I have been spending part of my day having a FB conversation with some people I don't know personally. They are friends of a friend of mine. My friend asked a "hot topic" question this morning about the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, and the discussion just took off! People have opinions! That's for sure!
The online conversation went from this one tragedy, to profiling, and to racial labeling, and then....oh no, on to politcs and our current president.
Alert! (ha! Like I really have to tell you this.) People are very committed to their belief about President Obama! People either love him, or hate him. Should I say it's white and black? (That's meant as a joke. ) Some people think he has his heart in the right place, or some think he is subversively trying to turn our country to communism. I can't recall meeting sanyone who sits somewhere in the middle about him; who thinks he does some things right and some things wrong. It's all in or all out. God's gift to America or Satan's secret agent.
All I can say is, I'm sure glad I'm not judged that way. Marla: love her or hate her? Is she honest or slippery as a snake? Look at her white European face! German background... and we know about THOSE Germans!
It's terrible what we do and say about each other. Believe me, I've been very disappointed in a lot of our elected leaders (elected, remember? We voted them in.) I'm also disappointed in the business and financial leaders who steal or don't take care of their hard-working employees, and I'm disappointed in the educational system at times...and the list can go on!
Back to the online conversation today: one person got a little nasty in his description of our US President, the elected leader of our country. Words can hurt. Mean words can be polarizing. They do NO good. We had a good discussion going and then he blew it. He turned me off. Not because we differed but because how angry he sounded. He scared me.
Do I scare him?
I have tried to keep myself from being "apathetic" about politics. I care. I like the discussion. But, somehow that "all one way or all the other way" thing happens. Then walls go up and and people get hurt - and angry.
I don't know what else to say. That's all. It's just sad and frustrating. I wish we could find a way to converse about finding a way to a common joy and value in life. We all really want the same thing! Right?
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