Tuesday miscellany

Reading Martin Luther King’s views on hate are instructive. The energy it takes to keep up a hatred is debilitating. In essence, it is more destructive to the hater than the intended target of the hate.

Just think about it. There are people who truly despise some politicians, but it does not bother the politicians as much. It is just one more person. However, it bothers the hater more. The only thing that bothers the politician is public humiliation. That, and being voted out of office.

We have entered an age where politicians don’t pay much attention to voters. They pay attention to funders and what PR people tell them to pay attention to. The number of town halls has declined. When you email a concern, you check off on a subject from a list and you get a pre-worded response. I have gotten a number of the identical emails based on the box checked, even though the actual issue may be different.

It reminds me from a line from the movie “Hunt for Red October” where a commander said the other submarines were not listening to the response of their sonar “pings” as they were moving too fast. The commander said they could go right over my daughter’s stereo and would not hear it. That is how I feel about the elected officials. They are not listening.

So, we have to make them pay attention. We have to use every means of communication to say to these politicians the truth matters and we are not hearing enough of it from you. We also need to say we need you to work together and stop the tribal BS as that is precisely what it is. Truth be told, we have too many elected officials who may have won, but they exhibit time and again they do not belong there. They consistently make inane and mean-spirited remarks.

There is an old line I like which applies to any group of people. If someone acts like a jerk most of the time, they better be good at what they do, as most people will not tolerate their BS if they are not. Sadly, we have folks who do both. They have made their voices irrelevant and ignorable.

I know we are supposed to pay attention what politicians say, but for too many it is a waste of time. When I see the picture of these folks on an article, I pass it by. My reaction is this person either said one more dumb thing, denigrated one more person or group, or both. I will let you figure out who I am speaking of as they may match up with what you feel.

So, when one of those people use as means of defense, “they just don’t like me,” that trivializes the argument. In truth, I don’t like being lied to, especially when I know the person is lying. And, I certainly don’t like people acting like a jerk when they do. I have little time for such verbiage and action. If politicians want to be taken seriously, they should act in a serious-minded way. Otherwise, just stop talking or tweeting.

Advertisement