Confession: I came in here to write an Important Political Post (because I read an article in Sunday’s Houston Chronicle about the terrifying explosion in the amount of asset seizures being perpetrated against innocent people and I simply can’t get over it)…but…
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“A writer who takes up journalism abandons the slow tempo of literature for a faster one and the change will do him harm. By degrees the flippancy of journalism will become a habit and the pleasure of being paid on the nail and more especially of being praised on the nail, grow indispensable.” -Cyril Connolly
I don’t want to write about politics. Politics and the manner with which our government continues to abuse and misuse and confuse its power and its responsibilities just exhausts me. I swear, if I hear Eric Holder’s name one more time, or see one more rude political meme, I might throw a vase through the window. I’ll leave the hard-hitting political analysis to those who can shoulder those burdens better than I, with sincere gratitude: I deeply appreciate people who possess the intestinal fortitude to follow current political events with minds bent on preserving and protecting our freedom. We need the Charles Krauthammers of the world, with their often irritating tenacity.
I know people who follow politics because they just like to be angry. It seems as though they turn on the news in order to fuel their own hatred. Every new crisis and controversy is another reason to paint a protest sign and scream “Impeach the Bum!” Others see the news of the day, and are so thoroughly disgusted they ignore their responsibilities as American citizens completely, a decision I believe to be wrong, though sadly understandable.
Others follow current events and endeavor to turn every. single. thing. that happens in the world into a conservative or liberal policy issue. A tornado blows through or a plant explodes, and they’re impatiently griping about all of the “stupid human interest stories”. They want to move on to the “Important Stuff”: the politics, how that event will alter the next election cycle, and how their party should capitalize on the story. These people make me want to grab an old Calvin & Hobbes book and go to the park where I can read and feed the birds. For a month.
Image may be NSFW.
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But, there are others. There are people who make a serious effort to be informed and active American citizens, who react to the news of the day by doing small but vital very American things. These are the folks who understand that the “stupid human interest stories” are the Important Stuff. Asset forfeiture abuses matter because people’s lives are destroyed by that governmental abuse of power. When one gets right down to it, all of these major news stories and current events, be it a political scandal or a seemingly endless war or an Act of God or some senseless tragedy, are personal. These things affect people where they live.
Letting the truth of that in is to let down some necessary protective walls of cynicism we build around ourselves, and many people have a hard time doing that, because true empathy is an open invitation to have Pain start getting her mail inside your chest. To be an informed and engaged citizen, one must possess a heart of extraordinary strength and courage, be someone who conducts themselves with a debilitating foolishness, or have a heart made of stone. Some of The Normal and the Sane combat letting the events of the day harm them personally by channeling their energies and emotions, focusing their passions on certain issues and informing those over whom they hold some influence. Others just get angry. A few run for office. Some cover their ears and squeeze their eyes shut. People need to protect themselves from the bile of the world in different ways, I suppose. Not all of these ways are healthy or beneficial.
Being a citizen of a representative republic (or whatever it is we are now) comes with responsibilities that aren’t always pleasant or easy burdens to bear. Being a good American requires some effort and some work. So, I write this including links to articles an informed citizenry should read with the hope that people do read them, then make certain the information they contain is factual, and then act in a thoughtful and helpful and personal way. We must bear our responsibilities as Americans with decorum and with the goals of human dignity and freedom in mind in order to insure that, as Lincoln so eloquently said, “a government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth.”
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“All of us are watchers-of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway-but few are observers. Everyone is looking, but not many are seeing.” -Peter M. Leschak
Writing about politics is difficult because I don’t want anything political writing I originate to illicit angry or hateful useless rhetoric or reams of legislation no one will ever read or enforce. I don’t want to leave you the reader feeling tired and defeated and mad. I hope to appeal to our better natures. I hope to encourage and highlight more behavior like Kaziah Hancock‘s. She’s so beautifully absolutely American in her response to our ongoing struggle against terrorism that she seems a bit nuts: she really lets the humanity of our current history in. And then she turns it into something beautiful and gives it away: