Some of the issues I will now address I have mentioned before…and some who would otherwise like to support me feel unease that I demonstrate the all-too-familiar image of a politician speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
First I would like to return the favor and suggest you likely sometimes speak this way too. Connie and I are in a sense blissfully happy as a married couple. (I dare anyone who is married to claim not to know why I include the qualifier “in a sense.”) You will seldom find a couple more “on the same page” as Connie and me---yet, I find myself sometimes violating fundamental values I personally staunchly affirm. For example, as Jesus found some activities within the temple had grown blasphemous, I have very high standards for the role of government, and in my view, the poor-man’s-casino of a lotto window on every street corner IS NOT ONE OF THEM!!! Yet, some days Connie will ask me—just before I run into a store to get a needed item—to pick up three lotto tickets (as she hands me the money). So in a few minutes before God and everybody I stand at the counter complicit in turning government into the false god of Lady Fortune.
My first point is simple--as in a family—as in a larger society one’s personal values cannot be applied strictly and universally in each and every case. Despite this, I have no trouble voicing at any time to anyone my strong belief that government has no business being a poor-man’s-casino.
This applies to how I personally feel (I use the word “feel” intentionally) about abortion as an afterthought remedy for pregnancy. In my view both the unborn child and the mother are due the consideration of dignity and respect. I’m not comfortable assuming a child is solely sexually conceived and totally absent any purpose on the part of our Creator. I like to think that all children--born and unborn--are created by God and not created solely by we ourselves.
Likewise my views on sexuality are complicated because of my belief that part of the successful maturation process at least for males is occasional explicit same-sex identity encounters and reinforcement during the early years...later to be followed by only implicit identity with males while the sexual act itself is reserved to be shared only with the opposite sex. (As long as society does not recognize this process, those youth who refuse to lie like the hypocritical other craven cowards can come to feel they must be gay—even at age 13!) But again, as I’ve said before sexual development is subject to many variables. It could be tremendously cruel and hurtful to legislate based upon speculation rather than exhaustive scientific findings. (It is my hope that America can make a significant contribution in exploring objectively what has historically been treated as a forbidden taboo. This will, however, probably take many years to approximate completion.)
The examples above illustrate one reason why you can perceive I talk out of two sides of my mouth—what I adamantly hold personally may be nontransferable to society at large due to my reluctance to appear priggish or--a much more serious matter--my moral obligation to avoid inflicting personal pain on others.
Another reason I can thus talk with in-your-face duplicity is sometimes I change my mind. For example though I am certain that guns and healthcare need serious further policy development, these are issues with a vast array of possible intended and unintended consequences. Unfortunately, sometimes I am not fully aware of an option’s hurtful effects until I try it on for size—thus, choices can incur inherently transient commitments despite my best efforts efforts to avoid trial and error inefficiencies. This too can be an experience you have encountered—and that you too unfortunately find incurs additional financial costs as well a widespread reputation for flat-out bonehead stupidity.
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