A Word to Our Government Officials

Watching and listening to commentary about the state of American affairs can be painful.  Not because of the subject matter, but rather the people presenting and responding to it.  Whether its Shawn Hannity or Bill Maher, the extremes on both sides of the political scale seem to be taking over.

In an effort to give full disclosure, let me first explain a little bit about myself.  I’m a white, heterosexual male, in my early 30’s.  I have a wife and a child.  I grew up in a very small town in Appalachia, and currently live in the suburbs in the Southeast.  My childhood was pretty typical, mom and dad both worked, we were and still are very middle class.  After high school, I went to college, and graduated in four years.  As for my beliefs, I consider myself mostly conservative, and am a registered Republican (However that is due to change soon.)

By no means do I consider myself an expert on the happenings in Washington, I do try to stay informed and up to date on current events.  Usually the evening news works, but 6:30 is not always available to sit and watch the news, in which case one of the 24 hour news channels will do.  However, the cable networks have gone to giving substantial air time to news shows hosted strongly opinionated anchors.  I’ve watched bits and pieces of each of them, and really can’t stand any of them!  It seems to me that these shows (along with talk radio) are the force behind the widening gap between left and right. 

Case in point, this week’s speech that President Obama gave to school children, which turned out to be nothing more than a stay in school, dream big and try hard  lecture that was no different than past presidential addresses.  Parents and School officials on the protested and we got a lot of noise about an unimportant issue.  If my child were school age, I would have gladly let her watch the President speak, even if he used his first draft that included a page asking kids to jot down notes of ideas to help him.  What could it hurt or help, really?  Have we all forgotten about when we were in High School?  When I was 16 I had many other things on my mind other than what video was being shown.   In fact, me at 16 would have found any excuse to get out of watching the president speak, not because of him, but a young guy in school has halls to roam and girls to see.