How To Resurrect The Democratic Party

Or  Golly, Gee, What Next?

Watching as there are more marches and protests against the Sanctuary City law.  That proposed law, SB 4, requires the all law enforcement personnel to be agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Any law officer failing to hold a suspected illegal immigrant can be arrested and jailed.  Full text here.  Things that concern me are the request to retain can be verbal.  No paper trail.  That could lead to a well they were called.  Too easy in the current political landscape to set up an official to be dismissed.

Any who, while the news was going on I was reading an article recommended by one of the fellow Democrats.  The article speaks of telling our stories instead of using charts and bullet points.  One analogy is that "while conservatives believe we are each in our own small boat and it is up to each of us to make it on our own, progressive morality holds that we are all on a large boat and unless we maintain that boat properly, we will all sink together."*

It can be really hard not to think of an individual boat being a good thing.  No reliance on anyone or any government, just their own resources.  Except for me I cannot change oil in my car.  Or build the boat.  I have to depend on others to do stuff.  I was perfectly happy to let the public school educate my son.  Are the schools different now?  My grandchildren seem to be doing fine but time will tell.  Two grandsons have dyslexia and the system (ie teachers) have done a great job working with them.   Not something I could have worked with had I attempted home schooling.

For an analogy, I now have climbed out of my little boat into a mini cruise ship.  Oh, hope there is room for the doctor that does knee and hip replacements.  And a podiatrist.  I have two nephews that are pastors so if we make it a family cruise the spiritual part will be covered.  Still not a huge boat.  I do like my car and computer.  Guess the boat is getting larger.  Food, food is good.  Bigger boat needed.  Farm implements, guns, eye glasses and the list goes on and on to include the folks picking the food, making furniture and the other items I like in my life.

Okay, now the boat is so big there is the need for sanitation and maintenance of the boat.  More people.  Now all those individual boats are hung along the sides in case we hit an iceberg and the ship starts to sink.  Then folks would still be working together to pull folks from the water.  At least I would hope that better part of humanity would come through.  Well, that ended in a disaster.  Possibly we needed a captain and crew to manage to steer the ship out of harm's way.  A ship owned by the people for the good of the people.

All that said, I am not sure how I can help resurrect the Democratic party.  The party that led the southern states to secede from the Union.  Then 100 years later LBJ and the Congress finally passed the Civil Rights Act.  It really resulted in the southern Democrats leaving the party.  Does that mean in order for the Democrats to be electing more to the offices from the local commissioner on up is to push to repeal the Civil Rights Act?  Not for me.  That is a bridge too far.  Way too Far.

I do believe it is not about any one party.  It is not about 'winning'.  It is about a community that chooses to live in respect for each other.  To be the one that waves that car into the line, not shoot the bird because you have to be first.  To be the one to hold doors, to hold a lonely person's hand.  Maybe kissing a child's boo boo or just wiping their tears.  It has to start small, with my own boat.  Cause I do not want the Union to dissolve nor fall into ruin.

Tonight I huddled with folks wanting to make a difference.  To keep our nation on a course to provide education, clean air, clean water, protection from harm and all the other things that go with our land.  Will this land fall into being nothing but a bunch of quarreling gangs or tribes?  I pray not on this nor any of the future watches.  So let's see what we can agree on to keep the ship afloat.

In peace,
Janice

* from Politico Soapbox, Dave Gold, 2/9/2017 (full text)