We're currently in this torture debate all over the place, hypocrites like Shepard Smith are pounding the table to demonstrate their opposition to torture when for the last eight years they've remained silent on this very issue when they KNEW just like we all did that we were indeed torturing.
Today I found an article debating whether it's ok for clergy to advocate torture, from the pulpit. Was I the only person listening to all that shit my clergy spouted about loving your neighbor and how America stood for something, and we wouldn't stoop to methods other country's used because we possessed the moral courage to withstand whatever they could throw at us without torture. These are conversations my teachers had with us in class. I wasn't exactly spoon-fed pacifism, nor was I fed by hawks.
But rather I was given a two-sided view of the world and what were our choices as a country and what did those choices ultimately do to us as a nation?
However, today in this article I see that "Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate affiliated with several Christian right groups over the years says: "I think if we believe the person we have can give us information to stop thousands of Americans from being killed, it would be morally suspect to not use harsh tactics to get that information"-AP
THIS is a modern day Christian? Is this the way our religious leaders are interacting with the faithful? Seriously?
Who is it that's teaching ethics and values to these people who are robbing the U.S.Treasury to save their insolvent banks, (and yes we all know they're insolvent) who are in turn taking our money and paying it in bonuses to those who caused the very problems that have brought our economy to its knees?
I just had a minor encounter with a credit card company that brought all this to mind. I was reviewing the list of bills to be paid this week, and noticed that my minimum payment for one of my credit cards was significantly ($15) higher than it was just last month. This is a card I don't use anymore because I think they're fee happy and I've cut up the card long ago and I'm paying off the balance and once that's done I'm canceling the card. SO with obviously nothing to lose I asked them what the fuck was up, why did they raise my minimum payment. Their response? "Because we can."
Now, I won't default on this card because of a measley $15.00 a month, but there are lots of people out there who would, and mostly because they're already stretched to their limits. And although I just said with all the cock-sureness I could muster that I wouldn't,it occurs to me that if I lose my job in July as I suspect may happen this card will be the very first casualty. But does this credit card company care about that? Do they care that they're setting up a situation in which a default might very well occur that wasn't necessary in the first place? No they do not.
Ethics folks! We've somehow done away with them and we've imposed religious values as a replacement. And questionable religious values at that.
It's that age old argument we used to have when I was a Respiratory Therapist. Just because we can put someone on 5 or 6 machines and keep them alive indefinitely does not mean that that is what we should do. It's the ethical argument that's missing from our discourse today. A feeling that there is someone else on the other end of our decision, and how will this affect them, and in return us.
Go try to get an abortion and see how pleasant your day is? There stands someone yelling and screaming at you on the very day you're probably the most emotionally conflicted you'll ever be in your life, and they're ready and willing to impose on you THEIR moral judgment.
Stand up and profess your love for another man or woman, and watch the hair stand up on the back of their necks like a bunch of rabid dogs.
Demand your civil rights and they'll willingly tell you that you're not entitled to ANY because you're not like THEM!
Try to be a gay soldier who wants to fight for their country and possibly give their life for it. Can't do it, you might distract the other soldiers. We apparently need soldiers. We've extended tours of duty, called men and women back into service with Stop-Loss, run through the National Guard, who has no business being off the continent, and what does the military do with a willing enlistee who admits their sexuality?
Out! Get out! We don't want you. In fact if you're in we'll throw you out because you're gay, over 10,000 of you, whom we need, out!
Does this make any sense to you?
Well here's a morsel for you to ponder:
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