The World of Before You

Since her early days, the Lone Star State has raised truly fine leaders. Many well-qualified Texans have been thrown into the state, national, and international spotlight thanks to their well-respected, academic, Constitutionally-grounded views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

That list of Texans thrust, by choice or otherwise, into the national or international sphere includes such leaders as: Lyndon Baines Johnson (36th President of the United States and responsible for sweeping legislation in the areas of civil rights, urban development, education, immigration, and gun control), Ann Richards (first female, elected governor of Texas and a tireless advocate for equality in the area of education), Barbara Jordan (a leader of the Civil Rights Movement and the first black woman from the South elected to the US House of Representatives), Cecile Richards (the current President of Planned Parenthood, she is currently defending the organization’s ability to provide health care and health education to a country desperately in need of both), and many others. It is a list of articulate intellectuals led by rational thought, academic research, legal precedents, and Constitutional guarantees – not “well-intended” agendas.

In our early days, we had some similar leaders. One was Sam Houston, our 7th governor. Houston was ultimately responsible for Texas’ annexation to the United States, creating a rather large bootprint on the American landscape. He is also responsible for the following comment regarding political leaders:

All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, but Texas was absolutely overrun by such men. (citation)

It would seem, Texas has returned to this infamous and dubious governance. Perhaps some of the Texans making the current news cycle spin due to their irrational, emotion-based, Constitutionally-blind approach to the “greater good” for Texans should revisit Governor Houston’s quote whilst gazing in the mirror (perhaps, on a Sunday mornin’ after church).

The other leaders mentioned by name, above, remain singled-out and heralded for their intellect, not derided due to their lack of substance. These men and women are known for their thoughtful, reasonable, and rational responses to crises plaguing Texans and/or Americans in the fields of civil rights, reproductive and health safety, immigration laws, segregated educational institutions, and gun control.

Let’s look at the current state of affairs in Texas.

Effective January 1, 2016, Texans are accorded the rights guaranteed in the  “Open Carry” gun law. The Texas Department of State Health is reporting that the “Open Carry” gun law (proposed by Texas legislatures and signed by Governor Greg Abbott Citation) now effects Texans in the following way: state-run psychiatric facilities will now allow men and women to enter those hospitals with visible, loaded firearms. Citation

All this, while the rest of the nation is creating avenues to address mental health needs in the United States, in a desperate attempt to remove guns from the hands of the mentally ill. Texas plays Russian Roulette, as it provides visual reminder to the mentally ill that weapons mean power. The exact opposite of what should be demonstrated to those suffering from emotional, mental, or behavioral illness.

The list is long of public missteps by the Lone Star State’s currently “popular” leaders.

Only two days ago, the current governor of Texas made the following pronouncement on his public website:

Governor Greg Abbott today delivered the keynote address at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Annual Policy Orientation where he unveiled his Texas Plan to restore the Rule of Law and return the Constitution to its intended purpose. Citation

“…his Texas Plan to restore the Rule of Law”? Such hubris is dumbfounding. Correction, such hubris is dumbfounded.

What we are doing in Texas is making international news. The United Nations is watching as Texans are stripped of their dignity and very lives in the prison system. We’ve seen Texans stripped of their access to free health care. Elderly are not immune as we see Texans stripped of their fundamental rights. Citing all that has been lost for Texans would break the internet because the depth and breadth of what has been taken away is overwhelming, documented, and undeniable.

When will it be enough? When will Texas’ leaders inspire our state, our nation, and our world, as once they did, representing all that is good and possible when an child is raised in Sweetwater, Lubbock, Corpus, Marshall, or San Anton? When will Texans no longer be the target of mockery for their arrogant and rash extremism, but once again lead world stages with their transformative and rational thought?

Soon, we should all pray.

God bless the Lone State State.

Isis was the goddess of fertility. A goddess that drew her power and influence from the sacred source – life. Her purpose found its roots in the creation of humanity – not the destruction of it.

