I've felt your pain, I really have. Two terms of W nearly drove me around the twist. I couldn't even watch the guy on TV without flipping him off and cursing the moment of his conception. How could Americans be so blind, so stupid, as to elect such a slimy brainless twit TWICE? Does that sound familiar?
You will never convince me of the wickedness of my ways and I will never shake your beliefs. I'm OK with that. We still send each other Christmas cards and e-mails with pictures of the kids and go out of our way to visit, because that's what friends and family do.
However we also sit in front of glowing screens, plugged into the echo-chamber that is the Internet, slavishly inhaling only the opinions we want to hear; entrenching our ideologies behind bulwarks of people who agree with us and "facts" that align to our beliefs. We are safe there. Comfortably numb and convinced that if only They Would Listen To Reason then the world would be filled with rainbows and unicorns. Not going to happen.
Not long ago my partner and I sat down to dinner with one of my cousins and her husband. Politically they are slightly to the right of The John Birch Society and I am just to the left of Abbie Hoffman (or so we all assumed). After a fine meal we strayed into the danger zone of politics. We knew we disagreed on absolutely everything from healthcare to Islam, guns to immigration and figured the only common ground we would ever find was an acknowledgement that we were all carbon based life-forms.
Two-hours of back and forth discussion ensued but not a single voice was raised in anger; no black eyes or busted chairs. We listened to each other and as the evening wore on we started saying things like, "Yes, I see your point" and "I never thought of it that way". By the time the coffee was finished and we were gathering up the coats we had come to the unexpected realization that none of us hated America, wanted Communism to sweep the land or had any particular fondness for pundits screaming at each other on the evening "news".
My dear Republican friends. My loving conservative family. Let's have dinner. Let's go to a ball game or a shooting range (I'm pretty good with a shotgun and a box of clay pigeons). Let's play music; take a holiday together and, for all of our sakes, let's talk about politics and religion. We may never agree but that doesn't mean we don't care deeply about each other and the country we all call home.
"...however
little we may like or trust each other,
we're on the same crew. Got the same troubles, same enemies and more
than enough of both. Now we could
circle each other and growl, sleep
with one eye open but that thought
wearies me.
I don't care what you've
done. I don't know what you're planning
on doing, but I'm trusting you. I think you should do the same, 'cause I
don't see this working any other way."
