Value

Greetings all,

Yes I know I'm late, but two days in a row I have collapsed in bed soon after the sun has set.  I've actually been looking at my writing commitment which I made four years ago and wondering if it still applies.  I made it in a time of personal loss and transition.  I needed a way to process my experiences and blogging seemed to help.  Lately it has been more of a chore, but that feeling comes and goes.  I haven't made any hard and fast decisions yet about the future of my writing here so no worries.  However, if you do enjoy my musings please let me know by commenting and sharing.  Writing on the internet is like putting a message in a bottle, I never know on which shore it will end up.

So waking up this morning and checking my newsfeed on Facebook I was shown many "Thoughts and prayers", for the people of Las Vegas.  I had no idea what had happened, but 'thoughts and prayers' is generally code for mostly preventable mass murder by guns here in America.  We act sad for a day or two and then go about our business.  Those of us who think that we should perhaps do something to prevent such tragedies are shouted down by the NRA and their spokespeople and the few crazy gun nuts who think firearms should be everywhere.  So we just wait until the next mass shooting and hope that neither we nor our loved ones are involved.

This has a lot to do with our hierarchy of values in America.  I shall make a list from the least to most valued. (This is a list of societal values NOT mine).

10. Muslims
9.   People of Color
8.   Gay People
7.   Jews
6.   Foreign born citizens
5.   White women (if they are Christian and appropriately dressed)
4.   White men
3.    Police officers
2.    Unborn fetuses
1.    Guns

You may notice a few things about that list.  For one there are no children on it.  We only value children (on the societal level) when they are unborn.  Once they are out of the womb they are expected to just deal with things, which is fine if they are born to wealthy white people.  Society is unwilling to invest in education and development.  We are also not willing to stop killing and imprisoning people of color.  America sees their lives as a commodity for prisons for profit or for target practice.  As for Jews, Gays, and Muslims they make convenient scapegoats for politicians.  Notice there are no veterans on that list.  We don't care about our soldiers once they come back as we give them poor support and that is why their suicide rate is so high.  As far as recent citizens we expect them to keep their heads down and thank God (the right one of course) that they made it in.

So let's all talk about the smoking gun in that list.  Here in America guns are valued more than the unborn fetuses that people will blow up clinics to demonstrate the sanctity of life.  This is why we can't have nice things.  We have things backwards.  First off there shouldn't be a different category for people.  There should be one category for human life.  That should go at the top of our list.  Guns should always be behind that.  I used to be a bit more moderate about guns, but the gun lobby has been so rabid to prevent any sort of sane measures I'm thinking it is time that nobody had them in civilian life (police included).  We have proven again and again that we just can't handle them responsibly.  I know this puts me at odds with people I know, even people I like and respect.  I have been in people's gun rooms (for my foreign readers here in the USA some people collect so many weapons they need a room to store them in) and all I could feel was the energy of violent death emanating from every direction.  They were clearly excited about this, I was not.  I've also been around people who had a rifle out for sports shooting and I was completely at ease around them.  I have been threatened by a drunk fundamentalist that they would get their gun because I don't believe the same way they do.  We may glorify it in our movies, games, and television but we must never forget the terror and death that guns suddenly bring.

Why am I telling you this?  Well I am sick of the hypocrisy of it all.  Number two on the list was unborn fetuses.  We wax poetic on the value of the life that might be, but we are perfectly happy to send that little bundle of joy out into a land that is being turned into a shooting gallery for the deranged.  This faux concern for life is even more laughable when we look at the state of healthcare in America.  Notice that wasn't on the list either.  I have insurance that I can't afford to use, and may lose in the next year.  I don't know how far this message in a bottle will go, but if it gets spread I am sure I and my family will get death threats.  Somebody might shoot me.  If I am shot and not instantly killed I won't be able to afford treatment.  Should I die violently before our parasitic healthcare system drains all my assets let it be known that I want my resources to goto the Water Protectors of Standing Rock.  Why you ask, because protecting our natural environment and resources is something that I value.

Okay I'm done ranting, but I must ask what do you value?  Have you got a list of values and their order of importance?  Do your values contradict themselves?  If they do, have you ever tried to reconcile those conflicts?  Do you value some lives more than others?  If so why?  Feel free to leave comments about what your biggest value is.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle