I admit when I was younger that I had much more liberal ideas. There really is something romantic about the liberal way of thinking. No child shall ever go hungry, no person shall ever go without a bed, no person shall ever go without. Abortion is okay, our forefathers were animals and barbarians. It's all very sexy. Well, not really. See what happens is, we grow up. I am reminded about 1 Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me."
As I grew older I understood that there were injustices in the world. I also understood that I wasn't responsible for them. I wasn't responsible for genocide in Africa. I wasn't responsible for feeding starving Chinese children. I was responsible for me. For all of my actions. I could do all I could to HELP with those charity events but I would rather my money go to help Americans first before helping someone who doesn't care about me. I thought I was the only one waking up to stupid government spending. Wildly outlandish earmarks and pork barrel projects being paid for by government monies and no one was speaking out. You see, I had the newspaper to feed me. I thought I was alone. I looked around at my fellow Americans and they didn't appear to be outraged by some of these things. So maybe I shouldn't have these thoughts. Then one day, while delivering pizzas, I was listening to a Suns game. After the game they had their sports talk and I never changed the station. All of the sudden a program came on. It was talk radio. I'd heard about it but didn't pay any attention. I'd already heard what a P.O.S Rush Limbaugh was. How he hated America. I didn't want to listen to that. So here was talk radio.
Oh my. I wasn't the only one. I can't remember who it was but I remember thinking, "HOLY CRAP, ALIENS DIDN'T DROP ME OFF ON THIS PLANET. THERE ARE OTHERS LIKE ME." Don't get me wrong, I didn't agree with everything this guy said but I remember thinking that finally, I wasn't singular. This thought blew my mind. I found another talk radio station on the AM dial. I started listening to them more. My friends made fun of me because I built huge stereos for vehicles and I listened to talk radio. Irony has a name. It's me. So then one day I hear this Rush Limbaugh fellow. I have a bad taste in my mouth to start with. I've heard from teachers, I've heard from other people around me, I've read in the newspaper, this guy hates America. He's worthless. WOW. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This guy was even MORE like me. I wasn't rich like him but he still had the same ideas that I did. He believed the .gov was NOT the answer. But wait, this guy had to be a fake. So I went home, and I web searched him (back then, the internet that Al Gore invented, wasn't so easy to use). There were a lot of websites that said what a piece of junk Rush was but I found out that he really DID believe these things. I don't agree with everything that Rush says. I agree more than I disagree though.
I was growing and maturing in my political thought. Here were two of the biggest shams that I had found out to lies. I had heard talk radio was hateful, it wasn't. I had heard Rush was (Insert any derogatory word here. Really, any of them. I've seen them all.), and he wasn't. So what else was a lie? Well, the whole thing was a lie. Rush didn't eat children, talk radio wasn't the devil talk, affirmative action is/was racism, EVERYTHING I had learned or heard wasn't true. This really pissed me off. Now when I hear something, I know that it's someone's point of view. Not the truth, but a point of view. Now I search for the truth. Because that's the problem with today's "journalists". They are more "pundit" than "journalist". See, a journalist tells a story about the Cardinals missing on the last play of the Superbowl. A pundit talks about the struggle of the groundskeeper and how he has been denied medical benefits because he's a pedophile. They both will tell you that they are reporting the news but they both have a different story. So now when I hear something, I research it. I find out for myself. I find the "for" argument, then I find the "against" argument. Then I let the little demons in my mind debate the issue before making a decision. Unfortunately this doesn't happen for everyone.
This is how I have matured and how I decide to interpret news. I'm not "right" or "conservative" or "libertarian" or "republican" or whatever. I have a new party name if you are looking for one. How about "right". Not right of the yardstick. RIGHT as in RIGHT vs WRONG. I know what's right. It doesn't matter what those letters after some idiots names are. Right vs wrong.
See, I know it's wrong to have a tax cheat heading the IRS. It sends the wrong signal. I know it's wrong to have a tax cheat in Congress heading the House ways and means committee. I know it's wrong to have someone in the White House who believes animals need attorneys. I know it's wrong.
Do you think it's wrong?
Will you stand?
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