To The Dumb People

I've come to a conclusion after so many years on this planet. Something I've always been afraid of but have just kept from admitting even to myself. I'm dumb. Now I know, nobody likes self deprecation. I don't mean it that way. I think The Dumb may need a voice and I may be just the person to be the voice of The Dumb. Who better than a dumb person herself. How do I know I'm dumb? My first clue should have been that I planted an aspen tree in my front yard. Well not my first clue really because if I'm honest, I have suspected for years. But back to the tree. An aspen tree is a very pretty tree but it shoots up little trees all over your yard and you constantly need to cut the little suckers down unless you want a forest in your front yard. We were warned this would happen but we planted it anyway. Maybe I should have let the forest grow though. I'd have the only one in the neighborhood.

But now you are thinking, Wait Cindy, didn't you just write a blog post on how you like President Obama because of such and such reasons, despite the fact that most of your community disagrees with you? Maybe they disagree because they are smart and you are dumb?! Now I've thought that through already. There are lots of smart democrats/liberals out there: Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Noam Chomsky. Okay, I don't really know who Noam Chomsky is. But it sounds like the name of a smart, liberal man. On the conservative side that George Will seems like a pretty sharp guy. There are lots of rednecks though who don't seem like geniuses, so it goes both ways. You can be smart or dumb and it doesn't determine your political ideology so much.

So anyway, back to being dumb. School's hard. I do well on the tests but it's set up in a way where you can do that but not really absorb the knowledge in a sustainable way too much. I'm awkward and mistake ridden and lacking in confidence. I read at a snail's pace. All possible symptoms. Why would I want to admit this to the world? You really do have to be honest with yourself at a certain point. And those two people reading your blog, well they appreciate honesty too, I'm sure. I shouldn't have married. Shouldn't have had kids. I think my kids have a fighting chance still, their dad is smart after all. But maybe it would have been better to let the cycle of dumbness die with me. Survival of the fittest my DNA out of the system, so to speak.

There are lots of dumb people out there. We recognize each other I think. Maybe. I may be too dumb to say for sure. But we should be able to support each other. There should be some sort of Dummies Anonymous. Maybe I can start a group on facebook. A private group where we can lament the fact that we use our fingers to add, can't figure out the proper use of whom, and can't tell if Frodo belongs with Lord of The Rings and Fredo belongs with The Godfather or vice versa. (Maybe that one's just me.)

Why?

"You know, there's a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit - the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us - the child who's hungry, the steelworker who's been laid-off, the family who lost the entire life they built together when the storm came to town. When you think like this - when you choose to broaden your ambit of concern and empathize with the plight of others, whether they are close friends or distant strangers - it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help."

— Barack Obama

My community is full of conservatives who don't get why I am a liberal. Maybe not me specifically, but anyone, really. Why I like our president. This quote pretty much sums it up. Whenever I post something like this, usually on facebook, which I usually regret later, I hear the naysayers in the back of my head. They have an answer for everything. They say, "But we care about the poor and the hungry too. When you force us to help others you take away our free agency. (It's Satan's plan.)" Yes, that's what the conservative voices in my head say. What, you don't have conservative voices in your head? I hear them because that is always the answer I hear or read. But I don't agree with it. I do agree that we should all help those who are less fortunate on our own where we can. But it isn't enough. There aren't enough charity organizations to help all of those uninsured people who get struck down by a disease that costs them thousands of dollars in treatment and causes them to lose their jobs. There aren't enough charitable accounts set up at banks or enough fundraising dinners to cover it all. There aren't enough anonymous donors to help everyone. I don't think it is stealing, I think we have an opportunity to make our society a better place where we all work together in the most expansive way possible to help the most people. No, it's not perfect. There is still a lot of wasted money and bureaucracy that doesn't always get it right but it is the best way we have to help the most people. I do not believe God has a problem with that and I like having a president who understands the problems of the less fortunate, is willing to fight for them and really knows empathy. That is a good thing in my opinion.