Due to my recent surgery and ankle break, I've been reading a lot. I recently finished a book with a setting of France during their revolution. I really like historical fiction, so the fact that it was set during this time caught my interest. The main character wasn't directly involved in the action of the revolution, but the author did a great job of shaping the action within the larger frame work of The Revolution. As I finished the book, I was struck with some of the very scary similarities between our time and theirs.
The biggest issue I saw in both the book was that the French people turned against each other in the process of turning against their leaders. The French revolution was a blood bath. People were angry and needed somewhere to release their anger. Prisons full of women, children, prostitutes, innocent men, as well as the targeted aristocrats were taken into the street and slaughtered. One of the lines in the book that hit me hard talked about how the "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" that lead the revolution were quickly being turned on their heads. The people who were fighting for equality and rights for themselves, lost that vision when dealing with those that had persecuted them.
I agree with the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity. I believe that all humans were created equal, and that if we want a chance at surviving in these times of turmoil and confusion, we ought to pay a little closer attention to our history classes.
The same ideas that were contorted and twisted to fit unacceptable behavior in the times of the French Revolution are being twisted now.
As a kid, my mom used to say that being "fair" did not necessarily mean that each kid was supposed to be treated exactly the same. Privileges, are just that. Not everyone deserves the exact same thing. Equality does not mean the "exact same". For some reason that definition has been contorted to fit modern ideals. Every human should be given basic rights, but there comes a point when privileges and rights are different. In my family setting, age and responsibility are what determine certain privileges. My older sister always got the front seat because she was older. She also got to stay out later than I did. This didn't mean my parents were being unfair or discriminating against me because of my age. When I became the oldest sibling at home, I got to inherit the front seat, and the later curfew. The same kind of thinking applies to my brother. When my brother was the only boy in the house he got his own room. All of us sisters had to share. Was that unfair? Though I may have thought so at the time, it wasn't. My brother got certain privileges because he was a male in a house full of girls. This wasn't discrimination, it was logic.
Men and women have certain rights and privileges that are extended to each based on gender. This isn't discrimination. In my faith we believe that men are to provide for and protect families, while the women are primarily responsible for the nurturing of the children in the home. Again, this isn't discrimination, it's logic. It isn't the logic man, but the logic of God...who I tend to trust more anyway.
So that's my rant about rights.
Going back to the French Revolution. They slaughtered their fellow french men and women in an effort to create a better world with more equality. Sounds a little backwards doesn't it? The problems I see with this is that they forgot that they all came from the same place, and that unity and equality cannot survive in a time or place where there is anger or violence. Today, I see American men and women filled with anger, pointing the fingers elsewhere and forgetting that we are all American. We are all here for a reason. We all came from a similar place. Our predecessors worked their entire lives to create this country and the living conditions we take for granted on a daily basis. With the recent government shut down I've seen a lot of jokes thrown around about how these adult men couldn't come to an agreement and so they just shut everything off. Or how Obama thought "shutting it off" and then "turning it back on" would help solve all the problems. I laugh at these as much as the next person, but in reality, this shut down isn't the problem. Our debt as a country isn't the problem. The problem is that we as Americans are forgetting what that means. We are forgetting that as Americans we need to stick together and build up the unity. If there is anything that a childhood of summer camps taught me, it's that nothing can be done without unity. It was true for the French during their revolution, and it still holds true for us.
I understand that Unity is such a vague term, in all it's rosy connotations. It's not easy.
One more thought on unity: My mom left me here to bake cookies, and of course while I was writing this post, I was eating cookie dough. I noticed at the bottom of the bowl that there was a little bit of butter that the mixer had failed to mix it. I then started thinking about how unity is like cookie dough. With the exception of the chocolate chips, none of the ingredients are fit to eat by themselves. I would never eat four sticks of just butter or four cups of plain flour. I would however eat an entire bowl of cookie dough. Unity is kind of like that. If all of the ingredients in these divine cookies sat around pointing out how awful the other was, I would never get to enjoy the sweet rewards that come from them being unified...okay so that was super cheesy but something to think about...
I'm done now.
Carry on citizen.
Oh and here are some cookies to make you drool.
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