There are a few who have asked me why my blog isn’t more political, as they know me, know that I follow politics and have a ready opinion and (hopefully) more than a few facts to back them…
Have you ever been trapped on an airplane with a guy who has snuck in his own alcohol, obviously inebriated even though it’s 10 a.m? You know, the one with the wheezy breath and the ready opinion on why your country is the root of all evil? Have you ever then checked your watch and realized that it is only four more hours of this guy talking, not actually listening to what you have to say, but just spouting off, slathering you in spittle and the occasional profanity? Have you ever then pleadingly looked at your husband to switch seats with you, so you could escape this man, and because he loves you very much he obliges, putting himself in the path of destruction? Has this drunk man been so oblivious, that even when you take your sweatshirt and close it around your face like a giant butt-hole, and then put your face-hole down on the serving tray, he still doesn’t stop?
I don’t want to be that guy.
Sure, I talk politics with my friends in the café. Sure, it can be heated, especially if there are remarks that give even the tiniest bit of defence to Donald Trump. I had one friend talk about what was redeeming in him (this is before Pussygate) and I had to just sit there, stunned, and wonder if the world was still rotating on its axis correctly. It’s almost a deal-breaker for me. I don’t want to ditch friends based on their politics, because you should have all sorts of people in your life, especially ones you don’t agree with, lest you surround yourself by like-minded people only to reinforce your own views. I like to be challenged. I like to be given other points to ponder, because sometimes, just sometimes, the tiniest crack of light will then appear in my thick skull and I will look at something in a whole new way. But, as of right now, today, this very moment, don’t ever talk to me about the redeeming qualities in Donald Trump. I could go off about the reasons I strongly dislike the man, from his applications for his apartments having a “c” stamped on some of them (c for colored, yes this did happen, they never made it to the top of the pile) to the most recent comments about how he views women. Really? Are the people who are so sick of politics as they are, ready to vote for this guy, to cut off their nose to spite their face?
Oops, I started, didn’t I.
And to think, I get to have opinions in two countries! One of the many benefits of dual citizenship!
I’ve sent my vote in. If you have the chance to vote, if people had to struggle and face oppression in the near past to make this happen, it is your duty to go and do so. There is never a more urgent time. Even if you are faced with a choice you didn’t want to make, make one. And I promise not to talk politics any more, but give you more of what you have come to expect: embarrassing and mindless blither blather, just not on a national scale.