It seems fair to first discuss the name I have chosen and why I am doing this blog. First, I have always had an antipathy for ties. Besides the constriction on my neck being uncomfortable, I have only ever worn a tie where I was constrained to do so by explicit rules for school or a job, or by social etiquette rules I couldn’t buck. I completely understand that some people enjoy wearing them, and I am happy to have them do so, and they can also wear a white powdered wig as well if it makes them happy. One of my life goals has been to be able to get rid of, or maybe burn, all the ties I own, which isn’t many. At this point, despite being an attorney, it has been several years since I have had to put one on.
The name comes from a joke I made once, saying that if I ever decided to enter the political arena, I would run as “No Tie Troy”, so that I would have the excuse never to put on a tie again. I am far from certain that I will ever run for political office, but this is my entry into the political conversation. If enough people want to hear what I say and support me, then perhaps I will run for office someday.
In 2001, when I was newly married to my wife, which is a second marriage, we had been working to adopt my stepson from my first marriage and my wife was adopting my son from that marriage, both of whom lived with us. We had hired an attorney, but had to fire him and I took it over, despite the Judge trying to convince me it was too difficult for a layman. In the process, I was telling my wife about something I had read in the Family Code. She asked if I had ever considered becoming an attorney and I replied that becoming an attorney was like being President, it was theoretically possible, but not something people actually did. I have now been a practicing attorney for over fifteen years, so who knows.
Most people go into politics, I think, for some combination of wanting to control other people or to gain fame, money, power, and influence. I am not saying that these motives are always selfish, because they are not, but they almost always have a coercive element to them. It may be that they want to save the planet and think that imposing their idea of how to do that on society is the best way to do that. In many ways, going into politics is the last thing I want to do. When I was younger, there was a period when I refused to vote, saying that I wasn’t willing to vote for anyone who was willing to run for office. The flaw in this is, of course, that someone is going to run and win and if everyone who would prefer not to impose their will on others refuses to run, what we are going to be left with except those who do want power.
The election in November, 2020, was kind of a final straw for me. I was forced to choose between almost equally unpleasant choices, between parties each of which seemed determined to cast nearly half of the country as evil for even considering voting for the other side, with the most extreme voices dominating on both sides. Both sides seemed unwilling to consider that there was any validity to the positions of the other side. Both parties also have been quite happy for some time to take more and more power over people into the government’s hands. One side calls the other fascists, and the other side calls their opponents communists. Both sides are quite happy to use scare tactics to try to get people into their camp.
My wife and I together have seven children, and our tenth grandchild is on the way. We both have primarily European ancestry. In the direct paternal line, I am a 12th generation American. Because of adoptions and marriages, many of my children and grandchildren are racially mixed. I want all of them to grow up in a country where they can all get along, have as much and varied opportunities as they desire, and where all sorts of paths are both theoretically and realistically possible. I do not want them to live in a country where they are oppressed, hated, or vilified for their skin color, their background or even because they happen to hold a silly, crazy, or unpopular idea.
I believe that the only way to achieve that is to have voices that work towards understanding and tolerance, that help people from different backgrounds see that those who hold other views are not evil, but have other concerns and ideas about what is best. It may well be that our country is so polarized that any voice that attempts this will be blasted by both sides, but I have to believe that there is still a core, even a majority, that truly want what is best, and that, with understanding, will embrace tolerance and reasonable compromises. In many cases, I believe there are solutions that will work that address the concerns of both sides. Many times in the past, our country has been where we are now, which is deeply divided, so much so that we fought a war amongst ourselves in one case. We have come back from that before to a more civil discourse and it is time to do so again.
While I would rather keep my private life private, I feel I have duty to speak out and be such a voice. While I am reasonably intelligent and have an education in the law and have been thinking about the ideas of what makes a society work my whole life, that is not my best qualification for this role. I believe most people have that one thing, that thing that is their thing, that they can do, if not better than anyone else, at least exceptionally well, if they are lucky enough to find it and develop it. That thing for me is asking why. It was my favorite question as a child, much to my mother’s frustration. I have this driving need to understand, whether it is how the elevator I am riding in works, why the sky is blue, how viruses infect people, or how monetary systems work. That has led to me having a very broad base of knowledge, but more importantly, I am very good at figuring out the underlying reasons and assumptions in any idea. I think that is a critical skill for this task.
My plan is to let a few friends know about this blog and let it grow organically. If you want to support me in my task, if you believe it is the time to for our country to stop tearing itself apart and heal and grow together, then please subscribe and share with your friends. My plan is to address a large variety of topics, trying to understand all sides of various issues and find common ground. I will not shy away from expressing my opinions. I do not expect everyone to agree with me on every, or even most, positions, and my hope is that I will grow as well, and learn from others. A person I respect very much said that if you look back on your work from a few years back and don’t cringe a bit, that means you haven’t grown. So, I ask for tolerance if it seems to you that my ideas on a subject are immature. That is what growth is about. What I hope is that my readers will think about what I say and have a better and more tolerant understanding of those other positions.
Thanks,
Troy Judd