As an abandoned Afghan ally this question touches something very deep in me what does it mean when a government stops seeing the human beings behind its promises?
I stood with America as an ally. I believed the promises. I believed that those who worked with America and stood beside Americans would not simply be forgotten when the situation became difficult. There were many promises, many words about partnership, safety, and a future. But today, I am still one of those left behind.
to the current U.S. government I want to ask respectfully how can you speak about democracy human dignity and protecting people from cruelty while so many Afghan allies who trusted your promises are still living with fear and uncertainty? We were not just names on documents or numbers in reports. We were human beings. We had families hopes and dreams for a safer life.
This is why your words about real humans in public office mean so much to me. Leadership is not only about power. It is about remembering the people who trusted you when keeping a promise becomes difficult.
I do not ask anyone to feel sorry for me. I ask the current U.S. government to remember us. Please remember the Afghan allies who stood beside America and now feel abandoned by the very government whose promises gave us hope.
Sometimes the deepest pain is not being defeated. It is being forgotten after you believed someone would never leave you behind.
A beautiful focus to start my day, human, caring, men, role models. Then there’s Brett Morrise, a fixer-upper who never charges me, his 85 year old neighbor.
I’m excited that I will be taking a course the end of this month to learn how to be a Poll Chaplain. Just to hold positive energy and compassion during the voting process. No campaigning or bashing just being a positive presence💞
The "permanent" (until 11-3) 4x6' plywood sign in my truck bed reads, "Massive turnout defeats voter suppression. VOTE. Early and in person". So far at least, we still have a voice, and a say in who represents us, if we choose to exercise it.
And no, I can't picture trump playing with a dog. Any self respecting dog would pee on his leg at first sight.
The thing I worry about is that a full third of humans seem to be sociopaths, or worse. I never considered this until the felon was elected a second time. Now this keeps me up at night, and has caused me to step away from some relationships.
I've said this before: my parents always told me to beware of people who didn't like animals and who didn't have a sense of humor. How right they were.
I really believe that we don’t have people with character in office because of the power of dark money to put placeholders in positions of power. These placeholders are there to support and defend those who have paid for their seats and whose influence will then be assured and their voices heard in the form of legislation or opposition to their needs, wants and desires.
Politics these days has little to do with solving problems for constituents and everything to do with convincing constituents of the wisdom of finger-pointing, which is much easier than actually thinking through issues and providing creative and thoughtful solutions to our problems. These people do not want to resolve problems. They seem to want to create problems that did not exist in the form of culture wars and other ‘blame games’.
MAGA is tailor-made for this strategy and purpose. What may have begun as a legitimate concern about borders and budgets has been warped by prejudice and sucked into a black hole of racism and bigotry, to the great despair of those who have become its victims and to those of us witnessing this exploitation of others for political purposes.
Tim Walz, and others like him, are the brightest of bright lights. They remind us of who we really are…whole, imperfect, and well-meaning human beings who see the value of community and connection and seek to promote this by living their values. We need more of this. We can have more of this. We just have to remember who we are. If we can’t remember who we were because of who we’ve become, we need to reach back to remember a time when we were not afraid of each other. We need to aspire to the greatest of all human traits…the ability to love each other…to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is my prayer for the future of us and I am going to start with myself. “Yes, we can” becomes “Yes, I can.” I can try, can’t I?
Because the billionaires have bought and paid for every single Republican officeholder and most of the Democratic ones as well. Humans are not welcome in office, just the oligarchs’ lackeys need apply. Citizens United and our corrupt and disgusting Supreme Court turned our country over to Elon Musk and his type. And here we are……
I read a post yesterday on BlueSky. A man born in the UK, now resides in CA, that has worked for 17 years to open a Village for foster children. The purpose was to keep siblings tougher when placed in foster care. That man, Christian Bale, an actor, using his platform, and obviously his influence and wealth who saw an urgent need and saw that need to fruition.
From my perspective many of us, too many of us, are influenced by external forces while lacking internal personality and character traits.
For example, there is no question the outsized influence of Citizens United. This abominable distortion of what constitutes free speech and expression literally buys elections. Politicians need two things to gain elected office: Money and votes. With Citizens United they can get all the money they need to influence the vote. Then, when the electorate votes them in thinking this candidate will represent their interests, the candidate executes a 180°, forgets his promises to his voters, and represents the big money that delivered his win.
A too large segment of the electorate seems utterly ignorant of this. To their discredit, they lack discernment. They don't "do their own research." They simply believe the lies that are fed to them. Why? It has been suggested that those lies align with their own distorted perspectives. To that end, they are largely uneducated and/or ignorant of our history and how our governments actually function. In this way they become very passionate about their support of these indecent human beings.
My father often said, "In a discussion between reason and emotion, emotion will win every time." So it seems for our electorate.
