Marrying George Clooney

i was watching the news last night and felt sick to my stomach. the hatred. the virulent horrifying hatred. the tea parties, and the death threats and the racial slurs and the homophobic slurs, the overwhelming nastiness and the cruelty and the violence and the promise of punishing and the violent threats. i watch the news and i feel sick and scared and want to scream.
i watch the news and sarah palin is posting practice targets telling her followers to re-load, and glenn beck is pushing the envelope, demanding his tv audience to cause a ruckus. and no, NO  – it’s not just one sided – we attack each other. we sling shit back and forth. you call me a name, i call you a name. it’s vile. it’s a big gigantic bully fest. i watch the news and i wonder how anyone in their right (no pun intended) mind can feel good about pushing their communities, and their neighbors, and their voters into a frenzy of pure unadulterated hate.

we don’t respect each other. we don’t respect the difference of opinion. there is no tolerance.

and, it’s not just politics.
it’s very, very personal.

i live in a small town – a wonderful small town. filled with a mixture of much right & some left & a few green & independents, a town filled with a lot of good & a lot of bad, a few black & a lot white & a couple of latinos, and asian, and as we all know a small town can breed a lot of small mindedness. yes, it’s true, you can sit in a local bar and within a half an hour witness the anger and the hatred and the misinformed bubbling up, brewing. and you can argue and fight, but that would lead to headlines or morning news. and what would be the point? really?

it all began somewhere. two three four five generations ago. and it was passed down to the next generation.

and the next, and the next… and yes, the next.

we call each other horrible, nasty, awful names and we probably truthfully don’t even know why.

it’s a history of hate.
it has a beginning.
it has a middle.

can we please change the ending?