Happy Valentine's Day

We, on the left and near the center, rail at the Republicans about their legislative proposals.

Here they come with more cuts. Here they come throwing the poor and disadvantaged "under the bus." Here they come, helping the rich.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, "Here they come again...!"

But what's the difference between what they do, as a bloc, and how we live our daily lives?

We are only interested in our own well being, often at the expense of others. How many times have you walked past a person begging in the street or at the side of the road? It's easy to justify ignoring them. "They are bums", "They are drunks", "They just want the money for drugs."

Maybe. But maybe they just have incredibly bad luck. Will the dollar in your pocket save your family from ruin? Probably not. Will that same dollar buy that homeless guy a burger at McDonald's and keep him from starving to death? Possibly...

We only think of ourselves.

Everytime we cheat on our taxes or cut in line or rush to get the parking space, we are thinking of our own welfare, not the welfare of the "other guy."

Our taxes fund the nation's budget. Without our taxes we would have no water, no food, no highways, no military. No nothin'. (Socialism? Don't get me started...another post for another day...!)

When we cut the line we deprive the other guy, who was ahead of us by the way, of getting what he came for. Maybe it was just a movie, but maybe it was a flu shot that would save his life.

When we appropriate the parking space, accelerating to get there before the other guy, we make his life just a little bit harder. He has to walk further and maybe he doesn't get there in time. The bank closes and, because of those few seconds, he can't make the deposit and he loses his house. We were just stopping to buy more soda. He's now on the street...and then we pass him by, outstretched hand and all.

Which leads me to the other question on my mind.

What is it about us humans that allows some people to be so kind and generous to their family but so callous and cold to people they don't know.

Congress doesn't cut the things that effect them or their friends. They cut the stuff that effects the people they don't know. The very same people that voted for them and gave them the right and responsibilty to vote on bills that have real consequences for those unknown constituents.

Deregulate the banking industry so your friends can make a fortune in the stock market. Fine, but that same deregulation allows your friends to create fraudulent financial instruments that "legally"(the hell with morality here..."morality" will join "eight track tape", "typewriter", and "leisure suit" on the trash heap of dead language before too long...) steal from the hard working middle class (add "middle class" to the pile too...)

How can these people love their children...their children...and enact laws that, essentially, murder thousands of kids all over the country? What's the justification for that?

So...human nature. "I've got mine so screw you!"

What's up with that?

Valentine's Day. Think of love. Eat chocolate.

Or think of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

That's more like it these days...