Hard Times

When President Obama was elected I made a personal promise to severely curtail my time spent focused on politics. During the Bush years, I spent hours-on-end reading the Huffington Post, NY Times, even the Drudge Report. When not behind a newspaper or my computer screen, I was locked into MSNBC, C-Span, CNN, PBS and the list went on. I was a full-on political junkie. But it was taking a toll.

Around the turn of the year '09'-10 I vowed to cut it back. And my personal oath has been fulfilled and then some. I just couldn't take it anymore. Of little surprise, it was the politics of the right that just left me sick. The greed, hate, intolerance and the taking advantage of the vulnerable, weak and uneducated. I find the present-day Republican Party to be absolutely disgraceful. And it's beyond politics. It's about morality and ethics. They have none. I walked away.

Today, while sitting in the park on a breezy afternoon, I clicked on the Huffington Post app. I'm not sure why, but something seemingly automatic triggered me to hit the button. And the first story was about the debt ceiling fallout. Evidently House Speaker had squashed all talks after failing to give any leeway on tax hikes. For the rich. All the while, we're closing hospitals, national parks, space travel, plants and actually putting critical programs like social security, medicare and medicaid on the bargaining table. But raising taxes for the top 1%? Absolutely not. In dire times, the GOP is unwilling to have the richest of Americans pay in a little more.

After just a few paragraphs, I clicked out of the story. Such greed and selfishness is simply incomprehensible to me. And now that I've gotten that out of my system, I will once again step away. And yes, maybe they win by quieting my voice. But I simply find no other option. My nerves and heart just can't take it. Not anymore.