Voting Your Faith

Following Jesus is what I live for. Jesus was a liberal, an extraordinary one for His time; even for ours. Defending women, supporting children, confronting those who would judge or condemn minorities, fighting for equality and respect for all human beings, loving all, and forgiving everyone, Jesus presents for us a challenging calling.

I have noticed one political party seems to live out these values more readily than the other. One stands up for the disadvantaged, protecting the less fortunate from the more powerful, encouraging sharing wealth rather than hording it individually, seeks to provide better education for our children, providing homes to the homeless, food to the hungry and medical care to those who need it, and confront abusers of minorities.

The other often fights against these causes, supporting and defending the well-off at the expense of the middle class and poor, works to defeat education funding, supports big oil, fights against environmental concerns, and promotes prejudice and attack against minorities, especially if they come from another country or have a different sexual orientation than their own.

I want truth instead of cover-up, peace instead of war, freedom from verbal, emotional or physical attack instead of self-righteousness, and a caring for God’s great creation of the earth and our fellow human beings. I want consideration for others instead of “looking out for number one,” compassion towards others instead of judgment, looking to needs of our neighbors instead of keeping our riches to ourselves. I want sensitivity to the one another’s circumstances, striving to help rather than excluding others, to be welcoming instead of rejecting, to give people freedom to be as God created them, to believe what makes sense to them instead of needing them to be like me.

There is an openness in one Party that attracts me, in the same way I am attracted to Jesus. There is a harshness and coldness in the other major Party that seems quite unlike Jesus. It often confuses me when Christians of one party attack Christians of the other Party as if they are on the wrong side. Is it possible God loves both Democrats and Republicans equally?

There is a hymn that exhorts, “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love” of our fellowman. (Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela) We will not be recognized as followers of Jesus by how we hate our fellowman (Beck, Limbaugh).

Jesus made his message as clear as he could when he told us the most important things in life are, “Love the Lord your God…and your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt:22:36-39)

Mudslinging against gracious politicians, destroying the land, polluting the air, misrepresenting facts, abusing power, condemning - even killing - gays, blacks, Muslims, Jews, hispanics, instead of responding to their need, is diametrically opposed to following Jesus.

Loving, forgiving, responding to, welcoming, praying for, serving, fighting for, speaking out to protect, giving to, and wishing everyone the blessings we have ourselves - IS following Jesus.

Which Party reflects that for you?

Conflicting Freedoms Present Challenge to USA

Most of the time I use my travel time on planes to go over upcoming presentations, read, or catch up on sleep. Fight #395 to Sacramento turned out to be different.

Next to me sat a man headed to the West Coast on business, a casually dressed Canadian with surprisingly white skin. After trading hellos, I quickly discovered this man was interested in a conversation.

“Mind if I ask you a question?” he said to me after confirming I was a US resident.

“Sure, go ahead,” I replied.

“What’s with you Americans and guns?”

“What do you mean?” I returned.

“Nearly half of the world’s guns in existence are owned by your 4% of the world’s population, and more than half of the firepower in other countries around the world comes from your factories,” he said.

“You have the most gun deaths per capita (that is, per 100,000 people) of the 36 industrialized countries of the world. Your per capita death rate is higher than Brazil, Yemen, and Mexico, three of the most violent nations of the world. At more than 30,000 deaths a year, you lose six times as many lives by firearms every year than the total number of your soldiers killed in the entire Iraq War.”

After taking a deep breath, I quickly did the math in my head. I couldn’t fault him on any of his points.

From a different perspective, I knew that more people die on our streets and in our homes every 2 years than the number of service men and women that died in the 16 years of the Viet Nam war combined - more than 80 people a day. Multiply that by 3 to comprehend the number of accompanying injuries from guns.

These practices seemed pretty barbaric to my seat-mate. He was curious as to why we are the only civilized country in the world to promote the ownership of handguns by regular citizens.

“Why do you allow this to go on?” He was serious, looking me straight in the eye.

“In the United States, we believe in a freedom that allows its citizens to purchase and carry guns. In fact,” I continued, “this freedom was recently reviewed and upheld in our Supreme Court.”

