Witt's End

This is my feeble (if long-winded) attempt at bridge building and understanding. I started this piece weeks ago. I shelved it after the Charlie Kirk assassination. I picked it back up after President Nelson passed and then had a night where I could stop writing here and elsewhere following the shooting and arson of the chapel in Grand Blanc. I'd be lying if this was easy to commit to paper. But I have to. Rarely have I felt this level of compulsion to write. To share what I have to say.  Let me try. Here's a start. My faith is not what it once was. Surety has been replaced by hope. Which probably isn't a bad thing. The focus is more on fundamentals of belief and the actions they bring.  I have absolutely struggled with the theology, doctrines, practices, policies, and culture surrounding the faith of my youth. I'm open and honest about that. But I worry that's not always returned. The honest assessment that we all struggle with the teachings and guidance of such a l...

 I've been looking into violence, domestic terror, mass shootings, suicide, and murder rates and all that since about 2014. And started looking into it a little earnestly in 2020. A couple college papers helped focus that. Working in suicide management also kept that focus alive.  I'm not an expert. This isn't a primary research topic. I just have done a lot of research, and I think it's important we look at data at times like these. And also expand our scope of what we are looking at beyond the past week. Or even 12 weeks.  First we need to note that political violence is part of our historical and modern fabric.   https://www.thebulwark.com/p/a-history-of-violence-17a?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true Second political violence while common and consistent in our history is still rare.  https://www.cato.org/blog/politically-motivated-violence-rare-united-states But it is rising. It is becoming more common over the last decade https://www.csis...

I think we all should think that the Amendments of the Constitution Should Matter. That they define a large part of the rights and responsibilities of the subjects and nation we all live in. I worry that is not the case. Why? They're looking at three terms. And the option mentioned in news reports is literally Putin's playbook.  That's what we're dealing with.  We are looking at a body of people fighting for a third term. And I can't believe it.  This administration doesn't care one bit about the constitution. Let's review the 22nd amendment . "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President" It's pretty cut and dry. Now I don't always think the originalism of the supreme court has got it right. But most of the time those my hesitance and disagreements are about differences of recognizing historical precedent and analogues. That was always ...

Process matters. How we do something is as important as the what and the why in government. I'm an institutionalist. And I'm worried about the long term ramifications of what we're seeing happening.  I'm all for putting in the work to streamline our national budget. We need to examine for waste, fraud, and abuse. I would argue the largest factor is waste with a lot of redundancies. We can do what we can to increase efficiency. But the executive needs to be restrained in how they do it. For two major reasons.  One, congress is delegated the purse. Period. Article one of the Constitution. Congress handles the budget and taxation. The most democratic portion of the the entire federal system (the house) is supposed to originate all related legislation. It's their job to fix this. To work on it. Now the executive can veto and can provide guidance. They're in the perfect place to address these issues. They could impound and work with congress through the proper proced...

  Some of my favorite people are now on the opposite side of the political aisle from me. Hell I’d argue we’re on opposite sides of the spectrum itself at this point. But I love them. And I’m trying to figure out how to navigate this time without alienating them (any more than what has already occurred). How do I stand for what I believe in? How do I be a perceived light without burning it all down? I think I found my path through this.  I am striving for things instead of just opposing things. And that mindset shift has been incredible. I didn’t do what I’ve done in my life to feel lost. It’s time to stand for things again. I believe in things. That should be the priority and take my time more than things I don’t believe in.  It's been an enlightening and emboldening. And it’s lead to three or so realizations.  First discussions and debates can only be had with people who are willing to participate in good faith who agree on essential facts. And personally I’m only ...

 I've been thinking a lot about my faith recently and how it interacts with my life. What's central, what isn't, what's evolved, what hasn't. That sort of thing. And it really made me reflect on what my faith is bound on. Two things rose to the top. One was Jesus Christ as a figure divine. The other was the inherent good I see in other people.   So we're going to start with the second first. I think that mankind is inherently good. I just do. I see it every day. I think the majority of suffering inflicted upon is brought on by hardships. Hardships that lead to desperate acts. All while the majority of people attempt to just live their lives. Lives that need redemption and alleviation to suffering.  Lives that I admire and come to goodness to alleviate that suffering and find redemption in various ways. Ways that continue to amaze me.  I could talk about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy, or Carl Jung Archetypes to show how this fai...

 I've said this before. Politics requires compromise of one moral values. Whether religious, spiritual, humanistic you have to compromise. It doesn't matter if you're left or right politically. You're compromising.  I come to this from a religious background. One of faith and both spiritual and religious. And it's a struggle.  Most of us religious will at some point struggle with dogma, have a faith crisis, struggle with rectifying a doctrine. Religion isn't cookie cutter make to fit. Politics aren't either. They're bigger than us and that requires a compromise. Let's own it and talk about it a little bit more. It's not a bad thing.  We all have a set of morals. For many of us it's developed through our religious practices, cultural norms, or human experience. We know for ourselves what's right and what's wrong and we have drawn our ethics around how best to observe that. From person to person it varies.  I can't write about this ...

Where do we draw the line between our religion informing our morals and values and imposing it on others? That separation is real. “Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics of geometry.” Thomas Jefferson "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion" John Adams "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." Thomas Jefferson That's the political governmental separation. We can look on the religious side as well. “claim no privilege but what we feel cheerfully disposed to share with our fellow citizens of every denomination.” Joseph Smith and the First Presidency How do I impose my religious views on othe...