This is the beginning of a biweekly column, as The Daily Star strives to remain fair and balanced in relation to the opinions of the day.
Opinions left and right can fester into thorny issues, and it is not my intention to stir up negativity. It is rather to explore how our community values fit together and how we interact with each other, economically and politically.
My own opinions are rather strongly held, but I strongly value open-mindedness. Working as an election inspector for a number of years, it has been wonderful to observe the neighborly atmosphere at the polls, among people who represent various factions in our community. I go to work that day filled with the political hopes of my party, and leave feeling admiration for our ability to interact with each other in courteous and friendly ways as Oneontans.
I expect to be called a "bleeding-heart liberal," at least by some of you, whatever that means. I retired after 22 years as a clinical social worker at Delaware County Mental Health Clinic. After a five-year hiatus (to build a new house for my wife and me in Oneonta), I was then with the Arc Otsego part time for another seven years. I have two grown kids and four grandkids.
I believe in the fundamental goodness of people. I am aware that it is not uncommon for good people to do bad things. I believe in personal responsibility and also in the healing power of forgiveness. People hurt one another, not always on purpose, and can be selfish or blind to the needs of others, as well as generous and kindly.
I believe in evolution (as the hand of the creator) and that our chief attribute as a species is our ability to work together successfully as a group pooling our strength, as well as to care for each other. I believe that patriotism is expressed by contributing to our society to the best of our individual ability, and that in fairness, we should expect protection within society for some of our needs.
While that is like a Marxian idea, I am not sympathetic to any totalitarian system, including communism. But I do think some socialist ideas have substantially bolstered our communal well-being.
Privatized endeavors are not always or automatically superior or somehow more pure in my eyes. Individual initiative is vital when planted in the soil of opportunity, but markets do not magically solve all our problems fairly.
Privacy and private property are basic to our culture. But achievers do have an obligation to recognize the advantages that society's shoulders have provided them. We must also remain aware that our individual stewardship of the Earth is but a time-speck in the big picture.
I admit I am a tree-hugger environmentalist. I do not believe that anyone should so exploit the Earth as to damage it irreparably. I do worry that the perspective we have within a single lifetime can be blind to seeing some long-range consequences of our actions.
Ecosystems are subtly complex intertwinings of seasons and species _ circular interdependencies that are often obscure to us in the present. It is nonetheless vital to weigh these matters as much as the fistfuls of dollars that urge us carelessly forward sometimes.
I strongly believe in tolerance (except of intolerance itself). I think that original sin is described in Genesis as "eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil," by which each of us is tempted to play god, to judge ourselves good, and "them" evil.
This leads to ends justifying means. That can be a mullah assigning a suicide bomber, or a preacher condemning abortion. I believe in a rigid separation of government from religion, and that no one is entitled to control the personal choices of others.
Some on the left are disappointed about the performance of our president (too few home runs as a Democrat), but to me the cries of the right are foul balls, full of misplaced anger and denial at the contradictory record of their own Republican Party.
No one is infallible. I know that I will not always resist imputing motives to people with different views, even though this can approach treading upon the thin ice of disrespect. So, it would just have to go down as speculation. In the broadest of brush strokes, that is about it for me now.
William Masters can be reached at wmasters@thedailystar.com.
William Masters
Thoughts of a 'bleeding-heart' liberal
- William Masters
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
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War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
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Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
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William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
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A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
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Playing Left Field: Some blur lines between laws of church and state
We have freedom of religion in this country. A clear separation between churches and governmental agencies is constitutionally mandated. Government power may not favor or advance a particular religion.
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Humans need to look at long-term impact on Earth
Global warming is real and we are smugly oblivious. I recall the USS Nautilus making a journey to the North Pole decades ago, and poking its conning tower dramatically up through the ice right at the pole itself, an arrival theretofore possible only by dog sled and arduous effort.
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Playing Left Field: Meaning of 'liberty' lost in GOP's translation
COLUMN BY WILLIAM MASTERS .... Now, during the Republican presidential primaries, we hear a lot about liberty. It is a leave-me-alone type of liberty, suggesting the license to do what one may choose in the sacred call of business activity. Much is sought in the name of freedom.
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Government no longer about power of people
In my time, the idea of conservatism has been turned upside down. Men in my family wore neckties even when just reading the paper at home.
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Americans should respect right to bear arms
Early one morning a while back, I answered a phone call from Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, warning that the sky is falling _ no worse: that the U.S. is participating in a U.N. treaty effort to deal with the irresponsible international transfers of small arms.
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Inequalities breed social dysfunction
In my most-recent column, I presented recent epidemiological evidence that the inequality built into a society underlies the sense many of us have that the country is going in the wrong direction.
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Inequalities breed discontent in our modern society
So many Americans feel a dispirited sense of complaint. The conservative ranks have gravitated to Tea Party anger, while more lately, a less-defined segment has turned out to "occupy" public areas for mutual support as the amorphous "99 percent" is filled with discontent about the elite 1 percent reaping the lion's share of wealth.
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Freedom should not belong to the rich alone
"I pledge allegiance to the flag ... " intones every first-grade kid, in unison and sincerity. When I was in the first grade, we faced the mortal crises of Pearl Harbor and fascism in Europe.
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There's no such thing as completely clean energy
Some local people cry "Drill, Baby, Drill," reminding us of our nation's need to be freed from dependency on foreign oil. And we are regularly treated to TV ads praising "clean coal" in generating electricity.
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Consider competence, congeniality when voting
NetSummary
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'People are scared, angry' that the country is going down the drain
There is a widespread discontent among most of us that the country is going down the drain. People are scared and angry. Too many people can find no work at all, and unemployment is not going down.
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'We are all dependent: Both upon the Earth, and on an economy'
If we don't change, change will bury us. That will be because of the changes we ourselves inflict so causally upon this one and only Earth.
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'Corporations are not people; they are tools that entrepreneurs use'
"Corporations are people, my friend," quipped Mitt Romney, in rebuttal to a crowd shouting that corporations should be a source of revenue instead of taxing people.
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Thoughts of a 'bleeding-heart' liberal
This is the beginning of a biweekly column, as The Daily Star strives to remain fair and balanced in relation to the opinions of the day.
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
