It’s the feeling “of being certain” about something… that’s how the word ‘belief’ is defined.
Where you are, in Pagosa Springs, and where I am, in California, various things that impact us, one way or another, can be the result of policymakers’ personal beliefs, or personal interests, which frequently factor into their decision-making process.
Like when tourism policies and procedures, for a town like Pagosa, are being formulated, or when decisions involving taxpayers’ dollars are under consideration, personal beliefs may be tilting decisions in one direction or another. And that’s fine, when decisions work out okay… when they address various needs and bring good value to communities. But that’s not always the way decisions, based on various beliefs, turn out.
They can turn out to be totally fubared, which is slang, meaning that something is “utterly botched or confused,” or something is “extremely bad or certain to fail.” These are gentle definitions of a word that can have a harsher meaning, considering the first two letters in ‘fubar,’ and the last three letters, when you think about them, as well.
So, there you have it… beliefs, which, sometimes, can impact us all, when policymakers in government — or in business, and such — bring their personal beliefs, or personal interests, to the table. Or when religious beliefs come into play.
When religions imbue people with goodness, hope and love, that’s something to be thankful for.
But sometimes, sadly, religious beliefs can push folks in other directions.
Now, I’m no preacher, but if I happened to be one, I might be expressing concerns about how fubared religion creeping into government, seems to be getting to be.
Maybe religion isn’t creeping into your local government, so much, or in mine, but at the federal government level – and maybe, even, at the nation’s Supreme Court — and perhaps in some state and municipal governments around the country, religious beliefs sure seem to be worming their way into policies.
Whatever happened to separating church and state? Wasn’t it Thomas Jefferson who, in a letter to the Danbury, Connecticut, Baptist Association, described the First Amendment as erecting a “wall of separation between church and state?” Back in 1802, when he wrote those words, was he worrying about religion creeping up on government?
Have you ever seen so many politicians exuding – or discharging, as ‘exuding,’ sometimes, is defined – their piousness, all over the place? With various politicians totally disregarding the words of someone, who also happened to write the nation’s Declaration of Independence.
Piousness can be wonderful, except when it’s being discharged.
Which brings us back to beliefs, which can be wonderful, as well, as long as they’re not causing procedures and policies to become all fubared.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.