“In Canada, we believe in freedom too,” he responded, “but not the freedom to kill each other. Thirty years ago, we had around 1000 gun deaths a year (less than two weeks worth in the US). This bothered us, so we instituted tougher regulations, and gun deaths decreased by 50%.”

“You’d benefit a lot in fighting crime too,” he went on. “You lead the world in the amount of criminal activity you allow at the hands of untraceable firearms. One third of all armed criminal acts in the USA involve the use of unregulated guns.”

He was accurate again.

“Many of our citizens like to shoot their own food, enjoy hunting as a sport, and feel more protected if they own a gun,” I countered.

“Yes, I understand,” he said, “but why don’t you promote stricter gun regulation, as nearly 50 other countries have successfully, as a way of protecting both the sport and your fellow citizens?”

“Besides, owning a gun doesn’t make you safer. Studies show that a person is more likely to be killed with a gun if they have one in their home than if they don’t.”

He was right again. Depending on the study and location, American gun deaths and injuries are on average, 2 – 3 greater in homes that possess guns as opposed to those who don’t.

I thought back to a psychology student I had at Riverland College a few years ago who had given a report on the need for greater gun control, who, ironically, was later killed with a handgun by her husband.

As our discussion continued, it became more disquieting to me: America experiences a loss of life from citizen-owned guns equal to a 9/11 every 33 days, except for two things: (1) the deaths occur one by one scattered across the country, so we don’t notice it as much, and (2) we are doing it to ourselves.

My plane-mate excused himself to go to the restroom.

Why do we allow this to go on I wondered? Is our fear misplaced, given that our weapons are more likely to kill a family member than an intruder? Does our pride in gun ownership justify maintaining a freedom that kills of more of our citizens at home than our soldiers abroad? Was it the big money lobby that allows the powerful to have their way at the expense of the 2/3 of Americans that want stronger gun control? Has the right to have a gun become more important than the right to life for 30,000 people a year? How do we balance the concerns of the sportsman and an individual citizen’s fear of harm, with the protection of the rest of society?

I guess I had no answers. But for some reason, it seemed difficult to sleep after that.

(David Larson, M.S., C.P.C.C., is a licensed psychologist and life coach. He can be contacted at the Institute For Wellness, 507-373-7913, or at his website, www.callthecoach.com.)

Why This Independent Is Voting Democratic This Year

“It’s common for Americans to vote against their own best interest.”

- Pursah

Over the years I have refrained from joining any political party in order to sustain some sense of objectivity in evaluating the issues. By remaining a political independent, I have discovered I can hear facts, that in belonging to either the Republican or Democratic Party, I might be unable to acknowledge. Besides, perhaps like many of you, the personal attacks and negativity that have become standard campaigning protocol by members of both parties represent a style of leadership I do not support.

This year, however, I have decided to vote primarily democrat. I would like to tell you why.

I have been particularly observant of a momentum toward conservatism in recent months that has surprised me a bit, especially considering both historical perspectives and the recent realities we’ve been experiencing as a nation.

What President Obama has been able to accomplish in his short time in office has been jaw-droppingly amazing to me. Out of dozens of achievements that could be highlighted, I cite here only a few:

• Sweeping Health Care Reform that allows millions of Americans to receive the health care they need, while putting sick people previously unable to work back on the job to pay taxes and help reduce our debt.

• Implementing the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to prevent any more bailouts.

• Ending the war in Iraq.

• Successfully confronting the banks and credit card companies in providing consumer protection through the Credit Card Reform Act.

• Restoring the image of America abroad by becoming again a team player with other nations.

• Taking serious steps to promote the long awaited United States’ participation in a world-wide focus on addressing global warming.

• Putting more than 2 million people back to work and bringing into reality the building of bridges, repairing of roads, funding education, promoting alternative energy resources, and providing incentives for new forms of massive transit through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

• Fully funding the Veteran’s Administration and providing compassion and long overdue funding to families of fallen soldiers.

• Saving the failing auto industry while keeping thousands of Americans employed and Americans buying American-made.

• Delivering a stimulus package that provided a tax cut to 95% of American workers.

