Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Why am I not more upset?

I fully expected Barak Obama to be reelected.  I voted my conscience and am in full communion with the magisterium, but I am not stupid.  I knew that I was voting a losing side.  Maybe that's why I am not more upset.

Maybe I am not upset because I can honestly say I did not participate in the mudslinging, nasty, character revealing behavior demonstrated by some of the people I know.  I was not a push over by any means and I stood up to many a bully (mostly male - those little boys do not like girls challenging their opinons, an attitude that is especially true of men who are defending the liberal agenda of total inclusivity) these past two years and I have no problem voicing my beliefs, my opinions and researching facts in order to learn.    I will not, however, post those insipid, one sentence, badly drawn or poorly worded political cartoons.  In fact, at the risk of sounding snotty, I believe the people who post that kind of stuff on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any other odd little social media platform out there do so because they cannot think more than one sentence at a time and cannot 'see' more than one photo at a time.

The bottom line is nothing has changed.  The same people are in charge.  Perhaps God is protecting us from something.  Perhaps we have reached that stage in our culture that high school history teachers will some day describe as the 'beginning of the end'.


Maybe...or maybe not.

All I know is the Niners are on top of the NFC West, I have a job (though my taxes jumped 200 bucks, thanks a lot) and my Lord loves me.

No matter what, we can rejoice in the fact that we live in a country where people can vote without worrying about a gunman coming onto their bus and shooting them point blank in the head in the name of religion.

God bless America ...  and GO NINERS!

3 comments:

Robert said...

Leslie,

I stayed news-free for over 24 hours. No election, no weather, no sports. I was also coming off a 6 day migraine that night. If given the choice of watching the election coverage or Terry Gilliam's rendition of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," I would have picked the movie, and felt that I got off easy.

In 2008, I lost a couple of friends due to "politics." I was accused of racism because of my voting choice. In truth, I was not thrilled with either choice, so I picked the least painful. My progressive friends did not see it that way, and were dismayed at how I must have misrepresented myself to sneak into their midst. Our discussions about our political differences must have been considered playful hyperbole at the time, and dismissed as not being serious. A certain parish I was at also became "uncomfortable." I changed a lot of stuff in 2009, some voluntary, some not.

I ultimately hold the voters responsible. I see them like the spouse of an alcoholic, always looking past the beatings, the verbal abuse, cigarette burns on the sofa. Always letting he or she back in because we can see that “spark of a good person, that person we want them to be.” This applies to all politicians, not just the two we have been focusing on. Time to change the locks.

Robert

Leslie K. said...

funny part? One of the members of my family now hates my GUTS even though her candidate won! I know why she is mad - I have written candidly my opinion of Catholics who walk away from the Eucharist for political reasons and how that is plain STUPID - but now she HATES me because I refuse to be upset about the election results!

Father Vincent Serpa answered a call yesterday on Catholic Answers. It was in the first hour, the last call. you HAVE to look it up on podcast it is AMAZING!

Robert said...

I will get the mp3 you spoke of tomorrow.

I used to have a boss that LOVED to argue. Fired up, arm waving, finger pointing, voice raised arguing. At one point, I looked at him and said, "Larry, we will just have to agree to disagree." Wow. That made him hit the rev limiter. He turned bright red, and I thought he was going to have a blow out. A week later he tried to fire me, but the Ops manager stepped in and sent me into the field for five years to "clean up my image." It’s now 9 years later, Larry is not my boss, and we chat a few times a week. Sometimes time is the only thing that works. The people I was in conflict with four years ago are still keeping their distance. One person from the old parish has made some overtures to healing that rift. Time and the Holy Spirit.