A thought occurred to me today. My daughter proudly announced that she was not going to go outside on this glorious day and play......because I didn't have to. I asked her what she thought I was doing inside, and she said talking on the phone all day....reading.....doing nothing..... I told her that her sense of injustice has greatly skewed her reality. I then offered to let her fold laundry, do dishes, and mop my kitchen floor. She quickly disappeared.
5 minutes later, I sat down at the computer to browse Facebook, and I saw a petition posted by a friend stating that wicked Republicans want to cut off aid and starve pregnant women and children. I suppressed a comment and moved on to the bedroom to fold laundry, but then a thought occurred to me. When we make statements about people that try to pervert their motives for the sake of our own ideas of injustice, then we are, in fact, acting childish. Not only that, we are breaking the 9th commandment by bearing false witness against our neighbor.
When I first gave in to the world of Facebook, I was still in a learning process of how to "measure" my words. Not that I have graduated that process, but I think I have gotten much better. I usually do not argue politics anymore because I have learned that it gets ugly and heated and in the end, unproductive. The only thing left at the end of the day is hard feelings. But one thing I noticed lately is a lot of name calling. Tea-partiers are fruitcakes. Obama is a baby killer. Republicans hate women and children. I think we really need to ask ourselves if these statements are really productive. Are you going to change a conservative's political views by calling them a fruitcake? Are you going to change Obama's view on abortion by calling him a murderer? Are you going to incite healthy debate by telling someone opposed to abortion that they want to starve women and children?
Can I get a resounding NO?
Please?
All you are doing is provoking anger and hate.
Politics. The grow-up form of school-yard logic. Will we ever be able to develop a healthy dialogue in America without attempting to pervert the motives of our perceived enemies? I do hope so. I love a healthy debate.
Can I get an Amen?
AMEN!!!
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