Following
and participating in many recent heated and sometimes hateful dialogues on
local Facebook, I asked myself the following question: Is there a sharp
contrast between a difference of opinion and a lack of grounding in reality?
The line is sometimes gray, so I won’t venture an absolute definition, but
rather share some observations. Many people here feel that our future is an
economy based upon boutique shopping, wine tasting and white water
rafting. As they promote this vision
they also oppose the Newman Ridge project.
But a sound economy is a diversified economy, more resilient to enviable
change. Because I support this project many consider me to be an ideological
conservative, but 50 years ago I would have been considered a liberal Democrat.
I don’t care about labels; I rest my case on common sense and thousands of
years of economic history.
I
was born in 1947 in Buffalo, NY at a Sisters of Charity hospital. As my mother
approached the end of her pregnancy the doctor asked if she wanted me strangled
if I wasn’t “right”. It was then commonplace for the disabled newborn to be
killed with the doctor telling the parents that their baby was born dead and
then forging the dead certificate. The hospital staff was complicit, which
presumably included the nuns, and they all carried this secret to their grave.
A disabled child would have consigned the family to poverty; some siblings
would have forgone marriage to care for them while others would have given up
the possibility of college and upward mobility. There was no welfare state as
we know it today, and back then it was a badge of shame to say I can’t take
care of myself and my family. These people had their pride, hopes and dreams,
these would be off spring were the children or grand children of those who left
the spent fields of Sicily or the imperially ravaged landscape of Poland. The
doctors and hospital staff knew the families and lived in the same
neighborhoods. They all knew life was a bitch.
I
won’t be sitting on a golden throne on Judgment Day and I can’t answer the
question of whether this was right or wrong. I know God gave us freewill and I
know that we have to make decisions within our limited confines and restricted
circumstances. It is not always easy, nor do I suspect it is supposed to
be. Life is a gritty experience of hard
choices.
A
cousin of mine killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Japanese. If the Marine
Corp pinned any more medals on his chest he would have fallen over from their
weight. But after the war he was a person that dreaded uncertainty and never
fully embraced life. Beyond his job and family, he devoted himself to helping
other veterans which probably aided his own struggle for inner peace. He
chained smoked, was plagued with bleeding ulcers and died young. In his heart
he was never a hero; just a man caught in a kill or be killed situation.
While
it may surprise many people here, I once worked on a project for a former
Sierra Club lobbyist. It was a great project and I am proud of its accomplishments.
I mention this because I was guided by what I believe was reality based common
sense, not a preconceived ideological stricture. Some people would like an
economy of cutesy tourist towns, and others say we are justified in spending a
quarter of a million dollars or so keeping brain stem babies alive for a few
months and some oppose the Dollar General store in Pine Grove because they
believe that we are a more affluent community than we really are. I wonder what
reality some people live in and what their concept of reality is based upon. It
is not always just what we would like to happen.
Copyright
2015, Mark L. Bennett
No comments:
Post a Comment