The Barrel

   So This Blog has become the barrel that I scream into to clear my mind I guess. Though 'Hot' for a couple of years it's no longer used by the family or if it is it's few and far between.
   Have to admit my blogging has dropped of with only 4 post this year. This one making 5 but of little or no real content.
   I'm going to work up a real good one before years end to make it six for the year.
   Headed to Clanton on Friday morning. Will probably be there for Thanksgiving.

A win! A Loss! Gridlock!

A dear friend and his wife are born again Christian TP’ers. 30+ years of association, shared work and proximity keeps us close while the TP shit stays in the background usually. His wife, who I love like a sister, was my youngest sons first grade teacher. 8 years or so ago she had a bout with cancer. She has a great insurance plan provided to our teachers by our taxes. This plan was won for her by her teachers union.

Yesterday she posted on FB a plea to all to vote Obama out of office due to Obamacare, saying she would have been denied the right to choose where she had her treatments and would have died.

Well as far as I’ve been able to make out that’s false but the argument isn’t worth the friendship so I’ve let it go. The part she refuses to see is she got to choose the place of treatment due to union efforts. She had a plan that paid the bills. I on the other hand pay school taxes that provide her plan but can’t afford my own. That the President fought to start reigning in healthcare cost is just Communism to her.

Well I tell this why? I’m trying to find a way to look at these issues from the perspective of the far right I guess. How can so many be misled with falsehoods and slanders? This is a person that loves her husband, the kids she teaches, her dog & cats, obeys the law. Like so many of the TP'ers that I know she regurgitates the Glenn Beck falsehoods while living a life that doesn't mesh with the statements. Hates unions, is a member. Hates welfare, her recovering drug addict son is living in her home while on 'County Assitance', welfare. The retired TP'ers on SS that want an end to the social net, after they use their share.

They want government out of their lives but they want government in yours, telling you what to do with your body, abortion, They want a return to a perfect past that never existed instead of fighting for a better future that just might be.

We, these friends and I, have so much in common but perceive our country and society so differently. Are all of those TP’ers like that too? How can we find the common ground that our country requires if it’s to continue?

It’s like hanging with my friend Ronnie. Loves his wife, his family and I’m sure his country but we are polar opposites politically. What forms our political & social outlook? It can’t be education, Ronnie and I both graduated from high school I then went on campus to party while Ronnie partied off campus, the neighbor graduated from college.

So with this election the gameboard stays the same. The results will more than likely be the same ...Gridlock.