Since Tabitha “fixed” the laptop by checking to see if the power cord was plugged in all the way, I guess I have no excuse not to update. Well, I still have the usual one, procrastination. That’s a topic that can wait, however.
Congratulations to my daughter, Abigail, who got her report card back with all A’s! That’s pretty wonderful. We didn’t push her to get all A’s, but I did tell her that I expected she would do the best job she could and work her hardest in all of her subjects. She did, too! She earned those grades. There were a couple of her classes that the teachers told the kids “don’t expect to get an ‘A’ in my class. I don’t give ‘A’s.’” Well, well, well. I am very proud of her diligence and hard work.
I listed “love a liberal” in my resolutions this year. One of the radio stations I listen to frequently, KCMN, 1530 AM, which broadcasts in HD AM stereo and plays mostly big band and standards, has a frequent editorial from their owner, Don Crawford, every once in a while. Generally a conservative, he made a good sounding recommendation for a New Year’s resolution. “If you’re a liberal, love a conservative, if you’re a conservative, love a liberal.” His idea was that if people will actually talk to each other about their ideologies, there will be more intelligent dialogue and not just a bunch of mudslinging and name-calling. Our country will be a better place if we can have conscientious, thoughtful discussion and understand where each other comes from.
This sounded like a really good idea, but I ran into a snag.
Real people, not TV or Radio personalities don’t fit into boxes. Why anyone would care that a 78 yr old one-hit wonder praised the socialist revolution in Venezuela or why anyone would be interested in a TV preacher calling for a “hit” on the same president is a mystery. Who cares what they think? A washed-up has-been is a washed up has been whether it’s Harry Belafonte or Pat Robertson. I am no lover of TV preachers; I think they detract from what hard-working local pastors have accomplished. If you need a church, find a local church that you believe in and get involved in it. As for the Hollyweird crowd (I lump the entirety of the entertainment industry, TV, Movies, Music, the models of Mad Ave, etc. into that pot), what makes them any kind of expert? Barbara Streisand and her friends said they would leave the country if President Bush won the 2000 election, but where are they? Still out there in the Granola (What isn’t fruits and nuts is flakes) Belt. Why? Because they live a good life in this country. There is not anywhere else that they could make the kind of money they make and talk like they talk.
Anyway, I said all of that to say that most people in real life are not that easy to box up. Most people are not completely fanatical right-wingers or totally far-out lefty looneys (except maybe in Seattle).
I call myself a Conservative but really, I wonder if I am? After thinking it over I wonder if I am not a Moderate Liberal Conservative Republican Democrat Libertarian Prohibitionist with stinky feet. Seriously, after looking at my views on a lot of things, I think it depends on the issue and I think that is true for most people. I may be a prohibitionist in the idea that all alcoholic beverages should be treated as controlled substances and only given out on prescription, but, since it is not likely that that will ever happen and we are not likely to outlaw cigarettes or booze anytime soon, then why not legalize Marijuana? Tax it the way cigs and booze are taxed, regulate it and make it readily available to anyone over the legal age.
I know one person that I met when I worked at the bookstore (which at a high-up level promoted a liberal agenda) who is a pro-life enviro-vegan. Is she liberal or conservative? I don’t know. There are a lot of people who are like that. I read a book by a woman named Tammy Bruce http://www.tammybruce.com/ called, “The New Thought Police.” This woman was head of NOW and decided that she wanted to fight pornography so she enlisted the aid of several conservative Christian men’s groups. That got her in trouble and eventually fired, not because she chose to fight porn, but because of who she had helping her do it. Read her book. I haven’t read any of her other ones, but that one is a real eye-opener.
I still recommend 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 if you haven’t read them yet. Make them your resolution this year. 1984 gave me goose bumps when I read the last sentence and still gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies to think about how real it could be. The second, Fahrenheit 451, (not to be confused with a lying, blathering fool’s movie of a similar title) is a book whose message has stayed with me since High School and again, when you read it and look around at our “civilization” you can easily envision it happening.
Now I have found it’s so easy to rile people that don’t know what they believe in or why that I try not to purposely do it. It’s like shooting sitting ducks. I could walk up to a gaggle of libs when I worked in the bookstore and get them all worked into a nigh-murderous frenzy by simply saying, “George W. Bush is my hero.” After the fiery tirades ensued it turned out that they didn’t have such strongly held beliefs as they did a hatred for the man. This is not thought-provoking or challenging.
“George Bush this about the environment! George Bush that about the environment!”
“Why do you drive that big car 20 miles across town at a high rate of speed alone instead of using mass transit or carpooling?”
“Sputter-sputter, it’s not about that.”
“You’re going to preach to me about the environment when you could take simple steps on your own to help and you don’t? I drive the speed limit, at least.”
“Sputter-sputter.”
Anyway, I may have to modify my resolution to, “Find someone who doesn’t agree with me and figure out why they’re stupid listen to what they have to say.”
Remember, the good book says, “If you cross your eyes like that they could stick and you could get eyecrosserosis.” What? Well, “Hank the Cowdog” is a good book.
