Don't Tread on Me...or ME!!!

In my last post, I talked about how “Words Can Carry Many Interpretations.” However, phrases can also carry many interpretations but also, sometimes, can and should be interpreted literally. Those who would raise the flag “Don’t Tread on Me” need to understand that one cannot say “Don’t Tread on Me” and in the same breath say, “but tread on everyone else”! If we are to take seriously this phrase, and I think we should take it seriously, our democratic form of government should interpret this to be “Don’t Tread on ANYONE”.

We each have freedoms. Freedom of speech, freedom to carry guns, freedom of or from religion (though on this one I am not sure all agree), and freedom to live our lives as we please. However, under our laws, many, if not all, of those freedoms have a moment when they are curtailed. This usually occurs at the point when one person’s freedoms infringe on the freedoms of others.

My freedom of religion and the ability to practice my religion is guaranteed up and until it is requiring that all other religions be subjected to my religion. My right to bear arms ends when my right to those arms infringes upon the right of someone to live. My right will need to be curtailed, or lessened enough, to allow for not only my right, but my fellow American’s right to life.

A women’s right to live and have an abortion if necessary is not subjected to someone else’s personal religious views. How could it be? In Christianity alone there are hundreds of denominations in America with an assortment of views about abortion. Whose version are we going to use? (I vote for Episcopalian as they seem to be the only denomination, in my opinion, that includes REASON as a part of their dogma and teachings.)

Recently, as I was going to the gym, I parked behind a truck that had the sticker “We the people have had enough.” Though I hope I am wrong and they meant us to read that in the “all Americans included” kind of way, I can’t help but imagine that the purpose of this sticker was to imply “we the people” meaning only those who thought, looked, acted, and believed the same as the owner of the truck. However, again, let’s take the phrase literally.

“We the people” HAVE had enough! Enough of one group demanding rights while actively suspending or removing the rights of other people. “We the people” have had enough of a small minority of entitled individuals demanding their rights while demeaning, and in some cases erasing, the existence of others. “We the people” have had enough of the ultra wealthy demanding a 4 trillion-dollar tax break…TAX BREAK! (You have to pay taxes first to request a tax break!)

To all those who want a restricted interpretation of “We the people”, I challenge you to look deeply within yourself to find your heart. You know the heart of love, compassion, and empathy for your fellow human being. As an example, instead of tax breaks for the wealthy, perhaps consider (in no particular order):

1. Take ½ trillion dollars and use the proceeds at .5% interest and perpetually house ALL the homeless in America.

2. Take another trillion dollars and pay off all the medical debt for Americans.

3. And if you really cared, take 2 trillion dollars of the rest and pay off the entire student loan debt and release 42 million Americans from a life of misery.

4. Heck, there might be enough left over to help pay off some American credit card debt.

And guess what? After all that, you would STILL be billionaires and multi-millionaires! That’s if the GOP/Christian Nationalists and the wealthiest in America actually had a heart. I’m not sure they do have a heart or at least not enough of them can find their heart.

They want everything for themselves (not Democracy). They want all the power and money (not Democracy). They want freedom, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for themselves only and everyone else can serve them (not democracy). Well, at least not the type of democracy most of us want. And for Christian Nationalists, let me remind you. Christ said “you cannot serve two masters…God and money.” Either you will love God and hate money (money in the sense of always needing more) or you will never be satisfied with the money you have and will end up not loving God. Never in my life have I seen a party sell absolutely every piece of their heart, soul, love, and God for the pursuit of their unquenchable thirst for power and money. When is enough…enough?

I have issues with the political left when it comes to rights as well sometimes. But one thing I have known and seen personally is, in their heart, Democrats, and those in the middle (of both parties) and the far left, truly do care about people. Take the LGBTQ+. They may celebrate Pride, pride in themselves and in their belief that they should be seen, recognized, and respected. However, they also celebrate the fact that ALL people should be seen, recognized, and respected. I have never seen or been present at a Pride event where those who were not LGBTQ+ were ostracized. But I can not say this about those on the far-right, especially those who would claim to follow the God of Love. We can do better. We can help our fellow Americans on both sides of the political aisle. We can think of others before ourselves, especially when we have enough. We can support life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.

I want to end with an example of stepping outside oneself. I read several years ago a story about a woman, even though she had paid off all her student loans, who still supported student loan forgiveness for others. (She was responding to people who were against student loan forgiveness because they and others had paid their student loans off.) This woman commented that she was able to attain a great job, at a great salary, and was not laid off or let go or in any other way affected by events out of her control. And she still supported the idea of student loan forgiveness. She said not wanting others to get out from under their loans through forgiveness would be similar to her hypothetically getting assaulted on a dark street and then asking that the city NOT to install more lighting for safety on the wrongful assumption that if she got assaulted, others should get assaulted as well.

We have to step outside ourselves and realize life sometimes doesn’t work out for people. And for some, it does. And when it does, if we find ourselves lucky to be in the latter group, we should want to help those for whom life did not work out. Whether it is because they took a chance at improving themselves only to discover that the business and economic conditions changed, they hit hard times and found themselves homeless, or, through no choice of their own, they incurred or were born with medical issues that overwhelm. We can lift everyone up and make sure that no one is being tread upon. We can lift everyone up and continue to build a society that welcomes diversity. We can lift everyone up making sure that those most vulnerable have the necessities of life before those of us who have enough request more. We just have to want to.