the dirty word

by photochick~ I thought I'd open up a can of worms and go ahead and mention the irreversible word. The word from which there is no return. No nicely taking sides. No agreeing to disagree.

Here it is . . . ready . . .

politics.

So it's out there. So don't be surprised when sassy chick and I loose our minds in a written diatribe over the state of affairs of our nation. Frankly, it should be expected. Although it may not happen because we're both so busy these days that the political landscape, nationally at least, is a little out of the frame of reference of our daily lives.

And that's saying a lot because during the last election, not only was I assisting a campaign for congress, but I was consumed with every detail of every campaign I could get my hands on. Because I love it just that much. It makes my adrenaline pump like nothing else.

That said, let's just say up front that we CAN all agree to disagree, be that the case. No tomatoes, no evil thoughts. Just plain and simple democratic disagreement. Like the kind that makes our nation great.

That's not to say that we won't have strong opinions. I have fallen into some sort of national notion that if you're opinion is not the popular one, you are some how less of a citizen, or less intelligent than the mainstream and really ought to keep your opinion to yourself for fear of looking foolish. And somewhere along the way I think I subconciously started thinking maybe they were right. What the heck???? That's not the America I know.

So I wanted to say all of this up front before someone wrote a blog the others might wonder if it has place here. Here where we pay to exist and feel pretty free to talk about anything that affects our lives. So I think it's fair game as long as everyone plays nice.

It's particularly funny in writing this, however, that I have to tell  you that I made the concious decision about six months ago to STOP watching the news. National news at least. I was beginning to believe that the sky was falling and it was seriously starting to make me anxious. I'll spare you the media psycho babble studies about why this happens, but sufficed to say I recognized it and said to myself, "self, enough is enough."

I don't want my decisions to be made based on a five second soundbyte, but on the issues. The ones that I feel deep in my gut and soul. So I turned it off. The tv news, the radio news I listed to every moment I was in the car, the internet news. All off.

And I have to say the world has been a more peaceful place.

Comments

[Jessica W.]

Oh yeah...I understand completly. Only I can't turn off the news because of my Journalism class. Politics is becoming a topic in class that I don't agree with my teacher and we tend to debate frequently. So enjoy some politic-free time for me, please.

[heather]

election time was the worst for communication classes. too much time "communicating" about things i totally disagreed with. and of course, i was crazy. all the time.

not fun.