It Has to be Said

I do NOT believe we have a right to terminate life. Not in the name of women's rights; not in the name of religion; not in the name of justice.

I believe that life begins at conception.

I am a hypocrite because I LOVE eggs and bacon and hamburgers and the occasional hotdog. I even have an IUD.

I believe only in the event of self-defense should any one person harm another.

I do not believe that being left or right means you believe what their respective extremists are preaching.

I believe that each and every one of us deserves to be treated equally, with the same rewards AND the same punishments for ALL (that includes the poorest AND the richest of us!).

I believe that if we lead with fear and bigotry, we will bring down the greatest thing about our country - acceptance and freedom.

I don't believe that science is anti-religion or that religion is anti-science.

I do believe that the first particle in the universe had to come from somewhere - the UNIVERSE had to come from somewhere!

I believe that if you ask the chicken and the egg, they will agree that neither of them knows which came first, nor does it matter.

I believe that if there is a higher/celestial being out there, he's pretty sick to watch innocent people suffer their whole lives with no hope of ever living in peace, never knowing love, always being scared and watching each other die of war wounds and hunger.

I believe that religion keeps most people on the straight and narrow. It may not be right, but it seems to work. For the most part.

I believe that if we are going to take religion completely out of schools and government, they better be replaced with some pretty strong morals and ethics backed by more than "because I say so" policies.

I don't believe that people are inherently evil. Sly and secretive, yes, but not evil.

I believe that the biggest struggle is the one within ourselves. Fighting our bigotry, our hatred, our wrongdoings and our hypocrisy. There is nothing worse than confronting your own demons.

And nothing better.


I wrote this today in response to all of the far-left and far-right political controversy I can't escape on the news the past few weeks.  I feel like we've all lost sight of the fact that we are all living on this planet together, all made the same way, all just trying to make the best of our walks of life.  I feel like these extremists are just stirring up the fear in anyone they can without realizing the ramifications for anyone who might disagree with them.

There IS a middle ground, a compromise. Not on all issues, perhaps, but most can be peaceably resolved.  The issue of abortion is highly controversial.  It could be set up so that only rape victims are offered the plan B option if they report the rape and the hospital administers the pill.  Pregnancies in which the mother's life is at risk due to the baby are the only cases in which abortion would be allowed, and the procedure, again, is done in a hospital setting.  This keeps the Pro-Life AND the Pro-Choice groups satisfied without compromising too much on either side.  I'm not saying this is the only answer, I'm just trying to point out that there are options beyond one extreme or another, and even very difficult topics can be compromised on.

I really feel as if we've lost a bit of our core values, our core beliefs, amidst all of the propaganda and extremism.  I love defining my core beliefs to myself, as I've done here. It gives me a chance to evaluate what values I hold and what compromises I am willing to make in order to function in a society where we treasure individuality and freedom of thought, where I am expected, as a citizen, to co-exist with others who may hold views opposite of my own.  I also love to document my beliefs and revisit them to see how I have grown as a human being.  I am not the same person I was as a 17yr old. And that person is vastly different from the person I was at 23yrs old. Now, at 27yrs old, I feel I have grounded myself in my beliefs and become grounded and centered by them.  I can't wait to see what I think in another 5 to 7 years!