[at-l] My Friend and NC Special AT Tag Supporter, Senator Joe Sam Queen Lost . . .

[icw at esisnet.com (Clark Wright)]

I have not had time to read the recent digests re how various souls on 
AT-L have "digested" the election results, and I struggle in my own mind 
and heart with wildly competing notions, but I felt like I needed to 
find a fair and constructive way to point out that these things do 
matter . . . a good man lost his senate seat in North Carolina last 
week, and his ONLY crime was being labelled a "Democrat."  State Senator 
Joe Sam Queen, the fellow who accepted me out of the total blue and 
worked so hard to get the NC AT Special License Plate legislation passed 
was narrowly beaten in his re-election campaign.  I understand, and 
often empathize, with those who feel that the Republican Party today 
better represents "conservative family values," but what just tears my 
heart strings up is to see how the fights over those important issues 
can destroy the public service career of such a good, kind-hearted and 
caring local fellow who simply did a good job, but was lost in the 
larger maelstroms that we all must recognize we all have played a part 
in creating.  There is no right and wrong party, and we had best find 
ways to find our "center" - both literally and figuratively, so we can 
come together and do good things.  Much good can potentially come from 
traditionally Republican values and from traditionally Democratic values 
- we all share the same real values . . . oftentimes, my great fear is 
that BOTH parties too often want to CODIFY values in either legislation 
or constitutional amendments . . . this is where I think the most 
grieveous errors are made by both major parties . . . for instance, one 
can believe that one's Christian faith teaches respect for life, even 
beginning at conception, but that does not necessarily mean that one 
then should make that a legislative or even a Constitutional issue; 
ditto for gay marriage and ditto from the other side of the spectrum for 
trying to legislate "goodness" too often.  As for the environment, yes 
there are some good reasons to worry about the current administration, 
but despite the hyperbole and rhetoric, I can assure everyone that EPA 
is still tracking down and taking enforcement actions against polluters; 
the clean water and clean air acts remain on the books; rcra and cercla 
remain in place, and so on.  Let's take, say the fight over the clean 
air act and older power plants . . . there are (at least ) two 
legitimate sides to this issue, for the power companies were told by EPA 
officials for many years that they could extend the life of older, 
dirtier plants by doing lots of maintenance and repair without 
triggering new source performance standards; on the other side, EPA had 
more and more data showing real pollution and health problems tied in 
part to the extended life of these older plants (keep in mind, nobody in 
1950 thought B-52s would still be a valuable military weapon today 
either!)  My point is simply that nobody is a criminal here, it is 
simply a fight over how much change, and how quickly.  I take heart in 
the fact that whatever the perspective of the temporarily-in-power 
administration, we generally have kept the good environmental laws on 
the books, and generally ARE making real progress with a number of 
pollution issues . . . far too slow for my personal liking in many 
instances, and with notable failures thrown in for good measure (but 
also notable successes).  I guess the rambling point here is to avoid 
wasting energy on hate and black and white characterizations - I voted 
for John Kerry (reluctantly in many ways, I might add), but he lost.  He 
lost very gracefully and, in my eyes, grew significantly as a human 
being in the process.  He is not dead, his values are not dead, and the 
true divide over values is far less wide than we might think at certain 
times.  Now is NOT the time to compromise on ones own true values, but 
it IS the time to try and walk some steps in the value footprints of 
others and see if we can find ways to do some good, whether our cause be 
the environment, the poor, protecting personal liberties, national 
security, financial issues, or whatever . . . I just wish that good men 
and women (including the likes of many on this list, and my friend Joe 
Sam Queen) who work hard at the local level could avoid becoming 
collateral damage in our emotionally charged national election wars . . 
. . In my mind, the lesson of this election and what happend to Senator 
Queen is not that one side was wrong and the other right, but that we 
created such a warlike atmosphere among ourselves that we have 
unwittingly created great collateral damage in our own hearts, 
neighborhoods and communities . . . let's not forget that if we do not 
preserve our own emotional and spiritual environments first, we have 
little chance of doing good for the larger "natural" and "human race" 
worlds either . . .

Take care, keep your own faith, and try to find ways to build bridges . . .

Thru-Thinker