Considering most politicians have a background in law, and not something like sociology or education; it's little wonder real humans shy away to more meaningful and productive pursuits.
This may be too facile an explanation, but … I think humans feel constrained to behave in a certain way. That’s normal and how we live in a society. When Americans started watching heavily-edited “reality” television in which seemingly normal adults behave way outside normal constraints, it was instantly and magnetically attractive. And seemingly normal adults behaving badly became admirable. And electable.
I've paid close attention to Iowa's governor campaign and as a lifetime Iowan have been disappointed with the past decade of heartless, mean spirited legislation emanating from our elected leaders. There was a time when it seemed "Iowa Nice" was a true picture of virtually everything that had Iowa attached to it.
Even our lifetime Senator, Chuck Grassley, beamed that "aw shucks" attitude that somehow was stolen away, replaced by name calling and school yard bullying.
But back to the governor race. Baby-faced Rob Sand (he admits he looks too young for his age) is leading the charge of bringing "Iowa Nice" back to our state. Born and bred in Decorah, Sand shares his life as an Iowa kid, skateboarding around town, loving pizza and ice cream and leading the singing of "America" during his unstaged 99 county citizen meetings where he makes certain both sides of the political spectrum have an opportunity to be part of the conversation.
Is he truthful? Reliable? As real as the day is long? Let's hope so. He appears to be genuine in his concerns for us Iowans.
Money is the root of this evil. Running for public office, at any level, should be a public trust transaction. Just set certain criteria for applying, maybe a commission of some sort to establish rules, and time limits or standards for opening and closing campaigns. Only the serious, not the jokers out for personal gain.
Why? Because half of the voters in this Country are extremely STUPID people, and you cannot fix stupid. Just because his current approval is in the low to mid 30's, doesn't mean that these nut jobs would not STILL vote for the orange turd or his designees. This is because they are indecent and inhuman and very STUPID individuals!
As an abandoned Afghan ally this question touches something very deep in me what does it mean when a government stops seeing the human beings behind its promises?
I stood with America as an ally. I believed the promises. I believed that those who worked with America and stood beside Americans would not simply be forgotten when the situation became difficult. There were many promises, many words about partnership, safety, and a future. But today, I am still one of those left behind.
to the current U.S. government I want to ask respectfully how can you speak about democracy human dignity and protecting people from cruelty while so many Afghan allies who trusted your promises are still living with fear and uncertainty? We were not just names on documents or numbers in reports. We were human beings. We had families hopes and dreams for a safer life.
This is why your words about real humans in public office mean so much to me. Leadership is not only about power. It is about remembering the people who trusted you when keeping a promise becomes difficult.
I do not ask anyone to feel sorry for me. I ask the current U.S. government to remember us. Please remember the Afghan allies who stood beside America and now feel abandoned by the very government whose promises gave us hope.
Sometimes the deepest pain is not being defeated. It is being forgotten after you believed someone would never leave you behind.
Our current immoral leaders make me ashamed and so angry at the way you and your fellow allies have been treated.
🙏
I so regret we did that. It wasn’t right and needs to be fixed. I’ll look into ways of doing something. We should do this.
Meaningful Sweet and fun.
And true
Broccoli and Frisbees ☺️
…
Obama bending down to let a young child touch his hair.
…
Saying something like, “…see we have the same hair..
💙🇺🇸💙
Hi Elba, how kind your response and your neighbor’s.
I started tearing up just now remembering Obama, this moment and who he was as President. And is now.
I was so proud of him and our country.
A beautiful focus to start my day, human, caring, men, role models. Then there’s Brett Morrise, a fixer-upper who never charges me, his 85 year old neighbor.
I will never vote for someone that I can’t imagine playing with dogs or trying to get kids to eat broccoli. I may put this motto on a T shirt!
I’m excited that I will be taking a course the end of this month to learn how to be a Poll Chaplain. Just to hold positive energy and compassion during the voting process. No campaigning or bashing just being a positive presence💞
The "permanent" (until 11-3) 4x6' plywood sign in my truck bed reads, "Massive turnout defeats voter suppression. VOTE. Early and in person". So far at least, we still have a voice, and a say in who represents us, if we choose to exercise it.
And no, I can't picture trump playing with a dog. Any self respecting dog would pee on his leg at first sight.
The thing I worry about is that a full third of humans seem to be sociopaths, or worse. I never considered this until the felon was elected a second time. Now this keeps me up at night, and has caused me to step away from some relationships.
I've said this before: my parents always told me to beware of people who didn't like animals and who didn't have a sense of humor. How right they were.
I really believe that we don’t have people with character in office because of the power of dark money to put placeholders in positions of power. These placeholders are there to support and defend those who have paid for their seats and whose influence will then be assured and their voices heard in the form of legislation or opposition to their needs, wants and desires.
