Rebalancing myself

I want to apologize. I did something that I often make fun of. I joined a group on Facebook. I was emotional and didn’t think straight and I feel like I have a tattoo that I’m not proud of. Gee, I ended two sentences with a preposition in one paragraph. I owe the grammarians an apology as well.

I wasn’t balanced today. Don’t you feel unbalanced sometimes? This morning the huge health care bill passed. Many people were pissed. Many people were ecstatic. When the majority is on an extreme, I try to take a step back. I understand that people have legitimate reasons not to like the legislation. Some people have reasons to dislike the legislation that have nothing to do with the truth as well. That’s what bothers me.

But if I’m not helping the problem, I’m part of the problem. At almost the same time as I thought to myself, “Hey, didn’t Rush Limbaugh vow to leave the country if the health care bill passed?” one of my Facebook friends joined a group called Waiting for Rush Limbaugh to Leave the Country. I thought it was funny. Limbaugh made that vow when it seemed highly unlikely that the bill would pass. I do not have anything to back this statement up, and that’s the point.

I think the country needs Rush. He speaks to a large audience every day and gets paid better than Peyton Manning to do so. He’s not getting this chunk of cheddar living in Costa Rica. I have no idea what kind of government Costa Rica has, but I can guarantee that it doesn’t have the ongoing narrative ripe for Rush’s brand of entertainment. And as a wannabe comedian, we need the funny. We need Rush ranting, and we need people calling him out and more importantly, making jokes at his expense.
I had a friend honestly ask who Glenn Beck was. The responses were great. Half of the people thought he was the devil and the other half thought he was fantastic.

Her response was balanced and respected both sides. We need more of that. We don’t need to poke people with a stick when they’re down and we don’t need to overpraise those who are honestly excited about what happened in Washington this weekend. We need to understand one another. My joining a funny but ultimately hateful group on Facebook does not contribute.

I’m done apologizing. I dis-joined the group. I am now only a member of the Emory Capstone program, which I actually completed, and Zealots Field, which is a group of fantasy football leagues of which I am an active participant. No one was harmed in the joining of these groups. I feel cleaner somehow.