Day 28: Air a grievance

Perhaps you're alarmed about the state of our nation, the lack of educated and intelligent media coverage, or maybe you can't find a grocery store with ripe avocados. Air a grievance, any grievance.

I've been discouraged all day - if it were true that your face freezes when you keep the same unnatural expression for too long, my brows would be forever furrowed into a look of abject despair and exhaustion.

This excellent NYT editorial details what the budget impasse is really about - abortion, healthcare and environmental protection. I think that's pretty true, but it's also about children who never learned to share their sandbox toys, who were inexplicably selected to run our country. It's about a broken two-party system that has removed all sense of logic from politics. It's about a media system so focused on incendiary rhetoric that it has personally elevated a man previously known for his combover to presidential candidate status... while simultaneously turning us into creatures who feel we can understand complex political and sociological issues via 30-second soundbites.

Meanwhile, most of us are truly on the same side here, right? Before you hit comment and say NO, stop and think a minute. Have you ever used birth control? Have you ever seen smog and worried that the planet you're leaving your children is not the same one into which you were born? Have you looked at Trump and thought, "Whack job"?

We're on the same team, people. It's just better for business to convince us that the issues are black and white, that being Christian and socially liberal are mutually exclusive, that you can't support global warming and wish for lower taxes. Rational thinking is no longer rewarded, and so the small differences we have, philosophically, with one another, are positioned as impassable schisms that will forever divide us.

It doesn't have to be like this. I can't believe that a country built on the intelligence and innovation of a group of rational thinkers in an irrational time can't now find a way to put a swift end to the outrageous smoke and mirrors show that our governmental system has become.

How do we fix it? I think it starts with intelligent discourse - find someone you disagree with, and don't leave until you've found some kind of common ground. Don't rely on the talking points you're hearing, but rather rethink what you know and why it is important to you. Try to leave with a better understanding of where they come from, what has affected their opinions and why that is important.

How we fix it, I think, is to treat one other like human beings instead of enemies. And then, to demand that our elected officials do the same.

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Still fired up, ready to go

“Well. That’s the game.” This was at least the fourth time the man behind us at yesterday’s Vikings game had stated this particular lament. It now seemed like he had a point – we’d just failed to score on 4th down, one yd. from the endzone. It looked like our team was on its way to yet another loss to a mediocre team. A small exodus was happening on the stairs to our left.

I was busy asking BF why people were still holding up “Fire Chilly” signs. From my vantage point, it was our inability to score that was the real issue here – first Favre threw an interception when were in range, then the most recent Cardinals defensive hold when we were on the 1 had us losing 21-10. As is standard for all half-assed football fans, I told BF that it was Favre’s fault. He made rash decisions at the end of long drives, and was too scared of a sack to run the ball even when he seemingly had no one in front of him.

Of course we went on to win in overtime, with Favre throwing an outrageous personal record of 446 yards. By the time Longwell lined up for the game-winning field goal, I was eating my words. Yet in the heat of the moment, with the dude behind me calling the game off, it had seemed pretty hopeless.

Last week I watched as respected progressives were voted out due to the ‘anti-incumbent, anti-Democratic’ tidal wave we’d all been warned of. And as I saw people like Russ Feingold and Jim Oberstar give some of the finest and classiest step-down speeches in recent memory, I felt pretty damn deflated. If you watched any post-election coverage, you’ll probably agree that the general consensus for the Democrats and the Obama administration was “Well, that’s the game.”

It's true, we have a weakened offense now. But it seems to me that we’re only about to start the second half of Obama’s term. Like the idiot in the stands behind me, the talking heads can yell until they’re hoarse but they can’t predict what’s coming next. They also can’t take away the points this administration has already scored.

As Dan mentioned last week in a brilliant post-election entry, it’s time for our elected officials to stand down and continue to enact their campaign promises without apology. Similarly, we have to as constituents promise not to leave the stadium prematurely.

2012 is going to be a tough fight, and it may come down to the wire. The good news is that our president is even better off than my victorious, yet ailing quarterback. He’s young for his profession and his joints are all in working order. He’s never threatened to quit to garner additional publicity. And when he’s interviewed by sideline reporters, he refrains from texting them the next day.

Let's do this, Democrats. Ready? Break.

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