I was just reading an article about Obama's visit to Ohio GM plants and some meetings with AFL-CIO members. Feel free to take a look: Obama Visits Auto Plants
You can read it for yourself, so I won't bore you with summaries. However, it got me thinking. Why are we so divided as a country on what seem to be inarguable points?
1) The economy is in shambles. This is a fact. Recession, depression, whatever you want to call it. We are in a mess that started (prepare yourself if you're a right winger) LONG BEFORE OBAMA WAS PRESIDENT. Lehman Brothers shuttered their doors a year ago - when there was another administration in the White House. So - it might be someone else's fault - or... it might not be the fault of the government at all. MAYBE there are too many greedy people on Wall Street taking from the poor and giving to themselves that it's creating a free-for-all where the power is in the hands of the rich, not the figure-heads that are our political leaders.
Ok - the first part is true, the second part (anything after the word MAYBE) I kind of got carried away. Sorry about that.
2) The war isn't over. I don't care who you voted for... I just have one question: Why haven't I heard anything about the war since January 20th? As a citizen of this country, I think we have a right to know what's going on. However, to our chosen news sources, it's not deemed 'news-worthy', so we don't hear about it. Messed up, right? I think this should speak VOLUMES about the "No-Spin Zone" etc that we see on TV. They tell us what they are ready to help us believe, not what we should or WANT to hear.
3) Political parties are more about distinguishing their differences than getting things accomplished. It is a sad day when Ted Kennedy passes away only to have articles written about how we lost one of the last aisle-crossing gentlemen. (read here: Ted Kennedy: The Great Aisle Crosser). We used to be a proud nation of open-minded people. Now, it seems we are focused so deeply on our DIFFERENCES, that we cannot find any common ground. And - the people who used to share the values of continued success through compromise are exiting their public offices left and right due to passing, or being voted out by people who prefer partisan politics.
4) At some point it became ok to lose respect for your fellow man. Whether it's Kanye West getting on stage and parading around during Taylor Swift's moment, or a Senator screaming "YOU LIE" while the President of the United States of America is speaking to the nation. We have all lost a little of the reverence and respect that at one time made this a proud country. The media-spun story lines and the over-informed / under-educated society that we live in has become so self-involved that we no longer care about the thoughts and feelings of others (think about this in terms of international politics, mass media, or even your neighborhood bar-b-que). We've lost our way.
I would like to think that as this blog matures, I will continue to hit on some of the ridiculous points made by BOTH sides of many arguments and help people return to making EDUCATED and PERSONAL decisions - ones that THEY truly believe in and support. We shall see. Day 3 of Blogging is starting to produce some writing with feeling.
Until next time.
