I used the phrase “welfare cheat” in a recent column. Yes, I did, even though I consider myself to be a political liberal, a tolerant individual and a proponent of social justice. What I am not, however, is one of the “sheeple.”

That’s a useful term for people who mindlessly “follow the leader.” They have a herd mentality. Sheeple don’t think for themselves.

I knew somebody out there would take me to task for dropping “welfare cheat” into my column. That’s not a problem for me; it comes with the territory. The fact is, I firmly believe we need a safety net for the poor and disabled. I was talking about people who use their EBT cards at liquor stores or strip joints. If that’s not cheating, we had better redefine the word.

What kind of a fool would I be if I let my ideology stand in the way of a good idea? Though I think Gov. Paul LePage is extraordinarily bad at his job, I agree with him on the need to deal with the misuse of benefits, as well as his stance on domestic violence.

So there.

Walt Whitman wrote, “I am large, I contain multitudes.” When I was a teenager, I thought Whitman must have had a paradoxical personality, because he was a Gemini, like me. Nowadays I choose to interpret the concept as the human capacity to entertain all sorts of ideas. Our hearts, souls, and brains have plenty of room for growth, at any age. Most importantly, we live in a democracy. We are practically beholden to think for ourselves.

Yet how often do we, really? I wrote a column four years ago saying that I was disappointed in President Barack Obama and was having a hard time voting for his re-election. Again, I realized this was going to stir up some sentiment. It was understandable that a goodly number of my readers and friends did not want to see even one additional vote go to Mitt Romney. But I was surprised because some people were truly worried about me. Worried in a “have you gone off the deep end” kind of way. A “maybe you need counseling” kind of way.

I was being a bad liberal, hence I must be losing it.

We should know by now how dangerous it is when vast numbers of us blindly follow the sheep in front of us. Two recent movies set during the Cold War recall a time when we let fear muddle our judgment. The film “Trumbo” tells the story of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted and imprisoned because he had been a member of the Communist Party. Of course, it was our own Sen. Margaret Chase Smith who helped put an end to that sort of nonsense.

In “Bridge of Spies,” lawyer James Donovan takes on the challenge of defending a man accused of being a Russian spy. In one telling scene, Donovan is on a subway train when fellow passengers reading newspapers recognize him and conclude that he’s the “traitor” in the case. Reviled, for making sure a man got a fair trial.

This reminded me in turn of John Adams, who defended the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. Nobody else wanted to do it, but Adams believed upholding the law was more important than his personal feelings. His cousin Sam, in contrast, just wanted to see the soldiers hang.

Over the past 15 years, we’ve once again let our fears muddle our judgment. We do live under the threat of terrorism; there’s no denying that. But we need to face each challenge to our freedom with a critical eye. Apple CEO Tim Cook was right to refuse to help the government hack into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

If we’re not going to use our brains, hearts and souls to their full capacities, to embrace the multitude of possibilities, they are going to atrophy. I fear that process has already begun.

Promoting “critical thinking skills” is a hackneyed phrase in the educational world; it is also a crucial need.

We have people denying that climate change is real even as the polar ice is melting. Then there are the conspiracy theorists who think the Sandy Hook shootings never happened. Everyone who thinks Donald Trump is capable of being an effective president: I’m sorry, but you cannot see beyond the sheep derriere in front of you. Republicans who don’t want our sitting president (and you know how I feel about him) to appoint the next Supreme Court justice: You are not wearing your thinking caps.

It’s foolish to let ideology stand in the way of a good idea.

Liz Soares welcomes e-mail at lsoares@gwi.net.

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