At least once a month it seems I have a “Judith Moore day”, Judith being Holly Hunter’s character in Living Out Loud:
“Awful, awful, what do they expect us to do with all this information? What am I supposed to do about crack babies? Terrorism? I can’t stand those terrorists, they’re so mad at everybody. I wish they’d just get over it! Maybe I should adopt a crack baby, sent it to a good school, get a chance of….Oh shut up! I’m gonna raise an inner city child in this building? I can’t stand the people in this building, with their jeeps and their loafers. Their mean, stuck-up private school kids will make fun of my crack baby, my crack baby will have no play dates, poor kid. Awful, what do they expect us to do with all this information? What am I supposed to do with all this information?”
As Duran Duran would sing, “It’s too much information for me…..”
We are living in a golden age of information. With all these ” internets”, which in turn have produced all these blogs, for every color on the political spectrum, I read as much as my brain can take in. This is why I am eternally grateful for a life partner (known in Blogland as The Tempest) who can write the political as well as the humorous (where as my political writing always comes out satirical, I can’t help myself). I am also grateful for the multitalented blog posters and their research that has made my political awareness explode in a “Flowers for Algernon” way since circa 2004. There is so much to be said, so many topics, so many viewpoints.
Even though I feel on “information overload” many days (like most of us, my job can take up almost all the available space in my brain…then I have the nerve to add my new found penchant for politics) I feel this has to be said: We should never EVER stifle discussion. It’s been proven time and again, in field after field, what one day is considered wildly improbable becomes tomorrow’s forgone conclusion.
My request to you who continue to educate me is this: let me hear your viewpoint. Don’t allow yourself to be stifled. I may or may not agree with you, that’s why we’re not part of the right fringe—we don’t have to toe the talking points line. But I want to hear your views. I want my education to continue. Do agree with RFK Jr that Ohio was stolen in 2004? Lay it on me. (I personally agree). Do you think BushCo have created a cavernously deep 9-11 conspiracy? Tell me what you think. (That one, my personal jury is still out). You believe Dick Cheney, if he is not the Anti-Christ himself, is likely his personal manager? Please discuss! (O.K., that’s a no brainer.)
There will always be a place for all viewpoints, this is my core belief. Writers of the political realm, I would ask you to remember the words of Eleanor Roosevelt: “In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.”
