by Marty Goldstein

Created on: September 30, 2009

One wonderful aspect of Helium is the opinions are not cherry picked by editors; we have the opportunity to read what real people are thinking-without an editor correcting even the grammar. It's beautiful to read an essay "as is."

On occasion, I read an essay that I find so confounding, misguided and partisan, it takes a while for the electrical impulses which trigger the migration of neurotransmitters from one neuron to another to end their frenetic firing so I can digest and understand what I had just read. Until I reach that point, which sometimes can take quite a while, I become so emotionally charged that a rational, coherent response to the piece is impossible. I would leave it; take a walk, or talk to my dog or my daughter's rabbit. More often than not, I'd never come back to the essay because I'd forget, or the comment section would close before I had a chance to put my thoughts on screen. Since I joined Helium the probability of my writing a response increased dramatically because I could take the time to construct an essay to the best of my ability. And responses need to be at least 400 words; not just a "you're a useless liberal, anyway" kind of statement. Which wouldn't fit because I'm not liberal. Useless is another story.

I consider myself independent of either major political party, so, I find it interesting to read evaluations from many points of view. The other day, I found on the Party Politics and Ideology channel a topic called "American liberalism and the Democratic Party Critiqued."

I found it disturbing that some people found liberal ideology to be unpatriotic, treasonous and anti Christian." The definitions, taken from New Pocket Oxford Dictionary, served as a preface to the essay, and both are presented here:

"'Treason - "The crime of betraying one's country."'

"Patriot - "A person who strongly supports their country and is prepared to defend it."'

To the definitions above, I will, at this point, add one more:

Liberalism 1. A political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties.

Straight away, the writer refers to our "inalienable rights" liberals are trying to dismantle: "Our founding fathers ....[wrote]a constitution that would guarantee all citizens,...certain inalienable

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