Naivety At Its Finest.

My views on religion and politics…it is okay if you laugh. A lot. I did rereading this!

Let me start with discussing my background. I grew up on Long Island, New York. Already, I can hear fellow Americans, “New Yorkers only know what happens in New York.” In my case: truth. I read Newsday, a Long Island Newspaper. Now, I can hear my fellow New Yorkers, “Long Island is not New York.” I’ll admit, I do say, “draw” instead of “drawer,” but, nonetheless, I am a New Yorker. In Newsday, about 70% of the pages are about LI news, 20% are about sports and the last 10% discusses NY news, USA news, world news, the weather and obituaries. Obviously, when I received my placement in Thailand for the Peace Corps, I needed to Google a map of Asia to find it.

My family has never been politically involved and, when election time came around, my parents usually discussed the candidates privately. My eldest brother, Tony, served in the Marine Corps for 5 years and was stationed in Iraq for quite some time.  Obviously, my family and I became more aware of events around the world, but, for the most part, reading or watching the news only made it worse.

I was raised a Roman Catholic. My mother was my religion teacher and led me to my Confirmation. Nonetheless, without saying it, my parents have always let my brothers and I believe what we would like. As young, naïve children, my parents gave us a path to follow. Now, with little discussion, my brothers and I choose to think what we would like. Honestly, I do not really know what my brothers believe.

When joining the Peace Corps, I had hoped to accomplish my little girl dream. I wanted to change the world, one person at a time. I wanted to help to end poverty, sickness, hunger…all of the terrible things in the world. Incredibly naïve, I know. That is what I have been labeled- naïve. Paired with my age, it is a good excuse for anyone to write off my opinions. And, that is perfectly legitimate.

Nonetheless, as a naïve twenty-one year old, I do have my opinions on the latter topics. I am sure the majority people who bother to read this will laugh. Usually religion, politics & laughter do not go hand in hand- there's a first time for everything!

On politics- I will start off by saying that I am twenty-one and never have voted. I never felt confident enough in my knowledge of the candidates to vote. I do regret that and hope to change. Nonetheless, when the majority of Americans vote for a candidate, I trust their judgment. The person they chose to vote for, in their minds, has the morality to make “good” decisions. An American will choose someone with similar morals to themselves. I put my faith in humanity, at this point.  Nonetheless, the minority in this situation will always be disappointed and begin to criticize the judgments of the person elected. This is where, I believe, no one knows enough information to make those judgments, unless you are the President’s right hand man. I know most readers are laughing by this point.

I listen to political conversations that inevitably expose negative feelings of at least one of the participants. The participants argue their side, referencing various sources that, of course, support their argument. Nonetheless, the majority of the conversation is based on speculation. We discuss history, already knowing the result and blame the people in charge. A person can never fully know the effects of their decisions, especially extremely important decisions such as those of the President of the United States. If life had a do-over button, I am sure certain decisions would have been made differently.

I guess, naively, I believe that the people elected, the decisions made, and the results have led us to be a successful country in this world. Yes, we have our issues. And always will. Our government already has enough pressure to make moral, humane decisions to continue to progress. I trust that the person elected knows our history and wants to make the best possible decision to benefit our country. Otherwise, why the hell would more than half of the United States put their faith in them?

On religion: Like I stated earlier, I have incredibly faith in our humanity. This is where my ideas on religion originate. There are about twenty major religions in the world today. People within those religions interpret their faith in a variety of different ways. Nonetheless, in my opinion, the majority of religions are based on common, humane values. A religion is a belief in a divinity of some sort. People, who follow a certain religion, use this code to live a “moral” life, in their perspective. To me, the morals taught by the majority of religions are similar. Love of the divine, honesty, forgiveness, love of humanity. To the majority of people in the world, these traits create a moral person.

With this train of thought, I have a hard time understanding what separates humanity. Yes, our religions have different practices. Nonetheless, we all want to be a moral, humane person. Granted, there can be exceptions to this. But, I hope to never encounter someone who intentionally strived to be inhumane. Lives lost due to differences in religion are shameful considering we all are taught to love. We are now in a world where children are taught to despise a certain group of people. It is a disgrace that possible friendships are destroyed based on legacy of hatred.  If we can overlook the different names of religions, of holy texts, of the divine and begin to look at the underlying principles in any religion, we would see that we have more in common than not. This is perfect placement for- "Can't we all just get along?"

Considering how naïve I am, I can consider myself wise in a few ways. I can analyze the world from a perspective that hasn't been tainted for the majority of people my age. Nonetheless, I read some of my opinions and laugh at myself. My thoughts on religion, well, impossible. And, in regard to politics, ridiculous.  Nevertheless, I want to keep my faith in humanity for a bit longer. Before I join the never-ending political debate while hating anyone that does not have a Confirmation name.