Senator Rick Scott’s Narrow Mind

Posted on by under Global Issues, Personal, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, religion, Social commentary

Speaking of Republicans … I do seem to do that a lot lately, don’t I?  They just give us so much fuel for the fires!  Republican Senator Rick Scott from Florida crosses my radar at least once a week, but I’ve largely learned to ignore him just as I have so many others.  He does, however, manage to make my antennae twitch when he goes all-out riding the bigot train as he did recently.

Last week, Scott was doing a radio interview (seems to me some members of Congress spend more time on the media circuit than they spend in the Capitol) when the host, Martha Zoller, brought up the topic of immigration.  Now, you might think that Scott, being an ultra-conservative Republican in this, the 21st century, would be completely against immigration, but you’d be wrong.  Oh no … Scott has a proposal:

“Why don’t we have a legal immigration system for the people that want to come and live our dream, that want to live, that believe in our Judeo-Christian values? Alright? Why don’t we want more? If we’re going to have more immigration, alright, let’s do that.”

Wow … I dunno, maybe some people would be happy living in a nation that only welcomes Christians, but … I personally value diversity.  Our closest friends are a family of immigrants from Iraq who came to the U.S. seven years ago and almost immediately we began learning from each other, became best friends, and still today remain so. Last year after my 11 days in the hospital, they cooked dinner for us every night for over a month!   I cherish what I have learned from them and our exchange of cultures.  I have tried and loved some Arabic foods, have picked up a few words of Arabic, though with my failing memory my attempts to say something in Arabic usually end in resounding laughter!  No, their skin is not lily-white, and no, they are not Christians, they are of the Muslim faith, but … so what???  They are wonderful people and my life is richer for knowing them!  And yet Mr. Rick Scott would shun them?

The United States was founded in part on freedom of religion.  That gives me the right to be a non-believer, that gives Rick Scott the right to be a Christian, and it gives my neighbors the right to be Muslim.  If this country tilts toward Rick Scott’s vision, then we are no longer the United States of America that was established by the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.  And if we allow this abominable sort of discrimination, then we are depriving ourselves of a myriad of opportunities to learn more about the world, to open our minds and our hearts. I have zero desire to live in a country of bigoted, narrow-minded people who think everyone must conform to their ways, their beliefs.

One last thing … I came across this a few days ago and found it so apt

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. ~Jimi Hendrix

26 thoughts on “Senator Rick Scott’s Narrow Mind”

  2. Jill, you correctly point out that Christians make up only a bloc of Americans and a decreasing one as well. There is a separation of church and state for a reason in our country. Maybe Scott wants to terminate the constitution as well as the former president. Keith

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    • My a.m. post is on this topic of religious freedom as per the Constitution. Scott didn’t directly agree with Trump’s call to terminate the Constitution, but neither did he repudiate it, so nothing would surprise me. Kevin McCarthy says that when HE is Speaker of the House, every session will begin with a prayer. Perhaps it would be more apt to begin every session with a reading of their Oath of Office! Some of them, including Scott, seem unable to remember that oath.

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  4. The more I learn about the founding of this country, from the time of the Pilgrims, the Puritans, & all the other colonists, the more I know that this country was based on ANYTHING but freedom of religion. They may have come here for their personal religious freedom but once here, they denied it to all other persons. This has been the MO of the American elite ever since.

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      • They persecuted others from the word GO. If you didn’t conform to their narrow idea of what “God’s grace” was, you were banished from the colony, sent North into the wilderness, to survive or die, usually to die. Some made it to New France. Some went south to New Holland (New York). There was a settlement in what became Connecticut. But these places were routinely attacked by the natives & many non-conformists died for their beliefs.

        Freedom of religion, MY ASS.

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  6. And, this just showed the hypocrisy of the first amendment right to freedom of religion: we welcome all, who have a different set of religious belief system, given that, it’s the same as, ours: Christianity, so long as you believe in Christ, then, you’re welcome, while the rest of you, STAY, OUT! That, would be, what the first amendment right to freedom of religion, based off of the Republicans’ interpretation…and this is still B.S!

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  7. This is one of Jimi’s most profound statements, and he truly believed it, as do I. Today’s world, however, politically and economically speaking, has turned their backs on peace, love, and even equality. That “stuff” is for the poor. “Power is made to be used.”
    Well, I think power should be used to help everyone, not step on them if they are even slightly in your way.
    The wealthy USE everyone else to get more wealth — to get more power. If only the MAGA crowd would realize how horribly they are being used, but I doubt few ever will.

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    • Gee, I’ve missed you since I have been gone. You hit this one square in the middle, my friend. Being white, Catholic and female I only have one thing going for me in this new way of thinking, and that is the white part. Catholic? Not a good thing in this world, but then again, it’s never been a good thing since the birth of Christianity. And women are not quite up to second class at most places, but especially in the Catholic church. Wow! I have nothing going for me at all, and yet I keep on keeping on. Too bad I don’t know my “place” in life.

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    • I agree that this is a statement well worth remembering, and likely it will never get old. The maga crowd don’t CARE that they are being used, as long as they are told that they are being helped. They don’t understand, for our education system has failed them miserably. And for some, they just like the “excitement” that creatures like Trump, Greene, and Walker bring into their otherwise boring lives.

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