Tag: bystanders

Proud to

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“Proud to Say I’m a Liberal,” JFK

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog where I address and comment on U.S. political  shenanigans and bullshit that happens everyday in Washington, D. C. Calamity Politics is coming to you today from hotter than hell Grants Pass, Oregon where it was a melting 107 degrees yesterday, and we are expecting more of the same for the next couple days.

Sadly, it seems to me, that “people” never vote for policy. Which is what effects their every day lives.  Instead, politicians have figured out that “people” vote for hot button issues, the candidate’s appearance and stage comfort being other factors.  There seems to be a total disconnect for many people.  The individual political party platforms state clearly the values and direction of that party.  Furthermore, the history of the individual parties actions when in power are a pretty reliable predictor of how they will govern.

Characters like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich are continually ginning  up the right wing base with attacks against any and all “liberals” “lefties” “progressives”; and the “Democrats” specifically.

I’m proud to be a liberal if that mean, in the words of JFK, ” Someone who looks ahead and not  behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad. If that is what it means to be a ‘Liberal’— then I’m proud to say I’m a liberal.”

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The Perils of Indifference

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The Perils of Indifference

By D. Mitchell

Elie Wiesel, teacher, writer, philosopher and Auschwitz death camp survivor, said in a speech before the US Congress in 1999, “indifference can be tempting-more than that, seductive.  It is much easier to look away from victims.  It is after all, awkward and troublesome to be involved in another person’s pain and despair.”

Furthermore, “to be indifferent to that suffering makes the human being, inhuman.  Indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor-never the victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.  The political prisoner, the starving children, the homeless refugees-not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory.  And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.  Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment.  Where I came from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders.”

Today’s “bystanders,” want to look away from the victims, to look anywhere but in the direction of the suffering.

“I’m a good person,” President Trump said last week during a news conference.   A man with a heart, he tells us.  Why then Mr. President do you ignore the plight of the Syrian refugees?   The plight of these children is horrific.  We have all seen television clips of bloodied, crying and even dead Syrian children.  I have seen their pain.  I have heard their pleas.

Preisent Trump, are you listening, are you seeing, or are you just another bystander?

We are the wealthiest country on earth and home of the most generous people on earth and our basic instinct is to help, not turn away.  The American people want to help the world absorb the displaced refugees of Syria.

Give hope to those 1200 refugees currently housed by Australia.  Come on President Trump, don’t continue to look away, show your heart, show that “goodness” you were bragging about.

Join the Resistance

Dar