The State of the Comatose Republic, I

Our citizenry is a powerful force, yet we remain divided – our hearts, together; our minds, apart. We choose to see what is before us, not what is actually presented. Our future is in the hands of a powerful few, instead of an engaged majority.

As this, we stand.

The once huddled masses are now at arm’s length from each other. We value distance, distraction, and differences over inclusiveness. Our failure to work together will lead to our tearing apart, and the common thread of civilization will snap under weakness.

As this, we fall.

The state of the union is relative to those who are in power. To the common man, it is weak. To the career politician, it is strong. Droves of lethargic citizens continue to pay their dues, and the government continues to spend it how they please. We are no longer tax payers – we are benefactors.

We comprise this nation, yet bestow it no dignity. We once fought more for less, but now settle for more of the same. Surely, this cannot be the way we will be remembered.

The sons and daughters of the greatest generation have perpetuated the issue, and bred a culture of entitlement. Hard work is rewarded with higher taxes. Laziness is punished with handouts. Half of our nation survives on the crutch of government, yet we take no issue, and resolve it by no means.

The home of the brave is now a nation of complacency. The land of the free has become a surveillance state. This is not the America we were given. This is not the country we were promised. But, we are not the quality of citizenry we should be.

Make time to spend with your family. Help a neighbor. Enroll your children in extracurricular activities to enrich their lives and expand their minds. Encourage intellectual debate regarding topics that impact your way of life. Educate yourself and those around you.

You owe it to yourself and your country to be an informed citizen of the United States. Your rights, established by our forefathers, defended by our kin, should not be taken for granted. Within, you hold the courage to be triumphant, or the cowardice to crumble. You determine your own destiny, and manifest it as such.

The change this nation needs begins with you.

The New Crusades

Bigotry.

People like to throw that word around a lot lately. If you’re a bigot, you must be evil. You must go against all that is well and sacred, to intentionally negatively impact the livelihood of your fellow brethren. You must simply… have a differing viewpoint?

And for the small sum of $1,000.00, ladies and gentlemen, you, too, can have your professional career permanently ruined by a nefarious minority of venomous vermin! Step right up and get steamrolled!

OkCupid, a dating site you shouldn’t concern yourself with, recently announced their distaste in the hiring preference of Mozilla (the company that owns the browser Firefox) regarding their new CEO, Brendan Eich, because it’s easy to pick low hanging fruit. OkCupid voiced their concern by having a message launch within users Firefox browsers when visiting the site, which looks like this:

Douchebaggery at its finest.

For me to address the multitude of issues I have with their cute little message would be to simply post it in entirety again.

In 2008, Eich made a $1,000.00 personal donation to support Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that sought to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry within the state, for which a majority of Californians voted in favor. Mozilla was verbally attacked as an organization as retribution for his promotion to CEO – because if a person believes in “traditional” marriage and supports that viewpoint, then they obviously hate the gays. And that makes them a bigot. And if their company thinks that person is professionally qualified for a particular leadership role, regardless of his/her personal beliefs, then that makes them bigots, too.

Excellent fuzzy logic.

So this week, as the solution to the outrage built within the realm of the interwebz as well as his own company, Mozilla accepted Eich’s resignation from the position he had worked his entire life to earn. And that’s how the terrorists win.

Eich’s contribution to the development of Java is a large foundation of products we use every day. His work was revolutionary, and became an industry standard. The crowning achievement to his professional career was being selected as the CEO of an organization he helped create, while driving the company to success with his foresight and ingenuity. With no record of ever bringing his personal politics into the workplace, all of his hard work and dedication was eviscerated because of a single, outward, unrelated expression of personal values, to which he was legally entitled.

This is exactly why freedom in America is eroding. You’re either “right” or “correct”. But it’s not personal, it’s just business… as usual. Eh, and personal.

But who cares. Dialogue is for stupid-heads, anyway.

So let’s make individuals miserable for their constitutionally protected self-expressions. Let’s shame everyone into groupthink. Let’s frustrate the opposition by dragging them through the mud until they’re ready to play ball or go home.

This inane Crusade waged by the pro-gay agenda is not earning them any sympathies from me, because those who enforce misery, shame, and frustration are my enemies, and I wish them nothing but failure. They’re perpetrating the same persecution which they claim to be victims of. That’s called bigotry.

Intolerance is so intolerable.