The Passing of Silly American Notions

I watch and read the news.  I read books.  I sit and think.  I write.  I know; these may not be typical male Texan behaviors.  Regardless, it occurs to me that we have abandoned some notions of what it means to live in this democracy and what democracy really means.  No matter how you feel about the passing of these notions, they merit identification as they are put to rest.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  OK, a bunch of revolutionaries signed a document back on July 4^th, 1776 with this as the lead phrase of the second paragraph.  What were they thinking?

All men are created equal?  Birthright doesn’t count?  Race doesn’t count?  Wealth doesn’t count?  Zip code doesn’t count?  Sexual identity and sexual preference does not count?  Religious belief does not count?  What was wrong with these guys? 

 

Clearly we believe the following today: 

All men of wealth and power and prestige and who are of the Anglo race are equal as long as they think like the majority of men of wealth and power and prestige, and practice an appropriate religious belief.  (For the sake of brevity and because I am an educator, “men of wealth and power and prestige” will become an acronym:  MOWAPAP, pronounced mo wap ap.)  All men of little wealth, power and prestige are equal, but they are not equal to the MOWAPAP. 

Women are all equal.  Equal to each other.  But, they are not equal to men, and definitely not to the MOWAPAP, unless they have inherited a lot wealth like the Walton women. 

African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians are all equal, but they are not equal to the MOWAPAP. 

All sexual orientation is equal.  Heterosexuals are equal to each other, and homosexuals are equal to each other.  Homosexuals are not equal, however, to heterosexuals.  All men are created equal, but a relationship of all men is created evil.  Relationships of all women are more acceptable because the MOWAPAP find such relationships titillating, but such relationships are not so acceptable as to allow single sex marriages and property rights, etc.  The Arizona Legislature has announced that they believe it is legal to discriminate against such people.  It’s about time.  MOWAPAP’s celebrate.

All men are created equal if they chose wisely where they were born.  All men who were wisely born in the US of A are equal (at least under the ground rules outlined above) and all men who foolishly were born within the boundaries of another nation are not equal.  In fact, we will declare them illegal people if they come here without the approval of the MOWAPAP.  They are so illegal that some refer to them as aliens even though they were born on planet earth.  If such folks come here without permission, even if they come here to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they may still call them illegal.  At best, they call them undocumented people despite the fact that they clearly are not some other species.  It does not seem to matter that other than Native Americans most of the MOWAPAPs were at some point undocumented immigrants.

The Creator endowed all men with these rights?  What was the Creator thinking?  We all know the song, “Red and Yellow Black and White, they are precious in His sight.” but we know that is not practical.  To provide services to the other races that are in need would require MOWAPAP to take some of their wealth and share it.  We cannot take money from the rich to help the poor.  That is blasphemy.  It is now un-American.  The wealthy somehow deserve their wealth and should have the right to accumulate even more because one can never be too wealthy.  One can be too hungry, or too much in need of mental health services or too much in need of education or too much in need of clothes and shelter, but those needs are minor compared to the need of the wealthy to accumulate more wealth.  The Creator was just wrong on this one.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the MOWAPAP may give as much money to politicians as they want without accountability, disclosure, etc.  That’s exactly what we need, more power and influence for the people of power and influence.

Goodbye to the notion that all men, all humans, are created equal.  It becomes increasingly cumbersome to protect those who were not of the correct race, wealth, sexual orientation, religious belief, and zip code.  The awkwardness is telling the MOWAPAP’s that they can not disenfranchise the rights of others, and the MOWAPAP’s do not like to have their right to discriminate limited.  If one accumulates enough wealth one should be immune to basic democratic principles.  Let’s put those American notions to rest and move on.

The Bill of Rights has a host of truly unnecessary prohibitions that simply inhibit the right of the wealthy and powerful to practice what they want to do.  Many of these rights must go as well. 

How dare the founding fathers include the notion that the government may not respect, recognize or support any religion?  We are Christians and should be able to have Christian icons wherever we want, and require kids to learn about Christianity in schools, and teach that the Bible is literal truth.  We must ignore this prohibition so that the government can promote Christianity.

People have the right to confront the evidence against them and respond to that evidence?  Really?  How in the world will MOWAPAPs wield power if they have to come clean with the reasons they want so-and-so gone or put away?  I know.  I have been judged by folks who never told me the evidence against me, but convicted me anyway.  Of course that did not bother me.  I am not a man of wealth and power, a MOWAPAP, so I do not deserve to know.  Why can’t others simply accept the fact that to wield true power we should not encumber the wielders of that power with silly limits to their secret judgments and sentences?

And, do not even get me started on public education!  Some have such a hard time recognizing that Anglo billionaires should have the authority to control public education, reduce the funding, redirect tax dollars to private sector enterprises, and hurt the kids who are not equal, i.e., poor kids, minority kids?  If we could just accept that even public services should be directed to help the men most equal, the MOWAPAP’s, we could all live with less conflict.

It is high time we simply accept that the best form of government is an aristocracy where those of wealth, power and prestige get to make all the decisions, influence all policies, and accumulate even more wealth.  These silly American notions of democracy and equality must be abandoned to achieve those ends.  We are well on our way to securing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all the MOWAPAP’s. 

 

God Bless the USA, just not all the people in the USA.  Just the MOWAPAP‘s.

“All men are created equal” RIP.