Were Those Words Worth It?

I’m feeling a bit melancholy today. This election has been tearing at me. I choose not to post about political things. Not on Facebook. Not on Twitter. In fact, I rarely talk about it. People sometimes take my silence to mean I don’t have an opinion. That’s absolutely not true. If you’ve followed my blog, you know I have opinions on many things. This is just one of them that I don’t discuss.

Before you go reading anything more into this I need to explain why this election has been tearing at me. Let me clarify…someone once said…hang in there. Whether the person(s) in office is someone you like and respect or not, sooner or later someone else will come along. It’s just a matter of waiting. It’s all cyclical.

But it’s not the politicians that are bothering me. It’s the behavior I’m seeing from people…on both sides…that has been disturbing me. It seems like in the last twelve years people have gotten steadily nastier with their comments, their slogans…and even the memes they choose to use. They have done everything from question people’s intelligence if they chose to vote their way to mocking people as unaware and uneducated and the list goes on and on. (I even know of someone who told a friend of mine who is gay and voted republican that they hoped he got aids and died….really? Another friend voiced her opinion on where she was going to cast her vote and received threats of bodily harm…from a friend of a friend…and they had descriptions of her children, prompting her to call the police and report it. She is a single mom. Her kids safety comes first.)

I have friends who are blocking other friends posts in an effort to be able to simply retain friendships after the election is over. Families have stopped speaking to each other because they’re on opposite sides of a political fence and the comments made were hurtful enough to cause some of the more mature members to back away and stop talkin in the hopes that maybe these fences can be mended once the election is over. It seems in the last twelve years this kind of nastiness during election years has gotten steadily worse…driving stakes into friendships, families…and ultimately into this country I love so much. The taunting and gloating and mud slinging that’s still going on post election…isn’t helping. The end of the election isn’t the end of the world…but it very well may be the end of some relationships, because even now, it hasn’t stopped.

Does any of this behavior change anyone’s minds? Rarely. Unless you’re someone who was undecided and became repeatedly victimized by the bashing that’s happened because of some questions you may have had. The negative behavior might have sealed your vote for the opposition of the basher. One of my friends had a meme that said, “I don’t post my comments to change your mind. I post them to speak mine.” Ok. So regardless of whether you voted for either candidate…when you say that if you vote a certain way, you must be stupid…that’s your opinion of your friends? Got it. Good to know.

The thing is…these words…these sayings…these things….they can’t be taken back! Once they’re out of your mouth (or in many cases blasted all over facebook and twitter to assault every person on your friends list), the damage is done. We talk about bullying and how terrible it is. We all agree that it’s a huge epidemic in this country. Where do you think our children learn that behavior from? All this nastiness and insults? Guess what, people! That’s bullying, too.

I had no issue with any post on either side that chose to discuss or debate the election based on salient points pertaining to the actual election. The rest was garbage…and sad. We spout off about family values… From what I’ve seen, it’s important as long as everyone agrees. Whatever happened to agreeing to disagree? Or rational discussion? Yeah…our country is being torn apart from the inside…and we have no one but ourselves and our superiority complexes to blame.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. It’s a people issue. People should always come first. Respect. Love. Value. When a cause becomes more important than people…it’s time to think long and hard. I hope we can get past these rifts we’ve managed to create for ourselves.

And for you folks that aren’t in the US…I hope, if you live in a country where you have not only the honor, but the obligation to vote that you remember to love and respect those around you…regardless of who you are voting for. I value my freedoms. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I just wish people valued their friends and family with the same fervor they give their politicians.

So here’s my melancholy music for today….