuals can't trust their institutions and they certainly can't trust their government."
So, as Citizens maybe we need to question whether or not the candidate's political rhetoric is in keeping with our understanding of democratic pluralistic, communal life?
How will what we hear and read affect each of us as well as others, increase our broader understanding and participation of the Citizen's role in a democratic society?
And how will each candidate help us meet the changes we will need to make which will affect each of us, our lives our ambition and our security?
No easy quick answers to be sure. But if we shirk from our responsibility to vote as Citizens we are less than we have always been as a people and as a nation.
SEE YOU AT THE POLLS!
*David Brooks, September 4, 2016
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
