So here we are… marching toward a Presidential election with both sides ramping up to a crazed din so loud my ears are bleeding.
Now it’s all just noise.
And I find myself disappointed. Pissed off even.
All the discussion, the ads, the YouTube viral videos invading my inbox, the discussions around me…. they all have one thing in common. No matter what side. No matter what issue…
We’re supposed to be afraid. We’re supposed to be cowering under the stairs in terror.
If you don’t vote _____ then _____ will happen! If ______ wins then America will be ________. If you think it’s bad right now, vote _______ or it will get worse.
Disaster. Calamity. Certain Doom.
Look… I voted for “W”. Not because I thought he was great, but because I thought he was better than the other guy. But I can’t shake the feeling that’s a really shitty reason to vote FOR something. Voting A because B is even less appealing…. it’s not voting, its playing bouncer.
But the biggest thing I’ve noticed during his 8 years is we’ve all gotten afraid of our shadows.
I know what you’re thinking… It’s cause of 9/11.
That was now 7 years ago – We need to get over it.
The whole rest of the world has things blow up on any day ending in “y”… and they still go get groceries and spend the night out, have sex, and spend time with family, enjoy the sunshine, the world, the beauty…
BOOM.
And they do it again. Life goes on…
But as a nation we’re terrified. Didn’t you know that every vote we cast stands us on the edge of complete disaster! Beware!
We’re not supposed to vote for things because they are right. Or because we believe in them. We’re supposed to vote to keep the big scary monster from coming out from under our beds and killing us all.
So recently I’ve been thinking about the War.
Not the Iraq war. The Revolutionary War.
A bunch of upstarts decide to stand up to the superpower of their time. Why weren’t they terrified?
Okay, I imagine they were scared… that good healthy fear of what they were up against… but they weren’t cower-under-the-stairs scared.
We’re supposed to be cowering under the stairs. We’re supposed to be terrified of everything.
When did this become the American way?
I’m embarrassed… that’s not supposed to be American either.