WHAT'S REAL TO US AND TO THEM

More of us seem to understand what the REAL bare necessities are: clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and with which to cook, wash and irrigate. Unfracked land which can be worked and built upon and doesn't shake alarmingly at the least little tremor and to keep healthy so that we can enjoy these things!
Then there comes the need to put our contribution into the common pot and to be able to MORE than earn a mere living--to be able to make a LIFE by both giving and receiving with our talents and knowledge. Friends and family; living creatures and/or people to love and care about and who care about us. To be able to freely honor the God in each of our hearts and to respect how others honor God but also to assert that in NO case can God be honored by murder, rape, suppression of anyone, or religious coercion or heedless destruction of the natural world. We seem to see more of the world's colors, perhaps in more ways than one.
They don't. What they see boils down to a set of questions, to which I'll return in a bit. But first, let me say these things: they make a great but hollow show of religious devotion regardless of their 'religious' labels and they're all the louder for their emptiness but the god to whom they are truly devoted is known either as Ba'al, Mammon or just Moo-Lah.
Even so they are loud and hollow about their devotion to Family but what they really want is to preserve an iron and UNGODLY hierarchy of power (NOT love) within their families and the relatively freewheeling culture of today has them TERRIFIED of losing that. Which is probably why they seem to include a growing number of ammosexuals as well.
And here's where I return to the questions that seem to sum up how they see the world.
1) What you got to trade? What's your currency and how much?
2) Does it match mine and/or do I want it? (If not, it and you are both worthless to Me)
3)If I want it, how much is it? (Usually 'too much', whatever that might be)
4) Since I don't want to pay for it but I want it, how can I steal it without him/her knowing it? (This is where race-baiting comes in; see what LBJ had to say about it)
5) What can I get for me and mine RIGHT NOW? So long as it's legal, I don't care who or what else is hurt by it. It's a dog-eat-dog world and it's not my responsibility to make it better.
Go back far enough and almost everyone's narrative involves some oppression. One thing which does NOT come under that heading, however, is the humbling of those who had been oppressors. Right now, Europeans are who most of us think of first. But this narrative has also been played out in the Orient, in Africa and even in the native American cultures (anyone remember how the Tlaxcalans helped Cortez because they were fed up with their sacrificial tribute to the Aztecs?) and is now also seen in the Middle East where Jacob has rightly humbled Ishmael,who is still furious and who still doesn't really want peace.
Let's just be clear about THAT before I wind things up by mentioning that we accept the reality of how others see things, including ourselves, and at least make efforts, however mortifyingly laughable they may be, to integrate or at least make connections between our different stories and outlooks. They don't. To them, it's their way or the highway. Anyone like that, be they Dominionist or Islamist or Randian, is dangerous to democracy and should be pointed out as such. We strive for clarity; they seek to fog up and confuse. So insist on 'plain' speech, brothers and sisters!
I hope this rather rambling post helps at least some of you out in the field during this election year. Maybe this summing-up is better: we are the ones closest to the real basics, who recognize we can be wrong and others can see things differently than we. We are inclusive; they are exclusive. They acknowledge no errors on their parts and see money as the only REAL measure of anyone and never mind how it's obtained!
Clear enough, brothers and sisters? Then let's go!!