Tonight, I read about the lone senator who is "single-handedly blocking more than a million Americans from receiving unemployment and COBRA health insurance benefits... when their benefits funded under the 2009 stimulus law run out [today]." (Quoted from my oh-so-solid source of Yahoo News...) Before you go ahead and condemn him for such a dastardly act, realise that the source of his reluctance to comply has to do with the funding of such programmes -- his concern is from where the money is coming. Whether it be budget-cuts elsewhere or increased taxes or whatever other creative suggestions people may come up with, someone has to pay for it so it is really a question of fiscal responsibility. You cannot promise (money) when you don't have (money to give).
So my struggle is: I understand where this courageous senator is coming from and I applaud the sane thinking he demonstrates, yet is it the right thing to do in the face of mass struggle? How do you decide something like that? And how do you support the intention without supporting the means if they do not agree?
To use another example of something remotely similar, allow me to "pen" my thoughts on the subject of gay rights. The following words are penned in The Declaration of Independence:
That being said, I believe that regardless of one's sexual preference or beliefs of it, every person is a human being and is entitled to certain rights. Even though my personal belief does not condone the homosexual lifestyle, I still believe that homosexuals should not be treated as second-class citizens. Yet how do I support gay rights without appearing to condone the lifestyle?
So my struggle is: I understand where this courageous senator is coming from and I applaud the sane thinking he demonstrates, yet is it the right thing to do in the face of mass struggle? How do you decide something like that? And how do you support the intention without supporting the means if they do not agree?
To use another example of something remotely similar, allow me to "pen" my thoughts on the subject of gay rights. The following words are penned in The Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.(On a tangent, take note that it does state "the pursuit of happiness", not "the right to happiness"...)
That being said, I believe that regardless of one's sexual preference or beliefs of it, every person is a human being and is entitled to certain rights. Even though my personal belief does not condone the homosexual lifestyle, I still believe that homosexuals should not be treated as second-class citizens. Yet how do I support gay rights without appearing to condone the lifestyle?
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