CATEGORIZE, SCHMATEGORIZE

I'm getting a little overwhelmed and confused these days. Left wing liberal. Right wing conservative. GOP= Party of NO. DEMS=socialism. Sarah Palin= right wing goddess. Nancy Pelosi=left wing spawn of the devil. Bush=the decider. Obama=the ditherer. Abortion=right wing values, slap-down of women's rights. Abortion= celebration of women's rights, proof of left wing ungodliness. I'm caught in a morass of contradictions. No matter what I believe in, I'M WRONG.

I don't ever remember such vileness, divisiveness, fear mongering, truth stretching, slandering, pushing-of-religion for political purposes "in all my born days" as I used to hear said as a child. (I know, that was many years ago...) But we have been treated to a show of such lack of decorum, manners, respect, insult to intelligence, and shenanigans that would make Oral Roberts and P.T. Barnum blush. We all are not generalizations. We don't all live and die by the POLLS. We all don't swear by FOX news. Some of us actually THINK and go by our gut feelings to know what is right or wrong. Most of us are caught in the middle: we hear all the mumbo-jumbo put out by "our" side or the "opposition", and we agree with a little of both. But, NO, that's not acceptable. You're either for us or agin us, by golly!!

I believe in God, a higher being, a plan for each of our lives. I don't believe that all organized religions have a lock on goodness and yours, just because it is different than mine, is bad. I know that the Bible is a guide for leading a good and selfless life. But I also know it is a collection of writings that over time, have been rearranged, edited, added to and condensed to suit whatever purposes that particular group of scholars had in mind at the time. I believe there NEEDS to be a separation of church and state as was written by our forefathers when founding this country. I don't believe any religion-Catholic, evangelical, atheist, Jewish,-needs to be pressing their agenda into this country's politics. Nor do I believe that money from any of these organizations should be accepted for any purpose. I believe this country was built by people of all colors, creeds, nationalities, classes, education, and sexes. If it's OK to to use these same people in your factories, fields, homes, stores, and restaurants, they need to be afforded the same rights as everyone else, as long as they know what their responsibilities are as citizens. I believe NO ONE should have the right to tell me what to do with my body. I don't condone abortion as a method of birth control. I've never had one: but I don't believe any self-righteous man is going to tell me or any other woman in a dire circumstance that they can't have one. (I've worked more than 20 years of my life with OB/GYN's. This is not spoken callously.)
I believe in helping my fellow American citizen, or any person for that matter. I expect everyone to work for what they want to achieve in life: there's nothing wrong with succeeding in what you do. Money is not the root of all evil, LOVE of money is. It's when you don't use what you have (money or talent) in helping others do the same that the selfishness and greed sets in. It's when the looking down on others as "lazy, ignorant, waiting-for-hand-outs, and inferior" begins that turns me off.

So I guess I"ll continue down the road as an independent, not-so-middle-class-anymore, women's rights, spiritual, humor-loving, cancer-surviving, left-leaning, family-loving, commonsensical (is that a word?) kind of person. For those of you I irritate, I apologize. For those of you I amuse: at least I've accomplished something.