Just Ten Minutes

I have a problem with people who don't want to hear about politics. I mean, I also have a problem with people who refuse to speak to family members and/or unfriend people over politics. Probably most people who are afraid to hear about politics - or admit their personal beliefs - have a crazed relative or two.

Or possibly they don't know what their personal beliefs are.

I had a friend once, a competent 26 year old with a career and a condo, who said she voted however her Dad told her to. She hated "all the attack ads and arguments". I get that, I really do. I would be so happy if politicians weren't allowed to make ads. Or if their ads just consisted of a quick description of their platforms.

But just because you hate attack ads doesn't mean that who is President (or Governor, or Congressperson, or Senator, or whatever) doesn't affect you. This same friend later became very upset when she learned that she had voted for the guy whose state bill wreaked havoc with her job. In a movie or sitcom, she would have learned her lesson at this point. She would have started visiting politfact.com or ontheissues.org for ten minutes before each election. But she didn't, now all she does is bitch about how her vote doesn't count anyway.

We're not really friends anymore. It doesn't help that now she gets her political information from her Dad and her pastor.

And because her Dad and her  pastor prioritize  this one social issue over anything else, my friend keeps voting for people whose bills have made things more difficult for her financially and professionally.

We are so fortunate in this country that we get to vote without fear of reprisals (unless your family and friends are very vehement and even then, you don't have to tell them). We have choices. We have debates, where you can actually see what the candidates think. We have websites where we can see the accuracy of the candidate's quotes. We can fastforward through the attack ads. Or realize that ads aren't usually interested in presenting all the facts.

We don't have to rely on what our parents, spouses, friends, churches and Facebook timelines say. We can take a Vote Match quiz to help us choose our priority issues and candidates with the best match.

It's not hard to become an informed voter.

You don't have to tell the people who'll disagree with you, or argue with anyone about it. You don't have to become a political activist. You don't even have to share articles on Facebook. But if you care about our country and our future, you do have to be an informed voter.

All it takes is ten minutes.

Aaron Sorkin, Chick-Fil-A and Shopping

About the only show* I've been consistently watching this summer is The Newsroom. Though I swear I'm going to catch up on Louie and Bunheads after the Olympics are over. In its own way, I really feel like it's just as much of a fantasy as my beloved Game of Thrones. I mean, the distinguished and filthy rich news anchor starts using his powers for good, with the full support of his boss and entire staff. They just share the facts, they don't sensationalize, they ignore the crazies, they call the liars out. . .

As if that would ever happen in a newsroom today. Plus, the vast majority of the people who work at the fictional network are good. And when the intern screws up, they forgive and promote her. Like that would ever happen at CNN.

So, in my view, it's a fantasy. One that I really, really, enjoy. Many critics hated it, finding it sanctimonious and sexist. I don't feel that way when I watch, caught up in the wordiness and liberal beliefs as I am each week. Plus I think all of the characters are pretty much idiots in their personal lives, not just the women. But I became uncomfortable when I found out that Sorkin himself is sanctimonious and sexist.

I don't understand how anyone who wrote The West Wing (also a fantasy, IMHO) can possibly think that the last time our nation was great was in the forties, as he says in The Globe and Mail interview. In the forties we still had institutionalized sexism and racism and we locked up people with Down Syndrome. There were things about our nation that were great then, sure, probably more than there are today. But to write off the tremendous social progress of the 60's and 70's as not great shows a kind of white male establishment preference I thought was only true of Tea Party people.

I almost stopped watching the show.

And then I realized that for all I know, everyone who writes every other show I love is some kind of asshole as well. If I refuse to engage with any art created by assholes, I'm going to have remove some art posters from my house as well. And never reread The Old Man and The Sea.

So I'm still watching The Newsroom.

Unfortunately, not on this television. 

I find this fundamentally different than the whole Chick-Fil-A debacle. The world is filled with assholes who have views I find abhorrent. So the fact that the president of the company is homophobic? Not my concern. Especially since I never eat there.

But. When a company starts giving money to causes I find reprehensible, that's different. Sure, Aaron Sorkin may be a sexist, but is he giving money to the Taliban? The Westboro Baptist Church? The Quiverfull movement? The Republicans? Nope. And am I giving him money directly when I watch his show? Nope.

But when you buy a product, you are giving a company money directly. And while I do believe the company and/or its big salaried executives have the right to donate their money to whatever causes they choose, I don't have to help them make that contribution. I won't be eating at Chick-Fil-A and I won't be using products from the Koch Brothers**, because I disagree with them. I think we should all be doing more voting with our wallets, though I don't think we have to make a big production about it every time. It's like those people who talk about how they go to church all the time are never the people who also actually follow the Ten Commandments.

Anyway, if you are interested in voting with your wallet, Open Secrets is a good place to get started.



*The Real Housewives and Dance Moms are not shows. They are train wrecks, so they don't count.

**If you don't want to give money to the people that fund The Tea Party and lobby for billionaires, you can avoid buying these products. Please.

People Have Died For the Right To Vote, You Know

They have fought in wars. They have been in dangerous protests. They have lobbied Congress. They have walked for miles without stopping. All for the right to vote. A lot of us don't appreciate our right to vote anymore. We might think of it as a chore, even.

But voting in the Haiku Buckaroo contest is no chore. It's a pleasure. Really. If you want, you can even vote for me.

I am the first entry in both the "Most Erotic" and "Most Disgusting" categories. I'm not sure what that says about me.

Anyway, you don't have to walk for miles to cast your vote. You can just click here.