How do we disagree without violence?

I got a new library card last week and came home with 12 DVDs to watch.  They were mostly documentaries.  

One was from Prager U - called SAFE SPACES.  It came out in 2020 but I was never able to see it.  I grabbed it up when I found it at the library.

I plan to watch it again to see more of the details, but I have to say I was shocked by the examples they shared about reactions to simply speaking on college campuses.  

I wanted to go to college since I was a teen.  It took me many years to start the process, and I never made it to an official graduation.  I kept trying, but never found my way to the end.  I have about three of the four years done.  I'm not sure I could remember what I learned in all those classes after all this time.  I think it was around 1980 that I left the University of Oregon, but I did try again in about 2004 at Portland State University - one term.

I wanted to share that to let you know I have seen college and university campuses as an older person...and liberal climates.

It seems our "conversations" are getting more and more violent.  I think violence is a way to silence people, keep anyone from speaking, controlling the topic, etc.  I suppose it is Domestic Violence in community form.

Some of the examples in that DVD (I hope it isn't something I remember from one of the other videos I watched, but I don't think so because of the topic in my memory.) was the violent LGBT group forcing a college girl to make a statement from a paper on video.  The girl was frightened.  I hate to think what was done to make her do this.  It doesn't seem much different than a prisoner of war being forced to make a statement for publication to news agencies.

I would not call this winning anything.

We are becoming a police state, a dictatorship, a country ruled by violence.  All the damage that is done hurts all of us.  It costs money to repair.  Some of the damage can never be fixed.  People are hurt or killed.  None of this says we are a free country.

I wish I understood the motives behind all this force.  I don't think it is about LGBT rights.  I think it is something bigger, more hidden.  Young people are so easy to manipulate.  They don't have the ability to understand the deeper issues behind those "leading" them into actions they think are helping others.

I see the prophecies of the Bible becoming our reality.  

I cringe at all these issues because they say a lot about us, about where our nation is heading, about what the future will become.  Violence controls people.  Fear controls people. Freedom is about everyone's rights, not just those who use violence to force themselves on the rights of others.

I also think about all the strains our nation is under.  Economic pressures are making it hard to keep living as if we are the richest nation.  It is costing jobs, houses, cars, education, fun.  We are becoming afraid.  Fear doesn't create good solutions.

Saving America is on my mind too.  

I don't see many real solutions being created.  Actions that will keep us from bankruptcy.  We can't seem to find solutions that are for America - they are all about the political parties and what they want.

The government is looking for income.  Taxes, fees, tolls, fines, and whatever else it can get.  The government needs money to survive as much as we do, the people who pay the charges they create for us to help them survive.  I doubt Obamacare was about us.  It was a way to help reduce the medical costs the government might have to pay, and a way to move toward government control of medical services.

The Great Depression is all we have as a historical perspective of economic collapse.  I can't imagine living through that kind of event, especially now, in my senior years.  How can we find a way to avoid it?  Some say it's too late to fix this economic collapse.  What will we do then?  

Violence doesn't help.  People who are afraid try to find someone to blame and someone to fix the problem.  People who are afraid get violent - or are easier to move in that direction.  I don't want to live in the kind of country that I saw in SAFE SPACES.  How can we stop this way of "solving problems?"

PLEASE, let me know what you think is a better way.

My Voting Day, 1 November 2018

I finally filled out my ballot and put it in the mail...

I don't know that any voting method is "safe and secure" anymore... and I have no way to verify that my ballot arrives with my votes on it... fraud is easy for those who do it.  In Oregon, they now send an email saying your ballot has been received.  Actually, it is only saying that a ballot has been received with my name on it.

I keep wondering how we can make a secure voting process, especially in the age (and future) of internet living.  I recall from history lessons that the gangs in the past controlled the votes by the best methods of their time... which are used in those other countries today... violence, force, intimidation, and any other means possible... but we have "evolved" as a "developed" country into other, more covert, methods.  Mailing ballots has its issues, online voting has its issues, state and national voting have their issues... no matter what we try, the enemy of freedom and democracy finds a way to subvert it.

With technology, people can duplicate (and alter) everything.
Internet hacking can be accomplished anywhere, for a lot of different reasons, including the mailing systems, publishing systems, manufacturing processes, production systems and processes, record systems, and all the other places we depend on for the details of our lives.

A long time ago, in my own search for WT solutions, I realized our world will become focused on two areas online... security and search.  I have my own plans for a search option, but I cannot even begin to understand how we can make our lives secure when they are attached to the internet.

While voting, I came across people who didn't get their voting information into the government process in time for publication in the voting guide we get.  I have advocated for a long time that the government get the process online... with income options for them and VOICE options for voters.  We not have the ability to enter information immediately... so, why doesn't the elections system take advantage of this for income?  The only answer is the ongoing problem of the government to make money like a business.  If they can fix this problem, taxes will not always need to rise.

I discovered the problem a LONG time ago when I kept wanting to submit an opinion for the guide book... the deadline was so far ahead of the election, most voters were not even aware of the topics or people involved in the next election... including me.   Then I discovered the outrageous charge for submitting an entry... way beyond my budget, or anyone else that I know.  the only people who are able to submit an entry for the guide are heavy-duty, deeply-involved, and well-funded individuals or groups with a stake in the outcome, who know the government process.  Everyone else is left out.

I tried to share this online approach with bigger national issues, too.

We can use the internet for positive input from ordinary people if we allow them a space to share their thoughts/opinions at a reasonable price.  We could set a limit on the words or characters (maybe 5000 characters) and charge a small fee ($5?) for the ability to have their opinions displayed publicly at a page/space set up for that issue.  

Every government issue can be separately displayed and become a place for public comment... at every level of government.  This would be a good place for media and political groups to find their issue details, while the governments that are involved would be generating "extra" income for their work -- by issue or by agency or by legislative body.  Imagine the Supreme Court having public comment to refer to on the cases they are deciding....

It would change a lot of things.

Sending a copy to the email that is attached to the comment, and possibly allowing a reference to election records by way of a voter number or a verification of voter status (or voter email), would help people to be aware if someone is sharing an opinion without their knowledge.  It is important to create a process of verification of the speaker, and copies of the comments created in their name.  I find the email option good for me.  I would use the same email attached to my voter registration.

My issue is the inability to have my opinion registered on topics that are important to me.  I can't join public protests, and don't want to.  I don't write a lot of Letters to the Editor, and there is never a guarantee they will be published.  The only opinions that get heard are the ones attached to very active and emotionally/financially political people, probably a lot of them are attached to the word "lobbyist."

WE  NEED  SOME  CHANGE  IN  HOW  WE  DO  OUR  GOVERNMENT !!!!!

That is the big issue.  The bigger issue.  The most important issue.

This is one of my solutions to the government issues we face... income, taxes (over taxation), greed, corruption, voter apathy, ignorance, lack of access, inability to be a voice in what is done, citizen finances, PACs and lobbyists, and online issues...

What would you do to help make America a better place, solvent, and still free?

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us
Working Together Inc
Building for the End Times

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May we keep America from becoming a bankrupt country... in finances and morals and education and government and....    Amen.