Politics, Postings and Postulations

Posted on October 24, 2012 Updated on October 24, 2012

I was just thinking about the number of people I have known for many years that I did not know were hatemongers and racist. However, a useful tool named Facebook has recently pointed out several useless tools that I have managed to call friends. Before I delve into my disappointment, please allow me to qualify and quantify what I mean.

Clicking “like” and “share” on Facebook does not make you an activist, it makes you a follower.
Posting pic and cameos of your candidate in random photo ops, is not really showing your support. A photo of you at your candidate’s campaign headquarters doing some work is showing your support.
Voting or supporting a candidate because he has the same color skin as you does not make you informed, it makes you, well…you know.
Following the debates on line and posting “B43” as a reference to sinking a battleship, means you missed the context of the sentence because you were trying to be cute.
Tweeting random misquoted snippets from other new shows means that you, like the news shows, probably have the information out of context.
Making generic statements that we are owned by China means very little when you are Tweeting the statement from your iPhone that was made in China.
Make wholly encompassing statements that we are no longer respected in the world, when you have never traveled outside of your state, it just well….you know.
Stating emphatically, that this is the worst president in the history of presidents is completely untrue. I would chock that one to William Henry Harrison who refused to cover his head in the dead of winter for his inauguration. He was president for only 31 days. He died of poor decision making, because pneumonia took him out of office.

And last but not least, it is easy to complain when you have been shielded from a great deal of ugliness. The past 12 years, many Americans have been unaware of how much the haves do hold, and how little the have nots, have not. There is no way to equally distribute wealth when I, like many of Republicans and Bobby Brown feel, “I made this money, you didn’t.” However, as an American, you are guaranteed certain inalienable rights and free speech is at the top of the list. It is easy to postulate that your party has been hijacked, that this candidate is against pork bellies and so are you. However, in the end, the job of President of the United States of America is the toughest job in the world. There is no job training to prepare you for that role, and until you can walk a mile in either candidate’s shoes, then hush. I only ask that before you make that next post, ask yourself, what does being an American mean to you?