Pollyanna Died today or Hanoi Jane speaks again....

Things have been hectic here...and I have been busy packing and sorting thru' things, and Bob and I have been spending more time together.  I know I mostly talk about art, and my life, and usually avoid politics & religion for obvious reasons...but today I felt compelled to speak.

I may get a lot of flack for this...but I after reading a number of political arguments today, on FB and blogs, and listening to the talking heads on the news...I was sooooooooo reminded of my college days, when we all sat around and spouted our pseudo-intellectual crap about politics, history, and Viet Nam...and advocated all sorts of mayhem on politicians, parents and authority figures...because we were so much smarter than they were.  I recall the advice that everyone over 30 should be shot (that birthday was the most traumatic of any I ever had!)

I don't claim to be politically aware anymore, and I avoid listening to the news when I can, because my own life seems so overwhelming lately.  I hold myself in as much blame as others, and my apathy is no more justifiable because I lead a tough life at times...we all do.  Yet when I do listen to politicians criticize each other,  most of the mudslinging and such reminds me more of 5 yr. olds calling each other doo-doo heads, etc...or threatening to take their toys and go home than it does the product of constructive thinking.  It seems to me that it does not take being an intellectual or a pundit to make good decisions whether in our own lives or in government; it does take common sense and logic, and as my mom used to tell me...any good relationship has to be based on compromise. Don't see much of that today.

I belatedly realized that the reason for this sense of 'deja vu' was simple...many of the talking heads, the debaters of right versus left, the spouter's of rhetoric that sounds so familiar are baby boomers, and so they ARE the 'kids' from my college days.  It was me and many of them at Kent State and other places...disrespecting the whole world.  Many may have changed some of their targets, but there are so many similarities.

One of the eye-openers was when Hanoi Jane had the audacity to open her mouth again.  Like she has, or ever had the right to criticize....sheesh! Maybe she should go and live in Viet Nam since she liked it so well there, and is always so dissatisfied with America.  I remember marching for this and that, here and there, flirting on the edges of danger...flying in the face of all I had been taught....then I did something odd...it took awhile, but I grew up.  There is a passage in a 'book' we are politically not to mention in connection with politics, where it talks about growing up, and putting away childish things...seems to me that would be childish actions as well.

It took the deaths of over 3500  people(actually about 3 short of that total, depending on the sources) on 9/11 to bring the country together, we cried together, spoke on the streets to total strangers....stood together to honor the heroes.  And HOW LONG did that last??  Until "they" decided we were too weak and not able to handle the truth...our "big brother" shrinks and governing bodies decided we should not see any more images from 9/11, in case they made us sad or angry (they SHOULD make us sad and angry) and to avoid mass panic, they soothed us back into the ruts we had been in before with the same old pacifiers. And now it is even worse...we have hardened, and gotten cold.

People, citizens and soldiers, get killed by madmen, suicide bombers, serial killers and we worry about political positions, and who to throw the blame on....too bad we cannot take the time to mourn their loss! A few may try, but it is so difficult, and much easier to argue with each other...or so it seems.

What a marvel it would be if the politicians actually meant what I heard two of them say today...that the right and left may disagree about the WAY to help America/the world, but that both sides are serious about doing so.  I wish that I could believe that even the ones saying it meant what they said...but I think that, for me, today not only did 15+ people die in Arizona, but Pollyanna died too.  Maybe there is a grown up version of her somewhere, who can believe in the ultimate good in people...but I am less sure today.

The proceeding is just my opinion....if it made you think...even in disagreement....then maybe it was worth saying.