| I've nothing to prove to you but I've taken lots of liberal positions. Off the top of my head I can recall some that I think are significant. I protested the VietNam war, nearly went to prison for it, but I held my convictions. I lived on a commune for a while 35+ years ago...long enough to prove to myself I am not a socialist. I lived in a teepee in the Pacific Northwest in the early seventies and hung out in hippie exclusive society. I drifted from job to job for a few years in my twenties, living out of a back pack, and I fit in everywhere I went... still do. I protested the Iraqi sanctions in the early and late nineties, across the terms of a conservative president and a liberal president. I was an early advocate for equal rights and as a youth was threatened by miners for bringing women laborers to the mine, I continued in spite of those threats. I would probably have been labeled the most liberal person anyone knew from time to time, most conservative at others depending on who's doing the labeling. But so what, I don't need to own or disown a label like some of you, or be owned by one; which is the more accurate application. I know what taking a liberal position is and what it means stand behind it, just as I do conservative positions. Life is dynamic not static, circumstances change and as they do so should our view of them. The circumstance of a given day and a life founded on principle decides for me, not some party. Liberal doesn't mean 'being gay' or 'being a socialist' or 'being a Democrat.' Those are identities, clubs, and groups that most people don't give as much thought to before joining up as they do picking out a pair of tennis shoes. You can be completely close minded, oppressive, and tyrannical about the status quo and still qualify for one of those labels... nothing genuinely liberal about it. It's a mask some people, maybe most, like to wear in place of their humanity. And for some reason, which is beyond me, pride goes along with it. |
