Concerning shitholes and snowflakes.

When she heard of Trump's comment asking why we take immigrants from 'shit hole' countries, I was shocked. My wife was shocked. She just kept saying, "This goes against everything we should stand for."

Hating Trump and the things that come out of the anus that acts as his mouth has gotten pretty easy, but what I really hate is this chest pounding white nationalism, isolationism and xenophobia, because it takes us backwards. According to the US Census world population clock, there are over 7.4 billion people living on this planet.

Those 'shithole' countries to which Trump was referring are poor because of capitalism and greed. The thing that is backwards about Trump, Bannon, DeVos, and the rest of his crappy, ignorant, anti-intellectual, white-supremacist administration is this:

- We all live on, and share, this one world.
- In order for this world to continue to support our species, we need to begin planning forward as a species, not a bunch of nations.
- Now, more than ever, the policies we set must necessarily organize us around human need, not human greed.
- Human need necessarily includes the state of this world's environment, because we all must live on this world.

I'm a progressive, and believe our tax dollars ought to be spent making our lives better, not making it so some billionaire parasites or shareholders in big corporations can get richer at the expense of the rest of us. I don't apologize for believing we need real tax reform, not a giant tax cut package for billionaires that necessitates cutting the services people depend on. We must have enough public revenue to fund the services that allow a decent quality of life and level playing field for everyone.

I want our taxes to be spent on childcare, early childhood education, elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, creating an infrastructure that serves us all and that we can all be proud of. I want healthcare and a strong old age pension so I can be financially comfortable after I have to stop working. I want my children and grandchildren to be able to take time off to care for their children, and for other family members, and not suffer financially. I want my children and grandchildren to be able to live in decent housing with clean water, broadband communications, heat their homes with clean energy and not have to risk disease caused by corporate pollution.

I want corporate charters adjusted so the fiduciary responsibility of the C-class corporate officers is not ONLY to shareholders, but to customers, the general public and the environment.

We need to rethink the need for wars, and for all the money that goes toward 'defense,' and as we retool our society, we need to retrain those who lose 'defense' related jobs and at the same time develop new and peaceful technologies and endeavors where they can be employed instead.

Yes, I am politically active in my local Democratic party. Yes, I caucus, vote in primaries, carefully review ballot referendums, and vote in every election. Yes, I write, call and speak personally to those elected to represent me locally, statewide and federally. I sign petitions, and do my utmost to drive local policies in directions that support human need.

I do not apologize for being a progressive, or Democratic Socialist or whatever you want to call me, and it is not my responsibility to try and change some anti-intellectual quasi-literate person's mind. It is time for those of us who are capable of imagining what we and this world can be if we work unselfishly together for the common needs of people to stand up and be active and peaceful change agents.

I do not apologize for being an idealist, and do not consider it my responsibility to bring you around to my way of thinking. Indeed, with the current and accelerating human-caused deterioration of the global climate, I believe events themselves will cause pressure in this direction.

I do not apologize for believing that reorganizing around human need is possible. Again, I do not take on myself the responsibility of convincing anyone else of this imperative. Events, I think, will do that for me.

Above all, personally, I believe in a society that reflects the 'golden rule.' In as far as possible in our consumer society, I try to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. I believe in hard work, out of the box thinking, cooperation and entrepreneurship, and I believe that people are motivated by MORE than profits and that most people would like to live comfortably, and do something for a living that has meaning. Like Obama, I believe that no one who works full time should have to live in poverty, without healthcare or other benefits that make life worth living.

Can we do it?

The earth will be fine whether we organize ourselves to preserve its ability to support human life OR whether we fuck it up so bad we go extinct and it becomes a smoking cinder circling the sun. Our destiny is up to us, and to borrow again from Obama, we must rise to the 'fierce urgency of now.'

I suppose that makes me a