Politics & Religion

Hi, my name is Holly, and I am a Libertarian. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, basically, I feel the government should be limited instead of the people (see chart below). 

There has been so much going around lately about religious beliefs, and how laws should reflect religious beliefs. Laws should reflect what is good for the people, and frankly there needs to be less laws then there are. The government needs to get its politically correct hands out of everyone else’s personal business. The government of a Constitutional Republic is not a government that needs to be telling we the people how and what to think. It doesn’t need to be distracting us with ridiculous controversies to hide all of the corruption going on. It doesn’t need to have it’s hands in every little thing because that is how we begin to lose our freedom. Did you know that you can now be arrested for thought crimes? Does that sound like a free country to you? 

Imagine a world where marriage is your choice, and divorcing is your choice. You don’t have to pay legal fees or deal with paperwork. You do what is right for you instead of what everyone tells you to do. Remember the days when most jobs provided you with health insurance, and it wasn’t a constant fight to get healthcare? Back when fast food and mall jobs were for teenagers saving up to buy a car, and in my case music and Oakleys. (which is who the minimum wage was set for). Back when being unemployed and on government programs wasn’t so luxurious. I have been on unemployment, I used that time to get back in school and make something of myself, then got back to work as soon as could while remaining in school. I want to do more than what I am doing and have more of an impact on the world. It’s getting too easy to get comfortable and unmotivated. People get paid by the government to sit around and do nothing while people who are trying to make something of themselves end up with a mountain of student loan debt. Things are so backwards, and I don’t believe for a second that it’s not on purpose. The government has even gotten it’s hands way too far into education. It was enough to keep me from teaching back in the day watching my aunt, who spent her life in the school system and worked her way from a bus driver to a principal, having to constantly fight government for the children of our nation, but now they are trying to dumb them down with common core and force them to spend the majority of their lesson plans preparing for government testing. All the while trying to come up with penalties for homeschooling. I am totally for homeschooling, at least until high school, or even Montessori or experiential schools. I say until high school because when you homeschool your kid, or send them to a school where they can thrive, they are in a good place socially, mentally, and emotionally by their high school years and the opportunity for extracurriculars is great (as long as they stop getting rid of music and arts programs). The laws of the land should not keep people from their religion, ethics, and beliefs. They should protect the people from harm and from the government getting too big. If someone doesn’t want to bake you a cake for your gay wedding, take your business somewhere where your money is good. If someone wouldn’t sell me food because I was overweight, I would spend my money somewhere that is more than happy to sell me food (granted, my network of people would be informed of it via social media, but there would be no lawsuit). Freedom is deciding for yourself. It’s not fearing to use your voice, and to think something that it is different from what the collective deems safe. 

Freedom is being allowed to be a free-thinker. Freedom is being allowed to love and worship whatever version of God resonates with you, as long as you aren’t harming anyone. This includes forcing your beliefs on others. If being a homosexual is not right for you, then be straight, that doesn’t mean that everyone else has to be straight, too. If they’re not, fine. You don’t have to understand it, just let them be true to themselves. The suicide rate is so high with LGBT because of how they are made to feel about their sexuality. If you are born a girl and feel like a girl, awesome. If you are born a girl and feel like a boy, awesome. Do what you have to do to be true to yourself. The only negative-ish thing that I will say about this, is don’t expect me, the taxpayer, to pay for your gender reassignment, unless you, the taxpayer, would like to pay for my gastric bypass and access skin removal afterwards. I am a strong, skinny woman, trapped in a curvy girls body, it’s not always easy to match your outside to your inside, but you have to work with what you have sometimes (unless you have Kardashian levels of money). I love the Wiccan Rede (before you continue reading, remove any negativity you have attached to the word Wiccan, and read the Rede with an open mind): Do what you will and harm none.

Which brings us to religion. I, personally, love to experience God. In a lot of different ways, inspired by a lot of different religions and belief systems. Beliefnet labelled me as Neo-Pagan, which I have learned is basically the “other” category of religions and belief systems. I have Christian beliefs, I have Buddhist beliefs, I have Pagan beliefs, I have Druid beliefs, I have Wiccan beliefs, I have Christian Science (not Scientology) beliefs, I have Metaphysical beliefs, and I have metaphysical gifts. The list goes on and on. I pray, I meditate, I light candles, I manifest, I attend healing rituals and celebrations with my “Tribe”, I practice energy healing and holistic healing (I go the doctor once a year get my PCOS prescription, it’s the hormonal wackiness that has plagued me since puberty, which I am currently reading about so that I can reverse it). I have already begun to reduce the chemicals that go in and on my body little by little. Which, I have to go on record as saying, baking soda based deodorants work so much better than the chemical ridden stuff you find in regular stores. Also, coconut oil is an awesome makeup remover and moisturizer. But I digress. The point that I am trying to make here is that I have my ways of experiencing and working with and for God. They don’t look like what the world may be used to, but it is what works for me and connects me to the Divine. In that, I have learned that there are many ways to connect to and experience God. As long as you are “harming none”, it’s not wrong. As for all of you Christians out there, I encourage you to remember not only the death of Jesus (which by the way, was meant to get rid of all of those laws that no longer had a place in a world that had evolved spiritually), but to. also, focus on his life and why he came here in the first place. It was to show us how to love, and that getting rid of the hate, judgement, and discrimination, and embracing love and walking in love is the new way to Godliness. All those years ago, we graduated from the rules of the Old Testament and moved into a new era of love. It’s time that we reminded ourselves of that, as we begin to graduate even further into a deeper level of loving. There is a reason kids are being born with incredible awareness. Some toddlers will have breakdowns over eating animals. Toddlers! We are moving forward, and with that you have to move forward with it, and start deciding for yourself the kind of life that you want to lead, and the kind of legacy you want to leave behind. I know that I would prefer to leave the children a brighter, safer, more loving future, full of adventure, passion, and joy. 

Let the haters hate, while you laugh it off with those who appreciate. 

You can’t control other people, you can only control yourself, your life,  and how you react to other people.