Thursday, October 4, 2018

Us vs Them: Prison, Kavanough, and Politics in General...What To Do, What To Do? by Jeff Utnage

Divisions among us exist, let me give a few examples.

Republicans vs Democrats
So long as you identify as a Republican or Democrat it is unlikely you will ever vote for the other party. Division.

Citizens vs Immigrants
There are entire neighborhoods where immigrants reside and born citizens rarely go. Division.

Police vs Criminal
As long as you believe a person is good based on a title, like Policeman, it will always be harder to believe them capable of brutality and instead place constant blame on the "deserving" criminal. Division.

I can go on and on, but you get where my mind is at.

A friend of mine and I speak about political issues and my views tend to be more Liberalistic, which makes my stomach turn. Situations like Mr. Kavanaugh where the Republicans have been squarely placed against Democrats forcing a division line so grand show an utter failure of our society.

The failure exists because we have attached more to the word Republican or Democrat than the emotions of the people involved. If the nominee had been a Democrat then the sexually based accusation would be offensive to Republicans and Democrats would say it was a witch hunt. Even my friend, who's a Republican, says that "if it weren't for them damned Democrats" we could have all moved on by now.

The point is not Kavanoughs innocence or guilt, he is but a human and has (like every other person in the world) his share of mistakes and character flaws. The point is as long as we identify with these toxic divisions we will always have these problems. I think the entire Senate ought to be fired, period. They are all alike a complete disgrace to our freedom and have made a mockery out of our Republic, our United States. This wouldn't be such an issue if there were term limits, instead of death or retirement do us part.

We associate certain characteristics to labels, police good and criminals bad. Police can do no wrong and criminals are always criminals. What if I told you that I know hundreds of men who have integrity, love, honor, respect their neighbors, refuse to hurt anyone even to the point of being beat up and simply taking it, stop others from creating victims, have great heads on their shoulders, dedicated employees, loving partners, smart, driven, loyal, despise gangs...and none of them are police. Not the image you expect is it?

Police aren't bad, but the label of criminal needs to be TEMPORARY! Right now it is permanent, as if we are always going to be that one crime, as if the only way to ensure we never commit another crime is to assign this permanent label. Always reminding us that we are neither human nor deserving, but criminal.

That's the point of this site, I need you to know that I am human. Yeah, I have done crimes, yes, I needed to be put into a place where some serious issues could be addressed like extreme selfishness, self-pity, dehumanization of others, and the list goes on. But I have spent 7 solid years getting intensive 24 hr help and I'm not done.

The country can certainly remain divided, but I am asking you as an individual to think about what divisions you buy into.

With Love
Jeff Utnage
www.lgbtqprisonsupport.com
 

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