Moving Forward

Among my blog posts, I am pretty proud of July 2^nd, “Donald Trump is a big fat idiot.”

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/07/normal-0-donald-trump-is-big-fat-idiot.html

I am proud of it because it filled a need. I could not find the information I wanted summarized, but I was able to track down the different bits and pieces and summarize it, and I would frequent see that people had come to the page by using the same search terms that I had tried before writing.

(Frequent is a relative term. Right now the post has had 128 views, and the only one I have that has more hits probably involved a lot of mistaken searches looking for the Blackberry PDA, when I was writing about actual berries.)

So, I felt like there was a hole in the coverage, and I was able to fill it, and I felt good about that. As I looked at the issue more though, it seemed that the reason no one was bothering with it was that people who were writing about healthcare were focusing more on the moral implications. Inaccurate bits of bile being shared around social networking are a dime a dozen, but looking at people reacting appalled by healthcare being made more affordable and attainable for the population was really bothering the commentators.

I get this. I have spent so much of my time being appalled lately, if you couldn’t tell from the previous posts. I have been concerned with the issue of misinformation out there, but there is really good information out there too. We just need people who are willing to work with it. 

The most perfect symbol of this may be McCain missing a classified briefing on Benghazi, complaining about the lack of information during that time period, and being angry when asked for a comment about the scheduling error that led to it. Yes, it is embarrassing being caught like that, but in addition to the right not to comment that he cited to the reporter, I think a senator might also have some responsibility to be informed before shooting off one’s mouth.

McCain was not the only senator to miss the briefing. Seven others did (5 Republicans out of 8 and 2 Democrats out of 9 for that committed), and he may not even have known about the meeting based on a scheduling error that was referred to as the reason for not attending. However, he is the one at the press conference asking for a Watergate-style investigation. It seems imprudent, but maybe some of that is the result of the news media and the citizens not being demanding enough of their leadership.

There was an opinion piece that I really wish I had saved but I can’t find it now. The author was writing about how the coffee shops were full during Ramadan. (I believe he was writing from Egypt, but it was definitely a largely Muslim country.) Anyway, he was saying how there were many people who did not fast during Ramadan, but usually they would still avoid being conspicuously out consuming, and yet this year they were. He felt that it was a passive aggressive response to the stricter forces in government. His point was that they needed to lose the passive part. They needed to speak up. They needed to say “We are modern. We are moderate. You do not represent us.”

We can do that on both sides. I was upset that Obama renewed the Patriot Act. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t write to the White House and express my displeasure. I thought he needed to give up on trying to compromise with Congressional Republicans, but I didn’t say anything. I don’t write to our senators and the representative for our district, really, because they pretty much believe the same way I do, but I could be better on that. I can make my voice heard.

It seems reasonable to me, based on the various Tea Party losses, that the ugliness there has kind of run out of steam too, but has that been expressed? Is someone telling the rape guys that, “I agree that abortion is wrong, but by being so Draconian about it, and trying to justify that, you are minimizing rape and violence and women?” That could be worth saying.

It’s not about expecting perfect leaders, but it is expecting more of them and more of us. Dig deeper, work harder, learn more, and especially make that true about your relationships with other people.

The one thing that I will add here for the religious, and I truly believe it, is don’t be afraid to question those beliefs and look for more information there. Sometimes because we know one thing is true we make a lot of assumptions that don’t necessarily follow, and in that case your commitment to your faith actually damages it. Faith needs to be in something true to work. God is real, and He is good, so trust that.

I really don’t feel like I have said any of the things I’ve wanted to say. Maybe that’s because so many of the things that have felt important have been about the facts on specific situations, and clarifying those, but again, generally speaking, that has been done. It’s out there. You can find it. My role seems to be appealing to people’s hearts and encouraging them to use their voice. And for that, I still don’t feel like I’ve said it right.

However, I have been discovering lately that with the writing I never really know what I am doing or what the impact will be, and things still kind of work out. So enough with politics; Monday I’ll write about the new screenplay.