When we are forced to recognize the boundaries of our rights in order to protect other people’s rights the way we’ve always forced others to compromise for our overreach, we begin to see how ugly our behavior has always been. Some of us accept the fault, change, and move forward, some cannot and cling to the past.
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I care about what people think. I believe that innate right is paramount. When caring about what another person thinks interferes with my ability to respect myself, that is where it stops.
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A person can be wrong about one thing without being excluded from being correct about all else. It is possible.
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“A rebellion’s a rebellion, no matter how poorly conceived.”
-Dr. Seuss (No, not really, it isn’t. No, not even close, but it’s true, nonetheless, and totally gross. Yes, it is nonetheless true and worth taking note.)
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Society is standing on a high ledge, staring down, contemplating its worth. We can tell it to jump, or we can try to talk it down. Either way, know that we are talking to ourselves.
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In all knowledge, there exists a certain amount of hopelessness for the inevitability of our limitations.
. . .
Leaders who are incapable of inspiring, resort to motivating people with fear. What we are seeing is a direct result of multiple generations of people motivated by their instilled fears instead of their hopes. We are now a country of depression and anxiety, willing to do any terrible thing to be unafraid. Fear is a stronger force than logic. This is why we are nearly incapable of compromise, the single most important requirement of democracy and freedom. This is why we are nearly incapable of accepting our part of the fault, the most vital step in any sort of change. Admission of any kind has been defined by our leaders as an absolute failure. This is why we have wrongfully decided it is only one way or the other. This is how we come to be the worst of which we are capable. Cure your own hypocrisy before seeking it out in others, and allow yourself some hope to find the easy but disguised path back to reason, accountability, and compassion above all.
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I believe the best way to protect the rights and way of life that we want is to recognize when we are being manipulated and motivated with our fear of losing it.
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BUT they did it first!
-Accountability in 2021
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There is an important distinction between being upset about the media or a person being biased and being upset because they are not biased in your favor.
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If you want to see just how creative human minds can be, listen to people lie to you as they’re lying to themselves at the same time.
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“New edition of The Holy Bible shortened to 5 pages after removing the parts that religious activists clearly don’t care about. In a related story, the updated Constitution will be a quarter page of Cliff’s notes.”
-Basically, Current Events
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When you’re a kid, you think you don’t give a damn about politics, but when you grow up, you realize it’s the other way around.
. . .
The most important thing you can do in life is to be satisfied with what you have, what you are given, so that the people keeping you from the things you actually want don’t have to worry about you being upset about not having those things.
Joseph D. Newcomer 
I agree that we are standing on that tall ledge peering down deciding whether to jump or walk along the ledge until we see a place at the end where we can live and breathe. When we look up all we see is blue sky, and when we look down we see people looking up. We can see the starving faces and hear the pleas for the necessities of life. Will our society help rise them up or will they head for the stars and leave them to wallow in the mess they are leaving behind.
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Reblogged this on Time Traveler on the road of Life.
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We need to be bold and stand up together for our rights and not let anyone steal these God given rights to all of us. It’s a battle between good and evil.
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I’m not sure how I feel about the term God-given rights. Seems like rights are something we saddled ourselves with but in a process of elimination fashion. We decided what we shouldn’t be allowed to do and, for the rest of it, those are our rights. If there is a God, I imagine it only really gave us the abilities to make those distinctions. I think the greatest distinction in us is how we choose to impose our self-created “rights” and how we allow that imposition to infringe on other’s “rights.”
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This quote is credited to several people: “Your liberty to swing your fist ends just where my nose begins.” Seems as if anymore, people strike out (metaphorical) in all directions not caring who they hit. We are a nation that has become too divided; we—especially politicians—need to grow up and learn to compromise. Yes, we need a set of rules for society to function, but too many attempt to force what they believe to be a right (which is really just an opinion on how everyone should conduct their lives), on everyone else. I grew up going to church, and I don’t recall a pastor ever saying we have God-given rights; I think they are politician-given rights.
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I haven’t heard this quote before, but I love it. I think you and I are very much on the same page.
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I think so…😊
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