The bratty right

When I was in first grade, I read the Judy Blume books about the Hatcher family. The first book was called "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing." In it, Peter Hatcher, a 12 year old kid, had to put up with a bratty brother nicknamed Fudge. As I am the oldest of three children, I related to the book. My favorite of all the Hatcher books was "Superfudge," but it always made me sad when I read it. See, the Hatchers were going to have a third child, and they were moving to a new town. Even as a seven year old, I came to realize that everything in life changes, and there are things everyone must leave behind.

But... there is one thing that remains constant as the world wobbles on its axis: human nature. Men have been trying since the dawn of time to understand what it is that makes humans do the things they do. Countless scholars have developed their ideas on how to make the world a better place, from democracy and communism to such evils as Islamic fundamentalism.

Human nature will never change. We will always have good and evil. There will always be people slaughtering each other. There will always be poverty and inequality. And why? Because there are people who are afraid of change and want to conserve the status quo, even if it means letting others suffer.

This disaster that is our national focus should really make people think about life. People should think about their obsession with possessions. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have absolutely nothing now. NOTHING. Can you even imagine that? Of course, Condi's out there buying a thousand-dollar pair of shoes and living it up in NYC. People who have so much don't ever have to think about having nothing. They don't even comprehend that there are people who have nothing. Indeed, the fact that there are those heartless people who blame people for staying in the city shows that there is no comprehension of having no place to go. I wonder if they have ever lived paycheck to paycheck. Even if those people were able to get out of the city, hotels aren't free.

What has happened to our country that the left and right are at each others' throats, laying blame and pointing fingers at whomever they see as connected to the disaster? This country has changed. I feel like I've switched schools like Peter Hatcher. I don't know anyone; I recognize nothing. The generosity that I have seen in the past week has been countered by the hatred I have seen.

The reason I bring up a book from my childhood is that as I am only 16 months from 30, and I am about to embark on a major change in my life. (Career related, but not sure what it is yet.) I wanted to serve people, but I don't want to serve people like Michelle Malkin, Neil Boortz, or those at Moldy Footballs. My whole outlook on life has changed as a result of the realization that there are some people out there who really only do care about themselves.

There was an economist who said something along the lines of modern conservativism constantly trying to find a moral justification for their selfishness (Galbraith, maybe?) I believe that. People like Malkin are gloryseekers, and their sheep give them that glory they seek. I don't want to serve people like this. I don't want to serve people who say government should only exist to fight wars and that it has no responsibility to govern the people. I don't want to serve the irrational hateful radical right whose answer to looters is to shoot them. I don't want to serve people who claim to want a "culture of life" who support this kind of barbaric behavior, who only care about embryos and not actual born people.

Everything in life changes. Everything, that is, except human nature.