WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING A LIBERAL?

Recently, there has been focus on activists of the current “Occupy Wall Street” protest underway.  The movement – being held to show opposition to the current financial setup that many feel  allow rich corporations and wealthy individuals to take advantage of taxpayers and ordinary citizens – is gaining ground not only in New York, the city of its origin, but also in other major cities such as Chicago, Seattle, Los Angles, Washington DC, Boston – just to name a few. 

These protesters feel that enough is enough, and that those in financial power need to be held accountable. Unlike the Tea Party, which blames big government for America's economic problems, the Occupy Wall Street movement holds big business responsible for the current state of the global economy. "We have spent $3-trillion to send our kids to war," a group of older women protesters chant. "Well no, not all the kids, just the brown, the black, the poor." All to benefit lucrative military contracts for corporations and to obtain rights to large oil fields located in Iraq for rich oil companies.

Some media houses have brandished these protesters as ‘unwashed, tree-hugging liberals’  with no organized message – as if reverting to a time in the past where similar protests were held by those against  the Vietnam War of the 60s/70s. 

And it got me to thinking – what is wrong with being a liberal?  Why are people so afraid of change? 

I Googled the word ‘liberal’ and got this definition from the Oxford Dictionary Online:  open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values; favorable to or respectful of individual rights and freedoms; (in a political context) favoring maximum individual liberty in political and social reform; [attributive] (of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person’s general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.

So a liberal is one who embraces change, respectful of individual rights, looks to education to broaden one’s knowledge and temper their experiences. 

And this is wrong…….how?

We’re all liberals – whether we acknowledge it or not.  We all are born as innocent babies with a clean slate of inexperience.  Through education - whether book-learned or life taught - and personal mistakes we adapt and become individuals.  We all – ALL – strive for a better life.  This is the fundamental of being a liberal. That is what allowed us as humans to transform ourselves from living as wandering tribes flung across the globe, into the organized and modern world community of today.  Liberal thinking is what also brought us improvements to our daily lives; it is what drives inventors to bring us new products to make our lives easier.  It is the forward thinking of liberals that gave us the personal computer, the internet, the mobile phone, etc.  

I also Googled the word ‘conservative’ and got THIS response:  holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion; a person who is averse to change and holds to traditional values and attitudes, typically in relation to politics.

Ah-HA!  So being a conservative is akin to identifying as an uptight, close-minded, un-flinching bigot?  I always thought so.  Conservatives tend to be very religious, dismissive of science, education and book learning.  Rather than question or probe unexplained events and look to logic and science for answers, they tend to embrace ignorance and seek other-worldly explanations and fairy tales to rationalize what they can’t explain. 

Conservatives and their thinking were the reason that Western Europe went through the Dark Ages between the 6^th and the 13^th centuries, a period of intellectual darkness and barbarity, a time of ignorance and superstition.  To question the standard then was seen as heresy and punishable by death.  (Hmmmm, sound eerily similar to the current Texas penal system, doesn’t it?) 

Do you know who benefitted the most during the Dark Ages?  The Roman Catholic Church and the rich lords who embraced the serf and feudalism system. 

Very similar to the rich corporations and evangelical racists currently elected in Congress and identify themselves as Republicans and Tea Party representatives. 

And they say history doesn’t repeat itself…..

EMBRACE YOUR INNER LIBERAL!!!!  Fight for a better world!!!