Thursday, June 24, 2010

Social Media

I made a big mistake on Facebook this week. One that I rarely commit and even scold others for making. The "cardinal sin". I made a comment on a political statement. Not a statement...just a comment. My friend din't say much, but his friends ate me alive. Keep it light. Post some pictures and catch up with old friends. It is, after all, social media not political media. I slipped.
One things that happen when the conversation turns to politics is that you learn things about others that you really don't need to know. I don't want to know who you voted for any more than I want to know if you went to the bathroom this morning. There is curtain on the voting booth for a reason. It is there to enable you to keep your political views where they belong. There is no top on it, so it's between you and God, and I really don't think that God wants to talk about politics anyway.
Conversations about politics will almost always turn into an argument. They will do so because reguardless of what you "believe" there is no right or wrong. It is a highly subjective subject with millions of interpretations. What is cut and dried to one is absurd to others. But what is the goal of an argument? What does one want more than anything when they enter an argument? To win! It's human nature. Here is where it gets fuzzy.
How bad do you want to win? Bad enough to say "well at least I'm not ugly"? Bad enough to say "you are a fat bastard"? Bad enough to say "They are treating the president unfairly because he is black"? These are win at all costs statements and they are unfair. Ever think that General McCrystal made these statements about the handling of the war simply because they were his beliefs? Of course you can't do that with the boss and he got what he deserved, but does it have anything to do with his being white and the boss being black? It's possible, but I don't think so.
I was told that this was just another "disrespecting" of the president because he is a black man. Another slight in a long line of others. The first time a general disagreed publicly with the Commander and Chief. Wrong. It has happened before and it will again. We live in a free country and if your skin is not thick, you have no business in politics. You wont see me there because I already know that mine is not thick enough.
America put this man in office. We all did. He is our president. He belongs to an ethnic group that totals no more than 17% of the population of the United States. I'm no math wizard, but 17% wont get you elected for anything. Where did the other votes come from you ask? While I would never dream of telling anyone how I vote, I will tell you that the other votes came from people that look just like me.
I hope he is successful. I hope this job makes him happy. I wish him luck, it's the hardest of jobs. But while you sit at home and feel sorry for how the media and his generals may treat him, think about this. He was elected to the highest position in the United States by a country of 260 million people of every shape,form and color. He made it. No matter how much I agree or disagree with his politics, these are historic times and I'm proud to be a part of them!