Grandpa just sat there staring at his monitor. You could see the frustration he felt written all over him. Not a single idea was coming to him in regards to something to write on our blog. The war in Iraq, most say it is over and the troops will be coming home soon. This is good news for everyone but there is nothing to argue over any more. though there will probably be arguments over who will take credit.
Politics, well, we’ll have a new president in January and from the way it is being portrayed you’d think that the republicans have been run out of town. Both houses have near veto proof power but since the president is one of the majority I see no reason to think that is such a big deal.
Prop 8 in California was a set back for the gay rights movement. The amazing thing about this was that it had the support of so many liberals who voted for Obama. Liberals are portrayed as big supporters of gay rights. It needs to go through a Supreme Court hearing first to determine if it is constitutional. Now this might appear to be contradictory but I guess grandpa doesn’t feel like making an argument on this either way yet.
There is always the subject of religion and its proper role in a society such as ours but gramps was never one to make it an issue. Don’t get me wrong, gramps is a very religious man. He would just prefer to allow others to make it an issue on their blog. Moreover, he’ll make any comments he has for the issue on their blog.
Life in the city is as it always was, people getting up at the crack of dawn trying to avoid the traffic jams on the freeways as they head off to work. Life on the farm is the same, getting up at the crack of dawn to get the cows milked.
The two major political parties are still at each other’s throats trying to strangle each other. Neither party seems to care anymore about anything except being in power. Both blame the other for anything negative that goes on in this country and neither is attempting to really come up with solutions. It’s as if ideology trumps the constitution for the solutions. Grandpa says that this is the real meaning of the phrase power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It’s as if everyone has a different view about what this country means and each one wants the power to create it in light of his viewpoint. This is in contrast to having a united viewpoint but different solutions in order to fulfill that dream of a more perfect country for its people. Then people wonder why no one can understand why we have the problems we do.
Maybe what grandpa said one day is true. We have become a nation of followers instead of being a nation of leaders as we once were. Followers need leadership, leaders do not. Followers need someone to dictate over them, leaders do not. However, as grandpa said also, if we become a nation of followers then where can you find the leadership to lead us?
have we become a nation where the blind leads the blind?
WELCOMES YOU to his little home in cyberspace.
Friday, November 21, 2008
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22 comments:
Dear Grandpa,
Don't worry. I think we may have a leader.
Love,
Your granddaughter
he laughs, very good shaw. i liked that. then gives her a grandfatherly pat on the head.
Griper: Nice posting. I don't think it's blind leading the blind, with all of this partisanship, but we've got a big couple of years ahead of us.
The people who needed to vote for McCain stayed home! To say that the Conservatives did not have a candidate in this election is a cop-out.
The did have a very clear choice and they blew it.
That may not be the reason why McCain lost. But it sure was a great deal part of it.
How are you to win if your own base sit-it-out? It just ain't gonna happen So I say to you so called "Conservative's with principles" Shame on you!
The people who needed to vote for McCain for him to win did not vote. So they wound up voting for Obama. The people who needed to vote for McCain stayed home!
The concept of using your vote to protest the choice of candidates makes sense only if there is truly no significant difference between them, and no rational case can be made that this is the situation in this election. I, too, would like a different choice But we got what we got and there was nothing to do about that...But I feel it is more important to VOTE even if it's the lesser of 2 eveils...However this was NOT the case in this election. In my opinion McCain was Clearly the better choice.
I also don't understand why anyone who intends to make a protest vote
The Myth That McCain Wasn’t Conservative Enough Was Exactly That, A Myth!"If you don't vote, then you can't complain!
Not voting is not the answer.
It sounds as if Grandpa is almost too tired to blog and Lista is almost too tired to comment, except to say that I agree with David.
whether or not Conservatives stayed home instead of voting is irrelevant now. the election is over. the only thing that blame serves is that it would depict those of us that did vote as whiners just like the Conservatives have accused Liberals of for the last years.
we need to focus on 2010 now, not on the election of 2008. and in the mean time, fight the good fight.
