Unfortunately, that's hard to do sometimes. Take the events of this week- Health care reform in the U.S.A.! Depending on who you talk to, there is rejoicing/rioting in the streets as people are overjoyed/furious at this historic/tragic event.
I'm going to be honest- I dropped the ball as a citizen. I could have been more informed than I am- I should be more informed than I am. But I'm not. Who to blame? Well, me, I guess. I suppose I could blame the "here we are now, entertain us" mindset that I have been brought up in, courtesy of capitalist America. I could blame God. I could blame HCRealms.com. I could blame Focus Factor or Facebook. But the fact is that I did not do the research that I could have.
And then I get to class on Monday, and my teacher talks about health care passing. WOW. That's crazy! And people are fired up on both sides of the issue...although maybe the opponents were a little more fired up. So now I have to try and figure out what this bill really is (and isn't).
I'm not going to get into depth on the bill itself- I think it is the responsibility of us all to actually look at the bill and see what it says, instead of listening to our favorite radio talk show hosts or political television analysts or blogger and hearing what they think the policy says- we need to do our homework, do our research, and find out for ourselves.
We live in such a sound bite culture- all we know is what we are told in short bursts- routinely misinformed out of context, yet these are the snippets of information that we hold on to, and flaunt to others as our "wisdom" and our "knowledge".
You can take any quote, out of context, and make it say something completely different than what it actually meant. Maybe not any quote- but a good chunk of them. I'm not even talking about lying (which also happens)- I'm talking about taking a legit phrase that was actually said, twisting it and manipulating it, until it says what you want it to say and not what it was meant to say.
Anyways, I'm encouraging everyone- especially those who are completely up in arms about this health care bill- to check it out for what it is, not for what you are told it is. If you already joined one of those Facebook groups- it's not to late to check out the bill, and if you decide you're for/against it, you can always just de-request the group and join it's antonym across the way. But you owe it to yourself and your fellow citizens to know what the heck you are talking about.
Ah nuts. I was hoping to get into some frenzy-stirring commentary about socialism, communism, capitalism, and any other ism I could get my teeth into- but I'm running out of steam friends. I won't get to this tomorrow- Wednesday will be busy busy BUSY. I do have more thoughts on this issue. I want to share those thoughts with you, and hear your thoughts about my thoughts and your thoughts about your thoughts. Share your ideas with me- like a sharing co-op of ideas. And we'll both be the better for it.
Of course, if this guy was able to become a professor...maybe school isn't that important after all...
Less than 5 weeks of school. Lord give me strength.
PIC: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3qlXpxPULC43xh3QFGcBtTDA_ZYavxjume-gx6R8pPXq4nWGP4lFwt3kY1T6ZYAT3Fsh6NrKBLmtUzfOBd5_u_8P3JZDdUsr84uBdJl-XeB2XD9slmqoftRcH4Y7qb7nmEsxxYYJdpAb/s400/frosty+hinckle.jpg
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