This morning I learned that some libertarians regard Senator Ron Wyden as a “far left extremist”. Snort, guffaw! Gosh, I wish that were true. The other thing I learned this morning is that I am locally regarded as a communist, at least by a couple of grumpy old Coquillians. After having been accused not so long ago of being a conservative this is at least a step up in the right direction if “truth in labeling” applies to social and political characterizations. As a little girl growing up in rural Northern California during the 60’s and 70’s I remember people always got very serious when speaking of communism and often used the term communist as a derogatory slur, (no doubt how it was intended towards me). Today, if some of my conservative friends were called a communist I could, (here I betray my own liberal bias of conservatives), picture them reaching for their handy assault weapon and declaring battle on the spot. Of course, I had no idea back then what communism or communist meant but I somehow always associated the terms with the color red and dominoes as well as with both anger and oppression. Communism was something to be feared.
As I have gone through life I have been able to demystify the concept of communism and its little cousin socialism with a little research. Communism aims for a classless, stateless society with full social and economic equality regardless of individual contributions. While I believe every person has value to society human nature, in my opinion, will not tolerate the purest form of communism despite the loftiness of trying to eliminate the type of income inequality we witness today.
In addition to communist and conservative I have also been accused of being a witch due my irreligious nature and preference for herbal remedies. Nevertheless, I believe I have what I imagine to be a fairly Christian perspective of advocating for social change in that I believe the role of society is to raise the least of our brothers. There may be no current labels to describe people like me but for now I will proudly wear the mantle of socialist as I have stated many times before, particularly when it comes to delivery of essential services.
Gee willikers, Mary, an all this time I thought you was a Pixie!!
🙂 A pixied commie
Commie? Pinko? Conservative? No way! Maybe a tad Marxist? Some of us registered Libertarians are fiscal conservatives and social liberals. Those among us who cannot accept you for being unique and for being your own person should look elsewhere.
Thank you for your tolerance and understanding!