You CAN Speak Up… Not Run and Hide.
Perceptions
I can't truly speak to how rampant the sentiment is but it seems that some believe that because a few individuals have not learned the finer points of a more elevated manner ofconversation online (Particularly on facebook) that it appears we should abandon discussion altogether.
They seem to say:
"We should leave our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs, our leanings to the wayside... talk about the weather and sports and who won what on the newest reality show."
Because we mess up in our conversations and offend to often, or others are so prone to offense, that we should just give up!
"Politics is too Hot" and "religion is too Hot" we should stay away from talking about any of these things.
People say stupid things and people get upset and it seems like their response of this un-numbered few is to give up and crawl back into a hole because no one will fight if no one every says anything of import or comes out of their bedrooms and out from behind their TVs and novels.
Elevate... not run away
The solution is not to run and hide... but as in every aspect of human interaction and communication... the answer is to raise the bar.
I have not been perfect in this aspect but I will not get there by: not trying, by giving up and by not standing for something.
So I'm here saying you can say what you think.
But, Just because you can say whatever you want it doesn't mean you should.
Elevate the things you say and how you say it (and I'm not just talking about grammar) I'm talking about the meaning of what you say and the logic and thought behind them.
Use true principles to be a guide for what you do.
Yes you can discuss (On Facebook, on your blogs in your conversations with others) all those things that will "elevate the minds" of your friends and this country as John Adams would say.
You can show those that do participate in "back-biting" and illogical arguments and derisive and unfounded labeling and derision of ideas because of a lack of eloquence... show them the better way. Show them you can elevate your own conversation. Show them what the better method is.
Patience... it won't happen over night.
My Challenge
I will elevate my conversation and often that will mean not using the quick and easy barb to disparage another individual; even when they set themselves up for possible attack or ridicule.
Never to use the cunning manipulations of language to take someone down by their grammar, spelling or lack of eloquence. But to find common ground, understand ideas and to receive and provide education where appropriate.
I will discuss to the best of my ability a principle and defend it and challenge others on their stance and accept truth in any form or fashion it comes and never treat discussion like a competition where one side has to win and the other therefore looses. But I will discuss vigorously, argue passionately and hopefully inspire and be inspired.
Extend your views... Elevate the Minds
"It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn."
George Washington, 1789"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives."
John Adams, 1756
Creativity and Liberty
OBJECTIVES
My life seems to have two objectives.
To inspire people towards Creativity and Liberty.
The kingly virtues
Because they're so important I feel that the ideas behind them get obscured too often.
Dethrone the kingly virtues like these by removing the meaning behind the symbols. And soon we're marching in the streets and waving flags just because we've always done it.
CREATIVITY
Creativity = phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art etc.) that has some kind of value.
Creative solutions are what I admire most. But I think that all 3 aspects of creativity interelate and empower the mind and the person.
I think it is a capacity we can grow and I think that this capability that should be stressed more than ever.
Creativity can lead to a more capable life... capable of achievining and attaining more liberty.
LIBERTY
I think Liberty is one of the greatest of gifts that God has given us. It is known by many names. Freedom, Free Choice and Free Will to name a couple.
Often there are so many cliches attached to the concept and we are in danger of really grasping the importance in our hearts how necisary it is.
I believe that the first conflict among men was fought over the theme of Liberty and I believe we still must fight for it and I believe that in the future this will be the crux of the fight as well.
This is still God's world. The forces of evil, working through some mortals, have made a mess of a good part of it. But it is still God's world. In due time, when each of us has had a chance to prove ourselves--including whether or not we are going to stand up for freedom--God will interject himself, and the final and eternal victory shall be for free agency. And then shall those complacent people on the sidelines, and those who took the wrong but temporarily popular course, lament their decisions. To the patriots I say this: Take that long eternal look. Stand up for freedom, no matter what the cost. Stand up and be counted. It can help to save your soul--and maybe your country.
and
“Of course, the war in heaven over free agency is now being waged here on earth, and there are those today who are saying ‘Look, don't get involved in the fight for freedom. Just live the gospel.’ That counsel is dangerous, self-contradictory, unsound…Now, part of the reason we may not have sufficient priesthood bearers to save the Constitution let alone to shake the powers of hell, is because unlike Moroni, I fear, our souls do not joy in keeping our country free, and we are not firm in the faith of Christ nor have we sworn with an oath to defend our rights and the liberty of our country. Moroni raised a title of liberty and wrote upon it these words: ‘In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.’ Why didn't he write upon it: ‘Just live your religion; there's no need to concern yourselves about your freedom, your peace, your wives, or your children’? The reason he didn't do this was because all these things were a part of his religion, as they are of our religion today. Should we counsel people, ‘Just live your religion. There's no need to get involved in the fight for freedom’? No, we should not, because our stand for freedom is a most basic part of our religion; this stand helped get us to this earth, and our reaction to freedom in this life will have eternal consequences. Man has many duties, but he has no excuse that can compensate for his loss of liberty.”
- Ezra Taft Benson
I choose to lead a life centered on human liberty. Next to the atonement of Christ and his eternal plan for our salvation it is this agency, this free will, this liberty that I am most thankful for.
PRINCIPLES
I believe that true eternal principles are what are most powerful and most worthy of our time and effort.
The root principles that I try to see and implement in everything I do: Liberty, Love, Eternal Progression, Stewardship
Principles above politics, principles above party, principles above propaganda.
Choose good eternal principles in all situations ... "Do what is right, let the consequence follow"
