I believe . . .

This list of my beliefs was not written in a particular order and is presented here in roughly the same order that I wrote it. There is no implied order of importance. Any feeling of a narrative driving in a certain direction is purely serendipitous.

I believe in equal rights for everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or anything else. I believe that any right or privilege available to anyone must be available to everyone, equally and completely.

I believe that public education should be excellent and universally available to all, including at least two years of college or a trade school. I believe that the function of our schools and teachers should be to teach critical thinking and learning, not just the memorization of facts.

I believe that all elections should be publicly funded, and that no media companies should be making money from candidate ads. I believe that primaries should be held on the same day, nation wide, and that both the primary and general election days should be national holidays with everyone having the full day or at least half the day off, paid.

I believe that any deployments of standing military forces in excess of 120 days should automatically trigger a mobilization of a draft. I believe that the children of members of government should automatically be at the head of that draft. I believe that any deployment of troops for this length of time should also require congressional approval. Additionally, I do not think it should be legal or possible to hide the funding of a military action from the public in any way.

I believe that there is no place in war for private contractors. The waging of war on foreign soil is too fundamentally in the province of government to be sold off to commercial interests. It isn’t just a matter of wielding weapons and taking lives (so-called security contractors), but also the support services that the men and women in uniform rely on. If America is truly as great as we claim, and if our cause is just, then there should be no need for us to employ mercenaries of any kind.

I believe that the widespread availability of firearms in America, with as little regulation as exists, is a bad thing. I believe that it should not be easier to buy and own a gun than is a car. I believe that the framers of our Constitution never intended the state of affairs as it currently exists. I believe—as my reading of the second amendment so informs—that ownership of war-fighting weapons should be tied to membership in the local militia, which has since trans-morphed into the National Guard.

I believe that any corporation which is “too big to fail” is too big to exist and needs to fall under government scrutiny. I believe that corporations are not people and should not be treated as such under the law. I believe we need to end all subsidies to businesses and industries and then see which ones are truly necessary and worthwhile. I believe that a corporation which makes things in another country, banks in another country, or sets up their headquarters in another country, should have all of their products and services treated as foreign imports for the purposes of regulation and taxation.

I believe that organized religion is often the problem and seldom the solution. Once you have ceded your free choice of belief and action to an agency claiming higher spiritual authority, yet run by and for mortal authority, something integral to the soul is lost. Furthermore, I believe that looking to an external organization for morality and spiritual truth minimizes and devalues the worth of our human individuality. Some religious organizations do good works, but most if not all of them have ulterior motives. I believe that government should grant no preferential treatment to any one church over another, nor to churches as a whole over secular institutions. I believe that any church with assets in excess of the bare minimum needed to function should be ineligible for exemption from taxation or other governmental exceptions, including any laws related to employment or civil rights. I believe that any question of church or creed has no place in public office.

I believe in co-ops and not for profit organizations when it comes to things like health and financial security. When something important is involved I don’t want there to be any question of profits or stockholders. I believe that the government should actively support such organizations and let the for profit companies succeed or fail with “the market”.

I believe that the function of government is to serve the public interest, to support and protect the citizenry, and to make life better for everyone. I believe that government should be focused on guaranteeing rights for all and denying them to none. I believe that if the government can do something better, more efficiently, and more fairly than private companies it should do so. A prime example of this is single-payer healthcare. In fact, I would like to see government stepping in and competing with private companies whenever it believes that it can provide a better or similar services at a lower price.

I believe that our national natural resources are there for the the benefit of us all and that one of the functions of government is to ensure this. I do not believe that “resource management” is the correct framework for thinking of this role, nor do I think that leasing our public lands to for profit companies should be as automatically undertaken as it so routinely is. I believe that the government has a greater obligation to clean air, clean water, and habitat preservation than it does to loggers, ranchers, miners, or energy companies. I believe that our national parks, forests, seashores, and monuments represent an opportunity for the government to be more involved in the health and education of all Americans.

I believe that the government needs to place a much greater emphasis on reducing and ending pollution than it currently does. It should end subsidies to energy companies, regulate them more stringently, mandate higher fuel efficiency standards, and support the development and implementation of alternative energy sources. I believe that every company is 100% responsible for cleaning up after themselves, regardless of the cost they will incur.

I believe that’s when you criminalize a substance or activity you do not hamper it, but instead create a criminal class dedicated to its propagation, and convert those who would otherwise be law abiding into criminals themselves. Whether we are talking about prohibition in the early 20th century or the “war on drugs” of the last few decades, the result is the same: people still indulge, but now they need the support of criminal organizations to do so. Upon the wings of their illegal trade these gangsters gain enormous wealth and power. I believe that if we eliminate the illegality of drug use we will eventually pull the fangs of the cartels, not to mention reducing the unwarranted burden on our criminal justice system. I believe the same can be said of prostitution. Legislating morality never works.

I believe that the fact that we are all humans together, spinning along through space, is all the reason that need ever be for us to treat one another with dignity and respect. Extending that outward, I believe that we owe the same respect to every creature that trods the Earth, swims in Her seas, and soars through Her skies. I believe that we must expand our consciousness and embrace all the life that shares our world, understanding the oneness of our communal essence, and knowing that a hurt dealt to the least of us is experienced by all of us.

I believe in love. I believe in the love that people can share with one another. I believe in the love that a person can feel for a child or a pet. I believe in the love that a person can feel for an ideal like “Queen and country”. Love can make us happy and just can make us sad. Love can make us better and it can make us worse. Love can lift us up and cast us down.

I believe in beauty. I believe that beauty—not in an objective or imposed sentence, but coming from within and speaking to our heart—is vital and important and infinitely valuable. Without beauty and the pleasure it brings I don’t think we are complete or completely alive. Whether the beauty of a song lilting to the heavens, or clouds rolling away from the mountains, or your lovers face in the moonlight, I believe beauty makes life worth more than just living.

I believe in joy. I BELIEVE in joy. What ever you do, whether for work or for family or for friends or for self, if you do not do it from joy and for joy then you must find a way to make a change. Work at a job you hate, if you must, must do it because caring for your family brings you joy, or it enables you to pursue some other activity that does lead to joy. Regardless, you must find or make joy within the day to day or week to week of your living. Small joys or large, shared joys or solitary ones—be joyful.