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FALSE CHOICES AND LABELING

One aspect of American culture that has often surprised me is our tendency to put people into camps. You either believe in creation or evolution.  You believe in a women’s right to choose or the right to life.  You believe wearing a mask is imperative or it doesn’t matter. You either support Trump or you’re a “Trump-hater”.  You predominantly support black lives matter or blue lives matter.  You believe we must focus on growing the economy or protecting the environment. You believe “taking a knee” is a fit means of protesting police brutality or it’s disrespectful of our flag and country. You’re either part of the radical left or the far-right. This tendency to label and place others in camps has clearly grown with the rise of social media, news programming and divisive political rhetoric. Let me suggest that if we genuinely want to make meaningful progress on issues of faith, race, income inequality, healthcare, abortion, our environment, and education, it is imperative that we become purposeful in turning away from false choices and all the labels flying about, and look in earnest for just, pragmatic and compassionate solutions. 

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LESSONS FROM MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

Amid these challenging times, it strikes me how lessons learned climbing mountains over 14,000 feet might be applicable to getting through this pandemic. Mountain climbing, like this pandemic, is a long, hard and often lonely slog, with much that is out of our control. 

When I first began climbing mountains over 14,000 feet nearly 25 years ago, I quickly learned three things mountain climbers do frequently and almost by instinct.  

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IS THE ECONOMY REALLY DOING “GREAT”?

While many news outlets and the Trump Administration have been quick to repeatedly tell us the US economy is doing “Great”, data on what is undergirding the economy, and how most Americans are really doing, indicate that the economy really isn’t doing so “Great” after all.  Sure GDP growth is doing pretty well, jobs are being created, and wealth is growing through gains in the stock and real estate markets, but the facts are that Trump and Republicans in Congress have spiked the punch bowl with $1 trillion per year of deficit spending, the Federal Reserve has been injecting roughly $120 billion per month into the banking system to keep interest rates from rising, and all while a great many people remain financially insecure and struggling.  

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COMPASSION IN GOVERNANCE?

I’ve never been one of the sharper pencils in the box, but something that has perplexed me over the last three years is the support so many friends and colleagues have extended to Donald Trump and his policies. The Trump supporters I speak of are intelligent people of good will, whom I respect.  And yet, one question continually confounds me: If you saw a man abusing women and children or an elderly person somewhere in public, would you not step in and do your utmost to stop it? I’m confident everyone I know would. And yet, for reasons apparently beyond me, people continue to support Trump despite a wealth of speech and conduct that runs counter to the values they espouse, and clear evidence that he drives policies that hurt millions of innocent people. Here are a few examples for your consideration.  

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BEWARE OF FAUSTIAN BARGAINS

One thing about Faustian bargains, where we consciously choose to turn from the moral beliefs and values that define us, in favor of something we desire in the short term, is that they always end in tragedy.  Just as Faust sold his soul for worldly pleasures, selling the moral basis of our lives to achieve short term goals, even noble ones, inevitably results in long term consequences far more dire then we ever imagined and leaves us broken and filled with regret.

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REPUBLICAN TAX REFORM

As a conservative and a Republican for over 40 years, I’m compelled to testify, without political motive, and with the best interest of our country and people at heart, that the current Republican tax plan is extremely disappointing. It is disappointing because while it purports to reform the tax code, stimulate economic growth, and help the American people, it does little more than provide a handout to those that are already wealthy. It is a Trump led con, supported by Republican “leaders” desperately seeking a “win”, who have forgotten their compassionate conservative roots and given in to enriching wealthy friends and maintaining a narrow base they’ve conned into believing their pitch.  This tax bill will add to the deficit, stoke inflation, raise interest rates, result in 13 million people losing their health insurance, put additional upward pressure on health insurance premiums for the rest of us, and ignore the very real constraints to the economy and the long term needs of our country.

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REPUBLICAN SUCCESS IN HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION

Kudos to President Trump and House Republicans who had the tenacity to push thru healthcare legislation to the detriment of the vast majority of the American people.  Kudos to our President and House Republicans who were able to turn a blind eye to the healthcare needs of the people, stayed focused on their political war with Democrats, and lend an extra helping handout to the very rich and the bottom line of businesses. Kudos to Trump and House Republicans who successfully exercised their loathing of Obamacare to not only undermine it, but merrily applauded their success in approving a plan that will kick tens of millions of people off their healthcare insurance and diminish the healthcare policies of the rest of us.  Kudos to “leaders” who managed to muster the callousness to vote for the House healthcare bill knowing that it will substantially raise premiums for the vast majority of older people as well as push those with serious pre-existing conditions into health insurance pools that won’t be financially viable.

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