Point of View: It’s just common sense

by Keirs McDonald, BSME, University of Illinois

I used to pride myself by telling everyone that I had never voted a straight ticket in my life. Common sense told me that one party did not have a monopoly on good, thoughtful candidates. Candidates’ stances were dictated by the existing circumstances and changed with the times.

Today I sense anger and extremism in our political differences. This should stop, and we should return to common sense.

We should first recognize that no one man can know all things, and there is no perfect candidate. We all need the counsel of others, then we make our best judgement and move forward.

While there are extremists on both sides, if we understand the problem, we can solve it.

The extreme right continues to cast the left with the brand of socialism. If you examine the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution, you can conclude both documents are socially democratic. They both state the protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in that order. Without life the others will not follow. It’s just common sense.

We are a nation of many millions of individuals. We are like leaves on the same tree. Each leaf is slightly different from all the others. We, too, are similar but different.

We must put behind us all the anger and win-at-any-cost attitude and understand that we must exchange ideas and decide our own fate. Just Common Sense!

As a final argument for my theme of common sense, I would like to leave you with a poem from another era of our turbulent history. It was written by Rod McKuen in 1975 and published in his book Celebration of the Heart. The poem, “Position,” comes closest to describing my heartfelt position for my country.

I live in America
neither right nor left am I
and certainly not center.
To me to be among
the silent majority
means to be among the dead.
And for me
no two or ten or two hundred
make up a minority.
Every man is such
because ever man is different.
If I met a man
who looked like me
and thought like me
and walked and spoke like me
and was in no way
different from me
only then would I consider slaying him
for he would have stolen from me
all those thoughts
and all those lies
I’d found out for myself.
All the living
That had brought me here
That man would have erased
By being just like me.
But kill; a man unlike myself?
Not likely.
There might be something
I could learn from him.
There is so much I need to know,
why there are no butterflies
in the world’s backyard,
and when I find out
I need to study
how to get them back.
Men trample beauty underfoot
like it was gravel
These actions are confined
to no one country
but I resent it in my own
because I love my country.
Could it be
that men join clubs
as men carry them,
For security?
But from what?
My security is my country
and everything I am in life
and everything I know
and everything I care about
revolves around it.
And I live in America
and I find its face not ugly
except sometimes.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of The West Alabama Watchman.