(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Whatever happened to RESPECT. . . ..... [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-19 Being an older person, I have always lived by the values instilled in me by my parents and teachers. The principle upon which most personal values should be based is Respect. There is even a famous song written about it. It is the one thing that should be constant and never devalued or taken lightly. When we respect ourselves, we also respect others which necessarily must include those who have a different opinion, a different faith or a different skin color. When we base our character on respect, we have to realize there are always going to be different opinions, feelings, customs and intelligence levels. The Republicans have displayed a total lack of this very basic social necessity. They not only allow, but support people like Trump, MTG and Boebert who destroy the decorum of one of the most important institutions in our democracy, the House of Representatives. The House is supposed to represent the people of America. We are entrusted with out vote to send the “best and brightest” among us to represent us in our House. If Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and the rest of the current Republican Party examples of the best we have to offer, we are truly in trouble. Now we have the specter of a Gym Jordan trying to become second in line to the presidency of the United States. This is a person who actively participated in an effort to overthrow our duly elected administration. He should be on trial for sedition, not running for the third most powerful seat in our government. Respect is the one constant that will control our emotions. When we base this respect on very tried, true and trusted principles, we have a very strong foundation for our personality and character. The primary principle is that “All men are created equal”, and that is exactly why our constitution mentions it. Part of respect is recognizing that every individual is entitled to, and guaranteed by the constitution, the right to an opinion, even if it doesn’t align with our own. The other side of respect, disrespect is the one thing we don’t ever want to be accused of, like class bias, racial bias or religious bias. While we MUST respect everyones opinion, we are free to disagree in a respectful way. This prevents intelligent beings from verbally or physically attacking someone just because they disagree with us. This should prevent us from denigrating any person, class or religious community because of their station or beliefs. Unfortunately, what has happened in this new society, especially in the last ten years, is that it has become acceptable to verbally attack someone that makes us uncomfortable. Some people feel entitled to impose their beliefs and values on others, not because they are doing anything that directly affects society, but just because they think their values and judgement is superior, or somehow more weighty than other peoples. We have witnessed some politicians threaten violence, incite violence and promote hatred and separation, simply because they don’t agree with them. Over the past few years, our society has chosen to follow people of questionable character, ignoring their obvious and glaring faults and supporting their misdirected and self-serving objectives that have no positive effect on society. If anything, it serves to drive us further apart and sow mistrust between groups of people. When we choose to support a group or person that has no redeeming values, disrespects everything and scoffs at our laws, makes fun of disabled people, or think truth is a matter of interpretation: it signals a serious flaw in our society that is growing and becoming more accepted. At some point we have to draw a serious and definite line in the dirt and when these people that want our support and homage cross that line, we have to show them that if they continue to disrespect our democracy, our opinions and our desires; they will not enjoy the one thing they crave most, our support of them. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/19/2197585/-Whatever-happened-to-RESPECT?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/