Are You Feeling the Burn?

My readers know that I have pledged to my daughter, that I will NOT use my blog to make political or religious stands.  She knows too well that it would be too easy for me to alienate my readers, besides which, isn't there enough divisiveness in our country today?  I don't care to add to it! BUT my blog is about home values that are likely a kin to both religious values and how they are lived out, and if that isn't about politics, I am not sure what is? Nonetheless, I plan to keep my commitment and I hope my readers will see that this isn't really about politics.

I want to touch on  the "Feel-the-Bern-Movement".  I am after all living in the land of Bernie Sanders, in The Green Mountain State of Vermont.  Bernie and I have a history, though to be certain, I remember him more than he remembers me.  He has helped me on two important occasions in my life, though we couldn't be more opposite regarding some of our political views!

Only a year after moving to Vermont, my teaching position was discontinued leaving me unemployed for a time.  I applied for unemployment benefits, only to be refused as Vermont sometimes forgets that it is part of the United States and they figured I had only worked for a year and wasn't "eligible". They couldn't see that I had been employed since I was sixteen  in the state of the really big mountains, Colorado. To native Vermonters, all born outside of this state are considered "flatlanders", a description that I never did like nor considered "fair". Bernie was able to see the bigger picture--that Vermont is connected to all other states and had to remind Vermont's Unemployment Office that I was entitled to receive benefits from the federal government for being unemployed. Fortunately this fix was needed only temporarily.

Bernie again helped me when I was seeking disability benefits shortly before I reached retirement age, as I found myself unable to meet the physical demands of being an office nurse. It not only took a specialized lawyer, but a push from our state senator to finally get my case heard and it was Bernie's office that helped me.  I have never forgotten Bernie!

Though his socialistic values don't represent my own, I "felt the burn" for  the "Feel-the-Bern-Movement" as I watched the DNC Convention. The DNC's apology didn't "cut it with me" as Bernie's dedicated supporters literally "burned with anger" when they heard about the emails that exposed the "rigging of the DNC unfairly favoring Hillary over Bernie.  The DNC Convention's attempt to appease them with an apology along with Paul Simon's song, Bridge Over Troubled Waters doesn't erase the fact that the race was NOT won in a fair and democratic way.  It was a cheap and cheesy trick and didn't fool his supporters! Bernie and his supporters weren't given a fair and equal chance to win and to gloss over this was to strip them of their democratic rights!

I don't care which party a person is affiliated with, accountability was lacking for devious and deceitful actions! I continue to scratch my head as to why wrongful actions aren't met with a swift disqualification in today's world. Whatever happened to accountability after breaking rules.  This is happening not only in the world of politics but in the Olympics as well!

I appreciate Jesus' parable of sewing seeds and that weeds are allowed to grow along with the good seeds and that there will be a day of reckoning when the sorting of the harvest begins, BUT I am also encouraged by the parable of the prodigal son. His father was ever so glad to see him come home after squandering his inheritance, and was quick to forgive him and kill the fatted calf to host a barbeque party in celebration of his return, BUT the story doesn't end there. The father's older son may have been jealous, but in the end he still had his inheritance, whereas the younger prodigal son had lost his. God is fair and just, and laws, rules and regulations are designed to be as well.  Actions are NOT without consequences! So I too "feel the burn" for the "Feel-the-Bern Movement" when real justice is missing!

Integrity is everything and hats off to all winners and losers that fight the fight with integrity for that is the only way to real victory!

"Bernie and Bernie Supporters, I feel your burn!! There is guilt here that needs to be accounted for. This matters to all of us who have "down-home values".  Right and wrong still exist in my eyes and the eyes of others as well! And now as one of my friend's would say, "Thus ends my sermon!"

(Getting my daughter's approval to post this, she added that she hopes that Vermont will secede from the Union (not an infrequent solution for staunchly independent Vermonters), and then added that she wants a very tall wall built between Vermont and its surrounding states!