By James Perdue
I recently had a phone conversation with my older sister, who lives in a retirement community in Texas. She retired from a long career in education and moved from the Midwest to get away from the cold winters. One of her favorite activities is playing bridge, and she belongs to a bridge club. She went on to tell me that one of the ladies in her bridge club, made the comment, “democrats are communists”. My sister answered back, “I’m a democrat, are you calling me a communist?” I got the impression her comeback contained a little anger. I don’t know where the conversation went from there, but this is the kind of conversation we need more of in this country. If we rely on TV news commentators and politicians to form our opinions of “the other side”, we’ll only become more divided. Social media builds the momentum to demonize the other guys. Some fear we are headed towards political violence, maybe something approaching civil war. The media stirs things up and likes to create drama. It’s good for business, for ratings, which equals money. Politicians use fear to get their support and get re-elected, it’s good for business, their political future. I don’t know how many emails I get from politicians from both parties wanting me to donate money to their campaigns, republicans calling the left, communists or socialists and if we don’t stop them, they will destroy our democracy. Democrats use the same tactics, calling republicans racists and fascists, and if they are not stopped, they will destroy our democracy. I guess we’re doomed, but I have hope that if we communicate with each other, we’ll probably realize that most democrats and republicans are not that far apart when it comes to what they think is important.
There’s a story about a king and queen, and when they looked over the castle wall and saw their subjects fighting with each other, they looked at each other and smiled. Why? If their subjects were fighting amongst themselves, they wouldn’t be coming after them, they felt safe.
So, who’s our king and queen? Government leaders? The hidden government, the deep state? Giant corporations? The military-industrial complex? Lobbyists, who do their best to influence congress? I believe it’s all of the above.
I’ve heard it said, don’t waste a good crisis. Such as the pandemic. Many people believe it gives the government an excuse to have more control over us. Mask mandates. Vaccine mandates. Lockdowns. It’s hard for us to pushback against Washington, or even Sacramento. One of the scariest government actions to occur happened in Canada, when Trudeau announced he was locking protesters’ bank accounts. One article I read said an elderly lady’s bank account was locked because she made a small donation in support of the truckers’ protests. Orwellian?
Still, I have hope. We have power locally. If we show up to city council meetings and let our thoughts and opinions be heard. We can attend school board meetings and do the same. We don’t need to be violent or try to get our way with intimidation. Just be heard. We can write letters to the editor of our local paper or local news outlet, while we still have one.
As long as we have a constitution and a supreme court to uphold it, I think we’ll be OK.
Publishers Note;
I had the pleasure of meeting James on a historical tour in Yreka a few weeks ago and as so many people have expressed to me their frustration with the media and how they like to fuel the flames. James and I had a nice conversation and I said "I am willing to publish some of his thoughts. Being challenged as a writer but having the desire to serve Siskiyou County I felt as James does.
How boring would it be if we all drove the same red car? What if we all marched to the same beat, wore the same cloths, ate the same food. I think not!
Our, Mine, and Your higher power has given you a brain, a will, and most importantly the ability to be you. Like many of you, we have friends and family that do not think like you. why is that?
Because we are unique! The simple truth is we have our own fingerprints, DNA that makes us different from another. But that does not mean we can not have a common goal. I personally believe many hands make light work, many minds working on a project help complete and attribute to greatness.
I think we need to hold our leaders to the jobs they said they would do or step down and let someone else have a turn at it. That is why so many positions have term limits so we do not become complacent and loose the will and desire of the people whom elected us into the position in the first place. Holding a position for many generations is not serving the next generation fully. I am only human, I know that I do not have all the answers but I am willing to learn and grow. I am working towards a goal with a desire to promote and serve you the citizens and readers of Siskiyou.
And No I can not do this alone, I need your support or I might as well crawl back into my cave.
Please help me to serve you, use the support button. Any amount monthly or a one time gift means so much. The website get tens of thousands of visitors a month, this is a great place to advertise and get exposure.
Respectfully,
Jay A. Martin
