Sometimes, You Step Back And Forget Politics.
both on JU and at large, some show the ability to be human before being a party pundit...
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People write a lot of things here on JoeUser. Some of theings are profound, some are stupid. Some of them deal with our daily lives, some of them are complete fiction and fantasy. Many of the articles on here, and probably the most popular categories beyond the ones concerning either skinning or galactic civillizations are the ones concerning current events, namely, politics.
At least they appear to be to me. But that is probably because I spend the bulk of my time either writing or responding to something having to do with politics on here. I also spend a good deal of my "offline" time (which , by far , is most of my time) studying, discussing or being involved with political matters. So I submit, that maybe this is "just me" or just my perspective, but recently, some things have happened that put my faith back into the political system we live in.
That is, people's abilities to step out of that world and just be human for awhile. To put aside the rhetoric and viewpoints for a bit to concentrate on something more important, us as people. Not a screen name or representative of anything, just people. And when this happens, I like to think that we are reconnected with a fact that eludes us in all those politicl clashes. The fact that we are all really more alike than those political disputes would suggest as they divide us into opposing camps.
The most significant of that rekindling of actual humanity was when the popular, very conservative despite his name, moderateman was hospitalized and near death.
As anyone who has been on JU longer than 6 months can attest to, even tho we occasionally find some common ground outside of politics, MM and I don't exactly see eye to eye when it comes to the Bush administration. Some of those disagreements have escalated into full blown "blog wars" that lasted for extended periods of time. We blacklisted each other for awhile.
But when his wife, Colleen, announced hastily one morning that her beloved was unconcious in the hospital I saw the JU community stand up and drop all political biases to just support him. For weeks, people from all walks sent messages of support, hope and prayer. There was nothing snide, nothing underhanded and nothing beyond genuine goodwill and the hope that MM would be back with us as soon as humanly possible.
It was inspiring. And it reminded me that people don't need to agree on how or when we should go to war to come together and support a man that by most accounts, is a pretty good guy. No one from "the other side of the fence" even peeped about anything bad about him. No one used his offline status as an excuse to attack him without resistance. Everything writen to him or about him was nothing but supportive in one way or another.
Last week, Elizabeth Edwards and her husband John announced that her cancer, which she beat once, had returned. I expected that some would use it as a launch pad to attack John and his candidacy, but the right and other candidates were silent when they weren't supportive. I realize that it possible for some yahoo to have said something in this (and the next example i will give) example that was insulting to either edwards or his wife, ut fortunately, if that happened, it never boiled to anyone's surface.
Then, earlier this week, white house spokesman Tony Snow was found to have a returned and spreading cancer in his colon and liver. And where the opponents of Edwards had been extremely kind and "apolitical" with her situation, I did wonder if the White House opponents would be the same.
And they were. From the left came announcements of support and well wishes. People who had been at Snow's throat over Gonzalezgate just the day or 2 before, were saying nice things about him and hoping for his speedy recovery. Liberal pundits spoke of Snow's likability as a man, his "gentlemanly" ways at all times and his general decency as a person.
And maybe it's just me, but those things remind me and rekindle my faith that we are much more alike than different. Not everyone is capable of seperating issues and dealing with the people who support one side or another on any 1 issue on different levels. Indeed, I was reminded of that when trying to seek some common ground on parenting with Texas Wahine. turns out, when I tried to offer an olive branch and show where we could "work together" and were on the same side, I was insulted, attacked and threatened after it became clear that I and others had a very strong leg to stand on in our view and Tex even admitted as such. It was clear at that moment that Tex's mind couldn't let her find any commonality with someone who didn't fall in lock step with her political views. What a shame.
At those times now, I 'll just have to think of Moderateman, Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow.
At least they appear to be to me. But that is probably because I spend the bulk of my time either writing or responding to something having to do with politics on here. I also spend a good deal of my "offline" time (which , by far , is most of my time) studying, discussing or being involved with political matters. So I submit, that maybe this is "just me" or just my perspective, but recently, some things have happened that put my faith back into the political system we live in.
That is, people's abilities to step out of that world and just be human for awhile. To put aside the rhetoric and viewpoints for a bit to concentrate on something more important, us as people. Not a screen name or representative of anything, just people. And when this happens, I like to think that we are reconnected with a fact that eludes us in all those politicl clashes. The fact that we are all really more alike than those political disputes would suggest as they divide us into opposing camps.
The most significant of that rekindling of actual humanity was when the popular, very conservative despite his name, moderateman was hospitalized and near death.
As anyone who has been on JU longer than 6 months can attest to, even tho we occasionally find some common ground outside of politics, MM and I don't exactly see eye to eye when it comes to the Bush administration. Some of those disagreements have escalated into full blown "blog wars" that lasted for extended periods of time. We blacklisted each other for awhile.
But when his wife, Colleen, announced hastily one morning that her beloved was unconcious in the hospital I saw the JU community stand up and drop all political biases to just support him. For weeks, people from all walks sent messages of support, hope and prayer. There was nothing snide, nothing underhanded and nothing beyond genuine goodwill and the hope that MM would be back with us as soon as humanly possible.
It was inspiring. And it reminded me that people don't need to agree on how or when we should go to war to come together and support a man that by most accounts, is a pretty good guy. No one from "the other side of the fence" even peeped about anything bad about him. No one used his offline status as an excuse to attack him without resistance. Everything writen to him or about him was nothing but supportive in one way or another.
Last week, Elizabeth Edwards and her husband John announced that her cancer, which she beat once, had returned. I expected that some would use it as a launch pad to attack John and his candidacy, but the right and other candidates were silent when they weren't supportive. I realize that it possible for some yahoo to have said something in this (and the next example i will give) example that was insulting to either edwards or his wife, ut fortunately, if that happened, it never boiled to anyone's surface.
Then, earlier this week, white house spokesman Tony Snow was found to have a returned and spreading cancer in his colon and liver. And where the opponents of Edwards had been extremely kind and "apolitical" with her situation, I did wonder if the White House opponents would be the same.
And they were. From the left came announcements of support and well wishes. People who had been at Snow's throat over Gonzalezgate just the day or 2 before, were saying nice things about him and hoping for his speedy recovery. Liberal pundits spoke of Snow's likability as a man, his "gentlemanly" ways at all times and his general decency as a person.
And maybe it's just me, but those things remind me and rekindle my faith that we are much more alike than different. Not everyone is capable of seperating issues and dealing with the people who support one side or another on any 1 issue on different levels. Indeed, I was reminded of that when trying to seek some common ground on parenting with Texas Wahine. turns out, when I tried to offer an olive branch and show where we could "work together" and were on the same side, I was insulted, attacked and threatened after it became clear that I and others had a very strong leg to stand on in our view and Tex even admitted as such. It was clear at that moment that Tex's mind couldn't let her find any commonality with someone who didn't fall in lock step with her political views. What a shame.
At those times now, I 'll just have to think of Moderateman, Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow.