Six Word Saturday

What are we willing to overlook?



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I am going to write some things here that are going to annoy some people that I care about. And that isn't my intent.

I am going to stomp on some toes. That isn't my intent either.

For the length of this posting, please put your beliefs (your strongly held beliefs) aside for a minute and read what I am saying.

Then we can argue some more.

I have dear dear friends who hold very different views from me - but we have common beliefs and tend to not discuss the ones where we have disagreements. Gun control, abortion, religion. war and the military, welfare, teaching. It seems there is not a topic these days where you can't piss someone off by just bringing it up.

A quote has been rattling around in my head this week - and I want to discuss it (calmly) then we can argue some more.

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” [Dietrich Bonhoeffer quotes (German Lutheran Pastor and Theologian. His involvement in a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler led to his imprisonment and execution. 1906-1945)]

I feel that Washington (Congress and the President) are chipping away at the Bill of Rights and no one is saying "Stop."

It is always for a good reason. "We will force you to buy insurance because everyone should have health insurance." Okay, no one wants anyone to suffer whan we as a society have the means to help. But the government should not be allowed to force me to buy something I do not want. And where is my responsibility to take care of myself and my own?

Then the government added that the insurance has to cover contraception because everyone has a right to sex without conception. (Okay, don't remember that Amendment). So Evangelicals and Catholics and probably others are being forced to pay for insurance that covers this. Oh, and abortion too.

What if the Government decides we all need to have Brussel sprouts for dinner? Or decides that we ALL need to eat pork? You say it won't happen. Who would have thought a President would be forcing contraception on the Catholics?

The government for years has been limiting free speech by labeling it hate speech.

Now the Government is talking about gun control. (I feel blood pressures going up) The second amendment was put in place in part to allow the citizenry to defend itself against the government. Newtown was a horrible tragedy. Aurora was a horrible tragedy. Columbine was a horrible tragedy. But then so is Chicago, which has some of the strictest gun control in the country.

A mother down here in Georgia was home with her children when a man she didn't know broke into her house using a crowbar. She hid with the kids and called her husband, who called 911 while talking to her on another phone. The intruder found her - and she shot him 6 times. He is still alive and in critical condition - but she is alive and the kids are alive as well.

I saw a bumper sticker years ago. "If you don't want abortion - don't have one."

I agree. Goes for guns too. (There is one community that requires - by law - that every citizen own a gun. Yep, that's down here too - Kennesaw.)

Okay, I am stepping down.The arguing may commence. Please keep it civil and have a nice weekend.

{I may not respond to you personally. Wordpress has done something where it keeps wanting to change my login if I try to post a comment and doesn't want me to be Ricochet but wants me to be the name I use for a completely separate blog. Since I haven't figured out how to fix that, I either send emails from ricochet04 at gmail dot com or post here.)