No Voice
It’s been years since I felt like I had a voice. It’s been years since I have been “politically active”. I used to pray at abortion clinics. I think I even called my representatives from time to time. I graduated a political science major, before God called me to be a nurse. After I became a nurse, I was able to remember to vote… most of the time. I was hard pressed to find the will to get involved. I have felt utterly and completely insignificant to the political world.
Our country is not going to change based on who is President. A president is a leader. We wish our leaders were people we could look up to with respect, and even admiration. But a president is also human like any other leader, and even the best of men, the best leaders, will in some way disappoint. This is not to say lower your standards and you will be happier. No, but let us be realistic.
We have found ourselves in the position of having not a great man as our most powerful leader. There were tears shed when he was elected and there were sighs of relief. But mostly there has only been whining ever since. There have been a few who have been able to shout back showing the good things he has done, but not many people have been able to argue that our president is a good man. Disappointment reigns. So what are you going to do about it?
I often feel like the newscast are a bunch of sports commentators. They tell you about what is happening in the world and after the game analyze play by play, speculate, and comment.
Except it’s a little more horrific because the subject matter is who shot who. Or who was caught cheating, or embezzling, etc. We the American people sit on couches with our tv’s or our phones and watch the game. The 24hr news cycle is a spectator sport. One of the most entertaining players is our very own president. We aren’t following the leader, we are watching him, crying foul at every misstep and cheering every score.
On the whole we’ve become passive spectators of our own life in social media, and our country on the newsreel. Whatever happened to getting the one paper that you read before starting your day and going on about your life. If the news affected you, you were aware before going to work. If it didn’t affect you, you went to work. You commented on it to your family in the room, or friends who came over later. Some people would like to say social media is a forum for those discussions but really, when was the last time someone won an argument that way? Most people are just talking out loud while hundreds are scrolling past with barely a nod or like, except for maybe your core friends/followers who leave a comment.
That is exactly what this blog is too. Shouting out online, because the fact is everyone has headphones on now. I can’t reach you any other way. The internet is fickle, but shouting from the rooftops won’t work. So stop being gossips and do something to change the country yourself. Whatever change that might be, building a family, building a community, building a better workplace, building an actual building as a place to help others. Build, and change yourself. Quit sitting around watching.