Stormy Seas

 

JOURNAL

Stormy Seas

Bill Barksdale, Columnist

When I was a kid growing up next to the Columbia River in Oregon, I had two uncles.  Each had a sizable boat that could sail down the river and cross the bar of river siltation into the Pacific.  We’d go with one or the other uncle to ocean fish.  To my Dad and my uncles this was a great adventure but to a child, something else.  I’ve never been particularly comfortable on the ocean.  There’s a whole mysterious world under that inscrutable surface.  I don’t recall there ever having been one of those “smooth as glass” seas.  We would bob on those powerful swells of ocean and the other boats nearby would disappear until our boat was on the crest of the swell and they would appear again. 

I remember, several times, when a huge ocean-going ship would sail past us and I would look up to see the massive wall of steel rising many stories knowing that we would soon be bouncing in the wake of that ship.  I felt so small and helpless as that wall sailed past, beneath me the unknown that I had no skills to survive in.  

I’m reminded of a final scene in the movie, The Perfect Storm, where the last survivor of the sunken fishing boat is floating on a rough sea as the camera pulls back.  The man becomes smaller and smaller amidst the waves and we know that soon he will drown, like his already dead crew members.  Strangely, I’ve always felt a sense of peace watching that scene. 

Our world today is turbulently unsettled.  It’s like that stormy sea but instead of floating on the rolling ocean of unknown perils, the ocean is social conflict, the stormy ocean of human power-lust.  Be it nations, religion, hunger for wealth – we’ve become our own hazardous unknown.  Fear is the classic tool of fascism.  Stirring up the dread of our insecurities is how people like Adolf Hitler and those who aspire to his ambitions seek to gain power over others. 

Fortunately, in the United States, our forefathers threw us a life preserver – the right to Vote.  The U.S. Constitution is a living document that has been amended 27 times to try to make it more relevant and perfect.  The first 10 of those Amendments are called The Bill of Rights.  At first the right to Vote was limited to white men who owned land.  Clearly, an inappropriate exclusive group.  That needed to change because the United States is a dynamic, ever changing tide of humanity attracting people seeking freedom. 

Expressing your wants and desires through voting is fundamental to the mechanism of freedom in the U.S.  How can I say this tactfully?  As my friend Gail recently said, “If you don’t vote you’re stupid”.  That says it pretty well.  People who try to suppress voting are afraid of not being in control over you. 

In the U.S. we have what we call a “democracy”, from the Greek dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule'.  The more people that vote, the more real democracy we achieve.  When people don’t vote or are prevented from voting, the less of a democracy we have.  The United States was founded and is constantly evolving into a nation where, ideally, common man and woman have a government for “the common good”. 

Lately we as individuals, have had just too much thrown at us. Modern media makes world events and personal opinions instantly available and in your face.  Literally “in your face”.  It’s just too much information, and much of it not true.  Our brains can’t process it all so we often get angry.  When people feel overwhelmed we often tend to tune out.  The problem with that is, getting people to “tune out” is a tool of those who will then step in and take away your freedom.  Some people are even willing to trade freedom just make the complications of maintaining freedom, go away.  Nobody ever said freedom is easy.  Personally, I want my freedom, but there are limits on freedom and the limits are when you seek to hurt others in the pursuit of your own wants.

My column is about my own personal views and feelings.  If you don’t agree with me, that’s your right. 

Personally, I want you to be free but I don’t want you to hurt me.  I don’t want you to try to deprive me of my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  When you consider your “happiness” contingent on hurting me or depriving me of my right to vote, you’ve overstepped.  Same thing for me. 

There’s that old Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”  Ostensibly a simple saying, but in reality a complex philosophy requiring a deep commitment to decency. 

I’ll close this difficult column that could go on and on, with this image that may seem like a total non sequitur.  When I used to live in the redwood forest up Sherwood Road, nothing delighted me more than walking through the woods on a snowy day with my excited dogs as they ran ahead flipping that mysterious fluff in the air with their noses then scooping the cold, wet stuff into their mouths.  Their joy became my joy. 

Bill was a 2016 inductee into the Realtor® Hall of Fame.  Although retired he was an active agent in Mendocino County for 30 years.  Read more of Bill’s columns on his blog at www.bbarksdale.com