LCR…A Fun Game or a Paradigm Shift in Our Way of Life
For those of you who have played the fast moving dice game LCR (for Left, Center, Right), you understand the rules of the game. The game is played with numerous tokens to determine the ultimate winner. One can use poker chips, actual dollar bills in increments of the player’s choice, or something as unassuming as jellybeans. No matter the stake of choice, at the end of each game there is a clear winner who takes all.
One must wonder if the inventor of this game, developed in the early 1980s, was a bit prophetic in his or her understanding of the game that it would become a committed, almost neurotic way of life by so many today.
Those on the “left” are determined that their way is best and “we the people'' must adopt and live as they believe. Those on the “right” are equally passionate that their beliefs are best “for the good of all mankind” and life must be lived their way. That leaves a very large majority in the “center”, where individualism of choices that are crucial to essential life needs and decisions are overshadowed by those standing to the “left” and to the “right”.
When our forefathers framed the Constitution, the first three written words were: “We The People”. These words are an affirmation that our government, that of the United States, exists to serve its citizens (in plural form, not citizen, as in the singular individual). So, how did “we” the people become solely about “me”?
Perhaps as a nation it would serve us well, as the collectively intended “we”, to refresh ourselves on the Constitution’s Preamble. For ease, please read below:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”.
As the author of this piece, my interpretation remains that as part of the “we”, “I” have the right to my personal beliefs, which includes the emphasis written in the Preamble of the words: “WE the People”, a “more perfect Union”, “establish Justice”, “insure Tranquility”, “common defense”, “general Welfare” and finally “secure the Blessing of Liberty to OURSELVES”.
The simple, yet resoundingly structured verbiage that life, liberty and happiness in our United States of America is about every one of us; that the opinions, beliefs, lifestyle, or other rights of choice, should not be demanded of others, not bear penalty of law for failure to adopt to another’s beliefs, and most certainly should not trample on individual rights to Justice, Tranquility or general Welfare.
We the People need to respect one another, help one another to secure the Blessings of Liberty for each other, and return to a culture of understanding that your choices are those of your individual beliefs and elected lifestyle. It should matter not if you chose to earn a living as a hardworking construction laborer, toiling away in the extreme heat or frigid winters to support yourself and your family, or as a single questioning individual, toiling with your identity and how you are addressed by others. At the end of each and every day you have the undeniable right to your beliefs and “we”, the rest of the people, have the right to ours. As my mother used to say, “Stop trying to shove your opinion down your brother’s throat, he’ll figure it out and do it his way”.
Mother was on to something. We do not need Legislators trying to establish rule of law to tell us what words to use, what jobs to work, or who to love. So those of you on the “left” and those on the “right”, please be respectful of those in the “center”. Mother was also right when she said, “It’s easier to get the job done if you all work together instead of fighting”.
