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LIFE ON-GOING: Questions of Conscience

By Christy Wiseman
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rain bird

 

We are now in Fall and the rains have come just as the rain birds promised they would. One year, fortunately an anomaly, was very dry and the lake was down, but Ann Whiting and Aurora Michel, ever the activists for helping us at the lake, brought in a rain dancer. He whooped and danced and people laughed and guess what? The rains came. The next year Ann wanted to bring him back, but he had died.  I told Ann to call in his spirit and save the airfare.  She wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t joking and the rain has been coming regularly ever since.

Now we watch the countryside green up and the flowers bloom and in my own little gardens, my herbs and flowers will thrive; another beautiful season and so much for which to be grateful. Life goes on and the body breaks down, one part at a time.  Now my hair is even turning grey.  I kind of like it.  

My children are grown and have their own problems to deal with.  23 And Me has put us into a whole new world and my adopted son just had his biological parents revealed to him and is trying to absorb it all while assuring me of his love and loyalty.  I’m not worried about that.  We have a good history and we love one another and always will.  He is my beloved son.  Biology is limited, feelings aren’t.

I am concerned for the unwed mothers who may now be hesitant to put their babies up for adoption, wanting anonymity, but knowing their personal lives may likely be impacted with DNA advances.

Thinking about this, I turn on my TV to see yet another vile tirade and a call for harming others; only to be followed by news of what some idiot did in following that advice. Seems we don’t need firearms to kill someone anymore.  An unsubstantiated smear will do the trick and there are those who can live with that.  The difference is that the body may survive, but the spirit becomes mortally wounded which compromises the mind and let’s face it, we need all three to be really healthy.

Personally I want the news in facts and I want the freedom to sort out how I should think about it left to me.  My good friends and I have decided that it’s O.K. to be individuals because what we love about one another goes far beyond our political views or any insistence of walking in lockstep as a requirement for friendship… similar values, different paths.

As an Independent, I think almost all in this current debacle are victims. 

Dr. Ford, who obviously has had some abuse in her life, but nothing to substantiate that it was visited upon her by Kavanaugh.  Kavanaugh, who by all accounts has led an exemplary life for the last 36 years, but can’t disprove negatives about his high school behavior. His family who have been torn apart by this and yes even the members of Congress who were NOT told of this in a timely fashion so that they could handle it with the proper discretion. 

As for those who prematurely judge based on gender, race or whatever may have happened to them in the past by someone else, They are victims too, of their wounded spirits which cannot heal. It is a sad day when an unsubstantiated smear can destroy a person, regardless of one’s political ideologies and it is as well a very sad day when someone has been traumatized and has had her or his life forever altered with no satisfactory remedy. 

It reminds me of Pastor Niemöller’s poem:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

The caveat being, no telling who will be next if smears are allowed to condemn without evidence and if accountability for the accuser is absent. 

To me it is a very scary turn of events.  How would you want to be judged, if you had your druthers? Opposing someone because of their personal views and worrying that he or she may make legal decisions based on them rather than on the facts or precedence in a case, is a whole different issue so if that is the true concern behind all this current trash, look at the records and that person’s previous decisions and draw your own conclusions, and vote, write your senator, whatever, but let us not lose our humanity in the process. 

Our Southern neighbors have it right.  They always bless someone before they gently drive home their annoyance. “Why, bless his heart, he’d do better if he knew better.”  We all know better. Let’s all do better.