Left, right, left, right. This is our world today. One side demonizes the other in a constant, tremoring war of words. Like many others, I know my fair share of people on both sides. But it is my observation that those who are ultra-conservative speak out more derogatively as well as with assumptions that everyone around them shares their views.
Case in point: my beauty salon. I love the way my stylist does my hair, but the salon politics make me cringe inside. When it’s five against one and there’s a pair of scissors mere centimeters from my head, I am shamefully quiet. When the healthcare debate was in full storm back in the summer of 2009, I had to chomp down on my tongue in order to keep my utter shock and wholehearted disagreement from gushing out. Death panels, socialism, naziism, and “yay for the angry mobs shouting down the advocates of this Obamacare scam!” When a customer getting his hair cut one chair over compared Obama to Hitler, I laughed. It was not in agreement with him, but I was laughing at the absurdity of his paranoic indictment. And he laughed back as if he were comedian of the year thinking he was so clever.
For the record, we have a Democratic club in our town. They protest war on a major corner of our highway. I do not think it fair that the stylists talk right wing politics as if everyone who walks in shares their view. And if the salon chairs were swiveled, left wing politics shouldn’t prevail either. Public places where people from any walk of life can intermingle, are not the venues for political talk. If it makes one person uncomfortable, then it has gone too far.
With some family members, I am forced to walk under their “Don’t Tread on Me” flag everytime I go in the main door. Knowing how my husband and I feel, they talk politics often and as if we concur with their bitter anti-government rants. When I can no longer sit with my mouth shut, and I speak out against their negative ranting, I sometimes end up being apologetic. Why do I do that? Maybe it’s the crazy leftist inside me. I got accused of taking things “way too seriously” recently when I took exception to a “joke” they relayed about a stranger’s blurb on the phone in which one could hear the voice of President Obama saying “I’m President Barrack Obama and I approved this . . .” then you hear gunfire. No I do not think that is funny about anyone! And I am so tired of having to listen to political rhetoric during every family gathering and vacation.
I no longer keep quiet on Twitter about issues that are important to me. Consequently, I have so many tweet friends who share my views. They are passionate people. It feels good to have a group that I understand and that can relate to me. It helps offset having to walk under that damned Tea Party flag! (just a little bit)
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