Moslems

There is a lot of misunderstanding these days about Islam. Donald Trump has said he wants to exclude all Moslems from entering the United States. That seems to be too extreme for me. Broad-brush approaches like that often do more harm than good.

Recently, I've been reading the Qur'an and I find it very interesting. As with many religious texts, it often seems to be very open to interpretation. Then, of course, some interpreters will go one way and others in a different direction. Here's what I have found.

The Qur'an specifically does not condemn Jews and Christians. Read, "Those who believe, and those who follow the Jewish [scriptures], and the Christians and the Sabians, - any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." [2:62] and [5:69]

While the Qur'an does say that infidels must be either converted, subjugated, or killed, I have found three places such as the one quoted above where the Qur'an clearly states that Christians and Jews are NOT infidels.

So why all the fuss? Why can't believers in fundamental Islam stop quoting their own scriptures out of context? There need not be a schism between these three great religions! As C.S. Lewis said in his preface to "Mere Christianity" even theologians of the same denomination can violently disagree over fine points of religion. How much better it would be to find at least one point of common belief and build upon that.

EQUAL Taxation, Please!

As can be seen from the above chart, corporate taxes have contributed less and less to government revenues ever since 1945. At the same time, revenues derived from personal taxes have remain very high. It only seems fair, that if corporations are now permitted to contribute unlimited money for campaigns, they should be required to participate EQUALLY in their share of funding the government. The current Republican proposal for tax revision should be strongly opposed. "We The People" should be treated fairly and not be minions who are controlled by a gigantic government and corporate monies.

Fix It For Me

Over the years the focus of people in the USA seems to have changed. The old ideas of community and village are gone only to be replaced with an attitude that, if there is anything wrong in someone's life, it will be fixed by someone else. 

For example, consider the case of more than 700 murders in Chicago. Why should those citizens expect the Police (someone else) to fix there problem. I would propose, that the citizens of each block could fix the problem themselves if only they would band together to do so. 

I would further propose that nearly all of the major problems faced by this country could be solved if only the citizens would come together, raise themselves up by their own bootstraps, and fix it themselves. 3rd parties and big governments are not the solution.