Sunday, July 31, 2011

Label Makers and Sledgehammers

We have a problem in this country that revolves around the label maker. Ever since the label maker was devised by a no doubt well intentioned soul, we have had the ability to label everything until our hearts content. I still remember my cousin labeling virtually everything in her bedroom. But today ladies and gentleman in an increasingly politicized America, the label maker has gotten entirely out of hand. Liberals are tagged with the incendiary labels of communist and socialist awakening the poisonous echoes of Lenin and Stalin. Conservatives meanwhile are tarred with the labels of big business, anti-progress, war hawks, etc. I am here today to say that this needs to stop or we are all doomed.

Most of friends are Christian, conservative, and Republican and I would find it unconscionable to brand them like many of our politicians are doing in Washington. My friends have strong opinions and hold tight to both them and their faith and I respect them for this rather than tear them down or try to convert them. I decided very early on that I would rather have friends than politics because friends mean a hell of a lot more than politics. Meanwhile in Washington, I hear the very impassioned sound bites rallying for and against various debt ceiling bills and I can’t help but feeling sad because I see men and women who have the best of intentions, but are instead resorting to tagging people on the other side with as many labels as they can think of.

The label maker needs to become an artifact of the past because our great country is not a liberal or conservative country, a black, white, or Hispanic country, but rather a country of many different groups and opinions that needed to be respected, rather then branded as nut jobs or radicals.

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