Love and Acceptance. And Other Social Media DOHs

Conversations with a Vampire Hunter (alternate title)

by Stan Faryna

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Elbow, Everthere

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You know what’s hard for me to admit?

That I want to be loved and accepted.

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The problem is that love and acceptance are NOT unconditional. Love and acceptance comes with expectations, obligations and responsibilities.

It’s how it works. This is a law. Just like gravity. Ignore it at your own peril, disappointment and self-defeat.

But don’t get mad at me for pointing out the elephant in the room.

Just like you, I often find the burden of that vector to be difficult, frustrating, exhausting and problematic.

Because I want to be loved and accepted for what makes me happy.

Just like you, I want to be loved and accepted without all that seemingly self-compromising consideration, opinion, and necessity of others.

Just like yours, my own idic legalese, however, contradicts (often) that intimate, inseparable and unavoidable nature of love and responsibility.

This selfish and naive expectation, however, cannot ever overcome the truth that we are here for each other as much as (if not more than) for ourselves.

Because this world is a world of we – not a world of my ways (Sorry Mr. Sinatra!), gimme’s and gotta be me’s.

That’s why it is so frelling hard to admit.

That I do want to be loved and accepted.

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Because we know (without a doubt), that love is inseparable from responsibility and, worse, it is inseparable from the expectations, opinions and necessities of others.

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Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.

Abraham Lincoln

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Stan Faryna
16 September 2012
Bucharest, Romania

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America needs you – not better politicians (1 of 3)

My fellow citizens:

Like you, I don’t believe that the problem of the United States of America today is a lack of good intentions, intelligence, vision, ability and hope.

Amongst this American people are all the resources, compassion and courage that are needed.

The problem is a lack of leadership.

No, we do not lack for politicians. I believe that we can all agree there is enough of those peculiar creatures. Neither can they be improved upon. Nor perfected. They are merely men and women- no better and no worse than our best and our worst. As individuals, their service (performed well or poorly) is limited by their single-ness.

What we lack, in fact, is an army of humble, servant leaders!

Barack Obama, Thomas Jefferson, Lincoln, et al: Viva la Vida

Friday, 04 July 2008

As I reflect on the meaning of Independence Day, I cannot help but to see the stark contrast between the freedoms which we as Americans have come to take for granted and the situation in Romania, where the Romanian people struggle to live day by day under the capricious and self-serving will of oligarchs and authoritarians and a corrupt and impetuous government.

Never you mind that the 2008 NATO Summit was held in Bucharest.

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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 blessings of liberty

to ourselves and our posterity…

United States Constitution

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The purpose of human government is to enable the people to obtain, individually, for themselves every good and moral opportunity to pursue and enjoy the common good.

Regardless of geographical differences, the purpose is everywhere the same. This, the human spirit has taught us in its longings, triumphs, and struggles through human history. And this wisdom is made more compelling by our own tears, hopes and prayers.

George Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. understood themselves as instruments of human destiny. They saw that the implications of their efforts, sacrifices and triumphs were not limited to their time; they understood that the things for which they struggled for must also belong in a wider sense to humanity and the future.

Romania: Authoritarians Trample On Constitution, Civil Rights

Treading fearlessly…

Sounds and images from Kazakhstan (wink) for your reading background music (below)

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In preparation for the NATO summit and during the period of the NATO Summit in Bucharest, the Romanian state and Bucharest city government may have violated all or more than the following Romanian Constitutional articles:

1. Article 21 Access to Justice
2. Article 23 Individual Freedom
3. Article 24 Right to legal counsel
4. Article 25 Freedom of movement
5. Article 29 Freedom of conscience
6. Article 30 Freedom of expression
7. Article 39 Freedom of assembly
8. Article 40 Right of association

In consideration of these abuses of national and local government powers, a Romanian civil liberties group has filed an official complaint with the Romanian Public Ministry – the same institution which may be responsible for said violations. Some Romanians, however, believe that complaints should be taken to the EU Courts for Human Rights in Brussels. They argue that the Romanian Public Ministry is unlikely to condemn itself or those officials within the institution which continuously demonstrates its contempt for the Romanian Constitution.

The most cynical of Romanian critics believe this civil liberties group is conspiring with the Romanian government to take the heat off by allowing such questions to be handled by the foremost guilty party and, as soon as possible, to be swept under the carpet and forgotten. Interestingly, this is no serious story about this in the mainstream Media (Television, Print or Radio).