WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

My friend asked, “How come you don’t post something on your blog every day, or at least once a week?”

Too lazy.

Busy doing other things.

Nothing to say.

I tend to write more when I am traveling.  Chuckwagon Journal used to be titled Chuckwagon Travels and I wrote about the adventures or misadventures Joyce and I encountered while traveling in our motorhome.  Those days are behind us.  We sold the Chuckwagon in 2008.  We still travel, but in a car and there are fewer adventures to write about.

But write, I must.  After writing a weekly newspaper column (Report Card on Education for the Schenectady Daily Gazette) for 30 years, I just can’t get out of the habit of thinking that people might be interested in some of my thoughts or ideas.  Hence, I must have a thought or an idea before I am motivated to sit at the computer and put something on paper, or on the computer screen, as is the case these days.

I am no longer busy with yard work, garden work, or other household chores, so I have more time to write.  The lazy part is just me being honest.  Sometimes I prefer to whittle, read or do something else besides write, so I procrastinate on the writing.

Today’s blog will be short.  I really don’t have a major topic, just a major burr under my belt.  I am really getting annoyed at receiving chain email and forwarded messages that express the views of some mysterious writer but never invite me to respond – and never include the thoughts of the sender.

There is no discussion, no dialogue, no exchanging of views, no challenge to stated “facts?,” nothing worth my time.  It is usually a piece designed to (1) encourage the faithful or (2) piss off the wayward.  Please, do not waste my time.

These forwarded pieces are electronic garbage best described as cheerleading and at worst as propaganda.  Our president, any president (regardless of party affiliation) would be roasted from one end of the liberal-conservative spectrum to the other – and rightly so – if he published such pap for public consumption.

Political pundits, particularly those on the far right or far left, can use this crap; they can say anything they want.  People do not have to listen to or read their daily rants if they choose not to.  Remember, political pundits are not accountable for their comments, and they really do not expect a reply.  They can and will say whatever will create disagreement, create a stir, get them quoted on the morning news or on some other pundit’s program.  They thrive on controversy.  Controversy generates ratings and they live for ratings.  Ratings determine what they are paid.  Do or say whatever it takes to get people stirred up so long as they tune in every day.  Newspaper, radio and television pundits do not have to be accurate or even honest.  They must be, however, contentious, controversial, and even divisive if it will help with their ratings.

Presidential candidates operate under a different standard, but they still enjoy a measure of freedom in what they say that any incumbent president does not have.  Candidates can say pretty much whatever they want about current policies, conditions or the president’s actions.  THEY do share the same stage as he, a world stage.  They do not have to speak in measured words, as every president must.  What they say, the charges they make, probably will not affect the nation’s economy or security.  The president, every incumbent president mind you, has to watch what he says, knowing that every phrase will have consequences.

You may not like what the current president is saying or do not like some of his policies.  Write me and explain your position.  I will be glad to discuss the matter with you.  If you just want to jerk my chain by sending (forwarding) some propaganda piece that someone else wrote, please do not bother.  As soon as I recognize it for what it is, I delete it.

Unfortunately, our politicians no longer talk to each other.  They posture in front of whatever camera they can command and they quote party-line rhetoric.  They seldom offer actual solutions and they never acknowledge that any solution offered by the opposing party has merit or is worthy of discussion.  Surely, those of us who are neither captive to ratings or polling results nor worried about reelection can engage in courteous, rational discussion of the issues we care about without resorting to fear mongering, demagoguery, or statements that lack basis in fact.  We can compare facts and discuss actual possible solutions.

We all have our biases, sometimes cleverly concealed, even from us.  Often, they are more obvious, especially to others.  Biases, personal preferences, beliefs, and political party affiliations are part of human nature.  They are what make us who we are and how we behave.  And they will certainly enter into any discussion, political or otherwise, we engage in.  But it is impossible to have a rational discussion with anyone who can only spout the ramblings of something they read on the Internet or heard on radio or television.  Their side of the discussion will inevitably default to what they have read or heard, nothing of their own.  Such discussions are a waste of time.

This nation has some serious problems.  What we need to deal with those problems are for politicians to enter into rational discussions about the scope of the problems and entertain possible solutions, regardless of the party affiliation.  Stop worrying about who will get credit (or blame for the problem) and start discussing solutions.

Those of us on the outside, outside government politics, that is, should exercise the same control.  Let’s have more discussions about what WE believe, what we feel and how a particular solution will affect us personally.  The pundits and the self-styled professional propaganda spokespeople may influence us, for sure, but let us vow they will not take over our minds and speak for us. Then share with me YOUR opinion of what I have written in this or any other blog.  You can be sure it is MY opinion and not a position adopted from something I read in a Forwarded email.