We Live In A Political World: #248 / Curtailing My Coverage

If you are reading this blog posting, you are probably aware that I make one such blog posting every day. I have done that for about ten years. According to Blogger, which is the platform on which these postings are produced, I have published over 3,900 individual items.

Essentially, my blog is how I "think out loud" about issues that strike me as important, and these are mostly issues with some sort of relationship to "politics," and government, and to the human, "political" world in which we most immediately live. This is consistent, of course, with the title of my blog, "We Live In A Political World."

Anyone who is interested in keeping up with my postings can "subscribe" to my blog. To subscribe, a person must first make sure to access the blog in its original location on my personal website, found at www.gapatton.net. Once there, utilize the "Follow By Email" box at the upper left corner of the blog. Fill in your email address and hit the "Submit" button. Then, if all works as it is supposed to, you will get a daily copy of my blog posting, sent to you in an email. The emails sent out have a link to the website where the original copy of the blog appears. Those who do subscribe are encouraged to click the "title" of the blog posting when they get their daily email. The title is always in blue. It is, in fact, a link that will direct you to the website, where you can read the posting in its original format.

Naturally, I do like people to read what I write - even though I am writing mainly just to make myself think about issues of importance. Since I do like people to see my thoughts - and even to comment on them - I republish my blog postings on my Facebook Timeline, to give them a greater distribution, since I do have something like 3,500 "Facebook Friends."

While I believe that there are lots of good reasons to be critical of Facebook, I find it useful. I use that platform to provide links to articles, videos, and other items that I think are worth thinking and talking about - and that does include my own blog postings. I do not, generally, provide videos or pictures of pets, or the food I'm eating, or depict everything that my wonderful grandkids are doing. Nor do I use Facebook to engage in extended and vituperative debates. Among other things, I often use Facebook to pass along cartoons that I like. Again, when I do that, these cartoons usually have some sort of "political" point to advance. The cartoons pictured at the top of this blog posting are examples of what I would typically post on Facebook.

Just the other day, in fact, I was getting ready to post one or both of those cartoons on Facebook, but then I thought about it! As I recently wrote in this blog, I am quite concerned about the upcoming election, and about the possible reelection of our current president, and I have come to the conclusion that focusing all of our attention on what is wrong with Donald Trump, and the Trump Administration, is not the best strategy to support the election of Joe Biden and Democratic Party candidates.

Quite the contrary, in fact. I think that those who want to replace Donald Trump as president (and I am raising my hand, right here) should be talking less "negatively" and more "positivdely." We need to try to focus on what we need to do, collectively, to confront the immense challenges ahead, and how we can, together, start making more progress towards racial and economic justice, take action to help eliminate war and violence as our chosen response to problems, and how we can reconfigure our relationship to the World of Nature so that human civilization has a chance to survive.

Documenting, fact checking, and making fun of the multiple outrages perpetrated by and related to our current president is "easy pickings." That is, of course, what these cartoons are doing. I started thinking, as I was about to put those cartoons on my Facebook page, that focusing our political discussion on what's wrong with Donald Trump actually just elevates his importance, and may actually help him win the upcoming election.

Thus, I have decided that I am going to have to curtail my coverage of cartoons like the ones above - at least until the election is over. All of us, and Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Democratic Party candidates at every level, should be talking affirmatively about what we can do, together, to meet the challenges ahead, and to realize the wonderful opportunities that also beckon.

I know that's a tough prescription. How can we take our eyes off that very watchable guy in the White House, who baits us every day? It's hard, I know, not to focus on all the wrong things that our president is saying and doing, but I am going to try to do it!

"Keep your eyes on the prize" is how we sang it during the Civil Rights Movement. Let's elevate our sights!

And then there is Bob Dylan, of course, who almost always has something relevant to say. Let me refer you to "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." Dylan warns us not to get down in the hole with the worst of the worst.

That's good advice. It's still a song for our times!