The post that made you delete me from your blogroll :
I’m really not into getting schmoloticky here, on my blog. It’s rather a straightforward reflection of my attitude in real life as well. I have my point of view, as do you. I respect yours. I trust you to respect mine. We don’t have to understand each other, we don’t have to preach to each other, and we certainly don’t have to beat each other over the head with our own silly dogma. Sounds good?
Can I just ramble a bit to give you an illustration? I mentioned before that I’m a Christian, eh? Some people we’re suprised to hear a while back that I’ve even been a pastor’s wife, (though a rather unorthodox one, as I get hives around some of the same people that give you hives, and yes, want to run and call a cult hotline or inject some kind of human-intelligence into their brains, or maybe just punch them in the face and tell them to leave me the frack alone. Which is probably why I’m not a pastor’s wife anymore, incidentally.
And I’m getting to the main subject, eventually, just bear with me. Or don’t. Stop reading. Or continue. Whatever, I need to write it, you can read it if you feel like it.
So this weekend MB decided to torture by pushing bamboo shoots under my fingernails made me watch the latter two parts of yet another agonizingly kitsch sci-fi trilogy, otherwise known to MB as zee best mooovieeez evah, -
- (i know…) and the third one, OH if you’ve ever seen the third one, you know that there’s all this talk about God this and God that and God told me and do you have faith and you will be judged and comdemned and whatnot and you get the picture – everything you hate about those people wrapped up into one big clean caracature. And then, of course, because we are on another planet and this is a B-grade sci-fi flick about giant spiders wiping out the human race and only Johnny Rico -
- can save us, we find out that ‘GOD’ is actually a big bug -
-a bug the size of a planet, (so powerful that not even google images has a picture of it ). The bug is communicating with a guy that has some kind of psychic powers -
and so everytime he refers to God it’s actually the bug in his head that’s trying to destroy the universe or human race or whatever. End of story, you know how it goes, the bug eats the guy while Johnny Rico saves the day, and the girl.
(I still haven’t gotten to the point, but I’m getting there.)
I guess it’s hard to talk about something like faith in a world where everything is either played of as an evil caricature by one side, or flaunted shallowly and ignorantly by the other. It rather makes me want to shut up and just let things pass when I hear one-dimensional remarks as to the nature of people who do have faith in a God, who happens to be Jesus, and how they are ALL toting identical Bible-bats and drone along with whatever their pastor or priest or reverend or whateverthehell tells them to do.
So I shut up. And I let it pass. And I let them pass judgement. But the factis, merely knowing what someone is going to say before they say it is enough for me to lump them into the same category that they have just lumped me into – mindless drone, doing and thinking as they are told. Obeying without a question.
Am I making sense here? Sorry, I’m REALLY TRYING to get to the point.
The past months my twitter feed has been abuzz with election talk. I love these tiny feeds. Being concise is challenging, we’re obliged to go directly to what is essential. I appreciate that.
Most feeds are decidely pro-Obama. I think I’ve got one tweet who is an out of the closet McCain supporter. Others, such as myself, have been silent up until this point, omitting politics as we continue to tweet about the meanie boss, whatsferdinner, and scraggly toenails.
It’s cool that mostly Obama supporters are twittering… The internet is obviously a demographic that swings more his way, and I get that.
I live in France, and face it, for weeks here there has been, in the minds of most people and in the media, only ONE CANDIDATE in this election, and his name is…
McCain.
(gotcha),
no, seriously, his name is Obama.
Contrary to what some Vice Presidental candidates may be led to believe, even our president actually seems to have a bit of a boy-crush on Obama.
The French traditionally to the left. Obama has a great image here, though most people I speak with are frank and quick to admit that they don’t have much knowledge on his stance (or McCain’s) on the vast majority of issues.
I paid a visit to a client at her home today. “Obama nous fait rever…” (Obama makes us dream…), she told me. On my way out the door I silently laughed as I noticed a tattered postcard with the image of Kennedy propped up against some books on a shelf. She observed my noticing the likeness and smiled. For me, it was a sweet moment, and I was glad for her. Dreaming is beautiful, and I think we all need to dream to remember the what it is to be human.
But then there’s the French media, which I’ll admit, does annoy me. How many times have I watched/heard a ‘Special Election Report’ here in France these past weeks where the name on only ONE candidate was metioned?
Just saying…
Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot, last night, on the news, they did onterview ONE GUY who was voting McCain, a toothless redneck, who said he was afraid Obama would take away his right to own GUNS (GIUNS ! GUNS !) and he HAS SO MANY he’s planning to sell them to pay HIS RETIREMENT.
BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THAT ANYONE VOTING FOR MCCAIN MUST CERTAINLY BE A GUN TOTING HICK WITH NO DENTAL INSURANCE THAT, THANKS TO THE CAPAITLIST SYSTEM? DOESN’T HAVE A SHOT IN HELL FOR A DECENT RETIREMENT SO HE WILL HAVE TO PEDDLE INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH TO SCHOOLCHILDREN.
Right?
It’s a lot easier to categorize, classify, and put people into boxes than it is to listen to each other and try to see points of view that aren’t necessariy our own. I’m speaking from one side, and I’m happy to hear yours. And I think it’s as valuable as my own. I’ll even give you more credit than I give myself, and I’ll stumble a bit over my words when you ask me why I don’t believe in certain things you do and why I do believe in certain things that you don’t. I’ll stumble, becauses I’m not used to explaining them in a thinking environment, I’m not accustomed to it being okay to differ from people who call themselves open-minded and consider me narrow. I’ll stumble because you asked me, because I didn’t expect it, because I’m suprised -
-to see that you are interested.
God bless America (whether you believe in him or not). I think tomorrow, whatever happens, is going to be a great day.
well said.
Yep, I voted for McCain. And because I did, I am categorized as an uneducated, brain washed, conservative freak. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I voted for the person who was “closest” to my value system. Neither candidate is perfect.
And here in the US of A, the media has put Obama on a throne.
2008 – The year mainstream fair reporting died. I’ve never experienced such bias in my life.
And thanks for letting me share your soapbox.
Dear Sassy,
I came out of my lurky cave to tell you thank you. I too have sat quietly as my friends and family have passionately fought with one another over candidates and Prop 8. The opposition and media have been so fierce that it has been hard to keep cool. People don’t cordially ask your opinion. We don’t sit down to try and understand the other’s point of view. No, people seem to think they can change your opinion by insulting you and then assume you are an idiot because you don’t want to fight. “You must not have a very compelling argument if you walk away from me!” No, there is nothing I could say that would change your mind. The only thing I would accomplish is giving you “hives” and another reason to hate the people I represent. I’ll be glad when it’s over and you are right, no matter what, tomorrow will be a good day.
~Alison
@iamc
Fair Media died long ago dude, back when people decided Advertising Dollars and Ratings were worth more than information for the public, don’t blame Democrats for this year when every election there is mud-slinging on both sides.
Let’s face it, neither political party really is any good but we’re stuck in a two-party system for now, people have to stop calling themselves Democrats and Republicans, it just divides them both and never gets anything done.
I really do hope I didn’t soundlike I was on a soapbox – that wasn’t my intention. I justwanted to open the door for a little independant thought… and I guess certain feelings thatI had just bottled up over the pastfew months all came spilling out at once.
We all now know that Obama will be our next president. I think I am as filled with hope and anticipation as you are. I spent the day in a daze, as some of you might have. Maybe, just maybe…
Starship Troopers is the best movie ever! Although, it gave me and everybody that I watched it with nightmares.