Very well written. I don't hide my politics, but I also don't explicitly highlight them very often around here just to avoid disagreement and arguments with most of Hive, as the prevailing political direction of most people around here always seems quite opposite mine. But as @azircon puts in one of the comments below "speaking up is required". That is always true, but it is becoming more and more true as we reach a critical point. I should also be more vocal. This is a great post.
I think this is a great community (Rant, Complain, Talk) for expressing political opinions. As I looked around for an appropriate forum I was comfortable posting it here. I had to go back and edit to make sure I wasn't painting people on the other side with an overly broad brush. I tried to keep my piece deliberate and fact-based.
Thanks so much for commenting and supporting. These last days before the election are nail-biters.
I can be very frank with you here. I work for Big Oil in Texas, and this is common knowledge here on chain. As you can imagine I have many friends and co-workers who will vote the Republican ticket. I typically have great open discussions with them. Most of them are very nice and can take a bullet for me. I even have a few with 'bunkers' and I kid you not. If the end of the world comes, I know where I am going with my family. The reason I said all this is having an opposing political view is NOT a problem, it was never been a problem until recently. Now a lot of people are so dug in that they are beginning to tune out the other side, which is a shame. We are all Americans regardless of our political views, background and ancestry; in this great country, and we can have a conversation regardless of our political view. We need to promote this, which almost have become a 'novel concept'! That is the sad thing about it.
I moved into my current house about a year ago. My next door neighbor--we share a fence--introduced himself. Then, a few days later he brought over some goodies with a note. He told us his name and his wife's name. He gave us his phone number. If we need anything, call. He is a notary, he informed us. He would be happy to offer his services if we needed them. He is the nicest person, a great neighbor.
A while back, my neighbor put out a flag, a huge flag, announcing his preferred candidate for presidency. I was shocked. How could such a nice person think that way? Then I realized how foolish and narrow I was. People have different opinions. I don't understand it, but I accept it.
He's still a lovely man, but I'm not telling him who I'm voting for :))
Or maybe some nice spring day next year you may want to invite him for a dinner or maybe make a dish for him. Maybe you will find a lifelong friend. People are usually good and we are supposed to build bridges not burn them.
On a related note
This is because in today’s world silence is taken as weakness. If you are empathetic it is taken as weakness. If you are immigrant earnings 10X national average and paying 20X in taxes you are asked to “go back”! America is called an occupied country! I wonder how many Americans actually seen and lived in an occupied country or even read about one. It is so easy to feed lies to people these days! They enjoy it and cheer! What happened to my country?