Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Getting Back to Business or the Process of Healing

The elections are over and the chief executive for the country has been chosen. The dire "end is near" predictions that the media made to sell newspapers and ad time never came to pass and we knew that George Bush had won by 11 pm Tuesday night even though the process of sorting out Ohio would take a little longer than that. But you already knew that and that's not what you came here to see, so on to analysis.

My hope is that now that the election is over we can get back to the business of our lives. More importantly, I'm hoping that in doing so we can practice a process of healing. In surfing around to this and that blog or livejournal I've seen some pretty mean-spirited invective from both sides of the political fence. To those people allow me to quote Jon Stewart; "Please stop." I know that you did your research and carefully considered all the options to come to your decision. Respect that others went through the same process as you did and might have actually reached different conclusions than you did. This doesn't make them stupid or brain dead or knee-jerk or anything other than what you are: someone who cares about their country and went through a process to reach a decision they thought would best benefit it. Express your disappointment or joy over the result but don't take a self-righteous tone in condemning those who didn't see it the same way you did. I know very bright, well educated, good people who voted for each candidate (I work at a college, they all have Ph.D.s and know how to use the skills they learned in getting them to find and process information from sources beyond CNN and FoxNews). It would be judgmental and self-centered of me to name call or bash those who didn't vote the way I did. They saw things differently that I did; looked at the world through different lenses; had different priorities. Thus they came to a different conclusion. I can and do respect their position even if I don't agree with it. Moreover, I can and do deeply respect the fact that they participated in the process and added their voices to the chorus of democracy (didn't that sound corny?).

What we all need to do is back away from the politics of disinclusion and partisanship and reach out to those who felt differently and say thanks for being a part of what took place. For those who read this and who voted, thank you (or maybe, given that I just saw Bubba Ho-tep, "thankyouverymuch..."). Keeping asking the questions and keep demanding the answers. Maybe just tone down the stridency a bit. Let's enter into a civil dialogue where we look at each other as agents of good, not robots or clones of the "evil other side". Tell the media to shut up and report on the events and to stop making them up to sell papers. Wouldn't it be nice if on "Crossfire" they actually looked at a dispute where the various people came together and worked out a solution in a respectful manner instead of shouting and yelling at each other theatrically?

To those who didn't vote, stop complaining about being disincluded. You had your chance and you didn't take it. Those of us under 40 are being screwed by the Baby Boomers and your apathy towards getting involved in even the simplest way betrays us all. Get off you behinds and mobilize. Let's find our candidate for four years from now, not someone a bunch of party hacks decide will be our candiate. Let's find someone who cares about our issues and let's give that person our time and money and support. Let's not only get a candidate for President who will carry our banner but let's find some candidates for Senate and Congress who would be willing to enact our legislation. Let's stop thinking of news as a means of entertainment (did you think Cobain didn't mean news?) and take the media by the lower extremities and make them listen to our point of view.

I'll get off my soap box now. Thanks for reading.

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