Thinking Out Loud - the Body Democratic

A Christian group called Casting Crowns has a song about how the Christian church, being the body of Christ on earth, should be emulating the actions of their savior. They talk about the words of Christ teaching, the arms of Christ reaching, His hands healing, etc. America is similar in this analogy. The people of America are the embodiment of the democracy started so long ago by our Founding Fathers.

This is a concept that has made America great, has allowed democracy to flourish, for over 250 years. But it is also something that has been forgotten in recent decades. Today, it is all about politics and power and how is "command."

It is high time Americans, both citizen and politician, are reminded why this country was the most respected and desired nation on earth.

In keeping with the body metaphor, it is only when all the parts work together can America regain its former glory and place of respect and privilege in the world. It is only when that balance is restored can we become healthy again.

The liberals of this country, and by that I mean those who have great empathy for their follow human beings both here and abroad, are the true heart of America. The founders knew that only by caring for those that genuinely need caring for, can America show by example how much generosity exists in democracy. When you give aid and respite to the weary and sick, without regard to repayment or accolade, you demonstrate a compassion born out of love not manipulation.

However, this does not mean giving everyone a hand out that doesn't "feel" like doing for themselves. It doesn't mean perpetual bailouts for those that have the means or ways of being responsible for their own successes or failures. It means giving a way out not a handout. It means helping people better themselves that would not normally have the opportunity to do so.

The conservatives of this country, and by that I mean all those who have a knowledge of how things work in the real world, are the brains of America, and show by example the mature responsibility of being accountable. The founders also knew that along with heart you needed the common sense of reality to measure and buoy the compassion of our nature. When you can maintain a fiscal and ethical accountability of your successes and failures, without regard to a political or ideological platform, you show by example a maturity that garners respect and admiration.

This, however, does not mean that you hold people hostage to your own ideology. It doesn't mean refusal to compromise on all that does not meet the strict guidelines of finance. It means bending when it is feasible to do so, and teaching when it is not currently possible. It means looking forward and not backward. It means doing for the common good what is responsible. And it means admitting mistakes of the past simply to avoid them in the future.

The workers of America are the backbone, the hands that do the hard work and the reaching out, of this great nation. What others dream, they do. While the heart and the brains maintain a steadfast and healthy America, the workers make it possible to keep the heart and head healthy.

The dreamers, the big business founders, are the legs of this country, keeping us on steady footing and moving forward. Were it not for the head or heart, the legs would not move. Were it not for the hands, the legs would not get anything as they move.

All parts of the body democratic working in harmony are what has made this country great in the past and what can make it great again in the future.

Politics and political ambition and world pressures to be just like all of them are diseases, ailments that hold us back. They make us sick and have weakened us to the point we find ourselves in today.

The desire by politicians to be the "party in power", to stay in office no matter the cost to those who elected them in the first place, the unquenchable thirst for more and more power at the cost of the very soul of America, must end.

The thinking that the rest of the world knows better, that their combined beliefs are stronger than the very values that have made our form of government and our lifestyle the most desirable over the centuries, must end.

The "us" verses "them" rhetoric that has divided the dreamers and the doers, the ones who have reached the American dream and those that are still striving, must end.

It is high time leaders emerge who remember, or relearn, what made this country great. May they be leaders who are around today that stop and realize that the path they are on is destroying us, or leaders who come to the fore now who already know what needs to be done. But now is the time, before we continue down a path that leads only to further degradation of our country's health, or perhaps even the death knell of democracy as it was imagined so long ago.

It is also time for the average American citizen to wake up and understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The free handouts and bailouts of today must eventually cost us down the road. And that it is the very soul of our country at stake in this process. You might feel great about that new car or new home or break on your credit card balance today. But you must face the piper when your children come to you in the old age home and ask why you mortgage their future and their children's future for your instant gratification. Everything has a price to be paid and it must, at some time, be paid.

Call me a right wing extremist (as the Office of homeland Security has labeled so many), or a left wing sympathizer (who no one in their right mind would accuse me of). Or any other label you might want to attach to me. Either way, it makes no difference. Don't worry, I've been called worse. But I prefer to call myself an American. And if I can make you think a little bit about all this, then I consider my time well spent. If you refuse to think or don't know how to think, it's no matter. This is just me, thinking out loud.

Have a great day!