The best defence we can have is no enemies; thus if we spend our defence budget with strategic intelligence infused with empathy, our faith in action, we make friends, lasting bonds of cooperation. When we take a portion of that pot and put it toward developing sustainable food in unstable regions, toward the things that build healthy brains and bodies, we begin to engineer a more peaceful world. We start to conserve our Earth, our home, for our kids and the generations to follow.
If we build a policy to transfer the investment wealth in the housing market to green tech, we can unlock empty homes, repair our communities and boost our economy all in one swoop. We have five times more empty homes than homeless, it's not more building we need - it's a nation of people who can afford to own their homes rather than rent. That way we can conserve homes as homes and give our youth a bright future.
As Anne Frank said, "First, we make our choices. Then our choices make us." This is backed up by modern neuroscience, that we can build our ability for altruistic empathy (rather than utilitarian) by making good choices - by doing the right thing even when it is the harder thing to do. In our era our challenge is to undo the concept of the deserving vs undeserving poor and replace it with a pragmatic and loving approach worthy of our intelligence, our science and our faith.
I want to believe that conservative and kind are synonymous, that being financially responsible can come with a big heart and an open mind. I want to believe that we follow loving ways in harmony with the will of God, that we reach out to our fellow man and see the person beneath the behaviour, the soul that hurts. I want to believe that we can look at the new neuroscience that shows the effects of neglect and poverty on the architecture of the brain, to learn that with love and nurture it is reversible. I want us to learn that part of patriotism is a deep rooted feeling that everyone in our country deserves a chance of a good life, to have strong enough mental health to be good parents and build their communities. We need to know that a certain level of stress damages every brain, and some sectors of society are burdened with inescapable and toxic stress that both rolls down generations and into our nation as dysfunction. They say "a penny of prevention is worth a pound of cure," or "a stitch in time saves nine" and that is all we're asking for; poverty is cheaper to cure than treat... and it's kinder, it's loving, it's what Jesus would do - for without kindness, what is faith? Without science, we place ignorance above diligence. Science and faith agree, the cure is love, it's compassion, it's giving people the conditions in which proper brain architecture can form - isn't that a solid conservative home?
I grew up in a conservative home, believing in hard work and responsibility. I grew up to treat others with kindness and think from another's perspective. We went to church on a Sunday and we sang about God and love, feeling our community to be kin. As we move on into this bright future of ours, one where our nation is a family in many ethnicities and faiths, we have learned more about how the human brain works. It is the combination of deep love, of empathy and science that leads the way. The stressed human brain moves into a survival mode, less able to learn, less able to focus and make good choices. We now know that we can achieve our conservative goals through love, that when we support the poor properly, when they feel less stress, health care costs tumble, educational results rise and communities heal. That's how we get law and order - with kindness and compassion for all. We are all human in all our ways, regardless of our genetic origins or sexual orientation. It's time for everyone to feel at home, to have a real chance to thrive.
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