I have been thinking about how human beings, label and categorize people, places and things. We are trained early in life to categorize and label everything, everyone. Hot/Cold, black/white/red/yellow, sweet/sour, square/circle and good/bad are examples of everyone’s earliest labels. It is normal when we first meet someone to automatically apply descriptive labels of male/female, black/white, young/old, short/tall and fat/skinny. There is nothing wrong with doing that as long as we do not condemn them for being any of those things. How we let labels impact how we interact with other human beings is what is really bothering me right now, especially when it comes to the upcoming ELECTIONS (plural). There is so much more at stake then the Presidential election.
Right now in the political world in the United States we throw labels at each other as if they define who each of us are and in many cases after one label is assigned we stop listening to anything that person says or does. We determine when someone identifies as a Democrat or Republican, a liberal or conservative; black, white or Hispanic; male, female, trans or binary whether they are good or bad and if we should listen to them. I believe most of us label others and make these judgements about each other, whether we are conscious of it or not. Being conscious of where a label may be stopping us from listening is a key component to open communication.
It is bad enough that the candidates in both political parties are guilty of using labels, name calling to describe each other in a derogatory way. Right now the social media is full of name calling, threats and just ugliness toward each other based on political rhetoric.
Example:
Recently I was sending out text messages for a political candidate simply inviting them to a town hall meeting. I get this response: “F*@# you and your communist freedom sucking baby killing child molesting party. We want freedom not tyranny“. I did not respond to this person as I wanted to because I was representing a candidate. There is so much wrong with this statement I think it just left me floored. I have not been able to completely get it out of my head and felt the need to share it in order to process it. First there was absolutely nothing about the text that should have generated anger like that at all. Thinking about it I realize that this person has to be under some tremendous stress to react that way. Being me I also wanted to do my own form of fact checking.
Here are definitions of these terms with the help of Merriam Webster :
- communist – would be a follower of Communism which is a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed; a theory advocating elimination of private property
- freedom – the quality or state of being free: such as the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
- sucking – not yet weaned; very young
- freedom + sucking – very young freedom?
- baby killing – infanticide; one who kills an infant
- child molesting – to force physical and usually sexual contact on a child
- tyranny -oppressive power, a government in which absolute power is vested in a single ruler, a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force
MY TAKE
I am not a fan of either the Republican or Democratic parties (or Green, Libertarian, Constitution) but, I don’t believe any of them are promoting the elimination of private property. They are all capitalists for sure.
I believe we all want freedom to choose how we live our lives without a lot of government regulation. Unfortunately both major parties seem to have certain things they believe we should not have choice over. I can only guess that what the texter meant with “freedom sucking” is that the party was sucking the freedom out of something.
Neither party promotes baby killing! Assuming this is aimed at the abortion debate. Abortion is a very complicated issue. In some cases abortion is a symptom of a deeper wrong. Condemnation without understanding on both sides is not getting anyone a win. This one is personal for me because I love two beautiful loving women who are locked into opposite sides of this issue. I see both sides and I wish they could at least talk to each other without either one feeling attacked. This is what rhetoric and simplistic labels create.
I am a child advocate and I would not ever support anyone running in any party that was a child molester. I do not see any political party supporting child molestation. I have seen where certain politicians (individuals) have been accused and too many times people around them defend them and turn a blind eye. I believe most people do not want to believe that anyone they know could harm a child. It goes against basic humanity to harm children yet we do it everyday in this country, through neglect and focus on the wrong priorities.
I do not see any party wanting all power invested in a single person. There may be some people in power that want to be the only one making the decision and that is why we have elections!
There is so much of this type of thing going on and it is holding all of us back for working together to resolve the issues facing us. Based on the Political Party affiliation of the candidate I was texting for this person shut her ears, got angry and abusive. All that was in the text was an invitation to an online town hall meeting for open dialog.
DOES IT REALLY EVER HURT US TO LISTEN TO A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW? I DON’T THINK SO!
I do not know if this blog really expresses how I feel about all the name calling and ugliness out there right now. I do know that I have had enough of it. I am not and will not spread any hate speech no matter who it comes from. In my mind it is a waste of time and energy to hate anyone for their beliefs especially since so much comes from ignorance and believing there are only two sides.
One goal, different paths to get there is what I see, and we need to merge the paths or find a way to make them run parallel in order to move forward in a new way for the sake of our children and grandchildren and all the generations to come.
BE FOR KIDS 