Trying to decide what I would make my first post about caused much inner turmoil. Do I talk about all those Occupy folks and how I wish it would just end, or perhaps reorganize to make an actual point? No, because everyone is talking about that right now, and really, I am a little gun-shy after my one attempt to post something I felt was quite neutral on Facebook. What about the discussing this years batch of GOP Ticket hopefuls? Nah, I need to educate myself again. I haven't watched a debate or read much to keep up with how this group will fare come the Primaries, so I have to pass right now (but I will say Newt is lookin' pretty dang good right now).
That's it! Informed opinions and statements, something I rarely see on Facebook or in the general public, is something I take great pride in myself. Most days I have to remind myself that many people get their news and political information from headlines, Wikipedia, the news crawl at the bottom of their favorite tv show, or from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. All of which are great to give you a sense of what the hot topics of the day/month/year are, however, there is little provided which will educate you about the topic. Most of the time, people fill in the blanks with things they thought they heard, or whatever they believe is to be true. That's no way to become informed.
So where do you go to find out more? Never trust one source. Liberals and conservatives will argue that the media leans left or right, truth is, it leans both ways. It's difficult to find a newspaper or news station that doesn't base the information they are sharing on what may further their established beliefs. So read, or listen to everything you can. While I find myself on verge of vomiting after 10 minutes of listening to NPR, I still listen to some of what they say. There have been times I find myself questioning past views after listening to a little NPR, which will then make me ask questions.Uh oh, slight derail...
QUESTIONS! Don't forget to ask questions! If you ask a question and you are answered with another question, chances are, whoever you asked doesn't have a clue how to answer.
Anyway, most of my point here is that you can't go to Fox News and expect them to give the latest story on the benefits for Leukemia patients use of marijuana and you most certainly cannot tune into NPR looking for how many rapes, robbery, injuries have been reported at any of the Occupy encampments. So look everywhere, on both sides of the political spectrum to find your answers. Sometimes, there isn't one answer, which is the beauty of our country. We can agree to disagree.
Before I leave tonight, I want to answer that one guys question posed to me on FB several month ago after I shared some conservative views. I decided to keep my mouth shut and just hide all of this persons posts, but they reignited my ire by commenting on some recent posts of mine.
Facebook Friend of many moons ago, who clearly never grew up: "Blah blah, anger, contempt, hostility, blah blah. Are you a Nazi Jew now?"
(Obviously I replaced the beginning of that comment with my interpretation of their post. The last part is the question I am answering below)
Me, someone who has changed and slightly matured: "I never thought of it that way, but I might be! We did find out there was some Jewish relatives on my grandfathers side of the family and my grandma had a lot of German in her family. I am literally a walking contradiction!"
I'm a contradiction, too. Puritan mixed with Native American.
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