Well friends and neighbors it has been a
long time since I’ve done one of these scintillating blogs full of pithy
observations and wise comments. Most of the time lately I’ve been writing bad
poems and throwing them away. But today I decided to take a break from that
kind of futility and spend some time on politics, a whole other kind of
futility and frustration. So here are a few thoughts.
Why do our politicians running for office
send out advertising that completely neglects to mention with which party they
are affiliated? I’ve seen ads from folks running for offices ranging from
county council to U.S. senate that have no elephant or donkey or whatever
clever animal it is that has been adopted by the Green Party or the
Libertarians. And shouldn’t they have an animal? Maybe a snowy owl or a dolphin
for the Greens and perhaps a passenger pigeon for the Libertarians? The Green
Party mascot would be obvious in its symbolism. The extinct passenger pigeon
maybe not so much. Anyway, the lack of party identification in print ads is
disturbing. Are the candidates so afraid of being offensive to one group or
another? Or are they afraid of being prejudged in a stereotypical way? Well I
say, show your party you cowards.
Social media is a great place to watch the
furor over the presidential race. Normally kind and considerate folks on both
sides of this one turn into rabid, raving zealots when they post comments about
the two major candidates. A whole new level of hatred is reached almost every
day. Name calling, accusations of crookery, allegations of insanity are pouring
out in a steady stream. And this stream is not just aimed at the candidates but at their erstwhile supporters who may not be crooked or crazy in any way. And
if a more calm individual points out that one of his friends is sounding
vitriolic then the conversation dives into “Well I’m only posting this because
so – and – so posted a really hateful thing about my gal/guy.” I guess the way
to alleviate divisiveness is to add more fuel to the fires of silly arguments.
Of course the true believers on both sides don’t think it’s silly at all, and
they may be right. But they sure don’t sound rational when they get on their
rants. There are rational discussions out there but they are buried in the
heaps of craziness, so they’re hard to find.
Now I’m not too big a fan of either of the major party candidates. And when I tell my friends and acquaintances that I’m
thinking of voting for one of the alternatives they begin their standard
lecture. “If you vote for that third party gal/guy then you’re just going to
help that horrible other gal/guy win, you freaking idiot!” Yes they call me an
idiot. Again, I might be an idiot. Or naive. Or misguided, even. But friends I’m
gonna vote the way my logical brain works. If I don’t think those big guns are
the right one I’m not going to give either of them my vote. If the one that you
think is the wrong one wins, well I’m awfully sorry. But don’t blame me. Blame your own damn party
for finding the worst possible candidate in the first place. Believe it or not
there were actual reasonable possibilities out there when this whole shebang
got started. And there just might be a reasonable choice still available in one
of the non-major parties. So stop with the lectures please.
Finally, I have to weigh in on that “not
standing for the anthem” brouhaha. This is another one of those “issues” that
is driven more by the media than by its actual relevance in this deeply screwed
up world. You probably don’t want to hear my position on this one. But you’ve
come this far down the page so you might as well hear me out. Who cares if a
bunch of football players don’t rise for the anthem? This is America, remember?
Free speech. You do recall free speech, right? If those folks feel strongly
about an issue and want to use this as way to protest it’s okay by me. They
know the feelings they’re going to fire up with this behavior. They know the
attention they’ll get. And you absolutely know that the media will exploit
every tiny angle of this issue until, finally, it goes away. So be tolerant. If
you don’t like the behavior don’t watch the damn game. If you think the guys
are right then buy some tickets for the next game even if you think football is
just violent ballet. Really. It’s that simple. And yes you can voice your
displeasure on Facebook or Twitter no matter which side you’re displeased with.
Have at it. This is America. But I won’t be reading your posts on the subject
because I don’t really care about this one.
Now go have a fine, fine day.
