I love to write. It is soothing to my soul. I also feel happy when the words that I put on paper inspire someone. I know that my most popular blogs speak of the incredible people I have known and loved. My readers like to be uplifted by my thoughts and it’s usually quite easy for me to describe individuals and ideas that are positive and optimistic. On the other hand, when I write about situations that are concerning to me, I lose many of my faithful followers. It seems that many do not want to hear about anything that is even remotely unpleasant.

It would be so much easier to simply ignore the problems that I see in the world around me and just stick with unicorns and happy thoughts. Venturing into controversy all too often leads to upsetting people for whom I actually care. Many would rather look the other way rather than stare into the abyss of problematic issues. I lose much of my audience when I tackle knotty subjects in order to suggest my sometimes differing points of view. While I like to think about and talk about topics from differing points of view, I find that the many individuals are put off by my mere mention of ideas that challenge their thinking and beliefs. 

We humans are different from the other creatures that live around us. While they may have instincts that go beyond mere survival they are unable to match our abilities to think and create. The greatest ideas in the ascent of humankind have initially seemed out of the box and even blasphemous at times. Galileo was punished for the audacity of insisting that the earth is not the center of the universe. Jesus was given the death penalty for daring to question both civil and religious laws. 

While I do not dare compare myself to the greatest minds who have impacted our world, I understand that ideas often begin as questions about the everyday ways that we do things. The movers and shakers of history saw inconsistencies in practices and asked why we had to keep following manmade rules that were not working as well as they should. The men who founded the United States of America might have simply continued bowing to the king rather than suggesting that there was a better way of living than being servants of a tyrant. There were in fact many colonists who were dead set against a revolution. Some of them left the country rather than rally around the continental army. Some shut their doors and windows and looked the other way. Some worked against the effort to form a new kind of government of the people. Being a citizen who believed in the ideas set out in the Declaration of Independence was not an easy decision. It took dedication and critical thinking to ascertain that a democratic republic was better than an aristocracy. . 

I say these things because so many people that I encounter appear to be in a kind of hypnotic state of mind in which they accept blind loyalty to symbols and a mystic past that they have lionized. Even when they witness the truth being twisted into a ridiculous lie they would rather believe than challenge. They do not seem to understand that maintaining freedom is not an easy task because it must be available to all people, not just those with identical concepts and ways of thinking. 

I mull over thousands of questions that disrupt my serenity. In my mind that is how it should be for all of us. In a nation as large and as diverse as the United States there must be room for many different religious beliefs, many different ideas about how to educate our children, many different thoughts about sexuality. Forcing a single way of thinking on millions of souls is as autocratic as the reigns of kings of old. Surely we can see that those who propose uniformity of living are moving backward rather than progressing. There is great danger in a leader who would resort to banning ideas, insisting on total loyalty from the citizens, threatening those who would dare to suggest that the despot is wrong. This is not the kind of government that our Founding Fathers risked death to create. 

As we move into a new administration that will determine our fate in the next four years I would implore everyone to be willing to stand up to anyone who would refuse to work for the good of all. I would suggest that true freedom comes only when we have the right to object to rules that hurt a particular class or group of people. Ours should not be a one party nation in which only the winners of elections have the right to voice their preferences. We cannot divide ourselves into two camps that no longer speak to each other or agree to discuss differing possibilities. That is a death sentence for our very democracy. We have to hear the voice of the little boy who has the temerity to note that our emperor has no clothes. In fact we should worry that we have an emperor at all.  

I will still write about happy and uplifting people and themes. We need to hear good new from time to time but I will also take full advantage of the freedom of speech that is enshrined in the Bill of Rights that was so brilliantly and courageously designed by the Founding Fathers. I believe that they would encourage me to keep speaking my mind and would suggest to those who dislike what I have to say that rather than insulting me or shutting me down we might do better to talk about our differences and find mutually agreeable solutions. Promising to tear everything down with vengeance is not a solution. It is the destruction of decades of attempts to become better and better at protecting the rights of all. I for one plan to continue to voice my concerns.