Circus of Fools, Day OH COME ON!

My Daddy was a crotchety man who never finished grade school but had more wisdom than most people. He could have given Will Rogers a run for his money with all of the wise sayings he passed out to people who would listen. One of the ones he told me was, “Bobby there are three things you never talk about with your friends if you want to keep them. Religion, Politics and most of all, Religious Politicians.”

Now of course, being a Jerk, Ass and general all around trouble maker, I have ignored that wise advice too many times in the past to count. It is in my nature. One friend describes it as a need to poke at fire ant hills with a sharp stick and I really cannot deny it. Unfortunately this tendency can lead to serious discord under the right conditions.

The current disaster going on in DC has tensions and tempers rising all over the country. The sheer volume of frustration being produced by our so called leaders has everyone cranky and in some cases downright grumpy. The inability of POTUS and the Hill to hold anything vaguely resembling a reasonable discourse is effecting everyone else in the country. The Interwebz and News Channels are filled with angry people saying angry things and much like in DC no one wants to sit down and have a reasonable discussion where all views and possibilities are covered. Instead, everyone is digging in deep and preparing for war.

That in a nutshell (and I do mean NUT) is really what is wrong with both our government and our nation. We pick our sides,dig in deep and refuse to hear any arguments that conflict. Good examples are Creationists who claim that Man and Dinosaurs once walked side by side even though there is no evidence this ever happened and loads of evidence that it never happened. (Note I am not arguing against Big Happy Sky Guy making Life the Universe and Everything, just that people are a wee bit unclear on the exact time line.) Or people who swallow Big Coal and Big Oil's lies about how burning coal and oil isn't damaging our ecology even though you don't see any of them wrapping their lips around a car's tailpipe and puffing away.)

The problem with picking your sides, especially with political type stuff is that the actual answers to your problems are very rarely found on your side or their side. Usually the actual solutions are found somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, no one wants to meet in the middle any more. They hide behind their paper forts and hurl insults at their “enemies” who crouch down behind forts of their own. No one in the history of the Earth has ever been 100% right about anything. Your way is not the only way and is most probably not the “right” way.

Until we as a Country, as a Culture and as a Race learn to accept that the views of others might be just as valid as our own, we will continue to make the same mistakes that we have in the past. I truly wonder if we will ever be able to make that first step. As a student of history, I haven't seen much indications of it yet.

End of Rant