Political Rhetoric

Buddha once said, "Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill." While this has nothing to do with food or fun I feel compelled to comment about what I've seen over the last 72 hrs in relationship to the tragedy in Arizona. I think it is safe to say all "rational" people will conclude political rhetoric probably had nothing to do with the incident, but rather this was an unfortunate act by an extremely disturbed individual. With that said the fact the topic was brought up should be used as chance for our high level leader, news media and such to examine what it is they say on a daily basis. Like it or not there are people in this country that hang on every word these people say. All you have to do is read some of the comments on blogs and various news sites to figure that out. For the past three days I’ve seen nothing but this person blaming that person and this news outlet blaming the other. It's all quite ridiculous and somewhat sad. Instead of taking the opportunity to improve ourselves and the way we act, we've decided to instead blame one another.

 From an early age you are taught that words have meanings. "Say what you mean and mean what you say" is a simple saying which one should live by. So if there is even a 0.01% chance the actions and comments coming out of our leaders and or news media had anything to do with this the opportunity to address it is now. As one of my friends tweeted "What's so wrong with being more civil and toning down harsh speech? Why are some people so up in arms over this?" By no means is one (me) advocating curtailing our country's 1st amendment rights of free speech. Say whatever you want, however, if you are leader in this country or a leader anywhere say it the right way.

With this is mind why can’t we permanently do away with the terms like “Battle Ground States”? There are plenty of other better words for what the media and politicians are trying to get across such as “Swing States”, “Purple States”, “Highly Contested States. Trust me when I say I have seen the remnants of a “battle ground” and they don’t resemble an election in the United States.

I will leave you with this. I saw an interesting analogy on a news site today which helped put this in perspective. The article quoted a Senator who basically said if you have a heart attack and the doctor tells you as part of your treatment plan that you need to stop smoking, he’s not necessarily saying smoking caused your current heart attack but it very well could lead to your next one.