Why I am a Progressive. By Eric Smith

If I am Progressive in any way it is because I have long since learned the limits of and morally corrosive nature of Conservative thinking. If you think Conservative, as Conservatism is now defined, you ultimately see the world through your eyes only; that what works for you should works for everybody else; that if you can overcome hardships and achieve something then everyone can do it, and if you have been able to get yours with limited help then that others should be able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and get theirs.

I would be dishonest if I said that I have always been as I am now. I would be lying if I said that I have never been anti white people, sexist, chauvinistic, and homophobic. I have been all of these things at various times in my past. I have lived within that bubble of bigotry so I know what it is and I know just how corrosive a cancer these attitudes are on one's soul.

To face up to these horrible aspects of my personality were a painful process of self analysis & self discovery; that is true, but each one was absolutely necessary for in the end I recognized that our biases and our bigotries ultimately victimize us. Thus the reason we should abandon our prejudices is not only because doing so is right but because abandoning them ultimately becomes a matter of self preservation for like all cancers these cancers of intolerance ultimately kills; if not our physical bodies then certainly our souls.

Hate is such a needless burden to carry around and the making of needless enemies because our biases blind us to the humanity of those we are biased against is a profoundly wasteful and ultimately self destructive use of our limited time here on Earth. If we can reach the point in our lives where we can see ourselves reflected in the faces of all those we see; if we can move past tolerance to unconditional acceptance of those of different races, colors, creeds, sexual orientation, gender, and economic classes we will not only be affirming the humanity of our fellow human beings, we will be reaffirming our own.

Judge a person on their merits as a person and nothing else for nothing else about them matters and remember that in the end it matters not who you were but what you've become; if indeed your change of heart & attitudes have been sincere.