Consequences

No matter where I drive I consistently find myself driving with other drivers who view the art of driving on public roads as a competitive sport rather than a cooperative effort.  You know them too.  They grow frustrated if you are ahead of them and are not driving as fast as they would like.  They will change lanes, back and forth barely missing front and rear fenders in the hopes that they may gain 10 or 15 yards on the other drivers.  Some of these drivers are young and are perchance just showing off, but someone should tell them that they are driving a 2,000-pound hunk of metal that is covering about 50 feet per second and is fatal if taken internally.  But, many of them are middle-aged white guys.  They should know better.  But evidently, they did not get the message.  Speed limits are upper limits, not lower limits.  Stoplights and stop signs are to force cooperation among drivers so we do not kill each other.  Blinkers are a nice touch, though I guess for some the extra physical effort is just too much.  I am saddened by the drivers who do not enjoy driving and look forward to opportunities to support other drivers by yielding, letting them back out of parking spaces, moving to the right lane so they can pass, etc.  And yet, these drivers are becoming metaphoric for me.  If running you off the road serves their selfish agenda they will do so.  They represent the “no cooperation and to hell with you” approach to life. 

So Mitch McConnell comes out of a meeting and announces to all who will listen that his goal is to oppose the Biden agenda.  All of it.  The parts he has seen and the parts he has not seen.  Doesn’t matter.  He against it.  He has nothing to put in its place except fear and fantasy, but somehow folks in Kentucky tolerate this un-American, me-first kind of approach to life without starting a recall election.  Well, if they voted to recall McConnell they would be left with Rand Paul and that might be worse.  At any rate, what kind of driver do you think Mitch is?  Is he courteous, yielding to others, allowing others to go first, or is he the type that just cannot stomach cooperation?  I think announcing that he is opposed to all things Biden means he is announcing he is not in the Senate to do anything but say no.  Is that what you want?  Should McConnell and his ilk be held accountable for their obstructionism?  What are the consequences for Mitch?

Conservatives seem that way to me.  Always opposed.  Always mad.  Always afraid.  And that is just sad.  It is sad if you do not feel safe walking the streets of your hometown unless you are carrying a firearm.  How fearful is that?  Our good ole Texas government has just made it much easier to carry weapons so there will be more weapons out and about in areas of major conflict like Happy Hour at Chili’s or a parking spot at the mall.  They are doing this in the name of protecting 2^nd Amendment rights, which is kind of revealing.  I suspect they have either not read the 2^nd Amendment, or did so and did not understand that it protects the rights of everyone in the militia to keep and bear arms.  Oh well.  While they are expanding the obscure and outdated 2^nd Amendment in Texas they are making the right to vote, the foundation of a democracy, more difficult, fewer places to vote, more validation to show, etc., etc.  Maybe they are trying to restrict voting because of all the death that occurs at polling places.  Regardless, it is now easier to get a gun and carry it than it is to vote.  Don’t tell me you want to protect rights then pull this crap.  You are like the guy running me off the road because we all serve his agenda.  What should be the consequences for elected representatives who attack the right to vote?

Religious folks can be the same way.  You better do what I tell you to do because God has told me to tell you to do that and if you don’t do that you are going to hell.  Everyone has to think and believe like me because I am a good American and a good child of God.  I guess that is why God gave us free will, so we could all be bent to your will.  So bizarre.  So their God is an omnipresent cop in the sky keeping score so he/she can decide who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  Where is hell, by the way?  If it is a real place it will have coordinates somewhere in the known universe.  If it is not real then the entire belief system is folly.  These folks enter the political fray now endorsing candidates.  That’s fine, they have violated the wall between church and state and they should just start paying taxes.  Any time a preacher stands behind a pulpit and advocates one candidate over another, one party over another, or one proposed piece of legislation over another he or she is violating the establishment clause and there should be consequences.

So speaking of consequences I think it is high time we had some for the lunkheaded logic and conspiracy theory crap that has been going around for about a year and a half.  If a parent wants to enroll a child in school they have to show the school that child’s vaccination record.  Why?  Because an unvaccinated child can make other children sick.  So why aren’t we doing the same with the anti-COVID virus nuts?  If you don’t get vaccinated you may not use public streets, public water, may not work, may not go to school, etc.  Why?  This is not about your right to infect others it is about what we all agree to do for the common good and public health.  Get over it.  The good of the many always outweighs the good of the few, unless the good of the one requires us to save a life.  Man up.  Rand, the needle doesn’t hurt that much.  Don’t tell me you are a patriot but you can’t take a shot for all your fellow Americans.

And while we are at it, let us start publicly testing these home-spun ludicrous theories.  Let’s force the perpetrators to man up as well.  Ted Cruz, do you believe Trump won the election?  If so, what proof do you have?  Same to you, John Cornyn, and Gregg Abbott and Ken Paxton, and all the other numbskulls riding their symbolic horse into the fringe camps to get future votes.  You don’t believe that nonsense and I know it.  Let’s use lie detectors to prove that what Trump says is baloney.  Let’s prosecute all elected officials who have supported the Big Lie.  Damn, let’s stop pussyfooting around these morons.  They swore an oath to uphold the Constitution but do not seem to be able to even support the Superman fictional goal of truth, justice, and the American way.  And if I am the enemy as I advocate democracy and truth then you know where their hearts lie.

I trust the police to catch the competitive drivers out there threatening our lives.  I’m going to have to trust men and women of conscience and men and women of both parties to insist that our nation be governed by fact not superstition, by science, not conspiracy theory.  If we all stand up and tell these fools they will be held accountable for any lie they tell maybe we can clean up this mess. 

Yes, I believe there should be consequences for making false statements and for refusing to comply with public health safety measures in a pandemic.  Truth is the path to a better nation, not a conspiracy theory and self-serving lies.