Thursday, July 27, 2017

a few thoughts

 I write these blogs about whatever comes to mind. Usually it is just what I heard during the previous day or something from the news. These are the things that spark conversation and so that is why I write about them. I've created some controversy on occasion, none of it intentional, but that is to be expected. We all have disagreements. It even happens with our friends. Well, with some friends it happens more than others. I would say the strength of a friendship is an aggregate of agreement and disagreement. Just how much do you think alike ? Or is it how much are you willing to compromise for that friendship ? The bigger question being should you have to compromise at all ? To make it short, I think you should. Compromise, for me, ends with deceit. I will not compromise the truth as I see it. That is the key to it all, the truth. One does have to understand that there can be more than one truth. I will not agree with something I don't believe to be true. Also I will not fight to the death over everything I believe to be true. There are times when it is best to just leave the battlefield. That isn't surrender, that is common sense. True in war and true in relationships.
 Yesterday President Trump reversed a policy from the Obama administration concerning transgender people serving in the military. I'm not quite certain how I feel about that. I spent twenty years in the Navy and don't believe I ever encountered a transgender. I don't doubt that they were there, people being people and all, just that it wasn't spoken about. It was that way with the gay folks too. I suspected a few " shipmates " sailed a different course than I did but it wasn't announced. Hey, whatever, but I have to admit I don't think there was any degradation of the Navy as a result of that. It did create some trouble every now and again. Well, like I said people are people. I realize that times and attitudes change and all of this is just an extension of that. In the medical field the debate rages on. Is transgenderism a mental disorder ? Many highly esteemed professional believe it is. I would say it is certainly an aberration, a deviation from expected behavior. I do wonder how many of these aberrations in human behavior we are going to decide to normalize ? More importantly perhaps I wonder about the reasons for dong so. Are we compromising the truth to just get along ? Is it tolerance that we are teaching ? Tolerance is an allowable amount of variation from a standard. In this case what are the standards ? Moral standards are what we are discussing. The difficulty lies in determining those standards. Perhaps what we are trying to enforce is a compromise. A compromise between truths. The " straight " person believing transgenderism is morally wrong or a mental disorder. The compromise is allowing ( read tolerating )  those same people to openly practice this perceived moral depravity and giving tacit approval to do the same. A compromise of the truth.
 I wonder, does compromising your beliefs, your truths, make you a better whatever ? Whether you are a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim or whatever will that act make you a better one ? Is that the reason we have reached a point where that is what is being preached ? Do not stand firmly by your belief or you will be labeled as an extremist ? Your views are extreme ? That is certainly what is being said regarding the Muslims. If they believe everything that is written in the Quran and then practice that belief, they are extremists ! That isn't my opinion, that is what is being taught. At least that is what is being taught to all the non-believers ( non Muslims )  isn't it ? To the Christians and the Jews we are being told we can believe whatever we want, we just can't openly practice that belief. We have to be tolerant, we must compromise our standards. We are further being told that by doing just that we will be practicing our religion ! So, we have to compromise our truths, defer to the others in order to be faithful ?
 It just seems to me that the agenda is the removal of any religious belief from society in general. We are trying to establish some autonomous body of legislators to delineate human interaction. No mention of a higher power, no mention of eternal consequence. Our laws are to be based solely on what ? Just how are we to determine right from wrong, what is the criteria ? Now that is something to think about. 

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