Anyway, yes an outward sign like a cast inhibits judgment, but the hidden sicknesses invites judgment.
Anyway, good night and thanks for the conversation.

I appreciate your input and how you got the Value/Vs dogma lesson from my post right on.

One big problem with federal subsidies is that they are so wasteful because of the many levels of bureaucracy.

Another thing, federal programs are SO easy for the dishonest to exploit.

On the other hand, in the example of my brother, he could be “on the dole” very easily but he is intensely ashamed by the application process. He was denied SS disability the first time and the shame of the application was almost unbearable for him. He spends almost all of his time in complete seclusion. He can’t face most of his old friends or relatives for his embarrassment of what he thinks they must think of him.

Some might say, “he just needs to get over his pride.” But isn’t that pride taught to us from the time we are young? He is 46 and that pride is as good as hardwired by now. People like my brother could benefit from those who follow the admonition of William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice:

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

I am afraid we sometimes try to shame people into taking care of their own needs and only help begrudgingly. In other words, the quality of our ‘mercy’ is indeed strained. Because of the intensity of their shame, they then turn to the government for help. If they are too ashamed to do that, they end up homeless, or at the very least never lead full lives.

It is easy to see why people of compassion drift to the left. They have the gift of empathy, and can’t see it in the austerity of the right.

Mosiah 4: 16-25
16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
——————-
I am a conservative and a Republican, but I do believe that – on a local level – many democrats are more charitable in their approach to the less fortunate. We do need charitable hearts and not blame the poor, but we don’t need to be foolish in our approach to a solution (dogma).

When I was a senior in high school in Oregon I had the chance to be a page at the Oregon State Capitol. While talking to Governor Tom McCall (D) he told me that Federal Funding was like feeding oats to your horses to feed your chickens. That was great insight for a democrat. (For you city folks, horses don’t chew their oats very well and when they pass, there are lots of whole kernels in the horse droppings. So the chickens scratch in those droppings and get a little of what the horse didn’t digest) What he was trying to say is that the states could certainly do a lot more without the monstrous federal government eating the lion share of the income before it gets to the needy, or the roads, or the schools… And that was in 1970!

There is so much good to be done if we just had the will and the power, or if you will, the willpower.

End of sermon two. Time for bed.

An example is my brother. He has been very ill most of his adult life. He actually went blind for a while while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But after his mission, outward symptoms were gone. He only had symptoms that were private, and undetectable by the world. He was unable to work steadily. He was judged very harshly from people like the parents of girls he dated, people at church, and EVEN FAMILY MEMBERS who would say it is all in his head and he is just lazy or afraid of commitment or had no work ethic. Immediate family members have helped him some but even we couldn’t appreciate how desperate he was. Well, finally he began having Grand Mal seizures that were so severe that he would have amnesia for an hour afterward. He had two in a day some days. If he didn’t rest every time he felt tired, he would have a seizure. He was finally diagnosed with Cardio-Vascular Syncope, a disease of his body’s control of blood pressure. This drop in blood pressure now will result in a seizure. The doctors say that his seizure condition stems from years of poor health, and CV Syncope and probably started with mononucleosis in his adolescence.

By the time of his diagnosis he was entering his forties and had no hope for a career, family etc. and had been socially rejected from about every imaginable convention of society. To this day, his feels judged by people who don’t know anything about him except that he lives with his parents. He doesn’t go to church, or participate in social activities because of the humiliation he feels from his situation. He lives a reclusive and lonely, and sometimes bitter life.

My point is that one tenant of liberalism is that government is to take from some and redistribute to others. When we conservatives judge the poor, it fortifies this argument for liberals, who think conservatives are cold and judgmental and that people need to be forced to share, and uplift one another. I am sorry to say, that many conservatives are cold and judgmental and wouldn’t share unless forced. So you can of course see that liberals also have values that stem from good will and a reasonable perspective of history

A value of conservatism IS NOT that our money is our own and we are not obligated to share. This is just selfishness, and Jesus spoke very harshly of those with this attitude. Some also think that a person begging for financial help is an unworthy weakling. Remember in the bible, the parable of when the rich man would not give to the poor man, Lazarus begging at his table but would give to his dogs. (Luke 16:19-31) That rich man ended up in hell and the poor, in the bosom of God. How could Jesus have taught more clearly? Yet to hear many conservatives talk, you would think selfishness is a conservative value.

The conservative value that pertains to sharing our wealth is that we should be free to share our money according the the dictates of our own conscience. We are nonetheless morally obligated to do so. When we conservatives are selfish, or use rhetoric that denigrates the poor and the beggars, we not only offend God, but we strengthen the political left, by reinforcing the “austere conservative” stereotype.

We conservatives believe that the government should be minimally involved in welfare or any redistribution of wealth. We believe that there are many good reasons for this. One of those reasons IS NOT that those who would ask for help of us don’t deserve help.

End of sermon. Go in peace and sin no more.

We are happy to have everyone here. My brother is convinced that some faction in our government worked with the terrorists to cause 9/11 and because of that he can’t support the war. I still think it would be good to win either way so we maintain a strong image. From what I have seen the extremists look for any weakness to attack. But anyway, if you believe the same as my brother I can understand why you feel how you do. Maybe I just can’t let myself even seriously look at any facts or science or whatever. I just do not want to believe that could be possible and I am happier believing the way I do.