Politics these days has little to do with solving problems for constituents and everything to do with convincing constituents of the wisdom of finger-pointing, which is much easier than actually thinking through issues and providing creative and thoughtful solutions to our problems. These people do not want to resolve problems. They seem to want to create problems that did not exist in the form of culture wars and other ‘blame games’.
MAGA is tailor-made for this strategy and purpose. What may have begun as a legitimate concern about borders and budgets has been warped by prejudice and sucked into a black hole of racism and bigotry, to the great despair of those who have become its victims and to those of us witnessing this exploitation of others for political purposes.
Tim Walz, and others like him, are the brightest of bright lights. They remind us of who we really are…whole, imperfect, and well-meaning human beings who see the value of community and connection and seek to promote this by living their values. We need more of this. We can have more of this. We just have to remember who we are. If we can’t remember who we were because of who we’ve become, we need to reach back to remember a time when we were not afraid of each other. We need to aspire to the greatest of all human traits…the ability to love each other…to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is my prayer for the future of us and I am going to start with myself. “Yes, we can” becomes “Yes, I can.” I can try, can’t I?
Your last paragraph says it all/-we are whole, imperfect and well-meaning beings.
Because the billionaires have bought and paid for every single Republican officeholder and most of the Democratic ones as well. Humans are not welcome in office, just the oligarchs’ lackeys need apply. Citizens United and our corrupt and disgusting Supreme Court turned our country over to Elon Musk and his type. And here we are……
I read a post yesterday on BlueSky. A man born in the UK, now resides in CA, that has worked for 17 years to open a Village for foster children. The purpose was to keep siblings tougher when placed in foster care. That man, Christian Bale, an actor, using his platform, and obviously his influence and wealth who saw an urgent need and saw that need to fruition.
"Why aren't more real humans elected to office?"
From my perspective many of us, too many of us, are influenced by external forces while lacking internal personality and character traits.
For example, there is no question the outsized influence of Citizens United. This abominable distortion of what constitutes free speech and expression literally buys elections. Politicians need two things to gain elected office: Money and votes. With Citizens United they can get all the money they need to influence the vote. Then, when the electorate votes them in thinking this candidate will represent their interests, the candidate executes a 180°, forgets his promises to his voters, and represents the big money that delivered his win.
A too large segment of the electorate seems utterly ignorant of this. To their discredit, they lack discernment. They don't "do their own research." They simply believe the lies that are fed to them. Why? It has been suggested that those lies align with their own distorted perspectives. To that end, they are largely uneducated and/or ignorant of our history and how our governments actually function. In this way they become very passionate about their support of these indecent human beings.
My father often said, "In a discussion between reason and emotion, emotion will win every time." So it seems for our electorate.
justmyhumbleopinion. Your milage may vary.
My son wrote a beautiful letter about our mayor and wanting to meet her. So, he did and she was kind and gracious.
I would say that we all need to be like ZM or TW. One by one we can make a difference.
Considering most politicians have a background in law, and not something like sociology or education; it's little wonder real humans shy away to more meaningful and productive pursuits.
This may be too facile an explanation, but … I think humans feel constrained to behave in a certain way. That’s normal and how we live in a society. When Americans started watching heavily-edited “reality” television in which seemingly normal adults behave way outside normal constraints, it was instantly and magnetically attractive. And seemingly normal adults behaving badly became admirable. And electable.
I've paid close attention to Iowa's governor campaign and as a lifetime Iowan have been disappointed with the past decade of heartless, mean spirited legislation emanating from our elected leaders. There was a time when it seemed "Iowa Nice" was a true picture of virtually everything that had Iowa attached to it.
Even our lifetime Senator, Chuck Grassley, beamed that "aw shucks" attitude that somehow was stolen away, replaced by name calling and school yard bullying.
But back to the governor race. Baby-faced Rob Sand (he admits he looks too young for his age) is leading the charge of bringing "Iowa Nice" back to our state. Born and bred in Decorah, Sand shares his life as an Iowa kid, skateboarding around town, loving pizza and ice cream and leading the singing of "America" during his unstaged 99 county citizen meetings where he makes certain both sides of the political spectrum have an opportunity to be part of the conversation.
Is he truthful? Reliable? As real as the day is long? Let's hope so. He appears to be genuine in his concerns for us Iowans.
Money is the root of this evil. Running for public office, at any level, should be a public trust transaction. Just set certain criteria for applying, maybe a commission of some sort to establish rules, and time limits or standards for opening and closing campaigns. Only the serious, not the jokers out for personal gain.
Why? Because half of the voters in this Country are extremely STUPID people, and you cannot fix stupid. Just because his current approval is in the low to mid 30's, doesn't mean that these nut jobs would not STILL vote for the orange turd or his designees. This is because they are indecent and inhuman and very STUPID individuals!