Is unity possible when you’re talking politics?

Politics is a divisive subject.  Therefore, I don’t like it, either side.  Watching the morning news today, I saw pictures of the protests against the latest decisions of the current president.  At that moment, I realized that the people who were protesting have been fairly happy campers for the last eight years.  However, the USA is a very divided country and it’s almost an even split.  The other half of us, yes US (remember, we’re ONE country!), has been disenfranchised for the last eight years.  Most of those who were disenfranchised did not scream and shout and call the opposite side “haters.”  They grumbled and complained and then showed their disapproval by voting differently.

Each side has to learn to listen to the opposite side.  There’s both good and bad on both sides.  If we are to be one country, we HAVE to respect each other and work it out.  The other alternative is to create two countries where we won’t have to listen to each other any more, but even then, we’ll be forced in some way to do it because of business.

So, to those who are shouting and screaming, take a minute and listen to those “others”.  It doesn’t cost you anything.  Listening is free.  So is voting, which will take place once more at the regular intervals.

Election 2016

In the Bible story of Jesus’ crucifixion, the crowd is given the choice of Barabas or Jesus.  They all screamed for Barabas.  What about Jesus? They shouted for him to be crucified.  In this year’s presidential election, there is no Jesus in the choices.  There is only Barabas #1 or Barabas #2.

Political culture in the last several decades, even longer perhaps, has been completely hypocritical.  At the very least, we have had several philanderers and probably worse in the White House since the 1940’s.  However, as long as they have kept silent and kept their misdeeds completely out of the public view and earshot, we have turned a blind eye to it.

The entertainment culture in America has been completely hypocritical as well.  Hollywood churns out pornography faster than they do decent movies.  Now, it is available at the touch of anyone’s fingertips, including the fingertips of your children as they navigate the web on their personal computers.  We eat up salacious news about the latest starlets while paparazzi  hound the rich and famous, trying to get the most brazen photographs.

So, now we have a choice between a crook (at best) and a lewd (at best) person for our next president.  Why are we now suddenly shouting, “Foul?!”  Each side proclaims the other’s failings with self-righteous clamorings.  Do we deserve better after having allowed the other to go on unhindered for decades?  How did these two get past the primaries and the national conventions?  Their misdeeds were already known at those times.  Shouldn’t the political process weed out the unworthy?  It’s America’s choice because America has already chosen to allow it.  We have allowed it in our politicians, our entertainers, our priests (up to a certain point) and our elite.  We made excuses for the rich and famous and coined phrases such as “boys will be boys.”

Why are we surprised and outraged when someone who has been served up as entertainment for decades is now in the political limelight doing exactly the same things that we lapped up in the gossip magazines?

Does Obama Care?

I’m digressing today. I actually do not like politics, but politics came knocking on my door today, or perhaps a better description would be that it came slamming the door in my face. For my living I am an adjunct instructor. Universities love to hire adjuncts because they don’t have to pay them so much and don’t have to give them benefits. Therefore, most adjuncts need two jobs to survive. We juggle crazy schedules because we love our students.

I lost half of my salary today when my evening job was taken away from me the day before the start of classes because of the new rules concerning Obamacare. In the morning I teach one class at a state university and at night I teach one class in a local community college. About a year ago, the two systems (state universities and state community colleges) merged. The reason I lost my job is because Obamacare reduces the number of hours that a person can work in one company or, in this case, one system. Once an employee goes over that cap, the employer needs to provide health care to them. Even though I work in two separate schools, it is considered one system. I only teach two classes. Both are slightly intensive, one being ten hours a week and the other six hours a week. I have worked at the morning job for 22 years and the evening job for 10 years, and yet now they say that I cannot continue teaching my evening class. My immediate boss fought hard to keep me, but the college would not back down. They said that they cannot afford to give me benefits.

I don’t know how you feel about things, but all I can say is how will you feel when they come after your job? Personally, I know that God will take care of me. He always has and always will. He is bigger than their puny laws and regulations. He is so incredible, kind and wonderful. Man’s laws pale, and in fact stink, in the face of the beauty and righteousness, coupled with kindness, of God’s laws.

The loss of my job matters to no one but my husband and I. It will not show up on any lost jobs list. The job still exists and someone will fill it. I will not show up on lists of the unemployed because I am not unemployed. I still have one job at which, as an adjunct, I am treated as a new employee each semester even though I have worked there for 22 years. It’s true that the loss of my job matters only to me, my husband and the students I would have taught, but it did matter a lot to me. I loved it. I loved my students and frankly, I needed the extra money. Does Obama care?