Morning After

Some of you are having a rough morning and are convinced that the next four years will bring this Nation into the depths of despair and beyond repair.  Some of you are rejoicing as you feel we have, by a narrow margin, escaped the Tea Party extreme and a return to the social policies of the 1980s.  Facebook and Twitter have been lit up with your thoughts for the past few months and I've remained very quiet.  But I have something to say right now and I'd like you to go get a Coke or a glass of wine, clearing your head of any ties you may think I have to one party or another as you walk back from the fridge, freeing yourself of all of the ridiculous statements that have been made by your friends and mine on social media sites, and forgetting what your favorite news commentator repeated in ten different ways last night. 

Are you back? Great.  I'd like you to now, with that clear head of yours, watch this clip.  Please note that there is a bit of language, my apologies in advance to those of you with sensitive ears.  I promise however that there is more meat to the clip than just a curse word or two, so make your way through it.

I told you there was strong language.  Some of you may be rolling your eyes here but check the facts, as they are that folks, sadly enough.  But there is hope here {there is that H word that some of you would like to hang me for}.  Clearly there is energy in the generation I belong to, let us channel that energy now in a positive and productive manner.  I remember being in a meeting for the youth leadership when I was 15 years old in Lake Bluff.  We sat in the kitchen of my church building, because where else are you going to gather 12 teenagers and leaders on a Sunday afternoon?, and a prayer was offered.  "Help us Father to be productive and use our time wisely." I remember those words so clearly as I discussed them with my Papa all the way home.  Why was it important to be productive rather than to simply discuss everything over and over and over again? No plea was offered to the Heavens to help us argue our wants to the loudest decibel or stand so stubbornly with our mandate that no forward action could be taken.  No, we asked to be productive so that change would happen (there's that word change!).

Folks, we live in a Nation that depends on us for more than just a fanatic for three weeks at the end of October every four years.  We live in a Nation that depends on our 'tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime' (Dallin H. Oaks). I belong to a Church that requires this of its congregation.  And said congregation offers that 'much' because we have a belief in Who is asking it of us and a hope and trust in Him.  Our Nation, founded by men of God, requires the same dedication but I am afraid we, I speak mostly to my generation here but let this 'we' be applicable to all reading my words, don't give that.  We want results without being steady participants in the process. We simply get loud every four years. Have you been to a town council meeting?  Do you know who your major is? Is your town a city or a town?  What is the difference and does that effect you? Have you opened your local newspaper, not foxnews.com or cnn.com, but a newspaper that you can hold in your hands over breakfast so that you can contemplate the issues on your drive into the office or discuss them with your children as you drop them off at public school?  Have you written a letter of concern to your congressman?  Have you written a letter to the editor on an issue, ANY ISSUE!? Can you tell me who your congressman is and what his or her objectives are in office? Do you know when your school board meets? These are the people determining the path of the education of your children, you should be aware of who they are, don't you think? What is the goal of the Superintendent of your School District?  How has that budget been allocated? Have you read the Declaration of Independence?  Have you discussed, not argued based on the two minute news clip you watched late last night off of your news affiliate of choice, the issues of our day? Marriage equality, government spending, oil drilling, space exploration, funding for new drug research, legalization of marijuana, small business loans, the housing market, bank bailouts, our role in keeping other nation's oppressed populations safe, severance taxes, foreign relations? Do you know how long your congressman has been in office? Do you know who her greatest ally is in Washington? Do you know what committee your guy is on in the state, does he focus on finance or the social issues?  Who funded his campaign, was it you?  Was it a corporation that now owns him and thereby the vote that represents you?  Have you listened, not prepared your retort, but listened to what the other side may be saying?  If you have not, if you refuse to ... how can we expect those we send to Washington to?  

It is our duty now, the morning after, to stop raising red flags and causing a riot.  It is our duty, as citizens of what could be the 'Greatest Nation' on the earth, to behave like it is such.  To build bridges in our community between sides.  Community is built from neighbor to neighbor and town to town and we need community to become the America that is within us, that is this ideal so many think the 'opposing' side has taken away from them. There are sides so as to provide a balance, do not give up your ideals but do not expect the other side to give up their ideals. But come to the table ~ the large point here is the action of COMING TO THE TABLE ~ ready to discuss the far left and the far right and then come to the middle ground where compromise happens. I do not expect those in this readership who did not see their candidate win evening last to throw the white flag of submission into the air for the next four years and resign to a state of complaining that it is 'not their fault'.  No, you may not have voted for the 'winner' but you are most certainly still a citizen of this nation and it is your duty to remain active ... so that when January of 2016 rolls around (and it will roll around folks, let me be clear that POTUS is not the anti-Christ) you know the issues that surround your community and our nation.

We must be steady in our convictions and our patriotism.  The rights that we claim as our own were fought for and died for by men willing to be steady in their convictions for longer than two weeks and a 67 post argument on a Facebook status. They gave years of their lives, and many gave their lives, for these rights. It is our opportunity and duty to use them properly. Politicians, by definition of late night talk show hosts, are scummy men and women who can't be honest and refuse to do what is good for the common man but most of these men and women are attempting to live up to their civic duty, they need your steady voice and opinion to do so.  If you do not support their cause, tell them so and give them a sound reason.  If you do support their cause, actively support it.  Attend meetings, write letters, make phone calls.  Be active! Be a citizen! Be steady! We all have work to do, so get about doing it.