4th wishes and grumblings

The fourth of July is a special day: it celebrates the birth of our nation as a place of equal opportunity for all people. Sadly, with the dominance of right-wing extremism in today's politics and in the Christianity of the United States, we find that goal of equality diminishing. The proliferation of supply-side economics has dramatically widened the gap between rich and poor, and the dominance of fundamentalism has widened the gap between those whose Christianity is other than fundamentalism and those whose faith is fundamentalist. It has also widened the gap between concepts of moderation and those of dogmatism in both faith and politics. It is my hope that the dialogue between liberals, moderates, and conservatives may be opened up through love to a point at which meaningful conversation between the groups may emerge. Alas, this has not yet been reached at the present. Immigration, the socio-economic gap, better control of energy corporations, more environmental effort, general agreement on ways to strengthen the economy while not enabling an even-more dramatic disparity between rich and poor, and a righteous campaign to make the art of villification of one's opponents less popular in the political areana may help. The Founding Fathers desire that we all be able to pursue the goals of self-fulfillment and personal happiness should be goals for which we all can work. Curtisaurus

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