Isis was considered the mother to all children – rich and poor, healthy and sick, old and young. She answered pleas based on a cry for help. She is usually depicted with outstretched arms, denoting her desire to wrap all creatures in her embrace.

In 2016, one can use Isis as an abbreviation for something else. But there is one true Isis; she is not an abbreviation. In fact, Isis is worshiped today as a goddess.

Isis and her husband, Osiris, were captured quite poignantly in the opera, Die Zauberflöte (the Magic Flute), composed by Mozart and libretto written by Emanuel Schikaneder.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQkgZ-pz1A

Words associated with Isis include:

Hope

Rebirth

Optimism

Health

Promise

Future generations

Words not associated with Isis include:

Destruction

Abomination

Chaos

Killings

Religious Fanaticism

Suspicion

Judgment

For ancient Egyptians, she was the savior and The Mother. She was the protector and not of a few “select” group. She protected any and all who prayed to her.

“The United States is considered a global, super power, which is why we see it participating on both sides of dispute management.” That’s all I needed to say in my first presentation in front of my colleagues. Simple.

Instead, I said something along the lines of, “I’m not saying this, uh, because, well, yes, I’m an American, but, uh, I’m not all ‘dude, I’m a superior American’, but, uh, sort of we are considered, in this particular context, a G-2 country, but so is the EU!”

For the past four weeks of discussing and listening to discussions about the role of the US in trade negotiations and agreements, I have hung my head. Same when people talk about the refugee crisis or the global obesity epidemic or climate change. It’s all the fault of the US. We are arrogant. We are self-interested. We are aggressive.

I think “that” recent (not current – 2015) administration, for those of us aged 20-something to 60-something, has caused Americans to accept the anti-American backlash. We are taking our global spanking like good little boys and girls ought.

Yesterday in my Macroeconomics class, the professor kept saying, “You all need to put your citizenship away and listen to me. If you like it or not, that’s another matter. But, the US Dollar is what we use for global trade. The “domestic” in this formula always needs to be the US Dollar…” I felt, again, I needed to hang my head.

I’ve really been thinking about what he said, and this morning I had an epiphany.

For God’s sake, America is not the problem with the world. The problem in the world is that we are all trying, desperately, to do our best under constant threats like terrorism, volatile economic circumstances, online and oceanic piracy, poverty, diseases like Ebola or HIV, waning family values, growing i-centered values, bio warfare, population overgrowth, forestation undergrowth and on and on.

These threats are not “Made in the USA.” It’s not the i-phone, it’s how you use the i-phone. Do you talk loudly on the street or use your i-phone to constantly watch porn? Then, that is your responsibility, not the US’. It’s not Coke or McDonalds that made everyone fat. Did you eat it? That’s your responsibility. The US dollar is not destroying the world. Did you buy a car recently to help you get to work? Wherever you are, that car had US dollars involved at some point of the manufacturing process. That’s not “bad” or “evil.”

Perhaps the real problem is: the US is an easy target for global hatred.

I’m just not sure it is the real target. Not anymore.

Not matter how much one wants to point the finger at the US as the cause of all calamity, there must be a moment of pause before so doing. Is it really the responsibility of the US that a group of people chose to find a better life in Europe? No. That is the responsibility of those individuals. That’s really it. Each man and woman chose to start walking. This same scenario is true with many of today’s global concerns.

The anti-Americanism, it starts with the little digs at my country. Someone makes a joke about fat people or loud people or brash people or arrogant people. Someone makes a joke about Americans not speaking proper English or not being good at mathematics or not doing “real” work. I’ve had it with the digs.

I’m proud to be an American. I am grateful I was born in a country that allowed me to study, to explore many different religions until I found the one that fit me, to play in the streets safely, to drive, to vote, to wear my hair the way I want to, to wear hideously-inappropriate short skirts, to bring charges if someone injured me, to openly protest against my government without fear of retribution. My list is long.

I’m not only proud to be an American, I am grateful.