March 2003

I’m a Liberal! There I said it! Whew! It seems that in today’s conservative culture, “liberal” has become a dirty word. Conservatives complain at the top of their lungs about the “liberal media” and how it unfairly persecutes true conservatives. Hmmm — last time I checked, 90% (or more) of the media seems to be owned and run by conservatives. From Rush Limbaugh to Bill O’Reilly to FOX News’ so-called “Fair and Balanced” reporting, anyone barely left of the Republicans is labeled “Liberal”.

When we work hard to elect Liberals to office, most of us aren’t doing it for personal gain. We are doing it because we care about others and genuinely want to help them. We CARE. The ability to care about someone less fortunate than yourself is a patented Liberal character trait.

  • We care about decent public education. We know that millions of children in this country go without the basic supplies they need to learn. Teachers are underpaid and schools are under-funded. Here in Oregon, they are once again cutting back days from the school year because we don’t have the money. (Yet we somehow have the money to build bombs to drop on foreign countries.)

  • We care about health care coverage for everyone. We know that the 39 million Americans without health insurance are suffering needlessly — many of those, children.

  • We care about help for Senior Citizens. We know that right now, there are seniors who are having to choose between buying their medication and decent food.

  • We care about equal treatment for everyone. We know that mindless discrimination still touches the lives of a good number of those who aren’t straight white protestant American males.

Conservatives used to parody Bill Clinton’s famous quote: “I feel your pain”. They did this because they simply could not understand what it means to truly empathize with another human being. They have a hard time putting the needs of other people ahead of themselves. As a Liberal, I feel pity for these people.

Liberal is NOT a dirty word. Being a Liberal means you take the nobler road in this world. It means you think about others, not just yourself. It means you want to make this world a better place for everyone, not just a select (rich) few. I don’t think these traits are anything to be ashamed of. So go ahead — call me a Liberal! I dare you!

Back


Email comments to

Angela C. Byers

Copyright © 1996 - 2003 Angela C. Byers