Fe Eral Vernment

I made a mistake this week by responding to an email that I should have ignored. But, it was Monday morning and I didn't quite feel like working yet. The last line in this email read, "This is not sent for discussion, if you agree forward it, if you don't, delete it. By me forwarding it, you know how I feel." I am not a big fan of politics that encourage mindless adherence to a party line especially when it encourages reactionary responses to trivial issues that reasonable people can discuss.

My mistake was responding without fully appreciating the depth of the debate. (and vitriol!) I had never considered this issue before and my opinion was formed in the twenty seconds that it took me to read the email. I feel that my opinion came from a sense of fairness and mutual respect. However, this debate has some established arguments and I apparently stepped too close to the opposing side.

I sent my response and was floored when my brother was the one that responded to me. It appears that he is well versed in one side of this argument and we ended up going back and forth several times via email. The arguments that I framed were not the greatest but at this point I knew that this was a debate that would not be won by either of us. So, instead I decided that it would be more fun to pick at his arguements one by one just to get a rise out of him.

I dislike these "issues" that are a distraction from the real problems that we face as a nation. I do believe that we have more in common than not and that civil discourse is possible.

Next time I will just delete the email.