Bridge over troubled water

I haven't had time to blog in awhile. You'd think that staying home and cleaning house would keep me out of trouble, a broom in one hand and a mop in the other. But, oh no! I can get in trouble just taking a little break, sitting here at my computer.


I was sent an email yesterday, a political one at that. It really made me upset and I forwarded it to almost everyone on my mailing list. It wasn't too long after I posted it that this email 'conflict' started.


The first reply stated 'baloney' that the info in the email was false, 'look it up on snopes' was the suggestion and she immediately followed it up with another email, saying she was 'sorry for being so blunt because she gets urban myths from relatives and one friend who is eaten up with right-wing politics, and she thinks he thinks he can brainwash her if he sends enough inflammatory rhetoric, so she has lost her patience with the false forwards'. I really didn't feel like this reply was aggressive or disrespectful, it was honest and assertive.


So, I did go to snopes, www.snopes.com/politics/medical/28thamendment.asp and I was glad I did. I found out most of the original email I had sent was false. I immediately sent out an apology for forwarding a mostly false email. (I am going back to snopes and check out the origins of their documentation, just to make sure snopes is on the level, jeesh.)


I thought that would take care of things. But, oh no! The second reply came on the heels of the 'sorry for being so blunt'. This second reply, came from my friend who just happens to be eaten up with right-wing politics. (I love him, he and his wife are friends for over 20 years, so I've just deleted most of the emails anyway, which he doesn't usually send, but his wife does.) Anyway, he says his piece, implying snopes isn't good enough, original documentation is...but the part that gets me upset is his thinking he was respectful in his reply. Just because he didn't use the F-word? or is sarcasm considered okey dokey in the un-politically correct spouting of ones opinion. I didn't like the tone whatever you want to call it, and feel embarrassed that he used it with my friend, and replied to everyone.


Hey, I'm upset often about things going on in my country. Things are a mess as far as I'm concerned, and it's hard to discern what is really true, what is propaganda and what is rhetoric.  Sometimes I really don't give a damn, we're a country full of angry people, and only God knows how it's all going to turn out. Where is the National Anger Management when ya need it? Even the religious are often found trying to shove it down everyones throat. Don't get me wrong, I'm a born-again Christian, it's the shoving it, shouting it, and demanding that other folks should just do what they say. Grrrrrrr


Now, it would be nice if that were the last email, but oh no! there is one more that comes in defense of the bluntness reply. Yep, and this last one, hopefully it's the last, was right on the money, as far as him 'trying to save everyone by forcing your interpretation of the nations problems on fellow citizens'. But it was the last line, the PS, that sent me over the edge. By quoting John Wayne, my friend called my other friend stupid. Yeppers, 'life is hard, it's harder if you're stupid. This is intended to be blunt'.


All this verbal sparring, calling one out by name, I know better than you attitude, name calling, it's reminiscent of elementary school, sent directly to my inbox...and God only knows what Aunt Audrey is going to say about it. I'm glad it's stopped, and I WILL NOT be forwarding any more emails, I promise!
That's my bridge over troubled waters.