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.

Comments

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

holding on for dear life

  Tuesday was cool, the morning especially. And while working at the Book Nook I saw people dressed for two seasons -summer and fall. Lots of plaids, flannel and boots or booties worn by customers that I assumed were anxious for fall. Not me. I'm holding on to summer for dear life. I wore a sleeveless dress, sandals and a cotton sweater. I mean here in Michigan we will be donning those fall duds and not showing skin again for at least eight months. And while I'm not good at a math, I know that eight months is most of the year. According to my calculator that's 66 percent of the year (66.666667 to be exact - my math 094 professor at MSU would be impressed that I knew that if I'd done it myself. But I'm smart enough to use a calculator to come up with that - like I used to tell her every class "we don't need to know how to do that, we can just use a calculator". Pretty sure I wasn't her favorite).  Boy did I digress with that walk down memory lane. A...

Old? Infirm?

A friend sent this article to me today: Are you Old? Infirm? I can relate. Though  I'm not old - despite what the three-year-olds in my Sunday school class say. And I am not infirm - and I'll wack over the head with my cane anyone, repeat anyone , that would call me that. I resemble Nancy in the article. She calls herself crippled. And Mr. Bruni wrote, " I confessed that I cringed whenever she called herself “crippled,” which she does, because she values directness and has a streak of mischief in her." I prefer the term 'gimp' and have also had others cringe when I say that. I like the term they arrived at "limited" but it's not perfect - maybe just a little more politically correct. I have felt that diminishment when in my wheelchair. But being a tad feisty and Irish, I fight that with every ounce of my being. My personality has always been a little on the large side and not very quiet or shy, so I make it a challenge to 'be see...

When an ass is so much more

  Body image. Body positivity.  Or about coming to an appreciation for a previously much maligned back end.  In junior high (that's middle school for all of you non boomers), I was given the nickname "big butt Bowen". It was a nickname that stung because I did indeed have a large ass. I tried to mask it, a difficult endeavor since the current fashion (and remember this is junior high when fitting in was paramount) was wearing hip hugger jeans with midriff tops and my disguise of choice were peasant blouses or dresses. That style choice earned an additional nickname, Mama Cass. For those of you that don't know who Mama Cass was, she was part of the Mamas and Papas and known for her beautiful voice but also for her large body.  All about Mama Cass I was cruelly nicknamed at a time when nicknames can really mess with a girl's psyche. And I spent a lifetime as that girl with the messed up psyche. I'm sure there are more than one of you out there that can relate. B...