It was the 70th anniversary of D-day, and I was
sweating away on the elliptical machine at my local gym. Above my head, FOXnews
blared its seizure inducing graphics and closed captioning informed me of all I
needed to know about the VA. Two TVs to
the left, CNN was still searching for the Malaysian plane clearly hijacked by
Zombies. I just kept wondering why D-Day was relegated to the ticker tape at
the bottom of the screen.
Then less than week later, a mass shooting in my own city by
two assholes who hate the government and decided to murder two cops on their
lunch break.
For a few years now, I've ignored politics and political
discussion. This is not the person whom I thought I would be. I always
considered myself informed and opinionated, but all that seems to result from
that is frustration and anger and eventually someone going on a shooting
rampage.
I still consider
myself informed, but it is harder and harder to sift through the news to
find real information. It is no longer possible, if it ever really was
possible, to find plain information with which I can have a civil discussion
and from which I can form my opinion.
We choose our news source based on the ideology we identify
with: liberal, conservative, tea party, occupier, Belieber, etc. We tune in,
and they tell us, as a member of their tribe, how we should view a situation.
The situation is the situation. There are facts to a situation. Who did what
at when and where. The Whys get a little sketchier, but where the news
oversteps its boundaries is in the "what now" area. I have no idea
what the solution to Putin in the Crimea is. I hope to god someone in a higher
pay grade who has spent years studying the geo-politics in the area is working
hard on the issue. I don't care if that
person voted for Obama or is a member of the Tea Party or both, as long as they
are doing their damn job. I certainly don't
think someone who just learned to pronounce Ukraine and locate it vaguely in
Eastern Europe is the person to tell me how we should or shouldn't respond.
I don't know if banning all guns above the water-variety is the
solution to mass shootings. I am tired
of people, friends included, taking every instance and rather than treating it
in context, using it as propaganda for their side. Crazies will be crazy. Rightist
anti-government extremists will be crazy. The issue, as I see it, is that we
see guns as a solution to every problem, even the ones we create in our heads.
That jerk took the last box of Cheerios off the shelf; clearly, he deserves to
die in a hail of bullets. If we take away the guns, will the crazies stop
making up, exaggerating, and generally making mountains of molehills better
resolved through discussion?
Nah, not as long as we continue to choose politically
inflexible identities, tune into our own tribe's propaganda, and refuse to acknowledge
that both sides have legitimate concerns and points. I may not agree with someone, but that
doesn't mean they don't have a right to be heard and considered and even judged
correct.
After this, I am going to shower and go vote. Voting by an
informed public is a cornerstone of democracy. Unfortunately, I no longer trust
the sources of information (aside from the voices in my head ((dear NSA, that
was a joke))), and any more I just don't know. The worst is I am moving from "I
don't know" to "I don't care" because I can no longer stomach
any side.
