Skip to main content

Split Ticket

Did I just seriously hear a radio announcer talking about relationships between Democrats and Republicans? Did he just say that over 50 percent of respondents in a recent poll said they could not date someone from an 'opposing' party????

Hell, I've been married to an 'opposing' party for 22 years and been together off and on for another 8 . . . we knew going in that we didn't agree politically but we agreed on the major and life issues. Like children, world peace, the environment . . . We appreciate our mutual passion for and interest in politics and the political process. But politics doesn't belong in the bedroom anyway.

Every couple years, especially when The Shrub was in office, the debates in our home are more often and a bit heated. Yet, we continue to respect one another while disagreeing on divergent opinions. Once we let politics become divisive enough that 50 percent could not relate to a person of another party, we have let it get too personal and has gone too far. Politics should be about governing our nation/state/county/city - not about our relationships to one another as people.

Party politics has gone too far. Isn't this kind of divisive attitude what fueled the Civil War and the Revolutionary War? That might seem a bit extreme but it seems to me that the convictions of the Rebels and the Yankees were just as personal - and they weren't even fueled by a 24-7 media machine.

I am trying to find a positive in this . . .
Nope. Can't.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Parenting

I just read a post on Facebook regarding the dearth of parenting. The poster was describing a scene where two young girls were pelting rocks at some ducks in our little town and how he observed no parents around telling these girls that it was wrong to torture little innocent animals. Within hours, there were 15 responses - all alluding to a lack of parenting that is evident nearly everywhere today. Stick with me here - because that conversation reminded me of one I'd had recently that might not seem related to parenting at all. It was with my oldest son about his concern about the selfishness of our culture - most recently evident in the Wall Street meltdown. He believes that we are too focused on "Me" and not enough on "We" and if we had a little more focus on the total and just not our part, we would be in a much better place. Still there? Okay, here's the cement that will hold this together - those girls pelting little ducks with rocks weren't likely...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tough time to be a Pollyanna

Remember when 9/11 was just a date or a number you called in an emergency? Our lives changed dramatically post 9/11. For weeks after that September day, we seemed to walk around in a fog, like the haze that loomed over the now-fallen twin towers. I remember trying to minimize my obsession with the news, trying to keep the three little Piggins away from the enormity of the disaster. Remember when corona was simply a beer best served with a lime wedge? It now and forever will be instead associated with this virus that has upended our world in ways we could never have imagined. This tiny little, microscopic virus has brought the mighty to their knees. It has us quarantined and distancing socially (though I believe we've been doing this emotionally for years) and working from home. As anxiety peaks, our economy tanks. As toilet paper and hand sanitizer flies off the shelves, we are looking for new ways to stock our pantries. A good friend observed, "I never thought I'd...
Post a Comment
Read more

When a small town is huge

  In the movie "it's a Wonderful Life", the protagonist George Bailey has longed nearly his whole life to 'shake off the dust of this crummy little town off my feet," to see the world. But Bedford Falls, that crummy little town, felt differently about George. And with the help of a quirky guardian angel, George eventually sees that his life and his town were pretty wonderful. Good lord, but I love that movie and it's characters and it's moral and that small town. I watch it every year at least twice and still cry every time. And I wonder too about the man that pushes the devious Mr. Potter's wheelchair and stands by his side- you know the man, he looks a little like Lurch from "The Addams Family". I wonder, what was he thinking as he listened and watched his boss ruin the lives of everyone he could. What kind of an Non-disclosure agreement did he sign, to keep him silent as he stood by and watched Potter pocket the money Uncle Billy was depo...
Post a Comment
Read more