Well..."..those of us that did vote as whiners.." ..have to admit,
whining seems less noble than griping, Griper. :)
he laughs, good mornin BB. right now i got real life to gripe about here, today.
YES WE CAN IN 2012!
Griper,
Whether or not Conservatives should stay home instead of voting will be relevant again the next time we have an election.
BB's comment is right on. Griping, Whining; What's the difference?
lista,
to gripe is to have a complaint of annoyance or irritation.
to whine is to protest in a childish manner, usually when you don't get your own way.
Well, often Gripers are accused wrongly of whining. The basic tendency of those who accuse is to call something a Gripe (less offense), when we agree with it, and to call it a Whine (more offensive), when we do not agree with it. This is just the sort of thing that causes offense and arguing whether than dialogue. It is better to avoid "Emotionally Charged" and Accusatory Language when ever possible.
Grandpa sounds tired. . . Yes, in many ways, I think our nation is full of the blind leading the blind. Always has been. But I also feel a sense of hope at the moment. Give it time though, and I'm sure it will go away. ;-)
Leay
lista,
if someone accuses another of whining, as the accuser it is up to them to prove it. if he can't then it is up to the accuser to apologize. if he can then it is up to the other to change his tone.
it is up to each of us to control our own feelings. it is up to others not to insult the intelligence of the person they are speaking to.
an insult to the intelligence of a person is a far greater offense than hurting their feelings in my book.
we all share in the hope, leah. its the changes that might come that divides the country. tho i'm not too happy with the changes occurring now nor would i have been very happy with some of the changes proposed by McCain.
In my experience, it is very rare that those who accuse ever apologize. Nor can they ever prove what they say. They're just positive that it's so and there's no changing their mind.
Another thing that happens is that a legitimate gripe can be done in an inappropriate whining way and yet the grip is still legitimate. In cases like this, both people may need to apologize.
We need to control our own feelings, yet we also need to be sensitive to each other's feelings and avoid pushing unnecessary buttons when we know better.
Every person is different. Some may be very offended by an insult to their intelligence and another may be just as offended when being told they are ugly, lazy or whatever the area of sensitivity may be.
nothing you've said takes anything away from what i said. all you've done is point out that when speaking we take a chance of hurting the feelings of another or insulting their intelligence.
given that i can never know when my words may hurt someone's feelings but can know when i am insulting their intelligence then I'll risk hurting someone's feelings rather than insulting their intelligence. i can always apologize afterward if i feel they deserve one.
I'm not really trying to take anything away from what you said, Griper. I'm just trying to add to it.
I guess I do disagree, though, that "An insult to the intelligence of a person is a far greater offense than hurting their feelings." I think that that one depends on the person and we need to be sensitive to all offenses, not just the one that most bothers us personally.
Hurting a person's feelings can be avoided better when you get to know them better, but it can't always be avoided when talking to people that you don't know that well.
as i said in previous comment, i can know when i insult a person's intelligence but cannot know when i hurt their feelings.
and doing something known is always a greater offense than doing something by accident.
And as I said, "Hurting a person's feelings can be avoided better when you get to know them better." For example, when you are married to someone, you should know better how not to offend them on all fronts.
Next, you're going to say that you can't be expected to read people's minds. And then I'm going to say that you do need to remember what you've been told many times and back and forth it goes and I'm going to start wondering whether you are a person who lacks perception or were married to someone who doesn't communicate well and is hard to read. Maybe it was a little of both. I really don't know.
marriage is a two-way street, lista. if i should know my woman well enough as to know how not to hurt her feelings then the opposite is also true. she should know me well enough so as to know i have no intent upon hurting her feelings and that she should not feel hurt because she will know why i said what i said.
and in a marriage, if two people are open with each other will know each other well enough to know their vulnerabilities also. so, that if one person hurts the other it will be done deliberately. so, in that case it isn't a matter of choice. and it wouldn't be a matter of not insulting the other's intelligence anymore.
The interesting thing about conversations like this, Griper, is that we are not really arguing with each other, but with our individual spouses. Once I realize that, it just sort of makes me smile. :)
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