Disappointed

This was a post in 2009 but I think it may be appropriate to reprint in these times.

I don’t often use the word.  In fact, I have an aversion to the judgmental quality of it.  After all, when it comes to people, isn’t it arrogant to assume that they should perform to my expectations?  Isn’t it doling out shame to the person who didn’t meet the standard that they did not know I had set for them?

But I must say it: I am disappointed.

When it comes to politics I am woefully uninformed, reactionary and opinionated.  My responses are from my heart and my gut, not from my head.  I don’t pretend to have answers but I have great expectations.  If you must label me I will wear a sign that says “liberal.”

My disappointment doesn’t come from things not going my way.  I am verbal and vociferous when they do not, but it isn’t a letdown.  It is an irritation.

Nor does my disappointment come from the politicians.  I get how difficult it is to move through a system filled with power, corruption, money and special interests.  I have witnessed that our government is not made up of our best and brightest.  It isn’t a wisdom circle or even a think tank.  Okay.  Getting involved in politics is neither my mission nor my passion.  I can’t complain constantly when I am not willing to get behind my beliefs.  So I continue to vote and to observe: sometimes with approval, sometimes with disbelief: and often with horror.

What I am despondent about is the attitude of individuals.  I am mystified when I see the signs and demonstrations of people whose faces are screwed up in anger with hate messages, labels and provocation to violence based on misinformation.  Don’t mistake me…I make decisions based on emotions without facts every day of my life.  But I hope they are not decisions to label, to denigrate and to alienate.

What happened to critical thinking?  For instance, how can a huge mass of people my age, who are dependent on government insurance, rave against government involved in medicine?  Personally, I believe that health care is a right, not a privilege. No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.  Obviously lots of other Medicare recipients believe the same.  At least, they signed up for it.

And dare I think about the brouhaha over the “school” speech without suffering apoplexy? But there I go being reactionary and opinionated.

Again, my disappointment doesn’t have to do with the fact that there are people who don’t agree with me.  It has to do with the fact that in their decision to fight against a political cause, many have decided to label a person as a Nazi, a Communist (whatever they think that is); a killer; an idiot; a liar, etc.  I have even seen signs that profess the belief that our President should be assassinated like Kennedy.  WTF?

This isn’t disagreement.  This is manipulation at its worst.  This is ignorance, meanness, and mob mentality.  Scary, scary, scary!

I am disappointed.
xxoo

 

September 2009