Mind Splatter

It's been quite awhile since I posted on this blog.  I haven't given up.  I simply haven't been able to get my mind to settle on thoughts that could be expressed coherently and still be of interest to others.  I blame this on what I call "mind splatter". 

Over the past couple of years, I have become an active participant in the "social media" event called Facebook.  For the most part, it has been fun to keep in touch with former students and old friends, but lately this has been challenging.  Why?  Because it is an election year.  People whom I normally like and respect in real life have become blithering idiots when it comes to religion and politics online.  I have no objections to people having their political opinions, and I support their right to say what they feel.  But I also have an overgrown sense of fairness, and some of what I see people posting on Facebook is stuff they have copied and pasted from other sites with no regard to accuracy.  Simply put, it is mindless regurgitation, made popular because it is fun to take pot-shots at people and politicians in the anonymity that comes with sitting alone at a computer and not face-to-face. 

I am painfully aware that I am at odds with many of the people in the state of Indiana.  I am a liberal thinker.  (I honestly don't know how anyone who is a Christian or an educator can be anything else.)  However, I consider myself an "independent" voter...not a Democrat.  I have voted for Republican candidates in the past and might again in the future, but more-and-more, I am so turned off by the conservative rhetoric that gets spouted online that it's all I can do to keep my mouth shut.  I have already "unfriended" a number of people on Facebook because I no longer care to read their posts that are offensive to me.  And these are people that I like!

I won't even go into details, but I will say that the people who post offensive things come in three categories: 
Super-patriotic (you don't support the troops if you don't "like" or repost emotional tugs at the heart.  Perhaps they have forgotten that there is no draft now.  The troops have CHOSEN this lifestyle.)
Super-religious (you don't love God or Jesus if you don't "like" or repost things they have posted.  I'm sorry...my personal relationship with God does not require verification on social media!) 
Super-political (you are a "moron" or an "idiot" if you don't vote for my candidate.  Oops!  I have issues that concern me.  If your candidate/party does not address these in ways that are acceptable to me, I will vote my conscience.  My right!)

A couple of times, I got into online arguments with people I otherwise like, that were so off the mark into name-calling and personal attacks that I had to back out because I felt that they were arguing just for the sake of arguing.  (I did get apologies from the worst of them...but not online where others could see.)

Then, one day, the subject of our state Superintendent of Public Instruction came up.  He has set up to have the state take over schools that are "failing" based on student test scores, and I can hardly wait to see how he and his take-over model will succeed over the life-long efforts of teachers who are working their butts off for their students.  I decided to post a rant about it.  At the beginning, I said that I felt a "rant" coming on...and those who didn't want to know it should not read it.  Thereafter, one of my female radio friends (there aren't many of us around!) wrote that she didn't read it because she didn't want it to come between us.  I think she thought I was posting about presidential politics.  She is a conservative Christian, big time.  Although we've never talked about it, I'm sure I don't share her politics...but you know what?  I REALLY appreciate her saying what she did.  Not only did she respect what I suggested (that people of another bent not read it), but by saying what she did, I came to realize that I was becoming too caught up, emotionally, in the whole Facebook/politics deal!

So...what's up with that?  Obviously, I don't have a life outside my home!  Social media only presents what people want it to present...the fact that no one sits in their home to keep them honest.  I have endeavored to be honest and real, but at the end of the day, I understand that it is all just a game.  I've had to back off and let the good times roll without me.  I'm still fighting the mind splatter that comes with caring about people who think it is okay to attack others.  Conservatives and liberals aren't wired the same.  It isn't just a matter of politics.  It's about whose ox is gored, and how passionate they are about the ox. 

I love my country.  I love my God.  I love my family.  I pray for all three every day of my life.  I respect the Commander-in-Chief no matter what political party is behind him at any given time.  Time to get over the political rhetoric and get back to living!  In twenty years, no one is going to remember the importance of Facebook.  I live my life as honestly and unselfishly as I can. So be it!