I developed a distaste for politics when I worked for the state and saw how the process worked. So I have avoided politics for many years, only researching candidates and issues enough to vote semi-intelligently.
In my opinion, politics has never been pretty. However, this past election year seems worse than ever and disturbed me a great deal with the level of hatred, accusations, and people trying to cram their opinions down the throat of others.
Conversations in the past few weeks with people I dearly care for have revealed deep disagreements. I found myself in kind of a mediator role, trying to really listen and ask questions that dug deeper into why people felt a certain way. Then to steer the conversation to topics where we could all see hope and possibilities for better days ahead.
Reluctantly, I have decided my head-in-the-sand approach to politics needs to change. Yes, I’d rather concentrate on my little corner of the world, but I think the issues currently in our faces are too important to keep silent.
I’m not planning to jump into the deep end of the pool and run for political office! Rather, I’ll dip my toes in gradually and start this new journey by becoming more thoughtfully informed.
One thing I’ll do is track bills introduced before the US Congress on this web site: <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/>.
According to this site, there are almost 12,000 bills currently before Congress—that almost stopped me before I began! That’s a lot of bills, but this site breaks them down by subject, so I’ll choose subjects of interest to me and find out more about them.
Also, the site also says only about 4 percent of those bills will become law. Bills not enacted by the end of the current two-year 114th congressional session will die, and Congress will start over with a clean slate in January 2017. Starting over in January sounds a bit more manageable than trying to catch up with almost 12,000 bills.
In addition to tracking a bill, if I find one of particular interest to me, I’ll share my opinion—thoughtfully and respectfully—with my state’s congressional delegation. I also plan to send kudos to these senators and representatives when they introduce or help pass bills that are important to me.
I also plan to carve out time to comment on local and state issues to our appropriate officials and representatives.
I’ve also started this new blog: Opting for the Unknown <http://optingfortheunknown.blogspot.com>.
Not sure what all this blog will include other than my thoughts on political issues. I’ll probably also venture into posting positive, forward-thinking technology or scientific theories/findings that provide alternatives to the issues facing our world today.
While I’m not necessarily looking for comments, I would welcome thoughtful, respectful discussion. This will not be a democratic blog—if I don’t like the comment, if it’s not respectful, if it contains swear words or ugly names, or if I’m just crabby because I didn’t get enough sleep, I’ll delete it.
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