Just last week while I was still on winter break I went to visit and catch up with a good friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in a while. She is a strong Republican just like me who was admittedly very distraught by the results of the election in November. While I was visiting, I gave her a new bumper sticker that I had also gotten for my car which reads, "Don't blame me, I voted for Romney!". It certainly gave us a good laugh to ease the gloom we both have been feeling when it comes to the state of our national and state politics.
When I'm home again, I'm planning to put my sticker on the back of my car. My friend, however, was very hesitant about doing the same and instead has elected to put hers on her laptop bag instead, where it won't necessarily be as public. Given where we both live, in the heart of deep-blue Maryland, I can't say I blame her at all. Over the last 18 months my car, which prominently displays several anti-Obama bumper stickers, has been egged by immature idiots at least 3 times, but fortunately not for the last several months.
My friend's decision about where to put her bumper sticker really got us both thinking about the society in which we live. As much as we stick to our values, it can be hard at times to publicly express those values without being attacked from all sides. In addition to having my car egged, I've been given the bird repeatedly out on the roads, had people driving around me tailgate me and really make it more dangerous out there than it has to be.
If we express our political views in class with a liberal professor we could suffer unfair penalties when it comes to grading. That happened to me in 11th grade English and it almost happened again in my freshmen year of college when I was almost made to rewrite an entire paper for "disturbing the peace" in a lecture hall. Last time I checked, presenting documented facts that disprove everything your lecturer is saying about "global warming" isn't disturbing the peace.
If we express our views on Facebook or other social media, we're automatically "wrong", "racist" or "bigoted" depending on what we're advocating for. No matter that liberals and Democrats can say whatever they want on Facebook and Twitter, that's freedom of speech according to our society. But whenever Republicans and Conservatives want to express their beliefs and opinions using social media, that's not freedom of speech and we shouldn't be allowed to say what we believe in. The "party of tolerance" isn't very tolerant. And Facebook seems to agree because I've seen many of my Facebook friends have their pages censored, temporarily deactivated and even deleted for advocating various Republican ideas.
Where does the blame for this society fall? It starts with the public school system, which is more and more pushing a liberal agenda on our younger generation. Colleges and universities, public and private, help to finish the job. The media is also at fault. The job of the media is not to cheer lead for the administration, it is to find and present the truth! And the only media outlets who seek out the truth and report fairly anymore are the "evil Conservatives" at Fox News, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, etc. This society we live in needs a major change and soon or we're all in serious trouble.
Jimmy Williams
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