Umm, what's that word I'm looking for??

I have to say, being a HUGE minority (Fanatic Democrat) is no easy task when you're surrounded by Republicans. It's a little 'Daniel in the Lion's Den-ish'. Some dude stopped by my house to try to sell me cancer insurance. Everyone knows I'll let anyone in to visit me so long as they realize that I have a faith, I have a political position, and I'm not buying anything unless it's Samoa cookies or the stuff from the citrus cleaner dude. Kevin (insurance man) was also LDS but inactive and practicing Kabbalah. He informed me you can do both and I assured him that I've long been a Buddhist Mormon. We were talking about the problems many people in our country have had accepting our new President and how ridiculous some of the stuff is that people come up with. If you had someone in an isolation booth from the 70s or 80s and told them about politics in the past 2 years, they'd think it was a joke, or that they'd lost their mind. Fairly rational people and they cling to tinfoil hat nonsense. Living in a predominantly Mormon state and area that is rural is that much harder because there are so many people who cling to conservative opinions without really understanding all aspects of politics. Even I have been shocked at the racism and the willingness to parrot crazy accusations without having any earthly clue where it started or even what it means.

So.. I was looking for something this morning, and as we all know my attention wanders but I found the COOLEST site. I'm not telling what it is yet because I'm going to do a series of blogs from it and I'm not sure how to approach it or how to put it across on here. What I was ACTUALLY looking for was something that I didn't know that the LDS church still uses. It's called Bishop's Storehouses. There was one in the hellhole town I went to school in that was built in the 1800s and the older buildings in that town and a few others have been preserved. In the early days of the church members were chased  from state to state to evade mobs. In those days at least 3 Temples were intended and 2 were completed*. These people, despite the poverty, despite the deaths and sickness of countless people. Despite murder by their own countrymen they persevered. Their 10% tithes came in the ways they could contribute. Time, money (whenever possible), food, meals, clothing. Men paid their tithes by building the temples and women gathered glass, precious china (often precious heirlooms that made the trip as far as possible), and earthen ware crushed to be used in the stucco so it would shimmer. Beautiful architecture, woodwork, all done voluntarily. They worked together with no member being of no value. Everyone could and DID do something to help in the building of the temple and the care of these pioneers. I looked up Bishop Storehouses because the ones I see around me are old and wanted to post a picture of one. I found pictures and some definitions that surprised me. They are still in use. They run in conjunction with the church's humanitarian program feeding and providing for people all of the world that are in need as well as people in our own country. I have been to the cannery here in my town where, with my husband and other ward members we literally can enormous amounts of food, assembly line style. We can all that we have ordered and paid for to keep in storage in case of times of need. But we can more than we need to help stock these storehouses for those in need. I was told today by a good friend of a couple of more recent stories.
In one story there's a man who buys cars that are deemed worthless and fixes them up so they are useful to people who need them or sold at blue book value in lieu of 10% of wages.
The other is a man who doesn't earn a lot of money but somehow acquired a piece of land. He donated the land to the church for use of one the many things that are built for the members such as chapels or temples. Some for church run farms (again, voluntary work. No pay.) The man in this case paid tithes in advance for the good of the community instead of 10% of a meager paycheck. As I pointed out earlier in this post, being a conservative religion, members are oft-times Republicans (don't confuse that with being instructed by the church on politics). There's a word for this thing that my faith has done through out it's history and dating back into the bible... What's the word... Hmmmm....*crickets chirping*.... OH YEAH!!! It's called Socialism. Whoa wait! Socialism=Obama=Antichrist, commie, Nazi, dictator!!! Ohhh someone seriously messed up here. The people around me, that do so much good, donating of their time, talent, and care are freaking Socialists!!! EEEEEK!!!! This means one of two things:
They and their tinfoil hat wearing embarrassment of a Faux Newsman, Glenn Beck doesn't know what Socialism means...
OR
Said torch wielding, tea party-ing, race baiting ignoramuses really believe the Grimm fairy tales of horror that can only be taken seriously if you listen to Coast to Coast and Art Bell. MAJOR embarrassment either way but I think I can help:

so·cial·ism

 /ˈsoʊʃəˌlɪzəm/ Show Spelled[soh-shuh-liz-uhm]

–noun

1.

a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

2.

procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.

 More to come later on the fate of the early temples, the horrors of running from murdering mobs, and other stuff we don't do a lot of whining about.

For more info on Bishop Storehouses: Wiki link
If the Obama secret society of good deeds, come for you in the night, be sure to let me know because as I've said before, I GET the memos and there hasn't been one yet that says we are REQUIRED by Obama law to feed homeless people or send money to Haiti or Chile. I think that he thinks that thats kind of a "No DUH" issue.

Oh, and one more thing... I think I may be a Socialist. Not because I'm a Democrat but because I'm a Mormon.