i remember plenty of thanksgiving dinners when, over pie and coffee, the relatives would get into politics. it wasn't always calm. my dad's side of the family was pretty much republican and my mom's side, democrat. you do the math.
it may not have been calm, per se, but it wasn't ugly. (well, sometimes maybe it was). but i don't remember anybody ever storming out of the house or "getting in your face" or anything like that. emotions could - and did - run high, as only politics seem to be able to cause emotions to do - but nobody cussed (hell and dammit don't count) and nobody threw food and certainly nobody ever hit anybody. and everybody hung around after dinner to play gin rummy.
in other words, it was respectful. but it was something even more important than that......
it was allowed. it was expected. it was appreciated. appreciated! nobody ever once said, look here, this is my house and i don't want anybody walking in here, trying to cram a viewpoint other than my own down my throat. nobody ever said that. never. because nobody thought it. and even if they did, they had the quick good sense to realize that that is foolish. it is foolish to expect that just because people are in your house, they aren't gonna happen to have an opinion on something different than yours.
now, fast forward to the facebook era. on facebook, there is what i consider to be a distinctly disturbing trend of not tolerating a counter viewpoint, especially where politics are concerned. if someone posts, say, a pro-obama sentiment and someone else responds with a pro-romney one, you can pretty much bet your bottom dollar that somewhere along the thread, someone is gonna get ticked off that another someone had the audacity to "hijack" the first someone's posting. it's the modern day absurd equivalent of expecting everyone who drops by your house to either agree with you or keep quiet. i think it's wrong.
i have had plenty of folks get mad at me because i countered what they said with an opposite viewpoint. some of them have given me a very public and embarrassing scolding. (i am not a child. and you are not my parent.) a coupla of 'em have unfriended me. the day my grandparents died, all the rest of the still living ones on the opposite side of the family were there. crying.
i'm sorry if you think that just because you post something i have to either agree with it or not respond. i'm not gonna do that. cuz that's stupid.
now. pass me the turkey, please.
(i said "pass," not "throw.")
