Blog Post #47: What do we believe?

Do we Americans really believe what we believe? This is a question that we should be asking ourselves. Most of us are very good at talking but how many really ‘walk the walk’? Our behavior over the past few months makes it clear what we really believe, and our continuing behavior for the next couple months will make the answer even more clear when we continue to ask: do we truly believe all the things that we say we believe? All of the things that are inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, all of the stuff about freedom and democracy and human rights? The president and his administration have been very good at saying the right things for a lot of people, the things that most people want to hear. But we need to make sure that his behavior and their behavior as a whole government reflect clearly the values that this country is based on. In addition to the values that this country was founded on, we also need to make sure that the truths that we are talking about are evident from the behavior of the president and his administration. Many people say that we should look at what he does rather than what he says, and I would agree completely. 

But equally important is for us to look at ourselves. Looking in the mirror is a hard thing to do. Are we acting on our values? Are we standing up for what we believe? If we are not, we should be. And dissidents between one say and do should be making us very uncomfortable. We should be looking at our behavior, and not our words. The things that we do or don’t do reflect clearly the values that we have or do not have. We should stop lying to ourselves. It is time for us to reckon with who we are and what our country really is, and if we don’t like what we see, we need to take action to change it.

Again, taking a hard look at what we do rather than what we say is difficult but it is time to act on our values and beliefs. It is time for action.

Dr. Ron Breazeale PhD Clinical Psychologist