One More Time...

        I know I've said this before. I KNOW I have. I hate being grouped in with people. Singers. Actors. Jews. Fat people. Democrats. Liberals.
    One of the issues that really got under my skin while Lucia was sick was the way the "care" staff treated her. It was like they had a rigid set of guidelines that was universal to all patients regardless of their life, lifestyle, or situation, and it bugged the living hell out of me when they tried to treat her like a cookie-cutter case.
    EVERYONE is different. The ways may be subtle, but we all have our nuances. So, when people make comments about a specific group, it bothers me. Last year's election split the country in a way not seen since the Civil War. We're in another right now, although it's a Cold War. Since the shooting in Newtown in December, the issue of gun control has once again polarized the country. The decisions of the administration have polarized the country. Everything that is said or done splits us right down the middle, and people have a tendency to group everything in black and white. That's it. Black and white. Right and left. Right and wrong. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
    I'm a liberal. I believe women have the right to control their own bodies. I believe a person in love should be able to spend their life with the object of their affection, regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation. I believe in legalizing marijuana. I believe ANYONE should be allowed to serve their country, regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
    HOWEVER.
    There are foggier issues. I don't have an answer to them, but I don't think that either liberal OR conservative sides are giving good responses, either.

GUN CONTROL: there is something wrong. I don't believe we should ban all weapons, as the conservatives believe the liberals are trying to do. The problem is not the guns that are available, although that's part of it. The issue is the guns that are already OUT there, the ones the bad guys already have and CAN get. The conservatives are right, regulating legally obtained weapons is not the issue, it's defending against the ILLEGALLY obtained ones. But how? Neither side has given an answer that to me is satisfactory.

OIL: Again, something is wrong. yes, we need to protect the environment, but we need to make it so we can afford to get to work, as well. $5 a gallon for gas is rigoddamndiculous. There's no reason for it. If we have it in this country, we need to be able to obtain it. Make it safe, make it friendly, and get it. You want to protect the people of this country? Prevent Big Oil from putting us into another Great Depression. ExxonMobil can buy Europe and North America four times over, but Joe Paycheck needs to sell a kidney to put 15 gallons in his tank. NOT. FUCKING. RIGHT.

TAXES: It's never gonna be right. Somewhere along the line between Washington and... I don't even know when, something got fucked up. Don't blame Obama, don't blame Bush, this shit was fuzzuckled before either of them. We're spending too much, but there are things we need to spend on: providing for our children AND our elderly, providing for our sick and disabled, education, defense... do I think everything should be free? of course not. I believe in working for a living and earning your keep. However, for those who are UNABLE to provide for themselves, or for those who NEED HELP, help must be provided. The elderly, children, veterans, those who have been injured or disabled in an accident, THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO DESERVE HELP. Addicts, lazes, people who keep pumping out kids because they're too stupid to do otherwise, THESE PEOPLE DO NOT DESERVE HELP, those who take advantage of the system. However, NOT EVERYONE WHO APPLIES FOR ASSISTANCE IS A SLACK-OFF DEADBEAT SCUMBAG. A lot of truly needy people apply for help every year, and because of a slimy minority number of bad apples, everyone suffers. THIS IS WRONG. Focus the money where it needs to go, not where the special interests, corporations, an those wealthy enough to fund an election campaign want it to go.

    This is what I feel. This is what I believe. I don't have answers. I don't pretend to. I don't like some of the answers I'm hearing. Everything sounds too extreme, there's too much far left and far right. there need to be decisions made in the middle, but nobody is willing to talk, or more importantly, LISTEN. People need to stop saying NO to an idea simply because the other side said it. "Wow, the Red Sox played a good game tonight." "I don't care, THEY FUCKING SUCK." "Yeah, but they fought hard, their offense was flawless, and their defense was stalwart." "I don't care how many home runs they hit and how many batter sthey struck out, THEY FUCKING SUCK." Welcome to today's politics.
    People need to learn to listen. listen to BOTH SIDES. Don't like what you hear? Tell me what works better. Explain it clearly and logically. When I ask why you disagree with something, give me facts and a logical reason why you disagree, not an answer like "because he's an asshole" or "he's an idiot." Explain to me why you disagree with it, and then give me a logical, thought out alternative. Be informed. Don't give me "They're trying to make it so nobody can legally buy a gun and then only the criminals will be armed and we'll have to rely on slow-responding police for defense" and when I ask what you would do tell me "put militias outside our schools, arm all the teachers, and allow citizens to carry M-60's in their SUVs." Know the proposed legislation and give me an alternative if you don't agree. Same with your opinions of other issues. Against same-sex marriage? Why? How does it directly affect you? Don't like the proposed budget cuts and spending measures? What would you do in the situation if it were your call?
    Think. Listen. But know that not everyone is going to be the same on all the issues. Just because someone is liberal doesn't mean they agree blindly with everything being posed by one side. Just because someone is a conservative doesn't mean they're going to be all militant and hard-nosed.
    LISTEN.
    KNOW.
    Generalizing is BAD. Grouping is BAD. We're different. All of us. MELTING POT. Remember that.

Of Cabbages And Kings

            I'm a cynic. This shouldn't be news to anyone. I know the way the world works, I know we're all different and that a great many of us will connive and plot and lie and steal and cheat to get what they want. I also know that some things are inevitable, like love, hate, birth...death.
    With these inevitable things comes what I like to call the Oh Shit Moment. See, sometimes we forget that we're all Somebody Else to somebody else. Some things, regardless of how commonplace and universal they are, seem so distant and impossible to us. Before certain events in our lives, we have that moment where our brains go Oh Shit, This Is Actually Going To Happen. It's that shocked, almost incredulous realization that regardless of how much an individual we are, we're just like everyone else in some aspects.
    I've had several of these. Not as many as I expected, but a decent-sized handful. When I lost my virginity, I had one of those, looking at her body and feeling the excitement and feeling my heart race as she gave herself willingly to me. When I graduated high school, and later college, that feeling of accomplishment and pride as received that parchment. When I looked at my very-soon-to-be-bride at the start of our wedding, looking at the smile on her face and seeing the happiness in her eyes as we stood before family and friends. When that same woman was lying on her deathbed, as I watched the light in her dim and watched the clock tick down the final seconds. When my father walked into my job today and said he had forty-four more days until retirement.
    That's a reality there. A nudge to the reality that time moves on, that people age. There's a reality that my father is NOT a young man anymore. In a way, he is, I'll give him that. He's in his late 60s, hair and beard full gray, the flesh below the fuzz lined and yes, weary. It's a reality that both he and my mother will someday be gone, leaving me the patriarch. I hope that day is decades away, I really do, because it's not a responsibility I want. I don't want to know that one day, my siblings and I will be the elders. I don't want it.
    Reality sucks. It really does. But, it's reality. So what are we going to do about it? What can we do about it? Nothing. Can't change the channel. We just have to deal with it, because it's what we've got.