• Presiding over a gain of more than 22% in the stock market.

• Orchestrating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement Review with 47 other nations, moving us as a world out of stalemate into international cooperation toward eliminating nuclear weapons from the planet.

• Expanded loans for small businesses, programs to protect the environment, college aid funding for needy students, and improved Medicare coverage for seniors

In checking through sources such as Politifact.com, I was reminded that Obama has fulfilled 122 of his campaign promises in less than two years.

In addition, seven of ten economic indicators have improved since Obama began taking action, showing signs of a true economic recovery. (Businessweek)

This, in my mind, is remarkable achievement.

Although there is still much work ahead, our forgetfulness and impatience can easily mislead us. Remember, it took Clinton 5 years to turn the largest national deficit in history into a surplus. If Clinton’s plan had been allowed to continue, the projected national debt was to have been eliminated by 2010 (yes, now). However, George W. Bush, in his first year of office, immediately reversed this surplus by way of new tax cuts to the rich - 70% of federal tax-cut money went to the top 2% of wealthiest Americans (New York Times).

We have been struggling to recover ever since. Since George W’s deficit spending was three times that of his father’s, Obama’s challenge is greater than Clinton’s. It is reasonable to expect it will take a while to turn this deficit around.

But the problem has not only been recent. It has, in fact, been consistent. Since the 1960’s, the last 4 Democratic presidents have brought the deficit down, while the last 4 Republican presidents have increased the deficit substantially. In fact, as msnbc reported, 2/3 of our total national debt was created during the reign of the last 3 republican presidents – more than twice as much as all other US presidents combined. Despite the fact that Republicans like to tote an image that they are good at controlling spending, history shows that they consistently outspend their Democratic counterparts.

It’s not that Democrats don’t spend money. However, they tend to spend it on things that respond to human need, improve the economy and create jobs. (Remember, Bill Clinton created more jobs than any other president in history – more than 22 million).

We need to keep philosophies in government that represent progress, not set-back. That’s why this year, I am supporting demonstrated effective policy by voting Democratic.

Many Republicans have good ideas. The Republican strategies, however, need to be tempered by historically demonstrated Democratic compassion and effectiveness, and a continued “yes we can,” not “no we won’t” thinking.

Unless we can commit to voting at the polls from reason and thoughtfulness, instead of from fear and hype, it’s possible we may once again end up voting against our own best interest.

(David Larson, M.S., C.P.C.C., is a licensed psychologist, life coach, and leadership trainer. He can be contacted at the Institute For Wellness, 507-373-7913, or at his website, www.callthecoach.com.)

Making the Most of the Time You Have Left

Do all you can, with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are.

-Nkosi Johnson, twelve year old Zulu boy, living with AIDS

Tom arrived at the local radio station a little late. He was to begin his usual midnight shift as a talk show host.. He was tired, wishing he could just go to bed and sleep like most people do on a Friday night.

“I hope I get some good discussions tonight,” he thought as he checked over last minute responsibilities before going on the air.

The usual conversations unfolded. People having trouble sleeping called in to share their woes, or just talk to pass the time. Some spoke of political concerns or relationship problems. But nothing prepared him for the call he got from Sam just before dawn.

“You see,” said Sam, “I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic,” he told Tom. “The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on the average, folks live about seventy-five years. Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.”

“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.”

Sam’s voice became more focused.

“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.”

“I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”

Tom’s ears were really perked by now.

“Tom, this morning I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday, then I have been given a little extra time. After all, half the people my age are already gone.”

Sam hung up with Tom still a little off balance. He thought about that call the rest of his shift, as sun began to dawn on his own Saturday, and has done the same almost every Saturday since then.

How much time did he have left, he wondered? What was he doing with the present moment he had? Where did he focus his energy and time? If he had a marble jar, how close would he be to his last marble?

How about you?

What would you do tonight, this weekend, if you were on your last marble?

Do it now.

How do you know you haven’t already used your last marble?

What will you do about that?

(Story adapted from an unknown source by David Larson, M.S., C.P.C.C. He can be contacted at 507-373-7913, or at his website, http://www.callthecoach.com/.)