Liberal is not a Dirty Word….

But neither is Conservative.

By Rick Blumenberg @rickblumenberg

Recently two pictures have been posted side-by-side on Facebook. The word EQUALITY was above the pictures in bold type and big enough to spread over both. Each individual picture had a heading. The heading of one picture said “Equality to a conservative”. This picture showed three young people watching a ball game, all standing on boxes to see over the fence. Sounds good so far, but one youth was tall and stood high above the fence, the second was mid-size so his head was not so high, but above the fence—both having good views of the game. However the third one, although he was standing on a box the same size as the others, was so short all he could see was the board fence.

The “Equality to a liberal” pictured the tall young man standing on the ground, the mid-size one in the same position, with the short one standing on two boxes. The result was that all three could see could see the game.

My comment; “I don't think you understand true conservatism.”

A true conservative is glad to help and wants everyone to do better and have success in life. We just don’t believe the government is the one to make it happen. It should happen when people people are free to help themselves progress. When they truly cannot help themselves we need to be there to help them. The government should do the work of protecting everyone so they have freedom to live, work, love, etc. Government taxing workers to support people who could work but won't makes conservatives very unhappy and causes said workers to lose incentive and they may just give up.

I am not really a conservative or a liberal. I fall somewhere in between. On some issues I like the liberal stance and in other issues I support the conservative viewpoint. And I have good friends in both camps. Probably they all question my wisdom or intelligence, but for different issues. For the most part they are also friends with each other. Most liberals believe it is our responsibility to help the poor and down-trodden so they have better lives—so do conservatives. The two camps differ most in the methods they use to accomplish what are often very similar goals.

Liberal is not a dirty word…. but neither is conservative.

The primary attitude of some people in both camps (liberal and conservative) is hatred and anger toward those in the opposing camp. Neither of these types are genuine liberals, nor conservatives. Maybe they're just haters as each refuses to consider that the opposing camp could ever be right.

I think both are sometimes right.....and sometimes wrong

For the most part, the good people in both camps are just trying to make the world a better place using methods they are most comfortable with. Their ultimate goals are often quite similar.

Maybe God made both?

Being the armchair theologian I am, I think it is possible God calls different people with different personalities to different camps because it fits their individual make-up. If we all love each other and respect each other and work together when we can, the world should continue to be a better and better place.

I’m Rick Blumenberg and that’s 

My View from Tanner Creek.